Speaker 1: The State of our Union, much like the state of
Speaker 1: our podcast is strong. This is Verdict with Ted Cruz.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Verdict with Ted Cruz. I'm Michael Knowles, Senator.
Speaker 1: You have just come from the Capitol and the State
Speaker 1: of the Union address. I want to get into that
Speaker 1: because it was one of the greatest State of the
Speaker 1: Union addresses I've ever seen. It was raucous. Before we
Speaker 1: get to that, I have to talk about Iowa because
Speaker 1: the last time I saw you, we were here for
Speaker 1: three hours last night waiting to do a podcast about Iowa,
Speaker 1: and then the results never came in. Look two words
Speaker 1: dumpster fire. I mean it is so last night, last night,
Speaker 1: Monday night, you and I arrived here at nine. The
Speaker 1: plan was we're doing a podcast. So you said, all right,
Speaker 1: we'll get Iowa results and we'll go just on air
Speaker 1: and react to them. And then nine o'clock became ten,
Speaker 1: that became eleven, that became twelve, and we're sitting there
Speaker 1: going we have no results. We still don't have results.
Speaker 1: But the nice thing about a podcast, Look, if we
Speaker 1: had a TV show that went on at nine pm,
Speaker 1: we'd have to go on air and say tonight we
Speaker 1: know nothing and you just kind of sit there and said,
Speaker 1: we said, all right, if we don't know the results,
Speaker 1: let's do the podcast tomorrow. But you remember then we said,
Speaker 1: all right, let's do it at ten am. We didn't
Speaker 1: have results at ten any and we said let's do
Speaker 1: it at three pm. We didn't have results at three pm.
Speaker 1: And we're sitting here now at twelve forty three in
Speaker 1: the morning, and we have sixty percent of Iowa report,
Speaker 1: We have sixty percent of IRA reporting. There is a
Speaker 1: discrepancy between the delegates and the popular vote. Now, you
Speaker 1: happened to win Iowa in twenty sixteen, so I want
Speaker 1: your insider take. But just from what I'm reading, Pete
Speaker 1: Buddha Jedge, who declared victory last night with no results
Speaker 1: in he has twenty should give him some credit. That
Speaker 1: was a ballsy boot. And so look in that scenario,
Speaker 1: and actually the numbers are back in him up. If
Speaker 1: he had come in with three percent, he would have
Speaker 1: looked pretty ridiculous. But that fortune favors the bold. That's
Speaker 1: exactly right now. In terms of delegates, Pete Buddha Judge
Speaker 1: has twenty seven percent, Bernie is at twenty five percent.
Speaker 1: Elizabeth Warren eighteen percent, pour Joe Bibing down at fifteen percent,
Speaker 1: Amy Club Char twelve point six percent, and yet Bernie
Speaker 1: is leading in the popular vote. I think people have
Speaker 1: no idea what the Iowa caucus is, including many Iowans.
Speaker 1: You spent a lot of time in Iowa in twenty
Speaker 1: sixteen and it paid off because you won the state.
Speaker 1: What happened? What does it look like? So? Iowa is
Speaker 1: a state where they take their responsibility very seriously, and
Speaker 1: people pour thousands of hours into grassroots campaigning in Iowa
Speaker 1: because Iowa has proven to be a launching ground where look,
Speaker 1: Iowa rarely Alexa nominee or Alexa president, but it excludes
Speaker 1: a lot of people, and it could elevate someone who
Speaker 1: wasn't a front runner, who wasn't dominant, to major top
Speaker 1: tear status. And so you know, you look at the
Speaker 1: results in Iowa to night or whenever we get them,
Speaker 1: assuming they resemble the ones you just read, it's a
Speaker 1: catastrophic night for Joe Biden. Joe Biden was the inevitable,
Speaker 1: the unstoppable front runner and he's in fourth place. That's
Speaker 1: a big problem. Um, it wasn't a great night for
Speaker 1: Elizabeth Warren Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders are battling for
Speaker 1: who can be the great leftist Hope and Bernie right
Speaker 1: now one if those numbers hold up, and you got
Speaker 1: to assume moving into New Hampshire, the poll numbers out
Speaker 1: of New Hampshire, Bernie as a neighbor in Vermont is
Speaker 1: in a very strong position sout, so Warren coming in third.
Speaker 1: She's still around, but between Bernie and Warren, she's not
Speaker 1: in a great place. It's a great night for Buddha
Speaker 1: Jedge And look, Biden's donors right now are freaking out.
Speaker 1: Biden's supporters are freaking out. And if you figure there's
Speaker 1: twenty to thirty percent of moderate Democrats, they got a
Speaker 1: flee somewhere. Boots did a nice job of throwing himself
Speaker 1: in contention. Klobuchar would have been another person in contention.
Speaker 1: She's not totally out, but fifth place is not. She
Speaker 1: wanted to come in and shock the world with say
Speaker 1: a second place phinish an Ioway. If that had happened,
Speaker 1: it could have really elevated Klobuchar to be the alternative
Speaker 1: to Biden. What you may see some oxygen for is
Speaker 1: a Michael Bloomberg coming in. He seems to be trying
Speaker 1: to veer into this moderate lane. The Biden campaign is collapsing.
Speaker 1: It's amazing what fifty billion dollars could do. But but
Speaker 1: you know, the Democrats of the Party of the People
Speaker 1: and the Party of Poor People, and you know, Frankly,
Speaker 1: you know, Bloomberg does look at Tom Steier and say,
Speaker 1: you're a really poor billionaire. That's true as far as
Speaker 1: billionaires go, it's a rarefied air. But you know, this
Speaker 1: does make the Democratic candidates look a little bit ridiculous,
Speaker 1: in part because the candidate who won the popular vote
Speaker 1: very well may not win the state and didn't. Berney's
Speaker 1: a socialist, so he's going to redistribute his votes to others.
Speaker 1: You know, I gotta say number one that they the Democrats,
Speaker 1: couldn't and it's the state Democratic Party that screwed this up.
Speaker 1: They couldn't figure out how to count the votes. Last
Speaker 1: night I was thinking about, you know, I felt really
Speaker 1: bad for the volunteers. Every one of these candidates have
Speaker 1: people who pour their hearts into it. I mean, I
Speaker 1: remember four years ago in Iowa. I mean, we had
Speaker 1: worked for over a year. We had volunteers who had
Speaker 1: come in from Texas, from all over the country who'd
Speaker 1: moved to Iowa. We actually rented an entire dormitory, a
Speaker 1: college dorm that was filled with volunteers that would go
Speaker 1: out in blizzard conditions knocking on doors. And there's something
Speaker 1: called the Full Grass Leet where Chuck Chuck Grassley, the
Speaker 1: senior senator from Iowa. Chuck goes to all ninety nine
Speaker 1: counties in Iowa every single year, and four years ago
Speaker 1: in Iowa, I did the Full Grass You hit every
Speaker 1: county I hit, and in fact, we hit the ninety
Speaker 1: nine county on the day of the caucus. And it
Speaker 1: look Iowa. You drive through a lot of sparse, rural
Speaker 1: counties you're doing events. I remember one of my favorite events.
Speaker 1: It was about ten thirty at night and it was
Speaker 1: a county where there were not many kind of big
Speaker 1: gathering places. So we did it a gas station and
Speaker 1: it was a pretty big gas station, and it was
Speaker 1: it was on the road, and it was ten thirty
Speaker 1: at night and we had I think close to one
Speaker 1: hundred people came out to the gas station from from
Speaker 1: the county and I jumped behind the counter and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, began serving people coffee because it was ten
Speaker 1: ten thirty at night and they came out here. You know,
Speaker 1: it's a place where people have poured their hearts in.
Speaker 1: And to get to last night, to get to the
Speaker 1: cat complete debacle, it collapses, and to not have a result, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that I've never seen anything more messed up.
Speaker 1: So and by the way, Democrats are the people that
Speaker 1: tell you they want the federal government to be in
Speaker 1: charge everything. They think they're geniuses, and so they say,
Speaker 1: put us in charge of your healthcare, put us in
Speaker 1: charge of the economy, put us in charge of your life.
Speaker 1: These people can't count votes. It ain't complicated. You literally
Speaker 1: go to a gymnasium and go stand over there. If
Speaker 1: you're with boden, go stand over there. If you're with birth,
Speaker 1: that's very complicated. But they can control your entire healthcare.
Speaker 1: There is a big contrast right between the Democratic Iowa
Speaker 1: caucus is a complete debacle and tonight's State of the Union,
Speaker 1: which you've just come from. This is the Republican president
Speaker 1: counting off his victories, and the president spent the first
Speaker 1: what twenty twenty five minutes of the speech just listing
Speaker 1: off his victories. I know that you spoke with the
Speaker 1: President a few days before the State of the Union.
Speaker 1: I was obviously not on the phone call, but I
Speaker 1: suspect you've talked about what that speech should look like.
Speaker 1: So I talked to him on Sunday. He called me
Speaker 1: and we visited about a number of topics, but but
Speaker 1: on the State of the Union. I encouraged him. I said,
Speaker 1: make it positive, make it optimistic, focus on substance, focus
Speaker 1: on results, focus on success. Don't focus on impeachment. And
Speaker 1: that was my very explicit advice. I said, mister President,
Speaker 1: for what it's worth, I wouldn't say a word about impeachment.
Speaker 1: And the reason is, look, impeachment's gonna be over tomorrow,
Speaker 1: but there are still potentially a couple of votes in flux.
Speaker 1: So I told the President on Sunday, I said, I
Speaker 1: think the votes, the votes for not guilty will be
Speaker 1: somewhere between fifty and fifty six. Okay, I said, fifty
Speaker 1: is the bare minimum. There will be fifty not guilty votes,
Speaker 1: and I'm confident of that. And as long as he is,
Speaker 1: I mean he'll he would need sixty seven votes of
Speaker 1: guilty to be removed from so that's not going to happen.
Speaker 1: There was never any risk of that. But on the upside,
Speaker 1: I think we could get as high as fifty six
Speaker 1: not guilty votes. And I said, look, mister President, if
Speaker 1: if you gave us state of the Union that people
Speaker 1: saw as spiking the ball and it ticked them off,
Speaker 1: I said, look, a lot of the you could end
Speaker 1: up seeing a few of these votes go south. And
Speaker 1: you have a little insider knowledge here because you're speaking
Speaker 1: to the people who could be those votes that go
Speaker 1: one way or the other, and you're speaking to the
Speaker 1: president and so on. Sunday, the six votes that were
Speaker 1: in play, you had three three Republicans, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski,
Speaker 1: Mitt Romney. Now I told the President, I said, frankly,
Speaker 1: I think all three will vote not guilty. Now we
Speaker 1: know as of tonight Collins and Murkowski have announced they're
Speaker 1: going to vote not guilty, so that that much is right.
Speaker 1: If Mitt has announced, I haven't seen it, so I
Speaker 1: think he probably will as well, but but we'll find
Speaker 1: out tomorrow. On the Democratic side, I think there are
Speaker 1: only three votes that are even plausibly in contention, and
Speaker 1: that's Joe Mansion, who I think probably does vote not guilty.
Speaker 1: He has it seems he's signaled that he's seriously considering
Speaker 1: voting not guilty, breaking with his party. Yeah. I had
Speaker 1: a reporter run up to me in the Capitol all
Speaker 1: excited and said, Hey, what do you think of Joe
Speaker 1: mansion censure motion? And I said, I hope it means
Speaker 1: he's voting not guilty, like you know that. That's what
Speaker 1: he suggested. Instead of voting guilty, removed from office, he
Speaker 1: suggested vote vote for censure, say that the president did
Speaker 1: a bad thing, slap him on the hand, but leave
Speaker 1: him in office. And I think the odds are pretty
Speaker 1: good that Mansion votes not guilty. The other two votes
Speaker 1: that are potentially in play are Kirsten Cinema from Arizona,
Speaker 1: who has she hadn't been in the Senate long, but
Speaker 1: she's been trying to carve out a more moderate path.
Speaker 1: I think it's at least possible she votes not guilt.
Speaker 1: And then the third one is Doug Jones from Alabama,
Speaker 1: who at least possibly could. So my advice to the
Speaker 1: President was, rather than, you know, rather than risk getting
Speaker 1: out of them angry, just focus on the incredible results
Speaker 1: at a positive vision. And I got to say, and
Speaker 1: I wasn't the only one who gave the president of
Speaker 1: that advice that that was a lot of people were
Speaker 1: giving him that advice. But how did he do. I
Speaker 1: don't know that any of us were sure he would
Speaker 1: follow it, to be honest, I don't know that he
Speaker 1: was sure he would follow it, but he was open
Speaker 1: to it when we talked, and I thought he did
Speaker 1: spectacularly at night. It is the best speech I've ever
Speaker 1: seen Donald Trump give. And it started out just relentlessly
Speaker 1: making the case of the substance of victories we've had
Speaker 1: in the last three years. And it was powerful, it
Speaker 1: was compelling, it it was optimistic. And the contrast the
Speaker 1: way congressional Democrats behaved tonight was horrible. They wouldn't even
Speaker 1: stand up or applaud for low unemployment. Or there were
Speaker 1: women wearing white or like the suffragettes, and they wouldn't
Speaker 1: stand up and applaud for female unemployment. It was one
Speaker 1: after the other where the President says, with the lowest
Speaker 1: unemployment in history, stone cold silence, the lowest African American
Speaker 1: unemployment history, stone cold silence, lowest Hispanic unemployment in history,
Speaker 1: stone cold silence. As you point out lowest unemployment for
Speaker 1: women in seventy years, and you have all of these
Speaker 1: congressional women in white who just are sitting there snarlet
Speaker 1: what do they want to? What more could they ask?
Speaker 1: And I like that the President he didn't just have
Speaker 1: one line about it. He had one after the other
Speaker 1: after the other. They were all based on facts, they
Speaker 1: were all based on substance. So when the President says
Speaker 1: the lower fifty percent of income, the people who are
Speaker 1: struggling the most have seen their incomes go up, go
Speaker 1: up the most as a percentage, stone cold silence for
Speaker 1: the Democrats. When he talks about poverty, the lowest African
Speaker 1: American poverty in history, stone cold silence. You know the
Speaker 1: moment in the early part of the speech that was
Speaker 1: most dismaying. The President talked about how seven million Americans
Speaker 1: have come off of food stamps and ten million Americans
Speaker 1: have come off of welfare, and not only did the
Speaker 1: congressional Democrats not applaud, there was hissing. I mean it
Speaker 1: was because you couldn't really hear that on the TV.
Speaker 1: On the floor, they were hissing, and it was like
Speaker 1: it was like some leftists in a college college classroom.
Speaker 1: And I'm going to say that's really twisted, and it
Speaker 1: reveals where the modern Democratic Party is because they're saying,
Speaker 1: they're saying to people who who are struggling that they
Speaker 1: want you to remain dependent, they want you to unemployed,
Speaker 1: they want you to you Those seven million people the
Speaker 1: last three years have gotten jobs. These are real men
Speaker 1: and women. These are single moms who are suddenly now working.
Speaker 1: They're they're providing for their kids. They have the dignity
Speaker 1: of work. The self respect and the approach of the Democrats,
Speaker 1: the congressional Democrats, they hissed that it's bad that they're
Speaker 1: off welfare, and it is revealing of, I think, a
Speaker 1: really cynical attitude. There was also so one of the
Speaker 1: things the president did did really well. They're what are
Speaker 1: called Lenny Stutnick moments. Okay, now what is the Leny
Speaker 1: Sutni moment? So Lenny Stutnick is is we see them
Speaker 1: allott in State of the Unions where the president calls
Speaker 1: someone out in the gallery. Okay, And the origin of
Speaker 1: that it was actually Ronald Reagan who invented that. It
Speaker 1: was nineteen eighty two and Reagan called out Lenny Stuttnik,
Speaker 1: who who who had saved someone who had crashed into
Speaker 1: the Potomac and it look. Reagan was a master showman.
Speaker 1: He understood the power of it. But that was the
Speaker 1: first time in two hundred years of our country's history
Speaker 1: that the president had done that. Now every state of
Speaker 1: the Union. You haven't Lenny Stutning moment. What President Trump
Speaker 1: did with that tonight, I've never seen. And he's taken
Speaker 1: it to another level. So we saw, for example, Rush Limbaugh.
Speaker 1: There was an amazing moment um when the President awarded
Speaker 1: him the Medal of Freedom right there and then and
Speaker 1: and and Milania put it around his neck. Rush, I think,
Speaker 1: and I was sitting kind of right beneath where Rush was,
Speaker 1: so I was looking right up at him. He was
Speaker 1: probably on fifty feet away from me. Rush was so astonished.
Speaker 1: And look, yesterday Rush announced he has stage four lung
Speaker 1: cancer um and and and if you haven't listened to
Speaker 1: his announcement on air, it's it's worth listening to it.
Speaker 1: And you know, Rush, Rush is a friend. He is
Speaker 1: I think the man is a hero, and he's a patriot.
Speaker 1: And you know, I remember having dinner with Rush. I
Speaker 1: think it was twenty fifteen, before the whole presidential campaign
Speaker 1: had started and we were talking about the future, and
Speaker 1: it had been eight years of Obama or seven years
Speaker 1: at the time, and and Rush at the time was
Speaker 1: it was a little I wouldn't say discourage, but he
Speaker 1: wasn't sure we could turn things around. It was a
Speaker 1: discouraging era. And I remember telling him, I said, Rush,
Speaker 1: you have twenty million Americans who listened to you every
Speaker 1: single week. Look, you and I are pretty hot, Daddy
Speaker 1: Skippy happy that we've had two million downloads in two weeks.
Speaker 1: So I look, that ain't nothing. That's pretty good. That's
Speaker 1: not And you know we didn't, by the way, just
Speaker 1: to mention it's in passing, we didn't podcast for a
Speaker 1: few days. Here shows still at number two, even even
Speaker 1: with several days of silence with well, that's the sound
Speaker 1: of silence, that's that's the power of people wanting content.
Speaker 1: But my point was that I said to Russias, I said, look,
Speaker 1: you got twenty million people a week that listened to you.
Speaker 1: If every one of your listeners gets two other people
Speaker 1: to come out and vote, that's it. Just each person
Speaker 1: find two people in America to come vote. That's sixty
Speaker 1: million people. I remember telling Rush was six million people.
Speaker 1: We can turn this country around. Donald Trump won in
Speaker 1: twenty sixteen with sixty two million votes. Those numbers were
Speaker 1: almost and Rush, you know, it's an interesting You and
Speaker 1: I both went on Glenn Beck this morning. We were
Speaker 1: back to back to back. We pounded this podcast. You
Speaker 1: and I think Glenn was ready to strangle us. Both
Speaker 1: the show. Guy's good to um. But both Glenn and
Speaker 1: then I did Hannity earlier tonight, and both of them
Speaker 1: gave beautiful emotional tributes to Rush that he had blazed
Speaker 1: the field. I mean that that he's number one. I mean,
Speaker 1: in many ways, what we're doing right now would be
Speaker 1: unthinkable without Rush. And he was the kind of lonely
Speaker 1: voice in the wilderness. And what was so powerful there
Speaker 1: was all sorts of people across America that we're sitting
Speaker 1: there going I thought I was the only one, and
Speaker 1: he just he spoke for the everyman. He and by
Speaker 1: the way he speaks for the everyman, I don't want to.
Speaker 1: So my mom is a two time cancer survivor. Cancer
Speaker 1: is a horrific, nasty, vicious disease, and having been by
Speaker 1: my mom's side through chemo, through radiation, it's horrible. Rush
Speaker 1: is a tough tenacious fighter. So I mean I sent
Speaker 1: sent Russia note yesterday that one of the things I
Speaker 1: said is, look, yours is an incredibly important voice in
Speaker 1: America and we need you and we're all And it
Speaker 1: was a great moment to see Malania put it on
Speaker 1: and obviously everybody's praying for him. But that that we've
Speaker 1: never seen in terms of a Lenny study, I would
Speaker 1: actually have the metal. And since Rush was blown away,
Speaker 1: there were three times I had tears in my eyes,
Speaker 1: and I've been to now I think seventh State of
Speaker 1: the Unions. I've never had tears in my eyes, and
Speaker 1: I had three times before the other two. That moment Calamueller,
Speaker 1: who was tortured and killed by ISIS, her parents were there.
Speaker 1: The President did an incredible job telling her story, seeing
Speaker 1: them looking up look, particularly as the father of daughters.
Speaker 1: You know, I kept looking at the dad, I mean
Speaker 1: look and the mom, but you know I identified with
Speaker 1: the dad and to know the horrific hell that their
Speaker 1: daughter went through. And the President told a great story
Speaker 1: about the special Forces team naming their mission to take
Speaker 1: out al bag Daddy after her birthday because it ties
Speaker 1: in Look, we all know about the policy accomplished right,
Speaker 1: But the personal story is what I agree. I had
Speaker 1: tears of I it was beautiful and powerful. And the
Speaker 1: third time was the mom with her to the kids,
Speaker 1: who's a soldier and her husband's a soldier and he
Speaker 1: was deployed in Afghanistan, I think. And then the president said,
Speaker 1: and he's back here now, Yeah, we'll talk about a reveal.
Speaker 1: And look on her face and to see him come down,
Speaker 1: that sergeant come down the steps and her like she
Speaker 1: was next to Milanni, and then the joy she expressed
Speaker 1: her kids. I mean seeing him hugs little girl, huggs
Speaker 1: little boy. I okay, that that is a new threshold.
Speaker 1: There's never been a Lenny Stuttning moment where you actually
Speaker 1: reunite a soldier's family right in front of you. I think,
Speaker 1: to the surprise of of of of the family that
Speaker 1: that was incredible, It was powerful. It was it turned
Speaker 1: everything up to eleven and I agree, I mean it was.
Speaker 1: It was just such an effective speech. He didn't mention impeachment,
Speaker 1: which I'm very glad that was part of your conversation,
Speaker 1: and other other people had had encouraged him that way too.
Speaker 1: And by the way, he did a great contrast last week. Yeah,
Speaker 1: last week, I was the White House twice. One day
Speaker 1: for the announcement of his Middle East peace proposal. He
Speaker 1: was there with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin net and Yahoo
Speaker 1: the next day for the signing of the US MCA,
Speaker 1: the Mexico Canada Trade Agreement. And I thought the silent
Speaker 1: contrast of he's working for the country for good, for
Speaker 1: the future, while the Congressional Democrats are just consumed with hate.
Speaker 1: I think that was a really sharp content. And we'll
Speaker 1: see the contrast again tomorrow because you had the State
Speaker 1: of the Union, a really really strong State of the
Speaker 1: Union and State of the Union address. Tomorrow is the
Speaker 1: vote on impeachment. I mean, you're gonna go. It's pretty
Speaker 1: latent into the evening, so you know in a few
Speaker 1: hours you're going to head back to the Senate. How
Speaker 1: does impeachment end? Well, before we finished the State of
Speaker 1: the Union, let me say two quick things on it. Okay,
Speaker 1: Number one, I think the Democrats seemed incredibly out of touch.
Speaker 1: I think to any America and watching, you wonder, why
Speaker 1: can't you cheer for Americans? Yeah, like when the President
Speaker 1: says twelve thousand new factories, we're seeing a blue collar boom.
Speaker 1: Democrats for years have claimed to be the party of
Speaker 1: working men and women, the party of unions, and they're
Speaker 1: sitting there snarling, furious at manufacturing jobs. Um. You know
Speaker 1: when when the President pointed out one of the first
Speaker 1: people who pointed out in the gallery was an African
Speaker 1: American band from Ohio who'd been homeless, who'd been had
Speaker 1: substance abuse problems, and because of an opportunity zone part
Speaker 1: of what we implemented, the tax cuts that incentivizes capital
Speaker 1: and jobs and struggling neighborhoods, he now has a job,
Speaker 1: he's he's he's clean, and he's turned his life around.
Speaker 1: And the Democrats just snarled and and and you think
Speaker 1: about it, most of these inner cities, these these areas
Speaker 1: with with severe poverty, almost all of them are represented
Speaker 1: by Democrats. Yea. And it was literally their own congressional
Speaker 1: representatives angry that their constituents who were struggling are doing
Speaker 1: better that someone else did for them. It ruins their narrative.
Speaker 1: And the moment that I think captured the whole night,
Speaker 1: sadly was at the end of the speech when Nancy
Speaker 1: Pelosi stood up and ripped the speech and half I
Speaker 1: thought that was the constitution. She was ripped. It was
Speaker 1: the speech. Okay, maybe I mistook that, and I was
Speaker 1: I was sitting not very far from her either. I
Speaker 1: was off on the side, was actually sitting between Marco
Speaker 1: Rubio and Rand Paul. It was kind of an interesting
Speaker 1: the day after Aisle. It was sort of amusing. But
Speaker 1: that was just accidental reunion where we walked in, but
Speaker 1: we were kind of I was kind of laughing at
Speaker 1: how the seating worked out. But and the I didn't
Speaker 1: initially see her tear the speech. It was Marco who
Speaker 1: nudge means that, did you see her tearing the speech?
Speaker 1: And I looked up and she was still tearing it,
Speaker 1: and I was seething. It was pitiful and disgusting and
Speaker 1: it I think Nancy Pelosi should be ashamed and disrespectful it.
Speaker 1: I'm fine. I get that parties have different views and
Speaker 1: you don't like. But look, I went to I think
Speaker 1: four State of the Union's Obama gave. He talked about
Speaker 1: all sorts of policies I didn't like, and I didn't
Speaker 1: applaud for all of them. So there's one picture I
Speaker 1: think it was from the twenty thirteen State of the
Speaker 1: Union where you had in a row me. I forget
Speaker 1: the order, but it was me, Chuck Schumer, Kirsten Jella Brand,
Speaker 1: Lindsey Graham, John McCain, and Obama was saying we need
Speaker 1: to give amnesty for illegal aliens. And Schumer and Lindsay
Speaker 1: and McCain and Jilla Brand are all standing cheering, and
Speaker 1: I'm sitting there silently. I'm actually perfectly fine with that picture.
Speaker 1: They want to cheer for amnesty, I ain't gonna that.
Speaker 1: That's fine. I don't mind where there's a policy disagreement
Speaker 1: expressing it. But to rip the speed each and half
Speaker 1: showed a contempt not just for Donald Trump personally, but
Speaker 1: a contempt for the presidency, aempt for the American people
Speaker 1: that I thought was repulsive. And I can tell you
Speaker 1: one Democratic Senator who will remain nameless, but on the
Speaker 1: elevator down he turned to me and said, did Pelosi
Speaker 1: really rip up the speech? You mentioned this the other day,
Speaker 1: you said, and it was this was just tonight, This
Speaker 1: was just like an hour ago, two hours ago. You
Speaker 1: mentioned also how some of these Democratic senators or more
Speaker 1: moderate senators, they really have not liked this intense. He
Speaker 1: was really unhappy with that I said it was pitiful
Speaker 1: and offensive and disgusting, and I was, I was, I
Speaker 1: was genuinely pissed. Yeah, I mean it made me angry,
Speaker 1: and it was interesting this one Democratic senator that's terrible.
Speaker 1: That's completely now. Look he didn't like some of what
Speaker 1: Trump said, but it was sort of the when I
Speaker 1: look at the Congressional Democrats, they're consumed by hate and
Speaker 1: hates ugly. Yeah, it is an ugly like fine, if
Speaker 1: you want to disagree on substance, but we should be
Speaker 1: rooting for the American people. We should be celebrating victories.
Speaker 1: And by the way, my job, I represent twenty eight
Speaker 1: million Texans. I don't just represent the Republicans, and I
Speaker 1: represent Democrats in Texas and libertarians and independence. But you
Speaker 1: know what, if I'm fighting for more jobs and higher
Speaker 1: wages and protecting their rights, that benefits everyone, right, and
Speaker 1: it it made me angry, but it also made me
Speaker 1: sad to see that right now, hatred of Trump consumes
Speaker 1: all else. We ought to all be able to root
Speaker 1: for Americans because that that that should be who we are.
Speaker 1: I was obviously not there in person. I was just
Speaker 1: watching on TV. And I agree with you, the anger
Speaker 1: of the sourpuss, the what appeared to be hatred doesn't
Speaker 1: play well on TV. I'm glad to hear that there
Speaker 1: were there was at least one Democratic colleague who who
Speaker 1: found it troubling as well. Before we go or we're
Speaker 1: obviously so much to get to, we'll have to get
Speaker 1: to more tomorrow. Let's try to get to one or
Speaker 1: two mail bag questions. First question from Miles Iowa caucus
Speaker 1: implosion hilarious thing or the most hilarious thing? Ridiculous napped?
Speaker 1: As I said, I felt bad for the activists, like
Speaker 1: the Pete volunteers who worked, but luck for Democrats who
Speaker 1: want to run everything they ought to demonstrate they can
Speaker 1: count votes first, right, one question, I guess can tease.
Speaker 1: By the way, can you can you imagine these rock
Speaker 1: and scientists taking over and deciding like whether, when and
Speaker 1: if you get a hard transplant? Yeah, that's well, we
Speaker 1: got a system in an app, and I'm sorry the
Speaker 1: app doesn't work, so I'll have to cross some border
Speaker 1: in three days whatever the app operates. Hope you're doing
Speaker 1: all right by then. This is a question. It's a
Speaker 1: little bit on impeachment, but I guess it'll touch on
Speaker 1: tomorrow's vote as well, because tomorrow is going to be
Speaker 1: the big vote. Do you quit the president or do
Speaker 1: you remove him from office? From Karen, I understand treason, bribery,
Speaker 1: and high crimes as grounds for impeachment. What I do
Speaker 1: not understand is misdemeanors. How do you go from treason
Speaker 1: to misdemeanors? So far, no one's explained what that means exactly,
Speaker 1: and I'm hoping you Senator Ken. Yeah. Look, it's a
Speaker 1: good question, and it's a weird term. Some of it
Speaker 1: to remember is the distinction of felonies and misdemeanors didn't
Speaker 1: exist as those terms are understood, because you think of
Speaker 1: a misdemeanor is kind of a minor crime, and so
Speaker 1: that's a confusing part of the phrase. I wouldn't think
Speaker 1: of them as separate categories. The phrase as a whole
Speaker 1: is other high crimes and misdemeanors, and that that was
Speaker 1: a unified So there were misdemeanors at the time the
Speaker 1: Constitution was adopted that were punishable by death. Yikes. So
Speaker 1: so a misdemeanor was not a speeding ticket, it was
Speaker 1: not a parking ticket. It was the phrase high crime
Speaker 1: or misdemeanors were serious crimes, and they were crimes against
Speaker 1: the public trust. They were things like bribery and treason.
Speaker 1: So it wasn't just um, you know, knocking over a
Speaker 1: seven to eleven. It was it was a crime that
Speaker 1: did harm to the public to the nation, like treason.
Speaker 1: But by the way, the you know, one of the
Speaker 1: examples that that Adam Schiff used is is well under
Speaker 1: the definition of high crimes and misdemeanors that that Dershowitz
Speaker 1: and others are saying, what happens if if a president
Speaker 1: allowed Alaska to be invaded? And I gotta say, Dan Sullivan,
Speaker 1: the Center from Alaska was pretty worked up about to say,
Speaker 1: I don't know, I'm against that. Yeah, I oppose the
Speaker 1: invasion of Alaska. And I pointed out Dan and he
Speaker 1: agreed with me on this, But I said, Dan, if
Speaker 1: a president allows a foreign country to invade the United
Speaker 1: States of America, that's treason. That is actively Constitution defines
Speaker 1: treason in the text of the Constitution. And you don't
Speaker 1: get to allow our enemies to invade and take over
Speaker 1: any of the United States. It's a shame that we
Speaker 1: have to teach our legislators that now, although I'm sure
Speaker 1: emphatically so I'm not throwing him. I'm sure though that
Speaker 1: there are going to be many House Democrats who do
Speaker 1: try to impeach the president again for speeding tickets and
Speaker 1: for parking tickets. So that's something to look forward to.
Speaker 1: We will be discussing, obviously the big vote that comes
Speaker 1: out tomorrow, but unfortunately we're out of time today. This
Speaker 1: is Verdict with Ted Cruz. We'll see you tomorrow. This
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Speaker 1: and help the Republican Party across the nation.