The impeachment is over. Now the real political risk begins. This is Verdict with Ted Cruz. Welcome back to Verdict with Ted Cruz. I'm Michael Knowles. Impeachment is over. Finally. Now you can get a good night's sleep. Now we can get a good night's sleep. But actually we were talking about this a little bit last episode. Impeachment was always going to end the way it was going to end. It was never going to end in the removal of
the president. In some ways, I wonder if impeachment was kind of the safe period for conservatives and politics, and actually now the real threat begins. We are told every single election cycle this is the most important election of our lifetimes. Now everything is about twenty twenty. I want to know, from your vantage on the inside in the Senate, what is really at stake in twenty twenty. Look, I think it is an unbelievably consequential election and on a
lot of fronts. But let's step back, take just the meta level first reward and punishment. Look back over the last year, over the last three years, do you like the behavior of the Democrats? No? Do you like the nuttiness? Do you like the gallop to the left. Do you like the abuse of the Department of Justice and the FBI and targeting the president and attacking the president and impeaching it for partisan purposes? Do you like the squad
and NAOC attacking Israel, embracing socialism and going nuts? If you do well, depending on what happens in November, we'll either get a lot more of it or a lot less of it. What I mean, obviously they've they've run far to the left. What could happen though, I mean, just beyond more crazy AOC tweets and speeches. If the Democrats are rewarded November, if they have a good election, Yeah, everything we've seen now gets amplified, and he gets amplified tenfold.
Politicians are not complicated creatures. They react to incentives. If something works, they do it again, they do more. Works again, they do more of it. They do more of it. And by the way, if it doesn't work, they stop doing it. If they get punished. Look, it's a little bit like when your dog takes a crap on the on the sofa. If you whack him with the newspaper, he'll stop doing that. Politicians need to be whacked with newspapers more Um, I think that's I think that's an
issue that everybody could get behind. I'm all for it, um, Except the problem is the newspapers work for the Democrats, so they're not going to whack them. And we could take a total digression and go Joe Peshy good fellows and whacking politicians. But that's a really bad idea. We're going to get banned from Twitter. It's actually something I want to ask you about too, But okay, I interrupt. Let me get an example. Why do you think it was that Barack Obama was never impeached because John Bayner
refused to do it. Yeah, but why, I don't know why. Because the Bill Clinton impeachment didn't go well. Huh. So Bill Clinton's president, Republicans impeach him. They got all energized, they bring the impeachment and what happens. Bill Clinton's approval rating goes up and Republicans approval rating goes down. Bill Clinton loves it because the American people say, look, this guy's actually focusing on what we care about, and who are these crazy Republicans that are focused on just a
partisan fight. Well, so fast forward to the Obama administration. Listen, there were grassroots activists asking all the time, impeach Obama. Now, I'll be clear, I never thought we should impeach Obama, but I would get asked. And this is sure. I ran in twenty twelve. I've never been elected to anything thing. I mean, the first thing I've ever been elected in my life is Senate. So I'm running. I'd be with
activists and they'd say, why don't we impeach Obama? And you know, I'd usually say I wouldn't necessarily argue with them, just because it's not a bad idea. It's not a good idea to get the fight with, like grassroots activists for you, But I just the answer I would usually give is, you know what it's better. The better solution is beat him at the ballot box. That rather than use impeachment, trust democracy or trust the democratic republic we have.
We're not a pure democracy, but trust the democratic checks. Now, So what that means, and by the way, every Republican had accepted in Congress, it was received wisdom. Impeaching Clinton was a disaster. We don't want to do it again. That's why that's why they didn't go down that road. If the Democrats win, doing this every bad behavior gets amplified. So that's the broader meta level, but it's a very
real level. That's an important point because what you're cigar, you will get, and not just a little worse, a lot worse like the vindictive, personal, nasty, abuse my power. You use everything for partisan gain, ripped the State of the Union speech. Look fast forward to to where they go if this gets rewarded. I think it's really scared. The point that is so interesting here is that I thought we had the final impeachment vote last week, the
important impeachment vote. But actually what you're saying is the really important impeachment vote, the vote that is going to tell us what future impeachments will look like, or what future behavior from the party that impeach will look like. That actually didn't happen last week. That's going to happen this November. In November, listen, the Senate acquitted President Trump about four thirty in the afternoon, five and a half hours earlier to eleven am. Jerry Adler announces there they're
they're subpoenaing John Bolton. That's right, They're not done. This has released the hounds. This is attack, This is used everything we've got and and if they win in November, all of that gets amplified. Now let's talk specifics. You're right, every politician says is the most important, and listen, if it's your rear end on the important to you, they're actually not not necessarily lying when they say that, it's
just very specific. Yeah. Look, do you remember what Reagan said against against Jimmy Carter where he's where he said, uh uh, you know, recession is when your neighbor loses his job, Depression is when you lose your job, and recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his job. That's right. Um, I mean all of that is is very real if it impacts you. But if you look at substantively, I mean,
think back to the state of the Union. Think think back to the President reciting all the incredible gains in the economy that that frankly, if you had predicted three years ago, no one would have believed you, right that, the media would have mocked you. That will never happen. It's impossible. No, we can't bring manufacturing jobs back. We can't see wages rise, we can't see Nobody hates taxes more than me. I despise. When taxes go up, I think it'll kill jobs. I am worried about all of that.
That's not keep me up at night kind of fear. What actually has me worried about twenty twenty are the big changes, the changes that are more radical than we've seen before, the changes that won't be so easy to undo. Is there a real risk of that kind of stuff? So listen, I think the very first priority Democrats will have is stay in power forever. Yeah, So I think they will look at structural changes. How do they structurally make it so they can never lose? Can they do that?
I mean they haven't done that before. They haven't, but they rarely had the majorities and you mean majorities in House, Senate, presidency, and the ability to force it through. They've always been checks on it. So for example, all right, we wake up January twenty twenty one, Ernie Sanders is president. Yeah, Chuck Schumer's majority leader, Nancy Pelosius Speaker of the House. I think one of the first things that happens is
they end the filibuster. So the philip you know, the filibuster is one of these terms that everybody kind of knows what it means. But what is the what is the meaning of the filibuster? What has it meant for American politicals? So look, historically, the filibuster meant unlimited debate. It meant you could stand up and talk as long as you want, what I did in twenty thirteen in Obamacare.
And when people think of filibuster, they they think of Jimmy Stewart standing up and you know, get doing this long long filibuster. What it means is a practical matter though in the Senate, is that to take up any legislation you need sixty votes. What it means is the minority has a veto even in you're not controlling the Senate, but you've got enough votes that you can slow things down. Right, That's how the Senate is operated on legislation. It has been a tool over and over again to just slow
things down. Yeah, what's changed? So when Obama was president that there was a period. So there was a brief period where they had a Democratic supermajority, they had sixty votes, and that's when they took up Obamacare. That's when they were ramming things through when they had sixty votes. And then you remember Ted Kennedy died. Yeah, and that's sixtieth vote.
You remember who got elected a Republican in massachusetto Scott Brown, And it was a national election because it was holy cow, we got to stop the sixtieth the vote and it was basically a referendum on Obamacare. And the people of Basset choose had said, give us a Republican. When is that last happen? Right? Right, because it just opens the door that doesn't happen a lot that one party controls absolutely everything, and when it does happen, they can get
through major transformational legislation like Obamacare. So when they fell to fifty nine, there were some old bull Democrats who wouldn't head the filibuster. It was just it was a different Democratic Party in two thousand and nine than it is in twenty twenty. Oh. Yeah, absolutely, you can see that the Democratic caucus in the Senate, every one of them woud vote to end the filibuster. By the way, we saw them do that with Harry Reid when they
ended the filibuster on judges. This is what makes me very nervous about it because for so long the filibuster was sacred because whatever party had the majority knew that eventually one day they'd be in the minority. So all right, let's assume you're Chuck Schumer's political strategist. Yeah, and your objective is stay in power forever. What do you want to do? You want to number one, change the electorate. You want to change who's voting. What's the easiest way
to do that? Illegal immigration, but not just illegal immigration. Make everyone here illegally citizens. Yes, the estimates vary, eleven million, twelve million. I've seen estimates as high as eighteen twenty
million people here illegally. No one really knows. But I think right at the top of the priority list is make as many illegal aliens as possible citizens and voters instantaneously, because those those new voters are much more likely to vote for I think they're convinced they will vote Democratic. And by the way, that's not true with Hispanic voters generally. I mean in Texas, I get over forty percent of the Hispanic vote in Texas. Yeah, I did in twenty twelve,
I did in twenty eighteen. But those are legal Hispanic citizens. Those are people who followed the rules. The Democrats have gone all in on gambling that illegal aliens are going to vote demos. So that's a big structural change, ending the filibuster, and then through that, if they control everything, you get amnesty for maybe tens of millions of people. And think about the voting consequences where illegal aliens concentrated. Florida, Yeah,
Florida turns bright blue and never votes Republican again. Texas, Texas becomes a Democratic state, North Carolina, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico. If Republicans lose Texas, we're never becoming prisoners. Game over. If they just that, Let's assume they do nothing else. They enact the filibuster and they make twelve million illegal alien citizens. Game over for US at the national level. And you don't think Chuck Schumer and Bernie Sanders want to do that, right of course. So let's talk about
the Senate. If they take the Senate, let's assume they have fifty one fifty two Democratic senators I think high on their list. Get more Democratic senators. How do you get you're going to annex Greenland. They won't do that. Trump will, mostly because they made fun of Trump for us. I have to admit it was a very interesting idea. But but you know what they can do. They can make the District of Columbia state Washington d C Washington DC. And by the way, Washington DC is like an eighty
five percent democratic city. You want a state guaranteed to elect Democrats for all eternity, DC as a state would be the most liberal state. They've proposed it before. Joe Lieberman proposed it right before you left the Senate. And so if you're Chuck Schumer, you make DC a state and suddenly you get two brand new Democratic senators that will never lose. Right Puerto Rico becoming a state now,
it's interesting. There's some debate. You get debate whether if Puerto Rico is a state, would they elect Republicans, would they elect Democrats. I don't know the answer to that, but I can tell you that the Democratic Party thinks they'd elect Democrats, thinks it would be a win for them. So you could have a situation with some real probability that you add four Democratic senators and then suddenly you're trying to say, how do you get the Senate back?
And instead of being down fifty one forty nine, you're down fifty six forty nine. Yeahty nine, don't I did? No one told me, they'd be maths um. Okay. So so not only that, Let's take a big priority of Democrats right now. And I think one of the first bills they would pass if they take control, which is
national instantaneous voter registration. No, no, that look that sounds kind of boring, Okay, right right, So right now it's a voter registration is done by the states, and you've got to sign up state for local level, and there are a lot of state and local levels that combat voter fraud. Yeah, the Democrats want a federal takeover. They want to put the states and local governments out of
the election business. Why and make everyone immediately an eligible voter, because they don't it's the same reason they fight photo ID. They don't want to see y d on voting because it's harder to steal election. It. You want to talk about structurally ensuring they stay in past. You know, we're seeing them do this at the local level where I am in California, where I am when I'm not in Washington, they pass these laws, motor voter laws, so you get
instantaneous registration at the DMV. You even see ballot harvesting. So this idea. Oh and By the way, I wouldn't put it past them to have electronic voting, to have number one a holiday, a mandated federal holiday on election day and electronic voting, because you know, we've we've seen how well that worked in Iowa. They'll have the same guy, Robbie Luke who what a name? Who worked for missus Clinton.
He was he was Hillary Clinton, I guess her campaign manager, and he was behind that app that completely botched the Iowa caucus. So instead we'll just have the entire elections run through an app. But don't worry. If it's not democratic operatives running the app, it'll be big tech. Because we can trust big tech to be in charge. They would never censor. Conservatives have a political bias, and as bad as they are now, yeah, in a democratic, in
a Bernie Sanders administration, they would. I am not exaggerating when I say this podcast could very well be off the air well because social media, these big tech companies, they go after conservatives even when the Republicans have the Senate, when you can grill them, drag them to the Capitol, which I've done a bunch of which you have, in particular, you've done a lot and when Republicans have the White House, so you're saying, and the Department of Justice and the
Executive branch, so they're nervous. Look big Tech right now doesn't want DJ to break them up under the antitrust laws. Yeah, you get Bernie Sanders in power, they're going to come in. Look a lot of the Democrats. When do you remember when Mark Zuckerberg testified the Senate and they were like forty five senators. It was the Commerce Committee and Judiciary Committee. I was one of them that grilled Mark Zuckerberg. Just
about every senator grilldon both Democrats and Republicans. It was actually a fascinating moment, but if you listened, it was like two ships passing in the night, because what the Democrats were saying was why the hell did you let Donald Trump win? So they weren't say. What the Republicans were saying is why are you censoring people? What the Democrats were saying as when Republicans were kind of meandering
around like, so what's this internet thinging? Again? As it was, it was not the most effective cross examination in the history of the Senate, but the Democrats were calling for more censorship that they were saying, you let these crazy conservatives speak and look what happened, and they'll put it in the frame of let's stop lying, and so they'll they'll tell big tech, big tech's already going down this road,
but but imagine it accelerated with the federal government. They define as a lie anything they disagree with right Medicare for all is is bad. That's a lie where we're just going to say you can't you can't lie, and that means you can't disagree. Dievery read nineteen eighty four. I did, yeah, George, orwell, so I actually read nineteen eighty four. In nineteen eighty four, I was in eighth grade. I actually thought it was totally cool. Mister Waugh was
our teacher. He assigned nineteen eighty four. In nineteen eighty four, We're all like, all right, that's that's kind of cool. But but you remember the propaganda. We're at war with Eurasia. We've always been at war with Eurasia. This is the totalitarian government. They're always just saying we're at war with your Asia. We've always But but then they switch it, they switch it to it, and and suddenly what what was said in the past is no longer operative, right,
Big tech has that kind of power. They control information, They disappear you and and and then throw in our economic policies, not just repealing the tax cuts, massive new taxes, I mean crushing new taxes, regulatory Who do you think who do you think will be epa administrator? I dread your answer. How about AOC? Oh? No? Oh no, And I'm not exaggerating it. If you have a President Sanders or a President Warren, why wouldn't they put someone like Alexandro Caja Cortez in So I when I asked you
what was at stake here? I was kind of hoping you would just tell me they're going to raise your taxes. And I'm gonna hate that, but I'll get over it. This is sufficiently terrifying that before all of this happens and they shut down everybody who writes into the mail bag. Attorney General Kamala here, No, I don't, I can't hear anymore. Supreme Court Justice Barack Obama, No, you don't mean that.
And by the way, not just one. Look, the Democrats are talking about packing the Supreme Court, in other words, expanding it from nine the number they're talking about. It's to fifteen justices, so six brand new. I am terrified. At the end of all, I am the thought of
Supreme Court Justice Barack Obama alone would be enough. So before all of this happens, and before we have to go, I want to get to a mail back question, before all of our listeners are censored from Bill, what is the most important thing for you to accomplish in the Senate after all of this impeachment stuff blows over. Let's take two phases between now an election day. We're going to confirm judges, keep confirming good effective judge, pretty good.
And the most important thing I'll do is is defend the principles of liberty. It's why we're doing this podcast. It's why I'm trying to engage. Is take on socialism, fight back on the forces that are trying to strip our liberty, defend free enterprise, and defend the Constitution. More broadly, in terms of policy, the legislation I'm most proud of having passed is legislation that I introduced part of the
tax cut bill that expanded school choice. I think school choice it is the most important civil rights issue facing America now. For a lot of people, it's their only ticket out of poverty. And you know, President Trump during the State of the Union called on Congress to pass
my school choice legislation. That it's a hundred billion dollars in federal tax credits for businesses and for individuals that contribute to scholarship granting organizations that are giving scholarships to kids K through twelve and also to adults in vocational training. One hundred billion dollars. You want to talk about transformational, Yeah, education is a gateway and if we empower kids to choose the school that's best for them, that that has
the ability to change the world. But unfortunately, now the Democrats have the House, the set that Republicans have the Senate, so there's not going to be a lot of legislating. Last question, that won't happen between now an election day. But if we have a good, good election in twenty twenty, I think it can and there's a chance we could get I mean, and that I guess that gets to the whole point of the show is there is so much at stake here. Last question is just a personal
question from Alex. Does it bother you that the impeachment vote could have been taken three minutes after the start of all of this, and it would have produced the same results. You know, it actually doesn't. There was a lot of debate early on and online about should we do a motion to dismiss at the outset? Yeah, and I thought that was an ill advised strategy. Why a couple of reasons. Number One, if we'd done a motion to dismiss at the outset, I think we probably would
have lost it. I think some of the wobbly Republicans that we had to work to get they weren't there at the outset of this. We had to get them. They wanted the process to play out. But number two, we all saw that the House was a kangaroo court. Yeah. I don't think it actually would have served the constitution or the country for the Senate to be seen as a kangaroo cord or in fact be one. And so just throwing it out on day one, I think we had a responsibility to say we're going to do a
fair trial. The House is voted that constitutionally is a big deal. Even if you did it abusively, it's a big deal when the House votes out articles of impeachment. We're gonna have a fair trial. We're going to hear from both sides. You can present your case, we will listen to your case, and we're going to follow the law. I think that was the right way to do it. And the other reason why I like it just personally is because by dragging it out, it actually was very instructive.
I guess that's the whole point of this podcast was to be instructive on what is really happening, what impeachment means, how it works. Unfortunately, this episode of the podcast has instructed me of all the many horrors that could befall us after November. So I'm probably not going to sleep between now and our next podcast. But it's a lot to think on and it's important to know what the stakes really are. That's all the time we have. I'm Michael Knowles. This is Verdict with Ted Cruz the m Fort