Speaker 1: Welcome. It is a Verdict with Ted Cruz Weekend Review.
Speaker 1: Ben Ferguson with you, and these are the big stories
Speaker 1: that you may have missed that we talked about this week.
Speaker 1: Number one, de facto President of the United States of America,
Speaker 1: Anthony Blincoln, decided to go on TV and tell the
Speaker 1: world what Israel should be doing, Yes, calling them out
Speaker 1: and giving them certain things and bars they must hit
Speaker 1: instead of actually calling out the Hamas Terris who have
Speaker 1: been beheading little children. Number two colleges, including professors and
Speaker 1: Ivy League schools have now gone all in to defend Hamas. Yes, Hamas.
Speaker 1: So what's going to happen at these universities? We talk
Speaker 1: about that. And finally, Senator Ted Cruz with story number three,
Speaker 1: endorsed Jim Jordan for the speakership as Steve Scalise is out.
Speaker 1: It is the Weekend Review with Ted Cruz and it
Speaker 1: starts right now. Secretary Blinkinn, who's the most outspoken so
Speaker 1: far from the administration. He went on TV, not really
Speaker 1: condemning that much Amas or what they're doing, but actually
Speaker 1: calling out Israel, saying, quote, we're looking to Israel to
Speaker 1: apply the highest standard to avoid civilian causalies in Gaza.
Speaker 1: We're not saying anything about the Americans that have been taken,
Speaker 1: the Americans have been killed, or all the atrocities at
Speaker 1: war crimes you just mentioned. No, no, we're going to
Speaker 1: put Israel on notice, as you just described it, you
Speaker 1: better not screw this up.
Speaker 2: If this is a prolonged attack, what kind of humanitarian
Speaker 2: crisis are you expecting here and impact on civilians.
Speaker 3: Well, we've seen this unfortunately repeat itself. Although the magnitude
Speaker 3: the scale of what Hamas did here is something we
Speaker 3: haven't seen before. But in prior instances, those who have
Speaker 3: suffered along with the victims of terrorism are civilians, including
Speaker 3: in Gaza. And whatever Israel does in Gaza, as always,
Speaker 3: we look to it to do everything possible to avoid
Speaker 3: civilian casualties, something of course, that Hamas doesn't do. On
Speaker 3: the contrary, not only does it not seek to avoid them,
Speaker 3: it deliberately targets civilians. It's gunning down Israelis in the streets,
Speaker 3: in their homes and as I said, ragging them across
Speaker 3: the border in Gaza. So there's absolutely no comparison. But
Speaker 3: we looked to Israel as always to apply the highest
Speaker 3: standards when it comes to avoiding civilian casualties and anything
Speaker 3: it may do in Gaza.
Speaker 1: It's amazing the butt there at the end. But right,
Speaker 1: well say all this is bad. But but Israel, you
Speaker 1: better be better than everybody else.
Speaker 2: Well, and I got to say, Ben, listening to that,
Speaker 2: I have mixed sentiments. On one level, Frankly, Tony Blinkn
Speaker 2: is better than most of the clowns in the s
Speaker 2: Biden administration. He at least acknowledges that Israel is bending
Speaker 2: over backwards to try to avoid killing civilians, and that
Speaker 2: Hamas is deliberately killing civilians. That's something that's a tiny
Speaker 2: shred of truth. Now, what he doesn't do is acknowledge
Speaker 2: that Israel historically has gone to incredible lengths to avoid
Speaker 2: civilian casualties, and that the reason Palestinian civilians are killed
Speaker 2: is because Hamas wants them to be killed, because they
Speaker 2: deliberately put their military assets in a place where it
Speaker 2: is impossible to take out their military assets without killing
Speaker 2: killing Palestinian civilians. That the Palestinian deaths are what Hamas
Speaker 2: wants because they know the useful idiots in the media
Speaker 2: will use it against Israel. Let me give you an
Speaker 2: example of some of the vicious rhetoric coming in this case.
Speaker 2: This is what the statement that Congresswoman Corey Bush put
Speaker 2: out as these atrocities are ongoing quote, I am heartbroken
Speaker 2: by the ongoing violence in Palestine and Israel, and I
Speaker 2: mourned the over two hundred and fifty Israelian in two
Speaker 2: hundred and thirty Palestinian lives that have been lost today
Speaker 2: and the thousands injured following attacks by Hamas militants on
Speaker 2: Israeli border towns and Israeli military bombardment of Gaza. I
Speaker 2: strongly condemned the targeting of civilians, and I urge an
Speaker 2: immediate cease fire and de escalation to prevent further loss
Speaker 2: of life. Our immediate focus must be on saving lives,
Speaker 2: but our ultimate focus must be on a just and
Speaker 2: lasting peace that ensures safety for everyone in the region.
Speaker 2: Violations of human rights do not justify more violations of
Speaker 2: human rights, and a military response will only exacerbate the
Speaker 2: suffering of Palestinians and Israelis alike. As part of achieving
Speaker 2: a just and lasting peace, we must do our part
Speaker 2: to stop the violence and trauma by ending US government
Speaker 2: support for Israeli military occupation and apartheid. I am continuing
Speaker 2: to closely monitor the situation in my office. Is ready
Speaker 2: to support the residents of the first district with family
Speaker 2: members and loved ones in the region. So literally, while
Speaker 2: Israel's nine to eleven is unfolding, this Democrats Squad member
Speaker 2: accuses Israel of apartheid, a total lie, and calls for
Speaker 2: ending US government support for Israel's military in the middle
Speaker 2: of a war. And she simultaneously, what does she call
Speaker 2: for an immediate cease fire of the military response? In
Speaker 2: other words, Israel, never mind that terrorists are murdering your civilians,
Speaker 2: are targeting your civilians, are kidnapping your civilians. We in
Speaker 2: America call for you to stop the cease fire and
Speaker 2: do nothing in response. You know, I got to say
Speaker 2: how many Democrats are condemning this viciously anti Semitic, anti
Speaker 2: Israel statement that sadly was echoed by multiple members of
Speaker 2: the squad, and the degree to which the far left
Speaker 2: tolerates and even celebrates this vicious anti semitism. It gets
Speaker 2: worse and worse every day.
Speaker 1: Is Joe Biden and I want to end with this.
Speaker 1: He's a guy that you know, he called a lid
Speaker 1: at eleven thirty four am. For people that don't understand
Speaker 1: what the lid is, that means basically, the day's over, right,
Speaker 1: That's that's the way they tell the media. Hey, he's
Speaker 1: doing other things now. He's not making any more public statements.
Speaker 1: We haven't heard from a president saying don't harm Americans.
Speaker 1: He hasn't said that Israel has got our you know,
Speaker 1: our unwavering support and we will do whatever we have
Speaker 1: to do to get Americans back. And he and he's
Speaker 1: sitting there and saying nothing publicly here while all of
Speaker 1: this is going on. Is he the worst president in
Speaker 1: our lifetime when it comes to a policy of clearly
Speaker 1: not standing with Israel because he's not Look, he's not
Speaker 1: even saying.
Speaker 2: With Americans unequivocally. For the last two and a half years,
Speaker 2: the Biden administration has engaged in a systematic, granular, day
Speaker 2: to day effort to undermine the nation of Israel. You know,
Speaker 2: within the first couple of weeks of our first couple
Speaker 2: of months of the Biden administration coming into office, the
Speaker 2: State Department put out written guidance prohibiting employees at State
Speaker 2: from referring to the Abraham Accords. The Abraham Accords were
Speaker 2: the historic peace treaty that the Trump administration negotiated between
Speaker 2: Israel and numerous Arab countries. Instead, the Biden administration State
Speaker 2: Department was ordered to refer to them as normalization agreements.
Speaker 2: They couldn't use the word Abraham, they couldn't acknowledge the
Speaker 2: historic nature of it. Now I called that out, and
Speaker 2: in fact I brought out the documents that demonstrated it
Speaker 2: was the Biden White House that directed State to do that,
Speaker 2: and they were so embarrassed by that they backed away
Speaker 2: from it. So now they used the terms the frequency
Speaker 2: with which So one of the things they did they
Speaker 2: changed the Office of Israel and Palestinian Affairs. They changed
Speaker 2: the name of it to the Office of Israeli and
Speaker 2: Palestinian Affairs.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 2: Why Because they didn't want to acknowledge the nation of
Speaker 2: Israel exists, and they wanted to put Israel's claims of
Speaker 2: sovereignty on the same level of parody as the Palestinian
Speaker 2: terrorists that are right now committing these atrocities. Beyond that,
Speaker 2: the Biden administration is a first government in US history
Speaker 2: to implement a policy of BDS of boycott, divestiture and
Speaker 2: sanctioning in particular cutting off funding for scientific research, cancer research,
Speaker 2: no less in Judaea and Samaria what they call the
Speaker 2: occupied territories portions of Israel that now the federal government
Speaker 2: is boycotting and saying we will not fund because their
Speaker 2: view is the same as these Squad members. They view
Speaker 2: Israel as illegitimately occupied territory. And so the harm that
Speaker 2: is coming from the Biden administration is horrific. And let
Speaker 2: me just ask you this as we wrap up. You know,
Speaker 2: we've seen Joe Biden light up the White House in
Speaker 2: rainbow colors in support of a transgender agenda. We've seen
Speaker 2: the White House in blue and gold in support of Ukraine.
Speaker 2: What's the White House done for Israel? It's not blue
Speaker 2: and white.
Speaker 1: No, I would even go so further. Where was the
Speaker 1: White House done for any Americans that are being harmed
Speaker 1: right now in Israel?
Speaker 2: Do we know the names of any Americans who are hostages?
Speaker 2: Do we know the names of any Americans who've been killed?
Speaker 2: As the President spoken about it, as the President gone
Speaker 2: on national television, as the President said, if you harm
Speaker 2: one American you will face real repercussions. No, what they've
Speaker 2: said is do not retaliate Israel, don't strike back at
Speaker 2: the terrorists. This administration funded the atrocities. Understand, do not
Speaker 2: forget the fifty billion dollars that Joe Biden and the
Speaker 2: ideologues in this administration flooded to Iran. That money funded
Speaker 2: these attacks. Now, by the way, the Biden White House's
Speaker 2: defense of that, so they say, no, no, no, no, our money
Speaker 2: technically went to other other endeavors. Well, money is fungible.
Speaker 2: If you send fifty billion dollars in there, they can
Speaker 2: spend other money to fund the terror attacks. And by
Speaker 2: the way, the some forty billion dollars that is from
Speaker 2: oil sales, that is completely available to be spent, and
Speaker 2: in a very real and direct sense, it funded this attack,
Speaker 2: as did the money that the Biden administration sent to
Speaker 2: Gaza that they stated in writing they knew would go
Speaker 2: to Hamas for terrorism. Well, congratulations to the Biden White House.
Speaker 2: It's done exactly that.
Speaker 1: Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation,
Speaker 1: you can go back and listen to the full podcast
Speaker 1: from earlier this week. Now onto story number two. Let's
Speaker 1: talk about this from a a a internal and inside
Speaker 1: of the US perspective For a minute as well, Colleges Harvard,
Speaker 1: University of Pennsylvania, Black Lives Matter standing with these terrorists.
Speaker 1: You have federally elected leaders around the country that are
Speaker 1: standing with these terrorists. You have a Colorado State Representative,
Speaker 1: Tim Hernandez who said this today.
Speaker 4: I think it's despicable what they're protesting for, protesting gratulations
Speaker 4: and the fact that you can't condemn women and children
Speaker 4: and elderly people down over in the streets.
Speaker 3: What about it?
Speaker 4: Do you condemn it?
Speaker 1: I already said, why can't you say yes? Because I
Speaker 1: already gave you my answer if you didn't.
Speaker 4: Give an answer, and every I think anybody who watches
Speaker 4: would understand where you're us.
Speaker 1: This is a man who's at a protest against Israel,
Speaker 1: who's been elected to the state legislature. You put that,
Speaker 1: and you combine that with the squad Senator. I will
Speaker 1: give a little credit the White House at least today
Speaker 1: understood that they need to stand up against Omar and
Speaker 1: to leave in others. The White House Press Secretary did
Speaker 1: say that what they had said was repugnant and disgraceful
Speaker 1: their statements on Israel. But you combine these younger leaders
Speaker 1: with what we're now witnessing on college campuses, is at Harvard,
Speaker 1: at University of Penn. It scares me for this country.
Speaker 1: There was a conversation even about this on CNBC, even
Speaker 1: CNBC who deals with financial issues, like, what the hell
Speaker 1: is going on on college campuses? And this is what
Speaker 1: they said.
Speaker 5: Let me ask you a question. Let's say you're the
Speaker 5: president of Harvard University. Yeah, if you've looked at what's
Speaker 5: happening to Harvard, there are students who are mining mind boggle, right,
Speaker 5: but students who are gathering to support the Pales stadiums,
Speaker 5: to support Hamas, frankly, very very specifically to support Hamas,
Speaker 5: and what's happening. What is the role of the president
Speaker 5: of a university or frankly the president of a company
Speaker 5: when they have either students or employees or others who
Speaker 5: want to view and express that position, which I find disgraceful,
Speaker 5: but I wonder, well, I think there's what the answer
Speaker 5: is supposed to.
Speaker 6: Look. The first thing that I would do if I
Speaker 6: was a president Harvard University, I would say, we are
Speaker 6: clearly not educating students for students to think that again,
Speaker 6: you know, murder at scale is somehow legitimate that occupation
Speaker 6: causes terror. I mean, there are no Israelis in Gaza,
Speaker 6: for goodness sakes, it's a silly turn of phrase. But
Speaker 6: to your question, what would I do well, Number one,
Speaker 6: I would say we need to revisit our entire core
Speaker 6: education because they're clearly not taching morals or values. That's
Speaker 6: number one. And then number two, the president of Harvard,
Speaker 6: like the president of U Penn, like the president's institutions,
Speaker 6: needs to stand up and speak out and say this
Speaker 6: is disgraceful and wrong students are.
Speaker 1: But they're not doing that centator. They're not saying it's wrong.
Speaker 1: They're waiting days to even respond. And that's only after
Speaker 1: famous alumni and donors finally came down. And then to
Speaker 1: the point where like you have to give a statement,
Speaker 1: and they put out a basic statement on paper.
Speaker 2: Well, let me say the voice you were just hearing
Speaker 2: there was Jonathan Greenblatt. He's the head of the Anti
Speaker 2: Defamation League, and I'm glad he's speaking out. He actually
Speaker 2: was speaking clearly and effectively there. The ADL has a
Speaker 2: long history of calling out anti Semitism, in recent years,
Speaker 2: it has been far too willing to basically act as
Speaker 2: a defender for the Democrat Party and as a partisan.
Speaker 2: And so I'm glad they're standing up and speaking with
Speaker 2: clarity here it's important. But look what happened at Harvard.
Speaker 2: You have thirty five student groups that put out a statement.
Speaker 2: I want you to understand what they said. I'm going
Speaker 2: to read you from the joints statement by Harvard Palestine
Speaker 2: Solidarity Groups on the situation in Palestine, not it's the
Speaker 2: situation of Palestine, not Israel. They don't even acknowledge Israel exists.
Speaker 2: We the undersigned student organizations, hold the Israeli regime entirely
Speaker 2: responsible for all unfolding violence. That's the opening sentence. It
Speaker 2: is Israel's fault that Hamas terrorists are murdering children. It
Speaker 2: is Israel's fault that Hamas terrorists are raping women and
Speaker 2: little girls in the streets and parading them through the street.
Speaker 2: It is Israel's fault that they are kidnapping toddlers and
Speaker 2: holding them hostage. It is Israel's fault that they are
Speaker 2: using those toddlers as human shields. They're using women and
Speaker 2: men as human shields. It's Israel's fault that Hamas terrorists
Speaker 2: are murdering civilians indiscriminately walking house by house by house,
Speaker 2: and if you're a Jew, they murder you. What a ridiculous,
Speaker 2: out rageous situation. And look that statement they put out. Initially,
Speaker 2: for the first couple of days, Harvard said nothing. It
Speaker 2: was the only statement from the Harvard campus that anyone
Speaker 2: seemed to be aware of. Then Harvard put out an
Speaker 2: initial statement that was the most milk toast lukewarm statement
Speaker 2: of Well, we want to be a safe space for
Speaker 2: people to have all sorts of us, you know, the
Speaker 2: pro genocide mass murder view and the anti genocide mass
Speaker 2: murder view. No, I'm sorry, that's not a topic of
Speaker 2: reasonable debate. Beheading babies is always, always, always wrong, period,
Speaker 2: full stop. Finally, on Tuesday, the president of Harvard was
Speaker 2: guilted into condemning we stand against Hamas's beheading babies. It
Speaker 2: took five days of getting pounded. I got to say, listen,
Speaker 2: I'm an alumnus of Harvard Law School. It is embarrassing
Speaker 2: that are universities. The problem is they become petri dishes,
Speaker 2: They become incubators for radical left wing views. And other
Speaker 2: than a Hamas headquarters, there are a few places with
Speaker 2: more vicious anti semitism and hatred of Israel than America's
Speaker 2: elite universities today. You talk to to Hillel's students, you
Speaker 2: talk to Jewish students on campuses. They're afraid. They're afraid
Speaker 2: of violence. They're afraid to wear a yamaka. They're afraid
Speaker 2: to be publicly identified as Jewish because they risk violence.
Speaker 2: They wish, they risk swastikas being spray painted on their
Speaker 2: student center, they risk attacks from the radical left, and
Speaker 2: the radical left more and more embraces, cherishes and nurtures
Speaker 2: anti Semitism, and schools like Harvard sadly are the breeding
Speaker 2: grounds for this hatred, and they can't figure it out
Speaker 2: enough to stay. Genocide is bad. That should not be
Speaker 2: a controversial proposition.
Speaker 1: Well, and even members in Congress for sheid to leave
Speaker 1: was was asked directly to her face what she thought
Speaker 1: about women being raped and babies getting their heads cut off.
Speaker 1: She wouldn't answer the question, take a listen to this.
Speaker 2: And burn children alive? Do you support Israel's rights to
Speaker 2: defend themselves in a postality? You can't comment at all.
Speaker 2: AMA's terrace chopping off baby because you comment and a
Speaker 2: mos Terence talking on me.
Speaker 1: You a mom who said.
Speaker 5: Baby says, do you condone what Amas has done.
Speaker 4: Chopping off babies?
Speaker 1: Says?
Speaker 2: Furnish a life raby went to the street. Do you
Speaker 2: want to know moment about the children's head speech?
Speaker 4: Hand all?
Speaker 1: Congressman why Howard Halliday and wine?
Speaker 2: I d your office if you do know what?
Speaker 6: You know?
Speaker 3: What the monster is about?
Speaker 2: Israel in rainy?
Speaker 1: Whys do matter to you? I mean Senator that was
Speaker 1: whoever that reporter was. God bless her for continuing to
Speaker 1: ask a basic question. Children will burn, baby's heads are
Speaker 1: cut off.
Speaker 2: And I gotta say, if you haven't seen the video
Speaker 2: of that clip, you got to google it and watch it,
Speaker 2: because watching the video is even more disturbing. So congresswoman
Speaker 2: to leave is walking down the hallways in Congress, so
Speaker 2: the steps you hear the whole time, or she's walking,
Speaker 2: she's walking, she's walking, And this reporter just asked her,
Speaker 2: do you not have a comment on chopping babies heads off?
Speaker 2: How hard is it for a congress woman to say,
Speaker 2: we should not chop the heads off babies, we should
Speaker 2: not burn children alive, we should not rape women in
Speaker 2: the streets. That is not in a normal sane world,
Speaker 2: a controversial proposition, and yet her politics are so radical
Speaker 2: she cannot bring herself to say that she has in
Speaker 2: front of her office she has a Palestinian flag. It's
Speaker 2: interesting she has a Palestinian flag and she has a
Speaker 2: transgender flag, which is ironic because Hamas would murder anyone
Speaker 2: who's gay or transgender. So like, the two flags are
Speaker 2: utterly in conflict. But in today's modern left that that
Speaker 2: nobody bothers with intellectual coherence. They embrace their ideology and
Speaker 2: don't worry about it. But I gotta say it is stunning,
Speaker 2: Like she walks a long, long way and the end
Speaker 2: of that video she gets on an elevator and the
Speaker 2: door closes, and and you know, she asked, do Israeli
Speaker 2: lives matter? And by the way, Congresswoman Talib conspicuously avoids
Speaker 2: using the word Israel. She refers to Palestine. Look, today's
Speaker 2: radical left in the Democrat Party does not acknowledge Israel's
Speaker 2: right to exist. And I got to say, it's not
Speaker 2: just Congresswoman to leave. It's it's it's it's Corey Bush,
Speaker 2: it's AOC. It is the hard left of the Democrat Party.
Speaker 2: And by the way, it's the Biden State Department whose
Speaker 2: response initially to this was Israel stand down, do not
Speaker 2: engage in any military action following the worst attack on
Speaker 2: Israel in fifty years, following Israel's nine to eleven do nothing.
Speaker 2: That is sadly the view of today's radical left, and
Speaker 2: for the Democrats who don't agree with it, I hope
Speaker 2: that they find the courage to call out the members
Speaker 2: of their own party that are saying things that are
Speaker 2: disgraceful as before.
Speaker 1: Do you want to hear the rest of this conversation
Speaker 1: on this topic, You can go back and down the
Speaker 1: podcasts from earlier this week to hear the entire thing.
Speaker 1: I want to get back to the big story number
Speaker 1: three of the week. You may have missed Steve Scales,
Speaker 1: who got the majority of the votes in the conference
Speaker 1: to become the Speaker of the House. He has now
Speaker 1: broke made big breaking news by saying this about dropping
Speaker 1: out of the race.
Speaker 7: I know we've been following this. It's been quite a
Speaker 7: journey and there's still a long way to go. I
Speaker 7: just share with my colleagues and I'm withdrawing my name
Speaker 7: as a cadidate for the speaker. Designed If you look
Speaker 7: at over the last few weeks, if you look at
Speaker 7: where our conference is, there's still work to be done.
Speaker 7: Our conference still has to come together and is not there.
Speaker 7: There are still some people that have their own agendas, and.
Speaker 2: That was very clear.
Speaker 7: We have to have everybody put their agendas on the
Speaker 7: side and focus on what this country needs. This country
Speaker 7: is counting on us to come back together. This House
Speaker 7: of Representatives needs a speaker and we need to open
Speaker 7: up the House again. But clearly not everybody is there
Speaker 7: and there's still schisms that have to get resolved.
Speaker 1: This is not that surprising to me, Center because it
Speaker 1: was clear he wasn't going to have the votes, just
Speaker 1: like with Kevin McCarthy, he didn't have the votes. That
Speaker 1: means is this and now a pathway for Jim Jordan
Speaker 1: to become the speaker? Because you also came out and
Speaker 1: endorse Jim Jordan, saying you believe he's the most physically conserved,
Speaker 1: the best guy for this job.
Speaker 2: Well, that's right, I did, and it's worth going back
Speaker 2: and explaining why I did that, because we had talked
Speaker 2: on the podcast previously that I intended to stay out
Speaker 2: of the House leadership election, and that's what I've done
Speaker 2: the eleven years I've been in the Senate, I've stayed
Speaker 2: out of every House leadership election we ever had, and
Speaker 2: my standard position has been that questions of House leadership
Speaker 2: are for the House members to decide. And and that's
Speaker 2: what I had said on the podcast repeatedly. I'd set
Speaker 2: it to reporters in Capitol Hill repeatedly. That was a
Speaker 2: position I was very comfortable with. And then a couple
Speaker 2: of days ago, Jim Jordan called me, uh and he
Speaker 2: made a very direct ass he asked for my support. Now,
Speaker 2: Jim is a friend. He's a good friend. I know
Speaker 2: Jim very well. Jim has been a guest on this podcast.
Speaker 2: We had him on two consecutive episodes doing a deep
Speaker 2: dive into the fantastic work that he's doing as focusing
Speaker 2: on the weaponization of the Department of Justice and the
Speaker 2: FBI and government. And Jim is someone I've worked with
Speaker 2: the entire time I've been in the Senate. He is
Speaker 2: a strong conservative. And he asked, he asked for my support,
Speaker 2: he said, and he leaned in hard on it. And
Speaker 2: I thought about it, and I thought carefully, and my
Speaker 2: general fulllosophy on political endorsements and I make endorsements all
Speaker 2: over the country in Senate races and House races, and
Speaker 2: gubernatorial races, in school board races, all sorts of races.
Speaker 2: Is that I support the strongest conservative who can win,
Speaker 2: and both of those are important. I want to proven
Speaker 2: record that you're a real conservative, and I want a
Speaker 2: path to victory. I'm not interested in tilty at Windmills.
Speaker 2: I'm not interested in a candidate that does not have
Speaker 2: a path to victory. And as I thought about it,
Speaker 2: I came to the conclusion that Jim was that person.
Speaker 2: That he would be certainly the most conservative speaker we'd
Speaker 2: ever had, but that he had a real and viable
Speaker 2: path to win, that he had real and meaningful support. Now,
Speaker 2: obviously his chief rival and the only two declared candidates
Speaker 2: at the time for speaker were Jim Jordan and Steve Scalise.
Speaker 2: And Steve is a friend as well. Steve and I
Speaker 2: are good friends. We spent a lot of time together.
Speaker 2: I like Steve. Steve is a conservative. Uh And and Steve,
Speaker 2: look the the statement that you just played. That was
Speaker 2: not an easy statement for Steve to give, and I
Speaker 2: respect that that he gave it. I think it was
Speaker 2: heartfelt Steve is obviously hurting, but I think he's also
Speaker 2: trying to do the right thing. And I'll tell you
Speaker 2: before I endorsed Jim Jordan. When I hung up the
Speaker 2: phone with Jim, before I put out the endorsement, I
Speaker 2: picked up the phone and I called Steve and and
Speaker 2: the first thing I did is just ask Steve how
Speaker 2: is how he was doing health wise. He's he's dealing
Speaker 2: with a rare form of blood cancer, and I've been
Speaker 2: been concerned and praying for him, and and he told
Speaker 2: me he is doing better and the treatment is proceeding
Speaker 2: very well. But I gave him the heads up, just
Speaker 2: man to man, as I said, listen, you're my friend, Steve.
Speaker 2: I'm going to make this endorsement of Jim.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: He asked me to do it, and Jim and I
Speaker 2: have been very close, and I'm going to endorse him.
Speaker 2: But I told Steve at the time, and I believe this.
Speaker 2: I said, listen, I think you'd make a terrific speaker,
Speaker 2: and I think Jim would make a terrific speaker. So
Speaker 2: do not take this endorsement as a negative comment on you,
Speaker 2: but rather just a statement of that I think Jim
Speaker 2: Jordan is the strongest conservative who has a path to win,
Speaker 2: and Steve was very gracious about it, and we're friends,
Speaker 2: and I certainly anticipate continuing to work with Steve in
Speaker 2: the years ahead. Now, what happened this week is the
Speaker 2: House Republican Conference met and they had a closed door
Speaker 2: meeting and they had a vote, and Scalise won the
Speaker 2: vote by a vote of one hundred and thirteen to
Speaker 2: ninety nine. So Jordan got ninety nine votes, Scalise got
Speaker 2: one hundred and thirteen, and actually the press coverage was saying, well,
Speaker 2: that's it, Scalise is the Speaker. And what happened subsequently
Speaker 2: is there were a number of House Republicans who did
Speaker 2: not vote for Scleee, who said over the hours and
Speaker 2: days that followed that they were not going to vote
Speaker 2: for Scleee, and they dug in apparently, and it did
Speaker 2: not appear that Steve had a path to too eighteen.
Speaker 2: And so I think he's pulling out because he, at
Speaker 2: least at this point doesn't see a path to to eighteen.
Speaker 2: Does that mean Jim Jordan is going to be the choice?
Speaker 2: I don't know. With a House majority of just four votes,
Speaker 2: any five Republicans can say no and veto anyone. And look,
Speaker 2: Jordan got ninety nine votes in the conference. That tells
Speaker 2: you there were over one hundred Republicans who didn't vote
Speaker 2: for him. I hope Jim can earn the support of
Speaker 2: his colleagues and unify. I will say, listen, it's a
Speaker 2: tough time. I mean, one of the things that's playing
Speaker 2: out in the House is there are a lot of raw emotions.
Speaker 2: People are angry. Have the individuals who voted last week
Speaker 2: to remove Kevin McCarthy as speaker. I think those individuals
Speaker 2: have strong feelings, But I also think McCarthy and his
Speaker 2: core allies are very, very angry. And so look, anytime
Speaker 2: you have people that are emotional and angry, it's hard
Speaker 2: for them to come together. Now. For folks worried that
Speaker 2: this chaos will last forever, I don't think it will.
Speaker 2: I think we will have a speaker, and I think
Speaker 2: we'll have a speaker relatively soon. I don't know how
Speaker 2: long it will take. I still think we'll have a
Speaker 2: speaker by the end of this week, so by by
Speaker 2: the end of Friday or Saturday, but I don't know.
Speaker 2: It may bleed in the next week, and it is
Speaker 2: possible if Scalize doesn't have the votes, and if Jordan
Speaker 2: doesn't have the votes, that someone else will emerge as
Speaker 2: a third option, that is some sort of compromise candidate.
Speaker 2: And there are a couple of names that are floating around,
Speaker 2: but it's not clear at this point what will happen.
Speaker 2: But I will say to anyone concerned, we will have
Speaker 2: a Speaker of the House. The Republicans will come together.
Speaker 2: It just may take a little more time and a
Speaker 2: little more opportunity for emotions to cool.
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