It All Comes Down To This

In other Democratic comments, Representative Sheila Jackson Lee suggests that the Russians may be behind the Iowa Democratic Caucus app debacle. She mentions Russia as she tells FBI Director Chris Ray, I hope the Iowa Democrats will ask for an FBI investigation on the app. And so I just retweeted it and made a very simple observation. Well, Bernie did honeymoon in the Soviet Union. So your mind is now past impeachment.

The impeachment vote has happened, and it turned out the way that we all knew it was going to turn out. This was the inevitable outcome. Yeah, we knew this in October. We knew this in November, we knew this in December, we knew this in January, we know this in February, and we will know this one hundred years from now. This impeachment was always a partisan circus, and it was appointing to end with acquittal, right, But it wasn't about

convicting the president. That That wasn't the Democrats objective. It was about appeasing their base. That Hatson. The impeachment and the Democratic reaction to the sta State of the Union last night are the same thing. Huh. It's like it's a different part of the identical phenomenon. Nancy Pelosi ripping the speech in half is the same thing as impeachment. It is all a giant fu apologies to Donald Trump. That's what That's what this whole thing was. But then

what did they get out of it? I guess if if we always knew how it was going to end, and it was always a partisan circus, was there a political victory? When you the bloods of the mob, it satiates the mob, at least briefly, if nothing else. It gets messy. I mean, this was look the beginning of last year. You had famed centrists like Nancy Pelosi saying no, no, no no, no, we can't do impeachment. It can't be partisan.

It will never succeed. Even Nancy Pelosi didn't want to do impeach, you had that wonderful rock of moderation, Jerry Nadler saying no, no no, no, no, we can't do we can't do impeachment if it's partisan. So what changed? What change is their base got angrier and angrier and angrier, and ultimately, listen, I viewed Nancy Loosi almost like a hostage tied up an abasement somewhere little ironic because we

are in fact in abasement right now. But but look, she's she was telling AOC, she was telling the squad, she was telling the fired up Bernie Sanders. Bernista's no, no, no, and they just couldn't fight him anymore. And and so all of impeachment. One of the reasons I think Pelosi was so pissed last night is I think the Democrats have done real political damage to themselves in the last three months. Then they strengthened President Trump. I mean, I

mean it. You know, if I were Donald Trump, I would send a letter to the FEC today the Federal Election Committee saying, dear FEC, I just like clarification, do I have to declare Nancy Pelosi's actions as an in kind contribution? It is my reelection camp. It has helped his numbers. So then I guess this is just what's confusing to me. We're saying is Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats had to go along with impeachment because they're fired

up base demanded it. But the impeachment has damaged the Democrats, and it was always going to damage the Democrats. I think that's right, and I think that their base has radicalized and they have no choice but follow them off the cliff. Now, there were some surprises today. Yep. We had been talking about. Obviously the president was going to be acquitted, but there were some swing votes in play. Mitt Romney was the biggest one, but also Doug Jones

of Alabama, who's a Democrat. Also Kirsten Cinema of Arizona. Right, there were a few other votes in play. It was a completely party lined vote except for Mitt Romney. Well, let's take each piece of that. So this weekend, as you and I talked about, I thought there were anywhere between fifty and fifty six votes for not guilty. We ended up at fifty two. Sorry about that. It's been a long week, it has. We ended up at fifty two.

So the six votes that were in play three Republicans Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Mitt Romney, and three Democrats Joe Mansion, Kirsten Cinema, Doug Jones. I was right that Collins would vote to acquit. I was right that Murkowski would vote to acquit. I was wrong on Mitt. So last podcast we did, I told you I thought Mitt would be a not guilty. I also told you I thought Joe Mansion would be a not guilty, Joe Mansion, Democrat from West Virginia, but from West Virginia. And I said Cinema

might be that she was a plausible not guilty. And I also told you Doug Jones won't be and Jones I was exactly right. Joe Jones is running in Alabama. It's a bright red state. Voting for impeachment is a terrible vote for Doug Jones. And I think he doesn't care. He's like the end of Doctor Strangelove, the guy on top of the rock, on top of the bomb with a cowboy hat cheering is a fat Jones. It's like I'm losing, and damn it, I am going to be

praised by every liberal in Alabama. There are a few of them, are not many, but but he's going to be there here. Senator, do you know how I know that you are new to political podcasting is that you are actually holding up your predictions against reality. Normally we just move right along, doesn't matter, no accountability. Mitt Romney was the big story. Yeah, Mitt Romney comes out. We

actually surprised me. We have a clip of it, Mitt Romney declaring why he's going to vote against President Trump. As a senator juror, I swore an oath before God to exercise impartial justice. I am profoundly religious. My faith is at the heart of who I am. The grave question the Constitution tasks senators to answer is whether the President committed an act so extreme and egregious that it rises to the level of a high crime and misdemeanor. Yes,

he did. Your reaction, Look, I think he's wrong. I think he is very mistaken, and I think that's unfortunate. I think that is a bad decision. I think it's it's bad for the country. I think it's bad for MIT, and I don't think it's consistent with the Constitution. Now that being said, every Senator has to make up his or her mind and then that that is what MIT has done. But I think that's a very unfortunate decision.

Do you think Senator Romney's decision to be the only vote that to cross party lines to vote against the president on actually on only one charge on abuse of power? He didn't. He voted to quit the president on the other charge, obstruction of Congress. But do you think Senator Romney's decision influenced some of those other swing votes on

the Democratic side. Yeah, that's an interesting question. And maybe you know when we started voting, So we voted to day at four, so we all came to the Senate floor. We got there a few minutes early. Mitch McConnell was giving a speech about how impeachment was all nonsense. Yeah, four o'clock, the vote comes in. The Chief Justice comes and takes the seat, reads the first article. We vote, now the way we vote. Every one of us stands up and votes either guilty or not guilty. Right before

that started, it was interesting. Joe Manchin and Kirsten Cinema hugged each other. And I have to say, Cinema, who who I like? I work with her? She looked pale, she looked haggard. I mean it was it was noticeable. And I will say another Republican senator was speculating with me if Chuck Schumer had had taken them back in his office and strapped them to a chair and taken out a rubber hose on them. It seemed as though it was in their personal political interest to vote to

acquit the president. So what's interesting is is when Mansion cast his vote, I leaned over to David Produce, it's next to me on the on the Senate floor, and I said, well, Mansion just announced he's not running for reelection. That's what it seems like. Look, West Virginia, this may be a worst vote for worst vote for Mansion than it is for Doug Jones. I'd put West Virginia and Alabama side by side in terms of where the voters

are on that. And I'm actually not shocked that Mansion would do that because because I don't think he actually really likes the Senate. He used to be governor in West Virginia. He liked being Governor Moore, and this was a vote. I don't know how much Schumer pounded them. I actually wonder the Democrats are much better at party discipline. I don't know what Schumer threatens. I don't know if he did. This is pure speculation, but it wouldn't shock me.

So Romney announced earlier this afternoon he was going to be a guilty And if Schumer hadn't gotten mansion and or sent him a to flip, then I suspect Romney coming over Schumer would have said, hey, you can't vote the other way because we need the messaging. I haven't even seen what the Democrats have said, but I'm sure they're all saying it was a bipartisan vote. Well that's what changes. This is why the Romney vote matters, is

not because you don't think so. There are five hundred and thirty five members of the United States Congress throughout this entire show. It was a diplomatic choice of words. I said the second half of the word. They got one Republican one out of five hundred and thirty five. So you'll forgive me for not being oh terribly excited that they got one. This was a partisan endeavor from day one, and the fact that that Mitt decided to

do what he did. Listen, I don't really want to pound Mit, frankly, because everyone else on earth is landing on him so hard. I don't know if you've checked Twitter recently that it's tough on him. But I will say, you know one reaction I have, so I'm reminded of another difficult moment on the Senate floor. By the way, an interesting observation, Mit I think sits at the same desk that I sat in as a freshman. Looking at that image of that clip, that's the same image that's

behind me when I'm doing the Obamacare filibuster. He's really junior. He's in the back corner. Those were very different speeches, very different. But I was reminded of another deeply disappointing moment on the floor, which was in twenty seventeen when we voted on Obamacare repeal, and you'll recall we came

one vote short of Obamacare repeal. Now that there's nothing I have bled more than taking on and trying to repeal Obamacare, I haven't given up on that yet, just to be clear, But you'll recall three Republicans voted against it, and the last one was John McCain from Arizona, who put his put his fist out and sort of wiggled it for a minute to thrust his thumb down. And that was That was about two in the morning. So actually we should have been podcasting that. Yeah in the

morning's we need to own two am. You know it's two am. Do you know where your senator? They have got to let you get to your second job. That is exactly right. So I remember at that moment and listen, John McCain and I we became friends. I respect and admire him personally, certainly for his heroism, for his serving his country. But I had to turn and walk off the Senate floor because if I had spoken to him that night, it would not have been language suitable for

the floor. It was and infuriating though, but but I want to draw a distinction. Let me contrast, so someone else. The two other no votes that night were Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski. I had a very different sentiment about McCain's vote that I did about Collins's vote. Why look, I didn't like how Susan voted, but Susan was honest with her voters. Susan when she campaigned and when elect was elected in Maine, she never campaign saying she opposed Obamacare.

She's a moderate. The voters of Maine knew what they were getting. She she wasn't out there on the stump saying if you elect me, I will vote to repeal Obamacare. And so I disagree with her on that issue. But but but I think being honest with your voters and doing what you told them to is is right at the heart of what we're supposed to do. YEA, what was so infuriating about McCain's vote. He had just been re elected and he had run ads all across Arizona,

John McCain leading the fight to repeal Obamacare. That that's why it was so infuriating. And I gotta say about Mitt, they saying how he campaigned to get elected to Senate. I noticed that if Mitt had wanted to tell the people of Utah elect me, and I will be a check on Donald Trump. I will stand up to Donald Trump. I will be a statesman. And you know what, if the people of Utah and elected elected him for that, God bless him. But that's not what he told the voters.

And it's a pattern the rage across this country. Washington doesn't doesn't get the rage across this country. That rage is what elected Trump is. People were tired of their elected officials telling him one thing on the campaign it just flat outline, and then doing exactly the opposite. And and that I don't have a problem. I don't have a problem with Bernie Sanders voting like a socialist. Look, his policies are luni and would destroy the country in

the world. But but other than that, missus Lincoln, how'd you like to play? But he tells the people of Vermont that I, I don't know, they're cold, they're spoken pot and they say that sounds good to us, like, I don't know, but it's at least honest. I think we need more honesty and politics. And this was not what the people of Utah. You know, this actually brings

us to another point, kind of wrapping up impeachment. You've talked a lot about Hunter Biden, Bisma, this corruption on the Democratic side, and other senators have gone along with this, but you always wondered if it was just maybe a little more opportunistic. What we've just heard, this is breaking news Senators Chuck Rassley and Ron Johnson have sent letters to the Secret Service requesting information on Hunter Biden's travel records. Obviously you have been leading the charge to get to

the bottom of this kind of corruption. Are there going to be enough other senators to go along with this to get to the bottom of the Biden potential corruption or is this just going to be forgotten? I hope so. Um, let me say a couple of things on that one. In the Senate and in the House. I think the political appetite for any further investigation diminished dramatically because Joe Biden is in free fall now. Fourth in Utah is falling in New Hampshire, Iowa action not YouTube. Sorry, I

was still so fixated on Senator Romney. Yes in Iowa. Look, they're both both states with four letters and lots of owls. But but but different, beautiful, but very different. I can't believe they say we don't know geography, you know, I don't know why they say that about us conservatives. Um Biden taking forth in Iowa or who knows? I mean, we still don't have results because they still can't count the votes. But it is catastrophic for him yeah, what's

going on behind the scenes. His donors are are in panic, his supporters are in panic, His grassroots activists are in panic. His campaign staffers are in panic. When you're built on being inevitable, placing fourth is kind of a propt because that's the whole pitch for the Biden campaign is he's the most electable guy. If he doesn't win elections, then that whole argument goes away. And remember we talked about in a previous podcast, how when the House managers threw

about Joe Biden under the bus. One Republican senator speculated it was because the Democratic superdelegates had soured on Biden, and we saw some of that, some of the fruit of that playing out in Iowa. What that means they're not going to be a lot of Republicans in the Senate agitating for investigating further because Biden. Biden is politically speaking, a dead man walking right now. Right right that being said, look, rule of law matters. Biden was the vice president of

the United States. The evidence we've walked through on barisma and correct option. When I'm back at home at home in Texas and doing town halls, and I've done town halls in Texas and all across the country. People are understandably frustrated. A question you get all the time, how come nobody's held accountable? How come people break the law, people violate the criminal there's no consequences. They get off scott free. What happened to the millions of dollars hunter

Biden made? By the way, no one has ever answered the question that was asked during the trial, what exactly did hunter Biden do for the million bucks a year? Like the managers are like, we don't want to answer that. So my view is absolutely yes, there should be an investigation. Now who should investigate? To be honest, there's a game of musical chairs in the Senate because no one wants to do it. Where no committee chairman wants to do it, It's got to be a committee chairman. I don't I

don't care if it's Judiciary, Foreign Relations, or Intel. I'm on two of those three, and I am urging the chairman to call them and to investigate. But right now you're not seeing any chairman rushing into that breach. And they control the gavel, they control the ability to investigate.

But let me say, secondly, where's DOJ right. The Justice Department do have a United States Department of Justice that has these people called assistant US attorneys, and they have grand juries and their FBI agents when they're not fraudulently launching a case against the president and doctoring evidence to the fives accord get wire tabs, you've got evidence here of a million bucks a year to the son of the vice president, with the vice president bragging about getting

the prosecutor fired. By the way, I don't know. So in my Senate speech yesterday, every senator got ten minutes to explain, and I quoted from what podcast listeners here know that I've affectionately referred to as the son of a bitch Cliff and Joe Biden on video saying son of a bitch, he got fired. What I've actually asked my team to to to research that maybe the first time in history, son of a bitch has been set

on the Senate. So you did not set the milk precedent that you participated in, but you may have set Okay, that's really and I'll confess what I asked my team that they're like, oh, come on, someone had to have said it. I said, Look, the Senate's pretty old school. I'm not even sure we've had a malarkey on the Senate. No, there's been a lot of malarkey, but maybe not a mention of malarkey. But by the way, Michael, you did mention.

I missed this tweet, but you told me that that that that Don Junior Junior, Don Junior tweeted about the Iowa Caucuses. I'm sorry we were told there'd be no malarkey. That's funny. I didn't see Don's tweet, but that's really funny. Spot on. Before we go, obviously wrapping up impeachment, we need to get to some of the mail bad questions. Our listeners have been incredible. Now just what We've been doing this for two weeks, over two million audio downloads,

a ton of listens on YouTube. First question from Nicholas is the Verdicts podcast going to continue or was this a short lived gem of a listen? We ain't going anywhere, all right, I still have a job. This is great. We will keep on going and and we're going to keep doing the same thing yea, which is trying to get to the bottom of issues, trying to engage in substance. You know, this podcast was built on a proposition that

you can attest. A lot of people laughed at us for saying yes, which is that people really care about substance. They want to understand things. Now, Look, people have jobs, they have kids, they have lives. They don't necessarily have time to spend days and days and days studying every issue. You gotta deal with other stuff. But they do want to understand, all right, what's really going on? What are the facts? And I had to admit, when it comes to cable TV, I don't turn on the cable news stations.

I get very little from from people screaming anything three minutes, sound bites, yelling over each other, and just the talking points blah blah blah. Want why it's like it's like a Charlie Brown and they're talking. Yeah, it just it doesn't.

So what we're gonna try to do. We're gonna try to address number one, timely pressing issues right now, but number two also issues that matter, whether raised by the presidential campaign, raised by what's going on in the Senate, raised in the Supreme Court, or just issues that matter. Socialism versus free enterprise, what's that all about? Those are sort of great bumper stickers you can get all, you know,

jazzed about, but what does it mean? And and I'm hoping that that we do it with a combination of facts and insight and perhaps some perspectives that you don't necessarily get elsewhere, but also having fun. I mean, we're gonna, you know, cut up and laugh and and and enjoy ourselves. And hopefully that means our listeners will stay with us. Right before we go, someone has a new job recommendation

for you. You've already got two. Maybe you could have a third from Lisa thoughts on a Supreme Court seat. I think ted would be great. Well, look, I appreciate Lisa saying that, And that's a question that I get sometimes. I will tell you that the short answer is is that I'm not interested in doing that. Really, why not. You've worked in the Supreme Court, you clerked, you have argued cases before the Supreme Court. I respect, I admire the Supreme Court. I think it's massively important, you know

the big reason. And when I've said this people they sometimes don't believe me. But I think a principled federal judge stays out of policy fights, stays out of political fights. YEA, if I were a judge. That's what I do. If I found myself on the Supreme Court, I would follow the law and I would follow the Constitution, even if it doesn't go along with your particular preference. I don't give an issue, and I don't want to stay out of policy fights. I don't want to stay out of

political fights. I want to be right in the middle of them. And the right place in our constitutional system for that is the Senate. I mean, the Senate was established for that, and and and so listen. I would like to be part of nominating and confirming two three, four, five strong principled constitutionalists of the Supreme Court into the lower courts as well. Um, I think it matters massively, But I don't want to pull out of the fray.

That's too much fun. And when I look at the Senate and you don't no disrespect to my colleagues, but I don't see a whole lot of people leading the fight, right and and if we're going to win people's hearts and minds, we got to be prepared to engage and fight and and and and and that's what I want to do. And you know, I'll tell you one part of it all. So I so this is not an

entirely theoretical question. Uh. For both of the last two Supreme Court vacancies, for Neil Gorsich and Brett Cavanaugh, the President and I had very serious conversations about the seat extended, especially for the first one, the Gorsuch seat that was Scully a seat we had. The President and I and his team and I talked for probably two hours about it. Wow. Uh. And and I don't want to overstate it. He didn't offer me the job, but it was a really serious

He didn't talk to me about it, you know. So it's a little bit and maybe the next you know, I can see you as a Ruth Bader ginsback. I mean, it'd be a good look for you. Um. And I'll tell you I wrestled with it. I thought about it. I actually spent several weeks with Heidi. I mean we were praying about it. I mean that that's I revere Anton and Scully and and and to have the possibility

of filling his spot, like holy cow. That It's one thing to say it theoretically, but when it was being discussed for real, you you really have a all right, let's think about this humbling experience and and I came very much to peace. So I told the President in both instances, I'm not interested. I don't want the position. No, thank you. He didn't offer it to me, but I

made very clear I didn't want it. Um. When I was thinking about it for the during the first discussions, one of the things that happened my my pastor came over to the house. It was I forget it was a Saturday or Sunday afternoon and spent a couple of hours talking through with me. And I got to say, among my close friends, almost everybody was saying, you're an idiot, Like what is I wasn't going to say it, but I got a lot of that. Um. It was interesting

my pastor's take on it. He said he understood because I was from the very beginning very hesitant and pretty sure I didn't want to do it, but I was agonizing because it was becoming a more real possibility. And my pastor used an analogy. He said, you know, if someone came to me and offered me the opportunity to be the leading theologian in the world, to go to some divinity school and drive theological thought across across the planet. But I'd have to give up being a pastor. And

I couldn't meet with the members of the church. I couldn't visit them when they're sick. I couldn't. He said, you know what, I'd turned that down. And it matters a lot. I want good theologians to think. And but but my calling, my passion is to be a pastor, and and and I have to admit that that analogy resonated with me, and and and and I want to be fighting for conservative principles in the Senate, winning these fights. And also, you know, one of the things Ted Kennedy did.

Ted Kennedy was a liar of the Senate, and he raised up He trained generations of left wingers who went and populated all of government, did enormous damage to the country. Right, I'm working very hard to train young conservatives libertarians to go and fight for the constitution. That's a lot of fun. And I'd rather do that, not just in the Senate, but here. I'm glad you're staying in the fight in both places. And we've got a lot more to get

to because we've got the final verdict on impeachment. But I'm glad to say we don't have the final Verdict podcast, and we will be back with a lot more to look not just backward on this force of an impeachment trial, but to look forward at what is at stake coming up. Thank you so much to everybody who has made this podcast such a big success. Please head on over if you don't mind, and subscribe on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcasts and leave a five star review,

and we'll be back with a whole lot more. I'm Michael Knowles. This is Verdict with Ted Cruz. 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.