July 27, 2022 • 38 mins
It’s a familiar scene. The Left tries to define us out of reality. This time, it’s out of a full-blown recession. Senator Ted Cruz joins Michael Knowles from YAF’s National Conservative Student Conference to give a hard-line response to the White House and examine the motive behind their latest propaganda. Plus, as the consequences of illegal immigration spread across America, blue-city Democrats reek of hypocrisy. And someone get Joe Biden a trophy, because his blunders are about to net him the coveted “Most Republicans Elected by a Democrat” award in November.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
We seem to be redefining everything these days. People just
don't know what words mean. We don't know what a
baby is, We certainly don't know what a woman is,
and now we don't even know what a recession is.
This is Verdict with Ted Cruz. This episode of Verdict
(00:25):
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(00:47):
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three two. You'll be glad you did. Come back to
verdicts of Ted Cruz. I'm Michael Knowles. I was watching
the White House today. The Director of the National Economic
Council made the claim, in anticipation of Thursday's economic numbers,
(02:14):
which will show a recession to consecutive quarters of economic
falling down GDP going down, that we are not in
a recession, because that is not the definition of a recession. Senator,
I am no economist. I have not studied these things
in a very long time. But last time I checked,
(02:37):
that is literally the definition of a recession. Am I wrong?
You're not wrong. That is the textbook definition of a recession.
And this White House believes that if they redefine words,
so instead of a recession, instead of the economy going
to crap, if they define it as Joe Biden's happy
go lucky time with things going great, that they're client
(03:00):
lapdogs in the corporate media will echo that message and
say the economy is booming. A recession is defined as
two consecutive quarters of GDP growth going down. That's what
it means. They really don't want the headline that we're
in a recession going into the election because they recognize
the voters are going to pound the heck out of
(03:22):
Democrats and throw them out of office for putting us
into a recession. So the level of I mean, this
is ob one Kenobe, These are not the droids we're
looking for. This is George Orwell two plus two equals five.
They just say this is not a recession. Why cause
we say it's not a recession. Never mind, words have
no meaning, Ignore them everything's great. It wasn't just the
(03:46):
director of the National Economic Council, it was also then
Karine Jampierre, the president's spokesman the press sectory at the
White House, who simply refused to answer the question. She
was asked by a reporter, if you're not going to
use the traditional definition of a recession because you don't
want to admit that you've brought us into one, then
how do you all define recession? She wouldn't even give
(04:09):
an alternative explanation. Well, their answer is they define recession
as anything that happens under a republican president, and they
define great economic success is anything that happens under a democrat.
And it's just it's propaganda, like substance truth. Facts have
nothing to do with it. And so actually this week
I'm introducing a resolution in the Senate, and the resolution
(04:33):
is very simple. I'm going to read you the entirety
of it because it's because it's only just over a
page resolution expressing the sense of the Senate that the
historic definition of a recession is two negative quarters of
gross domestic product growth, whereas globally, the most commonly used
and widely accepted definition of recession is two negative quarters
(04:54):
of gross domestic product growth, whereas most of the recessions
in the United States identified by the National Bureau of
Economic Research have consisted of two negative quarters of gross
domestic product growth, and in each of the last ten
instances in which there have been two or more such quarters,
a recession was officially declared ten times in a row.
(05:15):
Whereas the use of the historic definition of a recession
by the federal government has been important for purposes of
economic study and analysis, historical comparisons, and policymaking. Now therefore
be it resolved that it is the sense of the
Senate that the federal government should continue to use the
(05:36):
historic definition of a recession. These guys are trying to
define us out of a recession. We are, I think
it's extremely likely we're about to enter a recession, and
they're trying to play word games to get out of
that problem. What is the motivation here for them other
than they don't want to admit that their economic policies
(05:57):
are no good. But presumably that's true of other administrations
in the past. And yet this is the first administration
we've seen that actually is denying the definition of the
word recession and it's not as though this is the
first time we've seen the left use the redefinition of
words to try to change the culture. Just last week,
we were all arguing over the definition of marriage. Before that,
(06:20):
we were arguing over the definition of what a woman is.
Before that, We've been arguing over these politically correct changes
to language for a very long time. So that does
this tactic from seemingly everybody at the White House speak
to a larger, deeper problems that's particular to our moment
(06:40):
in time. Well, there's a cynicism, So so democrats believe
that they can. It's propaganda. There you asked, what's their motivation?
Is propaganda? But the propaganda only works because the corporate
media is compliant. So the corporate media will echo whatever
absurd lies they say, and it is designed to obscure
(07:01):
the truth from the American people. Look, I'll show you
a couple of charts that are that are pretty compelling.
This chart, this is the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index.
And so it goes back all the way to nineteen
seventy eight. You see it's been down and up it
went up, up, up, up. You look that it went
up here all right, here's twenty twenty. It is up
(07:28):
around one hundred. And here's what the consumer sentiment index does.
It plummets. It goes straight down with like the vertical
descent of a cliff, down to what is this fifty,
So it went from one hundred to fifty. That is
an ominous chart in terms of recession consumer sentiment. I'll
(07:48):
give you another chart that is really quite similar. So
this is the NFIB National Federation of Small Business Outlook
for General Business Conditions. So they ask small businesses what
do you think business conditions are? And you can see
going back to seventy four, it's going up, down, up, down.
It's been all over the place. But here in twenty
(08:10):
twenty it was up here. What was it at It
was up at forty and then it's same exact like
precipitous plummet It is down now at negative sixty. That
ain't good. That means small businesses think the economy's and
the crapper. That means consumers think the economy is in
(08:32):
the crapper. And so the Biden politicos are saying, well,
let's just define it. We don't want every headline in
every newspaper in America to say the economy is in
a recession because people think that's bad. So let's just
magically claim recession no longer means what you think it means.
(08:52):
It means, well, we don't know what it means, but
it means anything other than what's happening right now, because
we really don't want the headline that this is a recession.
Do you think this is fooling anybody? Because I'm still
trying to wrap my head around how the Biden administration
thinks that this is a workable solution in the long term.
If we could all just deny our failures by changing
(09:14):
the meaning of words, I'm sure we would all be
tempted to do it. But the problem with that is
people aren't stupid. Most people aren't stupid most of the time.
And so you point out that the establishment media are
carrying water for the White House. Of course they are,
But is that fooling anybody. You've got cynicism from the
Biden administration, cynicism and loyalty to the Democrats from the media.
(09:38):
But you're a small business owner, your regular old employee,
your person on the street who realizes that his dollar
is not going as far as it used to. We're
headed into a mid term election in November. Are any
of these people going to buy it? No matter what
definition the White House uses? So unfortunately, I think they
will succeed in fooling some people because there are some
(10:01):
people who are not necessarily paying all that close attention,
and who literally given two worlds, one world in which
every newspaper in America has the banner headline America in
a recession, and one world in which they don't have
the headline in a recession, there's going to be a chunk,
and it's millions of people who won't realize America's in
(10:22):
a recession like that, Actually, I think will be somewhat
successful political propaganda. Why because the media, the corporate media's dishonest.
If you didn't have a dishonest corporate media wouldn't work.
They'd laugh at him and call them out. But they're
enough just absolute prostitutes in the media who will lie
(10:43):
and lie eagerly and happily and lay back and think
of England. That is who they are, that is what
they do, and so I do think it will have
some effect. But at the same time, I think what
is consequential for economic data is people feel in their lives.
(11:04):
So inflation, you don't have all the inflation numbers you want.
But when you go and fill up your truck and
it's one hundred and fifty bucks, you don't need a
chart to know that. When it's one hundred bucks to
fill up a minivan, you don't need a chart to
know that. When you go to the grocery store and
the cost of everything has gone up ten, twenty, thirty, forty,
(11:25):
you don't need a chart to know that. You're looking
at the numbers going, wait a second, I can't afford
the stuff I could afford last week. There are people
that are making hard choices between what am I going
to spend? If you're on a fixed income and the
prices of everything have gone up, you're seeing it firsthand.
The two charts I showed small businesses the fact that
(11:46):
their confidence is plummeted. They're seeing it consumers. Their confidence
is plummeted. So even though they won't have the headlines,
they're seeing it every day in the economy. And I'm
reminded of one of the classic things Reagan said. He said,
a recession is when your neighbor loses his job, a
depression is when you lose your job, and a recovery
(12:11):
is when Jimmy Carter loses his job. I think that
was a beautiful and brilliant point, and I think that
is playing out right here today. If you're losing your job,
if you're paying more at the gas pump, if you're
paying more at the grocery store, if you're feeling the
pain of the economic disaster that is the Biden administration.
(12:32):
Whether or not you read a headline that says we're
in a recession, you know it ain't good. It's even
more insidious than all of those inflation numbers that we're
seeing because of something we mentioned on this show several
episodes back. But you're now seeing the fruit of it
because of shrink inflation, which is the other side of it.
So prices are going up. Isn't that what George Costanza
(12:54):
talked about when he got into cold Pool? You think
a related concept, but a little bit different. So we
were so the other night, Sweet Little Lace and I
were going to have fondue with our friends. I don't know.
We felt like we were living in the nineteen seventies
or something. I went out to go buy cheese, I
had to buy twenty four ounces of cheese. I pick
up the various blocks of cheese, and I noticed something
(13:16):
a little weird. The amount of cheese in the block
had gone down. I looked at the one block of
cheese I bought. It was five point nine ounces. Why
was it five point No recipe ever in the history
of cheese has called for five point nine ounces of cheese. Clearly,
what the companies had done is shrunken the amount that
(13:37):
they were giving you, and they were either maintaining the
price or the price was going up. There's a new
report out of The Daily Mail analyzing a number of
major brands to show that major cereal companies are reducing
the amount of cereal in the box only by two
and a half three ounces, but that can be a
seventeen percent reduction in the amount of cereal in the
box because they were just isn't that much cereal in
(13:57):
a box? To begin with? Gatorade docing to an unnoticeable
until you really start to look for a degree the
amount of gatorade in the bottle. You're seeing this with
toilet tissue, You're seeing this with paper towels, You're seeing
this with canned coffee you're sees across the economy. So
the actual inflation that we are all experiencing is even
(14:18):
worse just than the number going up a little bit
at the checkout line when you're in the grocery store.
So I think you're beginning to see this reality reflected
in Joe Biden's polls. Biden now the majority of Democrats
don't want him to run again for re election. There
was a poll out of New Hampshire where Pete Boota
Jedge actually did better among prospective Democrat voters than Joe
(14:41):
Biden did. And by the way, speaking of insidious problems,
you've got this problem now of mass migration, which is
even starting to bother the Democrats in New York. New
York Democrat Mayor Eric Adams just claimed that the illegal
immigrants were being bust from your state senator up to
New York are creating a huge burden on New Yorkers,
(15:02):
which is kind of ironic because the New York Democrats
always tout how wonderful illegal immigration is and how it's
our great strength. Well, if it's a great strength for
Texas and Arizona, why is it all of a sudden
a burden when you Democrats have to deal with the
problem in your state. I know you were just down
there touring the border yourself, seeing at firsthand, so I
was let me say the point you just made a
(15:24):
minute ago, I think is important, which is, the last
week we saw the mayor of New York City and
the mayor of Washington, DC, Eric Adams and Muriel Bowser
both publicly complain about the enormous burden illegal immigration is
putting on DC in New York City. Now, for blue state,
Blue city Democrats to be whining about illegal immigration is
(15:46):
rich with hypocrisy at a level. That is, if they
think it's bad, what do you think South Texas is experiencing?
What do you think Laredo and McCallan, an Eagle Pass
del Rio are experiencing. And by the way, if they
want to solve it, both of them are enthusiastic supporters
of Joe Biden and all the Democrats. It's the Democrats
who have caused this. So you mentioned I just got
(16:08):
back from the border. So two weeks ago, I took
a trip to the southern border. I brought seven senators
with me. I've been to the border a lot, and
the ten years I've been in the Senate, I've gone
dozens of times down to the border. It is the
worst right now that I have ever seen it. We
got down there Thursday night. First thing we did is
we went out on midnight patrol with the border patrol.
(16:30):
Now you go out on midnight patrol, you might think, Okay,
you're gonna go hunt free legal aliens to see if
you can find them. You don't hunt for him. Within
minutes you encounter them. You just go down to the
border and you find them. And we were there three
four minutes. First group we saw was three teenagers, two
girls and a boy. They all said they were sixteen
or seventeen years old. Night. I don't know if they're
(16:51):
sixteen or seventeen, because if they say they're under eighteen,
they definitely stay. If they're eighteen, there's a chance the
law might be enforced against them, So every one of
them claims to be under eighteen. The second group was
a group of women and children, about a dozen people.
In that group were two seven year old girls. We
(17:12):
talked to them. Both of the seven year old girls
were unaccompanied minors, so they didn't have a parent with them.
They didn't have a family member with them. They weren't sisters,
they weren't related to each other. So both of them
were seven year old girls that their families had handed
over to criminal drug cartels. They were with strangers in
this group. I got to say, as the father of daughters,
(17:35):
I cannot imagine handing us your seven year old daughter
over to drug cartels. The border patrol we were down
on the border. They pointed us to a patch of grass.
It was a couple hundred yards away from where we were.
They said, a couple of weeks earlier they had found
two little girls, aged five and six, both of whom
(17:57):
had been violently raped by the chaos, and the border
patrol had to perform emergency medical care on these little
girls that had been badly violated. The thing that is
infuriating is this is happening literally every hour of every day.
This was within five or ten minutes of being down
(18:18):
on the border, and then we encountered another group, and
another group, and another group. It's a constant stream of humanity,
a people being brutalized, people being abused, people being assaulted,
people being sexually assaulted. The Democrats pitched their open border
policies as humane and compassionate. It's not humane, it's not compassionate.
(18:40):
It is horrific and indefensible. Do you think there is
any hope of anything being done about it before we
get a Republican in the White House? Ordinarily I would
say no, there's no hope that Democrats want to keep
going because they think it gives them a political benefit.
But when you see New York, when you see DC,
(19:00):
when you see liberal mayors complaining about this because red states,
finally Greg Abbott down in Texas are shipping some of
the illegal aliens up to those blue places so they
can deal with it, do you think there is any
chance that that pressure from the Dems will encourage the
Biden administration to in any way start enforcing the law.
(19:23):
So I do think there's hope, And let me flesh
out because it's important to understand how completely indefensible it
is what's going on down in the southern border. Nobody
who's there is defending it, like if you see it.
We met with landowners, with ranchers and farmers. They showed
us photograph after photograph of dead bodies they find on
(19:43):
the ranches. They find pregnant women that the coyotes abandoned
in the hot desert. They die that they find elderly people,
they find children, just over and over again who die
because these human traffickers, they are vicious, inhumane criminals. They
do not care about the people they're trafficking in. As
(20:04):
you know, a few weeks ago, we had attracted trailer
just outside of San Antonio. Fifty three people died in
that tractor trailer. They died of heat exposure. They were
basically cooked in an oven that included children as young
as thirteen years old. You want to talk about mass murders,
fifty three people killed. Last year, we had over one
(20:25):
hundred thousand drug overdoses from fennol. The Biden body bags
keep piling up because these are the human cost and tragedy.
And you know, there's a reason Joe Biden has not
been to the border once. There's a reason Kamala Harris,
who's ostensibly the borders are for Biden, has not been
(20:46):
to the Rio Grand Valley once because if they came,
the TV cameras have followed them and you cannot defend
what's happening. Their only hope, and it actually goes back
to the recession. It's the point where are making before
about redefining recession. They're counting on the corrupt corporate media
lying and just ignoring it. So if you watch CNN,
(21:09):
if you're one of the six people on planet Earth
who watch a CNN, you have no idea there's a
border crisis because they don't cover it. CNN had you know.
I watched the other day. I got a haircut in
the barbershop. They were playing CNN, which I was kind
of irritated about, but I watched for thirty minutes. They
talked about how it's really hot. It's hot in New
York City and people are going out and they're dancing
(21:31):
in fountains because it's really hot. And I'm like, okay, fine,
I get it, it's summertime, it's hot, but could you
possibly cover the humanitarian crisis that is unfolding on our
southern border. So Michael I stood at midnight on the
northern bunk of the Rio Grand and on the ground
(21:54):
you saw hundreds of colored wristbands. The wristbands are worn
by the illegal limit prints. So every illegal immigrant who
comes to America must pay the Mexican drug cartels, and
they pay them anywhere typically from three thousand to twelve
thousand dollars. Some of the immigrants from China in particular
(22:14):
pay as much as fifty to seventy thousand dollars. The
only way you cross is to pay a cartel. If
you try to cross on your own, if you get
an a raft and swim, the cartels will kill you.
Like there is one hundred percent operational control on the
southern border on the south from the cartels. So when
people cross, the armbands they're wearing, the color corresponds to
(22:38):
how many thousands of dollars they owe the cartels. So
depending on how many thousands of dollars they owe, because
many of these people don't have three, four, five, ten,
twelve thousand dollars, so they come in and they're in
hack five to six seven thousand dollars. So what happens
when they get here, The border patrol doesn't catch them.
It's not a chase, it's not an apprehension. They come
(23:01):
and affirmatively look for the border patrol. They come and
turn themselves in. The Biden administration has actually put arrows,
like from the river bank up to where the border
patrol is to guide the guide the people. Just a
steady stream of people. They come carrying a plastic baggie.
Within the baggie they have a typically a card with
(23:22):
a name of somebody in the United States, a phone number,
and an address. And Joe Biden, Kamala Harris are the
last mile of the human trafficking network. Now you might think,
if you don't live in Texas or Arizona, you know,
live in a border state, you might think, well, this
is bad, but it's not my problem. Well, you know
what you do live in a border state, Michael, You
(23:43):
live in Nashville. Nashville is not on our southern border.
Every city in America. Joe Biden is flying illegal immigrants
to those cities. So you have them in Nashville, and
the teenage boys arrive and most of them owe the
cartels still thousands of dollars. They have to pay it
back because if they don't pay it back, the cartels
(24:04):
will murder their families. And so in Nashville, Tennessee, you
have teenage boys who are illegal immigrants who are paying
back the thousands of dollars they owe the cartels by
working for Mexican drug cartels. So you have criminals who
are being and these are involuntary criminals. They came seeking freedom,
but now they're in hawk to a drug cartel. So
(24:25):
they got to work off their debt. And I got
to tell you, as bad as it is for the boys,
the girls have it much much worse the girls. There
are thousands upon thousands of teenage girls who end up
getting trapped in sex slavery where they owe thousands of
dollars to the cartels. Cartels said, great, we'll help you
(24:46):
pay it off. We'll put shit a brothel. And the
brothels are run like modern day plantation. So they keep
a ledger and they charge the girls and the brothels
for everything. They charge them for food, for room for
or they charge them for air conditioning, they charge them
for their sheets, they charge them. I'm told the going
rate to cut off an ankle bracelet, if you have
(25:07):
an ankle monitoring bracelet is thirty dollars. So they keep
a ledger and it's like the old plantations where the
debt keeps piling up and then they work in the
brothel to try to pay the debt off and they're trapped.
And if you think for a minute, let's say you're
a Honduran fifteen year old girl, and you look north
and you dream of freedom. You want to be in America,
(25:28):
you want to be free, and six months later you're
trapped in sex slavery in hell. That's why Biden and
the Democrats don't want to defend this because when you
talk about those facts, Look, those colored wrist bands are
like the leg irons of modern day slavery. This is
(25:50):
the slave trade. These cartels are slave traders, and Joe
Biden and Kamala Harris are facilitating today's our cost slavery.
It is horrific, it is evil, it is wrong, and
your question is can we do anything about it? Here's
one thing we can do about it. When in November,
(26:12):
when a huge margin in November, I think we're going
to turn South Texas read because the people in South
Texas are seeing this and they're horrified. And then I
think one of the very first priorities of the new
Republican Congress should be to impeach Alejandra may Orchis, who
is the Secretary of Homeland Security. He is responsible for
(26:32):
this tobaccle. I recently saw a video of him at
the Aspen Security Conference where he was asked is the
border secure and like the whole crowd of leftist sipping chardonnay,
they all laughed, Oh that's so funny. Ha ha. You know,
I'm sorry. I don't think little girls being raped on
our southern border is funny. You jackasses like like like,
(26:55):
it is infuriating to watch these liberals laughed and he
says the is secure. It's a flat out lie. The
reason I believe the House should impeach Mayorcas early next
year is the Senate should conduct an impeachment trial, and
it should be a detailed, extensive impeachment trial. We need
(27:17):
to put the evidence of the horrors of the southern
border before the American people because the corporate media doesn't
want people to know, and I think we have a responsibility. Now, look,
do I think Senate Democrats are going to vote to
convict No. I think they're political cowards. But I think
laying out the facts before the American people in a
(27:38):
trial early next year is incredibly important. Do you think
that the House can do it politically? I suppose they
can do it if they get the numbers. But does
what may Orcus has done or failed to do meet
the legal threshold to impeach them? I think not only
(27:59):
can they do, I think they will do it. And
it's listen, I've been When I was on this border trip,
I publicly called in the House to impeach Mayorcus. I
think the momentum is growing for that. I think the
pressure will be there. I will be surprised if they
don't impeach may Orcus. They may well impeach Biden as well,
and we've talked about that before on the podcast. But
(28:19):
Mayorcas is as close to a no brainer. He'll be
the first, and he'll be the first because it is
such an abject dereliction of duty. It is a refusal
to follow the law. It is a refusal. It is
an open scoffing at the national security of the United
States is endangering Americans. I think the House will impeach him,
(28:42):
and I think the trial, I hope, will be an
incredibly important Even as corrupt as the media is, I
think that the impeachment trial will be very difficult for
the media to ignore. I know a great impeachment trial
podcast that can just relocate to DC for it. I
think it'll be a lot of fun. Speaking of this
red wave that a lot of people are anticipating, Senator,
(29:05):
I have to confess I've had a little bit of
fomo the past week because I was very excited. I
was invited to go to the Young America's Foundation Conference,
their big annual conference, and I was invited to go
to the TPUSA Annual Conference. And these are two really big,
really exciting gatherings of young conservatives, and I go pretty
(29:25):
much every year every certainly every year I can go.
And this year I've been waiting on another young American,
my own second son, young American, who is not as
of recording, this has not yet come out of mominols.
So we're just waiting here. You, however, got to go
to both of those conferences and a whole bunch of
other places as well. Well, that's right. And let me say,
(29:49):
first of all, I'm really excited to welcome the youngest American,
and the instant he is born, he will be the
youngest American alive. Now, someone will pass them very shortly thereafter,
but there will be a brief instant where your son
is the youngest American and the entire planet. So that's
really cool. Um and and and I am praying that
(30:10):
he gets his mother's good looks. Yes, So Luckily our
first child did, so we're hoping number two lucks out
as well. Otherwise he's going to have to, I don't know,
become a conservative podcast host someday. Hey that that that's
a booming career. Uh so you know he can aspire
to be a conservative podcaster. I will say, it's interesting.
(30:33):
So you and I are in a very very small
and select group that that goeach heered to both Turning
Point USA and a Young Americans Foundation. Now they're both
fantastic groups. I think the world of both of them. Uh.
They both focus on young people, on college kids, but
they get a different crowd. The Turning Point crew is rowtier.
(30:55):
They're they're a little raunchier there. They're fun crowd. The
the YF crowd is probably a more cerebral and academic crowd.
They're a little more buttoned up, more bow tie, more
bow tie it ya. But they're both awesome, and I
gotta say, almost nobody goes to both. They tend to
(31:16):
have like if you look at the speaker list, YAF
has one group, Turning Point as another, and there's almost
zero overlap. And you and I are in the incredibly
small intersection of the venn diagram that is at both
and I've done both of them in the last few days,
and I got to say, the energy and enthusiasm, I
think there are a bunch of young people. By the way,
(31:39):
thousands of the people at both conferences are subsubscribers to Verdict,
and a bunch of them are new subscribers. So let
me say, welcome to the turning Point, new subscribers, Welcome
to the YAFF new subscribers. But it is encouraging to
see young people who love liberty and are fed up
with the sanity we're seeing, and I think that is
(32:02):
a really really good sign. It is. And you've been
traveling to other places as well. Last I checked. Every
time you know, we text or we do a podcast,
you seem to be in a new place. Because obviously
the midterm elections are coming up, You're going around, you're
helping some other conservative candidates, rallying the troops. And I
think what's especially helpful, at least from my understanding of things,
(32:25):
is getting a sense of where the American people are
at right now heading into November. So to give you
a sense, the last week or so, I've been in Texas, DC, Georgia, Florida, Missouri, Texas, DC.
And that's in I guess nine days. It has been
(32:49):
a lot of time and a lot of airplanes. But
between now an election day, I'm going to be on
the road NonStop. I'm going to spend most of August,
most of October on the road campaigning for Senate candidates,
for House candidates. We have an historic opportunity. And you know,
I'm not on the ballot this year, which is a
nice thing about a six year Senate term, so I
(33:10):
don't have to worry about my reelection this year. So
I'm devoting all my time to helping other people, to
going and doing rallies for other candidates. And so in George,
I spoke at a gathering of Alliance Defending Freedom, which
does incredible work defending religious liberties, group I've long supported.
In Florida. I was a turning point. I was supposed
(33:31):
to go to the ADF conference as well. You're just
giving me even more fomo. I forgot. I was supposed
to go to that one, and baby shut that one down.
To your senator, you're having all the fun this summer.
It was phenomenal, and but you know, every one of
the gatherings was the worst off because we will we
were Knowles free, which is a terrible condition to be
(33:51):
in naturally naturally, But then all of these other places, Missouri,
all around the country, and so I hope and I
take it that these visits are making you feel more
encouraged about November. So Missouri, I was campaigning for Eric Schmid.
Eric Schmid is running for senator in Missouri. He is
the sitting Attorney general. Eric as a friend. He's a
(34:13):
strong conservative. I think he's by far the best candidate
in the race. So I did three rallies, started off
in the Saint Louis area, then went to Kansas City,
and then ended in Springfield. So did a morning rally
and afternoon rally and evening rally. And by the way,
Eric decided to work me. So I did three fundraisers
in addition to three rallies. So raised him a bunch
of money and did big rallies, had huge crowds. And
(34:35):
I gotta say, I think Eric's gonna win. The election
is next week. He is leading the primary. I think
we're seeing conservatives uniting behind his campaign. And I think
if and when Eric wins, I think he will basically
take Missouri off the game board. That I don't even
think the Democrats will contest Missouri because he's a strong
(34:56):
enough candidate, but that they don't think they can beat him.
And so it was in Springfield. I also campaigned for
Eric Burleson, who's running for the House, who's a strong conservative,
was a great guy. He was at the rally as well.
So I will say it was a little complicated to
do a rally for Eric Schmidt and Rik Burlison. You
had to be like Eric Wander and Eric two. That
(35:17):
that was mildly complicated, But but I was encouraged the energy.
Every single rally we did was standing room only, like
packed houses, and people energized. And I think I've said
more than once I want to nominate Joseph Robadette Biden
to be Republican of the Year because he will have
(35:38):
elected more Republicans than any human being who's ever lived. Well,
someone get him a trophy. You're actually I can't believe
this is every time you mentioned one of these things,
I'm reminded. I also was supposed to go at to
Eric Burlison's event, who is He's a great guy, But
you know, it's gonna be okay. Even though I missed
all of the fun, extremely enthusiastic conservative events this summer,
(36:03):
we will have some very fun live events coming up
this fall. You mentioned YAF. We have gone on the
road with YAF the Verdict Live Tour before. We're planning
to do it again this fall. We're gonna have some
more information about that coming up. But that's always fun
because we love talking to the conservative students. In some ways,
(36:23):
you get even more of a kick out of talking
to the wild left wing students, and we plan to
be doing all of that come the fall, especially as
we look ahead to mid term elections. But that's for
then this right now, we've got to take a break.
I've got to take a break. You, Senator, are going
to stay on and talk with our friend Liz Wheeler,
isn't that right, Liz? Hi? Michael High, Senator. Actually, before
(36:46):
we talk about the topic, I just want to announce
this is the first episode of the Cloak Room that
we're doing in person. In fact, you can see I'm
sitting right here in the Verdict chair, so please join us.
We're gonna have a great time. Our topic tonight is
what Rebublicans can do once we retake the House, and
retake the Senate and retake the presidency, what Republicans can
do to actually combat the deep state, which is of
(37:08):
course another name for the administrative state. The deep state
is waging an Oakland war on Republicans, particularly Republican presidents.
So what are the legal remedies to this. Join us
at Verdict with Ted Cruise dot com slash plus. If
you use my promo code, which is Cloakroom, you can
get your first month free on an annual subscription Verdict
with Ted Cruz dot com slash Plus. I very much
(37:30):
look forward to that Cloakroom episode, but in the meantime,
that's enough for me. I'm Michael Knowles. This is Verdict
with Ted Cruz. This episode of Verdict with Ted Cruz
is being brought to you by Jobs, Freedom and Security Pack,
(37:51):
a political action committee dedicated to supporting conservative causes, organizations,
and candidates across the country. In twenty twenty two, Jobs
Freedom and Security Pack plans to donate to conservative candidates
running for Congress and help the Republican Party across the nation.
We seem to be redefining everything these days. People just
don't know what words mean. We don't know what a
baby is, We certainly don't know what a woman is,
and now we don't even know what a recession is.
This is Verdict with Ted Cruz. This episode of Verdict
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verdicts of Ted Cruz. I'm Michael Knowles. I was watching
the White House today. The Director of the National Economic
Council made the claim, in anticipation of Thursday's economic numbers,
(02:14):
which will show a recession to consecutive quarters of economic
falling down GDP going down, that we are not in
a recession, because that is not the definition of a recession. Senator,
I am no economist. I have not studied these things
in a very long time. But last time I checked,
(02:37):
that is literally the definition of a recession. Am I wrong?
You're not wrong. That is the textbook definition of a recession.
And this White House believes that if they redefine words,
so instead of a recession, instead of the economy going
to crap, if they define it as Joe Biden's happy
go lucky time with things going great, that they're client
(03:00):
lapdogs in the corporate media will echo that message and
say the economy is booming. A recession is defined as
two consecutive quarters of GDP growth going down. That's what
it means. They really don't want the headline that we're
in a recession going into the election because they recognize
the voters are going to pound the heck out of
(03:22):
Democrats and throw them out of office for putting us
into a recession. So the level of I mean, this
is ob one Kenobe, These are not the droids we're
looking for. This is George Orwell two plus two equals five.
They just say this is not a recession. Why cause
we say it's not a recession. Never mind, words have
no meaning, Ignore them everything's great. It wasn't just the
(03:46):
director of the National Economic Council, it was also then
Karine Jampierre, the president's spokesman the press sectory at the
White House, who simply refused to answer the question. She
was asked by a reporter, if you're not going to
use the traditional definition of a recession because you don't
want to admit that you've brought us into one, then
how do you all define recession? She wouldn't even give
(04:09):
an alternative explanation. Well, their answer is they define recession
as anything that happens under a republican president, and they
define great economic success is anything that happens under a democrat.
And it's just it's propaganda, like substance truth. Facts have
nothing to do with it. And so actually this week
I'm introducing a resolution in the Senate, and the resolution
(04:33):
is very simple. I'm going to read you the entirety
of it because it's because it's only just over a
page resolution expressing the sense of the Senate that the
historic definition of a recession is two negative quarters of
gross domestic product growth, whereas globally, the most commonly used
and widely accepted definition of recession is two negative quarters
(04:54):
of gross domestic product growth, whereas most of the recessions
in the United States identified by the National Bureau of
Economic Research have consisted of two negative quarters of gross
domestic product growth, and in each of the last ten
instances in which there have been two or more such quarters,
a recession was officially declared ten times in a row.
(05:15):
Whereas the use of the historic definition of a recession
by the federal government has been important for purposes of
economic study and analysis, historical comparisons, and policymaking. Now therefore
be it resolved that it is the sense of the
Senate that the federal government should continue to use the
(05:36):
historic definition of a recession. These guys are trying to
define us out of a recession. We are, I think
it's extremely likely we're about to enter a recession, and
they're trying to play word games to get out of
that problem. What is the motivation here for them other
than they don't want to admit that their economic policies
(05:57):
are no good. But presumably that's true of other administrations
in the past. And yet this is the first administration
we've seen that actually is denying the definition of the
word recession and it's not as though this is the
first time we've seen the left use the redefinition of
words to try to change the culture. Just last week,
we were all arguing over the definition of marriage. Before that,
(06:20):
we were arguing over the definition of what a woman is.
Before that, We've been arguing over these politically correct changes
to language for a very long time. So that does
this tactic from seemingly everybody at the White House speak
to a larger, deeper problems that's particular to our moment
(06:40):
in time. Well, there's a cynicism, So so democrats believe
that they can. It's propaganda. There you asked, what's their motivation?
Is propaganda? But the propaganda only works because the corporate
media is compliant. So the corporate media will echo whatever
absurd lies they say, and it is designed to obscure
(07:01):
the truth from the American people. Look, I'll show you
a couple of charts that are that are pretty compelling.
This chart, this is the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index.
And so it goes back all the way to nineteen
seventy eight. You see it's been down and up it
went up, up, up, up. You look that it went
up here all right, here's twenty twenty. It is up
(07:28):
around one hundred. And here's what the consumer sentiment index does.
It plummets. It goes straight down with like the vertical
descent of a cliff, down to what is this fifty,
So it went from one hundred to fifty. That is
an ominous chart in terms of recession consumer sentiment. I'll
(07:48):
give you another chart that is really quite similar. So
this is the NFIB National Federation of Small Business Outlook
for General Business Conditions. So they ask small businesses what
do you think business conditions are? And you can see
going back to seventy four, it's going up, down, up, down.
It's been all over the place. But here in twenty
(08:10):
twenty it was up here. What was it at It
was up at forty and then it's same exact like
precipitous plummet It is down now at negative sixty. That
ain't good. That means small businesses think the economy's and
the crapper. That means consumers think the economy is in
(08:32):
the crapper. And so the Biden politicos are saying, well,
let's just define it. We don't want every headline in
every newspaper in America to say the economy is in
a recession because people think that's bad. So let's just
magically claim recession no longer means what you think it means.
(08:52):
It means, well, we don't know what it means, but
it means anything other than what's happening right now, because
we really don't want the headline that this is a recession.
Do you think this is fooling anybody? Because I'm still
trying to wrap my head around how the Biden administration
thinks that this is a workable solution in the long term.
If we could all just deny our failures by changing
(09:14):
the meaning of words, I'm sure we would all be
tempted to do it. But the problem with that is
people aren't stupid. Most people aren't stupid most of the time.
And so you point out that the establishment media are
carrying water for the White House. Of course they are,
But is that fooling anybody. You've got cynicism from the
Biden administration, cynicism and loyalty to the Democrats from the media.
(09:38):
But you're a small business owner, your regular old employee,
your person on the street who realizes that his dollar
is not going as far as it used to. We're
headed into a mid term election in November. Are any
of these people going to buy it? No matter what
definition the White House uses? So unfortunately, I think they
will succeed in fooling some people because there are some
(10:01):
people who are not necessarily paying all that close attention,
and who literally given two worlds, one world in which
every newspaper in America has the banner headline America in
a recession, and one world in which they don't have
the headline in a recession, there's going to be a chunk,
and it's millions of people who won't realize America's in
(10:22):
a recession like that, Actually, I think will be somewhat
successful political propaganda. Why because the media, the corporate media's dishonest.
If you didn't have a dishonest corporate media wouldn't work.
They'd laugh at him and call them out. But they're
enough just absolute prostitutes in the media who will lie
(10:43):
and lie eagerly and happily and lay back and think
of England. That is who they are, that is what
they do, and so I do think it will have
some effect. But at the same time, I think what
is consequential for economic data is people feel in their lives.
(11:04):
So inflation, you don't have all the inflation numbers you want.
But when you go and fill up your truck and
it's one hundred and fifty bucks, you don't need a
chart to know that. When it's one hundred bucks to
fill up a minivan, you don't need a chart to
know that. When you go to the grocery store and
the cost of everything has gone up ten, twenty, thirty, forty,
(11:25):
you don't need a chart to know that. You're looking
at the numbers going, wait a second, I can't afford
the stuff I could afford last week. There are people
that are making hard choices between what am I going
to spend? If you're on a fixed income and the
prices of everything have gone up, you're seeing it firsthand.
The two charts I showed small businesses the fact that
(11:46):
their confidence is plummeted. They're seeing it consumers. Their confidence
is plummeted. So even though they won't have the headlines,
they're seeing it every day in the economy. And I'm
reminded of one of the classic things Reagan said. He said,
a recession is when your neighbor loses his job, a
depression is when you lose your job, and a recovery
(12:11):
is when Jimmy Carter loses his job. I think that
was a beautiful and brilliant point, and I think that
is playing out right here today. If you're losing your job,
if you're paying more at the gas pump, if you're
paying more at the grocery store, if you're feeling the
pain of the economic disaster that is the Biden administration.
(12:32):
Whether or not you read a headline that says we're
in a recession, you know it ain't good. It's even
more insidious than all of those inflation numbers that we're
seeing because of something we mentioned on this show several
episodes back. But you're now seeing the fruit of it
because of shrink inflation, which is the other side of it.
So prices are going up. Isn't that what George Costanza
(12:54):
talked about when he got into cold Pool? You think
a related concept, but a little bit different. So we
were so the other night, Sweet Little Lace and I
were going to have fondue with our friends. I don't know.
We felt like we were living in the nineteen seventies
or something. I went out to go buy cheese, I
had to buy twenty four ounces of cheese. I pick
up the various blocks of cheese, and I noticed something
(13:16):
a little weird. The amount of cheese in the block
had gone down. I looked at the one block of
cheese I bought. It was five point nine ounces. Why
was it five point No recipe ever in the history
of cheese has called for five point nine ounces of cheese. Clearly,
what the companies had done is shrunken the amount that
(13:37):
they were giving you, and they were either maintaining the
price or the price was going up. There's a new
report out of The Daily Mail analyzing a number of
major brands to show that major cereal companies are reducing
the amount of cereal in the box only by two
and a half three ounces, but that can be a
seventeen percent reduction in the amount of cereal in the
box because they were just isn't that much cereal in
(13:57):
a box? To begin with? Gatorade docing to an unnoticeable
until you really start to look for a degree the
amount of gatorade in the bottle. You're seeing this with
toilet tissue, You're seeing this with paper towels, You're seeing
this with canned coffee you're sees across the economy. So
the actual inflation that we are all experiencing is even
(14:18):
worse just than the number going up a little bit
at the checkout line when you're in the grocery store.
So I think you're beginning to see this reality reflected
in Joe Biden's polls. Biden now the majority of Democrats
don't want him to run again for re election. There
was a poll out of New Hampshire where Pete Boota
Jedge actually did better among prospective Democrat voters than Joe
(14:41):
Biden did. And by the way, speaking of insidious problems,
you've got this problem now of mass migration, which is
even starting to bother the Democrats in New York. New
York Democrat Mayor Eric Adams just claimed that the illegal
immigrants were being bust from your state senator up to
New York are creating a huge burden on New Yorkers,
(15:02):
which is kind of ironic because the New York Democrats
always tout how wonderful illegal immigration is and how it's
our great strength. Well, if it's a great strength for
Texas and Arizona, why is it all of a sudden
a burden when you Democrats have to deal with the
problem in your state. I know you were just down
there touring the border yourself, seeing at firsthand, so I
was let me say the point you just made a
(15:24):
minute ago, I think is important, which is, the last
week we saw the mayor of New York City and
the mayor of Washington, DC, Eric Adams and Muriel Bowser
both publicly complain about the enormous burden illegal immigration is
putting on DC in New York City. Now, for blue state,
Blue city Democrats to be whining about illegal immigration is
(15:46):
rich with hypocrisy at a level. That is, if they
think it's bad, what do you think South Texas is experiencing?
What do you think Laredo and McCallan, an Eagle Pass
del Rio are experiencing. And by the way, if they
want to solve it, both of them are enthusiastic supporters
of Joe Biden and all the Democrats. It's the Democrats
who have caused this. So you mentioned I just got
(16:08):
back from the border. So two weeks ago, I took
a trip to the southern border. I brought seven senators
with me. I've been to the border a lot, and
the ten years I've been in the Senate, I've gone
dozens of times down to the border. It is the
worst right now that I have ever seen it. We
got down there Thursday night. First thing we did is
we went out on midnight patrol with the border patrol.
(16:30):
Now you go out on midnight patrol, you might think, Okay,
you're gonna go hunt free legal aliens to see if
you can find them. You don't hunt for him. Within
minutes you encounter them. You just go down to the
border and you find them. And we were there three
four minutes. First group we saw was three teenagers, two
girls and a boy. They all said they were sixteen
or seventeen years old. Night. I don't know if they're
(16:51):
sixteen or seventeen, because if they say they're under eighteen,
they definitely stay. If they're eighteen, there's a chance the
law might be enforced against them, So every one of
them claims to be under eighteen. The second group was
a group of women and children, about a dozen people.
In that group were two seven year old girls. We
(17:12):
talked to them. Both of the seven year old girls
were unaccompanied minors, so they didn't have a parent with them.
They didn't have a family member with them. They weren't sisters,
they weren't related to each other. So both of them
were seven year old girls that their families had handed
over to criminal drug cartels. They were with strangers in
this group. I got to say, as the father of daughters,
(17:35):
I cannot imagine handing us your seven year old daughter
over to drug cartels. The border patrol we were down
on the border. They pointed us to a patch of grass.
It was a couple hundred yards away from where we were.
They said, a couple of weeks earlier they had found
two little girls, aged five and six, both of whom
(17:57):
had been violently raped by the chaos, and the border
patrol had to perform emergency medical care on these little
girls that had been badly violated. The thing that is
infuriating is this is happening literally every hour of every day.
This was within five or ten minutes of being down
(18:18):
on the border, and then we encountered another group, and
another group, and another group. It's a constant stream of humanity,
a people being brutalized, people being abused, people being assaulted,
people being sexually assaulted. The Democrats pitched their open border
policies as humane and compassionate. It's not humane, it's not compassionate.
(18:40):
It is horrific and indefensible. Do you think there is
any hope of anything being done about it before we
get a Republican in the White House? Ordinarily I would
say no, there's no hope that Democrats want to keep
going because they think it gives them a political benefit.
But when you see New York, when you see DC,
(19:00):
when you see liberal mayors complaining about this because red states,
finally Greg Abbott down in Texas are shipping some of
the illegal aliens up to those blue places so they
can deal with it, do you think there is any
chance that that pressure from the Dems will encourage the
Biden administration to in any way start enforcing the law.
(19:23):
So I do think there's hope, And let me flesh
out because it's important to understand how completely indefensible it
is what's going on down in the southern border. Nobody
who's there is defending it, like if you see it.
We met with landowners, with ranchers and farmers. They showed
us photograph after photograph of dead bodies they find on
(19:43):
the ranches. They find pregnant women that the coyotes abandoned
in the hot desert. They die that they find elderly people,
they find children, just over and over again who die
because these human traffickers, they are vicious, inhumane criminals. They
do not care about the people they're trafficking in. As
(20:04):
you know, a few weeks ago, we had attracted trailer
just outside of San Antonio. Fifty three people died in
that tractor trailer. They died of heat exposure. They were
basically cooked in an oven that included children as young
as thirteen years old. You want to talk about mass murders,
fifty three people killed. Last year, we had over one
(20:25):
hundred thousand drug overdoses from fennol. The Biden body bags
keep piling up because these are the human cost and tragedy.
And you know, there's a reason Joe Biden has not
been to the border once. There's a reason Kamala Harris,
who's ostensibly the borders are for Biden, has not been
(20:46):
to the Rio Grand Valley once because if they came,
the TV cameras have followed them and you cannot defend
what's happening. Their only hope, and it actually goes back
to the recession. It's the point where are making before
about redefining recession. They're counting on the corrupt corporate media
lying and just ignoring it. So if you watch CNN,
(21:09):
if you're one of the six people on planet Earth
who watch a CNN, you have no idea there's a
border crisis because they don't cover it. CNN had you know.
I watched the other day. I got a haircut in
the barbershop. They were playing CNN, which I was kind
of irritated about, but I watched for thirty minutes. They
talked about how it's really hot. It's hot in New
York City and people are going out and they're dancing
(21:31):
in fountains because it's really hot. And I'm like, okay, fine,
I get it, it's summertime, it's hot, but could you
possibly cover the humanitarian crisis that is unfolding on our
southern border. So Michael I stood at midnight on the
northern bunk of the Rio Grand and on the ground
(21:54):
you saw hundreds of colored wristbands. The wristbands are worn
by the illegal limit prints. So every illegal immigrant who
comes to America must pay the Mexican drug cartels, and
they pay them anywhere typically from three thousand to twelve
thousand dollars. Some of the immigrants from China in particular
(22:14):
pay as much as fifty to seventy thousand dollars. The
only way you cross is to pay a cartel. If
you try to cross on your own, if you get
an a raft and swim, the cartels will kill you.
Like there is one hundred percent operational control on the
southern border on the south from the cartels. So when
people cross, the armbands they're wearing, the color corresponds to
(22:38):
how many thousands of dollars they owe the cartels. So
depending on how many thousands of dollars they owe, because
many of these people don't have three, four, five, ten,
twelve thousand dollars, so they come in and they're in
hack five to six seven thousand dollars. So what happens
when they get here, The border patrol doesn't catch them.
It's not a chase, it's not an apprehension. They come
(23:01):
and affirmatively look for the border patrol. They come and
turn themselves in. The Biden administration has actually put arrows,
like from the river bank up to where the border
patrol is to guide the guide the people. Just a
steady stream of people. They come carrying a plastic baggie.
Within the baggie they have a typically a card with
(23:22):
a name of somebody in the United States, a phone number,
and an address. And Joe Biden, Kamala Harris are the
last mile of the human trafficking network. Now you might think,
if you don't live in Texas or Arizona, you know,
live in a border state, you might think, well, this
is bad, but it's not my problem. Well, you know
what you do live in a border state, Michael, You
(23:43):
live in Nashville. Nashville is not on our southern border.
Every city in America. Joe Biden is flying illegal immigrants
to those cities. So you have them in Nashville, and
the teenage boys arrive and most of them owe the
cartels still thousands of dollars. They have to pay it
back because if they don't pay it back, the cartels
(24:04):
will murder their families. And so in Nashville, Tennessee, you
have teenage boys who are illegal immigrants who are paying
back the thousands of dollars they owe the cartels by
working for Mexican drug cartels. So you have criminals who
are being and these are involuntary criminals. They came seeking freedom,
but now they're in hawk to a drug cartel. So
(24:25):
they got to work off their debt. And I got
to tell you, as bad as it is for the boys,
the girls have it much much worse the girls. There
are thousands upon thousands of teenage girls who end up
getting trapped in sex slavery where they owe thousands of
dollars to the cartels. Cartels said, great, we'll help you
(24:46):
pay it off. We'll put shit a brothel. And the
brothels are run like modern day plantation. So they keep
a ledger and they charge the girls and the brothels
for everything. They charge them for food, for room for
or they charge them for air conditioning, they charge them
for their sheets, they charge them. I'm told the going
rate to cut off an ankle bracelet, if you have
(25:07):
an ankle monitoring bracelet is thirty dollars. So they keep
a ledger and it's like the old plantations where the
debt keeps piling up and then they work in the
brothel to try to pay the debt off and they're trapped.
And if you think for a minute, let's say you're
a Honduran fifteen year old girl, and you look north
and you dream of freedom. You want to be in America,
(25:28):
you want to be free, and six months later you're
trapped in sex slavery in hell. That's why Biden and
the Democrats don't want to defend this because when you
talk about those facts, Look, those colored wrist bands are
like the leg irons of modern day slavery. This is
(25:50):
the slave trade. These cartels are slave traders, and Joe
Biden and Kamala Harris are facilitating today's our cost slavery.
It is horrific, it is evil, it is wrong, and
your question is can we do anything about it? Here's
one thing we can do about it. When in November,
(26:12):
when a huge margin in November, I think we're going
to turn South Texas read because the people in South
Texas are seeing this and they're horrified. And then I
think one of the very first priorities of the new
Republican Congress should be to impeach Alejandra may Orchis, who
is the Secretary of Homeland Security. He is responsible for
(26:32):
this tobaccle. I recently saw a video of him at
the Aspen Security Conference where he was asked is the
border secure and like the whole crowd of leftist sipping chardonnay,
they all laughed, Oh that's so funny. Ha ha. You know,
I'm sorry. I don't think little girls being raped on
our southern border is funny. You jackasses like like like,
(26:55):
it is infuriating to watch these liberals laughed and he
says the is secure. It's a flat out lie. The
reason I believe the House should impeach Mayorcas early next
year is the Senate should conduct an impeachment trial, and
it should be a detailed, extensive impeachment trial. We need
(27:17):
to put the evidence of the horrors of the southern
border before the American people because the corporate media doesn't
want people to know, and I think we have a responsibility. Now, look,
do I think Senate Democrats are going to vote to
convict No. I think they're political cowards. But I think
laying out the facts before the American people in a
(27:38):
trial early next year is incredibly important. Do you think
that the House can do it politically? I suppose they
can do it if they get the numbers. But does
what may Orcus has done or failed to do meet
the legal threshold to impeach them? I think not only
(27:59):
can they do, I think they will do it. And
it's listen, I've been When I was on this border trip,
I publicly called in the House to impeach Mayorcus. I
think the momentum is growing for that. I think the
pressure will be there. I will be surprised if they
don't impeach may Orcus. They may well impeach Biden as well,
and we've talked about that before on the podcast. But
(28:19):
Mayorcas is as close to a no brainer. He'll be
the first, and he'll be the first because it is
such an abject dereliction of duty. It is a refusal
to follow the law. It is a refusal. It is
an open scoffing at the national security of the United
States is endangering Americans. I think the House will impeach him,
(28:42):
and I think the trial, I hope, will be an
incredibly important Even as corrupt as the media is, I
think that the impeachment trial will be very difficult for
the media to ignore. I know a great impeachment trial
podcast that can just relocate to DC for it. I
think it'll be a lot of fun. Speaking of this
red wave that a lot of people are anticipating, Senator,
(29:05):
I have to confess I've had a little bit of
fomo the past week because I was very excited. I
was invited to go to the Young America's Foundation Conference,
their big annual conference, and I was invited to go
to the TPUSA Annual Conference. And these are two really big,
really exciting gatherings of young conservatives, and I go pretty
(29:25):
much every year every certainly every year I can go.
And this year I've been waiting on another young American,
my own second son, young American, who is not as
of recording, this has not yet come out of mominols.
So we're just waiting here. You, however, got to go
to both of those conferences and a whole bunch of
other places as well. Well, that's right. And let me say,
(29:49):
first of all, I'm really excited to welcome the youngest American,
and the instant he is born, he will be the
youngest American alive. Now, someone will pass them very shortly thereafter,
but there will be a brief instant where your son
is the youngest American and the entire planet. So that's
really cool. Um and and and I am praying that
(30:10):
he gets his mother's good looks. Yes, So Luckily our
first child did, so we're hoping number two lucks out
as well. Otherwise he's going to have to, I don't know,
become a conservative podcast host someday. Hey that that that's
a booming career. Uh so you know he can aspire
to be a conservative podcaster. I will say, it's interesting.
(30:33):
So you and I are in a very very small
and select group that that goeach heered to both Turning
Point USA and a Young Americans Foundation. Now they're both
fantastic groups. I think the world of both of them. Uh.
They both focus on young people, on college kids, but
they get a different crowd. The Turning Point crew is rowtier.
(30:55):
They're they're a little raunchier there. They're fun crowd. The
the YF crowd is probably a more cerebral and academic crowd.
They're a little more buttoned up, more bow tie, more
bow tie it ya. But they're both awesome, and I
gotta say, almost nobody goes to both. They tend to
(31:16):
have like if you look at the speaker list, YAF
has one group, Turning Point as another, and there's almost
zero overlap. And you and I are in the incredibly
small intersection of the venn diagram that is at both
and I've done both of them in the last few days,
and I got to say, the energy and enthusiasm, I
think there are a bunch of young people. By the way,
(31:39):
thousands of the people at both conferences are subsubscribers to Verdict,
and a bunch of them are new subscribers. So let
me say, welcome to the turning Point, new subscribers, Welcome
to the YAFF new subscribers. But it is encouraging to
see young people who love liberty and are fed up
with the sanity we're seeing, and I think that is
(32:02):
a really really good sign. It is. And you've been
traveling to other places as well. Last I checked. Every
time you know, we text or we do a podcast,
you seem to be in a new place. Because obviously
the midterm elections are coming up, You're going around, you're
helping some other conservative candidates, rallying the troops. And I
think what's especially helpful, at least from my understanding of things,
(32:25):
is getting a sense of where the American people are
at right now heading into November. So to give you
a sense, the last week or so, I've been in Texas, DC, Georgia, Florida, Missouri, Texas, DC.
And that's in I guess nine days. It has been
(32:49):
a lot of time and a lot of airplanes. But
between now an election day, I'm going to be on
the road NonStop. I'm going to spend most of August,
most of October on the road campaigning for Senate candidates,
for House candidates. We have an historic opportunity. And you know,
I'm not on the ballot this year, which is a
nice thing about a six year Senate term, so I
(33:10):
don't have to worry about my reelection this year. So
I'm devoting all my time to helping other people, to
going and doing rallies for other candidates. And so in George,
I spoke at a gathering of Alliance Defending Freedom, which
does incredible work defending religious liberties, group I've long supported.
In Florida. I was a turning point. I was supposed
(33:31):
to go to the ADF conference as well. You're just
giving me even more fomo. I forgot. I was supposed
to go to that one, and baby shut that one down.
To your senator, you're having all the fun this summer.
It was phenomenal, and but you know, every one of
the gatherings was the worst off because we will we
were Knowles free, which is a terrible condition to be
(33:51):
in naturally naturally, But then all of these other places, Missouri,
all around the country, and so I hope and I
take it that these visits are making you feel more
encouraged about November. So Missouri, I was campaigning for Eric Schmid.
Eric Schmid is running for senator in Missouri. He is
the sitting Attorney general. Eric as a friend. He's a
(34:13):
strong conservative. I think he's by far the best candidate
in the race. So I did three rallies, started off
in the Saint Louis area, then went to Kansas City,
and then ended in Springfield. So did a morning rally
and afternoon rally and evening rally. And by the way,
Eric decided to work me. So I did three fundraisers
in addition to three rallies. So raised him a bunch
of money and did big rallies, had huge crowds. And
(34:35):
I gotta say, I think Eric's gonna win. The election
is next week. He is leading the primary. I think
we're seeing conservatives uniting behind his campaign. And I think
if and when Eric wins, I think he will basically
take Missouri off the game board. That I don't even
think the Democrats will contest Missouri because he's a strong
(34:56):
enough candidate, but that they don't think they can beat him.
And so it was in Springfield. I also campaigned for
Eric Burleson, who's running for the House, who's a strong conservative,
was a great guy. He was at the rally as well.
So I will say it was a little complicated to
do a rally for Eric Schmidt and Rik Burlison. You
had to be like Eric Wander and Eric two. That
(35:17):
that was mildly complicated, But but I was encouraged the energy.
Every single rally we did was standing room only, like
packed houses, and people energized. And I think I've said
more than once I want to nominate Joseph Robadette Biden
to be Republican of the Year because he will have
(35:38):
elected more Republicans than any human being who's ever lived. Well,
someone get him a trophy. You're actually I can't believe
this is every time you mentioned one of these things,
I'm reminded. I also was supposed to go at to
Eric Burlison's event, who is He's a great guy, But
you know, it's gonna be okay. Even though I missed
all of the fun, extremely enthusiastic conservative events this summer,
(36:03):
we will have some very fun live events coming up
this fall. You mentioned YAF. We have gone on the
road with YAF the Verdict Live Tour before. We're planning
to do it again this fall. We're gonna have some
more information about that coming up. But that's always fun
because we love talking to the conservative students. In some ways,
(36:23):
you get even more of a kick out of talking
to the wild left wing students, and we plan to
be doing all of that come the fall, especially as
we look ahead to mid term elections. But that's for
then this right now, we've got to take a break.
I've got to take a break. You, Senator, are going
to stay on and talk with our friend Liz Wheeler,
isn't that right, Liz? Hi? Michael High, Senator. Actually, before
(36:46):
we talk about the topic, I just want to announce
this is the first episode of the Cloak Room that
we're doing in person. In fact, you can see I'm
sitting right here in the Verdict chair, so please join us.
We're gonna have a great time. Our topic tonight is
what Rebublicans can do once we retake the House, and
retake the Senate and retake the presidency, what Republicans can
do to actually combat the deep state, which is of
(37:08):
course another name for the administrative state. The deep state
is waging an Oakland war on Republicans, particularly Republican presidents.
So what are the legal remedies to this. Join us
at Verdict with Ted Cruise dot com slash plus. If
you use my promo code, which is Cloakroom, you can
get your first month free on an annual subscription Verdict
with Ted Cruz dot com slash Plus. I very much
(37:30):
look forward to that Cloakroom episode, but in the meantime,
that's enough for me. I'm Michael Knowles. This is Verdict
with Ted Cruz. This episode of Verdict with Ted Cruz
is being brought to you by Jobs, Freedom and Security Pack,
(37:51):
a political action committee dedicated to supporting conservative causes, organizations,
and candidates across the country. In twenty twenty two, Jobs
Freedom and Security Pack plans to donate to conservative candidates
running for Congress and help the Republican Party across the nation.
Host
Ben Ferguson
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