Speaker 1: Welcome. It is a verdict of Senator Ted Cruz. Ben
Speaker 1: Ferguson with you. Senator. We're sitting here Wednesday midday and
Speaker 1: we were waiting to see what was going to happen
Speaker 1: with the big news on Donald Trump as he said
Speaker 1: he was going to get arrested on Tuesday. That time
Speaker 1: frame has now changed and it looks like Democrats maybe
Speaker 1: getting cold feet. Fox News announced it this way, but
Speaker 1: we began America reports with the developing story. Grand jury
Speaker 1: proceedings in the hush money case against former President Trump
Speaker 1: canceled for today this as we await news and a
Speaker 1: possible indictment now, Senator, this obviously was a shock moment
Speaker 1: for many that we're expecting an indictment. But if you
Speaker 1: listen to the news, and I'm talking about the liberals
Speaker 1: out there, they were campaigning for this. Van Jones actually
Speaker 1: went on TV on CNN last night and was pretty
Speaker 1: much making a public plea to this activist day, do
Speaker 1: not do this. This is a bad move. It will
Speaker 1: actually hurt Democrats more than anybody else. Here's how he
Speaker 1: put it on CNN. Oh, if anybody is a Republican
Speaker 1: and they have been afraid that there's some conspiracy, some
Speaker 1: well organized conspiracy among progressives. They can relax now, because
Speaker 1: you would not start with this charge. You would start
Speaker 1: with the charge in Georgia where he was interfering with elections.
Speaker 1: You would start with the charge that he was helping
Speaker 1: the insurrections and a coup. You wouldn't start with an
Speaker 1: eight year old porn star payoff. So just again, this
Speaker 1: is proof, if nothing else, that the progressives are not
Speaker 1: very well organized. This is not the one you would
Speaker 1: start with. That said, I hear my conservative friends saying
Speaker 1: he's being overcharged. It's so aggressive, it's so terrible. Welcome
Speaker 1: to my world, folks. Prosecutors overcharging, being overaggressive, being ridiculous
Speaker 1: with minor stuff and turning it into major stuff. Happens
Speaker 1: every single day in America, every courthouse in America. I
Speaker 1: think you want to be consistent now if you're concerned
Speaker 1: that this particular person named Donald Trump is being overcharged
Speaker 1: mistreated by a prosecutor, joined the rest of us who
Speaker 1: are trying to stop that from happening to ordinary people.
Speaker 1: But my view about this is I think that the
Speaker 1: heat is on this da. I think he's going to
Speaker 1: make a very sober decision and I would not be
Speaker 1: surprised if he doesn't step back from the brain. Doesn't
Speaker 1: step back from the brain, Senator, I've never seen a
Speaker 1: democratic operative go on national TV speaking directly to DA
Speaker 1: saying don't do this in this way. Well, you're right,
Speaker 1: and I think this is a big deal. Number one,
Speaker 1: This potential indictment is garbage. It is legally frivolous, It
Speaker 1: is baseless, It is pure partisan hatred. It is the
Speaker 1: weaponization of our legal system, of our justice system. I
Speaker 1: would encourage everyone if you didn't listen to Monday's podcast,
Speaker 1: you should go back and listen to it. The entire podcast.
Speaker 1: On Monday, we went through chapter and verse the detailed
Speaker 1: reasons why this prosecution is utterly baseless. We walked through
Speaker 1: the statutes under which the New York DA is looking
Speaker 1: at Donald Trump and the reasons why neither the facts
Speaker 1: nor law remotely supported. And it's important to understand what's
Speaker 1: happening here. You won't get it from watching the news.
Speaker 1: Monday's podcast will walk you through and give you that information.
Speaker 1: What is striking, though, is ever since it became public
Speaker 1: that an arrest and indictment of Trump was imminent, we've
Speaker 1: seen Democrats freaking out. And I got to say, the
Speaker 1: attitude of many Democrats right now is remarkable. It frankly,
Speaker 1: it reminds me of Monty Python. And here's the Democrats
Speaker 1: response today. I mean, Senator, I love that part of
Speaker 1: the movie, and it's so accurate to the Democrats there
Speaker 1: literally screen at this, DA, do not do this, Do
Speaker 1: not give this gift of a ridiculous indictment to Donald
Speaker 1: Trump and turn him into a martyr literally runaway. Yeah, look,
Speaker 1: that is certainly the reaction of a lot of Democrats.
Speaker 1: You and I observed on Monday's podcast that if they
Speaker 1: go ahead with this arrest and this indictment, when the
Speaker 1: case is blown out of the water in court, which
Speaker 1: it will be, that the effect, ironically will be a
Speaker 1: massive backfire where this left wing George Soros funded DA
Speaker 1: may well have played a pivotal role in reelecting Donald
Speaker 1: Trump as President of the United States. And I think
Speaker 1: a whole lot of Democrats are realizing this and going,
Speaker 1: holy crap, we hate the guy, but this is really dumb,
Speaker 1: and it's we'll see if Bragg actually runs away. So
Speaker 1: the reason we don't have news today, Look, we had
Speaker 1: anticipated based on what was publicly said that there would
Speaker 1: be an indictment this mo morning, and what happened instead
Speaker 1: is Alvin Bragg told the grand jury stay home, don't
Speaker 1: put in today. I gotta get you to put your
Speaker 1: lawyer had on centator here. For people that understand, don't understand,
Speaker 1: or maybe never been in a court with a grand
Speaker 1: jury or dealt with this, How abnormal is this? What
Speaker 1: is happening behind the scenes? How does this work when
Speaker 1: you tell a grand jury to stay home? And why
Speaker 1: does that usually happen? Yeah, Look, there are two types
Speaker 1: of juries in our criminal justice system. There's a grand
Speaker 1: jury and a petit jury. A grand jury occurs before
Speaker 1: the trial, and a grand jury consists of citizens from
Speaker 1: the community who are impaneled for an extended period of time,
Speaker 1: and the prosecutor will go and present evidence to the
Speaker 1: grand jury seeking an indictment, and the prosecutor does that
Speaker 1: without the defense attorney present, So it's a one sided presentation,
Speaker 1: and it's the prosecutor presenting evidence to say is this
Speaker 1: enough to charge the defendant with whatever or crime they're
Speaker 1: trying to indict him on. The prosecutor has enormous leeway
Speaker 1: with the grand jury. There's an old line that has
Speaker 1: repeated gazillion times, which is a prosecutor could indict a
Speaker 1: ham Sandwich. And part of the reason is the ham
Speaker 1: Sandwich doesn't get a lawyer, so it's the prosecutor is
Speaker 1: alone with the grand jury. In this instance, the reason
Speaker 1: that the Manhattan DA would have told the grand jury
Speaker 1: stay home, don't come in today is that Alvin Bragg
Speaker 1: made the decision he didn't want to indict Donald Trump today. Now,
Speaker 1: at least according to public reporting, they're coming in tomorrow
Speaker 1: on Thursday, So we may have a podcast coming up
Speaker 1: where we have different news to report. The fact that
Speaker 1: he hit pause does not necessarily mean that Bragg is
Speaker 1: hitting stop. And you have to assume that Bragg, like
Speaker 1: every other Democrat, has trumped arrangement syndrome. They hate him
Speaker 1: so much he may not be able to stop. But
Speaker 1: I will say, look, I think the American people generally
Speaker 1: are not terribly interested in obsessing on the personal misconduct
Speaker 1: in the sex lives of politicians. We famously had Bill
Speaker 1: Clinton and his impeachment, and I think one of the
Speaker 1: reasons why Bill Clinton survived all of that is the
Speaker 1: American people they certainly didn't admire Bill Clinton's conduct, but
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, they were much more
Speaker 1: interested and focused on official corruption rather than the personal
Speaker 1: failings that Bill Clinton may have had. We've sadly seen
Speaker 1: politicians from both parties have serious moral failings and sexual improprieties.
Speaker 1: But I do think a lot of Democrats are pretty
Speaker 1: dismayed that their opening salvo of the criminal justice system
Speaker 1: is focused on an alleged affair with a porn star.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of the voters they knew about
Speaker 1: this already. They knew about this at the time, and
Speaker 1: they made their decisions on whom to vote for based
Speaker 1: on what policies would impact their lives and their families.
Speaker 1: And so I hope Bragg actually listens to the Democrats
Speaker 1: who are freaking out. And by the way, I hope
Speaker 1: the other prosecutors, I hope Merrick Garland, who the Department
Speaker 1: of Justice prosecution is potentially far more dangerous. We've talked
Speaker 1: at length about how I believe Merrick Garland for the
Speaker 1: same reason Alvin Bragg wants to indict and prosecute Trump,
Speaker 1: Merrick Garland does two. I hope all of these prosecutors
Speaker 1: engaged in partisan justice stop and just do their jobs.
Speaker 1: The threshold for indicting a president's never happened in the
Speaker 1: history of our country. The threshold should be high, it
Speaker 1: should be meaningful. It should not be explain why because
Speaker 1: some people may not understand the reason why we've had
Speaker 1: such a threshold. I mean, you go back to even
Speaker 1: Nixon when he laughed at the presidents. The reason why
Speaker 1: is the man who came into that position of power
Speaker 1: to become the president, basically pardon him completely. Was he said,
Speaker 1: it's not good for the country. We don't want to
Speaker 1: be going after political leaders, especially a former president, and
Speaker 1: turn us into a third world country where you send
Speaker 1: people into exile and you arrest former leaders when other
Speaker 1: people win elections, and so be it if it hurts me,
Speaker 1: but it's for the good of the country. Well, that's
Speaker 1: exactly right. And you know, Stalin famously said, show me
Speaker 1: the man, and I'll show you the crime. Prosecutors have
Speaker 1: a lot of discretion. Prosecutors have a lot of authority
Speaker 1: if you unleash a team of prosecutors on anybody. You know,
Speaker 1: I had a bunch of reporters yesterday asking me about that.
Speaker 1: You know, well, don't you think it's good we're investigating
Speaker 1: if Trump's committed a crime, I said, Look, if we
Speaker 1: investigated descended prosecutors on you, I'm certain we'd find you've
Speaker 1: committed a crime. You may have this morning driving to work,
Speaker 1: you probably sped at some level. The criminal justice system
Speaker 1: is meant to work for serious crimes, where there's real injury,
Speaker 1: where there's real victims. Now, that's true, whether it is
Speaker 1: a violent crime or whether it's a crime of corruption.
Speaker 1: Look the evidence about the Biden family corruption making millions
Speaker 1: of dollars, selling access and selling government policies. Whether it
Speaker 1: is to Barisma, the Ukrainian natural gas company, or whether
Speaker 1: it is to the Chinese Communist Party. Those are serious
Speaker 1: and real questions of public policy and corruption. But you
Speaker 1: know you talked about third world countries. Listen, Sadly, a
Speaker 1: lot of countries in the world have a history of
Speaker 1: one administration. One party will be in power, then the
Speaker 1: next party gets in power, and one of the first
Speaker 1: things they do is lock up their predecessors, go after
Speaker 1: their predecessors and say okay, now you're going to jail.
Speaker 1: And ultimately that is incredibly hard, harmful for the rule
Speaker 1: of law, it's incredibly harmful for democracy, and because prosecutors
Speaker 1: have so much power. We don't want Republicans when they
Speaker 1: come in office unleashing all of that force trying to
Speaker 1: just incarceerate their opponents. We don't want Democrats in power
Speaker 1: unleashing all their force trying to incarceerate their opponents. You know,
Speaker 1: I talk about this at length in my latest book,
Speaker 1: Justice Corrupted, about the way it's supposed to work, and
Speaker 1: in this instance, particularly with respect to a former president,
Speaker 1: and especially a former president of the opposing party, we
Speaker 1: shouldn't see the kind of ticky tack indictments. Look, this
Speaker 1: New York statute is a bookkeeping statute. It's a misdemeanor
Speaker 1: on its face. It's the sort of thing that on
Speaker 1: the terms of it, if Trump is committed to violation,
Speaker 1: Hillary Clinton has two And we talked about that at
Speaker 1: length on Monday's podcast. And so if you said earlier,
Speaker 1: and I'll say it again, go back and listen to
Speaker 1: If you missed the last podcast, go back and get
Speaker 1: it because it will lay out so much of what
Speaker 1: we're referencing right now. If you missed it, it's worth
Speaker 1: going back and listening to. Senator I also want to
Speaker 1: ask you about just a basic political question about this.
Speaker 1: There's some of the media they've been saying Donald Trump
Speaker 1: is terrified. MSNBC said he's shaking in his boots of
Speaker 1: being indicted. I completely disagree with that. I think this
Speaker 1: would be a massive victory for him and a catalyst.
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Speaker 1: I've seen this on TV where they're obsessing over Donald
Speaker 1: Trump being afraid of being indicted and this will be
Speaker 1: the end of his political career. I don't think he's
Speaker 1: afraid of this. If I was Donald Trump, the only
Speaker 1: the only thing I would be arguing over is what
Speaker 1: to where and how big I should grin If they
Speaker 1: make me come in and do a mugshot. Well, I'm
Speaker 1: confident the answer to that will be if there's a
Speaker 1: mug shot, Trump will be smiling ear to ear. And
Speaker 1: I think you're right. I think he is perfectly happy
Speaker 1: to have this ridiculous prosecution targeted at him. I think
Speaker 1: it benefits him politically, and that's precisely why Democrats are
Speaker 1: running away. I will say, by the way, just a
Speaker 1: minute ago, I had that sort of nagging voice in
Speaker 1: the back of my mind. I said that Stalin was
Speaker 1: the one who said show me the man. I'll show
Speaker 1: you the crime, and part of me was saying, well,
Speaker 1: I don't think that's right, So I just googled. It
Speaker 1: turned out I was sort of right, but sort of wrong.
Speaker 1: It wasn't actually Stalin who said that. It was Lavrentia Barria,
Speaker 1: who was the longest serving secret police chief working for
Speaker 1: Joseph Stalin again, and what he said, his quote was
Speaker 1: show me the man and I'll show you the crime.
Speaker 1: And he served as deputy Premier from nineteen forty one
Speaker 1: until Stalin's death in nineteen fifty three, and he was
Speaker 1: in charge of the Gulags and he understood, whoever it is,
Speaker 1: Ben Ferguson, he may well have committed a felony while
Speaker 1: recording this podcast for all we know. But if we
Speaker 1: unleash the secret police on him, we're going to find something. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And that's what this seems to be about. There is
Speaker 1: one audio equip I've got to just play for you,
Speaker 1: and I do think this tells you a lot about
Speaker 1: the mindset of the left right now. They are obsessed
Speaker 1: and have been since twenty sixteen with putting Donald Trump
Speaker 1: in jail. The view put it this way, this morning,
Speaker 1: I want to start this with this update. Uh, you
Speaker 1: know who is still at large? He is yes, he is,
Speaker 1: he yes, hasn't been arrested. No, like you predicted. Well,
Speaker 1: you know, you kind of have to weigh it with
Speaker 1: all the other stuff he said, and you figure it. Well,
Speaker 1: you know you said you won the election, you didn't win.
Speaker 1: Good point. Senday, come and arrescue. I send that to Joya.
Speaker 1: Why don't we start believing him now? He manipulated everybody though,
Speaker 1: we all wrote to the occasion, the papers, everybody just
Speaker 1: went there. So many people were excited. Eliah. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: mean this is their obsession, and that's where I think
Speaker 1: Bragg probably said, the people want me to do this,
Speaker 1: the media wants me to do this. They're all pushing
Speaker 1: for this. I'll be the guy to do it. And
Speaker 1: really it may help him politically because there's a very
Speaker 1: good chance he wants to run for governor of New York. Well,
Speaker 1: I think it's amusing that the views take on it
Speaker 1: is Oh no, no, he wasn't going to be arrested. Look,
Speaker 1: it's clear Bragg was planning to arrest him, and I'm
Speaker 1: planning to arrest him this week. That's why there's been
Speaker 1: this Democrat freak out because I think Democrats realized it
Speaker 1: was an enormous stumble. The case is legally frivolous. Anyone
Speaker 1: who looks at it, you can't with a straight face
Speaker 1: argue that you should go after Trump based on this
Speaker 1: New York bookkeeping violation that has no application to this.
Speaker 1: It's a statute that says you can't have a false
Speaker 1: bookkeeping business record, and in this instance he's trying to
Speaker 1: the statute of limitations has run. In other words, he
Speaker 1: can't charge the misdemeanor offense, so he's got to try
Speaker 1: to bootstrap it into a federal election law offense, which
Speaker 1: the Federal Election Commission declined to prosecute, the Department of
Speaker 1: Justice declined to prosecute, the Southern District of New York
Speaker 1: declined to prosecute, and the Mueller investigation declined to prosecute.
Speaker 1: So everyone who's looked at this says there's no there there.
Speaker 1: And yet if you wake up every morning growling and
Speaker 1: hating Donald Trump, like Woppie Goldberg does, like Alvin Bragg does,
Speaker 1: then you don't care about the facts of the law.
Speaker 1: You just want to get the guy. And I think
Speaker 1: what has happened this week so far is it may
Speaker 1: be that Bragg's getting cold feet because Democrats are so
Speaker 1: terrified of the consequences of this frivolous prosecution. Yeah, no
Speaker 1: doubt about it. I want to talk about a couple
Speaker 1: of different victories, real quick, Senator. One of those deals,
Speaker 1: and we talked about this in a prior pod, with
Speaker 1: the idea of Phil Washington heading the FAA. You've got
Speaker 1: some news to break on that. But before we get
Speaker 1: to it, I want people to hear what you had
Speaker 1: to say from the fourth Senate last night. Let me
Speaker 1: suggest to the members of the Senate, if God forbid
Speaker 1: that were to happen in the next two years, and
Speaker 1: I pray that it does not, I can tell you
Speaker 1: I certainly wouldn't want to be a Senator who voted
Speaker 1: to confirm an administrator the FAA who's never flown a plane,
Speaker 1: who doesn't know anything about aviation safety and has no
Speaker 1: idea why the plane crashed. I don't know how I'd
Speaker 1: go home and explain to thirty million Texans that, well,
Speaker 1: you know, my political party nominated him, and so I
Speaker 1: just I went with party loyalty and voted to confirm
Speaker 1: the guy, even though he didn't have the experience to
Speaker 1: do the job. I don't believe mister Washington's going to
Speaker 1: be confirmed. I personally I respect his military service. When
Speaker 1: he testified before the committee, he seemed like a decent
Speaker 1: and capable man. But he's also a man who doesn't
Speaker 1: know anything about airplanes. And if there's any job in
Speaker 1: the entire federal government where you need to know not
Speaker 1: just something about airplanes, a lot about airplanes, it is
Speaker 1: to be the administrator of the FAA. We need a
Speaker 1: Senate confirmed leader in this job quickly, and I would
Speaker 1: urge the President withdraw this nomination and nominate either Acting
Speaker 1: Administrator Nolan, or, if not him, somebody liked with decades
Speaker 1: of real experience, so that we can have a Senate
Speaker 1: confirmed leader with the knowledge and judgment and expertise to
Speaker 1: do everything humanly possible to keep your family safe and
Speaker 1: my family safe, and to keep the flying public safe.
Speaker 1: We have a responsibility. We have a responsibility to do
Speaker 1: this right. I yield the floor now, Center, You've got
Speaker 1: an update on this nominee. And before I get to that,
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Speaker 1: you've talked about this, You've been leading on Phil Washington
Speaker 1: saying he's just not qualified, and now you've got news
Speaker 1: to break on this nomination. Well, I think we're on
Speaker 1: the verge of a major victory here. Which is that
Speaker 1: speech I gave on the Senate floor last night. This
Speaker 1: morning we had the markup where Phil Washington was scheduled
Speaker 1: to be voted on in the Commerce Committee that began
Speaker 1: at ten am, and am I had every reason to
Speaker 1: believe that we were going to vote on Phil Washington.
Speaker 1: A few minutes later, Maria Kentwell, the Democrat chair, announced
Speaker 1: that the committee was delaying the vote on Phil Washington,
Speaker 1: that we were not voting on Phil Washington today. I
Speaker 1: think the reason is simple, they don't have the votes.
Speaker 1: And listen, Washington is wildly unqualified to do this job.
Speaker 1: The job is ADM Administrator of the FAA. Millions of
Speaker 1: Americans fly on planes every year. Mister Washington doesn't know
Speaker 1: anything about planes. He's not a pilot. He's never been
Speaker 1: a military pilot. He's never been a commercial airline pilot.
Speaker 1: He's never worked for an airline. He's never worked at
Speaker 1: the FA. He's never worked in airplane manufacturer. He's never
Speaker 1: worked in airplane repair. He's never worked as an air
Speaker 1: traffic controller. His career has been dealing with buses and trains.
Speaker 1: Buses and trains are great, but they don't fly in
Speaker 1: the air. And his nomination, on its face is he
Speaker 1: is wildly unqualified for this job. I believe all of
Speaker 1: the Republicans agree with that, but there have been a
Speaker 1: number of Democrats who have expressed publicly concerns and listen,
Speaker 1: something like the FAA I don't think should be a
Speaker 1: partisan position. I don't particularly want a Republican FAA administrator
Speaker 1: or a Democrat FAA administrator. I want a guy who
Speaker 1: knows how to keep planes in the air. And I'll
Speaker 1: point out there is right now somebody, Billy Nolan, who
Speaker 1: is the acting administrator of the FAA. Joe Biden selected him,
Speaker 1: named him the acting administrator. Unlike Phil Washington, he has
Speaker 1: decades of experience in aviation. He has decades of experience
Speaker 1: in aviation safety. He's a pilot, he's been a commercial
Speaker 1: airline pilot, he has multiple certifications in aviation safety. He's
Speaker 1: been a senior official at the FAA. There's an obvious solution,
Speaker 1: and I'll tell you I just suggested this at a
Speaker 1: hearing a couple of weeks ago, and to kind of
Speaker 1: take you behind the scenes, when I sat down at
Speaker 1: the hearing, it was a hearing where Billy Nolan was testifying.
Speaker 1: I had not planned to say this, and my staff
Speaker 1: hadn't written out remarks on it. But just as I
Speaker 1: was listening to him testify, the contrast between his knowledge
Speaker 1: of aviation and Washington's lack of knowledge was really striking.
Speaker 1: So I turned to my staffers in the back and
Speaker 1: I said, look, what do you think of mine just
Speaker 1: suggesting how about this guy? And my team thought that
Speaker 1: made sense, and so I just leaned forward to the
Speaker 1: microphone and said, listen, if the Biden White House wants
Speaker 1: a successful nomination withdraw Washington named Billy Nolan, and he
Speaker 1: will get confirmed with a big bipartisan vote, and we
Speaker 1: need to have a qualified Senate confirmed leader of the FAA. Listen.
Speaker 1: We've seen over and over again airlines almost colliding. God forbid,
Speaker 1: we have some horrific mass casualty event when the Biden
Speaker 1: administration doesn't have a Senate confirmed leader of the FAA.
Speaker 1: They need to fix this now. And today's announcement that
Speaker 1: they are quote postponing the vote, it may be like
Speaker 1: Alvin Bragg's announcement that he's postponing the grand jury coming in,
Speaker 1: it may be postponed permanently. I hope both of them are.
Speaker 1: But but if the administration withdraws Phil Washington, it would
Speaker 1: be another big victory. As you know, we already defeated
Speaker 1: Gigi Soone, who Biden had nominated to the FCC, the
Speaker 1: Federal Communications Commission, because she was radical and had an
Speaker 1: extreme record. I think there's a very good chance the
Speaker 1: Phil Washington nomination is going to go down as well,
Speaker 1: and we will get instead someone qualified and with the
Speaker 1: knowledge to keep your family safe and my family safe
Speaker 1: when we go up on an airplane. Yeah, and there
Speaker 1: should be a non political position. It should be one
Speaker 1: that should be bipartisan. When you're approving someone and it
Speaker 1: looks like they don't have the votes because they can
Speaker 1: count easily, right, I mean, they know where they stood
Speaker 1: this morning at ten am. Well, look, I think the
Speaker 1: vote was scheduled this morning because the White House wanted
Speaker 1: to put political pressure onto Democrats to force them to
Speaker 1: support him, even though he's not qualified. And I'm sure
Speaker 1: there was massive arm twisting, probably going on until late
Speaker 1: last night or even early this morning. But the fact
Speaker 1: that they delayed the votes, it tells me that their
Speaker 1: arm twisting didn't work, and I think it's likely we're
Speaker 1: going to see this nomination withdrawn. That's what should happen.
Speaker 1: I can tell you I heard from inside the Biden
Speaker 1: White House that when I suggested Billy Nolan that they
Speaker 1: that that reverberated throughout the halls of the White House.
Speaker 1: They're like, what, holy crap, you mean there's a way
Speaker 1: we can get a guy through and get a guy
Speaker 1: through fast. And let's be clear, I don't know Billy Nolan.
Speaker 1: I'm not suggesting him because he's a Republican. I'm not
Speaker 1: suggesting him because he's my guy. He's the person the
Speaker 1: by an administration named as their acting administrator. I'm just
Speaker 1: looking at qualifications and knowledge. And when I asked Billy
Speaker 1: Nolan questions about the FAA and keeping airline travel safe,
Speaker 1: he can answer those questions when I ask Phil Washington.
Speaker 1: I asked Phil Washington, for example, a couple of years ago,
Speaker 1: we had the horrific crashes of the seven thirty seven Maxes,
Speaker 1: two different crashes. Three hundred and forty six lives were
Speaker 1: lost in those two crashes. I asked him, why did
Speaker 1: the planes crash? He said, I don't know. You know,
Speaker 1: that's kind of a pretty big frigging problem. I told him,
Speaker 1: I said, mister Washington, I believe you. I believe that
Speaker 1: you don't know, and that's why you're not qualified to
Speaker 1: lead this agency, because the head of the FA should
Speaker 1: know exactly why they crashed, and in particular, should know
Speaker 1: what we need to do to prevent it from happening
Speaker 1: in another flight. Yeah, you wish that this administration would
Speaker 1: start taking these positions seriously. It is thank goodness you
Speaker 1: were able to really ask these questions. A lot of
Speaker 1: that went viral by just showing people how inadequate this
Speaker 1: nominee is for this specific job, and that is where
Speaker 1: it clearly made an impact, even on Democrats, which is
Speaker 1: a great news for all of us when it comes
Speaker 1: to safety. This is a non political appointee and it
Speaker 1: should never be a political person. And I'm glad that
Speaker 1: there's some success it looks like here that has happened
Speaker 1: with this. Finally, I want to ask you about another
Speaker 1: and this for me is a huge deal. As a
Speaker 1: broadcaster is someone that does radio in TV for a living.
Speaker 1: When you see people be d platformed, whether it's individuals
Speaker 1: on social media or from TV, networks. It is a
Speaker 1: scary moment. We're now being told that there has been
Speaker 1: a deal that's been done to get Newsmax back on
Speaker 1: the air. This is something that you went all in
Speaker 1: for from a freedom of speech perspective, not silencing conservative networks,
Speaker 1: and now it looks like a deal is together to
Speaker 1: bring back Newsmax to a carrier that dropped them. Well,
Speaker 1: that's exactly right, and this is news that broke today
Speaker 1: just a couple of hours ago. But it is a huge,
Speaker 1: huge victory, as regular listeners of the podcast will recall,
Speaker 1: Direct tv D platform Newsmax and about a year ago,
Speaker 1: Democrat members of Congress wrote to direct TV and said,
Speaker 1: there are three conservative cable news outlets, Fox News, Direct
Speaker 1: TV and one America News. Please d platform all three
Speaker 1: of them. We don't like what they're saying, we don't
Speaker 1: like the customers can hear what they're saying, so please
Speaker 1: throw them off the air. Unfortunately, Direct TV D platformed
Speaker 1: One America News. I think that was wrong, it was
Speaker 1: a mistake. I think it was silencing conservative voices. And
Speaker 1: then in the last couple of months, Direct tv D
Speaker 1: platformed Newsmax and so they had thrown two of the
Speaker 1: three right of center cable news stations off of the air.
Speaker 1: I was deeply concerned when they threw Newsmax off the air.
Speaker 1: I had just started as the ranking member on the
Speaker 1: Senate Commerce Committee, and so I immediately launched an investigation
Speaker 1: from the Senate Commerce Committee. I brought together three other senators.
Speaker 1: I brought together Mike Lee and Tom Cotton, and also
Speaker 1: Lindsay Graham, who's the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee.
Speaker 1: So you had Lindsay on Judiciary. Obviously I'm on Judiciary
Speaker 1: as well, you had me as the ranker on Commerce.
Speaker 1: That all of us together had a whole series of
Speaker 1: very specific questions examining what Direct TV had done, and
Speaker 1: also examining AT and T in Texas specific group, who
Speaker 1: are the parent companies of direct TV. I can tell
Speaker 1: you that they did not like that congressional scrutiny. They
Speaker 1: were very displeased, and what I conveyed to them was
Speaker 1: simple and unequivocal. If you want the investigation to stop,
Speaker 1: if you want the scrutiny to stop, put Newsmax back
Speaker 1: on air. That needs to be the outcome. Put them
Speaker 1: back on air. Look, you don't have to watch them,
Speaker 1: you don't have to listen to them. I happen to
Speaker 1: think Newsmax is awesome. I watched them regularly. I go
Speaker 1: on Newsmax regularly. But if you don't like Newsmax, change
Speaker 1: the channel. There are lots of lefty channels that you
Speaker 1: can watch. But the resolution of this, I laid drew
Speaker 1: a line in the sand and said the resolution of
Speaker 1: this needs to be Newsmax back on air. And as
Speaker 1: of ten am this morning, they've announced Newsmax is going
Speaker 1: back on air. So it was an unequivocal victory, a
Speaker 1: victory for free speech, a victory for consumers, of victory
Speaker 1: for thirty million Texans who want to be able to
Speaker 1: turn on their TV and watch a variety of views
Speaker 1: and get news from across the spectrum. So it's a big,
Speaker 1: big win today. Yeah, it's huge, and it's something that
Speaker 1: if you guys wouldn't have fought for this so hard
Speaker 1: in the Senate, I think it would have never have happened.
Speaker 1: So congratulations obviously on that for as you said, free speech,
Speaker 1: and we don't want to cancel either side of free speech.
Speaker 1: That's what people seem to not understand about conservatism. We
Speaker 1: want all free speech to stay there. As you mentioned
Speaker 1: both sides, it would be terrible if you were canceling
Speaker 1: everything on the left and only keeping on the right,
Speaker 1: because again there's precedent. That's not what free speech is,
Speaker 1: and this is going to be a very big victory
Speaker 1: and precedents that's important. Look, you and I aren't saying
Speaker 1: take MSNBC off the air. We're not saying takes the
Speaker 1: never would the air. Now, I will say that the
Speaker 1: viewers are saying that they have minis scool viewers. This
Speaker 1: podcast Verdict with Ted Cruz, we get more viewers than
Speaker 1: MSNBC or CNN. So the people are voting with their feet,
Speaker 1: with their eyeballs, with their ears. But look, I think
Speaker 1: having the unhinged leftist radicals on MSNBC and CNN talking,
Speaker 1: I think that's actually good for us. I think it
Speaker 1: shows how ridiculous their views are. I don't want them silenced.
Speaker 1: I just want to be able to counter their misinformation
Speaker 1: with the facts and the truth. And having Newsmax Now
Speaker 1: back on air provides one other outlet through which you
Speaker 1: can do that. Yeah, I totally agree with that. I
Speaker 1: want to ask you one last question about moving forward
Speaker 1: with Trump. But before I get to that, I want
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Speaker 1: Last question for you, Senator, as we move forward this
Speaker 1: week with Donald Trump, and you see this changing very
Speaker 1: very quickly. If Donald Trump does in fact not get indicted,
Speaker 1: is that good for the entire country and precedent to
Speaker 1: kind of pull back on these activists. Is that going
Speaker 1: to be the big outcome of this that you see
Speaker 1: overall moving forward? Look, I hope believe this week that
Speaker 1: we have seen three huge victories. The one that is
Speaker 1: unequivocal is Newsmax and Newsmax being on air is a
Speaker 1: complete victory. The other two may be big victories, and
Speaker 1: they are Trump and the FAA administrator. If the FAA
Speaker 1: administrator gets pulled because he's unqualified, that will be a
Speaker 1: second huge victory. The fact that they canceled his vote
Speaker 1: today is a very positive sign if Trump. If Alvin
Speaker 1: Bragg backs off and says I'm not going to bring
Speaker 1: this frivolous, baseless partisan prosecution, that is a huge victory.
Speaker 1: It's a victory for the rule of law. We know
Speaker 1: that he at least paused, just like Phil Washington's confirmation,
Speaker 1: and he told the grand jury stay home today. Now
Speaker 1: that pause could be short lived. He could bring the
Speaker 1: grand jury back tomorrow and they could indict him tomorrow,
Speaker 1: and we'll see what happens. By the way, I will
Speaker 1: note you know, you know, one of the questions we
Speaker 1: talked about in the last podcast, you said, well, well,
Speaker 1: what will it be like when he's arrested. And I
Speaker 1: don't know for sure if and when they do that,
Speaker 1: but but at least the local prosecutor in Palm Beach
Speaker 1: County has said that that he will not be handcuffed
Speaker 1: because the Secret Service won't let law enforcement lay hands
Speaker 1: on him. And so you have an interesting dynamic when
Speaker 1: the Secret Service is protecting the president that apparently, at
Speaker 1: least according to the local prosecutor, they won't won't let
Speaker 1: them handcuff the foreign president. But if Alvin Bragg goes forward,
Speaker 1: they may well do a perp walk. They will do
Speaker 1: presumably fingerprint him, they'll presumably do a mug shot if
Speaker 1: that stops. If if the Democrats getting cold feet stops
Speaker 1: Alvin Bragg, that is a huge victory for the rule
Speaker 1: of law. That would be a very good thing for America.
Speaker 1: Yeah all right, Well, here's what I will tell you.
Speaker 1: Hit subscriber auto download because if something does break, we'll
Speaker 1: probably do a special pod, so you don't want to
Speaker 1: miss it. So hit that subscriber auto download button and
Speaker 1: we'll see you back here real soon.