Latest / The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson / Inside the Senate Vote on the New Majority Leader

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Inside the Senate Vote on the New Majority Leader · The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome.
• 0:01
  Speaker 2: It is Verdict with Center Ted Cruz Ben Ferguson with you, Senator,
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: You're back in Washington, d C. My, oh my, how
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: things have changed since the last time you were in
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: DC before election Day.
• 0:13
  Speaker 3: Well, I've been back in d C the entire week.
• 0:16
  Speaker 3: I'm actually back in Texas right now, you and I
• 0:18
  Speaker 3: are talking. It's eleven o'clock Thursday night. I just got
• 0:20
  Speaker 3: back to Texas this evening. But this was the first
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: week back in d C since the election, and I
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: got to say, it's a remarkable time that there is
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: an enormous energy, There's an enormous enthusiasm, and the people
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: are really excited. People are excited about President Trump coming
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: back in the White House. People are excited about the
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: new administration. People are excited about a Republican Senate and
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: a Republican House. And it's interesting you look at the Democrats.
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: The Democrats are shell shocked. They're just that they have
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: a difficult time believing what has happened, and they're just
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: kind of looking around like, you know, Okay, wow, We're
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: in a whole new world. And so it was a
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: really good week. It was a consequential week. We got back,
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: we had. The very first thing we did is dove
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: into leadership elections for the new majority leader, and the
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: very first majority leader was elected in eighteen years and
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: so on the podcast today, I'm going to bring inside
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: of that that I'm going to tell you about what's
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: going on in the Senate. We're going to break all
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: of that down. We're also going to break down a
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: major terrorist arrest that happened. And you're in my hometown, Houston, Texas,
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: so we're going to talk about all that.
• 1:37
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  Speaker 2: dot com slash Ben So Senator, let's talk about you
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: mentioned it in the opening there, the mood you've gone
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: back to Washington and been from the majority to the minority.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: It's not fun. Yeah, But when you lose the White House.
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: You lose this, you lose the the Senate, and you
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: thought you might be able to pick up the House
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: Democrats and you don't get that either. And the Republicans
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: have a very secure apparatus around you. That's a really
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: bad day for Democrats when they go back to Washington.
• 3:46
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: And I can tell you in the Senate at least
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: the Senate Democrats were walking around just shell shocked that
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: they were not expecting what happened on election Day.
• 3:54
  Speaker 4: And and and it's it's tough.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: Now.
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: I've been there. I've been there when we had the
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: majority and lost it, and that's sucks. But but this
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: this was just a thumping across the board. We also
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: had this week, uh, this week is the orientation for
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: newly elected senators. So we had Jim Justice for West Virginia.
• 4:11
  Speaker 4: He was there.
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: We we had Tim Sheehey from Montana, he was there.
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: We had Bernie Moreno from Ohio, he was there. And
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: we had Dave McCormick from Pennsylvania.
• 4:21
  Speaker 4: He was there.
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: So we've got four new Republican senators, all of whom
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: were there, and and that that that that's what flipped
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: the Senate. So it was good to see them. They
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: were excited to be there. And then they're starting the
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: whole process of orientation. I will tell you, the Senate's
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: an interesting place. So you get elected, and you show
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: up and you and you have a week of orientation
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: and you do all these different little sessions where they
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: talk about the ethics rules, they talk about all all
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: the ways it operates, they talk about staffing up your office,
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: and and you're put in a little basement office as
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: a newly elected senator elect and and you know, it's
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: it's kind of an interesting place because the Senate, there
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: are one hundred senator offices.
• 5:02
  Speaker 4: There are one hundred senators.
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: You would think it would be fairly quick and efficient
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: to assign each one of the senators the senator offices. Well,
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: this is an aspect where I mean, there are a
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: lot of ways in which the US Senate is not
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: even like a high school. It's like a junior high.
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: It's basically mean girls. And one of the ways is
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: the new senators basically get hazed, where you get stuck
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: down in a tiny basement office for several months. And
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: mind you, there are fully empty Senate offices. Once we
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: get to January and the old guys have left, they're
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: fully empty Senate offices, but it takes several months to
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: assign them. And so the new guys are there, they're
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: kind of looking around, they're sort of blinking, starry eyed,
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: and I remember it, well, you're like, holy crap, what
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: am I doing here? And you go to the initial
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: lunches and one of the first things you have to
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: do as a senator is you have to decide, okay,
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: what committees do I want to be on? And so
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: you send a formal letter to the to the leader
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: of your party saying, here are the committees I want
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: to be on, and each senator actually senators, it's a
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: it's a lot better the committee asignment process, and the
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: Senate is much much better than the House. The way
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: it operates is that every newly elected senator is guaranteed
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: to what are called A committees and one B committee,
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: and you can with some regularity beyond even a fourth
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: or a fifth committee as well. So The A committees
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: are the major committees that have the broadest jurisdiction. The
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: B committees are less consequential committees. They have less authority.
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: And the way it works is you can accrue seniority
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: on two A committees and one B committee. So for me,
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: my two A committees are the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science,
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: and Transportation and the Senate Judiciary Committee. And so when
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: I first got elected in twenty twelve, as I have
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: brand new baby senator, I sent in a letter and said, okay,
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: here are the two A committees. I want Commerce and
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: I want Judiciary.
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  Speaker 4: And my B.
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  Speaker 3: Committee is the Rules Committee, and so I have seniority
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: on the Rules Committee as well. Now you can also
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: with some frequency get a third A committee and the
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: third A committee you're on, but you don't accruse seniority,
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: so you're not climbing up the ranks. You're not in
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: the line to be a chairman. So my third A
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: committee for the first six years in the Senate was
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: the Senate Armed Services Committee. So I was on Senate
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: Armed Services, a great committee. I enjoyed it very much.
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  Speaker 3: And then I shifted over to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: Foreign Relations is my third A committee, so I don't
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: recruse seniority. So I will never be Chairman of Foreign
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  Speaker 3: Relations because I have no seniority on the committee and
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: you're only allowed to accrue on two a's and one b.
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  Speaker 3: But because I chose Judiciary and Commerce, that's why in
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  Speaker 3: this new Senate I will be the chairman of the
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, because I crude
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: enough seniority that I am now the most senior Republican
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: on the Commerce Committee.
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  Speaker 4: And by the.
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: Way, that is a huge damn deal. The Commerce Committee
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  Speaker 3: has jurisdiction.
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  Speaker 2: And that's what was going to ask you, is is
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: people ask they say, Okay, they see chairmanship, and they're like,
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: does that mean more TV time? Does that mean that
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: you're a spokesman in the sense for the committee or
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  Speaker 2: does that mean you actually have power?
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  Speaker 1: So explain what that looks like.
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  Speaker 3: It is massive and transformation, and I'll confess I didn't
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: fully understand that until all right, So for the last
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  Speaker 3: two years, I've been the ranking member on the Senate
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: Commerce Committee. Now, now what does it mean to be
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: the ranking member? You're the senior Republican, but you're in
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: the minority. That is a massive shift. So the last
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: two years have been enormously consequential. And I'm about to
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: be the chairman of the Commerce Committee cause we're in
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: the majority now. Now what does it mean when you're
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: and the Commerce Committee is an a committee? It is
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: a major committee. So when you become the ranking member,
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: which I did two years ago, of the Commerce Committee,
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: one of the consequences is your budget goes up dramatically.
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: So to give a sense, as a Senator from a
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: large state, a state like Texas, I had for the
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: first ten years in the Senate about sixty five staff members.
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: So I have roughly thirty to thirty five in DC
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: and thirty to thirty five in Texas. So that's the divide.
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  Speaker 3: You have about half in d C. They're your policy staff,
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: your communications staff, your administrative staff.
• 9:43
  Speaker 4: That's in DC. And then in Texas.
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: I've got regional offices all over the state in the
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: major cities, and I've got constituent Service teams in Texas
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: that help thirty million Texans.
• 9:53
  Speaker 4: So if you're a.
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: Veteran and you're dealing with the VA and you've got issues,
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: you call into my Constituent Service team and we help
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: help veterans, We help seniors with Social Security, We help
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: people whose passports have expired.
• 10:04
  Speaker 4: We get people who are, like you.
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: Know, getting ready to take a family vacation in tomorrow
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: and they realize, oh crap, my passport's expired, and we
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: helped them get a passport. So we you as a senator,
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: and you get a little bit larger budget, a little
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: bit larger staff if you're a large state. In Texas
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: obviously is a large state. So for ten years, I had,
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: like I said, between sixty and sixty five staff members.
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: When I became the ranking member of the Commerce Committee,
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: my staff expanded by about a third, so I have
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: roughly one hundred staff members now. So I have I
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: think thirty eight staff members on the Commerce Committee. So
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: it dramatically changes your effectiveness because I mean literally, my
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: DC staff more than doubled. And what it means is
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: that I've got staff members now for every subcommittee on
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: the Commerce Committee. So for example, I've got on my
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: team a railroad lawyer who is an expert in the
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: law concerning railroads. I've got an expert on aviation because look,
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: the Commerce Committee has jurisdiction over aviation. It has curisdiction
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: over communications, it has jurisdiction over railroads, it has jurisdiction
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: over space, it has jurisdiction over just a vast array.
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: And I will say it is a force multiplier. When
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: you have that team, you're able to.
• 11:27
  Speaker 4: Engage on.
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: I would say five x or ten x as many
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: issues because every other member of the Commerce Committee. When
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: I was on the Commerce Committee for ten years, I
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: had like one or two staffers that were on Commerce.
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: If you have one or two staffers versus thirty eight,
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: it just limits how deep you can dive into issues,
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: how many things you can engage in. When you've got
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: an expanded team, you can engage in oversight, you can
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: put out reports. You just have the ability to drive
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: much more of an agenda. There's a second aspect of it,
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: which is when bills are being attached to other moving vehicles. So,
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: for example, you have something like the National Defense Authorization Act.
• 12:11
  Speaker 4: The NDAA passes every year.
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: It authorizes our entire military. It's a hugely consequential bill
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: because it passes every year. It is often basically a
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: Christmas tree where you will get dozens or even hundreds
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: of other bills attached to it that have nothing to
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: do with defense, and it's just a moving vehicle that
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: people attach their bills.
• 12:36
  Speaker 4: Now, the way the center out.
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: With the pork is that where the pork gets pulled
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: in it, it's.
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: Actually not really about pork. That pork happens more in
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: an appropriation's bill and an omnibus bill, which is doing spending.
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: But this is just a vehicle for different bills that
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: that are often good and reasonable ideas, and different people
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: will attach them to a moving vehicle. But the way
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: the Senate operates is any bill that is within the
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: Commerce Committee jurisdiction cannot be attached to the NDAA or
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: to anything else without the sign off of the chairman,
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: who's been Maria Cantwell, a Democrat from Washington, for the last.
• 13:24
  Speaker 4: Two years, and the sign off of the ranking member.
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: So I have an absolute veto if any other Senator
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: has any bill within our jurisdiction that they want to
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: attach to a moving vehicle, they cannot do so without
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: my sign off. That gives an enormous amount of leverage.
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: And so the last two years, like I passed a
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: ton of legislation because frankly, I use that leverage to say, hey,
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: that's great. You want your bill to move. I want
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: you to agree to my bill on this. I want
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: you to agree to doing this. And so it gives
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: you the ability because you can show anything down within
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: the jurisdiction of your committee. It gives you the ability
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: to negotiate some major victories for Texas, some major free
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: market victories, some major victories for job creation. And so
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: that was a huge shift. And I will say when
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: you become the chairman, I okay. I've only been the
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: incoming chairman for a couple of days, so I don't
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: really know. I will have much more of an assessment
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: of that six months from now, but I think it
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: is five x, if not ten x more consequential.
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: So the question is for everybody listening, is okay, what
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: will get done because of this?
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: Right?
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: This is part of the payoff of the election getting
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: the Senate to be in the majority of the Republicans.
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: So paint the picture for people to understand not only
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: is this yes, powerful, but what does this now mean
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: that we can get done that Maybe in the last
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: Congress there was no chance in how of certain things
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: getting done.
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: So look, my number one priority in the Senate is jobs.
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: I'm focused on jobs, jobs, jobs, economic growth. I want
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: more jobs. I want more jobs in Texas. I want
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: more opportunity in Texas. I want higher wages in Texas.
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: If you want jobs, the two most effective levers to
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: produce jobs are tax reform and regulatory reform. That every
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: time you reduce taxes, you simplify the tax code, You
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: reduce and repeal job killing regulations, small businesses expand, and
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: you get more jobs. The Commerce Committee, as I said,
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: has jurisdiction over forty percent of the US economy. So
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: if you care about jobs, there are very few positions
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: in Washington that have greater leverage, greater ability to impact
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: jobs in the state of Texas than chairmen of the
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: Senate Commerce Committee. And so what will get done? So,
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: for example, one of my big priorities is going to
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: be spectrum. So right now, there's an enormous amount of
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: spectrum that the government owns and controls kifa off the market.
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: I want to move it to the private sector. Why
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: because when you move spectrum to the private sector, it
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: creates tens or even hundreds of thousands of jobs, and
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: it unleashes tens or hundreds of billions of dollars of investment.
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: That spectrum enables five G enables expanding wireless, enables new
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: technology apps.
• 16:24
  Speaker 4: That is, if you.
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: Care about jobs, opening up spectrum for the private sector,
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: and the way the government does it, it has an
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: auction for the spectrum, so you free up at an
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: area of spectrum, and then you have a public auction
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: and companies pay billions of dollars to the federal government
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: to acquire a portion of spectrum and then to market
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: something to consumers, and so it ends up being a
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: massive area of investment and expansion of jobs. That's going
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: to be a huge priority. Another huge priority for me
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: is artificial intelligence. The Democrats want to regulate the hell
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: out of artificial intellig leigence. They want to create essentially
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: a European style prior approval system where any innovation in
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: AI you got to go to the federal government first.
• 17:10
  Speaker 4: That's a terrible idea.
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: It's an idea that is almost perfectly designed to ensure
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: that America loses the battle for AI and and we
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: fall behind the rest of the world. Well, as chairman
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: of the Commerce Committee, I'm not going to let that happen.
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: I want to maintain a very light touch regulatory environment
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: where innovation is driven from the private sector. Because I
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: think AI, and we'll talk about this more. We'll we'll
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: have additional podcasts that go deeper into AI. But I
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: think AI has a potential and in fact, I think
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: it will be the same sort of transformational technology that
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: the development of the Internet was twenty five years ago.
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: And in fact, several months ago, I wrote an op
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: ed with with Phil Graham, former Senator from Texas, and
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: I did something that would surprise some people, but Phil
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: and I together we praised a Democrat president and we
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: praised Bill Clinton. So Bill Clinton was president during the
• 18:05
  Speaker 3: really formation of the Internet, and Bill Clinton signed an
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: executive order that was a very light touch regulatory footprint
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: on the Internet and the growth of it, and it
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: allowed private companies to develop and innovate and the consequence
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: of that, so it's actually striking. In nineteen ninety three,
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: the economy of the United States of America was almost
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: exactly the same size as the economy of the European Union.
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: The EU took a dramatically different approach. They took a
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: prior approval approach where they said, Okay, our government has
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: to approve whatever you're doing on the Internet. Now fast
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: forward thirty years, what are the consequences. Today, the American
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: economy is fifty percent larger than the EU, So we
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: went from essentially one hundred percent to one hundred and
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: fifty percent. The biggest driver of that is the rise
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: of technology. You look at the Internet. Virtually every major
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: big tech company in the world is headquartered in the
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: United States and is driving massive job creation. Now, big
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: tech also has abuses, and I focused on that a lot,
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: and that's going to be a big focus of the
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: Commerce Committee as well. But that job creation, that wealth creation,
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: that innovation is hugely consequential. What Biden did he entered
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: an EO an executive order on AI that basically modeled
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: what the European Union did.
• 19:36
  Speaker 4: It was a heavy.
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: Handed government prior approval mechanism that I think if that
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: stayed the law, it would seed leadership to the rest
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: of the world and we would fall behind China and
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: the rest of the world in the development of AI.
• 19:51
  Speaker 3: I think that'd be catastrophic because AI is going to
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: be every bit as transformative at technology as the Internet was.
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: And I want America to leave at battle. And so
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: that is a big, big consequence for the Commerce Committee.
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: To other areas, I'll mention they're going to be huge priorities.
• 20:09
  Speaker 4: Energy.
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: Energy is massively important. You want to reduce inflation. Energy
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: as an input to just about every aspect of inflation.
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: You want jobs. America is the energy superpower of the world.
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: We need to be energy dominant. And Donald Trump that's
• 20:25
  Speaker 3: a huge priority for him, and that's going to be
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: a huge priority for me as chairman of the Commerce Committee.
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: And I'll say one other topic, and we'll talk about
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: this also in a subsequent podcast, but sports and college athletics.
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: You and I both love college sports. Right now, the
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: current world of college sports is the wild West, name
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: image and likeness, open transfer portals. It is I think
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: endangering the future and viability of college athletics. I think
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: Congress needs to step in and legislate. When the Democrats
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: were in the majority, it just wasn't a priority for them.
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: It will be a priority. We are going to address it.
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: As chairman. I can convene hearings. I'm in charge of
• 21:09
  Speaker 3: every hearing the Commerce Committee has. I invite the witnesses
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: for the hearings. I can call up markups. I can
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: decide what bills get marked up. And what bills don't
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: and it gives you the ability to drive an agenda
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: that is just qualitatively different.
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: That's going to be a very interesting topic, especially my
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: ears per cup as a former college athlete, because there
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: does have to be a happy medium. But you're right,
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: it has become the wild West. So how do we
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: make it where you also are protecting the athletes and
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: sports the integrity of the game. And that's going to
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: be something very fun to watch as we continue this
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: next year. I also want to ask you about the
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: Senate election, because my, oh my, did that blow up
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: on social media? And before we get to that, I
• 21:55
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• 22:00
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• 22:08
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  Speaker 2: verdict promo code Verdict. So let's deal with the Senate
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: vote real quick. I got angry when I get angry,
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: I tweeted in all caps because there was a list
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: that was put out and this list was such a
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: joke because it had so many things that were wrong.
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: It had Thune voting for cornin. The list was, as
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: I said.
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: A lie.
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: I thought it was a lie to divide the Republican Party.
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: It was a lie to get Republicans to go after
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: one another. It wasn't an an accurate list. There was
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: a lot of them that were accurate, but that was
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: like captain obvious accuracy, like of course this person was
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: going to vote for this.
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: One at X, Y, and Z.
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: But the list itself, when you got down to it,
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: was a list that I think was just put out
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: there to rile up an anger Conservatives feeling like, oh,
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: they're already getting screwed after this election day, and they're
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: not listening to conservative voters. They're not listening to Magat supporters,
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: they're not listening to Trump supporters. And at the end
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: of the day, it was a lie and it was
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: done just to divide, and it made me furious.
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: Your reaction.
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: All right, So let's get into the Senate vote for
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: who was going to be the majority leader. And this
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: was a vote that really, I think took up a
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: lot of oxygen on social media and there were a
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: lot of people that had a lot of opinions about it.
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: So let's just talk about what actually happened and how
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: the debate went. And people were saying, it isn't even fair.
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: Is that a fair assessment? I don't think so. From
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: what I saw, I want you to tell to everybody
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: how this went down.
• 24:55
  Speaker 4: Sure.
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: So there were three candidates who were running for Majority leader,
• 24:58
  Speaker 3: and this is the first time we've had a maj
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: already a leader election in eighteen years. That was when
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: Mitch McConnell was elected eighteen years ago. We had a
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: contestant and a new leader elected this week. The three
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: candidates were John Thune. John Thune is the current Republican Whip,
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: so the number two official he was running. John Cornyan
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: was running, my fellow Texas Senator who was the previous
• 25:25
  Speaker 3: Republican whip. He had been the whip before Thun, and
• 25:28
  Speaker 3: the Republican Conference has term limits in place, so John
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: Cornyn spent six years as the whip and after six
• 25:34
  Speaker 3: years he had to step down his whip, so he
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: was whipped for six years and then Thune was is
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: the current whip and he's so the two of them
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: were running. And then the third candidate running was Rick Scott.
• 25:44
  Speaker 3: Rick Scott, Senator from Florida. And it was a very
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: contested election. A lot of the Trump Maga world got
• 25:54
  Speaker 3: behind Rick Scott, got very vocally behind Rick Scott.
• 25:58
  Speaker 4: I supported Rick Scott. I publicly supported Rick Scott.
• 26:02
  Speaker 3: And and I will tell you that the dynamics of
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: the election. So, so the way it works it is
• 26:09
  Speaker 3: you go into the election happens in the old Senate Chamber.
• 26:13
  Speaker 3: So the old Senate Chamber is where the Senate used
• 26:16
  Speaker 3: to meet before the current Senate Chamber was built. It's
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: a much smaller room. It's a historic room. It's where
• 26:23
  Speaker 3: many of the great lions of the Senate, like like
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: met and debated. And so so that's where we always
• 26:31
  Speaker 3: have our leader elections. And you're in there, and it's
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: it's it's senators are in there, and and what happens
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: is you have each of the three nominees. There are
• 26:41
  Speaker 3: nominating speeches. There's a senator who stands up and nominates
• 26:44
  Speaker 3: one of the three people. There's a second senator who
• 26:46
  Speaker 3: stands up and gives a seconding speech, and then the
• 26:49
  Speaker 3: person who's being nominated gives a speech. And so for
• 26:52
  Speaker 3: each of the three you had those speeches and it
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: took quite a while, I mean the speeches senators. Senators
• 26:59
  Speaker 3: are not known for their brevity, uh so they were
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: pretty long winded speeches. And then we had a few
• 27:05
  Speaker 3: questions and Senator to ask several questions. On Tuesday night
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: before the vote, we also had a forum that that
• 27:12
  Speaker 3: where we asked vigorous questions of all three of the candidates.
• 27:17
  Speaker 3: And then you vote. You vote, and it's by secret ballot.
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: They hand out these little little cards and you check
• 27:24
  Speaker 3: you checked either Thun, Cornn or Scott. So I checked Scott.
• 27:28
  Speaker 4: I voted.
• 27:29
  Speaker 3: And the way it works is that everyone votes and
• 27:34
  Speaker 3: you have to get a majority to be elected, but
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: whoever is third gets eliminated. So we had the first
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: vote and on the first vote, Rick Scott was third,
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: and so Rick Scott was eliminated. And then there was
• 27:47
  Speaker 3: a second round of balloting just between Thun and Cornyn,
• 27:51
  Speaker 3: and on the second round of balloting, Thun won, and
• 27:53
  Speaker 3: so Thune is now the majority leader.
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: Now, so what is that What is the purpose of
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: the secret ballot is that just so people can vote
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: their conscience and there's not so much you know, hoop a.
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: Is it to keep it more efficient? What's or is
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: it just tradition? What's behind that?
• 28:09
  Speaker 4: Look?
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: Some of it is because you've got to work with
• 28:11
  Speaker 3: these people. Remember the senate's a small place. There are
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: fifty three of us, and so you know, if you're
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: voting against the person who's your leader, that is a
• 28:24
  Speaker 3: small and awkward dynamic. So I would have liked the
• 28:29
  Speaker 3: ballot to be public. I would have absolutely supported making
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: it public. It's why I announced that I was voting
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: for Rick Scott, because I wanted to tell the voters.
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: But most of the Senators don't, so I don't know.
• 28:41
  Speaker 3: I know some of the centers, some of the senators
• 28:43
  Speaker 3: chose to say who they were voting for. But I'd
• 28:45
  Speaker 3: say at least half the senators I have no idea
• 28:47
  Speaker 3: how they voted. They didn't say, they haven't publicly said.
• 28:51
  Speaker 3: And there is a dynamic when you're dealing with a
• 28:54
  Speaker 3: small enough group of people that you've got to after
• 28:57
  Speaker 3: the election, you've got to turn around and work not
• 28:59
  Speaker 3: just with whoever won, but whoever lost. So I think
• 29:02
  Speaker 3: that's some of the history, it's always, to the best
• 29:05
  Speaker 3: of my knowledge, it has always been a secret ballot.
• 29:10
  Speaker 3: And because of that dynamic, and the other Senate leadership
• 29:15
  Speaker 3: votes are secret ballot as well. And look two years ago,
• 29:20
  Speaker 3: in twenty twenty two, we had the first contested leadership
• 29:24
  Speaker 3: ballot in sixteen years and two years ago, Rick Scott
• 29:30
  Speaker 3: challenged Mitch McConnell, and I was the point of the spear.
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: So the beginning of that battle two years ago, the
• 29:38
  Speaker 3: very first thing that happened as I stood up and
• 29:40
  Speaker 3: I made a motion to delay the election for a month,
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: so we were voting two years.
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: We did a great show on this.
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: It's all coming back to me now that you can
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: go back and listen to, because I think, if I'm
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: not mistaken, we didn't like it two in the morning
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: after the voting had taken place, and you'd come out
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: and told this story. I would encourage everybody if you
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: want to go back and listen to this episode. Like
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: you said, it's like two years ago, and it was.
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: It was a big fight then, and like you said,
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: you were the one leading that the tip of the
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: spear on it.
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: Yep, And it was two years ago. It is always
• 30:13
  Speaker 3: the week after the election. Now, by the way, Republican
• 30:17
  Speaker 3: leadership does that because the people who vote are the
• 30:20
  Speaker 3: senators who will be the senators for the next two years.
• 30:23
  Speaker 3: So the brand new baby senators who were just elected
• 30:25
  Speaker 3: they vote. The senators who are retiring or leading the
• 30:29
  Speaker 3: Senate they don't vote. And part of the reason they
• 30:34
  Speaker 3: do that is because they want the brand new baby
• 30:38
  Speaker 3: senators not to know what they're doing, to be just
• 30:42
  Speaker 3: in their basement office, not to know where the men's
• 30:44
  Speaker 3: room is, and they don't want newly elected senators to
• 30:47
  Speaker 3: rock the vote. It's designed. It's actually a pretty cynical thing.
• 30:51
  Speaker 3: It's designed not to not to challenge the status quo.
• 30:55
  Speaker 3: So two years ago I made a motion, Look, two
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: should have been a fantastic election for Republicans. We should
• 31:03
  Speaker 3: have won the Senate. We should have we should have
• 31:05
  Speaker 3: grown our majority in the House. It should have been
• 31:06
  Speaker 3: a fantastic election. And it was a lousy election. And
• 31:10
  Speaker 3: I stood up and said, listen, we ought to delay
• 31:12
  Speaker 3: this vote by a month, and we ought to spend
• 31:16
  Speaker 3: the month next month talking about why we got our
• 31:18
  Speaker 3: asses kicked, like what's going wrong? And I turned to
• 31:22
  Speaker 3: Mitch McConnell i said Listen, for the last two years,
• 31:25
  Speaker 3: we had a handful of Republicans team up with the
• 31:27
  Speaker 3: Democrats to pass the Democrats' priorities. Now, maybe that's a
• 31:32
  Speaker 3: good idea. Someone here can make the argument why that's
• 31:34
  Speaker 3: a good idea. I think it's dumb as hell. But
• 31:36
  Speaker 3: if you want to make the argument it's a good idea.
• 31:38
  Speaker 3: We ought to talk about it. What I could tell
• 31:39
  Speaker 3: you that is objectively true is the Democrats never do that.
• 31:43
  Speaker 3: Like when we had Trump was president, we had a
• 31:46
  Speaker 3: Republican Senate, Republican House. There was not a single bill
• 31:49
  Speaker 3: we passed that consisted of all the Republicans and a
• 31:52
  Speaker 3: handful of Democrats joining us. They opposed everything, and by
• 31:55
  Speaker 3: the way, for the next two years, I think they
• 31:57
  Speaker 3: will as well. So I said, look, we ought to debate.
• 32:00
  Speaker 3: Whatever we did didn't work. We had are debated, and
• 32:03
  Speaker 3: so I laid out. I gave a forty five minute speech.
• 32:05
  Speaker 3: I looked at Mitch McConnell and I said, tell me,
• 32:08
  Speaker 3: over the next two years, what are you willing to
• 32:11
  Speaker 3: fight over? I said, listen, you and I may disagree.
• 32:15
  Speaker 3: There are a lot of things I think we should
• 32:16
  Speaker 3: fight over. They're not for you, but is there anything.
• 32:20
  Speaker 3: Is there one thing you're willing to fight on over
• 32:22
  Speaker 3: the next two years. By the way, Mitch refused to
• 32:25
  Speaker 3: answer that question. We ended up after I made the
• 32:28
  Speaker 3: motion to delay the vote. I ended up getting sixteen
• 32:31
  Speaker 3: votes for that motion. I needed twenty five, so we
• 32:34
  Speaker 3: had forty nine Republicans, so I needed twenty five for
• 32:38
  Speaker 3: a majority, So I fell nine votes short. Those sixteen
• 32:42
  Speaker 3: votes were the first votes ever cast against Mitch McConnell,
• 32:45
  Speaker 3: and that was very consequential.
• 32:47
  Speaker 4: After that, Rick Scott.
• 32:50
  Speaker 3: Because I failed to delay the election, Rick Scott ran
• 32:55
  Speaker 3: against Mitch.
• 32:56
  Speaker 4: I voted for Rick.
• 32:57
  Speaker 3: I was quite vocal about it, and Rick got ten votes,
• 33:01
  Speaker 3: and so that's what happened.
• 33:02
  Speaker 4: I was one of those ten.
• 33:03
  Speaker 3: By the way, after the votes, Mitch McConnell exacted retribution
• 33:09
  Speaker 3: on the senators who opposed him. So, for example, the
• 33:11
  Speaker 3: Commerce Committee, both Rick Scott and Mike Lee used to
• 33:16
  Speaker 3: be on the Commerce Committee, and Mitch McConnell uses his
• 33:18
  Speaker 3: authority as the GOP leader to throw them both off
• 33:22
  Speaker 3: the Commerce Committee. Eric Schmidt from Missouri, who also voted
• 33:26
  Speaker 3: against Mitch. Eric Schmidt wanted to be on Judiciary, and
• 33:29
  Speaker 3: Mitch used his authority to orchestrate blocking him from being
• 33:32
  Speaker 3: on Judiciary. So there was there was there were real
• 33:37
  Speaker 3: punitive measures that were implemented attacking the people that dared
• 33:42
  Speaker 3: stand up to McConnell. So this time around, Rick Scott
• 33:47
  Speaker 3: did better than he did two years ago. Two years
• 33:49
  Speaker 3: ago he got ten votes. This time he got thirteen votes,
• 33:52
  Speaker 3: so we picked up three more votes. I don't know
• 33:54
  Speaker 3: who those three more votes were. I was one of
• 33:58
  Speaker 3: those thirteen, as i'd been one of the ten. But
• 34:01
  Speaker 3: Rick did not prevail, and then then ultimately Thune prevailed
• 34:06
  Speaker 3: on the second ballot.
• 34:06
  Speaker 4: So Thune will be the majority leader going forward.
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: So let's talk about Thune for just a second. What
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: do people need to know about him that maybe they
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: don't know.
• 34:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah, listen, I like John Thune. I've worked with him.
• 34:20
  Speaker 3: I've worked with Thune, I've worked with Corn and I've
• 34:22
  Speaker 3: worked with Rick Scott. I mean, the Senate is a
• 34:24
  Speaker 3: small place. It's a collegial place. If you want to
• 34:27
  Speaker 3: actually accomplish anything, you've got to deal with and work
• 34:31
  Speaker 3: cooperatively with your colleagues. John Thune is from South Dakota.
• 34:35
  Speaker 3: You know, he's a tall, good looking college athlete. He
• 34:38
  Speaker 3: was a college basketball player. You know thuone and I,
• 34:43
  Speaker 3: you know, used to He works out every morning in
• 34:48
  Speaker 3: the gym and he's he's very fit. I would work
• 34:52
  Speaker 3: out at the same time he was, and it was
• 34:54
  Speaker 3: kind of embarrassing because he would lift a lot more
• 34:56
  Speaker 3: weight than I.
• 34:57
  Speaker 4: Could lift, and he would he would be like pumping
• 34:59
  Speaker 4: iron and it's sort of humbling to watch.
• 35:01
  Speaker 3: Thune because he's just, you know, he's a he's a
• 35:04
  Speaker 3: man in his early sixties who's in really good shape.
• 35:08
  Speaker 4: Look Thune.
• 35:10
  Speaker 3: I was not surprised thun one, because he's very well
• 35:15
  Speaker 3: liked by his colleagues. Thune is affable, he's a good guy.
• 35:19
  Speaker 3: He's just he's not a jerk. He's not he's everyone
• 35:23
  Speaker 3: likes him. It's just I mentioned before, the Senate is
• 35:27
  Speaker 3: a little bit like a junior high. You know, Thune
• 35:31
  Speaker 3: would win the class president election. It's and and a
• 35:35
  Speaker 3: lot of it is the kind of small, little personal
• 35:39
  Speaker 3: dynamics that play out on that. But but as I said,
• 35:41
  Speaker 3: I was not surprised thun One. I will say a
• 35:44
  Speaker 3: lot of the Trump world was was freaking out, saying, oh,
• 35:47
  Speaker 3: thun hates Donald Trump and he's going to oppose everything
• 35:50
  Speaker 3: Trump wants.
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: To do.
• 35:51
  Speaker 3: I think those concerns were overstated. Listen, John Thune is
• 35:56
  Speaker 3: majority leader in every Senator is excite that we have
• 36:01
  Speaker 3: a Republican White House, Republican Senate, Republican House, and we
• 36:04
  Speaker 3: are really focused on delivering results and delivering on our
• 36:09
  Speaker 3: promises to the voters. And so I think Thune as
• 36:13
  Speaker 3: leader is going to focus on working very closely with
• 36:16
  Speaker 3: President Trump to confirm his cabinet appointments to move forward. Now,
• 36:22
  Speaker 3: it doesn't necessarily mean that the Senate is going to
• 36:25
  Speaker 3: be a rubber stamp for one hundred percent of everything
• 36:28
  Speaker 3: that comes from the White House. And it's not the
• 36:31
  Speaker 3: Senate's job to be a rubber stamp for everything that
• 36:33
  Speaker 3: comes from the White House. Under the Constitution, the Senate
• 36:36
  Speaker 3: is supposed to have a role, a role of on nominations,
• 36:40
  Speaker 3: advice and consent, a role of check and balance. But
• 36:43
  Speaker 3: I can tell you that the sort of folks and
• 36:46
  Speaker 3: I had multiple calls from Trump's team very worried, Okay,
• 36:51
  Speaker 3: is Thon going to fight us in everything we're doing?
• 36:53
  Speaker 4: And I was like, Okay, I no.
• 36:56
  Speaker 3: I I. So today I had an hour long meeting
• 37:03
  Speaker 3: uh with with Thun as the new majority leader, and
• 37:05
  Speaker 3: with all the committee chairs and the entire meeting was
• 37:09
  Speaker 3: talking about, Okay, how are we going to move forward
• 37:12
  Speaker 3: with with with tax reform, with extending the Trump tax cuts,
• 37:16
  Speaker 3: with with with regulatory reform, with unleashing energy, with securing
• 37:20
  Speaker 3: the border. How are we going to move the legislative
• 37:22
  Speaker 3: agenda so we can deliver big, big wins uh in
• 37:28
  Speaker 3: in in.
• 37:28
  Speaker 4: The next year.
• 37:29
  Speaker 3: And and that was that was the focus from Thune
• 37:32
  Speaker 3: and every committee chairman. So so I I think I understand. Look,
• 37:37
  Speaker 3: I voted for Rick Scott because I think Rick was
• 37:40
  Speaker 3: offering the greatest change, But at the end of the day,
• 37:44
  Speaker 3: to prevail, you've got to be able to get a
• 37:45
  Speaker 3: majority of the Republican senators, and Rick did not.
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, great point, And I love that you you explained
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: it the way that you did, because there were so
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: many people that had questions and want to know how
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: it went down and what happened. And I hope that
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: answered a lot of those questions. If you've got a daughter,
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: if you've got a granddaughter, you've got a son, a grandson.
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: Maybe they're eighteen, but they're not twenty one. Maybe they're
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: at school right now and they can't have a firearm,
• 38:11
  Speaker 2: but you want to know they can protect themselves. Maybe
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: you have a wife, or a mother in law or
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: a sister in law, and you say, I want them
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: to be able to have something to protect themselves more
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: than just pepper spray. Well, maybe they don't feel comfortable
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: carrying a firearm yet, or maybe they can't carry a
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: firearm where they work. That is where a company comes
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: in that can help you tremendously. It is called Berna.
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: Berna is not only an incredible less lethal pistol launcher,
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: but it can actually save two lives when it's used.
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: It's a great compliment to owning a firearm. Now I've
• 38:47
  Speaker 2: had to use a firearm to save my life. I
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: had to pull the trigger, and I can tell you
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: knowing that you can protect in your fend yourself is
• 38:54
  Speaker 2: so important and that's why I have bought these for
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: so many of my family members.
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: It is legal in all fifty states.
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: There are no permits or background checks needed, and like
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: I said, not only do I own these, but my
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: family has them as well. Burna is designed for easy
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: use by all age groups eighteen older. It is a
• 39:14
  Speaker 2: launcher that has powerful deterrence like tear gas and kinetic
• 39:18
  Speaker 2: rounds with a sixty foot range, putting much more distance
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: between you and a threat than tear gas or pepper
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: spray or a taser. And that's why I love the
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: Burner launcher. One shot can incapacitate attackers from up to
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: forty minutes, and it's used by government agencies as well
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: and law enforcement around the country. Over a half million
• 39:41
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  Speaker 2: why I have this, and I'm a huge advocate for them.
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• 40:15
  Speaker 2: there was some news, and I'm glad that this is
• 40:18
  Speaker 2: a successful story in the sense that we got a terrorist,
• 40:21
  Speaker 2: but it's also a very concerning story coming out of
• 40:25
  Speaker 2: Houston of a man planning a attack, an ISIS style attack,
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: and the FBI's arrested a man for direct ties to
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: ISIS and a terror plot.
• 40:36
  Speaker 3: Well, that's right, it was a very disturbing story. A
• 40:39
  Speaker 3: texasman was arrested on Thursday after he attempted to support
• 40:45
  Speaker 3: ISIS and plan a terrorist attack on American soil. And
• 40:50
  Speaker 3: all of this happened in Houston, Texas. So twenty eight
• 40:53
  Speaker 3: year old by the name of a Nas Sayid, and
• 40:56
  Speaker 3: he was searching for ways to commit violent acts on
• 40:59
  Speaker 3: behalf of the Islamic State in Houston. He's been charged
• 41:04
  Speaker 3: with attempting to provide material support to a terrorist group.
• 41:08
  Speaker 4: Uh.
• 41:08
  Speaker 3: He was arrested as an apartment complex, and he said
• 41:13
  Speaker 3: while he while while in custody, he admitted to researching
• 41:18
  Speaker 3: how to conduct an attack on local military recruiting centers.
• 41:21
  Speaker 3: He offered his home as a sanctuary for ISIS operatives.
• 41:24
  Speaker 3: He bragged that he would commit a nine to eleven
• 41:27
  Speaker 3: style attack if he had the resources. And he was
• 41:30
  Speaker 3: attempting to produce ISIS propaganda and and and that this
• 41:34
  Speaker 3: is a very dangerous world and and and I will
• 41:38
  Speaker 3: say it has gotten only more dangerous after four years
• 41:41
  Speaker 3: of weakness from Joe Biden, Kamala Harrison, the White House.
• 41:45
  Speaker 3: I am glad that that that this alleged terrorist was arrested,
• 41:49
  Speaker 3: that that a terrorist attack was stopped, and I think
• 41:52
  Speaker 3: it is critically important going forward that we be vigorous.
• 41:55
  Speaker 3: I I am deeply worried. We've talked a lot of
• 41:58
  Speaker 3: this podcast about my belief that we are at a
• 42:02
  Speaker 3: greater risk of a major terrorist attack today than we've
• 42:05
  Speaker 3: been any time since nine to eleven, and that this
• 42:10
  Speaker 3: arrest this week just underscores that risk.
• 42:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and this is the reason why it was such
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: an election your issue. And again, this is good news
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: that the person was caught, but it's also concerning to
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: see this happening after an Afghan man in Oklahoma ploted
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: an election day tarror attack in the US on behalf
• 42:26
  Speaker 2: of ice as the Justice Department saying that as well.
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: So we're seeing more of these headlines. Let's hope we
• 42:32
  Speaker 2: keep getting them before they're able to act. Don't forget
• 42:34
  Speaker 2: we do this show Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Hit that
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: subscriber auto download button so you do not miss an episode,
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: and also grab my podcast on those in between days,
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: the Ben Ferguson Podcasts. I'll keep you updated on the
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: latest breaking news there as well, and the Senator. I
• 42:50
  Speaker 2: will see you back here on Saturday for our week
• 42:53
  Speaker 2: in review.