Speaker 1: Welcome.
Speaker 2: It is Verdict was centered Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you,
Speaker 2: and it is one am in the morning Eastern time,
Speaker 2: after the State of the Union. I want to be
Speaker 2: very clear that I am doing this show in protest
Speaker 2: right now because I was on a plane. No, no,
Speaker 2: let me let me rephrase that center true or foss.
Speaker 2: You and I hung out yesterday in your office.
Speaker 3: We did, and you were in DC, and I can't
Speaker 3: help it that you fled Washington during the State of
Speaker 3: the Union. And listen, karmes A and so when you
Speaker 3: decided you were a little girl and you had to
Speaker 3: get out of town because the Democrats getting mad at
Speaker 3: the president were scary. Yeah, there was a consequence, which
Speaker 3: is for those who are watching on YouTube, a coup
Speaker 3: is a courage. The original co host of Verdict has
Speaker 3: returned and seize the seat. To be clear, he has
Speaker 3: relegated mister Ferguson to appearing as a little box on anor.
Speaker 4: He banished Ben. I saw it, not just the seat,
Speaker 4: but I saw this cigar, and I said, this is
Speaker 4: pretty good. And this has actually become something of a tradition.
Speaker 4: I've noticed it. I've only ever been to two stags.
Speaker 2: By the way, if only TC would tell us that
Speaker 2: there is a tradition, then I wouldn't have gone on
Speaker 2: a plane at two o'clock this afternoon leave Washington, d C.
Speaker 2: Think about this, Hey, Ben, we should have cigars. I
Speaker 2: have to say the union and do the show here.
Speaker 2: Great idea, I'll change my flight. That is how normal
Speaker 2: people would have done this.
Speaker 1: Michael a year in advance.
Speaker 3: This happened late on the fly, and so this afternoon
Speaker 3: Michael texted me and said, hey, you want to grab
Speaker 3: cigars after everything tonight? And I was like, well, we
Speaker 3: have to do the pod, but aha, I have an idea.
Speaker 3: And I didn't really want to do the pod and
Speaker 3: finish at two in the morning and then have cigars,
Speaker 3: and so I'm like, we'll combine it. And by the way,
Speaker 3: Daily Wire does this great. What is it late night?
Speaker 4: What is it called backstage?
Speaker 3: Backstage? So I've done several times done backstage with them
Speaker 3: where they sit around and drink scotch and smoke cigars,
Speaker 3: and so I said, let's bring some backstage. This is
Speaker 3: like a This is like a Marvel Universe crossover, where
Speaker 3: like Daily Wire and iHeart are intersecting.
Speaker 4: This also really, it's kind of a double verdict tradition
Speaker 4: in that two years ago, Yes, I came to my
Speaker 4: first State of the Union address. It was Biden State
Speaker 4: of the Union, the one where they injected him with
Speaker 4: whatever they injected him with, and he yelled for ninety
Speaker 4: two minutes.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: And then afterward, actually before i'd set it up, I said, hey, Senator,
Speaker 4: I happen to be in town. Hate to pressure you
Speaker 4: for a cigar. Same thing. He said, well, okay, we
Speaker 4: can have a cigar, but you got to do the
Speaker 4: podcast first. I said, okay, well that that'll be a
Speaker 4: lot of fun. And so of course it's you know, midnight,
Speaker 4: one o'clock in the morning. And this really takes us
Speaker 4: back because when Verdicts started, it was always one o'clock
Speaker 4: in the morning, and it was actually not all that
Speaker 4: far from here in Washington, DC. Though I noticed the
Speaker 4: digs have improved a little bit.
Speaker 3: So we're in a high falutin cigar bar in DC.
Speaker 3: Because it turns out it's actually complicated to find a
Speaker 3: studio that will let you smoke a cigar.
Speaker 2: I don't get to light my cigar. That's the part
Speaker 2: that I'm really chapped about. I did look at my
Speaker 2: wife and sender you know Anna well, And I was like,
Speaker 2: what are the chances, for the sake of the show
Speaker 2: in authenticity, I could smoke said cigar.
Speaker 1: I literally did not get an answer. I got the look.
Speaker 2: And when you're married, you guys both know the look.
Speaker 2: Each one of our wives all have a look that
Speaker 2: they give you.
Speaker 1: And I was like, Okay, I got it. I know
Speaker 1: how this is so.
Speaker 3: Ben you are thoroughly domesticated, yes, yes, and it doesn't
Speaker 3: pune your manhood, yes, but and I'm not going to
Speaker 3: tell a story on myself. So when Heidi and I
Speaker 3: were engaged, we had an apartment in DC, and I
Speaker 3: would host poker games, and at the poker games, we
Speaker 3: would smoke cigars and we do it at my dining
Speaker 3: room table, and my buddies that would come over and play,
Speaker 3: they'd be like, dude, how does Heidi let you smoke
Speaker 3: cigars inside? And I was in my twenties and stupid,
Speaker 3: so I'm like, look, if you're the man of the
Speaker 3: house and you want to smoke a cigar, you smoke
Speaker 3: a cigar in your damn house. That right, And I
Speaker 3: said it with all the bravado of a young idiot.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Meanwhile, he didn't own set house. It was an apartment,
Speaker 1: but keeps part like the story.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So then we get married. We actually get married
Speaker 3: twenty five years ago May twenty seven, two thousand and one.
Speaker 3: That's our twenty fifth anniversary.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 3: And we come back from our honeymoon, and shortly thereafter
Speaker 3: I'm hosting a poker game and Heidi says, get the
Speaker 3: damn cigars out of the apartment. You will never smoke
Speaker 3: another one inside again, And in twenty five years I
Speaker 3: never have. And so when I say you a pariod, yeah,
Speaker 3: that's another way of saying you're actually married.
Speaker 4: Aren't we all? Aren't we all? In a way?
Speaker 1: There you go.
Speaker 2: So so one of the stories for planning purposes for
Speaker 2: all the viewick listeners and watchers next year, Michael and
Speaker 2: I are in charge of programming.
Speaker 1: Michael, I think we should do the show.
Speaker 2: Together, all of us in DC, and smoke cigars together
Speaker 2: after say the union.
Speaker 1: What do you think, Michael? Is that a good idea?
Speaker 4: That's a great idea. Okay, listen, I'm I'm in.
Speaker 2: All right, good, all right, Well, you you and I
Speaker 2: will have a group chat to set it all up
Speaker 2: in advance and we will all be one happy family
Speaker 2: with all of us.
Speaker 1: Swing your cigar.
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Speaker 3: So all right, so Ben, Ben, what do you think
Speaker 3: of the damn State of the Union.
Speaker 2: I actually think it was the best speech Donald Trump
Speaker 2: has ever given. I actually thought it was one of
Speaker 2: the most real and authentic responses from him to the
Speaker 2: Democrats and how they were acting. I love that he
Speaker 2: was like, you can't even stand for that, you won't
Speaker 2: even see So.
Speaker 3: You guys are crazy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you guys are crazy line and it.
Speaker 4: Came like the third most incredible line. I mean there
Speaker 4: were a lot of them, yeah, but.
Speaker 1: It came stood on TV in an amazing way, did it? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Oh, I mean it was just his look, his demeanor,
Speaker 2: he was looking over at them. I mean, you were
Speaker 2: there obviously, so it's going to feel different to you.
Speaker 2: But like I'm watching, I'm going that line landed and
Speaker 2: I think the American people probably saw it and they're like, wow,
Speaker 2: this is going to be really good.
Speaker 4: So I'm sitting there. It was very kind of Speaker
Speaker 4: Johnson to invite me, and I'm sitting over the Democrats,
Speaker 4: so I got a prime view of the Democrats. And
Speaker 4: the first line that really brought down the House was
Speaker 4: when President Trump looked over and it was beautifully written
Speaker 4: and beautifully executed. He looked over, he said, Okay, I
Speaker 4: want everyone to stand up if you agree with the
Speaker 4: statement that America should protect Americans or something to that
Speaker 4: effect first and not and not over illegals. Yes, and
Speaker 4: they refuse to stand political malpractice the likes of which
Speaker 4: one has rarely seen. And it was a brutal moment.
Speaker 4: He totally took advantage then.
Speaker 3: So that moment will be played in a million campaigns. Yes,
Speaker 3: and by the way, it was the longest sustained applause
Speaker 3: of Republicans. We stood and we applauded, and we applauded,
Speaker 3: and he just looked over. He stepped with amazement watching them,
Speaker 3: and and the ad rites itself. They're for illegals and
Speaker 3: not for you. And they were given that choice, do
Speaker 3: you stand with Americans or do you stand with illegals
Speaker 3: and the entire party. No, we're the party of illegal
Speaker 3: aliens and not the party of Americans.
Speaker 4: It was shocking. So then he doubles down on I'm
Speaker 4: skipping around a little bit in time because it escalates.
Speaker 1: Well, by the way, this a trend.
Speaker 2: He noticed, this is going to be the trend of
Speaker 2: my speech. Like, I don't think he planned it this whole, Like,
Speaker 2: you guys aren't going to stand for that. It was
Speaker 2: the moment and then it hit and then it was like,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna keep doing this tonight to show Americans how
Speaker 2: crazy these guys are on the left.
Speaker 1: That's how it came across on TV.
Speaker 4: Well, he landed it on the transgender ideology. Kid who
Speaker 4: had been transd and had destroyed his family, and then
Speaker 4: the kid finally ended up in the right place, and
Speaker 4: the he said, isn't that wonderful? The family's reunited and
Speaker 4: everyone's flourishing, and the Dems wouldn't stand And that was
Speaker 4: when he dealt the blow. He said, these people are crazy,
Speaker 4: and that that too lit it up now where it
Speaker 4: got a little dark. But it was the same strategy.
Speaker 4: It was the same tactic, I suppose is when he
Speaker 4: started bringing up violence, and he obviously turns to Erica Kirk,
Speaker 4: this national hero, this perhaps the most sympathetic figure in
Speaker 4: the entire country, certainly up there, and the Democrats didn't
Speaker 4: want to stand for Charlie. They didn't want to stand
Speaker 4: for Erica. Again, that itself is disgraceful. But he even
Speaker 4: gave them an out. He said, we're a country where
Speaker 4: we say in God we trust, and we reject political
Speaker 4: violence of all kinds. And I was looking over some
Speaker 4: Democrats stood for that.
Speaker 3: I'd said, more than half on the political violence. I
Speaker 3: looked and it was probably sixty seventy percent think that,
Speaker 3: but a third did not, A third did not.
Speaker 4: Third would not stand for we reject political violence of
Speaker 4: all kinds. It was I felt a disaster of optics
Speaker 4: for democrats and a disaster of morals.
Speaker 3: Well, and on the we don't stand for political violence.
Speaker 3: The reason two thirds stood is Schumer stood. By the way,
Speaker 3: have you ever noticed how much Chuck Schumer looks like
Speaker 3: the villain and the Smurfs? What's what's the name? I
Speaker 3: don't even remember the name of the villain? Like the
Speaker 3: curved over like like you know, he's hunched. He has
Speaker 3: kind of a hunchback.
Speaker 4: Maybe a penguin from Batman was what I got.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, but he's sort of no.
Speaker 1: I couldn't agree with you more.
Speaker 2: By the way, you guys are in there so you
Speaker 2: may not know this, So I may break news to you.
Speaker 2: Did you, guys see what Rashid Talib was chanting while
Speaker 2: everyone was chanting USA, USA, At one of the points
Speaker 2: in the speech, she was chanting kkk kkk kkk.
Speaker 3: Really, yes, person advertising credit credit for.
Speaker 1: You, guys.
Speaker 2: I don't know if you can see, but let's be
Speaker 2: our good friend. Steve Guess put it out there. Watch
Speaker 2: Democrat representative to leave. She's chanting KKK while everyone else
Speaker 2: is cheering USA.
Speaker 3: Well, the KKK was founded by democrats. It was almost
Speaker 3: exclusively populated by Democrats. Nathan Bedford Forrest, the founder of
Speaker 3: the Klan, was a delegate, a delegate to the DNC
Speaker 3: national Convention in eighteen sixty. He was a national delegate.
Speaker 3: And you look at the Klan was founded by Democrats.
Speaker 3: Jim Crow laws were founded by Democrats. Segregation was enforced
Speaker 3: by Democrats. They have been the party of racial bigotry
Speaker 3: the entire history. And by the way, our party, I mean,
Speaker 3: we often refer to our party as the Party of Lincoln,
Speaker 3: but we were literally founded to abolished slavery, right, That's
Speaker 3: why the Republican Party came together. And by the way
Speaker 3: we did. The first Republican president is who signed the
Speaker 3: Emancipation Proclamation.
Speaker 4: Well, you know on racial animus and Rashida Talib, did
Speaker 4: you see. I don't know if you caught this, but
Speaker 4: when President Trump said, what a wonderful thing. We released
Speaker 4: all the hostages. We got the ostage released, both dead
Speaker 4: and alive. We returned even their remains, and most people
Speaker 4: stood up. I looked, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Talib were
Speaker 4: sitting down.
Speaker 3: Yep.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And by the way, mean at one point they heckled
Speaker 3: when there was a reference to the end of the
Speaker 3: war in Gaza. They heckled and screamed genocide. I mean,
Speaker 3: that's that's who their party is.
Speaker 2: Well, and you look at tonight there was four Democrat
Speaker 2: responses like that's not good for your party when you're.
Speaker 1: That broken Moore.
Speaker 4: Who were the four?
Speaker 2: So you had one in Spanish, you had one that
Speaker 2: was a progressive radical, you had one that was like
Speaker 2: the next level monter, and then you had the Virginia governor.
Speaker 2: You had four official responses.
Speaker 3: Sorry, I'm going to have to disagree with you. I
Speaker 3: don't even know who they were, but there are four
Speaker 3: who were progressive radicals.
Speaker 1: Well, I agree with you.
Speaker 2: Yes, I'm giving you their their official statement, but they
Speaker 2: literally had Hey, depending on how crazy you are, if
Speaker 2: you're a Marxist, socialist, communist, or a radical lefty or
Speaker 2: like the transgender or maybe just like a normal Democrat,
Speaker 2: here's your all of your responses for you, and we'll
Speaker 2: have all of those for you.
Speaker 3: So right after the State of the Union, I did Hannity,
Speaker 3: and as I was sitting there waiting to go on,
Speaker 3: Fox wouldn't put Hannity on air until Spamberger finished her response.
Speaker 3: So I sit down and put my earpiece in and
Speaker 3: it's just her voice screeching and loud. And I turned
Speaker 3: to Handy and I said, Sean, I haven't led nearly
Speaker 3: a wicked enough life to deserve to listen to this.
Speaker 3: As I just turned the volume off, I'm like, I can't.
Speaker 3: There's just a limit to how much pain I can endure.
Speaker 4: But you know what's very telling about span Berger is
Speaker 4: you had Andy Bisheer come out, who is a serious
Speaker 4: presidential candidate Kentucky governor, and he said span Berger is
Speaker 4: the model for Democrats in the midterms, which means translation
Speaker 4: will run. They will run as it means live, they'll lie,
Speaker 4: they'll run as moderates, and they will immediately enact the
Speaker 4: most radical leftist agenda you could maybe imagine.
Speaker 1: I love by the way.
Speaker 2: I know you're a man of the people and you
Speaker 2: do all of your own yard work. But if you
Speaker 2: lived in Virginia's crazy wearing French cuffs, that would be
Speaker 2: only that guy right there. I just want to be
Speaker 2: the one where the big cloud of smoke they just
Speaker 2: went up in the air, that would be that guy's cufflings.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the one there, So they're there.
Speaker 3: Look, it is impressive because at Yale he wore a cravat.
Speaker 4: I'm going more populous as I age, and I.
Speaker 3: Wish Michael had to sign it before we knew it.
Speaker 1: Those work.
Speaker 3: But I'm also impressed because Ben at old miss never
Speaker 3: wore pants, so so we're kind of reaching a kind
Speaker 3: of middle down.
Speaker 2: Actually, a man of the people, a man of Prade
Speaker 2: and Gucci.
Speaker 4: It just it is.
Speaker 1: It is what it is.
Speaker 2: No, But like in Virginia, they've gone so crazy. They're
Speaker 2: they're they literally have laws written right now that she's
Speaker 2: in favor of to ban gasoline powered weed eaters and blowers,
Speaker 2: and then they're putting a ten percent tax on electric blowers,
Speaker 2: so they're going to charge even more to be green.
Speaker 1: That's Virginia.
Speaker 3: I love that the President brought up that to shovel
Speaker 3: snow in New York under multiple IDs, you need two
Speaker 3: forms of ID, which I actually had been advising. I
Speaker 3: think humor is a really powerful way to drive this point.
Speaker 3: And I think that and also the fact that John
Speaker 3: ossoff to get to his rally against photo I d
Speaker 3: for voting, you had to show an idea, you.
Speaker 1: Had voto, you had to show voter ID.
Speaker 4: Yeah, this kick was the key, I mean, really the
Speaker 4: reason that the State of the Union succeeded. And I
Speaker 4: agree it was one of Trump's best speeches. The Warsaw
Speaker 4: speech in the first term was also an excellent speech,
Speaker 4: but this was up there, and I think the reason
Speaker 4: it succeeded was the President had to reassure voters who
Speaker 4: voted for him on mass you know, he won the
Speaker 4: popular vote. He had to reassure them that we are
Speaker 4: still the party of normal, of safety, of flourishing, of sanity,
Speaker 4: of sanity where I think some voters you have this
Speaker 4: question after the Minneapolis immigration gocement. Why is it that
Speaker 4: voters still support mass deportations but oppose ice supporting people.
Speaker 4: You know, that's kind of a contradiction. Why is it
Speaker 4: that the fundamentals of the economy are looking pretty good?
Speaker 4: You know, record ized stock market, pretty good, inflation, pretty good,
Speaker 4: job numbers, pretty good GDP could have been better if
Speaker 4: not for the government shutdown that the Dems gave us.
Speaker 4: Why is it that they're a little the voters are
Speaker 4: worried about the economy, but the economy seems to be
Speaker 4: doing well. It's it's this fear that we're in a
Speaker 4: precarious moment. And so I think both sides went into
Speaker 4: this saying we want to be the party of stability,
Speaker 4: of security, of normal and flourishing. That's why Hakim Jefferies
Speaker 4: told the Democrats, hey, be cool and if you can't
Speaker 4: be cool, don't show up.
Speaker 3: You know, I think it's so Green got thrown out.
Speaker 4: Al Green couldn't resist.
Speaker 2: At least at least he had a big sign that
Speaker 2: he got to walk around with, right he felt, he
Speaker 2: felt just.
Speaker 3: So and as signs said, blacks aren't apes. Yeah, And
Speaker 3: I turned. I was sitting next to Todd Young and
Speaker 3: I said, wow, is out Green protesting? Gavin Newsom, Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4: Look like it.
Speaker 3: By the way, Gavin K. Newsom, he's like the perfect
Speaker 3: Democrat made in the laboratory. An idiot.
Speaker 1: He says racist, open racist. Yeah, he says racist.
Speaker 3: Who goes in front of a crowd of African Americans
Speaker 3: and goes, I'm just like you, You're stupid, and I
Speaker 3: am too unbelievable and I can't when I got a
Speaker 3: nine to sixty on the sat which, by the way,
Speaker 3: Michael got a nine to sixty on the verbal portion
Speaker 3: of his set. Yeah, and yes, I know it's only
Speaker 3: eight hundred, but still.
Speaker 2: Yes, I love that you just had to geek out
Speaker 2: and show the geeks that you know the max is
Speaker 2: an eight hundred.
Speaker 1: There, to be clear, I can't remember I took.
Speaker 3: The damn thing and I did anyone doubt I was
Speaker 3: a geek?
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's I just we have to remind you though,
Speaker 1: every once in a while.
Speaker 3: Let's be clear on things like that. I popped, Michael,
Speaker 3: mostly because my own vulnerabilities are so glaring on that.
Speaker 4: No, listen the admission rate for Princeton, I think.
Speaker 2: Hold on, Let's let's be clear. Both of you know
Speaker 2: your scores right by heart.
Speaker 4: What you made?
Speaker 1: What were you? Michael? Don't lie?
Speaker 4: It was higher than Gavin Newsom's. I'll tell you that.
Speaker 3: No, what was it?
Speaker 1: I want to know. I want to know what it was.
Speaker 4: Do you want to know the irony? I'll tell you
Speaker 4: the irony of my essay.
Speaker 2: To oh, I can't this is this is him delaying
Speaker 2: the brilliance keep going.
Speaker 4: I did. I did get on the math and the verbal.
Speaker 4: I got a perfect score. That's what I was. However,
Speaker 4: you don't want to know the irony. There was at
Speaker 4: that time the writing component. There was a writing thing
Speaker 4: that they added that was kind of optional or experimental.
Speaker 4: And the funny thing is I did not get a
Speaker 4: perfect score. I actually don't remember the exact it was less.
Speaker 4: It was the six eighty or something. But the funny
Speaker 4: thing is that's the thing I went into and my
Speaker 4: most famous book has no words in it, so it
Speaker 4: ended up it ended up working out just fine. Uh
Speaker 4: see what was your newsome?
Speaker 3: I am going to decline to answer on the advice accounts,
Speaker 3: oh wow, because I am in a politics and running
Speaker 3: around like squawking about your SAT score?
Speaker 2: Did you have two in the three categories? Like Michael,
Speaker 2: I just want to know we can at least that.
Speaker 4: I did not any of that.
Speaker 3: I did not and I did well on the test,
Speaker 3: But I am I'm just telling you I may not
Speaker 3: know much about politics, but I am quite certain it
Speaker 3: is dumb as hell you say this was my SAT score?
Speaker 2: Like to prove how much of a man of the
Speaker 2: people I am. I walked in and took the test.
Speaker 2: I forgot my calculator and I looked at the lady
Speaker 2: that does the test, and I said, what is the
Speaker 2: minimum for NCAA requirements? Can I do it without a calculator?
Speaker 2: And she goes, I'm intrigued to see if you can.
Speaker 2: And I was above the NCAA minimum without a calculator,
Speaker 2: and I took it once and the score came in
Speaker 2: and my mom was.
Speaker 1: Furious when it came to mail. She's like, you're taking
Speaker 1: it again. She was so mad.
Speaker 2: I forgot my remember the TI eighty three or whatever
Speaker 2: it was like, you know, like the calculator you took
Speaker 2: with you. And I was like, I forgot it to
Speaker 2: my Mom's an educator, she was like, you're taking it.
Speaker 1: I was like, no, I'm not. I'm above the minimum
Speaker 1: for NCAA requirements. That's all I care about. That way.
Speaker 1: I took it once, all right.
Speaker 3: So I'm gonna tell you sat L SATs story. So
Speaker 3: when I show up at college, my first job, I
Speaker 3: worked at Princeton Media Services videotaping things and like a
Speaker 3: run and operate a video camera and like videotape all
Speaker 3: sorts of different programs and things. And that paid either
Speaker 3: seven or eight bucks an hour. And then I got
Speaker 3: hired by the prince to review to teach the SAT
Speaker 3: which was a much better job because it paid fifteen
Speaker 3: bucks an hour. And so I'm like hot diggity damn,
Speaker 3: I could do that math and fifteen is better than seven.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So so for like a year or two I taught
Speaker 3: the SAT. I guess a year and then I'm like, wait,
Speaker 3: there's no margin in teaching the SAT. I've already taken it.
Speaker 3: And I knew I wanted to go to law school.
Speaker 3: So I went to the course and said, hey, can
Speaker 3: I teach the L SATs? And so they paid me
Speaker 3: to train me to teach the L SAT, which was
Speaker 3: useful because I had to, in fact teach the L set.
Speaker 3: So when I was a sophomore in college, I was
Speaker 3: teaching the L set and the students would say, well,
Speaker 3: what score did.
Speaker 1: You day care right now?
Speaker 3: Well, no, no, it was there were real classes. But
Speaker 3: the hysterical story is, so I taught the L set
Speaker 3: for a year and then so junior year, we're taking
Speaker 3: the L set. And you guys both know my college roommate.
Speaker 3: It was my law school roommate, and other than Heidi,
Speaker 3: my best friend of the world. David Panton, Jamaican, incredibly talented,
Speaker 3: became Barack Obama, was the first black president the Harvard
Speaker 3: Law Review. David was the second black president the Harvard Larview. So,
Speaker 3: but when David and I are in college, we're both
Speaker 3: taking the l set. The night before the l set,
Speaker 3: David and I like complete morons. Did I mention that
Speaker 3: we were like nineteen or twenty? I guess twenty. We
Speaker 3: stayed up all night playing Intent. We literally did not sleep.
Speaker 3: We pulled an all nighter playing Mario Brothers on Nintendo.
Speaker 3: The still shout out by the way O. The l
Speaker 3: SAT was in Newark, so I had my first car
Speaker 3: was a green seventy eight Ford Fairmont. So I drove
Speaker 3: us to Newark. We take the l set. It was
Speaker 3: at eight am, so we leave it like six six
Speaker 3: thirty go sit for the test. It's like four hours
Speaker 3: or so. So we're coming home, coming back to college
Speaker 3: at like one in the afternoon, and we're driving back
Speaker 3: and I said, so, David, how did it go? And
Speaker 3: he said, well, during one of the sections, I put
Speaker 3: my head down and fell asleep, And he said, I
Speaker 3: woke up with two minutes left, and I just filled
Speaker 3: out B for every question. And he turns to me
Speaker 3: and says, do you think b' is the right answer?
Speaker 3: And so it turns out you can cancel your l
Speaker 3: SAT score on the spot if you want to see
Speaker 3: what up and just canceled a score? Oh that's the
Speaker 3: poor guy had to take it again, and then he did.
Speaker 3: He did well the second time he took it, but
Speaker 3: he literally I laughed so hard I almost crashed the car.
Speaker 3: But I ended up keeping him up all night and
Speaker 3: making him fall asleep during the elkm.
Speaker 4: What if all the answers were be If they could
Speaker 4: have been, you might have missed out on the perfect score.
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Speaker 4: The Newsome thing is really frustrating because right now he
Speaker 4: is the leading candidate for the Democrats, I think with that.
Speaker 1: Question, and I'm so happy he is bettered at.
Speaker 4: The Munich Security Conference, Newsome's still the leading candidate. And
Speaker 4: on the one hand, he has these social media posts
Speaker 4: where he's sitting there performatively reading Beloved by Tony Morrison,
Speaker 4: performatively reading all these books that.
Speaker 3: Are so By the way, are you aware that Newsom
Speaker 3: let himself on fire in a social media exchange about verdicts.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 3: So, coming back from Munich, we we did a whole
Speaker 3: show on Munich, lighting up AOC and lighting up news
Speaker 3: and Newsom, and Munich said Donald Trump is the first
Speaker 3: president in history to federalize the National Guard and so
Speaker 3: on verdict, I said, Gavin Newsom is historically illiterate.
Speaker 4: Yes, uh, actually you talked about it if your use
Speaker 4: of the English language properly and so I said that,
Speaker 4: and then he tweeted out he said, calling someone who's
Speaker 4: dyslexic illiterate is a new low, even for Cruise.
Speaker 3: And mind you, who knew he was dyslexic. I didn't
Speaker 3: know that.
Speaker 2: For a guy that then also claims in a white
Speaker 2: podcast so he can read a three hundred page book
Speaker 2: in two hours. Don't forget that came out as well.
Speaker 2: So so much for being majorly dyslexic.
Speaker 3: Right, but but then so so we had we actually
Speaker 3: had twin responses. So my staff came up with a
Speaker 3: response with a gift from Zoolander, and I wrote a
Speaker 3: response and said something like I didn't say you couldn't read,
Speaker 3: you clown, I said you were historically illiterate because you
Speaker 3: apparently have no idea about the civil rights movement and
Speaker 3: the fact that Eisenhower federalized the National Guard. And this
Speaker 3: is actually a cool I think this is the first
Speaker 3: tweet I've ever said that was partially written by AI.
Speaker 3: So I went to Google and I just typed in
Speaker 3: Eisenhower federalizing National Guard, and instantaneously several paragraphs pop up
Speaker 3: that are beautifully researched, and so I cut and paste
Speaker 3: one of them that said on date and I didn't
Speaker 3: know the date. You know, Eisenhower signed executive order number,
Speaker 3: and I didn't know the executive order number. But it
Speaker 3: was like this beautifully researched. So the second half of
Speaker 3: the tw I actually wrote that tweet while playing hoops. So,
Speaker 3: as you guys know, I play hoops twice a week,
Speaker 3: so it was like, in between games on my phone,
Speaker 3: I'd like type the first half, put.
Speaker 1: It the last way, wait, time out, time out? I
Speaker 1: got it.
Speaker 2: You opened up something there you set in between games?
Speaker 2: Were you the odd man out?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 4: Did you?
Speaker 1: I lost? I just wanted to get that on the right.
Speaker 3: Michael.
Speaker 1: Did you hear what he said? Michael? Can you make
Speaker 1: sure it's Mike's working? He just did? He say he lost?
Speaker 1: It's going to be very clear, but I think that
Speaker 1: was recorded. Okay, got it?
Speaker 2: Okay, Yeah, I'm glad that we got that. That was
Speaker 2: worth staying. I played for just that right there. Keep
Speaker 2: going with your story, sir, This is getting good.
Speaker 3: So but when I sent my tweet, my social media
Speaker 3: team was all mad and they're like, wait, we like
Speaker 3: our Zoolander tweet, and I said no, no, no, put them
Speaker 3: both out. Yeah, and let's have an experiment let's see
Speaker 3: who wins. Who gets more like like you've got mine
Speaker 3: and you know you guys, and so it was close.
Speaker 3: I only beat them by two hundred and fifty percent.
Speaker 3: So they got I think four hundred thousand engagements and
Speaker 3: I got one point one million. But I will confess
Speaker 3: making an admission on this. Although they didn't get nearly
Speaker 3: the reach. The comments on the Zoolander gift, the people
Speaker 3: that saw it way better loved you.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean they're just like the best tweet in the
Speaker 3: history of the Internet, like they were, so I think
Speaker 3: it was a smaller niche audience. Yeah, but the ones
Speaker 3: that hit it really hit.
Speaker 4: That's good.
Speaker 2: It's almost like as good as when you were the
Speaker 2: Zodiac Killer. Maybe you still are, but you know those
Speaker 2: those never make me not laugh.
Speaker 3: What do you mean when I was the Zodiac Yeah,
Speaker 3: exactly when did I?
Speaker 4: I haven't shaped the statute of limitations recently. Yeah, but
Speaker 4: I think you're safe now.
Speaker 3: So do you know that? In twenty sixteen, an actual
Speaker 3: poll done in the state of Florida found thirty eight
Speaker 3: percent and of Floridians believed that I could be the
Speaker 3: Zodiac Killer. I to be clear, the Zodiac Killer killed
Speaker 3: at least five people in northern California in the late
Speaker 3: nineteen sixties. I was born in nineteen seventy.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, and yet maybe.
Speaker 3: Nearly half of Floridians believed I could be the Zodiac Killer.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, that's you could have lied about your age.
Speaker 2: You could have lied about your age. This is how
Speaker 2: conspiracies begin.
Speaker 3: I did have one one rally where this kid had
Speaker 3: a sign. It's like twenty and he had a sign
Speaker 3: that said are you the Zodiac Killer? And I went
Speaker 3: up to him. I put my hand on his shoulder.
Speaker 3: I said, son, if I was the Zodiac Killer, would
Speaker 3: you really want to be here with that sign right now?
Speaker 4: Yeah? You know. This actually was the point, which is
Speaker 4: how we got onto new him the sign. I don't
Speaker 4: know if you guys saw the memes that were going around.
Speaker 4: So I lost a bet on this. I bet that
Speaker 4: the Democrats would not have a member ejected from the speech.
Speaker 4: I thought they might have.
Speaker 1: Did you actually believe that?
Speaker 4: Though I didn't think that. I thought they would listen
Speaker 4: to HACKEM Jefferies and try to chill. But they can't know.
Speaker 4: Egreen has no chill, so he opens up.
Speaker 3: By the way, there's a very real chance Al Green
Speaker 3: loses his Democrat primary a week from now. Really, yeah, really,
Speaker 3: he's actually in jeopardy. And so I think the antics
Speaker 3: were partially. Of course, he did his antics last year,
Speaker 3: like waving his cane, which like to embody a grumpy
Speaker 3: old man, like get off my lawn, you kids.
Speaker 4: It's perfect, but he made it. He made a real
Speaker 4: optical error, which is he unfurled the sign, which from
Speaker 4: my angle in the gallery I could not see, and
Speaker 4: so I said, wow, what's he saying? And I guess
Speaker 4: the sign said black people aren't apes, But the problem
Speaker 4: was the way he was holding it, the one, the
Speaker 4: one that I saw, and maybe one of those said
Speaker 4: that too, the one I also said black people rent apes,
Speaker 4: which was like an unfortunate any way you slice it,
Speaker 4: These are very unfortunate optics, And I thought, you know,
Speaker 4: the Democrat leader in the house asked one thing. He said, hey, guys,
Speaker 4: please don't look crazy during the speech. And as the
Speaker 4: President is walking into the room, al Green unfurls this sign,
Speaker 4: and I thought, you have the discipline of a fruitfly,
Speaker 4: Like there is no chance they didn't make it five minutes.
Speaker 1: They're insane all right.
Speaker 2: I have to ask you guys being there, because one
Speaker 2: of the best lines of the whole speech, and that
Speaker 2: was just one of those little kind of tit for
Speaker 2: tatlines and it but it worked, was when he was
Speaker 2: talking about insider trading and then he said Nancy Pelosi's name,
Speaker 2: And it was amazing on TV because if you didn't
Speaker 2: know the story.
Speaker 1: Free one, you immediately went to every one of us
Speaker 1: was there? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Ever and I was too, But like if you didn't know,
Speaker 2: and then you saw the reaction and you heard the
Speaker 2: hissing bit whatever it was in the hall. I don't
Speaker 2: know exactly what they were saying. It was like they
Speaker 2: were like, you can't say her name like that. You
Speaker 2: know that everybody went and googled insider trading, Nancy Pelosi
Speaker 2: and then they learned about the story. Like they literally
Speaker 2: helped him sell the story. What was the reaction from
Speaker 2: the were Democrats mad or what was the reaction.
Speaker 3: You were on the floor, Oh, look, they were mad constantly.
Speaker 3: So is there one I will say though, there's a
Speaker 3: difference from this year and last year. So last year
Speaker 3: they went through the entire state of the Union and
Speaker 3: they didn't applaud they didn't applaud when Trump walked in.
Speaker 3: They didn't applaud for anything. They just sat for the
Speaker 3: stone faced and heckled and waved their cane in it.
Speaker 3: This year, before the State of the Union, I actually
Speaker 3: went to several Democrats and asked them. I said, okay,
Speaker 3: are you guys going to applaud for the US hockey team?
Speaker 4: Like, come on?
Speaker 3: And they all said yes. In fact, several of them
Speaker 3: had an expletive. They said fyes. And I said, look,
Speaker 3: to be clear, last year, you didn't applaud for a
Speaker 3: kid with cancer?
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that a crazy question.
Speaker 4: Okay.
Speaker 3: One of the Democrats who I actually like, he's I'm
Speaker 3: not going to identify it, but he's got a good
Speaker 3: sense of humor. I said that to him and he said, yeah,
Speaker 3: we hate kids with cancer, which was like, all right,
Speaker 3: Like don't argue, you just kind of vote it and
Speaker 3: be I'm like, all right, well, well played.
Speaker 4: Like they did it again. This year. By the way,
Speaker 4: there was a little girl who couldn't walk who now
Speaker 4: and it was the same thing. A good chunk of
Speaker 4: Democrats would I guess they were trying to play the
Speaker 4: stoic card. It did not read at least from my vantage.
Speaker 4: I thought it looked really callous because there was no
Speaker 4: unity within the party, so there was no clear messaging.
Speaker 4: You know, look that it all seemed pretty disastrous. The
Speaker 4: question that I have as a as a proper conservative
Speaker 4: who is always looking for the downside of things just
Speaker 4: to temper my you know, jubilation. Do you think I
Speaker 4: think universally the speech was viewed as quite good, quite effective.
Speaker 4: Does it make a meaningful difference in the midterms?
Speaker 1: Look, I think it does.
Speaker 3: Do you all right, lay out why.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you why.
Speaker 2: This speech was the things that irritate Republican slash moderate
Speaker 2: voters about Trump, that it's all about him and he
Speaker 2: doesn't know when to you know, the mean tweets and
Speaker 2: the when to shut up, and the things that irritate
Speaker 2: those that can stay home watching his demeanor tonight. He
Speaker 2: came across in such a way of like, these guys
Speaker 2: don't want this, These guys don't put you first, these
Speaker 2: guys don't do this. He also was giving incredible accolades
Speaker 2: and awards and the US hockey team. There was momentum there.
Speaker 2: It was one after another. It was one hundred year
Speaker 2: old man, a veteran, It was the guy who was
Speaker 2: flying the helicopter, the Chinook and telling a story. He
Speaker 2: was praising what makes America great and the people that
Speaker 2: make America great. I actually think that if you are
Speaker 2: a moderate voter, someone maybe a Republican that traditionally stays
Speaker 2: home during the mid terms, I actually think that this
Speaker 2: speech landed with you more than any other speech of
Speaker 2: Trump the way it played on TV. I think it
Speaker 2: also is going to land on the economic issues of
Speaker 2: him reminding the no tax on tips, the no tax
Speaker 2: on overtime, I'm trying to make life more affordable, the
Speaker 2: gas prices. Those are things that I actually think, Well,
Speaker 2: you know, they've been hammering him on all the approval
Speaker 2: rings at forty this or thirty nine or thirty depending
Speaker 2: on what poll. I think he gets a bump that
Speaker 2: actually stays because he landed it so well in the audience,
Speaker 2: and he looked really calm, He looked really just like
Speaker 2: I'm doing this because I want to fix the country,
Speaker 2: and other speeches haven't come across that way always.
Speaker 3: Yeah, let me agree with you in that. I think
Speaker 3: the message tonight was the record of the last year. Yeah,
Speaker 3: the record of the last year, I believe is objectively phenomenal.
Speaker 3: And I've been in the Senate now fourteen years. We've
Speaker 3: never had a year where we've accomplished even a fraction
Speaker 3: of what we have been accomplished in the last year.
Speaker 3: I mean, it is staggering. And he did a good job.
Speaker 3: You know, we talked about on the last pod how
Speaker 3: how I spent thirty forty minutes on the phone with
Speaker 3: Trump last week, and one of the things we talked
Speaker 3: about was messaging for the midterms, and I said, listen,
Speaker 3: we need to focus on results, on the very real
Speaker 3: results securing the border, ninety nine percent drop in elou crossings.
Speaker 3: And then I encouraged him a message that's not getting
Speaker 3: the attention it should is the impact on crime. Yes,
Speaker 3: the murder rates have dropped twenty percent, drug overdose deaths
Speaker 3: have dropped twenty percent. They're literally thousands of Americans who
Speaker 3: were alive today because Trump was elected and Republicans won Congress.
Speaker 4: It's a great message.
Speaker 3: And that's been lost. And I was really happy, like
Speaker 3: the first twenty minutes of the speech were laying out
Speaker 3: that message and going through murder rates and crime rates
Speaker 3: and d C rates and like how unhappy the Democrats
Speaker 3: were that crime rates had plummeted in d C. And
Speaker 3: New Orleans and your hometown.
Speaker 4: Of Memphis, Memphis.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the Democrats were furious that fewer people are being murdered.
Speaker 4: They wouldn't stand up on mass for murder declining. You
Speaker 4: know this. I was looking at the polls and agriate
Speaker 4: of the polls from just January and February leading into.
Speaker 3: This, and to be fair, the pro murder community in
Speaker 3: America is pretty small.
Speaker 4: It is. Look, it's a constituency, but it's not the
Speaker 4: one you want. And so I was looking at as
Speaker 4: agriate of polls, Marist, PBS, a handful of others. And
Speaker 4: the hard fact I spoke to some members of Congress
Speaker 4: about this today. The hard fact is Republicans are underwater
Speaker 4: on the economy, on economic perception. I think you could
Speaker 4: could turn it around, but right now we're little b
Speaker 4: under water. On healthcare. Democrats always went on healthcare and
Speaker 4: on a defensive democracy or it's kind of a contrived category,
Speaker 4: but anyway, they went on that. So the ones that
Speaker 4: we're winning on right now quite decisively are immigration and
Speaker 4: border enforcement, even more so now the border is shut down,
Speaker 4: and especially on crime. So the key it seems to me,
Speaker 4: is one that tells you people are concerned about safety.
Speaker 4: And two, if you can tie all of that together,
Speaker 4: the crime relates obviously to illegal immigration, that's why it's
Speaker 4: called illegal and the housing prices even all the way
Speaker 4: to the you know, the fact that you have six
Speaker 4: months consecutive decline on housing prices coinciding with Mastery petition.
Speaker 3: Too, million people being deported, and that's just less demand,
Speaker 3: right you know. By the way, like a couple of
Speaker 3: weeks ago, the Houston Chronicle had a front page story
Speaker 3: that said murder rates in Houston have declined eighteen percent. Yep,
Speaker 3: And Heidi showed me the article because she knew it
Speaker 3: me off because the article, Yes, the article the Chronicle says,
Speaker 3: nobody can figure out why. It's completely inexplicable. The experts
Speaker 3: we talk about have no idea why the murder rate
Speaker 3: is dropping, and it doesn't occur to them that arresting
Speaker 3: and deporting murderers and gang bangers will reduce the murder rate.
Speaker 3: Like it's not. This is not rocket science. Fewer murderers
Speaker 3: means fewer murders. But yet to Democrats that makes no
Speaker 3: sense to them. And so that message was good. I
Speaker 3: also liked on no tax on tips that he had
Speaker 3: the mom who is the waitress stand up and he said,
Speaker 3: between no tax on tips and no tax on overtime,
Speaker 3: she's going to take home five thousand more dollars this
Speaker 3: year than last year. That was real and it's not abstract.
Speaker 3: And by the way, the Democrats wouldn't applaud for like
Speaker 3: like the mom waiting tables. They're not rooting for her,
Speaker 3: and they want to take that five thousand dollars and
Speaker 3: that's real money.
Speaker 4: You know, five thousand dollars is real money. It's not
Speaker 4: some abstraction.
Speaker 2: Israel is a very hot topic right now, and with
Speaker 2: so many opinions and emotions surrounding it, it can feel
Speaker 2: hard to know where to start. The Bible tells us
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Speaker 2: a comforting promise. It's a clear calling from God, and today,
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Speaker 2: are experiencing more hostility, more threats, and more violence than ever,
Speaker 2: Christians have a powerful opportunity to respond with God's love,
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Speaker 2: the root of our faith and standing against hatred. Supporting
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Speaker 1: Answer the call.
Speaker 4: So nuts and bolts. You know, if this was a
Speaker 4: speech obviously you'ed at the midterms. Do you think it
Speaker 4: moves the needle?
Speaker 3: I did keep message discipline of focusing on it.
Speaker 4: Yes.
Speaker 2: By the way, yes, yesterday morning you and I am
Speaker 2: talking about this. I had breakfast a Speaker Johnson and
Speaker 2: you talk about the reason why I think this one sticks.
Speaker 2: There is a very real sense that Republican leadership have
Speaker 2: our act together for once that we haven't had in
Speaker 2: a long time. I also think that matters. Speaker Johnson
Speaker 2: understands he basically has a one person majority. He does
Speaker 2: not want to have and President Trump doesn't want to
Speaker 2: have the Democrats take over the House.
Speaker 1: It is insanely slim. And I think there working.
Speaker 2: So well together the same way Center that you work
Speaker 2: so well with the president. There does seem to be
Speaker 2: that we're actually on the same team for once. I've
Speaker 2: not experienced that many times in my life in the
Speaker 2: Republican Party. Like there's always the infighting. We always not
Speaker 2: to screwed up when we get power. There's different people
Speaker 2: jocking for positions. There does seem to be a little
Speaker 2: bit of momentum now that we're on the same team
Speaker 2: going the midterms. That's the other reason I think this
Speaker 2: speech will continue in the momentum because you have Johnson
Speaker 2: others advocating.
Speaker 3: Look, I hope so to play Devil's advocates. We're a
Speaker 3: very divided country and so the people who hate Trump
Speaker 3: still hate them after the speech, for sure, if they're
Speaker 3: not actually listening.
Speaker 4: And so.
Speaker 3: I do think Ben, you focused on the right area,
Speaker 3: which is the people who voted for him in twenty
Speaker 3: four but may be demoralized by the press narrative that
Speaker 3: has been driven and to the extent this focuses them
Speaker 3: on Wow, we're winning some big big victories. I also
Speaker 3: really liked Look, the no tax on tips emphasis. I
Speaker 3: liked because I wrote that bill. And I really liked
Speaker 3: his emphasis on the Trump accounts because, as you guys know,
Speaker 3: I wrote that too, and the Democrats wouldn't applaud for that.
Speaker 4: I'm sorry, I actually have to pause here because I'm
Speaker 4: sitting in the upper part of the gallery to the right.
Speaker 4: If you're the president pointing and you didn't get everyone
Speaker 4: was standing up at certain moments. That was one where
Speaker 4: I bolted up, and other people were kind of slower.
Speaker 4: I think they didn't quite process what the Trump accounts meant.
Speaker 4: I'm really into the Trump accounts. Like the Trump accounts
Speaker 4: I think are such a white pill, you know, focusing
Speaker 4: on changes, which is an existential issue. It's so practical,
Speaker 4: and I'm going to confess something. I should follow this,
Speaker 4: I'm like, professionally, I'm supposed to follow this closely. I
Speaker 4: did not know that you were pushing the Trump accounts.
Speaker 4: I wrote it unbelievable. Should have known, but I didn't know.
Speaker 3: In fact, do you want to hear the story of
Speaker 3: the origin of the Trump accounts. It's a cool story
Speaker 3: I've told on the pod, but not in a while.
Speaker 3: So they originated from a poker game in Vegas. So,
Speaker 3: as you guys know, I like poker.
Speaker 1: By the way, Michael, were you invited to this poker night?
Speaker 1: I just want to be clear about it.
Speaker 4: I'm very offended, but I wasn't. I was not invited
Speaker 4: to the Okay, we're on the same team again. It
Speaker 4: was a poker game for political donors. If you guys
Speaker 4: will write me a check.
Speaker 1: The okay. So now saying.
Speaker 3: Podcasters, so you know you ought to.
Speaker 2: Michael, if you and I ever have a poker game,
Speaker 2: I think we will will organize it next time. We'll
Speaker 2: invite the Center in advance. You agree with that. We're
Speaker 2: very generous people, Yes, are We're very kind podcasters.
Speaker 1: Keep going with your stories, all right.
Speaker 3: So I do a poker fundraiser typically in April in Vegas,
Speaker 3: and so not last April, but two aprils ago. I
Speaker 3: was there and and typically several poker pros will come.
Speaker 3: I'm but with a number of the poker pros. And
Speaker 3: so we're sitting at the Bellagio three in the morning
Speaker 3: and Phil Hellmuth, who's one of the greatest poker players
Speaker 3: to have ever lived. Phil would tell you he is
Speaker 3: the greatest poker player to ever live, and he's got
Speaker 3: a real argument to it. He's got I think fifteen bracelets,
Speaker 3: so's it's crazy.
Speaker 1: That's a lot.
Speaker 3: So we're sitting there playing poker and he asked me.
Speaker 3: He says, hey, do you know Brad Gerster And at
Speaker 3: the time I didn't. I'm like, yeah, who's he? And
Speaker 3: he's a very successful venture capitalist in Silicon Valley and
Speaker 3: he has this idea that was called in West America.
Speaker 3: And I'm like, what's that? And Phil describes it for
Speaker 3: a minute, and I said, Hey, that sounds like something
Speaker 3: I'd be really interested in. And so Phil pulls out
Speaker 3: his phone and he puts together a text thread and
Speaker 3: connects me and Brad and says, you two should should talk.
Speaker 3: You would really like each other. The next week, Brad
Speaker 3: gets on a plane, lies to DC, comes to my
Speaker 3: office and pitches the Invested America accounts. I immediately called
Speaker 3: my policy team in and said, let's start drafting this.
Speaker 3: So we drafted the legislation. Now, Brad has said for
Speaker 3: months he had talked to a bunch of other senators
Speaker 3: and none of them did a damn thing.
Speaker 4: Huh.
Speaker 3: He talked to them, and they'd all kind of nod
Speaker 3: and be like, yeah, yeah, that's a great idea, and
Speaker 3: then no one would do anything. We sat down and
Speaker 3: wrote the bill that is the bill that is Trump Accounts.
Speaker 3: It was my bills great that we wrote. And it
Speaker 3: is literally the case that if Phil Hellmuth does not
Speaker 3: connect me with Brad Gersner April a year ago, there
Speaker 3: are no Trump accounts and the American the kids of
Speaker 3: America do not have trillions and investments, which is what
Speaker 3: they're going to have through Trump account You know, this is.
Speaker 1: You know what I heard there by the way I
Speaker 1: heard that.
Speaker 2: Could you imagine the bills that could have been written
Speaker 2: if you, Michael and I were there at that table.
Speaker 4: I know, I mean the good we.
Speaker 1: Could have come up with. We could have cured cancer.
Speaker 1: Maybe at this.
Speaker 4: We could have ended the ninth and tenth wars. That
Speaker 4: could have added to the record.
Speaker 1: We could state department, the ending of the Michael and
Speaker 1: Ben Warres. I like this.
Speaker 4: You know. The thing that I love about the Trump Accounts,
Speaker 4: in particular from the Republican coalitional standpoint is, you know,
Speaker 4: the right always has all these different ideological factions because
Speaker 4: we're more independent thinkers and the left has progressives and
Speaker 4: very progressives and John Fetterman, I guess, and we you know,
Speaker 4: we kind of have all these divisions. And so one
Speaker 4: of the divisions that's come about in recent years, last
Speaker 4: five or ten years, is people who are focused on
Speaker 4: more the common good, you know, kind of an Aristotelian
Speaker 4: view of politics, and people are more focused on the
Speaker 4: libertarian view that comes from classical liberalism up through Sayhayek.
Speaker 4: And what I love about the Trump accounts is it
Speaker 4: actually marries the two. It's this beautiful. It just hits
Speaker 4: this sweet spot. It's good that no flattery because I
Speaker 4: actually didn't even know you were behind. That is really good.
Speaker 3: By the way, we had Brad on Verdict. You know,
Speaker 3: he's come on Verdict and talked about the whole idea.
Speaker 3: And Brad came up with the idea with his two
Speaker 3: teenage sons and they spent years pushing it. And Brad
Speaker 3: was there and recognized by the President of the State
Speaker 3: of the Union. So Brad had put together a CEO's
Speaker 3: council behind the invest America accounts, and the chairman of
Speaker 3: it was Michael Dell. And Michael's a good friend of mine.
Speaker 3: He's a Texan and we spent a lot of time together,
Speaker 3: and the CEOs had all committed that they would contributor
Speaker 3: match to Trump accounts. So they're two accelerators that are
Speaker 3: written into these Trump accounts that make them even more potent.
Speaker 3: Number one is that employers can contributor match. And listen,
Speaker 3: when Congress passed Section four oh one K of ARISA,
Speaker 3: nobody knew how fundamentally they were changing how Americans saved
Speaker 3: for retirement. Today, there's more than twelve trillion dollars in
Speaker 3: four to one K accounts. Trump accounts are for to
Speaker 3: one case for kids. Yeah, so in very short order,
Speaker 3: you're gonna see trillions of dollars in there. The two
Speaker 3: accelerators one is that employers can contributor match, and so
Speaker 3: all the employers on the CEO Council had already committed
Speaker 3: we're going to contributor match. This is going to become
Speaker 3: a ubiquitous as standard employee benefit, just like a four
Speaker 3: to one K contribution is a pretty standard employee benefit.
Speaker 3: You're gonna see employers, We're already seeing a bunch who
Speaker 3: will match or contribute to the Trump accounts of the
Speaker 3: kids of their employees. So that accelerates massively. The second thing,
Speaker 3: and we deliberately wrote this so that it can accept
Speaker 3: philanthropy and it can accept charitable gifts. And as you know,
Speaker 3: Michael and Susan Dell have given six and a quarter
Speaker 3: billion dollars, and what they've given is two hundred and
Speaker 3: fifty dollars for America's two hundred and fiftyth birthday to
Speaker 3: every child in America under age ten who lives in
Speaker 3: a zip code where the median income is one hundred
Speaker 3: and fifty thousand or less. And so we wrote it
Speaker 3: so you can turn the dials. You can turn the
Speaker 3: dials geographically, you can turn the dials age wise, you
Speaker 3: can turn the dials income wise. So Michael's done that.
Speaker 3: Brad Gerstner has given two hundred and fifty dollars to
Speaker 3: every kid in Indiana under age five in zip codes
Speaker 3: with median income of one hundred and fifty thousand or less.
Speaker 3: And Ray Dalio, the hedge fund billionaire, has sponsored the
Speaker 3: kids in Connecticut. And I actually have talked to a
Speaker 3: number of gazillionaires and Michael, Dell and Brad are getting
Speaker 3: on zooms and talking to people with great wealth.
Speaker 1: That's awesome.
Speaker 3: Encouraging them give your resources. And here my Michael and
Speaker 3: I have talked at length about that and one of
Speaker 3: the things that he got excited about. So, look, Michael
Speaker 3: and Susan have between a hundred billion and two hundred
Speaker 3: billion dollars, Like it's a massive amount of money, and
Speaker 3: they're smart and responsible, and so they've had serious conversations
Speaker 3: about how do you give away your fortune? And look,
Speaker 3: you look at people who have achieved great fortunes. They
Speaker 3: create a foundation. The foundation gets taken over by a
Speaker 3: bunch of Marxists who spend all their money undermining everything
Speaker 3: the founders believe. Every time Henry Ford is rolling over
Speaker 3: in his grave, John D. Rockefeller is spitting in his grave.
Speaker 3: And one of the problems with that much money is
Speaker 3: it's hard to give it away. Most charities can't take
Speaker 3: a billion dollars like it's too much money and it
Speaker 3: swamps them. So Michael and Susan have given six and
Speaker 3: a quarter billion dollars, but they've told me they are
Speaker 3: contemplating giving much much more than that.
Speaker 1: That's so cool.
Speaker 3: One of the things that's really powerful about these Trump
Speaker 3: accounts is they're infinitely scalable. They could literally absorb the
Speaker 3: entirety of Michael Dell's fortune and the fortune of every
Speaker 3: other gazillionaire. And what is really potent is the time
Speaker 3: value of investing. Look, if someone starts saving or investing
Speaker 3: when they're sixty, it's hard for it to grow and
Speaker 3: accumulate enough to be really significant by the time they
Speaker 3: were retiring. What makes the Trump accounts so incredibly potent
Speaker 3: is we're starting at age zero, We're starting at baby.
Speaker 3: So you've got a time horizon where the kids of
Speaker 3: a single mom waiting table can accumulate hundreds of thousands
Speaker 3: and even millions of dollars. And so for philanthropy, the
Speaker 3: math is powerful. If you put another thousand dollars in
Speaker 3: at the outset, it really really grows. And so that's
Speaker 3: something that is going to be really significant to speed
Speaker 3: these up. And and the point Michael you made, which
Speaker 3: which got me really excited, is we're creating a new
Speaker 3: generation of capitalists that every kid will have skin in
Speaker 3: the game and be an owner of the biggest employers
Speaker 3: in America.
Speaker 4: I thought this was a really important point. The President
Speaker 4: touched on well one that the Trump accounts just do that,
Speaker 4: so it gives people skin in the game, even when
Speaker 4: the President pointed out only half of Americans have access
Speaker 4: to for one case, Yeah, they said, we want to
Speaker 4: we want to bring that other half of them.
Speaker 3: Let them opt in to the Drift savings plan. That's
Speaker 3: an idea I've talked with the President in the White
Speaker 3: House about. I think it's a brilliant idea. I strongly
Speaker 3: support it. I'm working on legislation to do that as well,
Speaker 3: to codify that right because it's Look, the more you
Speaker 3: can create investors, get people with equity. And one of
Speaker 3: the important things about how how the administration is designing
Speaker 3: the Trump Accounts app is that it is not gonna
Speaker 3: simply say you've got X dollars in the S and P.
Speaker 4: Five hundred.
Speaker 3: It's gonna break down every constituent stock they own within it.
Speaker 1: That's awesome.
Speaker 3: So a ten year old will be able to see
Speaker 3: I own one hundred bucks of Apple, Yea or Tesla
Speaker 3: or Ford or McDonald's, and they'll see so a kid
Speaker 3: won't be rooting. I hate evil corporations. I want them
Speaker 3: to fail. They're gonna be like, wait, I own that corporation.
Speaker 3: I want them to do better. That changes their whole worldview.
Speaker 3: It makes them capitalists.
Speaker 4: You know it. Even during one of the big crises
Speaker 4: of capitalism in the early twentieth century, where you had
Speaker 4: real excesses of industrialization that created you know, like child
Speaker 4: labor and all this stuff, there was this movement among
Speaker 4: serious Christian thinkers to try to resolve these tensions between
Speaker 4: capitalism and the working poor. And there were all these
Speaker 4: chesters and had a version with Bell Law distributism. But
Speaker 4: the whole point, and there's didn't really work. But the
Speaker 4: whole point was you need people to really have a
Speaker 4: steak in the society in following subsidiarity, and you know,
Speaker 4: all these principles that are so enshrined in the American
Speaker 4: system too, and this really does that where you think, oh,
Speaker 4: I have a steak in the corporations, I have a steak.
Speaker 3: He either way, I miss geeky, cerebral academic stuff on
Speaker 3: the pod. I will say, the sort of tenor of
Speaker 3: verdict has shifted. I don't know why. I can't imagine
Speaker 3: the cause, but I'm just saying, you know, I'm having
Speaker 3: a loft of nostalgia.
Speaker 4: There's a little more chester Kien. It comes it.
Speaker 2: Yes, all the people that just wakes back up I
Speaker 2: got you back. Keep going wake up now. Our audience
Speaker 2: level just went like this, but we're back now they're
Speaker 2: all awake again.
Speaker 1: Make your final point.
Speaker 4: Go ahead, this this this key is really important because
Speaker 4: this is what really jazzed me about it. I don't
Speaker 4: like can win the right fractures into a million directions
Speaker 4: because you know, I feel for Speaker Johnson. He has
Speaker 4: the worst job in all of politics. Yes, he has
Speaker 4: to hurt a bunch of cats. They all have all
Speaker 4: sorts of views, they have all sorts of principles, some
Speaker 4: of which conflict with each other, and so it's hard
Speaker 4: to get the right to do anything together.
Speaker 3: And he is a good and decent Man's amazing.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he's a wonderful guy, and he's doing a great
Speaker 4: He happens to also be doing a great job. But
Speaker 4: I just think what the President was speaking on, especially
Speaker 4: these kinds of issues, these are the kind of things
Speaker 4: that can actually rally the way together with moderate voters,
Speaker 4: frankly even central right. So who don't want the crazy.
Speaker 1: Final question for each of you?
Speaker 2: Quickly, as we are hitting about an hour here in
Speaker 2: our say the union coverage over under on the midterms. Now,
Speaker 2: how much better do you feel going at leaving the
Speaker 2: end of the night compared to going into the beginning
Speaker 2: of the speech tonight, how much more optimistic are we
Speaker 2: can hold the house.
Speaker 4: Hold the House. It's going to be very hard in
Speaker 4: my view, to hold the House. I would say, look,
Speaker 4: I feel I'll just pick a number. I feel twenty
Speaker 4: percent better. If the Republicans can stay on message, if
Speaker 4: the Republicans cannot devolve into petty in fighting, if the
Speaker 4: Republicans can be disciplined in the way they campaign, these
Speaker 4: are all you know. If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.
Speaker 4: I still think historic headwins best of circumstances. The party
Speaker 4: and power, especially with unified government, loses the House in
Speaker 4: the midterms. However, I think that the President did every
Speaker 4: single thing possible to put the party in an advantage
Speaker 4: heading into the center.
Speaker 3: And look, my view right now, the political environment is rough. Yes,
Speaker 3: if the election were today, it.
Speaker 4: Would not be a great outcome.
Speaker 3: We are nationally in about a D plus six and environment.
Speaker 3: What that means is where polling is nationally is about
Speaker 3: six points more Democrat than it was an election day
Speaker 3: in twenty twenty four. If we're in a D plus
Speaker 3: six environment, we lose the House and the Senate.
Speaker 4: Is potentially in jeopardy.
Speaker 3: Crazy if the election were today, that would be a
Speaker 3: real possibility. The good news is we got eight months
Speaker 3: and the substantive record is phenomenally good. It's not just
Speaker 3: a little bit good, it is insanely good. And so
Speaker 3: tonight was encouraging because Trump focused most of his time
Speaker 3: on laying out methodically that substantive record and just how
Speaker 3: good it is and what we have to do. I mean,
Speaker 3: I do like that we have eight months. Most Americans
Speaker 3: don't know all these victories we're winning exactly, and so
Speaker 3: our task is communicate the victories that are making a
Speaker 3: real difference in people's lives. But the good news is
Speaker 3: we have a monster amount of substance to talk about.
Speaker 3: We just need to talk about it. And and I
Speaker 3: think if we make that case, we could certainly keep
Speaker 3: the House and the Senate and grow our majorities in there.
Speaker 2: You go, Michael, next year, say the Union, you and
Speaker 2: I will be hanging out. We'll make sure we invite
Speaker 2: Center Cruz and so we can.
Speaker 3: Maybe maybe maybe you're gonna make me fly home.
Speaker 2: It might make you fly somewhere exactly exactly we'll tell
Speaker 2: you while you're on the tarmac. Don't worry, there'll be
Speaker 2: plenty of time if you get off the plane. Don't forget.
Speaker 2: We do this show money Wednesday Friday. Always a pleasure
Speaker 2: to have you, Michael, hanging out on a really fun evening.
Speaker 2: Hit the download auto auto subscribe button. You can watch
Speaker 2: us on YouTube or Facebook as well. The Center and
Speaker 2: I will see you back here in a couple of days.