Welcome.
It is verdict of Center, Ted Cruz Ben Ferguson with you.
The big announcement drop.
Senator Joe Biden announced with a massive live event, huge audience at a sold out auditorium that he was running for president of the United States of America today for re election. It was a big crowd. Let's just just kidding now, none of that happened. It was a video that probably took about one hundred hours to edit. You watched the video Center, Your initial reaction to this lackluster announcement.
Well, they had three minutes for him to read from a teleprompter. I'm sure it took one hundred takes to get him to read those three minutes. And his three minutes were let's keep getting the job done. And I got to say, that is a weird message. I mean, you look at the last two years, the disaster of what is unfolded under Joe Biden. Take the economy. We have the worst inflation of our lifetime. So you have to go back to when you were sparkle in your daddy's eyes and I was a little kid to find
a time when the inflation was this bad. You have crime rates exploding, across the country, murder rates, carjacking rates all over the country. You have the worst illegal immigration in the history of our nation. You have a relentless assault on our constitutional rights, on religious liberties, on the Second Amendment, on the rights to life. And then as bad as the domestic policy is, as bad as the foreign policy is, you have a national security policy that
is an utter disaster. Every single region of the world is worse. We are facing the first major land war in Europe since World War Two, facing China stronger, North Korea stronger, I Ran stronger, Cuba stronger, Nicaragua stronger, every enemy of America stronger. And what does Joe Biden say, give me four more years, Let's do more of this? Like holy cow, how could you possibly want more of this? This is if Madison Avenue put together an ad campaign
that had zero to do with substance. It could not have been more apropos for this announcement video than what we saw today.
I rarely laugh at late night anymore, and you and I have talked about that before on this show. But last night someone sent me the clip of Jimmy Fallon and he said this idea that you know, let's get the job done like this slogan. He's like, you've had over fifty years man, and the audience died, laughing. A liberal audience sitting in the you know, with Jimmy Fallon, He's like, how much more time do you need to get the job done? You've been in office for fifty
plus years. And real polling is backing up that joke in the sentiment of that CBS News poll has a new pull out, and the question was things in the US are out of control. Seventy two percent of responding said that things in the US are out of control. Reasons that you think things are out of control seventy one percent said Joe Biden, seventy five percent US culture and values, eighty five percent the economy, and eighty eight percent.
State of US politics.
The fact that seventy one percent say the top answer among those who are thinking the reasons out of control seventy one percent state's Joe Biden. The other thing that I think is going to be very interesting to see how this plays out is saying Biden is among the
reason things are out of control. Thirty three percent of Democrats are responding said they believe the reason why things are out of control is because the guy they voted for, Joe Biden, is the president of the United States of America. You've run for election. You look at internal poll numbers. If you're Joe Biden right now or his team, and you see thirty three percent of your own party saying this, how concerned you have to be.
They should be very concerned. Listen.
Joe Biden was first elected to the Senate in November of nineteen seventy two. In November nineteen seventy two, I was one year and eleven months old. I was not even two. I was I assume, still wearing diapers.
Then you weren't.
Alive then I was not eighty one baby.
I don't remember November of nineteen seventy two, but Joe Biden charged in to Washington. You know, it's interesting trivia question. You know how old Joe Biden was when he's elected a Senate.
How old was he?
So the constitutional minimum to be a senator is thirty years old. Take a guess how old Joe Biden was.
I'm going to guess right A thirty, then twenty nine. There you go.
He was elected at twenty nine and he turned thirty before he was sworn in. So he was a young guy. But he was a young guy when I was in diapers and you weren't alive. And he has been there since forever, like nineteen seventy two, he was there before disco like, and he's been doing this forever. And he's like, let's finish the job. Seriously, can you screw America any more?
Please?
Do not finish the job of screwing America. And I'm gonna ask a question, And I say this slightly tongue in cheek, but not much. If you're objective, If you sat down and said I've got a plan, I want to spend two years, I want to destroy this nation, then what would you have done differently than Biden and the Democrats have done.
If you're going to destroy the country, you do exactly what his administration has done, and they've done it to perfection.
Look, it's actually a bizarre question because what we've seen, the assault on jobs, the regulatory assault, the assault on US oil and gas production, the assault on our national security, opening up our borders and creating the worst illegal immigration in history, the assault on law enforcement. Where do you
think this crazy crime came from? Democrats? Saying defund the police, Democrats supporting George Soros, DA's releasing violent criminals from jail, The assault on our fundamental constitutional rights, the assault on America as an institution, the assault on the Constitution, the assault on the Bill of Rights, the assault on look every enemy of America. Israel is a strong ally of America. Biden spent to years undermining Israel relentlessly. The United Kingdom
is a strong ally of America. Biden spent two years undermining the UK. China is an enemy of America. Biden spent two years giving weakness and appeasement to China. Russia is an enemy of America. Biden spent two years giving weakness and appeasement to Russia, including waving sanctions on Nordstream two. I say this in all seriousness. If your objective was to destroy the nation, I don't know what else you would do.
Yeah, it's a great point.
And the White House, by the way, they seemed lost as well about how they even got to the point where Joe Biden officially decided to run for reelection. I want to play that for you. Before we get that, though, I want to talk to you about your cell phone. If you're sick and tired of giving your money to woke companies that are fighting against your values, and you're ready to start embracing companies that actually stand by your ideals.
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White House Press.
Secretary on the day that Biden announces he is gonna run for reelection. This is her response to like, how did he get to this decision?
She didn't have an answer.
Again, going to be very careful here at twenty twenty four election, I actually don't have anything to share like behind the scenes on his decision making. I think the President spoke to this himself when he was asked before today about his intention to run and his plans to run, And so I will refer you back to what he has said more explicitly when he had those interviews. So I don't again don't want to say much more than.
That, say much more than that. Center.
It's almost like he didn't even know that he was running for reelection. They just threw they're a video together and said save these lines. And as the White House staff didn't even know about it either.
Look The reason that I think Biden is running for reelect.
I've actually thought for a year Biden would not run for reelect.
Because he is so obviously diminished. He's too old to run. The overwhelming majority of Americans know that he's too old to run his We talked about it in the last pod. Just even in the last two years, his mental faculties have declined massively. The reason that I think Biden announced that he's running this week is I think something has happened in the last sixty days, which is that I think Democrats believe Donald Trump is going to be the nominee,
and that's changed. I think sixty days ago Democrats did not believe Trump was going to be the nominee. But the last two months have been very good for Trump politically. They have been not that great for Ron De Santis politically. The Santus's numbers have gone down. Trump's numbers have gone up, and I think where Democrats are if they thought they were facing a new nominee, anyone, frankly who is not
Donald Trump. I think Democrats with jettison Joe Biden, they'd say, Okay, this guy, we need someone who actually can count to ten and not get lost at about number six. But I think what Democrats have said they believe Trump's going to be the nominee and they hate Trump. They live in a world where everyone they knows hates Trump, and so their view, I think is okay, if Trump is the nominee, We're not gonna run on Joe Biden's record. We're not gonna talk about Joe Biden's record. We're not
gonna talk about anything for the last four years. All we're going to talk about is our guy is not Trump. That's their whole campaign, and by the way, they did that in twenty twenty, they'll do it even more. I think they're playing right now is Joe Biden will not leave the White House for the entirety of the campaign. They'll hide him in the basement.
COVID this time Senator to hide him with. I mean that was they don't have time.
That they don't care.
This last cycle twenty twenty two, they didn't have COVID, and yet Katie Hobbs, the governor of Arizona, never did a debate. Josh Shapiro, the governor of Pennsylvania, never did a debate. They hid from the process. I believe if the electoral race is Joe Biden versus Donald Trump, Biden will leave the White House three times in the next two years. They'll hide him in the basement. They'll put out a periodic video like this little video where they have lots of time he can read a teleprompter and
when he gets life right, yeah, proof of life. Yes, that's exactly that. And then he'll do one or two debates where they'll pump him full of enough drugs that he will seem marginally competent. He'll give a speech at the Democrat convention, and that'll be it.
Behind the scenes, by the way, so people know, well, I'm going to pull back the curtain. Usually is the Senator and I we will go over the show beforehand, and I'll play him the audio clips that I'm thinking about playing, so we're all set to go for you guys. Every once in a while, I hold one back because I don't want you to be able to pre plan for this too much. This is a real clip Senator from the White House Press briefing today on a question
does the President plan to serve all eight years? Listen to the White House Press Secretary's response to that question.
President plan to serve.
All eight years.
I'm just not going to get ahead of the president. That's something for him to decide. I'm just not going to get ahead of it. And there's a twenty twenty four campaign, anything related to that, I would refer you to that.
All right, I'm going to get your raw reaction to that one.
Like Coley cow has there ever been a president? Imagine Donald Trump's press jerry being asked that. Imagine George W.
Bush's press secretary being asked that. Imagine Barack Obama's press secretary being asked that imagine George W. Bush's press secretary being imagined asked that it says something that even Karine John Pierre, who has now reached the Hall of Fame for lying from the West White House press briefing room, She's like, oh, I can't answer that because she can't say with a straight face, this is a guy who can't find his shoes. She can't say that five six
years from now, he'll still be president. This is all about they hate Trump. The entire Democrat strategy. There is no policy strategy. Look, they can't run on ideas. The economy, They've screwed it all up. Safety and security. They've screwed it all up, the courts, They've screwed it all up, foreign policy, national security, They've screwed it all up. Their entire campaign is our guy is not Donald Trump. By the way, their new epithet Maga Republicans, which is a bizarre.
I'm sure they focus group that like crazy. It all comes down to weird Democrats, we hate Trump.
That is their entire message.
I think the key to winning the key to winning the presidential the key to winning the Senate this time around. The key to winning a bigger majority in the House is to focus on ideas and issues people care about. Focus on how you make people's lives better, and it's not about screaming Maga Republicans want to destroy the Republic.
Yeah.
The White House was also asked, and I want to know your reaction. Do you think the media is going to be tougher on a candidate Biden. This was a question at the White House Press briving today about the present's horrendous economic record, the rising prices, foods, basic services, the list goes on and on, and some of the White House is completely out of touch. Response to that basic question as well, so Americans.
Are seeing when we talk about the economy, he did generally, the Americans are seeing energy prices up twenty four percent, including electricity since President by the took office. Food prices are up eighteen percent in the last two years. Manufacturing lost jobs for the last two months in a row, and inflation is outpacing wages for twenty six months in a row. How does the President then sell to the American people to keep going with these economic policies.
So look, again, going to be careful about twenty twenty four anything that's related. No, No, I'm going to answer your question. You okay, I'm going to answer your question. Just want to be because you said moving forward, So just want to be very careful here. Look, the President always is very clear when he talks about the economy. He always says one of the things that he says very frequently is that when it comes to inflation, when comes to a lowering cost, that is a priority for him, and
he has shown to do that. And if you talked about inflation, annual inflation has fallen over the last five months. It is moderating. That is something that we seen from the data that has come out. Wages are higher than they were nine months ago. Incomes are up and consumer spending is strong.
But he under I mean you can hear her just rambling on their senator he had a horrendous record on the economy, and she's like, no, no, he understands.
He's doing a really good job.
And understand clearly, if God forbid, Biden is reelected, everything will get worse. Mark my words, if Biden's re elected, let me be clear, I don't think he will be I think he will be defeated. I think the American people are fed up with the path we're on. But if he is re elected, we will see ten dollars
a gallon gasoline. Remember this point. I hope that in a couple of years you and I are not on verdict saying let's replay the clip from this day, because if we hit ten dollars a gallon gasoline, understand, that's what the Green New Deal zelots in this administration want. We are facing the most fundamental assault. Listen, I get up every morning and I literally jump out of my bed. And when I come home, when I land in Texas, when I'm in the airport, when I'm in a shopping mall,
when I'm in a restaurant. People come up to me and they're like, holy cow, what's going on? And my sort of standard line I laugh. I say, look, we're in a crazy time. As they say in the military world, it is a target rich environment. But as I joke about that, the reality is I've never seen it this
crazy and my entire lifetime. The reason I jump out of bed in the morning is I feel like I am going to the Roman colisseum and I'm fighting fighting the barbarians, like these lunatics, these Marxists, radicals and the Democrat Party. They hate America. They believe the Constitution is immoral. They may believe the Bill of Rights is im moral. They want to tear it down. That's a fight worth fighting. We're not fighting bent over little stuff. We're not fighting
over little details. We're not fighting over whether the top marginal tax rate is one percent higher one percent lower. We're fighting over whether America remains a free enterprise country or a socialist country. We're fighting over whether we have a border or or our nation is invaded. We're fighting over whether the Bill of Rights remains the fundamental liberties of Americas or those rights are given up. That is a fight worth fighting.
You mentioned illegal immigration, and I think that's going to be a very center point of this election, especially with Trump being the front runner. He's obviously going to go back to border security and building the wall. The White House pre Secretary also got herself in trouble today when she was asked about the White House's failure at the border.
Take a listen.
So the SET Department and the Department of Homeland Security will have more to share soon, as you know. The Department of Homeland Security shared their plan back in January, and we have seen from the data, we have seen that the unlawful immigration is down, and so what they have put forth forth in their protocol and their processes is working. But they will have more to share in the upcoming days or weeks.
Just center, that's a lie. You've said this one hundred times on this show. You've said it on five News Channel heard lie. Yeah, six point three man, illegal immigrants acrossed the border since Biden took office, and the White House presentcretery, and I'm going to give you the quote exactly quote. Unlawful immigration is down. She said that the White House podium today, lying to the American people.
Every month, we are setting records for the highest rate of illegal immigration in history, month after month after month, over six million people across illegally. Kareem John Pierre from the White House and look, the White House is hallowed ground. There's an obligation to the American people to tell the truth. She stands there and lies on Joe Biden's behalf. She claims,
as she said before, people aren't just walking across the border. Yes, they are every day right now, whatever time of day you're listening to this podcast, they're walking across the border because they're doing it every minute of every hour of all twenty four hours a day, every single day. And she knows that, and she is lying. It is horrific. Our country is being assaulted. And listen, I don't get angry about this stuff often, but I am pissed off.
And courly, Senator, you're not the only one.
Seventy percent of Americans don't want Joe Biden to run, yet here we are. He is the nominee for the Democratic Party. I want to move on to another important issue, and that is an issue that there's a letter that is going out from you, Senator and Representative Jim Jordan's about the failure of the San Francisco Fed to watch what was happening with Silicon Valley Bank. Before we get into that, I want to tell you about my friends
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years as well. That's Augusta Precious Metals dot Com center. Let's talk about Silicon Valley Bank, and let's do a quick recap of what happened with Silicon Valley Bank for everybody so they understand why you are sitting this letter the San Francisco FED regarding this big tech liberal bank failure.
Well, Silicon Valley Bank had enormous assets primarily from venture capital firms in Silicon Valley, big tech firms that support Democrats that are exceedingly liberal. Silicon Valley Bank did not pay attention to fiscal stability, did not pay attention to actually having sound balance sheets. Indeed, here's an amazing thing. Silicon Valley Bank for eight months did not have a.
Chief risk officer.
They literally didn't fill that position, so their balance sheet was filled with government bonds.
That had an enormous.
Maturity risk because the FED had jacked up interest rates so much that the bonds were worth much less than Silicon Valley Bank had paid for them. But nobody at Silicon Valley Bank was actually looking at the books and trying to protect their financial stability because instead, you know what they did have. They did have a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion officer. They did focus on ESG in environmental
and social goals. They were focused on left wing virtue signaling, but not on actually watching the deposits, the deposits of their depositors. Now, it's one thing to have some Silicon Valley bankers who lose sight, but who are the regulators who's in charge of watching the fox and the henhouse. Well, in the case of Silicon Valley Bank, it was the San Francisco Office.
Of the Federal Reserve.
They were the bank regulators that had supervisor authority, and the San Francisco Office of the Federal Reserve didn't do a damn thing, sat there while Silicon Valley Bank had this enormous exposure, this enormous risk. By the way, the San Francisco Office of the Federal Reserve was engaged in the same nonsense, the same esg, the same DEI, the same politically correct virtue signaling instead of doing their damn job. So I'm the ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee.
I sent an oversight letter announcing an investigation into the San Francisco Fed's oversight a Silicon Valley Bank. The San Francisco Fed essentially said, go jump in a lake. We're not going to answer your questions. So I just recently teamed up with Jim Jordan. Jim is in the House of Representatives. He is the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and so the two of us together are demanding of Silicon Valley Bank answer our questions. Did you know about
this exposure? If so, why didn't you act? If you didn't know, why the hell weren't you doing your job? Why were you asleep at the switch? I can tell you Ben. On top of that, I've also joined This is going to surprise you. I've joined in bipartisan legislation with Elizabeth Warren to make the regional offices of the Federal Reserve subject to FOYA subject to the federal laws that makes them under the oversight of Congress and the American people.
Right now they're exempt from Foyle.
And I got to say, it's an amazing thing that Elizabeth Warren and I are on the same page saying, these fed banks that are laughing at Congress, that are laughing at the American people, that are saying, we are unaccountable even though a multi billion dollar cluster just unfolded on our watch.
We need to hold them to account.
Yeah, it's important legislation. Now, the question is who's going to block it and why. There are a lot of Democrats that wanted to protect Silicon Valley Bank because they were also a lot of the people that had their money.
There were big donors of Democratic Party apps.
Is that going to be part of the politics that plays out in this unquestionably?
And look, the dynamic we're in right now is Silicon Valley Bank. The Biden administration ran to step in and do a multi billion dollar bailout. Why because the depositors were overwhelmingly politically well connected left wing Democrats. They were supporters of Joe Biden, they were supporting of the Democrats and the Senate and the Democrats.
In the House.
And so immediately the White House said, all right, we got your back. You're fully covered. And by the way, when they covered that, they covered it from funds that are paid by everyone else's banks. So if you're not a politically well connected venture capitalist in Silicon Valley, if you're a main street if you run a dry cleaner, if you have a restaurant, if you have a car dealership, if you have a small business in main street America,
you're paying for the Democrat bailout of Democrat donors. And the press, of course doesn't want to cover that, but it is completely indefensible how they've decided. All right, if
you're a well connected Democrat, we got your back. And by the way, one of the really negative consequences of this is we're seeing a flight of capital of individuals, of small businesses that have invested in have their deposits in community banks, smaller and mid sized banks, and a very significant number of those depositors are taking their money out and moving it to one of the gigantic banks because the lesson they've taken from Joe Biden's response to
this is if you're a giant bank that's too big to fail, all the deposits will be guaranteed. But if you're a mid sized or smaller bank, you're out of lock. And one of the great strengths of our economy is the thousands upon thousands of community banks we have. You look at other countries where they have three, four, five giant banks that bank everyone America is blessed. We've got thousands, tens of thousands of banks at the community level, and Joe Biden is happy to bankrupt all of them and
to benefit his buddies on Wall Street. The handful of giant banks.
Quickly for re for context point here, Senator, People that don't realize how the FDIC is supposed to work and ensuring your depositors, your deposits.
It's only up to a certain amount of money.
And what happened with Silicon Valley Bank is it turned from a certain amount of money to unlimited money. And that's the reason why you mentioned A lot of people are saying, all right, well, if I'm in a community bank or a smaller bank or a regional bank that doesn't have the political connections to these types of bailouts, I'm at much higher risk with my deposits than if I go to a woke bank or a massive bank like many are switching over because you're not supposed to
have unlimited funds secured in these banks. That's the whole point of having an up to amount.
Correct, right, No, that's exactly right. When the FDIC was established, initially the threshold was one hundred thousand, that your deposits up to a hundred thousands are guaranteed by the FDIC, guaranteed by the government. That was in recent years upped from a one hundred thousd to two hundred and fifty thousand.
Now two hundred and fifty thousand dollars is a lot of money.
Most of us don't have that much money and cash and a bank, But the FDIIC guarantees to everyone, whatever bank you're at, if you have two hundred and fifty
thousand dollars or less, your your deposits are guaranteed. What happened at Silicon Valley Bank is you had depositors, both individuals and companies that had millions of dollars, that had tens of millions of dollars, that had hundreds of millions of dollars, and the federal government stepped in and said, never mind the two hundred and fifty thousand dollars limit, We're going to guarantee all of it, even though the depositors didn't pay attention when their bank went eight months
without a risk officer, when their bank was not watching the stability of their balance sheets. And listen if instead of Silicon Valley Bank, this were Texas Oil and Gas Bank, this were a bank that that that that that provided capital and liquidity to oil and gas drillers. The ode that the Biden administration would guarantee those deposits are zero points zero percent. This was political favoritism. This was if you were political allies and donors to Democrats, we got
your back, and if not, you're screwed. And by the way, if you're neither, if you're just an ordinary individual or small business, you know what, the fees that your bank pays into the FDIIC are going to go up to pay for the bailout of these Democrat donors.
Yeah, it's almost like the response that you mentioned the banks that if it was a bank in Texas that was dealing with orang gas, they'd be treated like the people were in Pennsylvania when you had that train derailment.
It was all it was Trump country. It's conservative.
We don't have to worry about them, and that's why so many people, like you said, are switching banks right now.
That's also not good for the system.
I want to go to something else as well that I think people need to know about and get on the radar screen, and that is the Biden Administration's on religious liberty is continuing, and I want you to get people the update about that. Before I get to that, though, I want to tell you about our good friends over Chalk. Now is the time to fight back against the war on losing your masculinity, and now you can do it
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thirty five percent off center. Let's talk about the Biden's war on religious liberty. It is unfortunately been a theme of their administration virtually the entire time, and now you are demanding answers after Walter Reed Medical Center. I had the privilege of going there back when I was working with the Bush administration to watch President Bush go and see our men and women in uniform that have been fighting our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
It is an incredible facility.
And you're now demanding answers because Walter Reed Medical Center has ended a contract with a Catholic group.
Fill its in on that well.
Walter Reed Medical Center is one of the premier military hospitals in America and in the world, and we have a great many of our veterans who are injured, who are ill, who are treated at Walter Reed.
Now, one of the ass.
Of our military hospitals is that they have pastoral care. They have pastoral care because, look, people who are facing horrific injuries, people who are facing life threatening illnesses. They are naturally thinking about end of life. They're thinking about the fate of their soul, and that has been an important part of caring for our veterans, caring for our active duty military from the beginning of the United States.
Well, Walter Reed right.
Now today does not have any Catholic pastoral care. So look, Ben, you and I are not Catholics, but there are millions of Catholics in America. There are great many Catholics in our military. Walter Reed had a contract with the Holy Name College, Friary, with a Catholic pastoral care organization that provided if you were a Catholic, you were a service member, your activity, you were a veteran, you're at Walter Reed, and you needed to pray with the priest, you were
facing death, you wanted your last rites. They would have a priest who would show up and provide Catholic pastoral care. And what did the Biden administration do it It declined to renew its contracts. So right now there is no Catholic pastoral care at Walter Reed. That is outrageous. And by the way, Joe Biden says he's a Catholic. Like
explain to me. Why the hell a president who says he's a Catholic would preside over an administration that allows Walter Reed, a premier military hospital to have zero Catholic pastoral care. It is wrong. And listen, do I think Biden knows about this?
No?
I don't think Biden knows what day it is. I don't think he knows what's going on. So I don't think this is his personal decision. But I think the zealous he's put in his administration hate people of faith. What it is the Democrat Party, when faced with a conflict, they have elevated the radical transgender ideology above all other groups.
And so, because people of faith often have concerns about embracing either the radical transgender ideology or the radical abortion on demand ideology, the Democrat Party has decided faith is no longer acceptable.
You know, you think back to John F. Kennedy. John F.
Kennedy, a Democrat president, would have been chased out of the Democrat Party today because he was an observant Catholic. He believed in his faith, he defended principles of his faith. That is no longer allowable. And so I've sent a letter in my oversight capacity in the Senate to Walter Reid, saying, why do you no longer have Catholic pastoral care? Our servicemen and women deserve that. If they are Catholic, they
deserve to have a priest. If they're facing the end of life, they deserve to have last rites from a Catholic priest. And if the Biden administration valued religious liberty and religious faith, they would fix this, and they'd fix this yesterday.
As much money as we spend.
You look at the national debt right now, and I go back to this, if they claim this is about money, right look at the national debt clock right now. We were at thirty one trillion, seven hundred and six billion, seven hundred and two million. That's ninety four thousand dollars per debt per citizen or two hundred and forty seven thousand per taxpayer. Don't tell me we can't afford this.
And my point is apparently this administration can afford anything and everything and run the debt up to the point that I just mentioned.
What is their excuse? Have you gotten one yet?
So I have not yet gotten an answer from Walter Reed, but I'll bet dollars to donuts it's not about money. They don't care about money. This is an administration that spent seven trillion dollars last year. They've blown the budget out. No amount of money matters to them. This is about faith doesn't matter to them. And the problem is they fill this administration not just the cabinet level, but at
the sub cabinet level with zealots who despise faith. And so if you ask a radical left wing zealot who hates faith, who hates Catholics, should we renew our contract with the Catholic Pastoral Care Group, their answer is, of course no, And it's not money. They don't care about money at all. If you ask them, do you support creating a giant pile of money, pouring gasoline on it
and lighting it on fire, they'd probably say yes. This is about not valuing faith, not valuing people of faith, and having a deep seated animosity of faith, and that is really inconsistent with who we are as an American people.
Last thing doesn't deal with politics, Senator, I'm learning this about you. This is my first season doing this podcast with you during the NBA playoffs, which means you're a night I'll staying up late who do you like so far? And you better at least mention my my hometown Memphis Grizzlies.
Yeah, I'm gonna confess honestly. So I love hoops.
You play several times a week. People may not know that.
Yeah, I play twice a week. I play typically. I play Sunday evenings in Houston with some good friends of mine, and then I play usually Tuesday afternoons. You and I are recording this late Tuesday evening. I will be playing at seven thirty in the morning. On Wednesday, from seven thirty to nine thirty.
I'll play.
I typically play twice a week, once a week in Houston, once a week in DC.
And listen.
And that's your workout, that's your exercise. This is that your passion.
Yeah, I mean I go to the gym and I left also, but I much prefer I like sports. I get bored. I hate running. Running bores me. I feel like a gerbil on a treadmill. I like competition. You and I play tennis. We played tennis a number of times. Unfortunately Ben is a thousand times better than I am because he was actually like a college tennis player at Old Miss. But I enjoy it. I'm a very mediocre tennis player. I am a slightly less mediocre basketball player.
I was an Okay, I was. I was a mediocre high school varsity basketball player, and I would say at fifty two, i've maintained those skills about the same. But I got to tell you, the truth of the matter is I am a diehard Houston Rockets fan. The Rockets are out of it, and so I'm vaguely watching the playoffs, but I don't really give a damn if the Rockets
aren't in it. It's like I'll watch the finals when they happen, but I'm not watching the You know you sent me a text the other day saying, holy craft, did you see Jimmy Butler's numbers? And I saw Sports Center for a minute and I watched.
A little bit of it.
But if the Rockets aren't in it, I find it. I'm hard pressed to watch the playoffs.
Look will adopt you, no problem. Grizzlies will adopt you for the playoffs. We're down right now to the Lakers, and I know you can't be a big Lakers fan. So tomorrow night, if you're bored, you should be rooting for my hometown Grizzlies.
There you go.
I like it, Senator, always a pleasure. Don't forget we do the show Monday, Wednesday and Fridays. Make sure you get that subscriber auto download button so that you get every single episode, and we will see you back here in a couple of days