WEBVTT - Inside The State Of The Union 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:02.880 The State of our Union, much like the state of 0:00:02.880 --> 0:00:06.440 our podcast is strong. This is Verdict with Ted Cruz. 0:00:13.119 --> 0:00:17.000 Welcome back to Verdict with Ted Cruz. I'm Michael Knowles, Senator. 0:00:17.040 --> 0:00:19.079 You have just come from the Capitol and the State 0:00:19.079 --> 0:00:20.799 of the Union address. I want to get into that 0:00:21.120 --> 0:00:24.000 because it was one of the greatest State of the 0:00:24.079 --> 0:00:26.960 Union addresses I've ever seen. It was raucous. Before we 0:00:27.000 --> 0:00:30.520 get to that, I have to talk about Iowa because 0:00:30.520 --> 0:00:33.440 the last time I saw you, we were here for 0:00:33.560 --> 0:00:37.080 three hours last night waiting to do a podcast about Iowa, 0:00:37.240 --> 0:00:39.640 and then the results never came in. Look two words 0:00:40.080 --> 0:00:45.160 dumpster fire. I mean it is so last night, last night, 0:00:45.400 --> 0:00:48.280 Monday night, you and I arrived here at nine. The 0:00:48.360 --> 0:00:50.559 plan was we're doing a podcast. So you said, all right, 0:00:50.600 --> 0:00:53.320 we'll get Iowa results and we'll go just on air 0:00:53.360 --> 0:00:56.080 and react to them. And then nine o'clock became ten, 0:00:56.440 --> 0:00:58.880 that became eleven, that became twelve, and we're sitting there 0:00:58.920 --> 0:01:01.560 going we have no results. We still don't have results. 0:01:01.600 --> 0:01:03.840 But the nice thing about a podcast, Look, if we 0:01:03.920 --> 0:01:06.759 had a TV show that went on at nine pm, 0:01:06.840 --> 0:01:09.120 we'd have to go on air and say tonight we 0:01:09.240 --> 0:01:11.880 know nothing and you just kind of sit there and said, 0:01:11.880 --> 0:01:13.400 we said, all right, if we don't know the results, 0:01:13.640 --> 0:01:15.800 let's do the podcast tomorrow. But you remember then we said, 0:01:15.800 --> 0:01:18.160 all right, let's do it at ten am. We didn't 0:01:18.160 --> 0:01:19.720 have results at ten any and we said let's do 0:01:19.720 --> 0:01:22.440 it at three pm. We didn't have results at three pm. 0:01:22.440 --> 0:01:25.760 And we're sitting here now at twelve forty three in 0:01:25.800 --> 0:01:29.120 the morning, and we have sixty percent of Iowa report, 0:01:29.240 --> 0:01:31.679 We have sixty percent of IRA reporting. There is a 0:01:31.720 --> 0:01:36.440 discrepancy between the delegates and the popular vote. Now, you 0:01:36.760 --> 0:01:39.440 happened to win Iowa in twenty sixteen, so I want 0:01:39.480 --> 0:01:42.280 your insider take. But just from what I'm reading, Pete 0:01:42.280 --> 0:01:45.200 Buddha Jedge, who declared victory last night with no results 0:01:45.200 --> 0:01:47.720 in he has twenty should give him some credit. That 0:01:48.960 --> 0:01:52.960 was a ballsy boot. And so look in that scenario, 0:01:53.040 --> 0:01:55.560 and actually the numbers are back in him up. If 0:01:55.680 --> 0:01:58.200 he had come in with three percent, he would have 0:01:58.200 --> 0:02:02.320 looked pretty ridiculous. But that fortune favors the bold. That's 0:02:02.360 --> 0:02:05.520 exactly right now. In terms of delegates, Pete Buddha Judge 0:02:05.520 --> 0:02:08.360 has twenty seven percent, Bernie is at twenty five percent. 0:02:08.840 --> 0:02:12.520 Elizabeth Warren eighteen percent, pour Joe Bibing down at fifteen percent, 0:02:12.600 --> 0:02:16.400 Amy Club Char twelve point six percent, and yet Bernie 0:02:16.520 --> 0:02:20.120 is leading in the popular vote. I think people have 0:02:20.280 --> 0:02:23.480 no idea what the Iowa caucus is, including many Iowans. 0:02:24.320 --> 0:02:26.160 You spent a lot of time in Iowa in twenty 0:02:26.160 --> 0:02:28.240 sixteen and it paid off because you won the state. 0:02:29.520 --> 0:02:32.760 What happened? What does it look like? So? Iowa is 0:02:32.840 --> 0:02:38.240 a state where they take their responsibility very seriously, and 0:02:38.320 --> 0:02:43.280 people pour thousands of hours into grassroots campaigning in Iowa 0:02:43.360 --> 0:02:47.360 because Iowa has proven to be a launching ground where look, 0:02:47.560 --> 0:02:52.720 Iowa rarely Alexa nominee or Alexa president, but it excludes 0:02:52.760 --> 0:02:55.040 a lot of people, and it could elevate someone who 0:02:55.080 --> 0:02:59.880 wasn't a front runner, who wasn't dominant, to major top 0:03:00.040 --> 0:03:02.480 tear status. And so you know, you look at the 0:03:02.520 --> 0:03:06.880 results in Iowa to night or whenever we get them, 0:03:06.880 --> 0:03:09.920 assuming they resemble the ones you just read, it's a 0:03:09.919 --> 0:03:14.280 catastrophic night for Joe Biden. Joe Biden was the inevitable, 0:03:14.480 --> 0:03:18.480 the unstoppable front runner and he's in fourth place. That's 0:03:18.480 --> 0:03:22.880 a big problem. Um, it wasn't a great night for 0:03:22.919 --> 0:03:26.680 Elizabeth Warren Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders are battling for 0:03:26.800 --> 0:03:31.000 who can be the great leftist Hope and Bernie right 0:03:31.040 --> 0:03:35.839 now one if those numbers hold up, and you got 0:03:35.840 --> 0:03:38.160 to assume moving into New Hampshire, the poll numbers out 0:03:38.160 --> 0:03:40.800 of New Hampshire, Bernie as a neighbor in Vermont is 0:03:40.840 --> 0:03:46.080 in a very strong position sout, so Warren coming in third. 0:03:46.880 --> 0:03:50.880 She's still around, but between Bernie and Warren, she's not 0:03:50.920 --> 0:03:52.480 in a great place. It's a great night for Buddha 0:03:52.520 --> 0:03:57.640 Jedge And look, Biden's donors right now are freaking out. 0:03:58.400 --> 0:04:01.600 Biden's supporters are freaking out. And if you figure there's 0:04:02.160 --> 0:04:04.720 twenty to thirty percent of moderate Democrats, they got a 0:04:04.760 --> 0:04:08.920 flee somewhere. Boots did a nice job of throwing himself 0:04:08.960 --> 0:04:12.360 in contention. Klobuchar would have been another person in contention. 0:04:14.080 --> 0:04:18.599 She's not totally out, but fifth place is not. She 0:04:18.760 --> 0:04:21.680 wanted to come in and shock the world with say 0:04:21.680 --> 0:04:24.080 a second place phinish an Ioway. If that had happened, 0:04:24.640 --> 0:04:29.000 it could have really elevated Klobuchar to be the alternative 0:04:29.600 --> 0:04:34.080 to Biden. What you may see some oxygen for is 0:04:34.080 --> 0:04:36.880 a Michael Bloomberg coming in. He seems to be trying 0:04:36.920 --> 0:04:40.440 to veer into this moderate lane. The Biden campaign is collapsing. 0:04:41.000 --> 0:04:44.359 It's amazing what fifty billion dollars could do. But but 0:04:44.440 --> 0:04:46.040 you know, the Democrats of the Party of the People 0:04:46.480 --> 0:04:49.120 and the Party of Poor People, and you know, Frankly, 0:04:49.320 --> 0:04:53.680 you know, Bloomberg does look at Tom Steier and say, 0:04:53.720 --> 0:04:57.080 you're a really poor billionaire. That's true as far as 0:04:57.120 --> 0:05:00.160 billionaires go, it's a rarefied air. But you know, this 0:05:00.680 --> 0:05:04.000 does make the Democratic candidates look a little bit ridiculous, 0:05:04.040 --> 0:05:06.760 in part because the candidate who won the popular vote 0:05:07.080 --> 0:05:10.000 very well may not win the state and didn't. Berney's 0:05:10.000 --> 0:05:12.320 a socialist, so he's going to redistribute his votes to others. 0:05:14.360 --> 0:05:19.720 You know, I gotta say number one that they the Democrats, 0:05:19.800 --> 0:05:22.839 couldn't and it's the state Democratic Party that screwed this up. 0:05:23.080 --> 0:05:26.039 They couldn't figure out how to count the votes. Last 0:05:26.160 --> 0:05:28.600 night I was thinking about, you know, I felt really 0:05:28.600 --> 0:05:31.880 bad for the volunteers. Every one of these candidates have 0:05:32.000 --> 0:05:34.520 people who pour their hearts into it. I mean, I 0:05:34.600 --> 0:05:37.800 remember four years ago in Iowa. I mean, we had 0:05:37.880 --> 0:05:41.240 worked for over a year. We had volunteers who had 0:05:41.240 --> 0:05:44.279 come in from Texas, from all over the country who'd 0:05:44.279 --> 0:05:49.360 moved to Iowa. We actually rented an entire dormitory, a 0:05:49.400 --> 0:05:52.600 college dorm that was filled with volunteers that would go 0:05:52.680 --> 0:05:58.160 out in blizzard conditions knocking on doors. And there's something 0:05:58.200 --> 0:06:01.039 called the Full Grass Leet where Chuck Chuck Grassley, the 0:06:01.080 --> 0:06:05.159 senior senator from Iowa. Chuck goes to all ninety nine 0:06:05.200 --> 0:06:11.159 counties in Iowa every single year, and four years ago 0:06:11.200 --> 0:06:14.000 in Iowa, I did the Full Grass You hit every 0:06:14.000 --> 0:06:16.160 county I hit, and in fact, we hit the ninety 0:06:16.240 --> 0:06:19.279 nine county on the day of the caucus. And it 0:06:19.839 --> 0:06:24.800 look Iowa. You drive through a lot of sparse, rural 0:06:24.880 --> 0:06:27.920 counties you're doing events. I remember one of my favorite events. 0:06:28.320 --> 0:06:30.800 It was about ten thirty at night and it was 0:06:30.839 --> 0:06:32.920 a county where there were not many kind of big 0:06:32.960 --> 0:06:35.599 gathering places. So we did it a gas station and 0:06:35.640 --> 0:06:37.560 it was a pretty big gas station, and it was 0:06:37.560 --> 0:06:39.039 it was on the road, and it was ten thirty 0:06:39.080 --> 0:06:40.760 at night and we had I think close to one 0:06:40.800 --> 0:06:44.000 hundred people came out to the gas station from from 0:06:44.040 --> 0:06:47.720 the county and I jumped behind the counter and uh, 0:06:47.839 --> 0:06:50.160 you know, began serving people coffee because it was ten 0:06:50.279 --> 0:06:53.120 ten thirty at night and they came out here. You know, 0:06:53.240 --> 0:06:56.159 it's a place where people have poured their hearts in. 0:06:56.240 --> 0:06:59.680 And to get to last night, to get to the 0:06:59.680 --> 0:07:06.880 cat complete debacle, it collapses, and to not have a result, Yeah, 0:07:06.920 --> 0:07:11.280 I think that I've never seen anything more messed up. 0:07:11.360 --> 0:07:14.480 So and by the way, Democrats are the people that 0:07:14.640 --> 0:07:17.520 tell you they want the federal government to be in 0:07:17.600 --> 0:07:21.120 charge everything. They think they're geniuses, and so they say, 0:07:21.240 --> 0:07:23.280 put us in charge of your healthcare, put us in 0:07:23.360 --> 0:07:25.760 charge of the economy, put us in charge of your life. 0:07:26.320 --> 0:07:30.360 These people can't count votes. It ain't complicated. You literally 0:07:30.400 --> 0:07:33.480 go to a gymnasium and go stand over there. If 0:07:33.520 --> 0:07:35.560 you're with boden, go stand over there. If you're with birth, 0:07:35.640 --> 0:07:38.960 that's very complicated. But they can control your entire healthcare. 0:07:38.760 --> 0:07:42.240 There is a big contrast right between the Democratic Iowa 0:07:42.280 --> 0:07:45.920 caucus is a complete debacle and tonight's State of the Union, 0:07:45.920 --> 0:07:48.800 which you've just come from. This is the Republican president 0:07:49.120 --> 0:07:52.600 counting off his victories, and the president spent the first 0:07:52.680 --> 0:07:55.040 what twenty twenty five minutes of the speech just listing 0:07:55.080 --> 0:07:57.120 off his victories. I know that you spoke with the 0:07:57.160 --> 0:08:00.480 President a few days before the State of the Union. 0:08:00.880 --> 0:08:03.080 I was obviously not on the phone call, but I 0:08:03.160 --> 0:08:06.360 suspect you've talked about what that speech should look like. 0:08:06.920 --> 0:08:08.720 So I talked to him on Sunday. He called me 0:08:09.000 --> 0:08:11.240 and we visited about a number of topics, but but 0:08:11.360 --> 0:08:15.600 on the State of the Union. I encouraged him. I said, 0:08:15.680 --> 0:08:20.000 make it positive, make it optimistic, focus on substance, focus 0:08:20.040 --> 0:08:23.520 on results, focus on success. Don't focus on impeachment. And 0:08:23.600 --> 0:08:26.200 that was my very explicit advice. I said, mister President, 0:08:26.280 --> 0:08:29.280 for what it's worth, I wouldn't say a word about impeachment. 0:08:30.160 --> 0:08:33.840 And the reason is, look, impeachment's gonna be over tomorrow, 0:08:34.400 --> 0:08:37.720 but there are still potentially a couple of votes in flux. 0:08:38.559 --> 0:08:41.520 So I told the President on Sunday, I said, I 0:08:41.520 --> 0:08:45.640 think the votes, the votes for not guilty will be 0:08:45.800 --> 0:08:50.600 somewhere between fifty and fifty six. Okay, I said, fifty 0:08:50.720 --> 0:08:53.240 is the bare minimum. There will be fifty not guilty votes, 0:08:53.280 --> 0:08:55.800 and I'm confident of that. And as long as he is, 0:08:55.840 --> 0:08:59.240 I mean he'll he would need sixty seven votes of 0:08:59.400 --> 0:09:02.480 guilty to be removed from so that's not going to happen. 0:09:02.520 --> 0:09:05.800 There was never any risk of that. But on the upside, 0:09:05.840 --> 0:09:07.720 I think we could get as high as fifty six 0:09:07.920 --> 0:09:11.360 not guilty votes. And I said, look, mister President, if 0:09:11.440 --> 0:09:13.760 if you gave us state of the Union that people 0:09:13.840 --> 0:09:16.439 saw as spiking the ball and it ticked them off, 0:09:16.480 --> 0:09:18.640 I said, look, a lot of the you could end 0:09:18.720 --> 0:09:21.160 up seeing a few of these votes go south. And 0:09:21.280 --> 0:09:23.920 you have a little insider knowledge here because you're speaking 0:09:23.920 --> 0:09:26.120 to the people who could be those votes that go 0:09:26.200 --> 0:09:27.920 one way or the other, and you're speaking to the 0:09:27.920 --> 0:09:31.640 president and so on. Sunday, the six votes that were 0:09:31.640 --> 0:09:37.000 in play, you had three three Republicans, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, 0:09:37.160 --> 0:09:40.000 Mitt Romney. Now I told the President, I said, frankly, 0:09:40.040 --> 0:09:42.600 I think all three will vote not guilty. Now we 0:09:42.760 --> 0:09:46.040 know as of tonight Collins and Murkowski have announced they're 0:09:46.040 --> 0:09:48.160 going to vote not guilty, so that that much is right. 0:09:48.640 --> 0:09:51.320 If Mitt has announced, I haven't seen it, so I 0:09:51.360 --> 0:09:53.360 think he probably will as well, but but we'll find 0:09:53.400 --> 0:09:56.679 out tomorrow. On the Democratic side, I think there are 0:09:56.679 --> 0:09:59.720 only three votes that are even plausibly in contention, and 0:09:59.720 --> 0:10:02.840 that's Joe Mansion, who I think probably does vote not guilty. 0:10:02.880 --> 0:10:07.000 He has it seems he's signaled that he's seriously considering 0:10:07.080 --> 0:10:09.560 voting not guilty, breaking with his party. Yeah. I had 0:10:09.559 --> 0:10:11.320 a reporter run up to me in the Capitol all 0:10:11.360 --> 0:10:12.760 excited and said, Hey, what do you think of Joe 0:10:12.760 --> 0:10:15.000 mansion censure motion? And I said, I hope it means 0:10:15.040 --> 0:10:17.320 he's voting not guilty, like you know that. That's what 0:10:17.360 --> 0:10:20.280 he suggested. Instead of voting guilty, removed from office, he 0:10:20.360 --> 0:10:23.559 suggested vote vote for censure, say that the president did 0:10:23.559 --> 0:10:25.679 a bad thing, slap him on the hand, but leave 0:10:25.760 --> 0:10:29.080 him in office. And I think the odds are pretty 0:10:29.120 --> 0:10:32.079 good that Mansion votes not guilty. The other two votes 0:10:32.120 --> 0:10:36.080 that are potentially in play are Kirsten Cinema from Arizona, 0:10:36.240 --> 0:10:39.800 who has she hadn't been in the Senate long, but 0:10:39.880 --> 0:10:42.560 she's been trying to carve out a more moderate path. 0:10:42.640 --> 0:10:46.640 I think it's at least possible she votes not guilt. 0:10:46.640 --> 0:10:49.200 And then the third one is Doug Jones from Alabama, 0:10:49.600 --> 0:10:51.760 who at least possibly could. So my advice to the 0:10:51.760 --> 0:10:59.079 President was, rather than, you know, rather than risk getting 0:10:59.080 --> 0:11:02.280 out of them angry, just focus on the incredible results 0:11:02.320 --> 0:11:05.000 at a positive vision. And I got to say, and 0:11:05.040 --> 0:11:06.400 I wasn't the only one who gave the president of 0:11:06.400 --> 0:11:08.439 that advice that that was a lot of people were 0:11:08.440 --> 0:11:11.600 giving him that advice. But how did he do. I 0:11:11.600 --> 0:11:13.200 don't know that any of us were sure he would 0:11:13.240 --> 0:11:15.800 follow it, to be honest, I don't know that he 0:11:15.840 --> 0:11:18.440 was sure he would follow it, but he was open 0:11:18.480 --> 0:11:20.040 to it when we talked, and I thought he did 0:11:20.080 --> 0:11:23.040 spectacularly at night. It is the best speech I've ever 0:11:23.040 --> 0:11:28.840 seen Donald Trump give. And it started out just relentlessly 0:11:29.000 --> 0:11:32.439 making the case of the substance of victories we've had 0:11:32.440 --> 0:11:37.000 in the last three years. And it was powerful, it 0:11:37.040 --> 0:11:43.880 was compelling, it it was optimistic. And the contrast the 0:11:43.920 --> 0:11:50.840 way congressional Democrats behaved tonight was horrible. They wouldn't even 0:11:51.080 --> 0:11:55.839 stand up or applaud for low unemployment. Or there were 0:11:55.840 --> 0:11:59.959 women wearing white or like the suffragettes, and they wouldn't 0:12:00.120 --> 0:12:04.320 stand up and applaud for female unemployment. It was one 0:12:04.480 --> 0:12:06.720 after the other where the President says, with the lowest 0:12:06.800 --> 0:12:11.040 unemployment in history, stone cold silence, the lowest African American 0:12:11.120 --> 0:12:14.839 unemployment history, stone cold silence, lowest Hispanic unemployment in history, 0:12:15.000 --> 0:12:18.680 stone cold silence. As you point out lowest unemployment for 0:12:18.760 --> 0:12:22.280 women in seventy years, and you have all of these 0:12:22.320 --> 0:12:27.280 congressional women in white who just are sitting there snarlet 0:12:27.320 --> 0:12:29.080 what do they want to? What more could they ask? 0:12:29.440 --> 0:12:32.680 And I like that the President he didn't just have 0:12:32.840 --> 0:12:35.760 one line about it. He had one after the other 0:12:36.280 --> 0:12:38.760 after the other. They were all based on facts, they 0:12:38.760 --> 0:12:41.280 were all based on substance. So when the President says 0:12:41.320 --> 0:12:43.600 the lower fifty percent of income, the people who are 0:12:43.600 --> 0:12:46.200 struggling the most have seen their incomes go up, go 0:12:46.280 --> 0:12:48.839 up the most as a percentage, stone cold silence for 0:12:48.920 --> 0:12:51.840 the Democrats. When he talks about poverty, the lowest African 0:12:51.880 --> 0:12:55.320 American poverty in history, stone cold silence. You know the 0:12:55.440 --> 0:12:57.840 moment in the early part of the speech that was 0:12:57.920 --> 0:13:02.640 most dismaying. The President talked about how seven million Americans 0:13:02.640 --> 0:13:05.720 have come off of food stamps and ten million Americans 0:13:05.720 --> 0:13:08.600 have come off of welfare, and not only did the 0:13:08.600 --> 0:13:13.400 congressional Democrats not applaud, there was hissing. I mean it 0:13:13.520 --> 0:13:15.400 was because you couldn't really hear that on the TV. 0:13:15.880 --> 0:13:19.240 On the floor, they were hissing, and it was like 0:13:19.360 --> 0:13:22.480 it was like some leftists in a college college classroom. 0:13:23.480 --> 0:13:26.200 And I'm going to say that's really twisted, and it 0:13:26.240 --> 0:13:30.480 reveals where the modern Democratic Party is because they're saying, 0:13:31.240 --> 0:13:34.360 they're saying to people who who are struggling that they 0:13:34.480 --> 0:13:38.640 want you to remain dependent, they want you to unemployed, 0:13:38.679 --> 0:13:41.880 they want you to you Those seven million people the 0:13:42.000 --> 0:13:45.040 last three years have gotten jobs. These are real men 0:13:45.080 --> 0:13:48.720 and women. These are single moms who are suddenly now working. 0:13:48.760 --> 0:13:52.080 They're they're providing for their kids. They have the dignity 0:13:52.120 --> 0:13:57.360 of work. The self respect and the approach of the Democrats, 0:13:57.400 --> 0:14:02.120 the congressional Democrats, they hissed that it's bad that they're 0:14:02.160 --> 0:14:06.880 off welfare, and it is revealing of, I think, a 0:14:07.080 --> 0:14:11.280 really cynical attitude. There was also so one of the 0:14:11.320 --> 0:14:14.000 things the president did did really well. They're what are 0:14:14.080 --> 0:14:17.400 called Lenny Stutnick moments. Okay, now what is the Leny 0:14:17.400 --> 0:14:20.240 Sutni moment? So Lenny Stutnick is is we see them 0:14:20.240 --> 0:14:22.240 allott in State of the Unions where the president calls 0:14:22.280 --> 0:14:24.400 someone out in the gallery. Okay, And the origin of 0:14:24.400 --> 0:14:26.160 that it was actually Ronald Reagan who invented that. It 0:14:26.200 --> 0:14:29.920 was nineteen eighty two and Reagan called out Lenny Stuttnik, 0:14:30.000 --> 0:14:32.480 who who who had saved someone who had crashed into 0:14:32.480 --> 0:14:36.360 the Potomac and it look. Reagan was a master showman. 0:14:36.520 --> 0:14:38.720 He understood the power of it. But that was the 0:14:38.760 --> 0:14:42.160 first time in two hundred years of our country's history 0:14:42.160 --> 0:14:45.000 that the president had done that. Now every state of 0:14:45.040 --> 0:14:49.800 the Union. You haven't Lenny Stutning moment. What President Trump 0:14:49.840 --> 0:14:53.000 did with that tonight, I've never seen. And he's taken 0:14:53.040 --> 0:14:59.000 it to another level. So we saw, for example, Rush Limbaugh. 0:14:59.000 --> 0:15:04.920 There was an amazing moment um when the President awarded 0:15:05.040 --> 0:15:10.440 him the Medal of Freedom right there and then and 0:15:10.440 --> 0:15:15.440 and and Milania put it around his neck. Rush, I think, 0:15:15.440 --> 0:15:17.880 and I was sitting kind of right beneath where Rush was, 0:15:17.880 --> 0:15:19.840 so I was looking right up at him. He was 0:15:19.880 --> 0:15:25.880 probably on fifty feet away from me. Rush was so astonished. 0:15:25.880 --> 0:15:30.080 And look, yesterday Rush announced he has stage four lung 0:15:30.160 --> 0:15:33.480 cancer um and and and if you haven't listened to 0:15:33.560 --> 0:15:35.960 his announcement on air, it's it's worth listening to it. 0:15:36.160 --> 0:15:39.240 And you know, Rush, Rush is a friend. He is 0:15:39.720 --> 0:15:42.680 I think the man is a hero, and he's a patriot. 0:15:43.640 --> 0:15:47.600 And you know, I remember having dinner with Rush. I 0:15:47.600 --> 0:15:52.200 think it was twenty fifteen, before the whole presidential campaign 0:15:52.200 --> 0:15:54.520 had started and we were talking about the future, and 0:15:54.560 --> 0:15:58.080 it had been eight years of Obama or seven years 0:15:58.080 --> 0:16:01.520 at the time, and and Rush at the time was 0:16:01.560 --> 0:16:04.160 it was a little I wouldn't say discourage, but he 0:16:04.280 --> 0:16:07.440 wasn't sure we could turn things around. It was a 0:16:07.480 --> 0:16:11.120 discouraging era. And I remember telling him, I said, Rush, 0:16:11.760 --> 0:16:15.720 you have twenty million Americans who listened to you every 0:16:15.760 --> 0:16:19.280 single week. Look, you and I are pretty hot, Daddy 0:16:19.320 --> 0:16:23.040 Skippy happy that we've had two million downloads in two weeks. 0:16:23.040 --> 0:16:25.560 So I look, that ain't nothing. That's pretty good. That's 0:16:25.600 --> 0:16:27.640 not And you know we didn't, by the way, just 0:16:27.720 --> 0:16:30.840 to mention it's in passing, we didn't podcast for a 0:16:30.840 --> 0:16:34.400 few days. Here shows still at number two, even even 0:16:34.440 --> 0:16:37.480 with several days of silence with well, that's the sound 0:16:37.520 --> 0:16:41.480 of silence, that's that's the power of people wanting content. 0:16:41.520 --> 0:16:43.160 But my point was that I said to Russias, I said, look, 0:16:43.160 --> 0:16:45.080 you got twenty million people a week that listened to you. 0:16:46.240 --> 0:16:50.880 If every one of your listeners gets two other people 0:16:50.920 --> 0:16:53.760 to come out and vote, that's it. Just each person 0:16:53.880 --> 0:16:58.200 find two people in America to come vote. That's sixty 0:16:58.240 --> 0:17:00.720 million people. I remember telling Rush was six million people. 0:17:00.720 --> 0:17:03.080 We can turn this country around. Donald Trump won in 0:17:03.120 --> 0:17:06.840 twenty sixteen with sixty two million votes. Those numbers were 0:17:06.880 --> 0:17:11.320 almost and Rush, you know, it's an interesting You and 0:17:11.359 --> 0:17:13.040 I both went on Glenn Beck this morning. We were 0:17:13.119 --> 0:17:16.560 back to back to back. We pounded this podcast. You 0:17:16.600 --> 0:17:18.600 and I think Glenn was ready to strangle us. Both 0:17:18.600 --> 0:17:24.600 the show. Guy's good to um. But both Glenn and 0:17:24.600 --> 0:17:27.440 then I did Hannity earlier tonight, and both of them 0:17:27.480 --> 0:17:33.879 gave beautiful emotional tributes to Rush that he had blazed 0:17:33.920 --> 0:17:36.840 the field. I mean that that he's number one. I mean, 0:17:36.880 --> 0:17:39.440 in many ways, what we're doing right now would be 0:17:39.560 --> 0:17:43.720 unthinkable without Rush. And he was the kind of lonely 0:17:43.920 --> 0:17:47.160 voice in the wilderness. And what was so powerful there 0:17:47.200 --> 0:17:52.000 was all sorts of people across America that we're sitting 0:17:52.000 --> 0:17:55.040 there going I thought I was the only one, and 0:17:55.359 --> 0:18:00.239 he just he spoke for the everyman. He and by 0:18:00.280 --> 0:18:03.199 the way he speaks for the everyman, I don't want to. 0:18:03.520 --> 0:18:07.520 So my mom is a two time cancer survivor. Cancer 0:18:07.800 --> 0:18:14.760 is a horrific, nasty, vicious disease, and having been by 0:18:14.840 --> 0:18:20.359 my mom's side through chemo, through radiation, it's horrible. Rush 0:18:20.600 --> 0:18:24.480 is a tough tenacious fighter. So I mean I sent 0:18:24.560 --> 0:18:26.720 sent Russia note yesterday that one of the things I 0:18:26.760 --> 0:18:32.159 said is, look, yours is an incredibly important voice in 0:18:32.200 --> 0:18:34.800 America and we need you and we're all And it 0:18:34.840 --> 0:18:36.720 was a great moment to see Malania put it on 0:18:36.760 --> 0:18:39.800 and obviously everybody's praying for him. But that that we've 0:18:39.840 --> 0:18:42.000 never seen in terms of a Lenny study, I would 0:18:42.080 --> 0:18:45.240 actually have the metal. And since Rush was blown away, 0:18:45.359 --> 0:18:48.680 there were three times I had tears in my eyes, 0:18:48.680 --> 0:18:50.520 and I've been to now I think seventh State of 0:18:50.560 --> 0:18:52.119 the Unions. I've never had tears in my eyes, and 0:18:52.119 --> 0:18:56.879 I had three times before the other two. That moment Calamueller, 0:18:57.320 --> 0:19:03.440 who was tortured and killed by ISIS, her parents were there. 0:19:03.480 --> 0:19:10.520 The President did an incredible job telling her story, seeing 0:19:10.600 --> 0:19:15.640 them looking up look, particularly as the father of daughters. 0:19:16.840 --> 0:19:18.480 You know, I kept looking at the dad, I mean 0:19:18.480 --> 0:19:21.639 look and the mom, but you know I identified with 0:19:21.680 --> 0:19:28.240 the dad and to know the horrific hell that their 0:19:28.320 --> 0:19:33.119 daughter went through. And the President told a great story 0:19:33.160 --> 0:19:37.160 about the special Forces team naming their mission to take 0:19:37.200 --> 0:19:41.479 out al bag Daddy after her birthday because it ties 0:19:41.640 --> 0:19:44.760 in Look, we all know about the policy accomplished right, 0:19:44.960 --> 0:19:47.639 But the personal story is what I agree. I had 0:19:47.680 --> 0:19:53.159 tears of I it was beautiful and powerful. And the 0:19:53.280 --> 0:20:00.600 third time was the mom with her to the kids, 0:20:01.040 --> 0:20:03.320 who's a soldier and her husband's a soldier and he 0:20:03.400 --> 0:20:08.320 was deployed in Afghanistan, I think. And then the president said, 0:20:08.400 --> 0:20:12.000 and he's back here now, Yeah, we'll talk about a reveal. 0:20:12.200 --> 0:20:16.920 And look on her face and to see him come down, 0:20:17.000 --> 0:20:20.240 that sergeant come down the steps and her like she 0:20:20.480 --> 0:20:23.520 was next to Milanni, and then the joy she expressed 0:20:23.520 --> 0:20:26.879 her kids. I mean seeing him hugs little girl, huggs 0:20:26.960 --> 0:20:33.240 little boy. I okay, that that is a new threshold. 0:20:33.280 --> 0:20:35.680 There's never been a Lenny Stuttning moment where you actually 0:20:35.720 --> 0:20:39.680 reunite a soldier's family right in front of you. I think, 0:20:39.720 --> 0:20:43.240 to the surprise of of of of the family that 0:20:43.240 --> 0:20:45.719 that was incredible, It was powerful. It was it turned 0:20:45.800 --> 0:20:49.919 everything up to eleven and I agree, I mean it was. 0:20:49.960 --> 0:20:53.639 It was just such an effective speech. He didn't mention impeachment, 0:20:53.800 --> 0:20:56.520 which I'm very glad that was part of your conversation, 0:20:56.640 --> 0:20:59.560 and other other people had had encouraged him that way too. 0:20:59.760 --> 0:21:03.119 And by the way, he did a great contrast last week. Yeah, 0:21:03.200 --> 0:21:06.680 last week, I was the White House twice. One day 0:21:06.840 --> 0:21:09.679 for the announcement of his Middle East peace proposal. He 0:21:09.760 --> 0:21:12.360 was there with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin net and Yahoo 0:21:12.640 --> 0:21:15.960 the next day for the signing of the US MCA, 0:21:16.000 --> 0:21:19.080 the Mexico Canada Trade Agreement. And I thought the silent 0:21:19.240 --> 0:21:24.040 contrast of he's working for the country for good, for 0:21:24.080 --> 0:21:28.359 the future, while the Congressional Democrats are just consumed with hate. 0:21:28.600 --> 0:21:31.120 I think that was a really sharp content. And we'll 0:21:31.119 --> 0:21:34.000 see the contrast again tomorrow because you had the State 0:21:34.000 --> 0:21:37.040 of the Union, a really really strong State of the 0:21:37.119 --> 0:21:39.879 Union and State of the Union address. Tomorrow is the 0:21:40.119 --> 0:21:42.600 vote on impeachment. I mean, you're gonna go. It's pretty 0:21:42.680 --> 0:21:44.920 latent into the evening, so you know in a few 0:21:44.920 --> 0:21:46.880 hours you're going to head back to the Senate. How 0:21:46.880 --> 0:21:50.359 does impeachment end? Well, before we finished the State of 0:21:50.400 --> 0:21:52.600 the Union, let me say two quick things on it. Okay, 0:21:53.440 --> 0:21:58.600 Number one, I think the Democrats seemed incredibly out of touch. 0:21:58.680 --> 0:22:03.000 I think to any America and watching, you wonder, why 0:22:03.080 --> 0:22:06.560 can't you cheer for Americans? Yeah, like when the President 0:22:06.600 --> 0:22:09.800 says twelve thousand new factories, we're seeing a blue collar boom. 0:22:10.640 --> 0:22:13.080 Democrats for years have claimed to be the party of 0:22:13.119 --> 0:22:15.560 working men and women, the party of unions, and they're 0:22:15.600 --> 0:22:20.959 sitting there snarling, furious at manufacturing jobs. Um. You know 0:22:21.000 --> 0:22:22.840 when when the President pointed out one of the first 0:22:22.840 --> 0:22:24.879 people who pointed out in the gallery was an African 0:22:24.880 --> 0:22:28.440 American band from Ohio who'd been homeless, who'd been had 0:22:28.480 --> 0:22:32.280 substance abuse problems, and because of an opportunity zone part 0:22:32.320 --> 0:22:36.000 of what we implemented, the tax cuts that incentivizes capital 0:22:36.040 --> 0:22:39.720 and jobs and struggling neighborhoods, he now has a job, 0:22:39.840 --> 0:22:43.959 he's he's he's clean, and he's turned his life around. 0:22:44.920 --> 0:22:48.600 And the Democrats just snarled and and and you think 0:22:48.600 --> 0:22:53.720 about it, most of these inner cities, these these areas 0:22:53.720 --> 0:22:56.400 with with severe poverty, almost all of them are represented 0:22:56.440 --> 0:22:59.960 by Democrats. Yea. And it was literally their own congressional 0:23:00.080 --> 0:23:06.720 representatives angry that their constituents who were struggling are doing 0:23:06.760 --> 0:23:12.440 better that someone else did for them. It ruins their narrative. 0:23:12.440 --> 0:23:15.239 And the moment that I think captured the whole night, 0:23:15.359 --> 0:23:18.679 sadly was at the end of the speech when Nancy 0:23:18.720 --> 0:23:21.840