Latest / The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson / Dems’ Message "Impeach Everything First! Govern Later?", What Happens AFTER Protect College Sports Act Passes & Tallarico Heads to Center, then Doubles Back Week In Review

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Dems’ Message "Impeach Everything First! Govern Later?", What Happens AFTER Protect College Sports Act Passes & Tallarico Heads to Center, then Doubles Back Week In Review · The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome.
• 0:00
  Speaker 2: It is Verdict with Ted Cruz, Week in Review. Ben
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: Ferguson with you. And here are the stories that you
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: may have missed that we talked about this week. First up,
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: we're less than five weeks out from the midterms and
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: Democrats are making it clear this election they want to
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: be about lawfare, impeaching Donald Trump and coming after anyone
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: in his orbit. We break it down exactly what they're
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: saying to voters. Up next, what happens after the passage
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: of the massive new college sports bill in the Senate?
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: And will it become law by the end of the year?
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: We'll break that down as well. And finally, there's two
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: very different sides of James Tallarico. He's running for Senate
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: in Texas. The new Tallarico wants you to believe he's
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: meek and mild, but the reality is what.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: He's said for years is extreme.
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: And now his own party is calling him out and
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: saying he better do what he used to do if
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: he wins. It's the Week in Review, and it starts
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: right now. All right, Senator, so let's get into this.
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: Five weeks out, I look at these poll numbers and
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: it's tight. I think you and I have both looked
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: at them and it's not exactly where anyone was hoping
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: on the conservative side of things we would be at
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: this moment in time going into the midterms.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: But there's also.
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: This new kind of mantra coming from the left, which is, hey,
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: if we get power, we will go after Donald Trump
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: and impeach him.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: Also, cabinet members. Also, we'll go after family.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: We'll go after other conservatives like it is pure warfare, lawfare,
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: whatever you want to call it, congressional lawfare yet again.
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: And that's what now the Democrats are closing argument. The
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: American people has vote for us because we'll go lock
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: people up.
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: Well, that's exactly right, because that's what animates and unifies
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: their party, is hatred for Donald Trump. Here, I want
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: you to listen to Representative Ro Khanna, a Democrat, very,
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: very wealthy tech Democrat, used to portray himself as moderate,
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: but now is running hard, hard left because he's got
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: presidential ambitions. I want to listen to him being asked
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: if it's true that their objective is just to impeach Trump.
• 2:00
  Speaker 4: Listen.
• 2:01
  Speaker 5: Is impeaching President Trump a third time a mistake for Democrats?
• 2:07
  Speaker 6: No, it's not, because it's not about Donald Trump. He's
• 2:09
  Speaker 6: going to be a lame duck, and in my view, largely,
• 2:14
  Speaker 6: increasingly irrelevant. The point is to stand up for the Constitution.
• 2:18
  Speaker 6: Impeachment says that you can't get into an illegal war
• 2:22
  Speaker 6: in Iran without constitutional approval. Impeachment says that you can't
• 2:27
  Speaker 6: just start firing federal employees when in defiance of what
• 2:32
  Speaker 6: Congress says. Impeachment says you can't do deals with foreign
• 2:35
  Speaker 6: governments to allegedly enrich your own family. It's about setting
• 2:40
  Speaker 6: a standard and the Democrats can impeach to uphold constitutional
• 2:45
  Speaker 6: values and at the same time have a first hundred
• 2:47
  Speaker 6: day agenda that deals with the cost of living.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: Notice it's not really about you. It's about it's about
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: warfare and political warfare. And oh, absolutely. We're going to
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: go down this road. Yeah, then we'll get to the
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: economy and other things later. But really, this is about
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: attacking anyone that helped Trump and Trump and his cabinet.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: So no one will want to serve their country.
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: Look, Trump derangement syndrome is alive and well. They are animated.
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: Their their sole goal in life, it seems, is hatred
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: of Trump. But actually, that's not true. They also want
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: radical policies that would destroy America. Here, I want you
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: to listen to Democrat Tom Swoozie, who is another one
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: who pretends he's a moderate, but listen to what he
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: says his number one objective is if Democrats take power.
• 3:30
  Speaker 7: My number one issue is to try and get a
• 3:35
  Speaker 7: resolution on immigration. My biggest desire, my biggest goal of
• 3:40
  Speaker 7: what I want to accomplish in politics right now is
• 3:43
  Speaker 7: I want to legalize 7 or 8 or 9 or
• 3:46
  Speaker 7: 10 million people in our country so they will not
• 3:49
  Speaker 7: be subject to deportation.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: Well, at least they're being honest about it. Hey, Americans,
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: you're not our priority. Illegal immigrants, you are our priority.
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  Speaker 2: And just understand, if you're an American suffering right now,
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: we don't really care. If you're someone that has issues
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: and you have a U.S.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: Passport, we don't really care.
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  Speaker 2: It's the illegals that we're here to protect and defend
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  Speaker 2: and to honor first and foremost.
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  Speaker 3: Now, look, this is striking because Tom Swoosie is in
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  Speaker 3: a potential swing district in New York, and he's echoing
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: the very same message that you remember Chris Murphy a
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: year or two said on TV, and it was widely
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: perceived as a gaffe. But listen to Chris Murphy on
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: MSNBC explaining what his number one priority is.
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  Speaker 1: The negotiation didn't have a path to citizenship.
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  Speaker 5: It was entirely on their terms in order to get
• 4:40
  Speaker 5: Ukraine funded, right? Well, I mean, Chris, that's been a
• 4:43
  Speaker 5: failed play for 20 years. So you are right that
• 4:46
  Speaker 5: that has been the Democratic strategy for 30 years, maybe.
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  Speaker 5: And it has failed to deliver for the people we
• 4:53
  Speaker 5: care about most, the undocumented Americans that are in this country.
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  Speaker 3: Well, there you heard it. Chris Murphy, in his own words,
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: he describes he's speaking about Democrats as a party. He describes, quote,
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: the people we care about most. And then he calls
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: them the undocumented Americans, by which he means illegal immigrants.
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: And he's not saying they care about him. He said
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: they are the people they care about most, illegal immigrants.
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  Speaker 3: They care about it more than you, more than U.S. citizens,
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  Speaker 3: more than your kids. That's why Democrat Tom Swoozie is
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: saying his biggest goal, his number one goal, is to
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: grant amnesty to 7 or 8 or 9 or 10
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: million people in our country. That's their number one goal.
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  Speaker 3: It is to attack President Trump, and it is to
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: fight for illegal immigrants. That's their priority. And it's one
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: of the reasons why, as lousy as the poll numbers
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: are looking for Republicans right now, Democrats have a problem, too.
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: Listen to Mark Kelly getting confronted with this on ABC.
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  Speaker 8: That is that only 34 percent of people think the
• 6:00
  Speaker 8: Democratic Party cares about people like them.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: What does that tell you?
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  Speaker 8: What do you do about it if people just aren't
• 6:10
  Speaker 8: feeling it from the Democrats, if you're sort of a
• 6:12
  Speaker 8: default or people stay away from the race?
• 6:15
  Speaker 9: Well, I'll tell you what I'm doing about it. I've
• 6:17
  Speaker 9: been traveling across the country basically nonstop for the last
• 6:22
  Speaker 9: six months. I've been in New Hampshire, in Ohio, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Georgia,
• 6:28
  Speaker 9: South Carolina, meeting with people. I've also been all over Arizona.
• 6:32
  Speaker 9: I was just up on the Navajo Nation. a couple
• 6:35
  Speaker 9: weeks ago for the Navajo parade, and just talking to
• 6:38
  Speaker 9: people and trying to understand their challenges in their homes,
• 6:43
  Speaker 9: in their schools, in their communities.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: You listen to that, and it's just truly not about
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: Americans first at all.
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: Well, and when even ABC is going at it and
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: pointing out that the poll numbers show that only 34%
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: of Americans think Democrats care about, quote, people like them.
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: And there's a reason for that. The Democrats are telling
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: you who they care about. The people they care about
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: most are illegal immigrants. Look, if you're an illegal immigrant,
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: I guess that should make you really happy. That's your party.
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: That's who they're fighting for. You know, he also left
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: out gangbangers and criminals and murderers and child molesters and rapists.
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: And that clearly is who they care about most as well,
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: because when they get in power... That's who they let go.
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  Speaker 3: That's who they refuse to arrest. That's who they empty
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: the jails from. That's who they release into the communities.
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: So they care about attacking Trump. They care about illegal immigrants.
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  Speaker 3: They care about criminals. But they also fundamentally care about
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: this is the Green-Red Alliance. This is communism and Islamism
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: coming together. And to be clear, that is not limited
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: to Manhattan. It is not just Comrade Mondami in New York.
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  Speaker 3: They plan to bring this to your neighborhood, to your town,
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: to your state. They plan to bring it to the
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: whole country. Listen to Comrade Mondami talking about socialism for
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: all of America.
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  Speaker 4: The thing is, other Democrats are concerned. Not everybody believes
• 8:13
  Speaker 4: that America is ready on a national level. to necessarily
• 8:17
  Speaker 4: elect people who are on the left? And will it
• 8:20
  Speaker 4: translate on a national level? And will the midterms not
• 8:25
  Speaker 4: just be a referendum on Trump, but a referendum on
• 8:28
  Speaker 4: the democratic socialists of America?
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  Speaker 10: I think this will absolutely translate on a national level.
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  Speaker 10: And the reason that I believe that is while we
• 8:35
  Speaker 10: are an exceptional city as the greatest city in the world,
• 8:38
  Speaker 10: we also know that the struggles that New Yorkers are
• 8:40
  Speaker 10: facing are the struggles that working class Americans are facing
• 8:43
  Speaker 10: across the country. I often say that there's only one
• 8:45
  Speaker 10: majority in this country. It's the working class and their
• 8:48
  Speaker 10: inability to afford housing, child care, even public transit. That
• 8:53
  Speaker 10: is something that goes beyond any one city.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: Senator, beyond any one city, that's his message.
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: Look, this is their nationwide agenda. They want to bring
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: socialism to you. And by the way, what Comrade Mondami
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: did there is what communists and socialists always do, which
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: is they say they're fighting for the working man, which
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: is what he said. But then you look at their policies,
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: and their policies always, always, always hurt the working men.
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: And if you look at it, this is true in
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: communist countries across the world, whether the Soviet Union or
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: China or Cuba or Venezuela or Nicaragua or North Korea,
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: whenever you have socialism implemented, and socialism is the economic
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: system of communism, whenever they implement their policies, working men
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  Speaker 3: Men and women pay the price.
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: They have poverty.
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: They have shortages. Their standard of living goes down. Understand,
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: the Democrats, it's ironic he used the phrase working men
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: because he doesn't actually want people to work. He wants
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: to pay people not to work. If you're working, he
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: wants to tax the hell out of you. If you
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: own a small business, he wants to destroy your small business.
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: And yet, this message is getting real traction. Brand new
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: polling that came from Gallup, I'm going to read from
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: New York Post. Americans are embracing socialism at record levels,
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: as popularity tops 40% for the first time since 2010.
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: A record number of Americans now have a positive view
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: of socialism, with almost half admitting they embrace the far-left ideology,
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: according to an eye-opening survey. 43% of Americans said they
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: feel optimistic about socialism, the new Gallup poll released Wednesday revealed.
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: It marks the first time this figure has topped 40%
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: in Gallup's trend since 2010. At the same time, economic
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: concepts like free enterprise, big business, and capitalism have slipped
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: in public favorability. The surge in popularity was driven, surprisingly,
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: by independents, with 45% of this group reporting a positive
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: view of socialism. up from 37% last year. Now, that's
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: highly troubling, that independents went from 37% thinking socialism was
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: a good idea to 45%. That is a very disturbing movement. Independents'
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: view of big business, meanwhile, dipped to a new low
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: of 32%, meaning independents now prefer socialism to big business. However,
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: small businesses, capitalism, and free enterprise are still viewed more positively.
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: The increase in optimism for the far-left philosophy is also
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: driven in large part by a sharp uptick among Democrats
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: who say they have a positive view of socialism. The
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: result in the Gallup poll showed two-thirds of progressives were
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: in favor, 66%, up from 50% in 2010. Democrats have
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: been rating socialism more positively than capitalism since 2016. And
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: it's now tied with free enterprise at 65%. Democrats' favorable
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: rating of capitalism slid seven points in just the past year,
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: from 42% in 2025 to just 35% today, according to
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: the survey. Now, the one group that's remained consistent, Republicans, meanwhile,
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: have stayed comparatively consistent with large majorities favoring small businesses,
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: free enterprise and capitalism positively, but just 14% expressing a
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: positive view of socialism. This is the message that the
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: far left is pushing, but understand this is their agenda
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: if they win in November. If they take power, they
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: want to bring socialism to you, they want to bring
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: amnesty for illegals to you, they want to bring violent
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: criminals that they're letting out of jail to you. That's
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: what the stakes are in this election.
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation,
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: you can go back and listen to the full podcast
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: from earlier this week.
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: Now on to story number two. All right. So I
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: want to ask you guys back to the bill. You
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: get it passed.
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: And the big question that so many people are going
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: to ask now is what happens next?
• 13:17
  Speaker 9: Yes.
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: This is a huge victory. The House is gone. They've
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: got their reelect. They're back home campaigning. And now people
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: are like, well, is it law? Well, it's passed the Senate.
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: What happens next? Let's explain where that goes from now
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: so people understand.
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: So where we are right now, we had it passed
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: 77 votes in favor. We actually have 78 because Dan
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: Sullivan supports it, but he was still in Alaska, so
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: he didn't vote. So we had 78 senators support it.
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: We got every Republican but two. So it was a
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: massive vote on the Republican side. We got more than
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: half the Democrats. We got a majority of the Democrat caucus,
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: which is insane.
• 13:50
  Speaker 11: Yeah, that never happens.
• 13:51
  Speaker 12: You can't get 77 votes to congratulate Santa Claus at
• 13:55
  Speaker 12: Christmas time.
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: That's the reality. Well, he's a socialist. Why are you
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: congratulating him? Like he's giving away stuff for free.
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: Like, I'm a no on that, Dan.
• 14:04
  Speaker 12: See, to my point, we can't get 77 votes for
• 14:06
  Speaker 12: Santa Claus.
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: He's like, you just made my point.
• 14:09
  Speaker 11: Even Santa Claus can't get these kind of votes.
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: So it goes to the House now.
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: So now it goes to the House. Look, here's what
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: I think will happen when I want to happen. I
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: want the Speaker to call the House back. And you
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: think they will? I think there's a real possibility of it.
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: So they're gone. Right now the House is scheduled to
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: be gone until Election Day. And they're out campaigning because, look,
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: the House is up every two years. They're campaigning. This
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: is a rough election season. That's no secret. So they're
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: out campaigning. I sat down. We had the Republican convention
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: a few weeks ago in Dallas. And so I spent
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: a half hour with the speaker there. And I made
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: the case to him, look, if we get this done,
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: and I think we're going to get a big bipartisan bill.
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: I said, and Mike is a close friend. He's a
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: great American. I love the man. He's principled. He's a
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: great human being. I said, look, if we get it done,
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: you ought to call the House back. And by the way,
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: the House can move fast. It's not long. Unlike the Senate,
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: the House can pass it in a day.
• 15:05
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: And I said, look, there's nothing more productive you can do.
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: All your members are running for reelect. Then come back,
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: pass this bill in 24 hours. It polls north of 80-20. Yeah.
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: And by the way, there are millions of people who
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: are college sports fans who don't pay attention to politics.
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: It'll go, I'll be damned. Like Congress can do something.
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: That matters, that actually.
• 15:29
  Speaker 11: That actually pertains to my Saturday in my life.
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: Look, I said, this is good politics. And what I
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: want to see happen- And I've suggested this to President Trump.
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: I want to see him sign it.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: On college game day.
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: On the set of college game day. And I actually
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: have suggested a game. I actually think A & M
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: Alabama would be a great game. It's kind of mid-October.
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: It's the right time. Although I will say A &
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: M' s last game.
• 15:51
  Speaker 12: Well, I got another game for you. I got another
• 15:53
  Speaker 12: game for you in early November. Texas at Missouri. that
• 15:57
  Speaker 12: would be a good game to do.
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: Is it before or after election day?
• 15:59
  Speaker 12: It's Saturday after the election.
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: So Cassidy was pitching Texas LSU, which I liked, but it's,
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: it's the week after election day. And so I'm like, no,
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: we need, we need it before election day.
• 16:09
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 16:10
  Speaker 12: I'm fine with that. If we, if it gets it done,
• 16:11
  Speaker 12: I'm all for it. But if it somehow slips, then
• 16:13
  Speaker 12: we'll do the Texas.
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: I wanted Texas, Ohio state, but we didn't get it
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: done in time. Cause that would have been amazing to
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: have it. Um, But I'll say this, Bill. I believe
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: we will get it done. Look, does it happen before
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: Election Day or not? I don't know for sure. I
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: will say last night I spoke with the president. He
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: was elated.
• 16:32
  Speaker 10: Yeah.
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: And President Trump wants the House to come back.
• 16:35
  Speaker 12: And let me tell you something. I talked to him, too. Yeah.
• 16:37
  Speaker 12: He is not– he is a real sports fan. He
• 16:40
  Speaker 12: loves it. Some presidents are kind of phony.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: He loves it.
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: Sports ball people.
• 16:43
  Speaker 12: He loves this. he's followed it his whole life. He wants,
• 16:47
  Speaker 12: this is a, he wants this done. I think that
• 16:49
  Speaker 12: will matter with them. I hope it matters with them.
• 16:52
  Speaker 12: And like Ted said, it's like, this is something that
• 16:55
  Speaker 12: they can do like in a day, day and a half.
• 16:57
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 16:57
  Speaker 12: And it'd be a big win. It's a cultural thing.
• 16:59
  Speaker 12: This is not political. People don't want this.
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: To be political.
• 17:02
  Speaker 12: They want this to be like, Hey, that's their team.
• 17:04
  Speaker 12: It's their region. It's their conference.
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: It's their school.
• 17:08
  Speaker 12: That matters a lot more than like red Jersey, blue
• 17:10
  Speaker 12: Jersey on this, which is, I think the secret sauce
• 17:12
  Speaker 12: for all this, that's how we approached it was, Here
• 17:14
  Speaker 12: are problems. Let's go try to solve the problem. Let's
• 17:16
  Speaker 12: take our passion that we have for sports and let's
• 17:19
  Speaker 12: turn it into legislation that can matter. And we did it.
• 17:21
  Speaker 12: Like we did it in the Senate. It's not easy
• 17:23
  Speaker 12: to do, but we were able to pull it off.
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: So, Ben, at every stage, the critics thought we had
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: no prayer. Before we introduced it, the critics said there's
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: no chance you can't get bipartisan agreement. We introduced it.
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: When we introduced it initially, we had two Democrats, two Republicans.
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: So it was Eric and me on the Republican side.
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: We had Maria Cantwell as the ranking member on the
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: Commerce Committee. Democrat from Washington State, and Maria put an
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: enormous amount of time and energy to this. And then
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: Chris Coons, Democrat from Delaware. So initially it was the
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: four of us, two Ds, two Rs.
• 17:51
  Speaker 9: Yeah.
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: People were shocked. Like when we introduced it, they're like, wait,
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: these guys came together and did this? Then we had
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: the markup in the Commerce Committee. And early on, the
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: SEC and Big Ten were opposed to this. And they
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: were actively and vigorously lobbying against it. And they're the
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: two most powerful conferences. They get 70% of the eyeballs.
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: Both Eric and I care deeply about the SEC because
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: they matter a lot to our state. So it took
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: some courage for us to stand up and like.
• 18:17
  Speaker 11: Say, hold on a second.
• 18:18
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 18:19
  Speaker 3: And all the critics said, okay, SEC and Big Ten
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: are lobbying against this.
• 18:23
  Speaker 13: You're done.
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: This is going nowhere. It fails in the Commerce Committee
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: or maybe it's a party line vote. We end up
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: voting it out 19 to 9. Yeah. 70% of the
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: committee votes.
• 18:33
  Speaker 11: That was the pay attention moment.
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: That was a moment and it ended up– I mean
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: we negotiated with the SEC and Big Ten and we
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: brought them on board. So they're supporting it now. And look,
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: Greg Sankey, Tony Petitti, the commissioners, they're good guys. I
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: know them well. Both Eric and I spent a ton
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: of time with them. We made some concessions. We got
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: them on board. The whole process of this bill was
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: growing the coalition, growing and expanding it. When we went
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: to the Senate floor this week, I mean, there were
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: a lot of skeptics. And to see the votes– and
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: we had, by the way, a bunch of amendments. And
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: we ended up building and building the coalition. That is
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: a powerful thing.
• 19:11
  Speaker 12: And I would say for most people, they probably think–
• 19:16
  Speaker 12: That's how the Senate operates all the time.
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: That is not– It almost never does.
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: It doesn't happen.
• 19:21
  Speaker 12: Most of it is kabuki theater. Most of it is whatever.
• 19:24
  Speaker 11: It was like, wouldn't it be nice if it happened
• 19:26
  Speaker 11: like this?
• 19:26
  Speaker 12: Right, but it was actually legislating because you didn't have
• 19:29
  Speaker 12: some of the same constraints that you would normally have
• 19:31
  Speaker 12: on something. You listened to people, we did, and you figured.
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: Out– Adopted amendments that got people on board.
• 19:38
  Speaker 12: Exactly, and that's kind of how it's supposed to work
• 19:40
  Speaker 12: on something like this.
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: And I will tell you something, man eric was hugely
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: helpful it was interesting eric and and maria and chris
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: kind of everyone was lobbying different people and we had
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: sort of a team and look with 100 senators you
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: got a lot of people so eric spent a lot
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: of time and we had this vote that was unhappy
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: this vote was unhappy and so he was out negotiating
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: we did i i hosted a party for for the
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: four senators who led this and for the staff and
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: i i gave bottles of scotch to everyone that's awesome
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: i mean it was a a celebration of like I.
• 20:10
  Speaker 11: Will say– It's your dream of coming to the Senate
• 20:11
  Speaker 11: and how it's supposed to work.
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: And this was the most complicated thing I've ever negotiated. Listen,
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: this makes Middle East peace seem simple. And by the way,
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: people care less about Middle East peace than they care
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: about college football.
• 20:25
  Speaker 10: For sure.
• 20:26
  Speaker 11: Let me say two things. One, congrats.
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: What a fun week. Two, it was fun to watch. Three,
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: we get to now see what happens on the house side.
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: And it's going to be really fun. And for everybody
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: that's watching right now, don't forget.
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: Ben, close by telling the story of when the baseball
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: team and the tennis team at Ole Miss went to,
• 20:43
  Speaker 3: was it batting practice?
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: We went to batting practice. So when I was at
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: Ole Miss, the teams would trade off and you would play.
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: We played the baseball team and then smoked them in tennis.
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: They were terrible.
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: And then they went and said, well, you're going to
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: come to batting practice. Well, we all had eye-hand coordination.
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: We had balls hitting at 120 on concrete and you're
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: hitting it back. And we were just hitting dingers off
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: the machine because it was just pure straight. And then
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: one of the guys on the team, the coach, tried
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: to actually recruit. And our coach was in his face.
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: You're not touching my tennis guys.
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: You're not touching them. But it was so much fun
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: because they're like, how do you guys do that?
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: I'm like, guys, when are you standing a ball.
• 21:11
  Speaker 3: That's bouncing 120?
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: It's coming straight every time in the same place.
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: You can get bad on ball really fast.
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: It was fun.
• 21:17
  Speaker 12: That's cool.
• 21:17
  Speaker 11: Yeah, we beat those guys well.
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: You told a more pro tennis story this time than
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: last time. Well, I mean, we said it's like Eric's.
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: It's getting better. It's getting better. Yeah. The last time
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: I heard the story, you said, Matt, wow, a fastball
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: comes fast.
• 21:33
  Speaker 12: The catch probability in that game is 5%.
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: As before, if you want to hear the rest of
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: this conversation on this topic, you can go back and
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: download the podcast from early this week to hear the
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: entire thing. I want to get back to the big story,
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: number three of the week you may have missed. Senator,
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: I want to go back to one of the things
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: that you guys did, and that was to go to
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: the Peterbilt plant. This was part of laying out, I think,
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: really the record of this president and what we need
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: in this country, what we need more of, especially in
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: the race that he was certainly in Texas to deal with,
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: and that was the Tallarico race.
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: So, yeah, we arrived at the Peterbilt factory, and I've
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: been to the Peterbilt factory before. I've toured it. Years ago,
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: I toured it, and it is an amazing place. Have
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: you ever seen an 18-wheeler being built?
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: No, I have not.
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: Okay, it is so cool. And they have a big,
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: long assembly line, and these big, massive, badass trucks they're building.
• 22:34
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 22:34
  Speaker 3: How many trucks do you think they build in a day?
• 22:37
  Speaker 10: Oh, gosh.
• 22:37
  Speaker 11: I mean, I'm going to go out with 10.
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: They build 218 wheelers a day. A day. I mean,
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: it just, they crank them first.
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: So there's a need for 200. Is that in America
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: or just around the world?
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: That's in America.
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: No, no.
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: They're selling these in America. They make them there. And
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: I mean, these are, you know, big monster.
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they're huge.
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: You know, the Peter Belts and they were very cool.
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: And the workers there, I got to say that the
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: workers there, they love Trump. And so we started by
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: he's visiting with a number of workers and shaking their hands,
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: and I'm visiting with them. And look, those are my peeps.
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: His base and my base have a very strong overlap.
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: But they're thrilled to meet him, and they're shaking his hand.
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: And then I actually several times said, here, give me
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: your phone, and I would take a picture of them
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: with the president on their phone, which made them really happy.
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: But watching the love that those people, factory workers have
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: for the president is really amazing. We were there with
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: the CEO. The CEO said that the plant was booming,
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: that they were having their best year because of the
• 23:45
  Speaker 3: president's economic policies. And look, the president's whole message at
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: the rally was, we have incredible economic numbers and the
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: media is lying to the voters and telling everyone the
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: economy is lousy. And you and I have covered on
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: this podcast. Look, just this last month, the data came
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: out that we have right now the highest family income
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: ever recorded. Median income is the highest it's ever been
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: recorded in the history of America. We also have the
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: lowest poverty rate that has ever been recorded in the
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: history of America. That includes the lowest African-American poverty rate.
• 24:25
  Speaker 3: the lowest Hispanic poverty rate, and the lowest Native American
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: poverty rate ever recorded in the history of the country.
• 24:31
  Speaker 3: And the media doesn't talk about any of that. They
• 24:33
  Speaker 3: don't want you to know any of that. And so
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: the president is frustrated. He's visibly frustrated. He was venting
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: on Air Force One. And at the rally, he's speaking
• 24:41
  Speaker 3: to the rally, and he's saying, look, you look at
• 24:42
  Speaker 3: these numbers, we're doing really, really well. But the media
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: is trying to convince people, well, it's terrible. It's terrible affordability.
• 24:52
  Speaker 3: And they say gas prices. And the president rightly pointed out, yes,
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: gas prices are higher because we're taking out an Ayatollah
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: and stopping Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. But gas
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: prices are still a lot lower than they were under
• 25:05
  Speaker 3: Joe Biden. And he made that point, and that point
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: is right. So that was really important for him to make.
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: And then he was also, Ken Paxton was there at
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: the rally, and Ken got a good chair. And he
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: was urging people, you got to come out and vote
• 25:18
  Speaker 3: for Ken Paxton. He was giving Ken a lot of love.
• 25:23
  Speaker 3: He was also, you know, he was also emphasizing, look,
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: Tallarico is extreme. This guy is radical, radical. And he
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: would be incredibly dangerous. And I think that is valuable
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: for people to know just how far out of step
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: from the mainstream Tallarico is that he is a left-wing radical.
• 25:44
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, not only is he a left-wing radical, but this
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: race has obviously caught the attention of a lot of
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: Democratic donors. A lot of his money is coming in
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: from out of state. And that's what's funny. And by
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: the way, there's a trend there as well. And that's
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: one of the reasons why this race has gotten so expensive.
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: Yeah, no, no. I mean, it has been a massively
• 26:02
  Speaker 3: expensive race. And Tallarico has money flooding in from New York,
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: from California, from Hollywood. They want to elect a woke
• 26:12
  Speaker 3: left-wing radical from Texas in particular. And by the way,
• 26:15
  Speaker 3: to understand who he is, look, we've talked a lot
• 26:17
  Speaker 3: about Hassan Piker, the radical, Islamist, communist, America-hating zealot. You know,
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: the guy who says, among other things, America deserved 9-11.
• 26:28
  Speaker 3: Hassan Piker has become... Abdul Al-Sayed does not win his
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: primary without campaigning alongside Hassan Piker. The Democrats are not
• 26:38
  Speaker 3: running away from this guy. Well, Piker was in Texas
• 26:40
  Speaker 3: this past week, and he had a message for Tallarico
• 26:44
  Speaker 3: and all of his supporters. Give a listen to what
• 26:46
  Speaker 3: Hassan Piker said about James Tallarico.
• 26:50
  Speaker 13: Hopefully, inshallah, after James Tallarico wins, okay?
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 26:55
  Speaker 5: After.
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: I'm not allowed to... I feel like... I shouldn't even
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: say that. I feel like in the state of Texas,
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: no Sharia state. They're going to they're going to throw
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: me in prison.
• 27:03
  Speaker 13: But, yeah, hopefully after James Seller wins, we got to
• 27:09
  Speaker 13: hold him to account. We got to make sure that
• 27:11
  Speaker 13: he doesn't become another do nothing Democrat business as usual.
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: And we got to keep up that pressure.
• 27:19
  Speaker 13: And we have to remind him that we are the
• 27:22
  Speaker 13: force that backed him both early on. And we are
• 27:26
  Speaker 13: the force that allowed him to win this seat of power.
• 27:29
  Speaker 3: And if he wants to maintain it, he's got.
• 27:31
  Speaker 12: To play ball.
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: If he wants to maintain it, Senator, he's just got
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: to play ball.
• 27:36
  Speaker 3: Well, look, Hassan Piker, I'm going to give him credit
• 27:38
  Speaker 3: for being honest there. I mean, he starts by saying, hopefully, inshallah,
• 27:43
  Speaker 3: James Tallarico wins. Now, inshallah is Arabic for if God
• 27:47
  Speaker 3: is willing. And Piker is an open Islamist. And he
• 27:53
  Speaker 3: is saying the Islamists, the radicals, they're the ones who
• 27:58
  Speaker 3: elected James Tallarico. They're the ones who helped him win
• 28:02
  Speaker 3: the primary. They're the ones who put him in power.
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: He will owe them if he's elected. That tells you
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: where this guy is. I mean, Piker understands this is
• 28:11
  Speaker 3: our guy. And Tallarico and Abdul Al-Sayed are the two
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: most radical Senate candidates in the country. And Piker is...
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: critical to both of them. By the way, I don't
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: think there's any chance that Tallarica would forget where he
• 28:26
  Speaker 3: comes from, because he's a true believer. He believes this nonsense.
• 28:30
  Speaker 3: I mean, he was really raised and grew up in
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: this sort of woke DEI, social justice warrior nonsense. And
• 28:41
  Speaker 3: now that he's running, he's trying to pretend to moderate.
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: But he's lying, and he's not very good at it,
• 28:46
  Speaker 3: so he keeps getting caught lying. So he went on
• 28:49
  Speaker 3: Fox News, and he said now he no longer supports
• 28:55
  Speaker 3: mutilating and sterilizing kids who think they're transgender. He no
• 28:58
  Speaker 3: longer supports that. He's abandoned that position because, you know,
• 29:01
  Speaker 3: it turns out Texans don't like mutilating and sterilizing kids.
• 29:07
  Speaker 3: Except for one problem. Well, two problems. One, Tallarico has
• 29:10
  Speaker 3: a long record of voting for that over and over again,
• 29:13
  Speaker 3: so that's his longstanding position. But two, he was actually
• 29:17
  Speaker 3: caught on camera admitting that his position hasn't changed. So
• 29:20
  Speaker 3: give a listen. This is an undercover camera that caught
• 29:23
  Speaker 3: him admitting that he's lying when he says he no
• 29:26
  Speaker 3: longer wants to sterilize kids. Give a listen.
• 29:28
  Speaker 11: So nice to see you.
• 29:29
  Speaker 13: Thank you for being here.
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: I'm so glad you came.
• 29:36
  Speaker 7: It means a lot. Michelle, I'm just so.
• 29:40
  Speaker 9: Happy that you're running and everything you're doing for our
• 29:43
  Speaker 9: country and everyone feeling included.
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: The way I fought for trans kids.
• 29:46
  Speaker 11: In the legislature is how I will fight for the U.S.
• 29:49
  Speaker 6: Senate.
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: And my position hasn't changed.
• 29:51
  Speaker 11: I still think we should be local decision, sport by sport,
• 29:54
  Speaker 11: athlete by athlete.
• 30:07
  Speaker 13: And I think I have the most inclusive policy of
• 30:09
  Speaker 13: any candidate who's running.
• 30:11
  Speaker 9: I agree.
• 30:11
  Speaker 13: I know things are getting clutch and stuff, but my views,
• 30:14
  Speaker 13: my position hasn't changed.
• 30:15
  Speaker 12: And I'm going to have your loved ones back.
• 30:19
  Speaker 9: Thank you so much.
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 30:21
  Speaker 4: God bless you.
• 30:21
  Speaker 3: God bless you.
• 30:22
  Speaker 9: Thank you.
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: Senator, there it is.
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: My views haven't changed at all. So when he went
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: on Fox News Channel with the mea culpa, that was
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: a lie, right?
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: That was just a big lie.
• 30:34
  Speaker 3: He was flat out lying. And by the way, this
• 30:35
  Speaker 3: undercover camera was on September 13th. So that was just
• 30:38
  Speaker 3: a couple of weeks ago that he was caught in
• 30:40
  Speaker 3: camera saying, oh, no, no, no, my views haven't changed.
• 30:43
  Speaker 3: I'm still for operating and sterilizing kids. And I'm still
• 30:48
  Speaker 3: for boys and girls sports and men and women's sports.
• 30:50
  Speaker 3: I mean, that's what he's urging. Nothing has changed. I'm
• 30:53
  Speaker 3: just having to lie to the voters because I think
• 30:55
  Speaker 3: I can dupe them. There also is footage showing one
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: of his field organizers talking about how Tallarico's views are
• 31:07
  Speaker 3: much more anti-Israel than he's admitted publicly. Give a listen
• 31:11
  Speaker 3: to this radical field organizer working for Tallarico.
• 31:15
  Speaker 7: Personal culture, of course, is what works for the campaign.
• 31:21
  Speaker 7: I completely understand. Most of my co-workers are also that far.
• 31:27
  Speaker 3: So we get it.
• 31:29
  Speaker 13: It's more sort of a thing of like, I guess.
• 31:31
  Speaker 7: Like a vehicle, kind of.
• 31:33
  Speaker 8: Because we're trying to flip this right seat.
• 31:36
  Speaker 12: So basically his stance on Palestine is that morally what
• 31:41
  Speaker 12: is being done to the Palestinians is morally reprehensible.
• 31:45
  Speaker 4: It should not be done.
• 31:48
  Speaker 3: No funding should be.
• 31:50
  Speaker 7: given to do those things that Israel is.
• 31:52
  Speaker 3: Doing to Palestinians.
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: I'm just glad she's wearing the Tallarico shirt at the
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: campaign headquarters and is saying we're a bunch of Marxists.
• 31:59
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, that is her position. She's saying he
• 32:02
  Speaker 3: is too, but we have a chance to fool the voters.
• 32:05
  Speaker 3: And don't worry, he hates Israel every bit as much
• 32:07
  Speaker 3: as you do. He also told the other voter he's
• 32:13
  Speaker 3: for sterilizing kids every bit as much as they are.
• 32:16
  Speaker 3: This is who that guy is. And that's not where
• 32:19
  Speaker 3: the voters of Texas are.
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with Senator
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: Ted Cruz.
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: Ben Ferguson with you.
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: Don't forget to download my podcast and you can listen
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: to my podcast every other day. You're not listening to
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: Verdict or each day when you listen to Verdict afterwards.
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: I'd love to have you as a listener to, again,
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: the Ben Ferguson podcast. And we will see you back
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: here on Monday morning.