Speaker 1: Welcome in his verdict with Center Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson
Speaker 1: with you. We've got a few more days until Christmas,
Speaker 1: and we've got a couple of shows left. We're going
Speaker 1: to be talking about some really big issues, including I
Speaker 1: think the most shocking and that is just how.
Speaker 2: Old Center Ted Cruz is as of today.
Speaker 1: I did not know that I was going to have
Speaker 1: a fifty five year old elder friend.
Speaker 2: This is senior's coffee is real. Now you can get that.
Speaker 1: You can, I think, get assistant at the airport without
Speaker 1: even needing a medical condition for one of those walkers.
Speaker 1: Now that's exciting. I'm not going to push you through there,
Speaker 1: but I'll get someone to hold the sign up for you.
Speaker 1: What other benefits do you get? Said, I mean fifty five,
Speaker 1: fifty five?
Speaker 2: Listen, Skippy, I'm in my forties.
Speaker 1: I'm not forty five. I'm forty four. We are eleven
Speaker 1: years apart right now.
Speaker 3: Laddie, you need to learn to respect your elders.
Speaker 2: And do I need to talk louder to you? Is
Speaker 2: that what you're saying? Respecting your Sorry?
Speaker 3: What my lawn? Okay, I said, get off my lawn
Speaker 3: at twenty five.
Speaker 2: I will came out of the womb.
Speaker 1: I think you came out of the womb saying get
Speaker 1: off my lawn, sir, I'm gonna I think we could
Speaker 1: call your mom right now and she would verify.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 3: What was that Clint Eastwood movie I forget with the
Speaker 3: name where he's a crotchety old man with the like
Speaker 3: trans am, I forget.
Speaker 2: Oh, it's a great movie. It's a great movie. Anyway.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a great you know. Heidi laughs at me.
Speaker 3: Because I would drive along in Austin. This is twenty
Speaker 3: years ago, long before I was elected to the Senate.
Speaker 3: I'd drive along and I'd see protesters screaming about something,
Speaker 3: and I'd want to stop and argue with them. Yeah,
Speaker 3: she just like, just stop it, and I'm like, well, no,
Speaker 3: I don't want to, but I will say double nichol
Speaker 3: is kind of interesting. Fifty five So I am now
Speaker 3: officially eligible for AARP. Tell you what I tell all
Speaker 3: my friends when they turn a birthday. So now that
Speaker 3: I am, as of December twenty second, officially fifty five
Speaker 3: years old. As terrifying as this is, I am closer
Speaker 3: to the age one hundred than ten than I am
Speaker 3: to birth.
Speaker 2: Yes, that is true.
Speaker 3: And by the way, when when like someone turns twenty
Speaker 3: five and you tell them they're closer to fifty than
Speaker 3: to birth, it freaks them out. I mean, I mean,
Speaker 3: it really is. It's a terrifying way of framing it.
Speaker 3: I will tell you my older sister, Miriam, nine years
Speaker 3: older than I am, when she turned thirty, so I
Speaker 3: was just twenty one. I actually called a local flower
Speaker 3: shop and I sent a bouquet of balloons to her office.
Speaker 3: And the bouquet of balloons on her thirtieth birthday, the
Speaker 3: card said happy fortieth, big sis. And I will say
Speaker 3: she called me up on my cell phone and she said,
Speaker 3: and I apologize for the language, but this is my sister, Miriam,
Speaker 3: she says, you little shit. Yeah yeah, So somehow she
Speaker 3: didn't appreciate my saying she was forty when she was thirty.
Speaker 3: So you may think forty is really young. But I
Speaker 3: got to say, our viewers, we've got teenagers and folks
Speaker 3: in their twenties, and I got to tell you right now,
Speaker 3: you know what they're saying to you, Benjamin. They're saying, okay, okay, boomer, okay,
Speaker 3: just be clear you are fully on the geriatric side
Speaker 3: of things.
Speaker 1: I just can't wait to see what new sponsors I
Speaker 1: can go. So listen, and they're gonna be like, let's
Speaker 1: see gray in. They're gonna be uh oh, hearing aids
Speaker 1: for sure. We gotta get that in here real quick. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm excited. I'm just opens up a whole new world
Speaker 1: to this, to this show.
Speaker 2: I am. I cannot wait to talk about my older friends.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I have to admit I've also been sort
Speaker 3: of a mean friend. A buddy of mine turned forty
Speaker 3: a number of years ago, and I had two presents
Speaker 3: for him. I got him some meta mucils so he'd
Speaker 3: be nice and regular, and I got him some viagraa
Speaker 3: which I knew he would never need. But I just
Speaker 3: try to try to look out for him. You know,
Speaker 3: you know you gotta be there for your friends.
Speaker 1: This is this is amazing after all that, you know
Speaker 1: what you've given me about old miss by the way,
Speaker 1: for that, this is just this is this is the
Speaker 1: this is just Jesus giving me a gift. So happy
Speaker 1: fifty fifth birthday. Sorry I need to say that latter.
Speaker 1: Happy fifty fifth birthday over there. I'm excited for you and.
Speaker 3: I want to congratulate on on Ole miss you see
Speaker 3: for Lane to get such a big bonus, like you
Speaker 3: guys really take care of people who leave you at
Speaker 3: the altar like hold.
Speaker 2: I mean, you know what.
Speaker 1: I just love that we beat Tulane by more than
Speaker 1: we did when we beat them in the regular season
Speaker 1: with him being our coach. We are in the second round.
Speaker 1: That's a big deal. And then look there's an exciting
Speaker 1: moment we'll get to play. Oh wait, no, we won't.
Speaker 2: Get to play your team because you guys lost.
Speaker 3: Yeah that was you know. I was at Kyle Field.
Speaker 3: It hurt.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So I've had two games in two days, one loss
Speaker 3: and one win. Preferred the win to the loss. Actually
Speaker 3: all right, the Aggie game yesterday was frustrating because I
Speaker 3: went to two Aggi games this year. We three. I
Speaker 3: went to the UT and M game, but I was
Speaker 3: rooting for both. I'm Switzerland on that.
Speaker 2: So that's a smart man right there.
Speaker 3: I love them both. But as you know, I went
Speaker 3: to the A and M Notre Dame game in South Bend,
Speaker 3: which was just spectacular. Like have you been to a
Speaker 3: game in at South Bend?
Speaker 2: I have been to one. It's unbelievable. It was by
Speaker 2: the way, freezing, but it was awesome.
Speaker 3: So it was beautiful when I went. It was a
Speaker 3: great fall day and just a bucket list event, like
Speaker 3: I'd never been there. You see touchdown Jesus looking over
Speaker 3: the the the end zone is pretty spectacular and and
Speaker 3: it was number one, an amazing game. It was a
Speaker 3: pure shootout. There was there was no defense on either side.
Speaker 3: It was just all offense.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, football.
Speaker 3: And I turned to the folks I was sitting with
Speaker 3: and I said, wow, whoever has the ball last is winning? Yeah,
Speaker 3: And it ended up a m had the ball last,
Speaker 3: so we won. And I got to tell you, I
Speaker 3: was in I was in maroon. I was loud, I
Speaker 3: was obnoxious. I was cheering, cheering for the Aggies. And
Speaker 3: the Domers were the classiest fans I've ever seen. They
Speaker 3: were polite, they were gracious, both Brett both Brett Cavanugh,
Speaker 3: Amy Cony Barrett was there, and I did talk some
Speaker 3: smack at them when when Notre Dame lost, and even
Speaker 3: they were kind of gracious. Yeah yeah, like should but
Speaker 3: but it was all right. Okay, So here's something funny.
Speaker 3: I'm down walking on the field and a number of
Speaker 3: fans see me, and you know, I guess the folks
Speaker 3: there they were they were cheering and liked me. The
Speaker 3: folks there, I mean, there are peeps. And so I
Speaker 3: was waving and then I was like doing a thumbs up,
Speaker 3: and I realized it's a gigam and I'm like, oh crap,
Speaker 3: I'm not trying to be obnoxious and like flip you off,
Speaker 3: but like if you're in Kyle Field and you did
Speaker 3: a hook them, you would get booed. And I'm like,
Speaker 3: shut goodness with and so thankfully they didn't boom, even though.
Speaker 1: I Matthew McConaughey is the only one that can probably
Speaker 1: get away with that at Kyle Field and like not
Speaker 1: get a right all right, all right, yeah, exactly, it's
Speaker 1: that guy. Okay, fine, fair enough.
Speaker 3: So the noted game game no defense and just a
Speaker 3: pure shootout and and the Aggies had the ball last
Speaker 3: and so we won. Fast forward to Saturday, awesome defense.
Speaker 3: We went through all the half quarters with the score
Speaker 3: three to three.
Speaker 2: I was a pause.
Speaker 1: You were there, and everyone that's listening right now that
Speaker 1: watched that game. The number of field goals miss not
Speaker 1: by one team on both sides of the ball was insane.
Speaker 1: As I was watching on TV, it did not look
Speaker 1: as that windy.
Speaker 2: So was it that bad? Or was it? Was it
Speaker 2: they were over compensating? What like? Was it really that windy?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't I don't have a good answer on that.
Speaker 3: It didn't feel that windy in the stands. I mean,
Speaker 3: it was a beautiful day. It was just a gorgeous
Speaker 3: it was warm outside, it was it was a spectacular
Speaker 3: day for football. Now, you know the the ribbons on
Speaker 3: the end of the goalposts, they were blowing, but they
Speaker 3: weren't like sticking straight out. It wasn't like there was
Speaker 3: a hurricane in there or something. But it was like
Speaker 3: it was amazing, missing field goal after field goal. And
Speaker 3: I turned to them, I was, you know, sitting with
Speaker 3: a bunch of aggies, And I said, Okay, if I'd
Speaker 3: have told you we'd make it three quarters and hold
Speaker 3: the hold Miami to three points, how thrilled would you be?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you'd be a static And at.
Speaker 3: The end of the day lost ten to three. Because
Speaker 3: it turns out, if you play a football game and
Speaker 3: you can't score a single touchdown, it's really damn hard
Speaker 3: to win. And if we could take that, Notre Dame
Speaker 3: offense and the defense against Miami and actually put them
Speaker 3: in the same game. They could go the whole way.
Speaker 1: But sadly, now, since it's your birthday, I just want
Speaker 1: you to know we will adopt you for the rest
Speaker 1: of the playoffs as a rebel.
Speaker 2: Okay, you can. I'll bring you a shirt.
Speaker 1: I've got a few of them, I might be yeah,
Speaker 1: I've got yeah, I've got a couple hundred of them.
Speaker 2: I can spare one.
Speaker 1: Okay, you need to be in I feel like you
Speaker 1: need to still be in the playoff, in the game here,
Speaker 1: and since you really don't have that, I just I
Speaker 1: want for your birthday. I don't want you to fill alone. Okay,
Speaker 1: So there's my birthday gift here.
Speaker 3: So Ben, I'll give you some information. Tommy Tubberville, my
Speaker 3: colleague in the Senate.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, remember he screwed all mess back in the day.
Speaker 3: Don't forget this, soon to be governor of Alabama. So
Speaker 3: you know, he was the coach at Auburn, and so
Speaker 3: we're we're all interested. Like at lunch this week, everyone
Speaker 3: asks him, says, you know, coach, what's gonna happen? Yeah,
Speaker 3: So Tommy has made a prediction. He is predicting Texas
Speaker 3: Tech to win it all. He says, Texas champion this year.
Speaker 3: So that's now. Look, Tommy used to coach at Tech,
Speaker 3: he used to coach at A and M and then, uh,
Speaker 3: you know, but it's just interesting. I you know, I mean,
Speaker 3: the guy's a heck of a football coach and that's
Speaker 3: his call. So uh so I'm cheering on Tech all
Speaker 3: the way. I had predicted Tech against an M in
Speaker 3: the finals and I was going to pull out my
Speaker 3: Switzerland shirt again if that happened, you should. But now
Speaker 3: I can unequivocally root for the Red Raiders, like.
Speaker 2: I got your guns up, guns up right.
Speaker 3: There are no other Texas teams, so so so I
Speaker 3: am uh uh excited about it. And and by the way,
Speaker 3: I'm thinking of the folks that listen to us, So
Speaker 3: there's like a divide some of the folks that are
Speaker 3: regulars on our show, like like, oh, this is fun
Speaker 3: that you guys are having some fun and it's Christmas
Speaker 3: time and you're you're talking about you know what what
Speaker 3: normal people do during Christmas time, which is what foot
Speaker 3: watch football and ye and give each other grief. And
Speaker 3: then there are other people who are just complete politics nerds,
Speaker 3: and I don't say that as an insult because Ben
Speaker 3: and I are the biggest politics nerds on them.
Speaker 2: We went proing that. We literally went proing in.
Speaker 3: And there's some of the politics nerds that are like,
Speaker 3: damn it, like we're not covering any substance right now.
Speaker 3: Why are you guys yabbering about the the foosball instead
Speaker 3: of instead of focusing on what's happening. And we're going
Speaker 3: to talk about what's happening in the country. There's a
Speaker 3: lot happening in the country, all right.
Speaker 1: So I have to I have to tell you this
Speaker 1: because you're gonna laugh talking about geeking out. So I'm
Speaker 1: in a Bible study on Thursday mornings, and you know,
Speaker 1: like I'll be on the road and I'll travel and
Speaker 1: you miss and come in. And so I come in
Speaker 1: and Buddy texts me in the Bible say he's like hey,
Speaker 1: He's like you finally have another rebel. And I'm like
Speaker 1: another rebel. Like he's like, yeah, we got a new dad.
Speaker 1: That old miss guy Mike can't wait to meet him.
Speaker 2: I walk in.
Speaker 1: I will protect the names here, but it is like
Speaker 1: a ten year NFL Titan who went to ole miss
Speaker 1: who shows up in my Bible study. So now it's
Speaker 1: like gone completely off the chains because you just need one, right,
Speaker 1: I just needed one buddy who was in this with me.
Speaker 1: And so now like the chirping, because it's all we
Speaker 1: got a bunch of aggies, you got a bunch of TCU,
Speaker 1: you got a bunch of Texas guys.
Speaker 2: I just needed one.
Speaker 1: And so now we walk in like proud peacocks every
Speaker 1: day in Bible study because it's like I just needed one.
Speaker 1: I got my almost buddy. We're good to go now,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, this couldn't have been better for me.
Speaker 1: I get to go to Bible study and like you said,
Speaker 1: geek out over football.
Speaker 3: And look, the good thing is in Bible study. There's
Speaker 3: nothing in the Bible about pride, so you shouldn't feel
Speaker 3: bad about that at all.
Speaker 1: Not at all, not at all. By the way, did
Speaker 1: you go to church on Sunday? I'm putting on the
Speaker 1: spot here. I love doing this. This is fun for me.
Speaker 1: I went, I look for you. I didn't see you.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying you were there or weren't there. But
Speaker 1: our pastor is an aggie and he literally made sure
Speaker 1: he worked into the false idols into the servant about
Speaker 1: going to the A and M game and what happened
Speaker 1: to the AAM game, which I thoroughly enjoyed.
Speaker 3: I have not talked to our pastor, both he and
Speaker 3: his wife or Aggies, and I'm sure that they were
Speaker 3: more morning. I was not there today. Thank you for
Speaker 3: outing me.
Speaker 2: You're welcome. You're welcome. I did look, I looked. I
Speaker 2: know where he sits, guys, I know if he's there.
Speaker 3: I was. And actually, our pastor texted me last night
Speaker 3: and said, hey, are you gonna be there tomorrow? Like
Speaker 3: he had somebody wanted me to meet. And I had
Speaker 3: to like fess up and say, no, we're like a
Speaker 3: lot going on. I'm sorry, we're missing it. We are,
Speaker 3: we are going. We'll be there Christmas Eve.
Speaker 2: But we'll say there that you're gonna.
Speaker 3: I've got my in laws coming in tomorrow and my
Speaker 3: brother in law and his wife coming in. We've got family,
Speaker 3: you know. But it uh uh. We we did not
Speaker 3: in fact go today and and and and thank you
Speaker 3: for you're welcome.
Speaker 1: On your birthday, I just wanted God's gonna bless you.
Speaker 1: It's your birthday. You get a freebie on that one.
Speaker 1: It's fine, you're gonna You're gonna be okay.
Speaker 2: All right, on to the geeks of the politics.
Speaker 3: By the way, I will say this, whenever anyone has
Speaker 3: a birthday, I do actually have advice to someone. What
Speaker 3: is that ever? Want to feel young? Mm hmm, just
Speaker 3: get yourself elected to the US Senate, like cow the
Speaker 3: Median agent. You're still undred and six. I mean, they
Speaker 3: really do think I'm in short shorts and wearing a beanie.
Speaker 3: I mean, I've got colleagues.
Speaker 1: Here's the youngest member now. I mean, you were at
Speaker 1: the bottom for a very long time. You're still in
Speaker 1: the lowest end?
Speaker 2: Is it? Kitty Brett?
Speaker 3: Katie's on the young side. Josh Holly's on the young side.
Speaker 3: Assoff shots. All right, Cotton, I'll tell you what. We
Speaker 3: all have supercomputers in our pockets, so.
Speaker 2: It's very true.
Speaker 3: Who is I love the youngest?
Speaker 2: You went the city, You're at the big leagues, as
Speaker 2: I call it.
Speaker 3: I don't want the youngest in all history. Although interestingly,
Speaker 3: who's the youngest center in history?
Speaker 2: I have no idea, nor did I. Samuel White from
Speaker 2: What State born.
Speaker 3: December seventeen, seventy died November fourth, eighteen oh nine. You
Speaker 3: have to be thirty years old when you start, and
Speaker 3: age at the start of the term. Thirty years, two months,
Speaker 3: twenty seven days.
Speaker 2: Okay, there you go, that's young.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 1: Congress is twenty six or twenty seven, House twenty five.
Speaker 1: I was twenty five, okay, twenty five then then thirty
Speaker 1: six to be president.
Speaker 3: Asoff thirty eight is the youngest senator so from Georgia.
Speaker 3: So I mentioned as Off. I knew he was in
Speaker 3: replacing Josh Holly. So what did I say? I said, Holly?
Speaker 3: So Holly who had been the youngest person at age
Speaker 3: forty one. So when I was elected to the Senate,
Speaker 3: I was forty one.
Speaker 2: So were you the youngest that year or close?
Speaker 3: Yes, I don't know that for sure, but I assume.
Speaker 2: So.
Speaker 3: All right, here's a bit of bit of trivia. How
Speaker 3: old was Joe Biden when he was elected the Senate?
Speaker 2: Oh? He had he had to be in his thirties
Speaker 2: because he was there forever.
Speaker 3: He was there forever. But this is actually a weird
Speaker 3: bit of trivia. Thirty four was when he was elected.
Speaker 3: He was actually twenty nine. The constitutional minimum is thirty.
Speaker 2: But he took office he had the birthday.
Speaker 3: He turned thirty before he was sworn in, so he
Speaker 3: was eligible by the time he was swart in, but
Speaker 3: on election day he was not old enough to be
Speaker 3: a senator.
Speaker 2: That's there, and and and he never left.
Speaker 3: And by the way, that was nineteen seventy two, so
Speaker 3: I was a year I had not even turned too
Speaker 3: when Biden was elected, which gives you a sense. That's
Speaker 3: what I mean by like, you get in the Senate
Speaker 3: and they're just like, fifty five does not even count.
Speaker 3: That's kindergarten and senate years.
Speaker 1: That's it's it's incredible. Well, happy birthday fifty five. That's
Speaker 1: a big one.
Speaker 3: By the way, there's a pecking order of senators, which is,
Speaker 3: you know, we sit next to each other in the
Speaker 3: dais and you look over and it's how big your
Speaker 3: font is and the older you are and blinder you are.
Speaker 3: I'm not gonna name, I'm not gonna out an my colleagues,
Speaker 3: but I will say.
Speaker 1: There a solid or very big you can read from
Speaker 1: the gallery up state.
Speaker 3: It's got to be about zoom forty points, like they're
Speaker 3: like seven words on a page. Yeah, and it's I
Speaker 3: have it a little bigger. I have sixteen point font
Speaker 3: because it makes it easier to look down and read it,
Speaker 3: but it is it's literally you could see the gradation
Speaker 3: of age by just how big your font is.
Speaker 2: All right, final question on birthday are you?
Speaker 1: Is your family a gift giving family or you you
Speaker 1: buy your own gift for your birthday so you know
Speaker 1: you get thing you want.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't buy my own gift. And I have
Speaker 3: to admit, like as a kid, I cared about birthday gifts,
Speaker 3: I'm not really like there's not a whole lot I want.
Speaker 3: I'm a pretty happy guy. Like if there's something I
Speaker 3: really want, if I want, like, I just go buy
Speaker 3: it because I'm not you know, so so I don't know.
Speaker 3: I have yet to see my family will get me something.
Speaker 3: Maybe they'll give me a shirt or a tie or
Speaker 3: something and I'll say thank you. A friend of mine
Speaker 3: actually brought some pretty cool, a cool gift, which was
Speaker 3: a box of cigars that she had special made for
Speaker 3: them and had a label with my name on it
Speaker 3: in the campaign logo. And that was like, all right,
Speaker 3: that's cool, that's like that's cool. Yeah, that was kind
Speaker 3: of a but but I'm not sitting here longing for
Speaker 3: anything and I will contrast that to my daughters who
Speaker 3: send like links to one hundred different things they want
Speaker 3: for Christmas and they're like, okay, by this one and
Speaker 3: this one and this one and it's pretty and and Heidi,
Speaker 3: how was that?
Speaker 2: By the way, how expensive was the PowerPoint presentation this year?
Speaker 3: Oh? If you bought everything?
Speaker 1: So I don't know, people, if they missed last year's show,
Speaker 1: one of your daughters does a legit PowerPoint presentation for
Speaker 1: her Christmas. Yeah, and it's a full presentation, which is awesome,
Speaker 1: And so was it was it?
Speaker 2: Would you rate it? Did you give her? Can? Eight
Speaker 2: out of ten? How good was it this year?
Speaker 3: So this was not as egregious as last year. Last
Speaker 3: year was insanely expensive, But this had I don't know,
Speaker 3: thirty or forty options in them.
Speaker 1: If you got them all, you know why, you know,
Speaker 1: why don't you because the car's coming.
Speaker 3: You know, look in the window. If you got them all,
Speaker 3: it'd be like like fifty grand. Because she'll pet like
Speaker 3: really expensive things on there, and she does not get
Speaker 3: them all. Maybe she gets five and there's some like
Speaker 3: you know at a top and some sweatpants and like
Speaker 3: we'll pick and choose and then she'll include, you know,
Speaker 3: like a nine thousand dollars necklace. I'm like, okay, that's cute. No, uh,
Speaker 3: but but she puts them on anyway. And and so,
Speaker 3: but Heidi does something even more amusing, which is she
Speaker 3: goes out. You asked, do you shop for yourself or
Speaker 3: for others? Heidi will go out and go shopping and
Speaker 3: buy herself things for me to give her for Christmas,
Speaker 3: and she'll just.
Speaker 2: Rap it for you.
Speaker 3: She'll come back, she'll wrap it for her and she'll
Speaker 3: write to Heidi loved ted and she's literally has bought it.
Speaker 3: And so this year she has this like nice scarf
Speaker 3: that she saw that she really liked, that she bought
Speaker 3: and she had it wrapped it under the tree and
Speaker 3: we went I told you today to the Texans game
Speaker 3: and she decided she needed something with red in it,
Speaker 3: and so she went and unwrapped her her No, she
Speaker 3: didn't gift to wear it to the game. And I
Speaker 3: think she's gonna wrap it again end of the Open Christmas.
Speaker 3: And so when she pulled it out and she's putting
Speaker 3: it on, she's like, oh, this is the scarf you
Speaker 3: got me. And I'm like, oh, that was very thoughtful
Speaker 3: to me. I'm really very.
Speaker 2: Like, you're welcome. Look look at who you're welcome.
Speaker 1: If my if my kids, if my wife is listening
Speaker 1: with kids, this is when you turn it off. So
Speaker 1: this year you talk about lis So George, one of
Speaker 1: the twins. He's straight up, I mean, walked up to
Speaker 1: Santa it, you know, at the meat Santa thing.
Speaker 2: Straight, isn't it? Like?
Speaker 1: Walked up assertive. He's like, I want this dog. My
Speaker 1: friend has this dog. This is what this dog looks like.
Speaker 2: Santa.
Speaker 3: Please don't don't don't don't don't give the answer to this.
Speaker 3: I don't want to blow your kids Christmas. I'm just
Speaker 3: I'm in direct, okay, very direct.
Speaker 1: And so then Bradley's like, okay, well, if you're going,
Speaker 1: I'm going to go my nine year old. So he
Speaker 1: walks up and he's very smart. He's like, I like
Speaker 1: to go hunting with my dad. I need a shot
Speaker 1: gun more than a red Rider, which I already have.
Speaker 1: So we took him hunting. My dad brought his shotgun
Speaker 1: that became my shotgun that now is my son's shotgun.
Speaker 1: So he got his Christmas gift early, but then he
Speaker 1: had to rewrap.
Speaker 3: It four ten twelve gauge twenty gauge is.
Speaker 1: So twenty gauge single shot twenty gauge. And then the
Speaker 1: second one my dad brought it, which is a pump action.
Speaker 2: He'll get probably in a year or two.
Speaker 1: So that but right now, So we took them duck hunting,
Speaker 1: and he was the proudest kid you've ever seen. I
Speaker 1: mean he was just sitting there with his real man
Speaker 1: shotgun with his one bullet. I was like, it's my
Speaker 1: and my brother in law is his son got one too,
Speaker 1: So we were kept calling him Barney Fife. They didn't
Speaker 1: know what it meant, but you know, they got their
Speaker 1: one bullet. Make account you got one bullet, like like
Speaker 1: you got one bullet and they had of their life.
Speaker 3: And let's speak clear. You you owned a gun store
Speaker 3: for many years, and some of our mysters are going
Speaker 3: to be freaking out saying Ben says, shotguns, fire bullets.
Speaker 2: Yeah that's how you met with yeah today, reporter. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's like magazine.
Speaker 1: I love when buck is it a clipper a magazine
Speaker 1: Like I can run circles if I want to go there,
Speaker 1: Like that's the thing. But yeah, like it's a party
Speaker 1: five five n bullet, not a shell in his pocket.
Speaker 3: And so that was the rarest about magazine and not clip.
Speaker 3: But I don't know, I call them clips, like I
Speaker 3: don't get why it's like such a parent.
Speaker 1: There's dorks and everything. In politics there's dorks, and sports
Speaker 1: there's dorks, and in shooting their mega doorks and and
Speaker 1: what I say is like anytime that people do that
Speaker 1: and they're like, like when I own the store, they're like, well,
Speaker 1: how many guns do you have? That's like a measuring thing, right,
Speaker 1: like how many guns you have?
Speaker 2: Are you really? I'm like, I mean I have like
Speaker 2: three to four hundred. I mean grand they're all.
Speaker 1: In a store, but technically I own them, right, Like
Speaker 1: you know, I was like, yeah, I've got a I've
Speaker 1: got a decent collection, three to four hundred guns.
Speaker 2: And you know, I will say it those machine guns,
Speaker 2: but nothing big.
Speaker 3: So when you're a center from Texas, like like, people
Speaker 3: have certain expectations of you, and so like I I hunt,
Speaker 3: but I don't really call myself a hunter because like
Speaker 3: people who go hunting like NonStop, I go hunting once
Speaker 3: or twice a year. I enjoy it. I like birds,
Speaker 3: birds with the most fun to hunt because they move
Speaker 3: and it's energetic and you're engaging.
Speaker 2: I'm not a big deer hunter. That's I I liked.
Speaker 1: I like to be able to talk and have camaraderie
Speaker 1: while hunting, which is bird hunting.
Speaker 3: Yeah, now bird bird hunting. It I will say I've
Speaker 3: been like uh Cheney.
Speaker 2: No, No, I'm very glad we can still joke about that.
Speaker 3: Although I was actually hunting in South Texas and Alice, Texas,
Speaker 3: right by the Armstrong Ranch. So for those who don't
Speaker 3: remember this, when Dick Cheney was vice president, he went hunting.
Speaker 3: He was quail hunting and he shot a man.
Speaker 2: Yeah uh uh.
Speaker 3: And and the guy's name was Harry Whittington, who was
Speaker 3: a lawyer from from Austin. I knew Harry and and
Speaker 3: oddly enough I was on the Adjoining Ranch. This is
Speaker 3: down in South Texas and I was deer hunting. Uh.
Speaker 3: And I got this gives you a sense of the
Speaker 3: time over my BlackBerry, which were these devices that you
Speaker 3: used to get that you would get emails before you
Speaker 3: had smartphones.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I saw one.
Speaker 3: Oh. The type of the keyboard was so good.
Speaker 2: It was so good. I would go back tomorrow if
Speaker 2: they brought it back. I really would.
Speaker 3: So, so the headline comes vice President shoots a man,
Speaker 3: and I'm like, surely that can't be real. That's that's metaphorical,
Speaker 3: like shoots the bird at him right, No, like shotgun blasted.
Speaker 3: And it was so yes, I was. I was down
Speaker 3: there for that. And and and a joke I've told
Speaker 3: on the trail is a lot of people don't realize
Speaker 3: when that happened, there were more than two hundred phone
Speaker 3: calls to Texas Parks and Wildlife asking how much for
Speaker 3: a license to shoot a Republican lawyer. And I got
Speaker 3: to say that that that joke it worked.
Speaker 1: That that'll play. That'll play on the campaign trail for
Speaker 1: for sure.
Speaker 3: By the way, Harry Whittick did, he had, you know,
Speaker 3: buck shot all in his shoulder. They left most of
Speaker 3: it in, and so when he would go through an
Speaker 3: airport metal detector, he'd set the metal detector off because.
Speaker 2: He's probably shooting steel.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, Like it didn't make sense to take it out.
Speaker 3: It was healthier just to leave it in. Thankfully he survived.
Speaker 3: He was not And and I do remember thinking, you know,
Speaker 3: it would have been interesting, not in a good way,
Speaker 3: but if it had been the other way, around. If
Speaker 3: someone's hunting with the vice president and shoots the vice president,
Speaker 3: sacred service might have shot the guy dead, like like
Speaker 3: if you think about the like how the reaction would
Speaker 3: have been. Yeah, So you know, but anyway, I hunt
Speaker 3: once or twice a year. I enjoy it. You know.
Speaker 3: One time I was up in South Dakota pheasant hunting,
Speaker 3: and I like pheasant hunting. I like quail too, but
Speaker 3: pheasants are bigger and slower, so I hit more of them.
Speaker 3: So it's kind of what ratified.
Speaker 2: It's easier and it's fun.
Speaker 3: And it's but but when I was up in South
Speaker 3: Dakota peasant hunting, it was very funny because every time,
Speaker 3: as they're like twenty guys so sort of a you know,
Speaker 3: birds would flush and you'd have just boom boom, boom boom,
Speaker 3: bunch of shotguns going off, and no matter who hit
Speaker 3: the bird, the other guys there would go nice shot senator.
Speaker 3: And I was like, wow, this is the first hunt
Speaker 3: in my life I was credited with more birds than
Speaker 3: I fired shells.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it just did you limited out for the
Speaker 2: first time ever.
Speaker 3: Uh. It was a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: So I so, you know, you know, my dad's they
Speaker 1: my family. His family is up in North Dakota, bot No,
Speaker 1: North Dakota. It's flat and there's a lot of snow
Speaker 1: geese there. So when I was I think I was six,
Speaker 1: they put me in the back of the truck. It
Speaker 1: was really cold. My uncle and my my dad's uncle.
Speaker 1: So my great uncle drives us out there. They blindfold you.
Speaker 1: It's like part of the deal. And then they they
Speaker 1: get you ready with a gun and they blow the
Speaker 1: horn and the whole field is white and it just
Speaker 1: lifts up and it's geese.
Speaker 2: And then they tell you when to shoot.
Speaker 1: And I shot two snow geese with one four to
Speaker 1: ten that's how how many there were in the air.
Speaker 1: Got too blindfolded and that was the fine. Every one
Speaker 1: hunting blindfolded. They blindfold you.
Speaker 3: Let me just say, I love you, dude, but but
Speaker 3: I'm not going to be with you when you have
Speaker 3: a gun and you're shooting it blindfolded, And I'm like.
Speaker 2: Right exactly.
Speaker 1: But it was what a great way to get like
Speaker 1: your first hunt. Like it was it's a right of passage.
Speaker 1: But the whole field, like the the dirt up there
Speaker 1: is pitch black dark. It's I mean the soil is
Speaker 1: incredible in North Dakota, and so the whole field's white.
Speaker 1: They hit the horn and the whole field just lifted
Speaker 1: up and it went from white to black.
Speaker 3: Okay, So story I'll tell you go back like five
Speaker 3: years ago. Glenn Youngkin is running for governor of Virginia,
Speaker 3: and Glenn is a good, good friend, and I campaigned
Speaker 3: all over Virginia with Glenn. We did so in the primary.
Speaker 3: Going into the primary, Glenn was actually in second place.
Speaker 3: He was not winning. He was in second at the time.
Speaker 3: And we ended up doing seven or eight rallies all
Speaker 3: over Virginia, just Glenn and me, the two of us,
Speaker 3: and they were huge rallies. And so I spent two
Speaker 3: days barnstorming him the day before the two days before
Speaker 3: the primary, and we would have people show up, and
Speaker 3: they would actually show up. Some people would be wearing
Speaker 3: the shirts of his opponent, and the end of the rally,
Speaker 3: when they saw him, they were impressed. They'd pull off
Speaker 3: their opponent's shirt. They'd grabbed like a Younkin yard side.
Speaker 2: That's pretty awesome.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: That was an annual momentum campaign. At the very end,
Speaker 1: there was a well big momentum switch at the very
Speaker 1: end of that campaign, which I think is the most
Speaker 1: fun campaigns to be on.
Speaker 3: And Virginia has this sort of curious hybrid where it's
Speaker 3: sort of a primary sort of a caucus. So there
Speaker 3: were like I don't remember, like fifty thousand people who
Speaker 3: were going to be voting in who the nominee was
Speaker 3: going to be, and we had at the rallies we
Speaker 3: were at. I think we had more than five thousand
Speaker 3: of them, so we literally had ten percent of the
Speaker 3: actual voters physically present with us within forty eight hours
Speaker 3: of election day. So it I think that rally had
Speaker 3: a real impact. But I told a story and look
Speaker 3: glad at the time was just getting known, and so
Speaker 3: some of it is I think some of the folks
Speaker 3: that came out to the rallies were conservatives who knew me,
Speaker 3: who were coming out and giving him a chance because
Speaker 3: I was saying, listen, this is a good need to
Speaker 3: look at this guy and my philosophy as the William F.
Speaker 3: Buckley rule, I support the most conservative candidate who can win,
Speaker 3: and I want both proven conservative show me your record,
Speaker 3: but I also want to pass the victory like we're
Speaker 3: not screwing around if you can't win. I'm not interested
Speaker 3: in tilting at win meals. We got to win. And
Speaker 3: so I told a story and it was one of
Speaker 3: the ways of like getting credibility. I said, look, you know,
Speaker 3: year or two ago, Glenn and I were out shooting
Speaker 3: on a ranch. Now, we didn't mention that the ranch
Speaker 3: is actually Glenn owns a ranch in Texas and the
Speaker 3: Hill Country.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a bad idea if you're campaigning in Virginia
Speaker 1: to mention he lives in Virginia.
Speaker 3: He's a Virginian. But but he does own a gorgeous
Speaker 3: ranch in hand Texas that that that I've stayed at
Speaker 3: multiple times, and it's just beautiful. It's on the Guadalupe River.
Speaker 3: And I said, all right. We were out at the
Speaker 3: shotgun range playing a game called Annie Oakley and and
Speaker 3: so Annie Oakley is is you throw up a clay
Speaker 3: and the first guy shoots, and if the first guy misses,
Speaker 3: the second guy shoots, and if the second guy hits it,
Speaker 3: the first guy's out, by the way. If the second
Speaker 3: guy misses, yeah, the third guy shoots, a third guy hits,
Speaker 3: the first two are out. So we're out there playing
Speaker 3: and I said, I'm there with Glenn. I said, I'm
Speaker 3: there with this kind of really uptight, intense guy. And
Speaker 3: then me and so the the.
Speaker 2: The that guy and remains nameless, keep going.
Speaker 3: So the clay gets thrown out. Glenn shoots and misses.
Speaker 3: He's a good shot, but he missed. That one in
Speaker 3: between us is the really intense, uptight guy. He shoots,
Speaker 3: he misses. I'm third. The clay is like trailing down
Speaker 3: and I get a lucky as hell shot and I
Speaker 3: hit it. Boom, it shatters. So I tell that story,
Speaker 3: all right, I'm going to tell the listeners a verdict.
Speaker 3: Who the uptight guy was.
Speaker 2: I cannot wait for this.
Speaker 3: It was Paul Ryan no Way, who I think was
Speaker 3: still the speaker of the house. I believe. I don't
Speaker 3: remember the exact timing. And Paul's a great guy. Paul
Speaker 3: is a friend of mine. But he's a series hunter,
Speaker 3: like like he's one of the hunters, like like like
Speaker 3: he goes hunting in Wisconsin, he goes deer hunting and
Speaker 3: turkey hunting, and he's one of the guys that like
Speaker 3: covers himself with urine. Yeah, yeah, I'm I'm just a believer.
Speaker 3: I don't put like urine on my body. That that
Speaker 3: does not that that's not my thing.
Speaker 2: You're not Yeah, you're not putting blood blood on yourself? Yeah,
Speaker 2: like like them? Yeah, yeah, yes, exactly.
Speaker 3: So Ben, I will confess that I like Paul and
Speaker 3: we're friends. But but when I shot and hit and
Speaker 3: knocked both him and Glenn out, I couldn't resist. I
Speaker 3: turned to him and just deadpanned. Welcome to Texas.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that exactly.
Speaker 3: Listen, in Texas, there there are gazillion people who are
Speaker 3: much better shots than I am. But but I I
Speaker 3: am decent and can can hold my own. And at
Speaker 3: least that time, it was pretty fun.
Speaker 2: That that is actually amazing.
Speaker 1: And Paul is so if people don't know, Paul is
Speaker 1: like one of the most competitive guys no matter what
Speaker 1: you're doing. Like you remember he was competitive with like
Speaker 1: CrossFit and when he was in the house's working out
Speaker 1: like that was like he could work out harder than
Speaker 1: anybody else.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Paul does not like to lose. That is a
Speaker 2: great way of putting it.
Speaker 3: Well, listen, I want to say to all our Verdict listeners,
Speaker 3: We've been doing this a long time. We do it
Speaker 3: three days a week, we do it late at night.
Speaker 3: In fact, looking at all, right, it is your birthday,
Speaker 3: let's look at it. It is officially twelve o three
Speaker 3: in the morning. So as of three minutes ago, I
Speaker 3: just turned fifty five years old.
Speaker 2: Happy birthday, I will your old mom.
Speaker 3: My mom is ninety one. We're going to go out
Speaker 3: to dinner tonight with my mom and my dad and
Speaker 3: my whole family, and I'm going to tell my mom, wow,
Speaker 3: you're old. How do you have a fifty five year
Speaker 3: old son?
Speaker 1: A fifty five year old Hi, he's married to a
Speaker 1: fifty five year old man.
Speaker 2: Don't forget to remind her of that tonight.
Speaker 3: She now to be clear, when Heidi turned fifty, you
Speaker 3: know what she did her fiftieth birthday?
Speaker 1: Yes, I do know this, which is still insane. She's like, hey,
Speaker 1: I'm fifty, I'm gona run a marathon. Like who says
Speaker 1: that did?
Speaker 3: She ran the La Marathon. Didn't do it on her birthday,
Speaker 3: but she did it in celebration of her birthday. So
Speaker 3: she did it a few months later and it was
Speaker 3: So my question is, you know you're not that far
Speaker 3: away from fifty, Benjamin, Are you gonna run the only
Speaker 3: marathon on your.
Speaker 2: Fiftieth, there is no chance in help just check it.
Speaker 2: Just take that off the table.
Speaker 1: For my fiftieth birthday, I will do something like a
Speaker 1: midlife crisis, Like I'll go buy a really cool car
Speaker 1: that's inn a manual transmission, because you know me in.
Speaker 2: Cars, I like fast cars. That like, I'll do that.
Speaker 2: I might.
Speaker 1: I might sign up to, like play a very legitimate
Speaker 1: fifty plus like tennis tournament where you can win a
Speaker 1: goal ball that's like the standard in like that.
Speaker 2: I might.
Speaker 1: I might train for that, like I'm gonna be fifty.
Speaker 1: Let's see if I can. You know, my best friend,
Speaker 1: Devil's partner from college, let's play a double's tournament together
Speaker 1: and see if we ca win a goal ball.
Speaker 2: There you go.
Speaker 3: I like it. That's quality. Let me just say, you know,
Speaker 3: we've got about a million regular and dedicated Verdict listeners,
Speaker 3: and if you count radio, we've got millions of listeners.
Speaker 3: Let me say to all you guys, thank you. I mean,
Speaker 3: I am an appreciate, I appreciate you, appreciate you know.
Speaker 3: This is this is like having each of you into
Speaker 3: our living room three days a week and having a
Speaker 3: conversation and sometimes Ben and I give us give each
Speaker 3: other grief. Sometimes we talk about what we're mad at about,
Speaker 3: sometimes we talk about what we're happy about. We try
Speaker 3: to give you information you can't get anywhere else. And
Speaker 3: I'm just grateful for this amazing community because I really
Speaker 3: do think, you know, scripture talks about it takes a remnant,
Speaker 3: and I think there are are men and women who
Speaker 3: believe in liberty, who believe in America, and I believe
Speaker 3: it's it's it's the lists of our show and those
Speaker 3: across the country who are committed to liberty, who are
Speaker 3: going to save America. And so I am grateful for you.
Speaker 3: It's why we put the time in and and and
Speaker 3: so on my birthday. I don't know about you, but
Speaker 3: sometimes I get contemplative on a birthday and think about
Speaker 3: where we are and where things are going. And I
Speaker 3: just want to say to every listener Verdict, thank you.
Speaker 3: I appreciate you.
Speaker 1: Guys are amazing, and I'm just glad I remembered how
Speaker 1: old you were. That's just like it's a full circle,
Speaker 1: a full circle there.
Speaker 2: I like that.
Speaker 1: Happy birthday, sir fifty five. Don't forget we do the
Speaker 1: show Monday, Wednesday, Friday. If you're on social media. Send
Speaker 1: a birthday message. I would put it in all caps
Speaker 1: and a larger size font it big fun, big font,
Speaker 1: big font.
Speaker 2: Happy.
Speaker 1: You might want to send multiple tweets like just happy
Speaker 1: then birthday, you know, like yeah, you want to do
Speaker 1: it that way. So make sure he can actually see
Speaker 1: that and read it on his phone. And we'll see
Speaker 1: you back here on Wednesday morning