Masks on a Plane

on an airplane. The National Emergency Authorization has not gone away, but Biden has actually said that he'll veto it if the House and the Senate vote to take it away. Doctor Fauci has gone into witness protection, but he's still around in his post at NIAID. Will COVID ever be over? This is Verdict with Ted Cruz. This episode A Verdict with Ted Cruise is brought to you by American Hartford Goal. New inflation numbers are out, and they are be worse

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but it's gonna happen over Democrats dead bodies. They don't want it to happen. They are the Biden White House is fighting tooth and nail. As you noted, Joe Biden just extended the airline mask mandate for another month. Why because they want to virtue signal. It makes zero sense. It is assinine. But there is good news. So the good news is the Senate voted today. I just finished voting on a resolution to end the airline mask mandate. And that resolution in the Senate, it passed. It passed

with a big bipartisan margin. It passed with eight Democrats who voted for it. Here I'll read you the Democrats. You have Bennett from Colorado who's on the ballot. You have Cortes Masto from Nevada who's on the ballot. You have Maggie Hassan from New Hampshire who's on the ballot. You have Kelly from Arizona who's on the ballot. You have Cinema from Arizona who's on the ballot. You have Jackie Rosen from Nevada who's helping out Cortez Masto who's

on the ballot. You have John Tester and Montana because he realizes he doesn't live in a communist state. And we have Joe Mansion from West Virginia because he realizes he doesn't live in a communist state. I'm noticing a theme here, Senator. It is people who realize this is eighty outic. Now every other Democrat voted for the mandate that they all lined up like lemmings to jump off the cliff. Look, on the face of it, the airline mask mandate makes no sense whatsoever, and everyone knows that.

Everybody does. You think about what we're told. Okay, you're sitting on an airplane which has got fancy filtration systems. Apparently they clean out ninety nine point nine percent of the particles in the air. The rules are you must have a mask on. Everyone will die if you don't. Until you pick up a diet coke. When you have a diet coke in your hand, no mask needed. You can laugh, you can spit, you couldn't do whatever you want.

Everything is safe. You put the diet coke down. I just recently had a flight with a really intense flight attendant who would literally as you set your drink down, like put your mask on in between SIPs, and it was kind of like, dude, just just relax, just breathe, breathe, You're gonna be fine. I never quite understood it. You'd be sitting there and they'd say, it is urgent. It's federal law. It's important to the health and survival of everyone.

You must have the mask on unless we hand you a cookie, in which case, if you get the cookie, then you have to eat it. So I'm really pleased to hear that the Democrats came out and a good number of them, especially the ones on the ballot, voted to get rid of the mask mandate. And then all the Republicans, I assume we're on board with getting rid of the mandate. Well yes and no. All the Republicans were on board except Mitt Romney. So okay, so you can still sort of say yes, I can't defend the

guy on this. I'm sorry, this is idiotic. I'm going to give you a crazy suggestion. How about we have the same rule for Americans across the country who get an airplanes that we have for members of Congress at the State of the Union address. With the State of the Union Address two weeks ago, five hundred and thirty five members of Congress. We're all sitting on the floor of the House. I don't think there were five people

wearing masks in the entire House chamber. Joe Biden wasn't, although his speech might have been better if he was. Kamala Harris wasn't. Sitting right behind him, by the way, she didn't have anything to say. Nothing prevented her from wearing a mask. Nancy Pelosi wasn't, and just about every other Democrat in the chamber wasn't it. We're sitting right next to each other, we're in a closed environment, but

none of them were wearing it. So why is it that a grandmother flying to visit her grandkids has to put a mask on when Chuck Schumer or Kamala Harris or Nancy Pelosi don't. It is stupid. It is theater, by the way, you know, just a week before the State of the Union, Pelosi was demanding that. She said, no one will be allowed in the House Chamber unless they have tested negative A and B, unless they're wearing an N ninety five mask. And I was like, you can kiss my hind quarters. I Am not going in

there with an n ninety five masks. So I hadn't decided whether I was going to just skip the whole thing altogether, or whether I was going to go in without a mask and see, I see if the House would try to remove me. That actually would have been kind of fun. Dragged out by the police. Yeah, that would have been great. But then what I assume happened is someone in Pelosi's office looked at the polling and said,

holy crap, this is really unpopular. Do we want Biden's whole speech to be seen with Pelosi and Kamala both wearing masks behind him the whole time? People won't like that. And suddenly the science changed, not the medical science, the political science changed, and they got rid of the mandate. This is garbage and it's time to get rid of it. Well, if that's the case, so it passes the Senate. You've got a lot of Dems who sign on to it. It's going to go to the House. Now. Is the

House going to take it up? Is the House going to vote for it? Is Biden going to sign it? Look, I assume Pelosi won't take it up, that she'll just leave it and won't allow a vote on it. Presumably it would pass the House if you got eight eight Democratic senators who voted for it. There are a lot more Democrats of the House who would love to cast this vote, but Pelosi is listening to the crazies inter party what this may do. It was such a strong bipartisan vote that what it may do is caused Biden

not to extend this damn thing beyond April eighteenth. It was supposed to expire this week on March eighteenth, extended a month, seeing eight Democrats, including almost every Democrat on the ballot, though Raphael Warnock didn't vote for it, and he's on the ballot in Georgia. Apparently he thinks Georgian's like wearing masks on planes. You know, I'll let him explain that. But it may put political pressure on the White House to change. Look, I'll give another example. The NBA.

The Brooklyn nets nets Kyrie Irving, fantastic player, not allowed to play. He hadn't been playing for months. Why because the idiotic New York rules, So you have to be vaccinated to play, and Kyrie chose not to be vaccinated. Now what this week? It truly Ilios illustrated the idiocy because New York revoked it requirement that you had to be vaccinated to go to the games, so the fans. Kyrie went to the game as a fan. He's wearing,

you know, civilian clothes. He's there as a fan. By the way, no more mask mandates, so we don't have a mask on. He's not vaccinated as a fan. Perfectly okay for him to be sitting in the stadium. He hugs his teammates on the courtroom, perfectly okay for him to hug his teammates as a fan. Apparently he bought a ticket, just like you or I Wood. He went

and bought a ticket. But New York's rules are so idiotic that as a fan he can be unvaccinated not wear a mask, but as a player he's not allowed to play because they say if you're were is an indoor performance, you must be vaccinated. I don't know, Michael, explain the science to me. Is there something about touching the leather on a ball? Is it like the reverse of the diet coke that if you touch the leather on a ball, suddenly it's deadly and everyone's going to die.

Is that how it works? Yeah? I think it must be. Well I am glad to see. I've just noticed it anecdotally that the tide seems to be turning even my most liberal COVID neurotic friends and relatives. But both of them, all two of them. No, they really have. I mean, I come from New York. I know a lot of people who are pretty on the left. You're a New York yalely, I assume you have many liberal neurotics. Look, I'll tell you how crazy it is. I just did

something twenty minutes ago that you would never believe I did. Yeah, I retweeted Trevor Noah, I hope, with some mocking, derissive comment. No, no, no no, no. I said, I agree with Trevor Noah, and I said this is a sign of the apocalypse because he was talking about Kyrie and he said, this stuff makes no sense. I mean, he was just it was a rant about how idiotic it was. And when you've lost Trevor Noah as a leftist, you've lost everybody.

And I gotta say, I did a press conference today in which I made a direct appeal to Kyrie come to Houston. I'm a die hard Rockets fan. You know, in Texas, we actually are not insane. Unlike Manhattan, Kyrie, you can start tomorrow for the Rockets. I have no authority to make that offer. And yet I feel confident if you walk in and put on a Rockets uniform, they're gonna let you play. He is a hell of

a ball player. And the idiocy. By the way, Kevin Durant just this week said, it's the dumbest rule I've ever seen. He's allowed to sit in the stands, but not to dribble a basketball. Trevor Noah asked a great question, Michael, I'd be interested in your thoughts. He said, Okay, so how does it work. He can buy a ticket, he can go as a stand, he doesn't have to wear a mask, he can hug them, but he can't touch a basketball. What happens if halftime they call him in

to make the halftime shot to win a car? Can he touch a basketball then as a fan but not a player. It just is garbage. And by the way, the NBA just find him fifty thousand dollars because he went into the locker room. It is dumb. And the good news is it is so acidine that I think they've I believe these mandates are on their way out, because even the craziest Democrats realize how unpopular it is. Everyone but the loons, well and Mitt Romney realize how

bad it is. That's I used to say that Senator Romney was my favorite Democrat, but I think those Democrats who voted against the masks, they probably take the cake. Now. Yeah, the way you know it, the way you know it's Senator, that the public opinion is moving in this direction is of course that Anthony Fauci has gone into the witness protection program. I actually have a documentary series out today

on the Daily Wire about doctor fouch. She's history, not just during COVID, but going all the way back to the eighties. The way he's amassed all of this power, the way that the most dangerous place in Washington is the space between Faucci and a television camera. They used to say that about Chuck Schumer. Now you see that really with Faucci. The fact that this man has held onto power for so long, we don't know very much about him. That's the reasons out now as Faucci unmasked.

I think they know, and I think that's why they're going to bench the man. They're trying to get through the midterms, and then what happens after the midterms, I guess is anyone's guess. So look, I think we should be understated. I don't think we should engage in hyperbole.

And I know you have no desire to make a shameless pitch on this podcast never But if I hear you right, you're saying that if you don't go immediately watch your documentary on doctor Faucci, that you will go to your grave as a poor, ignorant fool, unable to deal with the universe and with really a lacking in basic awareness of anything happening on Earth. Is that is that about, right, Senator? That is the subtlety that I have come to expect from you, and it happens to

be one hundred percent correct. You've put it very well. This is the time head on over to Daily Wire to go watch Fauci Unmasked. I just wanted us to be as shameless on this as you're and my friend Ben Shapiro and and and if he can brand just about everything on Earth, and then surely we can we can pitch your documentary. That's really all I want to do is get one overrun Ben. So I really I appreciate your help, and I appreciate the help of all

of the Verdict listeners. I did want to get your thoughts on this regarding Senator Romney, not even the mask vote, but he got into a tiff with a former Democrat, Congresswoman Tulsie Gabbert. Tulsa Gabbert had published a video about a United States program it's run out of the Pentagon to work with Ukraine on certain biological research facilities. As often happens, when this program was exposed or being discussed in the media, we were told it was a crazy

tinfoil hat conspiracy theory, it doesn't exist. Then we found out it does exist, but we don't have the United States didn't every much to do with it. Then we found out the United States actually has had this program and it goes back to a treaty from two thousand and five. But the research was totally not dangerous whatsoever.

Now we find out hearing from the Pentagon in the State Department, actually there are some very dangerous pathogens in these labs and if the Russians get their hands on them, this could be a really big problem in Ukraine. So Tulsea Gabbard made a video basically to that effect, and Senator Romney came out and said that she was a traitor who was peddling false Russian propaganda. He accused an American service member, Tulsa Gabbard and former member of Congress,

of treason. That was unfortunate. Tulsi came back and just body slammed. Man. I mean it was it was brutal. Not now she she popped back and said, you have one of two choices, either respond and refute the fact time laying out, or immediately apologize and resigned from the Senate,

which was probably not terribly understated either. You know, I will say on this issue, there is some subtlety here in that Tulsia is absolutely correct that there are biolabs in Ukraine, that there are labs that are studying pathogens, that are studying infectious diseases. Now that shouldn't surprise anybody. I mean, Ukraine is a first world country. You know, every first world country has labs that are biolabs that are studying pathogens. You know, Ukraine is entitled to have

a CDC just like Frances or the United Kingdom. Is that that's what you know, developed countries have as they have medical research into dangerous diseases. So of course Ukraine has labs that are studying infectious diseases that presumably have

all sorts of infectious diseases they're studying. And the point that you and I have made and others have made that when you have labs with infectious diseases, the dangerous pathogens, it's a really bad idea for Russia to be firing missiles and having their tank shoot at them, just like it's a really dangerous idea for Russia to be firing missiles and having their tank shoot at nuclear reactors. Like nuclear reactors being hit by missiles is just bad. It's

just a bad, bad, bad idea. Same thing if you have a biolab that is studying dangerous pathogens, dropping a bomb on it is a really bad idea. You don't want dangerous diseases to escape. There is a slight nuance here in that there are folks online and the Twitter sphere that are referring to these labs as bioweapons labs. Now, bioweapons labs are different than biolabs, and that one word, it's a small word, but it makes a world a difference.

Bioweapons labs suggest that they're studying how to use biological weapons to kill people, kill civilians, kill soldiers. I have seen no evidence of bio weapons labs in Ukraine. That's not to say they don't exist, but if they do,

I haven't seen any evidence of it. I think that's what Romney was jumping on, and I think it would have been perfectly fine to respond like a reasonable person and say, well, of course Ukraine has biolabs and it would be dangerous if Russian missiles or or bombs hit them. The evidence at this point is not clear that Ukraine has bioweapons labs, and so we should be cautious in terms of what we say. That's actually how a rational person would engage, but in this hyper politicized shirts and

skin tribal I hate anyone who disagrees. Instead, we just screamed trader, trader, trader, off with their heads, and I think that's really It'd be better if everyone refrained from doing that, right. There is obviously a ton of nuance here. I was wondering if you had any updates on what's going on in Ukraine and Russia. The situation seems to be changing constantly. Everyone is pumping propaganda into the air,

so sometimes it's hard to know what exactly to believe. Now, one of the big points of contention here has been NATO membership. Yeah, a lot of the Russian propaganda says the whole reason for the war is because NATO's going eastward. Ukraine has said they wanted to join NATO. NATO has said no, the reason for the war is because you've Vladmir Putin or rolling tanks into Ukraine and you want to recreate the Soviet Union. Zelenski himself in Ukraine had

been saying that he wants to join NATO. He had been signaling this for years. Now. Just today he's come out and said that he's cooling on the idea of Ukraine joining NATO. You're right, that's a shift from where he's been in the past. Listen, personally, I am not a fan of Ukraine becoming a member of NATO. I agree, and the reason is, Look, being a member of NATO is a big deal, and NATO is a military alliance.

It's a treaty that under Article five a NATO an attack on one nation is an attack on all the member nations, and it's an obligation So, for example, if Russia invades France, we have a treaty obligation under NATO, the NATO Treaty to treat the invasion of France as if it were an invasion of the United States, and under the most traditional interpretation, that means to respond defending France militarily. That is a big deal to make that obligation.

And I'm not a big fan of extending treaty obligations to send American servicemen and women into harm's way. I think NATO is a very important alliance with the current NATO members. You know, I can tell you in twenty fourteen, I traveled to Ukraine, and I traveled to Poland and Estonia right after the Maiden Square. Right after, you know, there was a Russian puppet who was in charge of Ukraine, and the Ukrainian people rose up and threw them out,

and the Ukrainian secret police like shot protesters. I walked through the Maiden Square had a sixteen year old girl Ukrainian. It was one of the protesters who walked me through the Maiden Square and said, all right, here's where this friend of mine was shot. And you could see the marks of bullets where they had hit and they just sat there. It was like Tianamen Square. They sat that

they're executing protesters. But it led to effectively a revolution in Ukraine where they ended up with a democratically elected government that is much more pro America, m pro Europe, much more pro West, rather than a Russia puppet government. But on that trip, when I was there in Ukraine meeting with leaders who wanted to be friends with America, as I said, I also went to Poland and Estonia, both of which are NATO members, And I asked Poland,

I asked it. In Estonia, I said, all right, what is your confidence if Russia invades you, invades Poland invades Estonia, what is your confidence that NATO will vigorously act under Article five to defend you? And I got to tell you. In both nations the blood drained out of their face and they had little to no confidence as it is that NATO would defend them. I think they basically believed they'd get a stern press release and maybe some like you know, cyber response or something, but not a robust

military response. In both Poland and Estonia, Russian tanks in the street are not a distant memory. People who were alive during the Cold War remember Russian tanks in their street, and so it is already defending NATO is already a serious obligation. There are NATO members that feel less than secure. I think expanding it to former Soviet republics is a bridge too far. We can support Ukraine, we're providing them with military weapons. We are to provide them with more

military weapons. We ought to use economic power to take away Putin's revenue, but we don't have a treaty obligation right now to send American servicemen and women into Ukraine. And I think that's good. I think that would be a bridge too far. I agree, and frankly, before this latest really full scale invasion by Russia of Ukraine, even when they had just invaded Crimea, had Ukraine joined NATO at that point, presumably that would have triggered Article five.

That would have been the fastest route to a world war that we've ever seen. And so I entirely agree with your take, and one hopes that this shift in strategy is maybe pointing the way at some point toward a resolution of this conflict and an end to the bloodshed. Now turning domestically for a moment. Joe Biden is trying to blame all of his problems at home on Vladimir Putin. He's doing this especially we talked last episode about gas prices,

and he's trying to do this with inflation broadly. Now, Senator, I know it's wrong. I know that he's lying. I don't believe him for a second, but I can't quite explain why he's wrong. And now Joe Biden is enlisting TikTokers to spread his talking points to the masses of Americans. So how is it the case that inflation is not all Vladimir Putin's fault? Well, listen, I will say on this issue, like so many others, the White House has been nothing short of incoherent. As I count them, there

are five shifting explanations they've had for inflation. So the first explanation they had a year ago is they said there is no inflation, doesn't exist. Janet Yellen, actually I think it was March of last year, almost exactly a year ago, said there is no inflation. I'd be highly surprised if there was inflation. It just doesn't exist. Pay no attention to your lying eyes. Those numbers going up in front of you. They don't exist. That didn't last

very long. Then Explanation number two is they said, okay, there's inflation, but it's transitory. It's just briefly here for a moment. You know. I sat down, I had a coffee with several other senators and Jay Powell, the head of the Federal Reserve, and at the time we pressed them on inflation. And this was spring of last year, and that was Jay Powell's answer, it's transitory. It just it's gonna be here for a minute. So, yeah, prices are up, but we're not worried about it. It's going

to go away. And we were like, well, bologny. Then the third explanation that they get progressively more asinine. So if there's a asininity meter, I don't know, is that what you would call it an asininity? I believe there there's an asidinity scale. Yeah, so it climbs the acidininity. So it doesn't exist transitory. That's two. Number three was Ron Klaine saying it's a high class problem. Yeah, yes it exists. We're not saying it's transitory, but it's high class.

It's it's just the people eating gray poupon, who are worried about it. It's it's it's not regular Americans yet. Oh, it's it's just rich guys, which is a weird explanation because it's actually the opposite. Rich guys don't care. You know, the gazillionaires, the people who run the Democratic Party now, the Silicon Valley billionaires. What difference does it make to them? John Kerry when he flies in his court his private jet all over the world, he doesn't care on prices.

He's got more money than he knows what to do with. It's it's it's the seniors on a fixed income who care about it. So high class problem was really an asinine explanation. But then they managed to beat it, and it explanation number four. They said, yes, inflation exists, it's not transitory. It's not high class anymore. Everyone's facing it. But explanation number four is inflation is a good thing. It's a sign of just how good the economy is. Hot.

Diggity damn, we're just booming and inflation. You ought to pop a champagne. Of course, you can't afford a bottle of champagne. But if you get afford a bottles champagne, pop the cork and celebrate. Maybe a can of beer, you know, one beer. You could pop a beer and celebrate because it is so good that you ought to be thrilled. It's not happening, and it's good that it is. Right. Yes,

that was explanation number four. Now at this point, right now, the polling shows inflation as the number one concern of Americans. I just saw that polling today. So the Biden White House is like, oh crap, this is a problem. And so explanation number five is Putin did it? Yeah? And that is and they are pushing this through every outlet of propaganda, which means number one, the corporate media, and the corporate media is shilling CNN. Is you know, Brian

Stelzer was saying Putin is causing the inflation. Might think it's Joe Biden, but no, no, no, it's Vladimir Putin. And as you've noted, these clowns got these TikTok influencers to push the story that all the inflation you see, it's it's Putin. And unfortunately, these TikTok influencers are more than happy to just yap these talking points. They presumably don't understand what they're Okay, one or two things is

the case. Either they don't understand what they're saying, or they do understand and they're deliberately lying because the talking points are absurd. Inflation has been rising week. Just last month it was seven point nine percent, the highest in forty years. Steve Rattner, who was the top economic advisor for Obama in the White House, Steve Rattner tweeted out said, look, these inflation numbers are before the invasion in Ukraine and they have you know the Ukraine number. Russia has very

little to do with this. This is Biden's inflation. He needs to own it. Now. When you got Obama's economic advisor saying this is Biden's inflation, that's pretty compelling. People get it right now. Can they blame it on the lockdowns? Can they say, well, you see, because we had to lockdown the country, which is obviously a debatable point in and of itself, But because we had to lockdown the country, we didn't have as much commerce going on. But now

there's a lot more and demand is up. So anyway, if it's not Putin's fault, and it is really happening, and it's not good, then just blame it on the lockdowns. Is that. I've heard some of that chatter from the White House too, So look, they could and that's actually a more plausible explanation, but they're the ones that fault for the damn lockdown. Look, I'm from Texas, we opened up,

Florida opened up. Yet you know red states. And by the way, these democratic, totalitarian petty dictators, is there anything thing they hate more than the fact that states like Texas and Florida exist? Because if you didn't have a handful of red state oacs that said, screw you, we're not shutting down our restaurants, we're not shutting down our bars, we're not shutting down our stores, and we're especially not shutting down our schools, then the whole country would be

like New York and California. It would just be, you know, quietly accept the rules. And we've seen the contrast, which is powerful. So, look, did the lockdowns contribute to inflation? I'm sure they did, But these idiots are the ones that forced the lockdown, So either way, it's their screw up. Yep, right before we go, I agree that that is actually a very good answer. You should put that on TikTok. There we go. We should make a Verdict TikTok channel.

Can you dance? I'll listen. If we can get to a million subscribers on Verdict, I will dance on TikTok. I do want to get to this question. It is I think on everyone's mind. It's from the mail bag that comes from midsized dog. I don't think that's his Christian name, but it comes to us from at least the pseudonym. Who would win in a fight? Putin or Elon Musk? Oh my, well, that question is is slightly different than then. I guess Elon Musk challenge Putin to wrestle,

and if it was simply wrestling. Yea. Look, I like Elon, I respect Elon, but Elon is a tech gazillionaire. Putin is a KGB thug. So let me put it this way. If Elon wants to go like getting Jello and wrestle Putin, what he does in his own free time for fun is his own business. Yeah, I wish we hadn't introduced

it Jello. I'm not willing to wag or anything because I think what Elon said is he wants to resolve the Ukraine war with him wrestling Putin, and I love Elon, but but I don't have enough confidence that he wins that wrestling match to stake the fate of Ukraine on it out. You ask the question slightly differently, though, which is who would win in a fight, and so a fight is different from wrestling on one level. Putin has nuclear weapons and the Russian army, which is not nothing.

Although right now Grandma's and Ukraine are throwing Molotov cocktails on them, right, but you know, Elon might be able to send killer robots and self driving cars and like satellite laser beams to come after Putin. So a broader fight, Elon might have a shot in the broader fight, but wrestling match, I'm not willing to go with Elon just yet. True. When you fight dirty, including space lasers, all bets are off. What I want to know, what I want to know,

and I want Elon to answer this. Does he have sharks with lasers on him? Sharks with friggin lasers? That would be really cool? Putin wanders by the ocean, a shark with a friggan laser comes out, and if he does not yet, Senator put A patent on that get that, don't get let elon get that idea for free. That's a good that's a good idea. A summit asks will the US dollar remain the global reserve currency? Probably? I hope. So there's no doubt. As we're putting sanctions on Russia,

Russia's trying to find alternatives China. China wants their currency to replace it. At the end of the day, reserve currency is about who people are confident in and who they want to bet on. You know, I'm reminded of Bill Clinton's former chief of staff, guy named Erskine. Bulls a couple of decades ago, referred to the US economy as the prettiest horse in the glue factory. In other words,

there are lots of problems and reasons. He was pessimistic about the US economy, but we were still much much stronger than everybody else. At the end of the day, that dynamic is there. China has a serious and growing and dangerous economy, but there aren't a lot of people eager to tie themselves to China. China engages regularly and torture and murder and genocide and concentration camps and theft and oppression, and you've got to be pretty dumb to say, hey,

that's the model I want. You know it, At the end of the day, doing business with America is better now if you keep seeing Democrats print money. And by the way, democrats with Republican complicity, I mean, I mean, on any massive spending bill, you get all the Democrats at half the Republicans. So there there's some big government Republicans that that that bears some blame as well. But if we keep debasing the currency, it's one of the

reasons for the rise of crypto. It is that people are putting their money in crypto because bitcoin is the new digital gold, and money flows to gold and silver and to assets hard currency when you don't trust that the paper currency will retain its value. And so that the more Biden in the Democrat has to value our currency, the more vulnerable it gets, and the more people will flee to alternatives, and some of those will include foreign currency,

whether the euro or the Chinese yuan. Final question from Shanaya Pineapple on pizza, yes or no. Okay, this is a terrible deviation from orthodoxy, but I like me some Hawaiian pizza ham and pineapple. It's tasty. I like the damn thing. I recognize your Italian. You're you're rolling over in your grave a mortal sin, I believe. Yeah, But but tell me, all right, hey, you tried it. I listen. I was young once, I was young and irresponsible. I tried a little bit, and tell me, was it good?

I know there's something to it there. Look, Oh, okay, I've got a bigger admission. I've got Michael Knowles defending pineapple on pizza. That's a much bigger deal. Not all listen, there are some things we need to constrain our base appetite, Senator or that is a conversation for another episode, and chall let me just jump in because I made a promise today that I've got to keep. Okay, So on the steps of the Capitol, I met with the junior high class from Roma, Texas that's down in the Rio

Grand Valley in Star County. There was a group of probably I don't know thirty thirty or forty junior high kids, eighth grade kids who were on their eighth grade trip to Washington. And I talked with them in the Capitol. Great kids and was visiting with them. Was asking questions, and they're asking They ask about Ukraine and what was going on. They ask smart, intelligent questions. These are smart kids.

And I mentioned the podcast. I said, look, if you want to know what's going on one vehicle as you can listen to the podcast. And I tried to do my best to explain what's actually happening. And one of the kids said, well, will you mention us on the podcast? And I said, I'll tell you what I will. So I'm honoring my promise because I'm going to keep my word on that. I will tell you one thing that was fascinating. So these are from South Texas. South Texas

historically has been overwhelmingly Democrat. It is eighty to ninety percent Hispanic. It's voted Democrat for a hundred years. Maybe a third of the kids there, we're wearing Make America Great red hats and we're wearing Trump shirts. I mean, it was stunning, wow. And I got to say, this is something that is happening. It's happening in Texas, but it's happening across the country, which is Hispanic voters are moving to the right massively. In South Texas, which has

been democrat a long long time. I think in November, South Texas is going to go Republican and we're going to elect several Hispanic Republicans there too. I've endorsed Cassie Garcia, who was an Hispanic woman. She was on my staff for ten years. I know Cassie very very well. She's fantastic, and then Monica de la Cruz, who was another Hispanic woman.

They're both running against Democrats in South Texas and seats that have Democrat forever, and I'm predicting now both of them are going to win, and it is a c change. If you can imagine the nightmare for Nancy Pelosi and for AOC to have Hispanic women who are conservative Republicans from the Rio Grand Valley standing up and saying the policies you're enacting are insane. I think that's the kind of red wave we're going to see in November. And shout out to the kids from Roma, well, let's shout

out to them. You might have lost us some of the Italian vote with your offensive comments about pizza, but if we can pick up much more of the Hispanic vote, people realize these left wing policies are driving us off a cliff that would be a wonderful thing, a little bit to hold on hope for, but we've got to leave it at that. I'm Michael Knowles. This is Verdict

with Ted Cruz. This episode of Verdict with Ted Cruse 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.