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forward slash cactus. That's am Ac dot us forward slash cactus. Do it. You'll be glad you did. Welcome back to Verdict with Ted Cruz, where there are so many ads. When did that happen? When did we start getting I guess it's good that we're getting these ads so that we can keep this show on the air, free available to so many people. But Liz, please tell me there is some way to avoid all of the ads. Well,

there certainly is, Michael. If you just head right on over to Verdict with Ted Cruz dot com slash Plus and become a Verdict Plus subscriber, then you can watch this entire episode free, free from the terrible ads, free from these advertisements, all the way through straight through Verdict with Ted Cruise dot Com slash Plus. Well, that's wonderful. Grateful to you, the listener is grateful to Verdict Plus, and grateful to our advertisers as well, who allow us

to remain on the air. Senator, congratulations on one hundred episodes. That is crazy. Uh, you know when when we sat down January almost two years ago, and and in the basement and did it at what one two in the morning every night every night, and and and the first time we did it, we had this shag carpet. We

had we had this chair. I mean, the the the chair and the carpet are veterans of one hundred episodes, um and and listen, I've been upstage by a cactus, but but for a shag carpet to kick your ass that that is a little much, But I mean I remember that that first night there was a lot of skepticism, a skepticism from one young Michael Knowles, skepticism from our producers, skepticism from almost anyone's sentient with a discernible sense of judgment,

like how is this going to work? Is this gonna work? And then we rocketed up the charts and within weeks were the number one podcast in the world. So I admit I was skeptical at the very beginning. I you know, I have great admiration for you, Senator, I have voted for you, but I was a little skeptical that you were going to beat Joe Rogan on the podcast charts. And and yet after just a week, I guess on

the air, the show hit number one. Obviously, it's been going for two years, and that is now it's a very popular thing to do. A lot of politicians have podcasts. It had never been done in a popular way before, and so I am thrilled, and I'm sorry forever doubting that you would become one of the biggest broadcasters in America. Well, look, I will say this. One of the things I get great joy from is Verdict has more viewers than CNN's

Morning Show. Like like, in some ways that's such an incredibly low bar that that's like saying, Okay, you know, we exceed three. But but it is really an amazing sort of commentary on the shift of media and discussion. You know, it used to be that, you know, the big three, you at ABC, CBS, NBC, back when all right, Michael, I bet you don't. Do you remember television sets that had knobs that turned or was that before your time? I do, but only because I grew up kind of poor,

That's the only reason I remember it. But they were basically extinct by the time I was a kid. You know, when I was a kid, we had remote control and they called it kids, as in, you yell at the kid, go change the station, and I did. Look, I wasn't growing up in you know, Ward Beaver nineteen fifties, but uh, you know, walked up hill both school, both uphill both ways,

snowing both ways. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm thrilled that we've hit number one hundred, and I love the coincidence that we are celebrating this as we were getting ready to celebrate Christmas. Although there was a story that Liz turned me onto that. Apparently, you know, there are all these wars on Christmas, and sometimes the wars are being aged by the Liberals, and sometimes they're being waged by the Puritans, and sometimes they're people attack Christmas for a whole lot

of reasons. Apparently BLM is attacking Christmas and specifically calling for a boycott of the song White Christmas because obviously that is a white supremacist anthem. Liz, do I have that right? Um? No, you do not have that right. But don't worry. I'm here. I'm here to correct the record on it. They are calling for a boycott of a white Christmas, meaning they don't want anybody to purchase any Christmas gifts from white owned businesses or to bank

with any banks that are owned by white people. They only want it's even worse, worse, although it's so much worse, although the song is a beautiful song. No, they said that they're dreaming and this is a play on the song. They're dreaming of a black Christmas because they want black people in our country to only solely exclusively buy from black owned businesses. Because they say that, um, white supremacist capitalism is a thing is a problem in our nation.

I'm not exactly sure what the tie in there. I don't know how you can tie those three things together. But that's the beauty of black lives matters. They can invent connections to try to take down the institutions of our country everywhere. So, yes, they are attacking Christmas. So it really is amazing that that that that bing Crosby is now controversial. You know, I'm dreaming of a white Christmas. Bing did you enter the room? Where did I? I thought he was long gone. I can't. Oh, no, there

was you, Senator. Of course, the terror of it is it's a white Christmas because friggin snow is white. It's not a racial thing. It's it's when you freeze water and it condenses in the air, it turns into snowflakes. It's not blue, it's not pink, it's not purple. That's it just happens to be white. And now that that that that is you know who knew uh that that that snow had racial overtones? By the way, I just want to say right now, it's not fair that the

Grynch's green. What about green people? What do they have against green people? Fair? Enough, and it really is. Well, you are noticing this strange phenomenon now, and it's not just BLM calling for a boycott of white businesses, but you're seeing from other major retailers or aggregators black and white owned businesses being treated differently. I remember during the BLM riots, I think it was Uber Eats was treating

black owned businesses whatever that means. By the way, it's not as though businesses are only owned by a single individual a lot of the time, but they were treating them differently, giving different incentives. Is that sort of thing even legal? So it's not, and it is explicitly discriminating based on race. And the sad reality is leftists have always been racist. They've always embraced racial discrimination. You know,

Black Lives Matter is a racist organization. And one of the ironies we did one of the earlier verdicts, we did a whole pod on the history of the organization, Black Lives Matter, founded by explicit and avowed communists and supported by woke corporations. So Microsoft, I forget the stats. We went through the stats and Microsoft had given I don't know, one hundred thousand, two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Amazon had given one hundred and fifty or two hundred

fifty thousand dollars. I forget the amount. Of course, you know Microsoft, Bill Gates ain't a black guy. Jeff Bezos ain't a black guy. They're literally funding an organization calling on you to boycott their own business. So Jeff Bezos is cutting a check to an organization saying don't you order your Christmas presents on Amazon? Uh, do not do that? But look look, look like like the woke consciousness is really asinine? All right, guys, way to keep it light

and cheery for Christmas. This is the Christmas episode we're supposed to be spreading joy all over the world. In fact, that's kind of what this episode is about. Today. We have some Christmas gifts, if you will, and honor of both you know, Christmas and of the hundredth episode of Verdict, and I want to talk about those a little right now because they're really fun. So if you if you join Verdict Plus as a member now, I want to be very clear here, If you join Verdict Plus as

a member, that's completely free. You don't have to give your credit card information. That's a non paid way to join to join this insider community. It's Verdict with Ted Cruz dot com slash Plus. If you join, it's completely free, and if we reach fifteen thousand members on Verdict Plus by January twenty first, January twenty first is a very special day because that is the inaugural episode, the anniversary

of the inaugural episode of Verdict. Fifteen thousand members on Verdict Plus by January twenty first, then we will randomly select one member to come to a live taping of Verdict. This is just one of many Christmas presents here on our one hundredth episode. And by the way, because today is one hundredth episode, in January twenty first, a little bit different date is the anniversary of the inaugural episode. We will be announcing the winner of that on our

January twenty first episode. So go to Verdict with Ted Cruz dot com slash plus. Let's get to fifteen thousand members so one of you can come to a live taping a Verdict. Michael, this is the Christmas spirit, all right? Well, Liz, let me ask you a couple of clarifications. Number number one, fifteen thousand. How close are we now? Lives? Where? Where are we right now, we're about to we're about to hit the ten thousand mark. Well, I mean we can

do it. We can definitely do this, all right, so fifteen thousand, we're in in shooting range of fifteen thousand and and and the lucky winner who gets to come to a taping of Verdict Live. Are we going to tell them? All right, you got to buy your own plane ticket, you got a pony up to cash, you got a fly to where it is? Or is this an even even? It gets more? It gets better? As they say on the Romco ads, what kind of Christmas would it be if we said you're the winner, but oh,

you got to pay us for your Christmas present? No, no, this is a Christmas present in all its glory. We will bring you to a live taping at no expense to you. This, I mean, this is the real deal. This is a really fun thing. People who are part of the Verdict plus community, I mean they follow Verdict to a t These are people who are really into what we're talking about and what the goal of this podcast is. And this is just a little way of

giving bath. These people are you know, true blues. These people are fans of the show, and it's going to be really exciting to meet one of y'all in person. And Michael, I got to ask a question, So, if the winner comes and happens say to want to recite Dante and the original Italian, are you able to join them in that? Well? I hope so. You know, Fortunately, the last Verdict listener who came up and just began reciting a Dante in Italian, fortunately he knew one fewer

line than I did. But the next one, who knows. We have an colectic, intellectual group that listens to the show. And you know, I take Liz's correction in a proper spirit. It's true. I don't this is Christmas time. I don't want to focus on the rioters and the Pagans and all the negative stuff. This is a great time to celebrate a great one hundredth episode. So shall we get to some nailback questions from the viewers who may very well be flying out to see us live. Absolutely, we

have some actually some very interesting questions. Michael, I feel like there's a question that puts you and I on the spot in front of the senator here, So let's start with that one, because that sounds fun. This is from Paul Over on Verdict Plus. Of course, these questions are all from Verdict Plus subscribers. He says, for Liz and Michael, have you decided how to approach Santa with your kids? Yes? I am very pro Santa. I'm on

team Santa. I'm so pro Santa that I'm not only going to teach about the jolly old elf Saint Nicholas who comes down the chimney with toys. I'm going to teach about Saint Nicholas, the bishop who, according to legend, at the Council of Nicia punched the heretic areas in the face because he was so sick of hearing his

heresy and wanted to shake the man back to his senses. Now, the story itself may not have actually occurred, but I love the legend of Santa Claus showing up to give presents to kids and punch heretics when he just ran out of presents. Yes, that won't be confusing at all to your child. The reality and the fantasy my favorite legend. By the way, before we even get into this, the real Saint Nick. Do you know the reason why we decorate our Christmas tree with like gold ball's gold ornaments.

Because there was a man, an impoverished man in Saint Nicholas's town, who had three daughters. He was unable to pay for their dowry, so they were going to remain unmarried. But he was so impoverished that he couldn't pay for their food. He couldn't sustain them. Because they were going to be unmarried, he was going to have to sell them into sex slavery and a prostitution. St. Nicholas threw three bags of gold through his window, landed on their

shoes and stockings on the hearth. And that's where the tradition not only of shoes and stockings on the hearth, but also why we decorate our Christmas trees with gold balls. That's what I'm going to teach Lady Baby. That is the most badass story, the coolest. I mean, that's that is cooler than a fat elf coming down the chimney. Right, So we're talking about insurrectionists and rioters and pagans and now sex slavery. Senator, what was your approach with your

daughters when it comes to Santa Claus. Yeah, I gotta say, you guys are really going and keeping it light and cheery. You've got Saint Nick the brawler, like punching some heretic or something. I didn't quite follow it. And then you've got the like rescued from sex slavery by flinging bags of gold. I'm feeling very historically illiterate because I confess I know nothing about either one of those stories. Um, but but but I will, I can go a little

bit lighter. So we did Santa with our girls. They're now eleven and thirteen. I'm pretty sure they they are beyond the Santa stage at this point. But but I used to. Heidi would have me, so every Christmas Eve, after the girls went to bed, she'd send me outside, and we have these bells, and I'd like go outside their windows and ring the bells to be the bells on Santa's sleigh landing on the roof. And it was just enough that they could hear it and and and

and be excited. Um, it's never really worked. I did it every year, but it didn't quite have the effect uh that we envisioned. We also own a Santa suit. Um, I've never dressed in the Santa suit. We put my dad in the Santa suit. So that's a grandfatherly task, and just to give you a sense of where it goes, we're now post Santa Um. There was not some big reveal, there was no year where it's like aha, It just

sort of faded as they got older. But now both girls put together a power point of what they want for Christmas. If they present to us with with with rankings and why they want it, and they stand and do a presentation, Here's why it's a good idea, here's why this makes sense, and here's a link to the specific one I want, and so they like send you the Amazon link for their presence. Both girls do do the presentation now every year before Christmas. It sounds like

they're a chip off the old block. You and Heidi have taught them well, So I used to when I was when I was eight years old, Liz, So, I would type up my Christmas list on my parents IBM's electric typewriter, because I would go over to their office where they had a small business, and I would type up a Christmas list and rank things and I rank them one, two, three, and four stars just with asterix, because you know that's all you had, and you know

I would have different things I wanted I want a TV, said, I wanted a stereo. I wanted a shotgun. I had all these different things that I specified, and one of the mony year things I specified, I guess this was after eight. This is probably like eleven, where I had been working for several years and my parents' small business, and my parents had a rule that I had to save fifty percent of what I earned, that I could only spend half of it, that I had to save

half of it. And so I had been working. They were paying me a dollar an hour. And the first thing I bought was a York's stereo was one hundred and thirty seven dollars, and what I remembered is that it had all four media. I'd had a record player, it had a radio, it had a cassette, it had an eight track, and I bought it was one hundred and thirty seven hours. But it was time to two

because I could only spend half of it. And as my savings added up because I started working, I mean they hired me when I was eight, and as my savings added up, I had, you know, eight nine hundred dollars in savings, and I bought gold with it. I bought a gold Kruger aand you know the South African money. Look, one of our sponsors sells gold, So there you go. I was on point with our sponsors when I was

a ten year old, eleven year old kid. But that next year, on the Christmas list, like number nine on the list of what I wanted was some krueger aans. And my mother to this day still finds hysterical the adjective some just you know, throw some gold coins by way, Like like, what kind of eleven year old asked for some kruger z But I'm like, I bought one? Why I did not get some or any kruger Ns for Christmas?

And even more funny, it was like two stars. It wasn't nearly as cool as like a TV or whatever else I was asking for that year. You know, this is the the left's caricature of what eleven year old Ted Cruise was doing. Little eleven year old Ted Cruise investing in gold. The conservatives conservative from age. I mean, it's hardly it's hard to even know how to respond to this story. It's such a delightful mix of hilarious and nerdy. It is it does sound like your daughters

or a chip off the old block, though. I mean they're ranking their Christmas presents, arguing in front of you what could basically set them up for better present success on Christmas morning. I honestly, I honestly don't know if there is anything. However, in the spirit of Christmas, we do have more gifts for our wonderful Verdict fans this time head over to YouTube. Fifteen people picked at random who leave comments on this episode that is episode one hundred.

We'll get a free box of signed merch from the Verdict Merch Store. The only thing that I regret to inform you is that it won't contain gold coins. Other than that it will contain really cool merch signed by yours truly by Michael by Senator Cruz. Fifteen random people who leave comments on this episode, episode one hundred, We'll get a free box of signed merch from the Verdict

Merch Store shop that is, of course the urel. If you want to see what is in the merch shop, you can go to Verdict with Ted Cruise dot com slash shop. That's pretty cool, Michael that it's extremely cool. So so Liz, let let me ask. Let's let's go

under the hood. So YouTube. We have what about two hundred and ten thousand subscribers on YouTube, um, which means I also have in my office the really cool like like silver you know album thing, I don't know what you call it, but the thing they get you when you get one hundred thousand subscribers. So we've got two hundred and ten thousand. The silver play button. That's that's a big deal for the YouTuber community, the silver play button. And and and there's what's the million one? What what

is it? Gold? Gold? You get the gold? All right, so we we got to get to the gold. We're two hundred ten thousand, so we'll get there, but we're not there yet. You can put that on your Christmas list this year. There we go. Now that that's number one on on my Christmas yet, Liz. But I guess the comments like feed the algorithm. So you know, you've got a bunch of commie leftists and Silicon Valley that if they had their way, we would have zero viewers.

But when you comment, somehow they're mildly obliged, like more people see it, it spreads it. And I don't understand the pixie dust from Santa's elves cause more people to watch Verdict. So make your comments and say things that are interesting and fun, and fifteen of you, well, we'll get merch signed by us exactly, So you're both fighting back against big talk, making sure that we make the most of the algorithms that we face, and you get

merched from Verdict. What could make for a better Christmas than that? Again, our YouTube channel is Verdict with Ted Crews. Head on over there be one of the fifteen people. I mean, that's pretty that's a pretty good odd there. Um, All right, are you ready for the next question. The next question is about family tradition. So obviously, Senator, it's a tradition in your family to rank the Christmas presents to give them ratings. But real truth, Cactus M wants

to know, and she says, this is for everyone. What is your family's favorite Christmas tradition or memory? And so, Senator, let's start with you know, to be honest, my favorite thing about Christmas is just just being with family. It's like Thanksgiving Christmas from my two favorite holidays because we get our whole extended family together. When I was a kid, we would always we'd drive up to Dallas and my grandparents,

my Abuelo and Abuela. They lived up in Dallas and they lived with my Thesonia, my father's kid's sister, and my cousin Babie, who's Theisonia's daughter. She lived up there, babies five years older than I am, and we were like brother and sister and we would all get together and you got a big Cuban household, and we'd have food and there'd be lots of yelling. I've joked, if

a Cuban can't yell, can they speak? And I think the answers no, like like, there's no way if you had like eight or ten Cuban men in a room, they're all screaming in Spanish at the top of their lungs because it apparently they don't they can't modulate volume. We played dominoes every Christmas. The Domino's games are vigorous, they're in your face, they're competitive. Um. My father will always get out the Bible at at at the Christmas table and read read the story of Christ's birth, and uh,

you know that's um. I've done that on a couple of times. My dad hasn't been at our house. But to be honest, again, look, even though I turn turned fifty one in a week. You know, Dad is still dad and so so, so that's that that that that's his responsibility. We also go do a lot of movies. So um ours is a movie going household. You know. Verdict listeners know that I'm a movie buff. But I got it honestly, I got it from my parents. My parents.

Both my parents love movies. Uh. My dad actually learned English when he came from Cuban nineteen fifty seven and he came to Austin. He was a freshman at UT and he couldn't speak English. He had gotten in but he had this enormous incentive to learn English because his classes were in English, and if he didn't learn English quickly, he would flunk out of UT. And if he flunked out of UT, they would cancel a student visa. If they canceled a student visa, they'd send him back to Cuban.

If he went back to Cuba, they'd kill him. So he had this intense incentive learn English quick so you don't flunk out of school. And one of the things he used to do, so he do two things. Number one, he took Spanish one oh one and he reverse engineered it. So when the professor said milk is letche, he'd go, oh, letch's milk. And he'd just like try to do everything

backwards and see if he could look learn. But the other thing he would do is he'd go to the movies and he'd see the same movie three times in a row. And the human brain is amazing. So the first, you know, a few times he did it, he didn't understand any of it. But it starts too you start seeing people interact and the context and the queues. And so he loves movies. So I'll over Christmas break, I'll

see several movies. I like the theater. I like being you know in the sound and I get popcorn and candy and hot dogs and and uh take the kids, and and so movies, dominoes and and playing my nephew diego one on one hoops and we play vigorous, aggressive, brutal, fouling, bloody, bruising, taunting hoops much like our dominoes games. Our dominoes games are taunting. Our hoops games are taunting. It's it's a It is a family with a lot of fun and and and a lot of good natured grief. All around.

It sounds it sounds amazing. I mean I can I can almost feel the atmosphere being there. And I think I think you said it correctly. I mean, not to sound cheesy, not to sound tried it. It is about being with family and all of the little quirks and idiosyncrasies of being with the ones that you love. Michael, what what what is? What does your family do? What is your favorite memory, either either current or past. I'll give you a great memory. I mean, we have a

zillion traditions and memories around Christmas. Christmas very important, not just for the Catholics, but specifically the Italian Catholics. They make a big deal, especially by Christmas Eve. So there was one year give you a sense of how politically incorrect my family is. There was one year I really wanted for Christmas a sitar, you know, like the big Indian instrument George Harry I don't know. I heard George Harrison played it or something, So I really wanted to sittar.

We found it at some hippie shop in way down in southern New Jersey. My mother knew I really wanted it. We didn't have a ton of money, but my grandmother agreed to buy it if my mother would drive down four and a half hours, pick it up, drive back four and a half hours, bring it to her. I had no clue that this was happening at all, and it's in my grandmother's house. We go there, huge meal,

lots of people, all screaming Italians. As is often the case in an Italian household, younger people drink a little bit of wine at Christmas. So there's thirteen, fourteen year old Michael. I'm having, you know, a glass or two of wine. I'm just feeling great, and my grandmother emerges. My little Sicilian grandmother emerges where a full Indian sorry that she had picked up on a trip in the seventies. She's got a dot in the middle of her head. She would be canceled if there were photos of this

incident and presents me with this citar. We would all be canceled if there were any evidence of this. But it did really bring together so many aspects, the wild family, everyone being together, even the gifts, that there was so much thought put into this gift. And of course I got a real kick out of the abject political correctness. That's something something about those conservative Italian families. So do you still have the star and can you play it

on the podcast? I absolutely have the citar. I actually just ordered strings for it, Senator and it. Maybe that's going to be the two hundredth episode spectacular, is it? We'll just start playing some Rabbi Shan cartoon. We can have belly dancing. Who knows? Who knows? People have to subscribe to get us that far. I was going to ask the exact same question. It's hard to even know what to do with the two of you. These are

so they're so nerdy, so dorky. But maybe I found my people because one of my favorite Christmas memories is when I was about eleven or twelve, I asked for a unicycle for Christmas. My parents got me a unicycle. I taught myself how to ride it. I then taught my sisters how to ride it, and we would ride in parades, ride or unicycles and parades, calling ourselves the three one wheelers, because who can resist? Who can resist a bad pun such as that? Yes, yes, I see

your face, Michael, I can see that. Listen. It was it was a great time. It was a great time my childhood. Um so Liz, did you have the did you have the short short unicycles or the tall ones? Are both? Um, the short ones so it's probably about four feet three or four feet, so you're pretty much off the ground. But it wasn't the giraffe unicycles I did.

I did, to be fair, I did ask for one of those, but that was a bridge too far even for my mom to, you know, put me up twenty feet on one wheel, so just the regular I could ride backwards though. That was kind of that was kind of my trick that I liked to do. The last time I went to my parents, I did think about trying it again, but being that was a little bit postpartum, I thought maybe I shouldn't get up on the top of that and try a trick. But I'd learned twenty

years ago. Yeah, I'm feeling really lame. Before I was feeling like historically ignorant. Now I'm feeling untalented as well, because we're going to have a subsequient episode where Michael's playing the star, You're riding a uni cycle, and I'm sitting here threatening to sue people like I. Senator, Well, you were wasting all of that time at Harvard Law

School learning constitutional law. You could have been doing something productive like learning an ancient Indian guitar, were riding the unicycle. I mean, these are the regrets that people have in their lives. Indeed, misspent youth. This question, by the way, was asked by Real Truth Cactus, and I want to give credit work credit to our next giveaway, our next Christmas gift was this was Real Truth Cactus's idea, so we can thank her for this. And this is really funny.

So if we get to fifty thousand reviews on Apple podcasts by our anniversary date that inaugural the date of the inaugural episode January twenty first, fifty thousand review on Apple Podcasts, we will let the fans pick what we do next year. Now these are the options. Are you ready for these options? Real Trius Cactus just hit the nail on the head with this one Senator. The Senator wears a Braves jersey for an entire episode. That's option number one. Option number two is the Senator and Michael

arm wrestle. Option three is the Cactus makes a guest appearance on the show right here on the pod. Or four Michael roasts Princeton and the Senator roasts Yale in a throwdown episode. If we get to fifty thousand reviews on Apple Podcast by January twenty first, people, I beg of you. I mean, as you can see, this would be a very enjoyable episode for me and for you, if not for Michael and the Senator. Let's do this, please,

let's do this well. I will say, on the fourth one of roasting Yale versus Princeton, I kind of feel like taking candy from a baby, that that's not really fair. It is a horribly skewed playing field. Senator. I would I would have to resist that. I would have to fight you on that question, except that a few years ago there was a case of a Yale student screaming at the top of her lungs that Yale is not an intellectual place, it is a place of comfort and home,

and the university sided with her. So it's gonna I hope it's not number four. I'm gonna be It's gonna be an uphill battle. So Michael, when you say fight, did you mean arm wrestle, Well that might be an uphill battle too. I'm you know, I don't know. We'll see how that shakes out. You've you've got youth, but uh but but but you know, I may have a few pounds on you, Michael, so so so we'll see

how that, how that shakes out. I will say on the first suggestion of the Braves jersey, oddly enough, bizarrely enough, I have worn a Braves jersey precisely once in my life. So fifty almost fifty one years of life, I've worn a Braves jersey once. And the day on which I or the Braves jersey was today. So in the World Series, I had a wager with John oss Off, newly elected senator from George on the World Series. I actually went and proposed it to John when the World Series started, said, look,

let's have a wager. The loser has to buy food for the staff of the other and where the jersey of of of the winning team. And I pointed out that I had done the same thing with with Kamala Harris and she she had to show up at an Astro's jersey, which was awesome. And then I did the same thing with Tim Kaine when when the Nationals beat beat the Astros and I had to painfully don a National's jersey It's very funny. Ass Off was fine with

the food, but he was really nervous. He's like, well, if I were an Astro's jersey, that that that could like cost me several points at the polls, right, And I'm like, well, that's a plus two. But I was like, come on, man, I you know, Kamala did it. You know, so I will say I did it today. Um, But but I did it under protest. That's you know, yeah, you might have been following the letter of the law, Senator, but that seems to violate the spirit of the law

if you're wearing the astro's hat. So I didn't actually wear the astros had. I just wore the jersey. But I brought in Chritz's barbecue. I flew in barbecue from Texas all the way up here and fed all of the ass Off staffers and wore the jersey. So so if that that wins the thing, I might might have to wear this hat too. But but I did wear a jersey today to pay up on my wager. A man of his word, And this kind of coincidence you can't design, because I did not even come into this

episode knowing that fact. Um, and nor did real truth Cactus to my knowledge. By the way, just to remind everyone how the mc panics of this work, go over to Apple Podcasts, leave a five star review, write a comment telling us, of course how glorious the show is, get us up to fifty thousand views, and then once this happens, go over to Verdict plus. That's Verdict with Ted Cruz dot com slash plus and vote in the poll to see exactly what you would like to see happen.

Would you like to see the Senator in a braves jersey? Would you like to see an arm wrestling match between Michael and the Senator? Would you like the Cactus to make a guest appearance on the show. Or would you like a mutual roast Michael roasting Princeton and the Senator roasting Yale? Those are the options. This seems like a pretty good, a pretty good Christmas episode, Michael. So let me let me jump in on two things. Number one. Okay, So the goal is to get to fifty thousand reviews

on Apple Podcasts. And it's the same thing because it's part of their magical algorithm or algae rhythm, as they said in the Terrible Rebake of Space jam. But so we got to get to fifty thousand by January twenty First, where are we now? Are we close? We can do it. Let's say that it's it's doable. We can do it if we if we commit, We're at about thirty five thousand over the course of the last almost two years. But listen, with this kind of incentive, we can get

this done. I for one, really really want to see an arm wrestling match. So I highly encourage everyone who's watching and listening to this episode please go rate, give us a five star rating on Apple Podcasts. Please write a comment. Please then choose, And this is my bias. I know that I'm I'm creating bias in this poll. Please choose the arm wrestling match. Oh and by the way, Liz, I will say on Verdict Plus, if you're disagreeable and contrary and you don't like any of the four choices,

provide a fifth. We're spontaneous, we're flexible. If you've got an idea that you think is a better one than that, throw it out there. And if a bunch of folks on Verdict plus like it, and if it does not entail Michael and the nude, then then then we'll consider it, and thank you, sir, I appreciate that I was actually going to suggest it. I don't you know, listen, I'm a free spirit, I'm hip, I'm cool. But yes, please

everyone submit your suggestions. It's funny it occurs to me that we began the show today with me complaining about how we have too many ads, and now we've had a bunch of ads, but they're not ads for anything other really than offering a bunch of free stuff. As a note of gratitude to all of you. Seriously, we're so so grateful to all of the listeners who've been with us for hundred episodes. We really really appreciate it. We wish everyone a very merry Christmas from me, from Liz,

from Senator Cruz, most importantly from the Cactus. So really, thank thank you all. We will see you next time. I'm Michael Knowles. This is Verdict with Ted Cruz. So I tried to get them great and powerful Jay Hay to drop Cactus on the Vesta board for this little, this little bit that we're doing, but he could not produce. So let me just tell you we have a twenty percent off sale on the Verdict merch store. Right now, you can get one of those sweet sweet cactus hats.

I would put one on for you to model it, but I'm a little vain of my hair today. I think I'm having a pretty good hair day, so I didn't want to mess it up. But go over to Verdict with Ted Cruise dot com slash shop and if you use the promo code Santa, then you will get twenty percent off the entire shop between now and Christmas. Twenty percent off. That's a really good deal. We have T shirts, we have cactus merch, we have hats, we

have all kinds of cool stuff over there. Between now and Christmas, you get the great deal twenty percent off. If you use the promo code Santa. Then, I don't know. In the meantime, maybe the Great Powerful j he will figure out how to put a T shirt or a cactus on the Vesta board. But while he's figuring that out, I invite you join us Verdict with Ted Cruise dot com slash shop to buy really cool merch. You get twenty percent off if you use the promo code Santa

at checkout. That's actually pretty good. This episode of Verdict with Ted Cruz is being brought to you by Jobs, Freedom and Security Pack, a political action committee dedicated to supporting conservative causes, organizations, and candidates across the country. In twenty twenty two, Jobs Freedom and Security Pack plans to donate to conservative candidates running for Congress and help the Republican Party across the nation. If you liked this video,

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