0:00

One hundred days into his administration, President

0:02

Biden has finally addressed

0:04

a joint session of Congress sword

0:07

of with a State of the Union address.

0:09

Sword of the room was largely

0:12

empty. There were lots of masks, people

0:14

going in and out. We will cover

0:16

all of that. Senator Cruz rather was

0:18

there in the room, Senator

0:21

any reports. Senator

0:30

Welcome back to Verdict with Ted Cruz. I'm

0:33

Michael Knowles. I have often

0:35

been called boring but radical,

0:38

and Senator I guess you've been getting a lot of that

0:40

these days. You had the

0:43

finest moment of the night. I'm sort

0:45

of damning with faint praise because that

0:47

State of the Union address was unbearable to

0:49

watch, and I could I really

0:51

empathized with you in the room because

0:54

the TV cameras caught you front and

0:56

center dozing off during

0:58

the speech. Well, look, the whole thing was sixty

1:00

three minutes. I'm amazed

1:02

that I didn't sleep more during the speech.

1:05

I mean, I mean it was so.

1:08

It was actually on this podcast about

1:10

a month two months ago, that we

1:13

actually coined the three word summary

1:15

for the Biden administration of boring but radical.

1:17

It was on Verdict, and

1:20

that prediction had proven right, and in

1:22

fact, going into the State of the Union, I did a

1:24

bunch of preview interviews

1:26

where reporters say, okay, well, what's

1:28

tonight going to be? And I said, it's going to be boring

1:30

but radical. I

1:33

didn't realize just how true that was,

1:35

so like in both directions, in

1:37

both the boring side and the radicals. The

1:40

radical didn't surprise me. It was

1:42

I was trying to stay awake

1:45

and it you know, actually

1:47

one of the reasons why it was so boring. So

1:50

there's a weird aspect of State of the

1:52

Unions. And actually you and I talked about this

1:55

last Date of the Union, which

1:57

is there's kind of a game Republicans

2:00

Democrats play. If it's your party, you're

2:03

pop it up like pop goes the weasel on every

2:05

sentence, like yeay, yeay, yeay.

2:08

And what's interesting is

2:10

if you're in the out of power party,

2:13

So if you're a Democrat when Trump's

2:15

president, if you're a Republican, what Obama Biden's

2:17

president. A State

2:19

of the Union is often kind of a complicated

2:22

thing because you're listening to each sentence and try

2:24

to evaluate do I clap, do

2:26

I not clap? Do I stand do I

2:28

not stand? And you know, look, the

2:31

Supreme Court justice is the generals. They kind

2:33

of clap and stand for nothing other than the

2:35

beginning of the speech, and occasionally America

2:37

is good, and then

2:39

there's sort of statements in between. This

2:43

was bizarre. It is the only this is the now the ninth

2:46

State of the Union, or that kind of speech that I've

2:48

been to. There was

2:50

virtually nothing for any Republican

2:52

to clap at. I mean, it

2:54

was strange. There were whole swaths

2:57

of I don't know, seem like ten fifteen minutes

3:00

where we're just sitting there and every

3:02

word out of Biden's mouth is

3:04

directed only to Democrats, and it's

3:07

only Democrats clapping, and he

3:09

wasn't even throwing like a tiny fig leaf

3:12

trying to trying to bring anyone together,

3:14

trying And that's part of why I

3:16

nodded off and and and you

3:18

know, helped the Internet go crazy last night.

3:21

So in terms of the

3:24

big takeaways for people who like

3:26

you, were nodding off, not not in

3:28

the Capitol but in their own homes, what

3:32

are we supposed to make of this? Because

3:35

I almost wish that Biden

3:37

were more overtly

3:40

radical, that he were more exciting because he would

3:42

be calling more people's attention to what

3:44

he's trying to do. So what is he trying to

3:46

do? What is going to get done? And do

3:49

Republicans have any hope? Well, Michael,

3:51

your point is really important that

3:53

that the boring is by design.

3:56

It's a mask, it's a facade. It's designed

3:58

to hide just how

4:01

extreme the policies are that

4:03

are being implemented by the way. Interestingly

4:05

enough, I also saw screenshots of at different

4:07

points Kamala Harris and Nancy Pelosi

4:10

both nodding off, and

4:12

I guess Met Romney was also filmed

4:16

nodding off. And so I I saw Met

4:18

on the floor today and I said, mett Man, you and

4:20

I apparently need to get more sleep, and

4:24

and he laughed and said, I wasn't sleeping. I

4:26

was looking at my phone. It's like, oh, yeah,

4:29

me, I was sleeping. Yeah,

4:32

I was genuinely like I

4:34

was nodding off. And you know, but

4:38

look, if you look at what this administration

4:40

has done, the hard

4:43

partisan nature of it is remarkable. They

4:46

start with a so called COVID relief bill,

4:49

get zero Republican votes in the House,

4:52

zero Republicans in the Senate. That's

4:54

actually hard to do. I mean, last year we did

4:56

five COVID relief bills that

4:58

were overwhelmingly bipartisan. I

5:00

mean, they made the decision they didn't want any Republicans.

5:03

They wanted a hard partisan bill. Infrastructure,

5:06

they're they're two point six trillion dollar infrastructure

5:08

bill as written will get zero

5:11

Republicans. And again,

5:13

which is hard to do because there are a lot of Republicans that

5:15

care about infrastructure. But

5:17

Biden's bill, five percent of the bill is Rosen

5:19

Bridges. I mean, it really is absurd.

5:23

And you know, everything

5:26

on Earth they're going to tax. Every tax

5:28

is going up. I mean, that's there. We're looking at

5:30

trillions and trillions and trillions in

5:32

new taxes. The brazenness

5:35

of it. You know, you think about the speech

5:37

last night, not a word about

5:39

the crisis of the border that his policies

5:42

have created. By the way, in the

5:43

midst of the speech, I don't I don't know how much

5:46

of this made it on TV. But Lauren Boebert,

5:48

who's, you know, a new freshman House

5:50

member and someone I like and helped get elected

5:52

and support and she's a fireball. But

5:55

but midway through the speech, she pulled

5:57

out of her bag a a reflective

6:00

emergency blanket. Uh

6:03

like, like the children are wrapped in

6:05

in in the cages on the border,

6:07

and she wrapped herself up in the reflective

6:10

emergency blanket. I gotta tell you, Kevin

6:12

McCarthy is sitting in front of her and turns

6:15

and just glares with

6:17

dagger eyes. I

6:20

was doubled over laughing. But

6:22

but it was an interesting sort of quiet

6:24

protest of the

6:27

hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants

6:29

that that Biden is ignoring and

6:32

the crisis that he's created, that that he's

6:34

ignoring, you know, not a word

6:36

about the massive debt, not a word

6:39

about you know, not a word

6:41

of graciousness to President

6:44

Trump and Operation Warped Speed. I mean,

6:46

he just crowed about the vaccines without

6:49

acknowledging that he laughed at Trump

6:52

when when he said that we would have a vaccine by

6:54

the end of the year. And that's of course exactly

6:56

what they did. So I thought the

6:59

substance and so of it. If you actually hired

7:01

an actor to give

7:04

the identical speech but

7:07

in an angry partisan tone, yeah,

7:10

people would have been shocked. I

7:12

mean, it really is. It's almost

7:14

a theatrical thing of having these you

7:17

know, soporific tones, which

7:19

which as you know, being being

7:21

a yalily. Soporific is an underused term,

7:24

but but it literally means putting people

7:26

to sleep, and last night

7:28

that was a literal use of the word.

7:31

Yeah. You know, this has

7:33

been Biden's great advantage,

7:35

certainly in the last several years, which

7:38

is, if you just read the text of the speech last

7:40

night, that would have, I think put a lot of Republicans

7:43

on their guard. If Kamala Harris,

7:45

for instance, gave that speech, I think it would

7:47

have put a lot a lot of people in defensive

7:49

But because it's it's Biden, it lulls

7:52

everyone into this false sense of security.

7:55

There was, however, one moment

7:57

I noticed of quasi almost

8:00

bipartisanship, and it was the moment

8:02

when Joe Biden began

8:05

to take ownership of a major

8:07

Trump policy, or at least a presumptive

8:10

Trump policy, which was getting

8:12

out of Afghanistan. And was

8:15

very curious was in that room the

8:17

Democrats applauded, the Republicans weren't applauding.

8:20

With a couple of exceptions, Yeah,

8:22

when President Biden said We're going to

8:24

pull out of Afghanistan. There were that

8:27

I saw only two Republicans who applauded.

8:29

I applauded, and Mike Lely applauded,

8:32

and the rest of our side of

8:34

the aisle sat there, stone faced, just

8:37

looking at him. And I think that's

8:39

unfortunate, because I think this is an

8:41

area where President Trump was right and he was

8:43

leaning in to end

8:45

the endless wars that we've been

8:47

in Afghanistan. It's been twenty years,

8:50

and it's time to bring our sons

8:52

and daughters home. That doesn't mean we stop killing

8:55

terrorists and defending our nation, but we don't

8:57

need to be on the front lines

8:59

of a battle front for generations.

9:03

And you're now literally having having

9:05

soldiers serving on

9:08

a front that their parents served on,

9:10

and and that that that's a pretty strong

9:12

sign that we've been there too long. Yeah,

9:15

this issue is

9:17

one that I think shows the way that

9:19

the GOP, you know, is kind of transforming

9:22

from the way that it once was and the

9:25

way that Biden is transforming. Let's not forget

9:27

the decision to restart the war in Afghanistan

9:29

to really surged the troops there. That was an Obama

9:32

Biden decision back when when President

9:34

Obama came into office. But but other than that one

9:36

brief moment, it did seem extraordinarily

9:39

divisive. And then there was the visual

9:41

fact that you had the masks

9:43

in the room, you had Joe Biden, who

9:46

was very much pushing

9:48

this idea of public health crisis and we're

9:50

not allowed to go back to normal, and

9:53

everything about it just felt so eerie.

9:57

When when are we going to be able to get

9:59

back to normal? How are we going to be able

10:01

to push this unified government to get us back

10:03

to Look, I thought there was an enormous

10:05

amount of political theater now and listen State

10:07

of the Union. There's always political theater.

10:10

But when it comes to COVID and masks,

10:14

every person in that room has been vaccinated,

10:17

and we're also spread out, so

10:19

we were far away from each other. I actually think it's

10:21

idiotic that anyone was wearing a mask. And

10:24

there was a little moment at the beginning of the speech.

10:26

I don't know if you saw when Biden goes

10:28

up there, he walks up at his mask, because of course he

10:31

does, and then he turns

10:33

and looks to Nancy Pelosi and ask

10:35

permission before he removes his mask.

10:38

It may have been the most beta

10:40

moment for a US president in history,

10:44

and it was just pitiful. And look,

10:46

I gotta tell you, I was conflicted

10:48

on what to do. So for I think three

10:50

weeks now, I have not been

10:53

wearing a mask on the Senate floor. And

10:56

you've made a big point about this. There have been reporters

10:58

who have said, please put a mask, and you've said,

11:00

you're more than welcome to walk away from me. But I've been

11:02

inoculated. Hey, you know, and listen, I'm

11:04

not a zealot on mask issues. I wore

11:07

a mask for a year on the Senate floor. This

11:09

is a dangerous disease. I thought, take reasonable

11:12

precautions makes sense. But

11:14

in the Senate it's every

11:17

person or virtually every person has

11:21

been vaccinated, and

11:25

it doesn't make it. I believe in vaccines, and

11:27

so it's interesting. I just so Rand

11:30

Paul has not worn a mask throughout. He was kind

11:32

of the loan in the

11:34

heat of the pandemic. Now he got the disease. So

11:36

he said, look, I got the disease. I

11:38

have have antibodies, which is reasonable.

11:40

But Rand was the only one of a hundred that wasn't

11:42

wearing a mask for months and months and months, and

11:45

then after everyone got vaccinated,

11:48

and you know, Michael, you'll remember I actually delayed

11:50

getting vaccinated, so they offered

11:52

us the vaccines I think early January,

11:56

and I didn't think it was right for

11:59

members of cong to cutting line. I mean, I'm

12:01

relatively young, relatively healthy.

12:04

I get that. A whipper snapper like you doesn't

12:06

think I'm that young. But but you know, you

12:09

know, compared to my colleagues in the Senate, I'm

12:11

still in short shorts and wearing a beanie. It's

12:14

true. And you remember when the polio vaccine

12:16

came out, so you're you know, you're well acquainted with

12:18

all these vaccines, and

12:20

so you know, I said, all right, I'm gonna

12:22

wait and let seniors get the vaccine. I'm

12:24

gonna let first responders get the vaccine.

12:27

It's not right for me to cutting line. And

12:29

I did that until about March. And at

12:31

March there had been tens of millions of vaccines.

12:34

The people who were at highest risk had

12:36

had the opportunity to get the vaccine. And then

12:38

I said, okay, I'll get it. So I've gotten it now.

12:41

And so a couple of weeks ago, I just stopped

12:43

wearing the mask, So what's funny?

12:45

Two three days I stopped

12:47

wearing the mask walk on the Senate floor, and nobody

12:49

notices, Like I was doing it for two

12:51

three days, and it was just a nothing

12:53

burger. And then finally

12:56

one reporter for CNN like

12:58

sticks a camera in my face and it's like, wait, wait,

13:00

you're not wearing a mask. Where are you not wearing a mask? And I

13:02

said, because we're all vaccinated, And

13:05

actually this reporter says, well, I'm not vaccinated.

13:07

I'm like, well, that's your choice, Like

13:11

and the elevation, the

13:13

elevator closed, and I remember thinking like,

13:16

Okay, if you're choosing not to get a vaccine,

13:19

you can do that, But what right do

13:21

you have to insist that the rest of us must wear

13:23

masks because you've chosen not to

13:25

get a vaccine. You don't have a right like it

13:28

is available to you. And

13:31

and so I have not been wearing it for two

13:33

three weeks. I did wear my mask

13:36

last night, and I sort of struggled

13:38

with the question. But Pelosi

13:40

is running this, you know, military

13:45

installation. Do you know that

13:47

she is finding house members,

13:50

finding them if they don't wear a mask

13:52

on the floor, and she is

13:54

insisting that House members go through metal

13:56

detectors, and as

13:59

idiotic as it is, is because she's afraid

14:01

some Republican is going to be packing heat.

14:04

It's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. And thankfully

14:06

the Senate is not that idiotic.

14:08

And they actually they took down metal detectors or whatever,

14:10

because like when I walked in, we didn't go through metal detectors,

14:13

but I went ahead and wore

14:15

the mask on the house floor because that's sort of

14:17

what they're doing there. But

14:19

but but I felt pretty sheepish for doing

14:21

so because it was all theatrics.

14:24

There is something deferential

14:27

and conservative about saying, well, I'm in this

14:29

chamber now it's being run by this crazy lady,

14:31

so I guess I'll follow the rules. But

14:34

that's exactly what I was doing. Yeah,

14:37

and it is really nice to see

14:40

that you've taken this very sensible

14:42

approach, I think from the beginning. And I

14:44

don't think that people on either side can

14:47

call you reckless about the masks or

14:49

particularly zealousy. They can, but

14:52

well they certainly will regardless.

14:54

The only question is now there

14:57

are so many layers to this question, and

14:59

I think and a lot of conservatives are very

15:01

confused. What do we do here? It's

15:03

not just I recognize

15:05

the pun of many layers to the masks, but

15:08

you do You have some people who say we need to wear three

15:10

masks. There's some people who say just where

15:12

one mask is fine. Some people are saying you don't need

15:14

to wear a mask. Some people are saying everyone

15:16

needs to get vaccinated. Some people are saying you need a vaccine

15:19

passport. Some people are saying, ban it at the

15:21

government level, ban it at the private level. What

15:24

is the conservative, sensible

15:26

American way to approach this issue?

15:29

So, I think a vaccine passport is a terrible

15:31

idea, and I have been vocal and outspoken

15:34

saying the government shouldn't require it. It It would

15:36

be horrific if the government did it.

15:38

And I don't think private businesses should. So I don't think

15:40

airlines should. I don't think I

15:43

don't think private businesses should. I'm

15:45

someone who believes in vaccines. I think vaccines

15:48

are a good thing. I've gotten

15:50

the COVID vaccine, Heide's gotten the vaccine,

15:52

My parents have both gotten at Heide's parents have

15:54

gotten it, and I'm

15:56

encouraging people to get it. I'd like to see as many people

15:59

as possible get it. But I also

16:01

believe in individual liberty, and if you don't want to get

16:03

it, that's your choice. And there

16:05

are some people who've got health issues for

16:07

whom it may not make sense to get

16:09

it, and so I think each person should evaluate whether

16:12

it makes sense in your circumstances.

16:16

But you know, I think the CDC

16:19

is actually doing real damage with

16:21

the arbitrariness of their

16:24

their rules. So for example, even

16:26

after people get vaccinated, they're still idiotically

16:29

saying, oh, well, we're wear masks here and there

16:31

and everywhere, and it's like, well,

16:33

wait a second. If we want

16:35

people to get vaccinated, one of the best ways

16:37

to do so is make clear once you get

16:39

vaccinating and take the damn mask off. I mean, I

16:41

mean that. I think CDC's

16:44

dragging their feet on that is

16:48

very possibly disincentivizing

16:50

millions of people from getting vaccines.

16:52

And you know, this week they put out the

16:55

guidance of Okay, now you don't need

16:57

to wear a mask when you're outside if you've been vaccinated.

16:59

It's like, well, okay, only

17:01

morons we're doing that, Like like that, thank

17:04

you, and like do I need a mask when I'm

17:06

taking a shower, like like you haven't clarified that

17:08

point. Although

17:11

did you see Michael, a

17:14

track coach in Massachusetts,

17:17

was fired because he wouldn't make

17:20

his kids wear masks while

17:22

running cross country track outside.

17:24

He didn't want his students to collapse

17:27

in the woods and fall fall down on a rock.

17:30

It. You know, there's so much of

17:32

this mass stuff that is just petty

17:34

totalitarianism. It is we can

17:36

control you, and we want to control you,

17:38

and that's what we're doing. Well, the rules

17:41

keep changing, but it's not really about the rules themselves.

17:43

I find it's about, as you say here,

17:45

the imposition of the rule. Who gets

17:48

to impose their will on others? I

17:50

want to go back to something you said though, that I

17:52

think is extraordinarily important. On

17:55

the question of the vaccine passport. A

17:58

number of governors have been divided on this

18:00

because a lot of it's taking place at the state level. Some

18:03

are saying we will not have any mandates

18:06

from the government on the vaccine passport.

18:08

Others are saying, we will

18:10

not permit private businesses

18:12

to force you to show your medical

18:15

history when you come into the bar, or

18:17

when you try to go on an airline or something

18:19

to that effect well, and you're seeing employers

18:21

that are firing employees for

18:23

not getting the vaccines, which I think is terrible.

18:26

I think that that is deeply,

18:29

deeply troubling and shouldn't

18:31

be allowed. This ties in with something

18:33

that you published yesterday in the Wall Street Journal,

18:36

and you did not tell me

18:38

that this was coming out. It's not like I got advanced notice.

18:40

I just saw the alert in the journal, and

18:42

I basically stood up and cheered

18:45

when I saw this op ed because it's something

18:47

that conservatives just don't get except

18:50

for very few who are pretty rock ribbed.

18:52

You said that the era

18:55

of conservatives shilling for

18:57

private companies corporations

19:00

that hate our values and are opposing

19:02

our country and are opposing even voter integrity

19:04

measures. Ye, that time is over.

19:07

And you said that you will not accept corporate

19:09

pack money in your campaigns. So

19:12

that's right. I mean, look, we've we've all been

19:14

watching the rise of the woke

19:16

corporations and these

19:19

big businesses, these Fortune five hundred

19:21

companies where the CEOs

19:24

have essentially decided they're going to be

19:26

the political enforcers for

19:28

the radical left. They're going to be the muscle

19:31

for the Democratic Party and we've

19:33

seen, whether it's Coca Cola or Delta Airlines

19:36

demogoguing on the Georgia

19:39

voter integrity law, or companies

19:41

demagoguing on the Texas voter integrity

19:43

law. And obviously Major

19:46

League Baseball yanking the All Star Game out

19:48

of Atlanta and moving to lilywhite

19:50

Denver instead, which which which just

19:54

totally beclowns at Atlanta's fifty

19:56

one percent black, Denver is nine percent

19:59

black. So they

20:01

are so racially woke that

20:03

they're going to take one hundred million dollars out of the pockets

20:06

of a bunch of African American small business

20:08

owners and move it to a

20:10

bunch of wealthy white

20:12

people in Denver, like it's weird. Also

20:15

worth pointing out that Georgia they

20:17

left because of the voter integrity law.

20:20

Colorado has relatively strict voter

20:22

laws. It's it's not a clear cut issue over which

20:25

has the more lenient voter laws. So the

20:27

dynamic that's playing out in the

20:30

Fortune five hundred big business is

20:32

not conservative. They are not our

20:34

friends. Many of

20:36

them are just risk averse and scared, and

20:39

the liberal mob comes after them and

20:42

they mobilize their employees. They mobilize

20:44

their shareholders, they mobilize the press, and

20:47

these CEOs are more than

20:49

willing to just cave in and

20:51

give the mob whatever they want. And it's

20:54

really dangerous. And so

20:56

what I announced this week is is that I

20:58

am no longer going to accept any

21:00

corporate pack checks, that corporate

21:03

packs, I won't take their money.

21:05

And to give a sense of the magnitude of

21:07

that, so I've been in the Senate nine years.

21:09

Over those nine years, I've gotten about

21:11

two point six million dollars in campaign

21:14

contributions from corporate packs. Now

21:16

I've raised well over one hundred million dollars

21:19

during that time, and so that's not it's

21:21

not the lion's share of the money

21:23

that I've raised, but it is you know, two

21:25

point seven million dollars ain't nothing. And

21:28

I just decided enough is enough. If you guys

21:30

are going to be actively

21:34

fighting the American people, tearing

21:37

down America, tearing down freedom,

21:39

I don't want you're stinking money. And I've

21:42

called on other other Republicans to do

21:44

the same, and I think it's

21:46

a powerful thing. And listen,

21:48

you and I have talked about before. Corporate

21:51

welfare has always been garbage and Republicans

21:54

have been too willing to engage

21:56

in that where big companies come

21:58

and say, give us a subsidy of US corporate welfare,

22:01

give us a band date. And I've been

22:03

fighting against that from day one. A

22:06

lot of other Republicans get sucked

22:08

in. So the Export Import Bank, which

22:10

which serves as essentially

22:13

a giant subsidy for Boeing, a

22:15

massive corporate welfare scam. I've

22:18

fought against the XM Bank for the entire

22:20

time I've been in the Senate, but a whole lot of

22:22

Republicans are eager to carry Boeing's

22:24

water on that. Major League

22:26

Baseball, major League Baseball has a unique

22:30

exemption from the antitrust laws

22:32

that no other sports

22:35

league has, and so in

22:37

response to moving the All Star

22:39

Game, I joined with Mike Lee. We

22:41

introduced legislation to revoke Major

22:43

League Baseball's exemption from the antitrust laws.

22:46

And I think these two should be tied

22:48

together, which is no corporate

22:50

welfare and no more money from

22:53

big companies. And I think that if

22:55

other Republicans follow suit, that will be

22:57

a real improvement. I

23:00

hear this all the time from conservatives

23:02

writing in I'm not talking about elected people.

23:04

I'm not talking about Beltway staffers

23:06

or anything, but just conservatives around the

23:08

country. They say these Republicans

23:11

are such shills. Even

23:13

the ones who will call out the woke corporations,

23:16

they're totally in their pockets. They'll

23:18

still accept a lot of money. I think

23:20

it is such a great move. It said

23:22

in such a strong message, and it

23:25

shows what we all know to be true that there

23:27

is nothing conservative about letting

23:29

these giant, woke corporations totally

23:32

undermine the American way of life, and

23:34

that you're not going to accept their money

23:36

to do it. Well, big business

23:38

gets in bed with big government. Big business

23:41

likes big government. Big business uses

23:43

government regulations to crush

23:46

their enemies, to crush their competition.

23:49

I think we should be the party of the little guy. I

23:51

think we should be the party of the entrepreneurs,

23:53

of the disruptors. The

23:55

giant companies don't

23:57

need our help, and frankly,

24:00

the policies they pushed for are almost

24:02

uniformly terrible. You

24:05

know, I was encouraged, so I

24:07

put this op ed out Thursday

24:09

morning, and within

24:12

a few hours one of my colleagues,

24:14

Josh Holley, had already put out

24:16

on Twitter that he was gonna follow follow

24:18

my lead and likewise turned down corporate

24:21

packs. I think that's going to increase

24:23

the pressure on a lot of other Republicans to go

24:25

down the same road. And if that

24:28

happens, that's a good thing. I love

24:30

that. You know. There was a line in Joe

24:32

Biden's speech which was it

24:35

was totally regurgitated left

24:37

wing talking points where he said, you know, the

24:40

ninety nine percent and the one percent, and

24:42

we've got to make the rich pay their fair share,

24:44

even though they already pay virtually all of the taxes.

24:46

And it was this classic class warfare

24:49

sort of stuff. But then I remembered

24:52

the rich and especially corporations

24:55

voted for Biden, donated

24:57

to Biden. That is this

24:59

I idea that the Democrats are the party

25:01

of the working man, and the Republicans

25:04

are these plutocrats with their fancy cigars.

25:06

I mean, I might have the fancy cigars, but the idea

25:08

that we're all rich uncle pennybags, it's just not

25:11

what's going on in the parties. And

25:13

I can say this, I've spoken multiple cigars

25:15

with you. I've never once seen you use one hundred

25:17

dollar bill to light it. And I think you're too chio

25:19

not to do that, which is good. I would

25:21

advise against that fiscal

25:24

conservative. It'll look you look at the

25:26

Fortune one hundred. There

25:28

are only a handful

25:31

of CEOs and the Fortune one hundred who

25:33

could be remotely characterized as right

25:35

of center. They're almost all Democrats.

25:38

And that is the ethos

25:41

a big business. Because big

25:43

business does great under the Democrats. They're

25:45

quite happy with this massive

25:48

expansion of spending

25:50

and regulations and even taxes.

25:54

The giant companies think if you tax

25:56

everyone, you'll drive the little guys out of business,

25:58

and the big guys will be just fine. And that's

26:04

that's bad, right of

26:06

course. Barry Goldwater put it

26:08

very well in Conscience of a Conservative. He said, conservatives

26:11

need to make war on all monopolies.

26:14

We need to make war on all unlimited

26:16

power, all of this unchecked power. And

26:19

anyway, I don't mean to lay it on too thick here,

26:21

but I was just so pleased to see

26:23

that up ed. I hope that all the other Republicans

26:26

feel the pressure. It's absolutely the

26:28

right direction for the party. And

26:31

you know, we've got a lot of questions in

26:33

from our wonderful listeners, all

26:35

of whom are they're so great they subscribe,

26:38

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the different platforms, So we really really appreciate

26:45

that. And we are not going to get to a

26:47

single one of those mail bag questions right now

26:50

because I want to spend most,

26:52

if not all, of our next episode

26:54

on Verdict getting to our

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listeners in the mail bag. So please be sure

26:58

to send those questions in and while

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you're at it, maybe you subscribe, maybe

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you'll leave a five star off you, maybe you sent it around

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to your friends, and we will get into all of

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those questions asap. Senator,

27:09

I'm Michael Knowles. This is Verdict with Ted

27:12

Cruz. This

27:21

episode of Verdict with Ted Cruz is

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