Speaker 1: Welcome in his verdict with Center, Teed Cruz, Ben Ferguson
Speaker 1: with You and Center in his Election Night. We're doing
Speaker 1: a dual pod right now for our show and my
Speaker 1: show as well. There's one big takeaway. It was a
Speaker 1: great election night in general for conservatives all over the country.
Speaker 2: Well, we had election night in Texas and it was
Speaker 2: a big election. It was a consequential election. We had
Speaker 2: the runoff for the US Senate race, and we now
Speaker 2: know with absolute certainty that come January I am going
Speaker 2: to be serving with a new senator from the state
Speaker 2: of Texas. We had the Republican runoff between my current
Speaker 2: colleague John Cornyn and his challenger, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton,
Speaker 2: and Paxton won decisively, a big double digit victory. We're
Speaker 2: going to break down what happened in election night and
Speaker 2: what it means for Texas. We're also going to break
Speaker 2: down what's next in the general election. Who is the
Speaker 2: Democrat nominee, This James Tallerrico guy, and I'll warn you
Speaker 2: it ain't pretty. We're going to get into that in
Speaker 2: detail right now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's definitely a radical, and we're going to let
Speaker 1: all of America understand exactly who he is.
Speaker 3: Want to take a moment, though, and talk to.
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Speaker 1: So center this is one of those that is a
Speaker 1: very interesting case study. In Traditionally, if you are an establishment,
Speaker 1: if you are an incumbent, you have a massive advantage.
Speaker 1: You have a lot of fun unraising that comes in.
Speaker 1: You've got a lot of Washington money that comes in,
Speaker 1: you have special interest money like you got a lot
Speaker 1: of advantages and usually a bigger microphone. What we have
Speaker 1: learned so far through this whole process around the country
Speaker 1: is just because you have that. If Donald Trump decides
Speaker 1: that he wants to go against you and wants to
Speaker 1: back another America First Kennedy he believes will serve the
Speaker 1: interest of his agenda better, you could be in serious trouble.
Speaker 1: We watched it happen in Louisiana, We've now seen it
Speaker 1: happen in Texas well.
Speaker 2: I think that's right. There was an awful lot going
Speaker 2: on in this race. Let's let's start off just with
Speaker 2: the results. So we're sitting here, it's right now eleven
Speaker 2: forty three pm Tuesday night, Election night, and as of
Speaker 2: right now, this is with ninety two percent of the
Speaker 2: results in Ken Paxton is getting sixty four percent of
Speaker 2: the vote. John Cornyn is getting thirty six percent. So
Speaker 2: that is, as of right now, eight hundred and fifty eight,
Speaker 2: five hundred and forty seven votes for Ken Paxson, Oh
Speaker 2: just bumped up eight hundred and sixty two, one hundred
Speaker 2: and fifty votes Ken Paxton to four hundred and eighty
Speaker 2: four thousand, six hundred and twenty five for John Cornyn.
Speaker 2: So that is nearly a thirty point victory, a twenty
Speaker 2: eight point victory. We'll see what the final numbers are
Speaker 2: when all the votes are tallied. But that is a
Speaker 2: massive win.
Speaker 3: And yeah, that represents it.
Speaker 1: That is that's a blood bath for any incumbent, I
Speaker 1: don't care if you're a Republican or Democrat. And that's
Speaker 1: how the media is treating it as well well.
Speaker 2: And it represents a sea change. So John Cornyn has
Speaker 2: been in the Senate for twenty four years. He has
Speaker 2: been an institution in the Senate. He was the Majority
Speaker 2: Whip of the Senate, so he was the number two
Speaker 2: elected Republican in the Senate. He served that position for
Speaker 2: six years. John Cornyn ran for Majority leader when we
Speaker 2: took the majority. When Mitch McConnell stepped down as Majority leader,
Speaker 2: John Cornyn ran against John Thune and it was a
Speaker 2: close election. John Cordyen obviously did not prevail, but it
Speaker 2: was a vote that was decided by just a couple
Speaker 2: of votes. And and so John Cornyn in a different
Speaker 2: universe would have been the Majority leader of the United
Speaker 2: States Senate right now.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 2: And and instead he has faced an election where he
Speaker 2: lost by twenty eight points. Now, there were a number
Speaker 2: of factors at play there, and I will say Donald
Speaker 2: Trump endorsed and endorsed late, and there's no doubt it
Speaker 2: had a very significant impact. That that being said, Uh,
Speaker 2: most of the polling that that was in this race,
Speaker 2: even before the Trump endorsement, showed that Paxson was going
Speaker 2: to win and was likely to win with a sizeable victory.
Speaker 2: And so I think the Trump endorsement certainly grew that
Speaker 2: margin of victory and and and made it the dramatic,
Speaker 2: the nearly thirty point victory that it was. But I
Speaker 2: think one of the factors that that caused President Trump
Speaker 2: to endorse is he was looking at the same polling
Speaker 2: everyone else was looking at that showed showed Paxson with
Speaker 2: it with a significant lead in the race to begin with.
Speaker 2: There are a lot of reasons for this, but in
Speaker 2: many ways, this race played out as a traditional conservative
Speaker 2: versus establishment primary, and that's a primary. I know a
Speaker 2: lot about my race fourteen years ago when I was
Speaker 2: elected to the Senate, was very much the same dynamic
Speaker 2: where I was running against David Dewhurst. He was the
Speaker 2: city lieutenant governor, He had universal name ID, he had
Speaker 2: over two hundred million dollars, so he wrote a thirty
Speaker 2: five million dollar check to his own campaign, and I'd
Speaker 2: never been elected to nothing like literally the last thing
Speaker 2: I was elected to was student council. So I was
Speaker 2: at two percent in the polls.
Speaker 1: Ahead of you technically because I did win like I think,
Speaker 1: class president freshman year in college. So I even had
Speaker 1: more currencies than you did at that moment. I just
Speaker 1: want to make sure that the audience understands that right.
Speaker 2: Now, it was an impossible race. And yet what we
Speaker 2: saw when I was elected in twenty twelve is we
Speaker 2: saw the conservative grass roots come together and we ended
Speaker 2: up going from two percent in the polls to winning
Speaker 2: by double digits in the primary and winning by double digits.
Speaker 2: We won the primary by fourteen points, and we won
Speaker 2: the general by sixteen points. And so it was an
Speaker 2: amazing victory of the conservative grass roots against the person
Speaker 2: everyone thought was the unbeatable front runner. This Cornn Paxton
Speaker 2: race had had similar dynamics. The money in this race
Speaker 2: was massive, So this is now shattered records, Yeah, for
Speaker 2: the single most expensive Senate race in American history in
Speaker 2: a primary.
Speaker 1: In this race, I mean we're talking more than usually
Speaker 1: spent in a general election by a lot.
Speaker 2: So just in phase one of the primary, over one
Speaker 2: hundred million dollars was spent. I think when you tally
Speaker 2: the runoff, it will end up being well north of
Speaker 2: one hundred and fifty million dollars spent in this primary,
Speaker 2: and the overwhelming that ninety plus percent of that was
Speaker 2: spent supporting John Cornyn. So Paxton spent relatively little money
Speaker 2: and won by an overwhelming margin. Now one of the
Speaker 2: consequences of this is is the Democrats they are looking
Speaker 2: to attack Ken Paxton. He is a conservative Kent Both
Speaker 2: Ken and John are friends. I've served with John Cornyon
Speaker 2: fourteen years. He and I are very different senators, but
Speaker 2: we've worked well together and and we've worked in a
Speaker 2: cooperative and collegial way. That's part of how you represent
Speaker 2: your state. And at the same time, Ken Paxton has
Speaker 2: been been a friend of mine for a long time.
Speaker 2: Both Paxon and corn and I've supported previously. I've campaigned
Speaker 2: with them previously, I have campaigned for them previously. Paxton, objectively,
Speaker 2: I believe has been the most conservative state attorney general
Speaker 2: in the country. Is a strong record as a conservative
Speaker 2: state ag and that was a big part of of
Speaker 2: why he prevailed, and that was driving his momentum long
Speaker 2: before President Trump made his endorsement. That being said, there
Speaker 2: are a lot of nasty personal attacks that have been
Speaker 2: leveled at Ken Paxton, and the odds are precisely one
Speaker 2: hundred point zero percent that we will see millions and
Speaker 2: millions of dollars of attack ads in the general election,
Speaker 2: bringing up every one of those personal attacks and going
Speaker 2: after him viciously. The Democrats are not gonna play nice
Speaker 2: because they see a chance. The Democrats believe they have
Speaker 2: a chance to win the general and I got a
Speaker 2: message to Republicans in Texas and nationwide, do not take
Speaker 2: this general election for granted. At that it is easy
Speaker 2: to say it's Texas, it's red, We're gonna win, and
Speaker 2: I believe we are gonna win. But I also think
Speaker 2: the Democrat nominee, James Tallerico, is a dane risk candidate.
Speaker 1: There was obviously a massive victory that happened in this
Speaker 1: country with the overturning of Roe v. Wade, But what
Speaker 1: it really meant was the issue of abortion would go
Speaker 1: back to the States, and that is where the real
Speaker 1: fight has actually begun.
Speaker 3: Now.
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Speaker 1: get to Before we get to James, I want to
Speaker 1: just go back and let people understand the basis for
Speaker 1: why you have that warning. You have been in the
Speaker 1: same position in many ways that Kins walking into. You
Speaker 1: have a Democratic party that is very energized, you have
Speaker 1: a Democratic party that is well funded. You have a
Speaker 1: Democratic party that sends massive amounts of cash into Texas
Speaker 1: against a Conservative and you were the number one target
Speaker 1: maybe twice in your career. I think it may be
Speaker 1: fair to say by Democrats wanting to get rid of you,
Speaker 1: and the majority of the money coming into that race
Speaker 1: was from outside interest groups outside the state. Massive amounts
Speaker 1: of money come from place like California and New York.
Speaker 1: And the reason why you said your warning the way
Speaker 1: that you just said it is because they do get
Speaker 1: better at this over time, not worse, said it. They
Speaker 1: start to realize where they messed up, where they may
Speaker 1: be spent money shouldn't have spent, and they get smarter
Speaker 1: and smarter. That's part of the reason why you're saying
Speaker 1: this warning, not just in Texas but around the country.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Look, I have been there before, both of my reelects.
Speaker 2: I was Chuck Schumer's number one target in the country.
Speaker 2: And so they've thrown everything in the kitchen sink trying
Speaker 2: to take me out, and I've been there. They're getting
Speaker 2: ready to do that to Ken Paxton. And actually there
Speaker 2: is potentially a real analogy between twenty twenty six and
Speaker 2: twenty eighteen. Twenty eighteen was my first reelect. Yeah, twenty
Speaker 2: eighteen was two years after Donald Trump was first elected president.
Speaker 2: In twenty eighteen, you had several things going on. Number one,
Speaker 2: the left was enraged. They hated Donald Trump, so they
Speaker 2: were energized and they showed up in massive, massive numbers
Speaker 2: in twenty eighteen. And also, two years into the administration
Speaker 2: without Trump on the ticket, there was some complacency and
Speaker 2: so cross the country, Republican turnout was not nearly as
Speaker 2: high as it had been. And those two together are
Speaker 2: a dangerous combination. What did that mean in twenty eighteen,
Speaker 2: Let me let me give you just what we faced
Speaker 2: in that year. The Democrats more than doubled their turnout
Speaker 2: in Texas. They drove Democrat turnout from one point eight
Speaker 2: million all the way up to four million, more than
Speaker 2: two x. Now, my campaign, as you know, and you
Speaker 2: know my campaign team, well we're obsessively numbers and data driven.
Speaker 2: We saw all of that happening. We saw the surge
Speaker 2: and Democrat turnout, Democrats who had never shown up coming
Speaker 2: out to vote, and so we set out to drive
Speaker 2: up Republican turnout. I did a fifty stop bus tour
Speaker 2: across the state, spent six weeks barnstorming the state, spent
Speaker 2: a lot of time in rural Texas and deep East Texas,
Speaker 2: in West Texas, in the Panhandle. You've got conservative voters
Speaker 2: there who historically don't show up in midterms. They typically
Speaker 2: stay home. And I was ringing the bell saying, look,
Speaker 2: if you stay home, we will lose the state of Texas.
Speaker 2: We ended up driving was public.
Speaker 1: I was around that campaign, and it was we were nervous.
Speaker 1: By the way, when did you actually feel good in
Speaker 1: that year about like having a victory that day? If
Speaker 1: I remember correctly, till the very end, there was not
Speaker 1: a lot of like swagger in the campaign, like, hey,
Speaker 1: we got this thing.
Speaker 2: Well and there's a reason for that. So we drove
Speaker 2: Republican turnout from two point eight million all the way
Speaker 2: up to four point two million. Yeah, so I won
Speaker 2: by point two I won by two hundred thousand votes
Speaker 2: out of more than eight million votes cast statewide. The
Speaker 2: margin was two point six percent. And yeah, look a
Speaker 2: lot of observers, I'll tell you the Beto o'rourarq campaign.
Speaker 2: I was running against Beto Ourke, and he was particularly
Speaker 2: the first time he ran, which was against me. He
Speaker 2: was a remarkable candidate, charismatic, became a national phenomenon. That
Speaker 2: twenty eighteen race, at the time was the single most
Speaker 2: expensive Senate race in US history. That's how much they
Speaker 2: wanted to take me out. To give you a sense
Speaker 2: of the kind of financial mismatch, because I was outspent
Speaker 2: three to one in that race. In the third quarter
Speaker 2: of twenty eighteen, I raised to wine.
Speaker 1: By the way, in politics, you don't usually win when
Speaker 1: you're down three to one. Just so people understand how
Speaker 1: much outside influence money came in.
Speaker 2: So let me give you a little bit of the math.
Speaker 2: Third quarter of twenty eighteen, I raised twelve million dollars
Speaker 2: in hard money people going to my website contributing money.
Speaker 2: That was at the time the record for the most
Speaker 2: hard money any Senate candidate had raised in a single
Speaker 2: quarter in the history of the state of Texas. Wow,
Speaker 2: do you know how long my record lasted.
Speaker 3: I'm going to guess, like three seconds.
Speaker 2: Two hours.
Speaker 3: It took two hours. There we go.
Speaker 2: So my record was twelve million. It was the most.
Speaker 2: The old record had been like eight or nine million.
Speaker 2: So I had beaten the old record by a decent margin.
Speaker 2: My record was twelve million. Two hours later, Beto O'Rourke
Speaker 2: reported his numbers. What do you think he raised that quarter?
Speaker 1: I see if I remember it was it like almost
Speaker 1: double what you had.
Speaker 2: No, it was thirty eight million. It was more than
Speaker 2: three x I had twelve. He had thirty eight in
Speaker 2: one quarter. That was the kind of dynamic we were facing.
Speaker 2: And I'm gonna tell you the Beto campaign was shocked
Speaker 2: to lose. They believe they had won that race. They
Speaker 2: went into election night thinking they'd won. They had confetti
Speaker 2: cannons on the stage because they're looking at the numbers
Speaker 2: and they're saying, Okay, we've more than double turnout. Game over,
Speaker 2: like like.
Speaker 1: If they had unlimited spending power against you, because the
Speaker 1: entire Democrat machine from DC to California was in to
Speaker 1: take you out. So if you've got unlimited funds and
Speaker 1: you double the turnout, in theory, you should absolutely win
Speaker 1: that race.
Speaker 2: So twenty twenty six has a lot in common with
Speaker 2: twenty eighteen. It's two years in to the beginning of
Speaker 2: another Trump presidency. The left is highly energized. They're raising
Speaker 2: a ton of money me. They hate Ken Paxton just
Speaker 2: like they hate me. They're going to raise a mountain
Speaker 2: of money against him. And I guarantee you leftists are
Speaker 2: going to be energized and show up to vote. And
Speaker 2: the challenge is much the same as twenty eighteen. I
Speaker 2: called Kendnight, I congratulated him. He was obviously very happy,
Speaker 2: and I said, listen, I'm all in. You have you
Speaker 2: have my total support. I'm going to do everything I
Speaker 2: can to help you, to help you raise money, to
Speaker 2: help you turn people out, to help you with the grassroots.
Speaker 2: We've got to win because the races is dangerous and
Speaker 2: and and the left is coming after him, and their
Speaker 2: candidate is very reminiscent of Beto O'Rourke now now James
Speaker 2: Tall Rico. He was a state rep. But and he's
Speaker 2: someone whose substantive views are really extreme. You know, last
Speaker 2: podcast we did, we highlighted Graham Plattner, the the the
Speaker 2: communist with a Nazi tattoo in Maine, who is the
Speaker 2: Democrat nominee in Maine. And we talked about just how
Speaker 2: extra even crazy the Democrat Party is. Well, James Tallerco
Speaker 2: is absolutely extreme. We're gonna break that down in just
Speaker 2: a minute. But I will tell you what makes Tallarrico dangerous,
Speaker 2: and that worries me is he packages it in this
Speaker 2: very nice, aw shucks demeanor. Yeah, and he sounds like
Speaker 2: a preacher. He went to seminary, so he is a
Speaker 2: licensed preacher, and any much of what he says he
Speaker 2: quotes Biblical verses. And what worries me is someone who's
Speaker 2: not paying attention much to politics. Mike turn on the
Speaker 2: TV and look at him and say, oh, he seems
Speaker 2: like a nice young man. And for me, I would
Speaker 2: rather my wolves come in Wolve's clothing rather than look
Speaker 2: like a sweet, inoffensive, nice young man who happens to
Speaker 2: be an extreme radical left winger. I'd rather they be
Speaker 2: out in the open and let you know exactly.
Speaker 4: Who they are.
Speaker 3: Into who this guy is here.
Speaker 1: Because you go back to twenty twenty two, James Tallerico
Speaker 1: said it is ex essential, all right to reduce meat consumption.
Speaker 2: What was that word again?
Speaker 3: Ex essential.
Speaker 1: You're gonna mock me on You're gonna mock me on
Speaker 1: the show to night, aren't you. I've been talking a
Speaker 1: long time.
Speaker 2: Today, Ky, try that word. There's a there's a tad.
Speaker 1: Good, I'll take the masterclassroom. You go ahead and say
Speaker 1: the word that I'm having a problem with the night.
Speaker 1: I'm just I'm more than happy at midnight for you
Speaker 1: to say that word on my behalf.
Speaker 2: That would be existential, existential.
Speaker 3: There we go. Good, I can I can copy the word.
Speaker 2: It's not that he has extra sensory abilities. That's something different.
Speaker 2: If he had esp that, that would be a different story.
Speaker 3: The lickings I take. It's unbelievable.
Speaker 1: So back to twenty twenty two and James, this is
Speaker 1: a guy that in Texas. I said this on on
Speaker 1: Harris Faukner Show on Fox Today, and they were talking
Speaker 1: about the prime in Texas. We like meat in Texas.
Speaker 1: We are ranchers, we are farmers. We're not vegans. We
Speaker 1: don't do this like mystery fake meat stuff like that's
Speaker 1: just not who we are.
Speaker 3: But this is what he doesn't want you to know
Speaker 3: about him.
Speaker 1: Back in twenty twenty two, as a principal by the way,
Speaker 1: while saying this, he was wearing a mask. The COVID
Speaker 1: mass for the press conference. Here is in his own words,
Speaker 1: take a listen.
Speaker 4: What we have I think heard more and more issues
Speaker 4: of animal welfare. I think not just because it's the
Speaker 4: right thing to do and the moral thing to do,
Speaker 4: but also it's, as all of you know, necessary to
Speaker 4: fight climate change. It is now existential that we try
Speaker 4: to reduce our meat consumption and that we try to
Speaker 4: respect animals in all aspects of society. And so I
Speaker 4: am proud to say that our campaign has officially become
Speaker 4: a non meat campaign. So we we are only buying
Speaker 4: vegan products from from our local vegan businesses. Some of
Speaker 4: you may know big nonas. They were little nonas and
Speaker 4: then they opened up brick and mortars and their big nonas.
Speaker 4: But we just got our pizza from there today. And
Speaker 4: so the point is that I think all of us,
Speaker 4: not just policymakers, but everyone has to take personal responsibility
Speaker 4: in this effort.
Speaker 1: I've never in my life heard a vegan campaign being
Speaker 1: like propped up much. I was like, you want to
Speaker 1: do that in Seattle, that actually may work. You want
Speaker 1: to do it in San Francisco that it may actually work.
Speaker 1: You want to do this up in New York City.
Speaker 1: I'm not even sure it would work there actually, because
Speaker 1: they actually like normal food there. But saying our campaign
Speaker 1: as a responsible Canada is a vegan campaign like.
Speaker 3: That in Texas. And this goes back to like everyone
Speaker 3: needs to know who this guy is.
Speaker 2: Well, look, and I get that you're taking this very
Speaker 2: personally because because you owned a barbecue restaurant. And oh yeah,
Speaker 2: so he's taking a direct assault on your livelihood. Just
Speaker 2: wait till he comes out for banning guns and banning radio.
Speaker 2: I mean, I mean, Ben will lose his mind.
Speaker 3: I will that as a fact.
Speaker 2: You know, it's actually ironic that in twenty eighteen, when
Speaker 2: I was running against Beto of our fifty stop bus tour,
Speaker 2: my guess is a third of those stops were barbecue restaurants.
Speaker 2: If you're traveling little towns around the state, a lot
Speaker 2: of times barbecue restaurants are where you'll do a rally.
Speaker 2: And we were at one barbecue restaurant I think it
Speaker 2: was in Columbus, Texas, a little town kind of halfway
Speaker 2: between Houston and Austin. And we're there and Peta was there,
Speaker 2: protesting me. They had signs out and they were protesting
Speaker 2: people of the ethical treatment of animals. They were protesting
Speaker 2: against me. And I joked at the time, I said, look,
Speaker 2: thank you, I'm really glad Pete is here. And then
Speaker 2: they've underscored the stakes of this campaign, which is, if
Speaker 2: you elect Beto O'Rourke, he's going to ban barbecue. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and look, it was a laugh line there. I didn't
Speaker 2: realize that. Fast forward to twenty twenty six, you're going
Speaker 2: to have someone who literally believes barb is immoral. And
Speaker 2: and listen, if someone chooses to be vegetarian or vegan
Speaker 2: or what have you looked To be clear, my wife,
Speaker 2: Heidi is vegetarian. That's a choice you could make. I
Speaker 2: am an enthusiastic carnivore, but.
Speaker 1: I had barbecue tonight. Literally, that's like we had a
Speaker 1: campaign event.
Speaker 2: Had a sausage. It was it was good stuff, halapena
Speaker 2: cheddar uh, and there was some sort of I don't
Speaker 2: know what was the vengue. Was that like celery or something.
Speaker 2: It was holopena, chadar or something else. It was in
Speaker 2: the It was in the sausage. Did you not eat
Speaker 2: the sausage?
Speaker 4: It?
Speaker 1: Oh, I have the sausage, but I also had the chicken.
Speaker 1: I had some of the brisket. You know, I was
Speaker 1: like carnivore all like everything else. Us salad part, you
Speaker 1: went with it. Did you look at the salad part?
Speaker 1: There was the nice creams there for you, sir.
Speaker 2: Okay, so you went with the girly meats like like
Speaker 2: you said, I went to the barbecue restaurant and I
Speaker 2: have turkey.
Speaker 3: It was there and I ate it. I feel good
Speaker 3: about it too.
Speaker 2: Look, I think you're prepared to volunteer for Telerico's campaign
Speaker 2: if you're boycotting the sausage. That that's not no.
Speaker 3: I at the sausage. It was good.
Speaker 1: I just didn't notice the green in there. I look
Speaker 1: over that stuff. I look for just pure.
Speaker 3: Is that meat? Is that cheese? I'm all in, all right.
Speaker 2: So look, it's the self righteous way in which he
Speaker 2: lectures that. Yes, and it's saying, you know, all of
Speaker 2: you are morally inferior to me, and and and I'm
Speaker 2: gonna give you an example. We're gonna play some of these,
Speaker 2: but I'm gonna give you an example of some of
Speaker 2: the things he said. He has said God is non binary. Yeah, now,
Speaker 2: that's pretty out there. He has also said, we've.
Speaker 1: Got the montage on that you want to play that
Speaker 1: real quick because we will it.
Speaker 2: We will in a second, but we will in a second.
Speaker 2: But but I want to just walk through some of it.
Speaker 2: He has also said they're not just just two sexes,
Speaker 2: there are actually six biological sexes six What day?
Speaker 1: What day in creation did God do the six sexes?
Speaker 1: I'm just curious, is that.
Speaker 3: On like the eighth day in the Bible? We just
Speaker 3: add that in there. I just want to know when
Speaker 3: that happened.
Speaker 2: And by the way, your former employer, CNN, when they
Speaker 2: were covering a story about I couldn't resist that about
Speaker 2: about Pastor hetting him for saying they're six biological sexes,
Speaker 2: CNN put a chiron in the bottom of the screen.
Speaker 2: Paxton falsely claims Tallarico said they're six biological sexes. He's
Speaker 2: on video. We're going to play it for you, and
Speaker 2: are you going to believe, CNN? Are your own lying
Speaker 2: years He has said that the Bible justifies abortion, that
Speaker 2: he is pro abortioned because of the Bible.
Speaker 1: He said, Pastor so he's got to be right right
Speaker 1: because he's a pastor.
Speaker 3: So so therefore he would never lie about what the Bible says.
Speaker 2: He has said Jesus was a radical feminist. He has
Speaker 2: said white men are the greatest domestic terrorist threat in
Speaker 2: our country.
Speaker 1: He is six, so you don't have to worry about
Speaker 1: being I'm the one that's the target there.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 2: He has said that illegal immigrants are his quote constituents.
Speaker 2: He has posted tips to evade ice, and he said
Speaker 2: we should approach the southern border like our front door
Speaker 2: and put a welcome mat on it. Yes, when he
Speaker 2: was a school teacher, he made his sixth graders write
Speaker 2: Obama memoirs. And he has said fascism will be wrapped
Speaker 2: in the flag and carrying the cross. Listen to some
Speaker 2: of the greatest hits from James tall Rico.
Speaker 4: This is the guy you voted for. Our southern border
Speaker 4: should be like our front porch. There should be a
Speaker 4: giant welcome mat out front. There are many more than
Speaker 4: two biological sexes. In fact, there are six. God is
Speaker 4: both masculine and feminine and everything in between. God is
Speaker 4: non binary.
Speaker 1: Oh really, God is non binary. And by the way,
Speaker 1: the sixth sexes dis for seeing in clarity. As you mentioned,
Speaker 1: you're exactly right we have the tape, so your headline
Speaker 1: you might want to, like, you know, fix it, alter it,
Speaker 1: change it, whatever it is.
Speaker 3: But these are just some of the highlights of what this.
Speaker 1: Guy believes, and again they are trying to make him
Speaker 1: and I do think it's the most dangerous part. As
Speaker 1: you mentioned earlier, he looks like he's a really nice
Speaker 1: guy who's a pastor, soft spoken, he's very charismatic. That's
Speaker 1: what makes him so dangerous until you actually go to
Speaker 1: his own words and his own posts and his own
Speaker 1: speeches center that's when you find out what a radical
Speaker 1: he actually is.
Speaker 2: Well, yes, but look at least the guy loves America,
Speaker 2: loves the American flag, and well wait, wait no, let's
Speaker 2: actually listen to his own words. I want you to
Speaker 2: listen to what he said about the American flag. This
Speaker 2: again is his own words. Give a listen.
Speaker 4: I often think when reclaiming symbols, I think about the
Speaker 4: American flag. I think the Confederate flag is a symbol
Speaker 4: of treason and terrorism. But the American flag is such
Speaker 4: a complicated symbol for most of us. In many ways,
Speaker 4: like Jesus, like the cross, it's been co opted and
Speaker 4: in some ways that's true meeting has been betrayed.
Speaker 1: By the way he said that center in a church,
Speaker 1: that the American flag is a complicated symbol for most
Speaker 1: of us. The American flag has never been complicated for me.
Speaker 1: I don't know, maybe you look kind of differently.
Speaker 2: Well, And he says the American flag is a complicated symbol,
Speaker 2: like Jesus and like the cross. Those are the three
Speaker 2: examples he gives of complicated symbols. I don't think any
Speaker 2: of the three are complicated. And the idea that you're
Speaker 2: running to be a US senator and you look at
Speaker 2: the American flag and think it's a complicated symbol, you know, yes,
Speaker 2: if you are a leftist, yes. If you are a Marxist, yes,
Speaker 2: if you are someone who is his body into cultural
Speaker 2: Marxism and believes America is irredeemably racist, believes that we
Speaker 2: are a nation of oppressors oppressing victims, and that his
Speaker 2: goal is to overthrow the oppressors. And and that is Listen,
Speaker 2: great of platiner In in Maine.
Speaker 3: Is more exciting.
Speaker 1: The s s sad too, right, Just to remind people
Speaker 1: who we're talking about right now, this is the guy
Speaker 1: that that actually mocked and made fun of an American
Speaker 1: soldier being shot, saying he should have died. Uh, and
Speaker 1: then refused, doubled down on it. And the same guy
Speaker 1: that has an SS tattoo.
Speaker 2: Yes, and and and look and and who is also
Speaker 2: an open racist. I mean he he is mocked African Americans.
Speaker 2: He he is, he wears a Nazi tattoo, and and
Speaker 2: and and is is demeaning to Jews. He's demeaning to women.
Speaker 2: He says women rape victims are asking for it. Platner
Speaker 2: is at least out in the open about who he is.
Speaker 2: But tallar Rica, let's take the racism of the Democrat
Speaker 2: Party and and and and listen here, here's here's something
Speaker 2: Tall Rico said in another church about his own race,
Speaker 2: about being white. Give a listen for me.
Speaker 4: Prophetic voices like Jesus have helped me reckon with my
Speaker 4: own whiteness, my own masculinity, my own certainty, my own ego.
Speaker 4: It's a never ending process, and it's a painful process.
Speaker 1: I got to give him self awareness credit there center,
Speaker 1: Like when he says it's helped him deal with his masculinity,
Speaker 1: I think he's nipped that problem in the bud. Going
Speaker 1: vegan and talking the way he does, like by the
Speaker 1: Lord heard those prayers. I mean, if he was working
Speaker 1: on the masculinity issue, he has nailed it.
Speaker 2: That There's no doubt about that. If you listen to
Speaker 2: what he's saying. He's in a church. He behind him,
Speaker 2: if you're watching the video, he has a giant cross
Speaker 2: behind him. What he calls that? That that that?
Speaker 3: What is it?
Speaker 2: Complicated image of the cross, like the American flag and
Speaker 2: like Jesus, and he said the prophetic voices like Jesus
Speaker 2: helped him deal. Let's take the racist aspect his own whiteness,
Speaker 2: which is a hard thing to reckon with. You know, look,
Speaker 2: I'm sorry. In my book, being white is not a
Speaker 2: something to be a shamed of, is not a symbol
Speaker 2: that you are a bad human being. But in the
Speaker 2: leftist world, white equals evil. This is the Marxist dichotomy.
Speaker 2: It's why I'm saying he's a wolf in sheep's clothing.
Speaker 2: What he's saying there, everyone white is an oppressor. You're
Speaker 2: all evil, you're all illegitimate. That is the same thing
Speaker 2: everyone who is black, you're you're all oppressed, and you
Speaker 2: should overthrow your evil oppressors. That is the same garbage
Speaker 2: that says America is a racist history from day one.
Speaker 2: That is who we are as irredeemably racist. It is
Speaker 2: a lie. Now play the second clip of him talking
Speaker 2: about his masculinity.
Speaker 4: Right, no need to sit and cry over you know,
Speaker 4: your whiteness or your masculinity, right, use it, use it
Speaker 4: to do something. Yeah, let's be productive.
Speaker 3: Wait which one is it?
Speaker 1: Now?
Speaker 3: I'm a little confused.
Speaker 1: Are we masculine on Monday, Wednesday, Friday? But Tuesday, Thursday,
Speaker 1: Sunday where we just we just like turn that completely off?
Speaker 3: Which one is it? I just want to know?
Speaker 2: And this is where you really ought to be watching
Speaker 2: this in video, because look, tall Rico is a little dude. Yes,
Speaker 2: you know, he may be the least likely person on
Speaker 2: planet Earth to be complaining about his overwhelming masculinity. Look, Ben,
Speaker 2: you're a big dude. I'm pretty sure you could hip
Speaker 2: check this guy into the next zip code. He also,
Speaker 2: in another clip that I don't have, explained that he
Speaker 2: never played sports at all growing up. I believe that.
Speaker 3: I believe that, Yes, yes, I believe that as well.
Speaker 2: I will say, if you were listening to him speak
Speaker 2: and you were assembling one thousand adjectives to describe him.
Speaker 2: Masculine would not be one of.
Speaker 3: Them, would not be on that list.
Speaker 2: I'm just saying I don't think anyone would. And yet
Speaker 2: he described that he was crying over his masculinity, that
Speaker 2: he was too too masculine. It made him cry.
Speaker 3: By the way, he wasn't fair to everybody else.
Speaker 2: If you're crying over your masculinity, it may not be
Speaker 2: your masculinity you're crying over. Like I'm just saying that,
Speaker 2: there's almost something definitionally false. Yeah, but this guy is extreme,
Speaker 2: which means the Democrats love him.
Speaker 1: I want you to pause what you're doing for just
Speaker 1: one minute, and I want you to hear about Alejandra.
Speaker 1: She lives in a remote community with very few resources
Speaker 1: and little to no healthcare. So when Alexandra gets sick,
Speaker 1: her parents have no real options, no doctors in their community,
Speaker 1: and no money for real medical care. By the third day,
Speaker 1: her body was shutting down. She woke up and just
Speaker 1: long enough to tell her mom, I can't take the
Speaker 1: pain anymore. I can't keep going. Her parents drove hours
Speaker 1: to find a doctor who tried everything, but she needed
Speaker 1: a private hospital and that was impossible for her family.
Speaker 3: To afford.
Speaker 1: And that is when Compassion International stepped in. Now, through Compassion,
Speaker 1: Alejandra was treated and against all odds, she survived. She
Speaker 1: lived because someone just like you took action. Right now, Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: there are children just like Alejandra who won't survive unless
Speaker 1: someone like you steps in. Compassion International partners with local churches,
Speaker 1: providing children with the support that they need, critical medical care,
Speaker 1: plus food, education and the hope of the gospel, all
Speaker 1: in Jesus' name. So help a child just like Alejandra.
Speaker 1: Today you can visit Compassion dot com. That's Compassion dot com.
Speaker 1: And I gotta say, sataer I want as we wrap
Speaker 1: up the show, I do want to ask and when
Speaker 1: I look at this race and I look at tell Rico,
Speaker 1: and I look at everything you and I have just
Speaker 1: talked about quickly, and we're gonna keep talking about him
Speaker 1: throughout now until until November, I can promise you, because
Speaker 1: there's more that's gonna come out. There's more crazy things
Speaker 1: going to say. But I do like the fact that
Speaker 1: I feel like there is a little bit of sanity
Speaker 1: coming back into the political world where you now can
Speaker 1: just talk about this individual and what he believes and
Speaker 1: you can look at voters in Texas and you can
Speaker 1: just say, this is not what we believe in. We
Speaker 1: do not believe in mutilating children. He's obsessed, by the way,
Speaker 1: with transgenderism.
Speaker 2: And transgender children in particular. He is he is described
Speaker 2: I forget the exact phrase, but people near his heart
Speaker 2: or most near his heart are transgender children. Yes, and look,
Speaker 2: if you think you ought to be sterilizing and mutilating
Speaker 2: little boys and little girls, that is an extreme out
Speaker 2: there position. That's not where most Texans are, but it
Speaker 2: is where Tallarico is.
Speaker 1: It is, and I do find a little bit of
Speaker 1: comfort in knowing that, Like, how do you run against
Speaker 1: a guy like this in a place like I get Texas?
Speaker 1: And I think the other Republicans around the country should
Speaker 1: should actually look at this. Sometimes winning is just saying
Speaker 1: this is not who we are. We're not for that.
Speaker 1: We don't We're not a bunch of vegans. Okay, we're
Speaker 1: normal people that eat meat, and we're not gonna shame
Speaker 1: you for that. There's not six genders in the world.
Speaker 1: Certainly Jesus is not advocating for that either. And even
Speaker 1: if you can quote scripture, if you take it out
Speaker 1: of context in this way, and you take I think
Speaker 1: part of just being a Christian. I find so offensive
Speaker 1: about tall Rico is the fact that he's sitting there
Speaker 1: saying he's an expert, and yet he seems to be
Speaker 1: taking the Bible and using it for evil instead of
Speaker 1: for good, and all these radical ideals that clearly God
Speaker 1: is not in favor of. God is not in favor
Speaker 1: of mutilating children, He's not in favor of there being
Speaker 1: six different genders like, that's not what he's about.
Speaker 2: And remember, even the devil can quote Scripture. If you
Speaker 2: look back to when the devil was tempting Jesus in
Speaker 2: the garden right before he was crucified, the devil repeatedly
Speaker 2: quoted Chris Scripture at him, and Jesus rebuked him. And
Speaker 2: so the fact that he quotes Scripture does not means
Speaker 2: he is being truthful about what the Bible is saying.
Speaker 2: And if he's twisting it and using it for evil
Speaker 2: ends that are precisely the opposite of what the Bible
Speaker 2: is saying, that that is not honorable or righteous or truthful.
Speaker 2: And you know, listen, I'll say the Paxton campaign has
Speaker 2: started calling him low t Tall Rico, which I think
Speaker 2: is pretty turned funny. Yeah, but I want to give
Speaker 2: a caution. It's a caution I gave at the beginning.
Speaker 2: Do not take this general election for granted. Here's what
Speaker 2: Tall Rico tweeted tonight right after the primary results. Quote,
Speaker 2: I want to thank Senator John Cornyn for his years
Speaker 2: representing our state. We don't agree on everything, but were
Speaker 2: we both still believe in public service. To Senator Cornyn's supporters,
Speaker 2: you have a place in our campaign. Yeah, that's very savvy.
Speaker 2: He's making a very open pitch. Two more moderate Republicans
Speaker 2: vote for me. Look, I'm a nice, sweet, gentle inoffensive guy,
Speaker 2: wouldn't hurt a fly. And if you're not paying attention,
Speaker 2: if you don't know his record, if you're not listening
Speaker 2: to what he said, you can be deceived. And so
Speaker 2: we need to I think this campaign, an awful lot
Speaker 2: of it is going to be putting his own words
Speaker 2: in front of the voters, because they do reveal who
Speaker 2: he is. But he's really good at being slick and
Speaker 2: pretending to be something he's not. That in politics is dangerous.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no doubt. I love when we get to do it,
Speaker 1: do a pod like this don't forget. You can down
Speaker 1: with Verdict with Ted Cruz wherever you get your podcast
Speaker 1: three days a week. You can also grab my podcast
Speaker 1: and Ben Ferguson podcasts as well, each and every day
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts and the Senat and I
Speaker 1: will see you back here on Verdict on Friday. And
Speaker 1: to all the Republican candiates had a big night, congratulations.
Speaker 3: Running for office is hard
Speaker 1: And it's really fun when you get some ws on
Speaker 1: the board, so that is fun, and we'll see you
Speaker 1: back here Friday morning.