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[Music] hey everybody welcome back to the all-in podcast we're here at the inauguration
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of our 47th president Donald J Trump and we have a very special guest joining us
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on our coverage Senator Ted Cruz from the great state now my great state of Texas welcome to the all-in podcast and
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welcome to Texas it's pretty great uh where'd you get the boots uh any chance I can get a recommendation here a refer
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that's easy these are lucazi uh the factory is in El Paso they're handmade there they're beautiful okay uh
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and and these particular Boots the front of them have the Senate seal on on them
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oh that's cool oh that's strong that's um and the back of them that's really great have the come and take it flag
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whoa which I don't know do you know the history of the come and take it flag I was about to ask you okay since you're a
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new Texan this is important and he started saying y'all so he's adapting but he needs to learn y'all got to stop
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giving me a hard time about that okay all right so Texas in the 18 20s and 1830s we were part of Mexico and the
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dictator of Mexico was General Santa Ana and there's a little town in South Texas
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called the town of Gonzalez and then General Anna sent an order to the texians which is what we were called
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back then texians to hand over their guns and there was a cannon that guarded the city
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and General San Ana said hand over the cannon and the texians responded by making a flag with an image of the
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cannon and underneath it the Legend come and take it wow and and they flew it over the town and that was the beginning
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of the Texas Revolution now the epilogue is San Ana came in with about 6,000 soldiers and he did in fact take the
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cannon I mean Gonzalez was a tiny little town and the Texas Revolution was very much like the American Revolution we
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lost every damn battle the Alamo was a Slaughter golad was a Slaughter much like Washington where every battle he
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lost and lost and lost and then at San Joo we won defeated Santa Ana General Sam Houston and we became our own Nation
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the Republic of Texas from 1836 to 1845 says something about resiliency doesn't it it does let me ask you a question um
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having lived in New York and grown up there now and then done 20 years uh in California now my second year in Texas
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or starting my second year um it's amazing to me that you're allowed to build things in Texas like homes or
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factories and the price of home hes has gone down two years in a row and then the other two places I live the price of
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homes go up every year 10 20% um and then you don't have state taxes um how is all this possible when
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you look at it just from first principles how are you able to accomplish so much development in Texas
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when in California the nimbyism like literally if you want to build yeah it's a great question a cancer W for children
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they'll stop you because it throws shade on a protected species of flower so California used to know the answer to
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this 50 years ago California was the economic engine of the country and unfortunately you're cursed by idiot
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politicians who were destroying this this Mighty economic engine you know none of this is rocket science in in
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Texas we believe in Freedom we believe in low taxes and low regulations and and to understand the
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state Texas was basically founded by a bunch of wildcats who were guys with fourth grade
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educ a that began drilling holes in the ground and one after the other became the richest man on Earth yeah and and
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the ethos of Texas you know it was interesting number of years ago I was visiting with with a CEO and an
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executive team of a company that had moved from California to Texas and they didn't have any Texas
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ties but they were just fed up with California they moved to Texas so I was asking them they only been in Texas for
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a couple of months I said all right what's the biggest difference and I thought maybe they'd
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say taxes or maybe regulations or maybe lawsuits those were the three things I was going to guess their answer blew me
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away they said the biggest difference is the culture and what they said is in California if you're in business you're
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a pariah they said look there's an exception for Tech and an exception for Hollywood if I need more yeah well I
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mean that was their view but they were not in Tech or Hollywood they they were in sanitation which was not a sexy
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business mhm and and the way they described it they said if you're at a party and someone asked what do you do
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and you say I'm a businessman they said people to turn around and walk away and I got to say as a Texan that is
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weird I mean we lionize entrepreneurs but California was a pioneering State the Gold Rush what happened because it's
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you know it's always easy to blame idiot politicians but in a democracy those politicians are elected by the voters so
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the something where did the voters go that caused this change in that state compared to where the voters went in
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Texas when they both came from and all of America all the United States all the the states of the Republic came from a a
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pioneering origin well there is a cause and a fact and you go back to 1987 and 1987 is when Ronald Reagan signed
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amnesty into place and at the time there were 3 million illegal immigrants living
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in the United States and Congress went to the American people said all right we got a deal for you we're going to secure
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the Border we're going to fix the problem of illegal immigration forever and in exchange we're going to give
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amnesty to the 3 million people who are here illegally now right and in ' 87 the
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American people said okay that sounds like a reasonable deal they took the deal MH now we now know what happened
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which is the amnesty happened but the Border never got secured what did that mean for
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California the highest concentration of illegal immigrants was in California 1988 California voted Republican the
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presidential race as it had for six consecutive years six consecutive Cycles previously right 1988 was the last year
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California ever went Republican well Schwarzenegger for president oh for president in in the presidential race
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and so I think the amnesty law played a significant part the federal law changing the voting composition of the
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state yeah and then and look you guys would know the state politics more but it also seemed to me that you have the
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public employee unions in California that realized that they could vote themselves more and more of of the large
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s of democracy right and it um so Jason brought up a really important question to kick this off um I just want to give
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you a chance to maybe expand on it which is there are so many examples Texas is one um you can look abroad the UAE as as
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an example is another where there's a high degree of quality of infrastructure and Y you know civility Social Services
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education security um but you don't have the traditional taxation right and so how is Texas able
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to actually keep the wheels on and States like California which has you know $322 billion budget is just
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completely falling apart how like what is what what happens because you then see everything at the federal level but
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when you go back to your state you see hey we don't have and and your real estate taxes aren't that much higher are
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they than California yeah the real estate taxes are a little bit higher but we have no income tax so it more more
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than makes up for it yeah yeah 2% one and a half to that's the principal Avenue of Taxation you got real estate
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taxes and sales taxes or or where the state and and local governments get their taxes uh but no income tax look
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some of it is government does less uh I mean there's a philosophy that government doesn't have to spend and
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provide everything government does police and firefighters and Roads and does the basic responsibilities of
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government right but it's not not engaged in funding every pet project of every politician right
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um that's part of it you know you look at across the country I mean it is not a complicated
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migration pattern that people are fleeing bright blue states with high taxes and high regulations yeah and they
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are coming to Red states with low taxes and low regulations any safety so we've had it
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has now been more than a DEC that we have had over a thousand people a day moving to Texas so when I was first
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elected 13 years ago we had 26 million Texans today we have over 31 million Texans so we've added 5 million Texans
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in 13 years and and the biggest state folks come from is California it's interesting the migration pattern you
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get a lot of California to Texas New Yorkers tend to go to Florida more we get some New Yorkers but but for
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whatever reason West Coast folks seem to prefer Texas and East Coast folks seem to
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prefer Florida but I actually think the competition in terms of where we lose people
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to we lose people either to Florida or Tennessee those are about the only two places if someone's thinking of leaving
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and I love that competition I want Florida and Tennessee to be out fighting and saying we can create an even better
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environment for small businesses and jobs and and part of it is the number one reason people come to
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Texas is Texas where the jobs are and you want an environment where you have small businesses are doing great but
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people also want to be safe and and so you know you look at things like like defunding the police or Soros
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prosecutors that let murderers go yep and that gives people a pretty acute incentive to get the heck out we uh were
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involved in the recall of Chess budine our podcast and David Sachs our compatriot who couldn't make it um he's
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he's busy working uh with you guys here um but yeah this this crime issue seems people have seemed to Lost uh they seem
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to have lost a script on who the state is working for the taxpayers or the criminals and in Texas it it's just
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extraordinary that you've figured out that you could prioritize the people not committing crime and not cater to the
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people committing crime I mean I'm saying this in the most factious way possible but it's just common sense and
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I think it it feels to me like Californians have had enough and it's just going to take a decade or two to
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unwind it but let's let's double click on immigration since the the great state of Texas has to deal with this than
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anybody but this is a land of immigrants we are all immigrants on this land and so that's our tradition in fact you're
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sitting next to two extraordinary immigrants my my Bes chamat and freeberg what do you believe at this point in
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time is America for the Americans are here or do you believe we should be getting the best and brightest to come
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to this country look absolutely both um I have for a long time describe my immigration views in in four words legal
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good illegal bat okay um I think most Americans most Texans agree with that and most immigrants yeah look there's a
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right way to come to this country there's the way you came to this country there's the way my dad came to this
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country my dad was born in Cuba he grew up in Cuba he fought in the Cuban Revolution when he was a teenager he
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fought was thrown in prison he was tortured when he was 17 years old and he came to Texas in 1957 he he was 18
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couldn't speak English had $100 in his underwear and he washed dishes making 50 cents an hour but he came legally
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because he had applied to the University of Texas he'd gotten in he came on a student visa and he was an 18e old
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freshman and he started going to school here and he came legally and he worked and and got a job and went on in time to
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start a small business and and work was he able to see your success is he still with us he is my dad is 85 oh my God
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what a dream for him he he is my hero it is he he's an incredible he I will say when you have lost freedom
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it's personal to you yeah you know people ask sometimes you know why why do you do
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politics and and I grew up as a kid I would sit on the floor along with my cousin BBE with my dad and and bib's Mom
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my theonia and she also she was also imprisoned and tortured in Cuba and we would sit and
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sit and listen to them tell stories yeah and all I ever wanted to do from when I
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was three four five years old was was be a freedom fighter I mean it was it's inspiring because
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what they said and still say and they're both still going strong is is look if the only thing that prevents us from
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tyranny is having good people in office who will fight for our freedoms and so I
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got to tell you today I I literally jump out of bed every day because I I look at
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the US Senate and I think it is basically the Roman Coliseum and and you strap on some armor and you grab a
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battle ax and and you go fight the Barb Varan and and that is that that's an amazing opportunity I I feel blessed and
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fortunate every day you are in Arena do you think it's become we were talking with ro cona congressman from California
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earlier uh today and we talked about how there might be good policy put forth by
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one of the two parties but the other party's intention is always to get more seats get more attention get more votes
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and hurt the other party so we end up having conflict over policy do you feel like there's too much of that in DC and
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a lot of people talk about the you know everything has become too politicized as
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opposed to you know I always think about the show I love the show the westwing and he always talks about the great
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debate you know like we never have the great debate anymore we don't talk about the fundamental you know policy
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decisions we talk about the Republicans said this and so and so it gets personal
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and it gets political as opposed to like let's all take our hats off and talk about what's the right thing for the
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country Doge being a great example in my opinion but I'd love to hear your point
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of view on how things operate in DC today well well listen I I agree with your point at the outset which is that
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we need to talk to each other um I worry that we are too polarized and and tribalize that the left only listens to
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left-wing media the right listens to right-wing media anyone who disagrees you scream at them uh the the sense of
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community and and that we used to have has been badly badly unraveled you know on social
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media if someone agrees with you you unfriend them and and we're all in this little Echo chain but we're all Patriots
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is the sad part all Americans all Americans but we're we're living in alternate realities and and so look what
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y'all are doing is really important I'm grateful for this podcast we got to talk
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to each other um I do a podcast every week called verdict with Ted Cruz we've got about a million unique listeners
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that listen to the verdict podcast and we do it Monday Wednesday and Friday every week my podcast is beating CNN
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yeah it's incredible and I think the reason is the same reason people listen to you guys because you're actually
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talking about issues and you're not just screaming at each other you know it's it's not Jerry Springer go grab a a
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chair and fling it at somebody but it's have a real and substantive conversation
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and I'll tell you one of the things that I've done and enjoyed is I've taken the
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podcast on the road to college campuses and so couple what has that been like well for example we did one at
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at Yale a couple years ago and had about 700 students come out and I know how the
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reaction would be and interestingly enough about a third of the students were left of center and and and I know
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that because it was right after kataji Brown Jackson was confirmed and I made a reference to that and about a third of
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the room began cheering and and I stopped and I said hey look the fact that you're cheering at that shows that
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obviously we're coming from different places on the political Spectrum I said I want to thank you especially for
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coming here uh because you may not agree with me on on everything or even most things yeah but but thank you for coming
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and being part of a conversation and so we did it's about 90 minutes of all Q&A and and we had a rule we said if if you
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have a hostile question if you have an antagonistic question come to the front of the line and we spent 90 minutes
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having a real conversation afterwards I I went out with an orthodox Rabbi on campus and and we got a drink and he
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said he said Ted you know I've been working on Yale's campus for decades he said this is the
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biggest group of students I've seen have a positive civil constructive conversation on conservative ideas he
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said in 20 years there's something about the podcast format where you're taking a
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little bit of time you're not rushed in six or seven minutes like you are on the
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weekly shows where I see you all the time uh and and that's sparring yeah and you're just trying to get a message out
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in three minutes five minutes but here you know you can open it up maybe listen to each other invite guests in with
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different opinions learn something uh with the specifically the immigration issue which seems to be the one that's
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tearing us apart a whole bunch there's so much consensus hey we we want the board to close we want it legal but we
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also want to bring in a certain number of people and we want a system and uh you know I did my research on this and
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places that have consensus like Canada uh Japan Australia New Zealand just they they seem to understand that you need to
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match immigration to the reality of unemployment and which jobs you need but the one criticism I have of politicians
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which I think you're one of um sadly iest charge yeah is you you you all don't talk about it in numbers we need
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this many nurses we need this many doctors we need this many construction people we have 4% unemployment record
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great job uh to our politicians and helping that out um you know we can bring in two million people this year
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hey if it goes up to 5% we're going to bring in 1.5 I I wish that the discussion could be more granular and
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with numbers and you guys could actually say it's not 500 it's 450 because if we
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were in a business decision here and we do business together and we say hey we have to deploy these resources to get
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this outcome but it's so contentious and polarized and not fact and number based
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why is that on this issue that you guys can't just put some numbers on paper so well look there there are a lot of
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numbers that matter intensely let's start at one where you talked about low unemployment as you know that number can
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be deceptive because we also have among the lowest labor force participation we've ever had 62% right now and so
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there are millions that have just dropped out of the labor force altogether they're not measuring in in
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Topline unemployment but it's still a real challenge we have healthy young adults who should be working and who are
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not working why aren't they in your mind is it because they have the resources to
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not do that um look I think it and I think it varies state by state but I think when you have a welfare state
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where you get paid for not working it's bad incentive people end up not working and the statistics are really crushing
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that if anyone doesn't work for a year the odds of their going back to the workforce drop precipitously that once
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someone gets the habit of dependency I I've said a bunch of times you know I I try to think of of every policy from the
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perspective of easing the means of ascent up the economic ladder and I think about you know my dad when when he
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was a teenage kid in Austin washing dishes thank God some well-meaning liberal didn't come to him and and say
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Rafael let me take care of you right totally just stay home let me send you a government check don't work so hard at
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and and it's utterly destructive it it breaks your your self-respect your individual responsibility but it comes
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from an empathetic Place Center Senator so and and and I know this like in you know in kind of a a liberal setting you
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see people in need you want to help them and you use government as a tool to help
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people in need and the fundamental issue is that in many cases that creates an incentive model that makes it very
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difficult for that solution for that situation to find a solution on its own a market solution and over time it gets
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bigger and bigger and bigger and you have cascading effects that I believe we're now realizing in this country with
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what I estimated somewhere between 40 to 50% of people that are employed in this
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country employed by government or government um service providers and you're right that much of it is not from
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ill will and and and but we do need to have a real conversation about what works to lift people into prosperity and
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and by the way all of us know this in our own life if if your kid let's say you have a kindergarten who's struggling
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with math there's not a one of us who would do our kids math homework y we know that's not helping them that that
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if your daughter doesn't learn to do arithmetic it's going to hurt her for the rest of her life so you've got to
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work through that problem with her even if itd be easier for you just to finish it for right we know that in our lives
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um you know the old adage of give a man a fish you feed him for a day teach a man to fish you feed him for a lifetime
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right we know that with people we love but yet when it comes to public public policy you have a lot of people who
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don't think about it more broadly I'll say back in 2017 I I did three different CNN Town
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Hall debates with Bernie Sanders and listen I like Bernie because he is an Unapologetic socialist yeah and I'm an
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apologetic capitalist and we had 90-minute Town Hall debates on on which system was
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better for maximizing human prosperity and abundance yep and we didn't insult each other neither of us called each
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other a son of a [ __ ] we talked about the facts and and and I'll point out something let's take
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socialized medicine it's interesting the as The Advocates of socialized medicine
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when I pointed out all of the problems socialized medicine produces in every country in which it's been implemented
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the United Kingdom Canada Bernie's answer was well it wouldn't be that way here so the reality
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would not be here every year about 50,000 Canadians come to America on what they call medical tourism because they
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can't get the medical care they need in Canada and I will suggest to you a question
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particularly for those of y'all that are are Californians that I love asking Advocates of socialized
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medicine why didn't California adopt it right you've got a Democrat Governor you've got a Democrat super majority
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legislature there's no constitutional impediment California could adopt socialized medicine today yep right it's
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not the mean old Republicans that are stopping them and as you know the legislature looked at it and realized it
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would bankrupt them by the way Vermont Bernie's home state they could adopt it and the reason you don't see California
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or New York or Illinois or Vermont or any blue state in America adopt socialized medicine it wouldn't work
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doesn't work it wouldn't work and people would flee their state and so their answer is we want to do it to everyone
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in the entire country so you can't flee unless you're willing to leave America you're stuck and I think what's
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challenging Senator is that then you have compromises that get you to a point where the federal government has a big
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enough role in healthcare my opinion is much of the inflation in healthare costs
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arises from the federal government's role in the same way that the federal government has a role in student loans
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that has driven up the cost of education and the federal government has a role in
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providing loans for housing has also driven up the cost of housing educ education across the board dists the
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free market but the empathetic solution is we need to provide access to those who can't get it and then at the end of
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the day it inflates the cost of all of those services and ultimately the quality of the services the roads and
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I'll give you the anecdote real quick yeah my brother lives in England they just had a child he and his partner and
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went to the delivery room and they couldn't get a bed for lab she was in labor they could not get a bed to have
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the baby I think it took them 36 to 72 hours to actually get into a bed while she was in labor it was the most insane
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he's calling me he can't get a bed it was I'm like you're living in the fraking UK this is supposed to be one of
00:23:45
the wealthiest Nations on Earth that's the outcome of socialized medicine and along the way you get the inflationary
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effects that we're dealing with in the United States today I'm with you on sorry let's uh you're the quarterback
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okay quarterback the next two weeks of the Trump Administration well on Monday we're
00:24:04
going to see a flurry of executive orders I think it'll be in the neighborhood 100 executive orders I'm
00:24:08
optimistic about them that's the number they're talking about wow it it it's going to be in that neighborhood
00:24:13
shocking off and I actually I'm I'm pretty happy about that now look will I agree with all 100 I don't know my guess
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is I'll agree with the vast majority of them but I don't know everything that's in there so we'll see and in some ways
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it'll just make it almost impossible for the Democrats to react because where do
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you focus yes and and and Jamal that's actually a point you know I think back to so my wife Heidi and I met on the
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2000 George W Bush campaign and and so we both served uh as young people in the Bush Administration and and I I think
00:24:44
there is a Quantum of outrage and I call it the arsonic Quantum of outrage if you
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remember the beginning of bush 43 one of the first things he did is his EPA revoked a rule on arsenic and for
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like 6 weeks the media saturated the airwaves with the evil Republicans want to poison our children with Arsenic and
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I mean it was it dominated forever and they beat The Living Daylights out of him for it now look Monday when you get
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a 100 executive orders I think that's how much outrage there ish and that arsonic Quantum of outrage
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will be directed at everything smeared which makes it very hard for them to oppose anything coherently and
00:25:27
directly and gives an opportunity I hope for this Administration what I'd like to
00:25:32
see is really delivering on the Mandate of this election the outcomes in November let's
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ask that what were yeah what were the if you had to distill what are your specific takeaways as the Mandate in
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priority so number one secure the border and I believe that'll start on January 20th it will start by ending Catch and
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Release so that when people are apprehended they are detained and they're sent back to where they came
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from yeah um I think that will be followed up by going and arresting criminal illegal aliens going and
00:26:03
arresting murderers and rapists and child molesters and G and gang bangers I think all of that will roll out very
00:26:09
very fast I think there is also a mandate to end the federal government's war on energy on Texas oil and gas um
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and that will lower prices at the gas pump at the grocery store every Bill people are paying and I think if you
00:26:24
look at the top two issues in this election uh it it was illegal immigration and safety and it was
00:26:31
inflation in the economy I think we will also see a lessening of the job killing
00:26:40
regulations on small businesses a return to thriving booming economic growth what
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would those be look there are a host of them energy is is is the easy example where where the the Biden
00:26:51
administrations put in over 90 different regulations and executive orders all designed to drive up the cost of energy
00:26:58
right so the input gets higher and everybody suffers got it and so I expect I expect pretty much all of those to be
00:27:05
reversed hydrocarbon and then subsidies for quote green energy look I I think on energy we ought
00:27:12
to pursue all of the above uh beyond that I think I think there is also a mandate on the economic side the 2017
00:27:21
Trump tax cuts are expiring this year we're going to extend them my hope is we make them bigger and Bolder that's going
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to take some time we'll do that through What's called the reconciliation process
00:27:32
and then on on foreign policy I think under Biden we have abandoned and alienated our friends and
00:27:40
we've shown weakness and appeasement to our enemies I think that will stop right
00:27:44
on Monday as well Senator you just said five things but what you didn't say was Doge so cutting taxes there's an
00:27:51
inflation problem there's no way you're cutting taxes and not cutting government
00:27:54
spending and not tampering inflation down don't we have to cut federal spending how important is Doge how real
00:28:01
is it is it a marketing gimmick from your point of view how much can actually be done is it a real you know is is this
00:28:07
kind of require legislative Authority and it's going to be a longer form process or is there going to be a lot of
00:28:12
very quick action so and I'm happy to answer that directly let me just say one thing you just said there um with
00:28:19
respect is incorrect yes you said there's no way we're cutting taxes and not cutting spending and having
00:28:25
inflation stay down and I just saying that's objectively false because that's exactly what happened in the first Trump
00:28:31
term which is the 2017 tax cuts CBO had these apocalyptic projection y about you're saying tax revenue grow went up
00:28:39
as the as the economy grow tax revenue went up every single year after we cut the taxes the revenue from the federal
00:28:45
government went up so we cut taxes sadly we did not cut spending yeah um I tried
00:28:52
mightily to cut spending but we did not have the votes to do it and inflation still stayed down so the econom is
00:28:59
booming yeah you can turn things around look Doge but is there a deficit mandate
00:29:04
so I am excited about Doge um Elon is a good friend I admire the hell out of him
00:29:10
I'm thrilled that he's a Texan um you know I've joked with Elon that that that he doesn't just think
00:29:17
outside the box he doesn't know there is a damn box that that's a great thing um
00:29:23
now Elon calls me periodically going what all right what the hell is this government thing how does this work this
00:29:27
way and I'm I'm trying to give whatever guidance I can on that but I think how you deal with uh a
00:29:38
disruptor uh in government is going to be an interesting challenge VC is is very smart very
00:29:45
creative I will say a couple of challenges right now look I'm excited about Doge I want to see some big bold
00:29:52
creative ideas I'm going to give you two warning signs number one the phrase waste Fraud
00:29:59
and Abuse MH anytime someone talks about waste Fraud and Abuse they don't really
00:30:03
want to cut government spending you know why because there is no waste Fraud and
00:30:07
Abuse caucus there's no one that says I'm for the waste so it's the easy place to go we'll cut the waste if you
00:30:15
actually cut real government spending there is always always always a constituency who's pissed off who likes
00:30:22
the thing they're getting totally and so you have lots of politicians who say they're going to lose they're going to
00:30:26
lose their votes right somebody will be matad that's right and and so that is a challenge I will say secondly at least
00:30:35
in the first term Donald Trump did not campaign as a small government conservative and he did not govern as a
00:30:43
small government conservative and in fact I I will relay a story at at the end of the first term you remember we're
00:30:50
in covid and and the government is in the business of sending out checks and more checks and more checks to people
00:30:55
all over the country andum TR wanted the checks to be even bigger and a lot of the folks in the White House they asked
00:31:02
me they said Ted can can you go try to talk him talk him down from this Lynch y that's a tough job so so I went on Air
00:31:08
Force One and and I'm sitting there with the president I'm trying to make the case that we don't need these gigantic
00:31:14
uh stimulus checks and he goes Ted and I get the back of the hand he goes Ted no
00:31:21
one ever lost an election by spending too much money I said yeah but they did bankrupt the
00:31:26
country so I did not succeed then well you know what you should have done you should have asked him to keep the same
00:31:33
number but just make the check larger and the signature bigger that's a good idea look I I'll go with it he likes are
00:31:38
you a small government conservative very much so and is what percent if there if
00:31:43
no one was going to be able to run for reelection what percent of Congress do you think would support a massive
00:31:49
reduction in government agencies how much of this really is driven by this kind of I got to get reelected so look
00:31:55
it's it's a good versus what I versus what principes tell me yeah listen I I am also a passionate advocate of term
00:32:01
limits so so I have introduced uh in every Congress a constitutional amendment that would
00:32:06
limit Senators to two terms limit house members to three terms yeah I think term
00:32:10
limits would change that dynamic in a very significant way right and the career politicians in both parties
00:32:15
oppose it um look on any big spending bill you unfortunately have a bipartisan Coalition in favor of spending you have
00:32:23
essentially all the Democrats and about half the Republicans there about 20 of us who will vote against a trillion
00:32:31
dollar spending Bill and and and we are frequently begging our colleagues and to
00:32:37
be honest I don't think we will ever see real spending restraint without strong presidential
00:32:43
leadership which means it will never come from a Joe Biden or KLA Harris and look if if Elon and beet
00:32:50
convince president Trump that he's going to lean in aggressively on on cutting spending great but that hadn't happened
00:32:56
so far what would it take for for the voters to eventually get there because it would require the voters backing a
00:33:01
candidate with that message and it seems like no one sees that because what everyone sees is I want to get X and the
00:33:06
only way I get X is if I get the government to do X for me yeah look it it varies it takes electing strong
00:33:12
leaders so I elections matter and and I engage so so I think I've probably campaigned for more candidates for
00:33:20
Senate house and and governorship than any Republican in the country I mean I travel all over the country I endorse
00:33:26
candidates and I follow the old Bill Buckley role which is I support the most Conservative candidate who can win yeah
00:33:34
and that varies look look a candidate who can win in Texas is different than a candidate who can win in Maine yeah
00:33:39
right and and so but but I can say the problem is you get I can tell you in Texas I mean when I ran 2012 I ran for
00:33:49
Senate I'd never been elected before yeah never been elected to nothing yeah literally the last thing I was elected
00:33:56
to was student counsil by the way Cham you may not remember this you actually wrote me a check that
00:34:01
race I was going to tell that St we looked it up which because we were together in Utah y Peter teal had an
00:34:07
event or he does his thing and we had a breakfast and uh Ted was surrounded by sort of a handful of us who were
00:34:17
speaking to him and then what I would say is like every traditional Democrat from Central castle
00:34:24
and he went through the firing squad and he came out the other side and I thought
00:34:27
wow this this is really great and so then I I was I was very happy to donate well I I was you you were a demned donor
00:34:33
back then I was a demned donor but I but see here's the thing like and I think what you're getting what I think what
00:34:39
the senator speaks to which is what I agree with is ideology matters and so when you make
00:34:45
decisions about how you think the country should run you should stay loyal to that and I
00:34:51
think what happens instead is people stay loyal to a party Y and it's the minute you do that that the whole thing
00:34:57
breaks and this is what's broken and I think what the great thing that Donald Trump did was he basically conducted a
00:35:04
hostile takeover of the Republican Party undoubtedly yeah and then committed subu
00:35:09
and that's the most important thing that happens I mean are reset you don't have
00:35:14
to go and kick the COA ring what will they say what will all this infrastructure say what does Sor say all
00:35:20
of that is done the whole thing's flipped over hey Senator you that's very powerful I you had an anecdote from me
00:35:25
two nights ago I don't know if you're willing to share it about a convers regarding Denmark and
00:35:29
Greenland do you want to tell us what you think uh so happens here look my view on Denmark and Greenland so I did a
00:35:37
podcast two weeks ago on Denmark Greenland and Canada and I did all all three of them on my verdict podcast and
00:35:45
and I put them in a spectrum let's start with Canada I think the president's Canada remarks we're just trolling I
00:35:52
think he was just screwing with Trudeau I think he was sitting at the table and decided you know why are you even
00:35:57
country you ought to be a state you should be a governor that I send jcal texts like that all the
00:36:02
time you know I would have paid frankly to be sitting at that table to see Trudeau's face in fact um look it was
00:36:09
reminiscent if you remember in the 2016 uh campaign on the debate stage where Trump turned Rand Paul was at the
00:36:16
end and he's like why are you even on this stage and what is it with your hair yeah I I mean it was the same sort of
00:36:21
comment that was just just messing with him yeah um I put that in one and by the
00:36:27
way way that may be the most epic troll of all time because I think that literally pushed Trudeau into resign
00:36:33
crazy huh I mean it it's a fair why would he not why would he do that go to Maro I mean such a stupid thing to do he
00:36:38
just should have been like yeah you know we're our own sovereign country Banks well he was already I think we he go he
00:36:44
likes he likes to go with the trend so that was the trend yeah that's what happens when you're a weather v um I
00:36:48
will say I I couldn't resist tweeting and said you know trau lasted really long for a son of Fidel
00:36:54
Castle which wa no no no keep telling us about can yeah denark Greenland um Greenland on the other hand I think is a
00:37:05
very serious policy proposal and and I think there are you know Trump mentioned this in the first term and a lot of
00:37:11
people dismissed it oh this is just Trump talking wacky yeah but I think there are
00:37:16
enormous National Security and economic reasons why acquiring Greenland makes a ton of sense and you look at Greenland's
00:37:24
location on the Arctic it has incred inedibly prime location on the Arctic if from a national security perspective God
00:37:32
forbid we ever get in a shooting war with China or with Russia icbms are coming right over the Arctic right and
00:37:39
Greenland is a prime location to deal with that we're also seeing more shipping lanes coming in and around the
00:37:46
Arctic and China and Russia are both competing for prized prized access there Greenland makes an enormous sense from
00:37:54
that perspective it also makes an enormous perspective from critic minerals and rare earth minerals they
00:37:59
have vast amounts uh and so what I said is look I think we should pursue this seriously I'll tell you I had a
00:38:06
conversation this week with the Danish ambassador to the United States um and and look Denmark's a little freaked out
00:38:12
by all this conversation Y and and I'll tell you what I told the Ambassador I said listen Denmark is our friend you
00:38:18
our Ally you will continue to be our friend and Ally but friends and allies can have conversations we can have and
00:38:25
and the Ambassador said well well Greenland's not for sale I said that's fine everything's for sale we're going
00:38:30
to have a conversation and and by the way if you maintain that one of the things this has produced is a growing
00:38:36
independence movement in Greenland totally and if you do nothing you may end up getting nothing for Greenland
00:38:41
because they break off on the Run totally right now look for it to happen I think you would probably have to have
00:38:47
a referendum on Greenland yep I find it quite plausible that the greenlanders about 50,000 of them yeah would say wait
00:38:55
a second I get to be an American they P just showed positive results he just did
00:38:58
a survey there I mean to to become an American is in many ways the greatest gift we can give anyone on planet Earth
00:39:05
totally and the billions in investment if Greenland became an American territory the difference it would make
00:39:11
for greenlanders well Senator we could pay 200 billion dollars for the territory to Denmark they would their
00:39:16
federal debt or their National debts about 150 billion they'd have a 50 billion Surplus they could build a
00:39:20
pension plan around want that's why we have you could spend another you could spend another 10 billion to put everyone
00:39:25
in a great situation for the rest of their life a resident of Greenland and that becomes an American territory and
00:39:30
be like a whole new philosophy for us I think we just go right to 60 States let's just make an open offer no but so
00:39:35
so it's and and yeah and sorry how does the president of the administration how are they going to tackle this or do you
00:39:39
have any insights into what's going to happen here so look uh Ken Howry you guys know I know is a good friend who
00:39:44
has been nominated the ambassador to Denmark I've talked with good friend of yeah talked with Ken just yesterday
00:39:48
about this y um I think we need to lean in and try to negotiate both with with Denmark and Greenland um I'm certainly
00:39:55
from the Senate going to push it but I wanted contrasted is Canada become going to become a state no but Greenland
00:40:01
listen we acquired make it a protractor Louisiana Purchase we purchased from France Alaska we purchased from Russia I
00:40:08
mean there's a long history of this totally Puerto Rico next let's go if they want to come on board why not well
00:40:14
it's an American this it's a it's not a state and so Panama I view as kind of in
00:40:20
the middle of the two right and and Panama is a little more complicated look I think Jimmy Carter
00:40:26
giving away the Panama Canal now remains one of the most spectacularly stupid decisions a president has ever done in
00:40:33
office I think it was profoundly harmful to US National Security interest to our
00:40:38
economic interest that being said it's been long enough that unwinding it is really tough
00:40:45
yeah however president Trump if you listen to what he's saying on Panama he's he's got actually some very
00:40:51
sophisticated legal arguments that he's making number one when we gave the Panama Canal to technically sold it for
00:40:58
a dollar uh we had a binding agreement that laid out the terms of that transfer yeah and one argument that President
00:41:05
Trump has put forth is that Panama is in violation of that agreement because they
00:41:11
have allowed China to effectively seize control of the canal how is that because
00:41:16
a Chinese state-owned Enterprise owns a building on one end of the canal and on the other end of the can and should we
00:41:23
be at a point of conflict military or other with China it's not ult to imagine those Chinese State own Enterprises
00:41:30
using that location to try to shut down anyone traversing the sounds like they avoided the contract I that's that's a
00:41:37
pretty powerful argument the second argument and I had breakfast this morning with with President Trump he had
00:41:42
breakfast with all the Republican Senators two and a half hours he gets sworn in tomorrow and he spent two and a
00:41:47
half hours stamina stream of Consciousness talking we talked about Pano he's pointing out uh the president
00:41:53
said this morning said US Navy ships pay double what any other country's Navy ships pay
00:42:00
right he said that that american commercial ships pay 58% more y than other nations pay look we need to drill
00:42:08
down into those facts but on the face of it I think there's a powerful argument that that's inconsistent with the terms
00:42:16
of the agreement and is the final outcome of this that we get total control of the Panama Canal back
00:42:23
probably not I think that's a high lift but in many ways I think Trump is negotiating on price and I could easily
00:42:29
see an outcome where both Navy ships and commercial ships that are American pay much much lower rates number one and
00:42:37
number two critically that we get China the hell out of the canal and and that if we accomplish those two that would be
00:42:44
a massive improvement from us interest have you um I'm sure you've been paying attention uh beyond the things that
00:42:50
you've been a part of the confirmation hearings can you give us the sort of blowby blow of where you think things
00:42:55
have gone well where there was room for improvement whether there's going to be some spotty weather ahead look I've been
00:43:02
really happy so far um I think the array of cabinet nominees has been very very strong were there a couple that were you
00:43:10
thought going in we have to this one will be a little bit harder than the other and well look clearly the most
00:43:15
bumpy was Matt Gates and and they withdrew Matt Gates yeah um he was not going to get confirmed there there were
00:43:20
multiple Republican Senators who were going to vote now right um but I will say I mean they withdrew that nomination
00:43:26
pretty quickly was strategic they sent him up the hill to take the first two and Pam Bondi seems amazing Pam Bondi is
00:43:31
going to be terrific she's going to get confirmed easily I think right now every
00:43:35
Trump cabinet nominee gets confirmed that's great um Pete hegi is clearly who they're shooting at the most um I don't
00:43:43
think they've scored real blood I I did a whole podcast on the Heth uh confirmation
00:43:48
hearing where it spoke volumes that the Democrat virtu virtually all of the Democrat attacks were personal attacks
00:43:56
based on Anonymous charges typically with no evidence and with no one coming forward and putting their name on it and
00:44:03
they had virtually nothing to say about the job to which he'd been nominated and
00:44:06
what he intends to do as the Secretary of Defense I I think that that fundamentally is a flawed
00:44:13
strategy I so I think everyone gets through right now do you think that you'll see any Democrat
00:44:18
Senators support any of the candidates yes um Rubio so Rubio will get 90 votes he could get north of 95 votes it'll be
00:44:27
a huge bipartisan vote for Rubio John Radcliffe for CIA he'll get significant bipartisan votes Shan Duffy
00:44:35
at Transportation he'll get a bunch of bipartisan votes uh Howard lutnick at Commerce my guess is he'll get
00:44:41
bipartisan votes although he hasn't had his hearing yet so we'll see so there will certainly be some Pam Bondi I think
00:44:47
Pam is terrific Brook Rolland Brook will get bipartisan votes part of it is all right let's take Shawn Duffy so I
00:44:54
chaired the confirmation hearing for Shawn Duffy secretary trans Transportation it was a Love Fest why
00:45:00
was it a Love Fest because everyone wants a bridge or a road in their state so if you're a Democrat you're like wait
00:45:07
you're Santa Claus and you're giving out hundreds of billions of dollars I want some and so everyone wants it and so
00:45:13
Brook Rollins at at Department of Agriculture again everyone wants stuff for a and farmers in their state so in
00:45:19
that sort of role it's easy for it to be a Love Fest Pam Bondi even though she did very
00:45:25
well I'd be surprised if Democrats vote for just the nature of attorney general in
00:45:32
this politicized environment my guess is I think of the committee the D's are going to vote no but I think Pam will
00:45:39
hold every Republican and so I I think she she gets through easily Bobby Senator I think he makes it through I
00:45:45
spent an hour with him it'll be interesting this is I was talking with him about this W will any Democrats vote
00:45:51
for him obviously he's been a Democrat his whole life until like 12 minutes ago they hate him and they really they do
00:45:58
view him as a Judas for daring to to change all of us it's still look J K too you look at like red Dy number three you
00:46:08
look at what what Bobby is doing I'm I am re what I more change before he's become AJ secretary the food system is
00:46:15
so screwed like let him cook let's see what he can do and his willingness to take on corruption Corruption of of big
00:46:25
pharmaceutical compan get in bed uh with big government that they perpetuate their monopolies using government power
00:46:32
so I I talked to Bobby for example about a bill that I've I've been fighting for
00:46:36
a long time that I call the results act the results act says that if any pharmaceutical any medical device is
00:46:42
approved in another major developed country so approved in Canada or Japan or the EU that the FDA has 60 days to
00:46:49
approve it here or it's deemed automatically approved by operation love it brilliant I I'm going to fight for I
00:46:56
have been fighting for that but I think now I'll have an HHS secretary that that
00:46:59
agrees with it and I do think if you look at these cabinet nominees the most striking characteristic of virtually all
00:47:07
of them is that they're change agents that they're going to fundamentally disruptors and and that's exciting we
00:47:12
need that all right listen your people have been trying to for 20 minutes but you know what let the man cook I got to
00:47:21
tell the president our bestie Phil helm youth every time he sees you comes back to our game says what a great poker
00:47:28
player what a gentl he drops your name I can get him on the phone right now I told him call him right now he never
00:47:34
does it he was 100% right you are amazing great to have you on the you are tempting me with poker chips I mean
00:47:40
we're going to get you in a game I know you don't make it to California much but
00:47:43
when you do come play just so you know the boots play and we need scotch and a cigar and and I am perfectly happy happy
00:47:50
maybe we'll go playing often I can't stand all these gang balls where everyone's in in tuxedos but but but but
00:47:55
my happy place is sitting around the poker table man you're going to fation and good scotch so great to have you and
00:48:01
uh congratulations on the big win and thank you for your service appreciate it thank you very much thanks a lot thank
00:48:06
you that was great