WEBVTT - $28,841,673,978,652 0:00:00.400 --> 0:00:05.080 Twenty eight trillion, eight hundred forty one billion, six hundred 0:00:05.160 --> 0:00:09.160 seventy three million, nine hundred seventy eight thousand, six hundred 0:00:09.240 --> 0:00:13.320 fifty two dollars. That is the national debt of the 0:00:13.440 --> 0:00:18.320 United States. Democrats want to add a lot more money 0:00:18.520 --> 0:00:23.079 even to that colossal number, and the fight over raising 0:00:23.120 --> 0:00:27.319 the US debt ceiling is the epicenter of what's going 0:00:27.360 --> 0:00:31.200 on in Washington right now. President Joe Biden demanding that 0:00:31.320 --> 0:00:34.760 Republican centers get out of the way, that they use 0:00:34.840 --> 0:00:38.800 this opportunity to push through the most radical aspects of 0:00:38.880 --> 0:00:43.960 their agenda and using the debt ceiling crisis to do it. 0:00:44.040 --> 0:00:47.400 What happens if the United States defaults on its debt. 0:00:47.640 --> 0:00:50.599 It's never happened before. We have no idea what will 0:00:50.640 --> 0:00:54.320 happen now, Washington playing with fire. This is Verdict with 0:00:54.360 --> 0:01:02.760 Ted Cruz. Welcome back to Verdicts with Ted Cruz. I'm 0:01:03.200 --> 0:01:06.840 Michael Knowles, and I have a whole lot of questions here, Senator. 0:01:07.120 --> 0:01:11.320 We'll get right into it very simply. I hate to 0:01:11.360 --> 0:01:14.800 ask a stupid question, but even I and I've paid 0:01:14.840 --> 0:01:16.440 a lot of attention to these things, even I don't 0:01:16.520 --> 0:01:19.240 quite understand what this is what is the debt ceiling? 0:01:20.160 --> 0:01:22.840 Why does the debt ceiling matter? Why do the debt 0:01:22.880 --> 0:01:26.840 ceiling fights come up every few years? And what happens 0:01:27.000 --> 0:01:29.760 if we do not raise the debt ceiling and default 0:01:29.880 --> 0:01:32.399 on our debt. Well, probably the easiest way to think 0:01:32.440 --> 0:01:35.240 about it is like it's the limit on your credit card. 0:01:35.880 --> 0:01:38.960 The debt ceiling is the cap on how much money 0:01:38.959 --> 0:01:42.320 the federal government can pass, and it's a statutory limit 0:01:42.360 --> 0:01:46.559 that's passed into law that limits how much the United 0:01:46.560 --> 0:01:49.760 States government can borrow. Just like if you have a 0:01:49.760 --> 0:01:52.360 credit card that has a ten thousand dollars limit, you 0:01:52.400 --> 0:01:54.680 can't borrow eleven thousand, And if you want to borrow 0:01:54.720 --> 0:01:56.480 more than ten thousand, you have to get on the 0:01:56.520 --> 0:01:58.800 phone and try to ask them to raise it to 0:01:58.840 --> 0:02:01.760 fifteen or raise it to money. That's the same principle 0:02:01.800 --> 0:02:05.200 as the debt ceiling. It is a tool designed to 0:02:05.320 --> 0:02:10.280 try to force Congress to confront spending and to rein 0:02:10.400 --> 0:02:12.640 in out of control spending and out of control debt. 0:02:13.240 --> 0:02:19.040 And the debt ceiling expired on July thirty first, the 0:02:19.120 --> 0:02:22.560 end of July. Now, the Department of Treasury has the 0:02:22.600 --> 0:02:27.000 ability to kind of push the date when the US 0:02:27.120 --> 0:02:30.079 needs to borrow back a couple of months, it's called 0:02:30.160 --> 0:02:33.079 using extraordinary measures, and so Janet Janet Yell and the 0:02:33.080 --> 0:02:38.519 Treasury Secretary is able to delay the date to sometime 0:02:38.600 --> 0:02:43.080 to mid delayed October. But if the debt ceiling is 0:02:43.120 --> 0:02:46.480 not raised, then the United States government cannot continue to 0:02:46.560 --> 0:02:51.400 borrow borrow money, and so that puts pressure on Washington. 0:02:52.960 --> 0:02:55.800 We're right now in the middle of a battle because 0:02:55.919 --> 0:02:59.880 of two things. Number One, Chuck Schumer and the Democrats 0:03:00.639 --> 0:03:03.440 have the total and complete ability to raise the debt 0:03:03.520 --> 0:03:08.400 ceiling on their own. So Democrats control the Senate, Democrats 0:03:08.400 --> 0:03:12.600 control the House, Democrats control the White House. There's a 0:03:12.639 --> 0:03:16.480 process called budget reconciliation. We've talked about that quite a 0:03:16.480 --> 0:03:20.480 bit on this podcast. Budget reconciliation is the process that 0:03:20.600 --> 0:03:23.720 comes from the Budget Act in nineteen seventy four. The 0:03:23.960 --> 0:03:26.240 part that is really relevant and that comes up with 0:03:26.280 --> 0:03:30.799 some regularity, is it is the major exception to the filibuster. 0:03:30.880 --> 0:03:33.720 So ordinarily, to move to precede the legislation in the 0:03:33.760 --> 0:03:39.160 Senate takes sixty votes. Under budget reconciliation, it only takes fifty, 0:03:39.880 --> 0:03:43.640 and so Schumer and Pelosi and Biden because they have 0:03:43.720 --> 0:03:47.840 control of all the elected branches of government, have the 0:03:47.920 --> 0:03:51.800 ability with just Democratic votes to raise the debt ceiling. 0:03:51.800 --> 0:03:53.200 And they could have done it a week ago, they 0:03:53.240 --> 0:03:54.680 could have done it a month ago, they could have 0:03:54.680 --> 0:03:58.920 done it three months ago. So what's happening? Schumer and 0:03:58.920 --> 0:04:04.600 the Democrats are nervous, And they're nervous because the Democrats 0:04:04.600 --> 0:04:08.000 are in the middle of a massive spending street spree. 0:04:08.040 --> 0:04:11.920 I mean, it is reckless. It is the biggest spending 0:04:12.000 --> 0:04:17.240 spree since World War Two. It is massive. And in 0:04:17.279 --> 0:04:22.640 the face of that, Democrats don't want to vote for 0:04:22.720 --> 0:04:25.520 the debt to pay for their trillions in new spending. 0:04:26.320 --> 0:04:30.159 So what Schumer is doing instead is he keeps bringing 0:04:30.240 --> 0:04:34.520 up the debt ceiling in a legislative vehicle that requires 0:04:34.560 --> 0:04:37.880 sixty votes. So he doesn't want to use reconciliation, which 0:04:37.880 --> 0:04:40.720 he can, and there's nothing Republicans can do to stop 0:04:40.800 --> 0:04:43.719 in from using reconciliation, but he wants to bring it 0:04:43.800 --> 0:04:48.159 up through a vehicle that requires sixty votes. Why because 0:04:48.200 --> 0:04:51.240 he wants ten Republicans to vote for raising the debt ceiling. 0:04:51.279 --> 0:04:54.800 He doesn't want it to be just Democrats who own 0:04:55.000 --> 0:04:59.080 their trillions in debt. What's amazing about that explanation, which 0:04:59.080 --> 0:05:01.720 I think spells it out pretty well, is it's the 0:05:01.760 --> 0:05:04.440 opposite of what we're being told in the media. What 0:05:04.440 --> 0:05:07.479 we're being told in the media is that Republicans who 0:05:07.520 --> 0:05:11.760 are fanatical about spending and they're neurotic about not raising 0:05:11.760 --> 0:05:16.080 the debt ceiling, and or they're opportunistic or their cynical, 0:05:16.440 --> 0:05:20.920 they are holding America's good credit hostage because they don't 0:05:20.960 --> 0:05:23.679 want to vote for this thing. But what you're saying is, actually, 0:05:23.760 --> 0:05:26.920 Chuck Schumer could pass this tomorrow. So it's really Chuck 0:05:26.960 --> 0:05:30.359 Schumer and the Democrats who are holding this hostage and 0:05:30.400 --> 0:05:32.480 who are drawing this out and making a big spectacle 0:05:32.520 --> 0:05:35.840 of it. What happens just at a practical level, I 0:05:35.839 --> 0:05:38.200 guess we're kind of dealing with a crystal ball here 0:05:38.200 --> 0:05:41.200 because it's never happened before. But what would happen if 0:05:41.200 --> 0:05:44.200 we just defaulted on our debt? It would be a 0:05:44.240 --> 0:05:47.159 catastrophic impact in the market. It would cause the stock 0:05:47.240 --> 0:05:50.560 market to tumble, it would cause bonds to tumble, it 0:05:50.560 --> 0:05:52.760 would cause the credit rating of the United States to 0:05:52.800 --> 0:05:57.560 be downgraded. That the cascading effects could be enormous. It 0:05:57.640 --> 0:06:01.599 would be wildly irresponsible. No rational person wants to see 0:06:01.600 --> 0:06:05.400 the United States default on its debt. America pays our debt. 0:06:05.920 --> 0:06:08.480 And I gotta, you know, I gotta say, it's worth 0:06:08.640 --> 0:06:13.640 stopping and reflecting it. What a wildly different position we 0:06:13.680 --> 0:06:18.160 are in today versus twenty fourteen, and and and if 0:06:18.160 --> 0:06:20.960 I can take us back to the way back machine 0:06:21.000 --> 0:06:24.680 to twenty fourteen. So twenty fourteen was was my second 0:06:24.720 --> 0:06:27.400 year in the Senate. So I was still a freshman 0:06:27.480 --> 0:06:31.599 in a newbie And the single biggest fight I have 0:06:31.720 --> 0:06:35.440 had in nine years in the Senate occurred on the 0:06:35.520 --> 0:06:39.520 debt ceiling occurred on this issue. And it's as you know, 0:06:39.600 --> 0:06:42.279 I've written two books. Last year I wrote One Vote 0:06:42.320 --> 0:06:44.680 Away about the Supreme Court, great book, go by it. 0:06:45.680 --> 0:06:47.839 But the first book I wrote was called A Time 0:06:47.880 --> 0:06:51.880 for Truth, and A Time for Truth was my life story. 0:06:52.240 --> 0:06:54.839 I wrote it in twenty fifteen. The opening chapter of 0:06:54.880 --> 0:06:59.279 my first book, A Time for Truth is entitled Mendacity, 0:06:59.400 --> 0:07:03.080 and it is the inside story of the death ceiling fight. 0:07:03.600 --> 0:07:07.440 So let's go back to twenty fourteen. Twenty fourteen, Democrats 0:07:07.480 --> 0:07:09.920 controlled the Senate. It was Harry Reid instead of Chuck Schumer, 0:07:09.960 --> 0:07:14.080 who was the majority leader. Republicans controlled the House, Barack 0:07:14.120 --> 0:07:18.080 Obama was president, and there was another debt ceiling coming up. 0:07:18.720 --> 0:07:23.200 We were going to our Senate Republican lunch and every Tuesday, 0:07:23.200 --> 0:07:25.920 Wednesday Thursday, all the Senate Republicans we have lunch together. 0:07:26.760 --> 0:07:29.800 And at one of the lunches, Mitch McConnell, who was 0:07:29.840 --> 0:07:31.920 the minority leader at the time, he stood up and 0:07:31.960 --> 0:07:35.400 he said, I've got a great plan. I want all 0:07:35.440 --> 0:07:40.520 of us to consent to unanimously consent to lower the 0:07:40.640 --> 0:07:44.360 threshold for Harry Reid to raise the death ceiling from 0:07:44.440 --> 0:07:46.560 sixty votes to fifty votes. Now, in the Senate, you 0:07:46.680 --> 0:07:49.480 do pretty much anything by unanimous consent. But unanimous consent, 0:07:49.520 --> 0:07:53.320 as the name suggests, takes all one hundred senators agree. 0:07:54.560 --> 0:07:57.200 So Mitch said, I want all of us to unanimously 0:07:57.280 --> 0:08:00.680 consent to lower the threshold for Harry Reid from sixty 0:08:00.760 --> 0:08:04.040 vote to votes. And the beauty of it is, once 0:08:04.120 --> 0:08:07.960 we do that, we can all vote no, the Democrats 0:08:07.960 --> 0:08:10.040 can all vote yes, and we could all tell our 0:08:10.080 --> 0:08:13.880 constituents at home we voted no on the thing we 0:08:14.000 --> 0:08:18.280 just consented to allow happen. And I was sitting there, 0:08:18.320 --> 0:08:21.400 I was frankly expecting leadership to come up with some 0:08:21.440 --> 0:08:25.960 sort of kind of lame and tepid strategy. It had 0:08:26.080 --> 0:08:29.560 not occurred to me that their strategy was absolute and 0:08:29.600 --> 0:08:33.240 total capitulation from the outset. And so I sat there 0:08:33.240 --> 0:08:34.880 in the room and I just raised my hand and 0:08:34.920 --> 0:08:39.559 I said, Mitch, you need to understand there is no 0:08:39.760 --> 0:08:44.920 universe in which I will consent to lowering the threshold 0:08:44.960 --> 0:08:47.880 for Harry Reid and Barack Obama to raise our debt 0:08:48.280 --> 0:08:50.920 from sixty votes to fifty votes. I was elected by 0:08:50.920 --> 0:08:55.120 the people of Texas promising to do everything humanly possible 0:08:55.120 --> 0:08:57.599 to stop the out of control spending and debt that 0:08:57.720 --> 0:09:01.000 is bankrupting our kids and grandkids. And I'm not willing 0:09:01.000 --> 0:09:04.439 to do it. Michael. There is nothing I've done in 0:09:04.520 --> 0:09:08.120 my entire time in the Senate that has generated more rage, 0:09:08.520 --> 0:09:14.280 more fury, more red faced senators yelling and cursing at 0:09:14.320 --> 0:09:19.080 me than that simple act of objecting. It was much worse, 0:09:19.120 --> 0:09:21.280 by the way, than the Obamacare. It was much worse 0:09:21.280 --> 0:09:25.080 than the Obamacare filibuster. So leadership was mad that I 0:09:25.120 --> 0:09:28.520 had spent twenty one hours filibustering Obamacare the previous years. 0:09:28.520 --> 0:09:31.679 They were mad about that, But when I objected to 0:09:31.720 --> 0:09:35.920 their scheme to raise the death ceiling. It the fury 0:09:36.200 --> 0:09:41.800 it caused was massive. It's fascinating how much things have 0:09:41.960 --> 0:09:49.520 changed from twenty fourteen to now. In twenty fourteen, Republican 0:09:49.640 --> 0:09:56.240 leadership carpent bomb me, attacked me, planted planted editorials criticizing me. So, 0:09:56.360 --> 0:09:58.880 for example, the Wall Street Journal, which, by the way, 0:09:58.880 --> 0:10:02.560 when Republican leadership is mad at you, the editorial page 0:10:02.559 --> 0:10:07.520 of the Wall Street Journal is their preferred whipping post, 0:10:07.760 --> 0:10:10.120 and it's where they take you out, and it comes 0:10:10.120 --> 0:10:13.319 straight from Republican leadership. They go to the Journal. The 0:10:13.800 --> 0:10:19.400 Journal wrote an editorial entitled Minority Maker, and it said 0:10:19.520 --> 0:10:22.960 Cruz is going to ensure that Republicans remain in the 0:10:23.440 --> 0:10:27.359 minority in the Senate forever, and that Harry Reid remains 0:10:27.520 --> 0:10:30.520 majority leader because he is fighting and objecting on the 0:10:30.520 --> 0:10:34.320 death ceiling. Now, I point out they wrote that in 0:10:34.400 --> 0:10:37.719 twenty fourteen, and just a few months later we had 0:10:37.720 --> 0:10:41.280 the elections in twenty fourteen. And you know, Michael, in 0:10:41.320 --> 0:10:44.720 the Old Testament, if someone came forward and said they 0:10:44.720 --> 0:10:47.760 were a prophet, the Old Testament actually just discussed what 0:10:47.800 --> 0:10:50.160 you should do. You should ask them to make short 0:10:50.320 --> 0:10:55.160 term prophecy, short term predictions, and see if they come true. Well, 0:10:55.200 --> 0:10:58.319 the Journal's prediction that I was going to make Republicans 0:10:58.320 --> 0:11:01.160 a permanent majority, it turned out just a little bit wrong, 0:11:01.960 --> 0:11:06.200 but categorically wrong. And in November twenty fourteen, we won 0:11:06.400 --> 0:11:10.520 nine Senate seats, we retired Harry Read as majority leader, 0:11:11.040 --> 0:11:13.520 and we won the biggest majority in the House of 0:11:13.520 --> 0:11:18.520 Representatives since nineteen twenty eight. And so miraculously, standing and 0:11:18.679 --> 0:11:23.720 fighting also wins elections. The voters like it when Republicans 0:11:23.760 --> 0:11:28.160 don't roll over and surrender to the Democrat. Well, this, 0:11:28.240 --> 0:11:31.160 I think is what really relates to what's going on 0:11:31.280 --> 0:11:34.720 right now today, because I politically, I came of age 0:11:34.880 --> 0:11:37.920 during that era from twenty ten to twenty fourteen, the 0:11:37.960 --> 0:11:42.640 Tea Party movement, your election, Actually you've politically come of age. 0:11:42.400 --> 0:11:44.920 I'm I'm still coming of age. Actually, you know, I 0:11:45.160 --> 0:11:46.640 can't wait to get a little hair on my face. 0:11:47.000 --> 0:11:51.800 I thought this was like a teen drama. Oh, I remember, 0:11:51.800 --> 0:11:54.240 even when I was fresher and facer at the time. 0:11:54.480 --> 0:11:59.520 I remember every Republican, every Conservative who was worth his salt, 0:11:59.840 --> 0:12:03.800 was focused on the debt, on deficit spending, on this 0:12:03.840 --> 0:12:07.280 idea that the inheritance we're leaving to our kids is debt. 0:12:07.320 --> 0:12:09.040 I mean, what kind of a country does that, what 0:12:09.120 --> 0:12:11.040 kind of a generation does that. They're actually going to 0:12:11.080 --> 0:12:13.199 be responsible, We're going to get our own house in order. 0:12:13.320 --> 0:12:16.640 We're going to enact to these principles that we all 0:12:16.640 --> 0:12:19.559 like to talk about. And then your story here, I 0:12:19.600 --> 0:12:23.040 think is very important. What happened is the Republican leadership 0:12:23.080 --> 0:12:25.320 in those back rooms just said, yeah, that was all bunk. 0:12:25.320 --> 0:12:27.080 We're not going to follow any of that. We're just 0:12:27.080 --> 0:12:28.600 going to make it easier. That was just a way 0:12:28.600 --> 0:12:31.840 to win elections. And now when we're focusing on this 0:12:32.000 --> 0:12:35.960 debt fight, it seems to me that many Republicans and 0:12:36.000 --> 0:12:40.520 Conservatives don't really care anymore. I mean that focus from 0:12:40.559 --> 0:12:42.959 you know, ten years ago, it seems to have moved 0:12:43.000 --> 0:12:45.400 on to other issues. And I wonder if it's because 0:12:45.800 --> 0:12:48.559 we just got burned during the tea party and nothing 0:12:48.640 --> 0:12:51.480 really changed. Well, look, I say a couple of things, 0:12:52.200 --> 0:12:54.679 you know. Number one, if you go back to the 0:12:54.720 --> 0:12:58.040 twenty fourteen fight, it's important to note what I was 0:12:58.080 --> 0:13:01.360 fighting for at the time, and I was not fighting 0:13:01.440 --> 0:13:05.280 for never raising the debt ceiling. I've never been someone 0:13:05.320 --> 0:13:07.760 who promises I will never raise the debt ceiling. We've 0:13:07.760 --> 0:13:10.560 got you know, typically the figure is about forty percent 0:13:10.600 --> 0:13:13.040 of what the government spends has borrowed money. So unless 0:13:13.080 --> 0:13:16.520 you're prepared to instantaneously cut government spending by forty percent, 0:13:17.360 --> 0:13:20.360 that's not a reasonable position to say we will never 0:13:20.440 --> 0:13:23.760 raise the debt ceiling. My position in twenty fourteen, my 0:13:23.800 --> 0:13:27.520 position today is that I'm not willing to support raising 0:13:27.559 --> 0:13:32.400 the debt ceiling unless it is accompanied by meaningful structural 0:13:32.720 --> 0:13:35.959 reforms that address spending and rain in the out of 0:13:36.000 --> 0:13:38.880 control spending. In twenty fourteen, the case I made to 0:13:38.920 --> 0:13:42.560 the conferences, I said, look, if you look historically, the 0:13:42.720 --> 0:13:46.320 debt scene ceiling has been the lever point where we 0:13:46.400 --> 0:13:49.720 actually get spending constraints. So at the time these figures 0:13:49.720 --> 0:13:51.280 are a little bit out of date because they're twenty 0:13:51.280 --> 0:13:54.920 fourteen figures. But at the time of the last fifty 0:13:55.000 --> 0:13:57.560 two times Congress had raised the debt ceiling, so this 0:13:57.600 --> 0:14:02.520 comes up a lot. Twenty seven of those times Congress 0:14:02.520 --> 0:14:06.760 had attached meaningful spending reforms to the debt ceiling. So, 0:14:06.840 --> 0:14:10.920 for example, the Budget Control Act in twenty ten, which 0:14:11.080 --> 0:14:15.440 made major progress reigning in out of control spending that 0:14:15.559 --> 0:14:19.240 came through a debt ceiling fight. Graham Rudman. Probably the 0:14:19.280 --> 0:14:24.080 most significant spending restraint legislation enacted in the law and 0:14:24.160 --> 0:14:27.400 modern times came through a debt ceiling fight. So it 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:31.640 is possible to make progress on spending by using the 0:14:31.720 --> 0:14:34.520 death ceiling as leverage. And so what I argued in 0:14:34.560 --> 0:14:38.200 twenty fourteen is let's not let this lever point go. 0:14:38.360 --> 0:14:42.480 Let's use it to actually honor our promises to the voters. 0:14:42.760 --> 0:14:46.160 Some of the differences Number one, I think Republican leadership 0:14:46.200 --> 0:14:50.880 has learned Unlike in twenty fourteen, twenty fourteen they thought 0:14:50.920 --> 0:14:53.240 I was bluffing at this point, they don't think I'm 0:14:53.240 --> 0:14:57.160 bluffing anymore. So nobody asked this time, Ted, will you 0:14:57.280 --> 0:15:00.240 consent to lower the thresholds reporters asked. They ran up 0:15:00.240 --> 0:15:02.240 and said, hey, Cruz, are you going to object to 0:15:02.320 --> 0:15:04.760 Laurie the threshold? I was like, h of course. But 0:15:04.880 --> 0:15:08.920 what was interesting is when people learn you don't bluff, 0:15:10.880 --> 0:15:13.480 Nobody in the conference thought I would possibly not object. 0:15:13.600 --> 0:15:15.560 They They're just like, yeah, okay, Ted will object to that. 0:15:15.680 --> 0:15:20.000 So that option ain't gonna work. So leadership didn't even 0:15:20.080 --> 0:15:24.440 try it. A second difference, and this is an important difference, 0:15:25.360 --> 0:15:29.040 is unlike in twenty fourteen when we had a Republican house, 0:15:30.400 --> 0:15:32.920 now they've got a Democratic House, so now they can 0:15:33.040 --> 0:15:35.480 raise the debt ceiling on their own without us. We 0:15:35.560 --> 0:15:38.960 can't stop them. I wish we could, but we can't 0:15:39.040 --> 0:15:41.040 stop them. There does seem to be a lot of 0:15:41.080 --> 0:15:44.960 turmoil within the Democratic Conference. I mean, I guess this 0:15:45.080 --> 0:15:48.040 is a slightly related matter, but in a very different context. 0:15:48.680 --> 0:15:53.320 Kirsten Cinema, one of two semi moderate Democrats in the Senate, 0:15:54.040 --> 0:15:57.720 is being accosted everywhere she goes. She's being costed on airplanes. 0:15:57.800 --> 0:16:00.520 She was accosted in the bathroom by an ille alien 0:16:00.840 --> 0:16:05.280 screaming at her to push for a mass amnesty. This 0:16:05.520 --> 0:16:10.680 is a we always lament civility breaking down, and sometimes 0:16:10.680 --> 0:16:13.440 it's exaggerated and at sometimes it's real. But this seems 0:16:13.480 --> 0:16:16.240 to be crossing a line when you follow female senators 0:16:16.440 --> 0:16:19.480 into the bathroom and start screaming at them. By the way, 0:16:19.560 --> 0:16:23.920 as a foreign national demanding that you give legal status 0:16:24.040 --> 0:16:27.200 to millions of people. Now, look that that is exactly right. 0:16:27.240 --> 0:16:30.480 And the degree to which Kirsten Cinema and Joe mansion 0:16:30.560 --> 0:16:35.840 are being harassed. You look at Cinema and these left 0:16:35.880 --> 0:16:41.200 wing activists that she teaches a university class in Arizona, 0:16:41.240 --> 0:16:44.120 and they followed her into her class, they harassed her class, 0:16:44.520 --> 0:16:48.520 and then they followed her from her class into the restroom. 0:16:48.600 --> 0:16:50.960 She went into the stall to use the restroom and 0:16:51.000 --> 0:16:55.640 they sat there filming it and berating her. And by 0:16:55.680 --> 0:16:57.280 the way, they were so proud of what they were doing. 0:16:57.320 --> 0:16:59.920 They were filming doing it. As you noted, they all 0:17:00.000 --> 0:17:02.160 so harassed her on the airplane, the harassed her in 0:17:02.560 --> 0:17:05.840 the airport, and I got to say yesterday there was 0:17:05.920 --> 0:17:10.159 really something shameful because Joe Biden was asked about it 0:17:10.840 --> 0:17:13.760 and he just said, you know, it's part of the process. 0:17:15.160 --> 0:17:18.800 What utter crap. No, I mean, that was an opportunity 0:17:18.800 --> 0:17:21.679 for Biden to show some leadership and say, you know, no, 0:17:22.000 --> 0:17:25.160 you don't harass someone and chase them into the ladies room. 0:17:26.320 --> 0:17:30.800 That is not the way people behave in a civilized democracy. 0:17:31.480 --> 0:17:34.080 But but the left is so angry that they believe 0:17:34.119 --> 0:17:40.440 intimidation and threats are an appropriate way of behaving. And 0:17:40.520 --> 0:17:44.600 right now they are trying to rain the nastiest pressure 0:17:44.600 --> 0:17:48.000 imaginable down on Cinema and Mansion to pressure them to 0:17:48.000 --> 0:17:51.240 flip their votes. At least so far they haven't. This 0:17:51.359 --> 0:17:55.120 is on the big Bernie Sanders three point five trillion 0:17:55.160 --> 0:18:00.520 dollars socialist budget. Right now, Mansion and Cinema are saying 0:18:00.600 --> 0:18:02.400 they're not going to support it, that it's too big 0:18:02.400 --> 0:18:06.960 and it's too irresponsible, and the left is furious. Well, center, 0:18:07.160 --> 0:18:09.000 I do have to ask you, though I can't believe 0:18:09.040 --> 0:18:11.560 that I'm giving Joe Biden the benefit of the doubt. 0:18:11.560 --> 0:18:14.400 It feels very unnatural to me, But I do want 0:18:14.440 --> 0:18:16.560 to ask if he's got a point. Biden says, if 0:18:16.560 --> 0:18:18.920 you're in public life, you're going to get accosted. People 0:18:18.960 --> 0:18:20.960 are going to yell at you. It's and it does 0:18:21.040 --> 0:18:24.040 happen to a lot of people. So to what degree 0:18:24.320 --> 0:18:28.439 is this historic incivility that we're seeing, not just with 0:18:28.480 --> 0:18:32.160 cinema but in recent years even on say, both sides 0:18:32.160 --> 0:18:34.800 of the aisle, And to what degree is this just 0:18:35.320 --> 0:18:39.520 business as usual? Look, it actually is markedly different. In 0:18:39.560 --> 0:18:43.920 the last couple of years. When Donald Trump got elected, 0:18:44.640 --> 0:18:49.800 left lost their mind. He broke them. Their brains are broken. 0:18:49.880 --> 0:18:53.719 And I can tell you it is very, very different 0:18:53.760 --> 0:18:56.680 serving in public office Look, I've been in some contentious battles, 0:18:57.400 --> 0:18:59.480 but it's only been the last couple of years. Remember 0:18:59.520 --> 0:19:01.040 a couple of year years ago, Heidi and I were 0:19:01.040 --> 0:19:03.800 at a restaurant in DC at a group of screaming, 0:19:04.000 --> 0:19:08.880 angry anarchist came in harassed us. We had to leave 0:19:08.920 --> 0:19:10.840 the restaurant because we didn't want to disturb the other 0:19:10.840 --> 0:19:14.200 people who were having dinner, and they chased us down 0:19:14.280 --> 0:19:16.399 the street and into a dark alley. I mean, it 0:19:16.720 --> 0:19:20.400 had the potential of being a very dangerous gathering. It 0:19:20.440 --> 0:19:23.119 was a dozen angry leftists with Heidi and me, and 0:19:23.160 --> 0:19:26.720 it was threatening and serious. Rand Paul and his wife 0:19:26.800 --> 0:19:30.680 Kelly Paul, the Black Lives Matter protesters when Trump gave 0:19:30.760 --> 0:19:33.280 his speech at the White House during the RNC convention. 0:19:33.920 --> 0:19:36.840 They were scared for their lives. They had police officers 0:19:36.840 --> 0:19:40.479 that were fighting back what was close to a riot, 0:19:40.680 --> 0:19:44.920 and Rand and Kelly both were frightened that they were 0:19:44.920 --> 0:19:48.320 going to be seriously injured, if not worse. This has 0:19:48.440 --> 0:19:51.880 all gotten nastier than it used to be. I can 0:19:51.920 --> 0:19:55.520 tell you in nine years I've been in the Senate 0:19:56.359 --> 0:20:00.800 for eight of them, I never or had a protest 0:20:00.840 --> 0:20:06.160 at my house in the last year or so, I've 0:20:06.200 --> 0:20:10.679 had probably twenty five or thirty. Wow. We now have 0:20:10.760 --> 0:20:12.960 twenty four hour security at the house, which which we 0:20:13.040 --> 0:20:16.360 have to do because the protesters have gotten so nasty. 0:20:17.160 --> 0:20:21.280 They have showed up at five in the morning, banging pots, 0:20:21.359 --> 0:20:25.360 shining flashlights in the windows of our neighbors, including neighbors 0:20:25.359 --> 0:20:29.679 who have little children, screaming profanities, dropping the F bomb 0:20:29.800 --> 0:20:32.239 at five in the morning, designed to wake people up 0:20:32.240 --> 0:20:35.520 and harass them. And so, what what is happening to Cinema? 0:20:35.600 --> 0:20:38.000 By the way, mansion mansion? When he's in DC, lives 0:20:38.000 --> 0:20:41.480 on a houseboat, and he had protesters row their kayaks 0:20:41.560 --> 0:20:45.480 up to his houseboat and engage with him at his houseboat. 0:20:46.320 --> 0:20:52.520 This is a far nastier form of engagement than used 0:20:52.600 --> 0:20:55.760 to be typical. And I think it is as a 0:20:55.840 --> 0:21:01.359 result of Trump's presidency. The left just they convinced themselves 0:21:01.440 --> 0:21:04.840 he's Adolf Hitler, and so all rage and fury is 0:21:04.920 --> 0:21:09.040 justified in opposition to someone who they hate so much. 0:21:09.280 --> 0:21:11.800 You know, it's an interesting case study. I mean, I'm 0:21:11.880 --> 0:21:13.399 sorry that you're going through it, but you are a 0:21:13.520 --> 0:21:15.840 kind of an interesting case study here because you you 0:21:15.880 --> 0:21:19.119 were outspoken, you were something of a firebrand the minute 0:21:19.119 --> 0:21:20.800 you got to the Senate. So it's not as though 0:21:21.040 --> 0:21:23.280 they ignored you just because you were a wallflower. And 0:21:23.320 --> 0:21:25.439 then later on they started going after you. I mean 0:21:25.480 --> 0:21:28.680 you going back to twenty twenty fourteen. Yet this never 0:21:28.680 --> 0:21:32.200 happened at twenty thirteen, twenty fourteen, this never happened. Yeah, 0:21:32.520 --> 0:21:35.639 so this something clearly has changed. And you know, I 0:21:35.720 --> 0:21:38.159 mentioned to try to sound nice and open minded, I 0:21:38.160 --> 0:21:40.840 said that there is incivility on both sides of the aisle, 0:21:40.960 --> 0:21:43.400 but we really should not make a comparison here. When 0:21:43.440 --> 0:21:45.800 when you have Maxine Waters saying, go get up in 0:21:45.840 --> 0:21:48.640 their face, go shout at them in public, meaning Republicans, 0:21:48.640 --> 0:21:50.440 when you have Hillary Clinton saying you can't be civil 0:21:50.440 --> 0:21:53.040 with your opponents, when you've got the sitting Vice president 0:21:53.080 --> 0:21:56.359 now Kamala Harris bailing out rioters and looters, that is 0:21:56.359 --> 0:21:58.960 a very different thing than what the Republicans are doing. 0:21:58.960 --> 0:22:02.400 But the Republicans are being uncivil as well, though much 0:22:02.520 --> 0:22:05.440 less violent. And this is the way they're being uncivil 0:22:05.480 --> 0:22:12.280 as they're chanting. According to the news report, let's go Brandon, Senator, 0:22:12.320 --> 0:22:15.360 can you explain that to me? Well, it's an amazing 0:22:15.359 --> 0:22:18.640 phenomenon that seems to be occurring at college football games 0:22:18.640 --> 0:22:22.359 across the country, and it appears to be spontaneous, but 0:22:22.600 --> 0:22:28.360 very large groups of people are are chanting expletives at 0:22:28.440 --> 0:22:32.320 Joe Biden, and in particular, they're chanting F Joe Biden, 0:22:32.400 --> 0:22:36.560 but they're they're not abbreviating it. And it's a fairly 0:22:36.600 --> 0:22:40.159 remarkable thing that seems to be springing up. And the 0:22:40.760 --> 0:22:43.760 story you're telling as there was a NASCAR race a 0:22:43.760 --> 0:22:46.920 couple of days ago, and the winner of the race 0:22:47.080 --> 0:22:50.560 was whose name was Brandon was being interviewed and the 0:22:50.640 --> 0:22:56.120 crowd behind him is yelling and yelling loudly F Joe 0:22:56.160 --> 0:23:02.880 Biden in clear and very distinct words, and and the 0:23:03.000 --> 0:23:06.560 NBC interviewer who is interviewing him says, Oh, the crowd's 0:23:06.560 --> 0:23:10.240 so excited. You can hear them channing. Let's go Brandon. 0:23:10.880 --> 0:23:14.520 And if you just watch the clip that that is 0:23:14.560 --> 0:23:20.040 not what they're chanting. In her defense, NASCAR races are loud. 0:23:20.160 --> 0:23:24.400 Maybe she had headphones on, maybe she couldn't hear, or 0:23:24.480 --> 0:23:27.840 maybe it was one of the more remarkable examples of 0:23:28.160 --> 0:23:31.080 fake news. I you know, I did tweet nast. Is 0:23:31.200 --> 0:23:35.440 NBC News going to issue a correction because I'm quite 0:23:35.440 --> 0:23:38.359 confident they were not channing Let's go Brandon, and it's 0:23:38.440 --> 0:23:41.479 now become a thing. In fact, the Daily Wire I 0:23:41.480 --> 0:23:44.480 saw is selling let's go Brandon shirts. I got to 0:23:44.520 --> 0:23:48.040 admit I was awfully tempted to have verdict, just steal 0:23:48.160 --> 0:23:50.840 the idea and do the same thing. We may put 0:23:50.840 --> 0:23:54.600 a Let's go Brandon shirt on our cactus friend. You know, 0:23:54.640 --> 0:24:00.879 I find it it u in the world to fake news. 0:24:00.920 --> 0:24:04.119 It was a pretty remarkable moment. It was. This was 0:24:04.160 --> 0:24:07.000 what was so shocking about the whole thing is there 0:24:07.000 --> 0:24:09.240 are a great many people in this country who believe 0:24:09.320 --> 0:24:12.600 that Brandon should go go himself. Let's put it that way. 0:24:12.760 --> 0:24:16.879