Breaking Down the GOP Debate-Did Anything Change?

Published Nov 9, 2023, 9:00 AM
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Welcome.

It is a special pod Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you, and also Senator Cruz's book Unwoke, How to Defeat Culture Marxism America. Congratulations Center. It's at number one in multiple categories right now on Amazon. If you haven't grabbed the book yet, get it. It's incredible. It is a special pod because it's the GOP debate and I want to get your first overall thoughts on the night, Senator I watched it. I didn't really think there was any big shock or anything that's going to catapult somebody out of this debate. I found parts of it a little fatiguing and just kind of boring.

Your reaction, Well, I basically think that's right. We're sitting here right now. It's ten thirty at night. The debate just ended, and I didn't see anything this evening that fundamentally changed the race. We are seeing the field start to winnow. Some the last debate there was seven candidates on the stage. This time there were five, and so you had Mike Pences dropped out of the race, and you had Doug Bergham, who didn't make the threshold for this debate. And so the field winnowing is significant. I think you're seeing more and more that that that that the battle for who is the principal alternative to Trump is shrinking down to DeSantis and Nikki Haley. Uh, you saw the other candidates on the stage. Chris Christy continues just just throwing throwing bricks at Trump, but not not getting as I see, at any significant traction.

Uh.

Tim Scott, I like Tim a lot. He's my colleague, he's my friend, but but he has been having real trouble getting traction in this race. And Vivek. Look, Vivek had some some colorful moments, some fiery moments, but but at the end of the day, most of the dynamic tonight seemed to be a battle between DeSantis and Haley, and you could tell they were both throwing some hard, hard shots at each other, trying to knock the other off and say, Okay, I'm the lead person to take on Trump.

You've obviously done this. Been in a presidential debate, quite a few of them. And as that stage gets smaller and smaller, there is a perk, I think for the voter, and that is much more of a subset of debate. There was one part of this debate that dealt with the border. It was a part where DeSantis, I think, was really trying to make himself be the front runner on border security issues, and it dealt with the issue of going after drug cartels and actually using special ops to take them out. Here's part of what he had to say on the debate stage.

Well, first, I was speaking to a dad who lost the son fentanyl overdose.

Son wasn't a drug addict.

He had taken some pill that happened to be lace with fentanyl and it was a fatal overdose. And when he told me, obviously the pain of losing a child is as bad as it gets. But he said, what was salt in the wounds is that these elites in DC don't give a damn about what's going on in this country. They don't care that we have tens of thousands of opioid deaths that the fentanel's pouring in. They are not taking the type of action who need to. We're declaring it a national emergency on day one. I'm sending US military to the border. I'm going to stop the invasion cold. I am going to deport people who came illegally. And I'm even going to build the border wall and have Mexico pay for it, like Donald Trump promised.

How are you going to do it?

Yeah, Mexico is not going to fork over money. We're going to impose fees on the remittances that foreign workers send to foreign countries.

We'll raise billions of dollars.

I'll build a wall, But we are going to designate the cartels to be foreign terrorist organizations or something similar to that, and we're going to authorize the use of deadly force. We're going to have maritime operations to interdict precursor.

Chemicals going into Mexico. But I'll tell you this.

If someone in the drug cartels is sneaking fence and all across the border when I'm present, that's going to be.

The last thing they do. We're going to shoot them, stone cold dead.

We're gonna shoot him, stone cold dead. The audience absolutely erupted to that line. I'm saying, Hey, we'll treating Mike Terris. I want your reaction to that.

So look, I think on the fentanyl question, the answers from the candidates were all fine. To be honest, many of the answers felt like talking points. There was very little done in terms of an indictment of Joe Biden. In fact, it was really hard to hear Joe Biden's name even tonight. It was really striking that the candidates didn't say Joe Biden's name, and they didn't say Donald Trump's name very much, both of them. You know, it's kind of ironic right now. I think most people think the most likely nominees or Biden and Trump, and yet the five on the stage rarely mentioned either name. I think that was a strategic mistake on the border, you know, I think it would have been more effective to see someone really vigorously, passionately litigate the case against Biden. This is a man made disaster. Joe Biden created it. Joe Biden inherited the lowest rate of illegal immigration in forty five years, and he came in and deliberately screwed it up. And he screwed it up by ending remain in Mexico. He screwed it up by reimposing catch and release. He undermines the border patrol. And the president can fix this. And I got to say, I didn't hear any of the candidates really explain it. I don't know if they understand it or not, but they didn't explain it that this is one of the issues on which a president can fix it and can fix it immediately, and that was not clearly articulated. I have to say, several of the candidates talked about using the military to go into Mexico and kill the cartels. I gotta say, I think that position is loopy. Our military doesn't invade sovereign nations, and we should not start. We shouldn't be invading Mexico or candidate or anyplace else.

Now.

What I do think we need I've talked about this before, is something like planned Colombia, which happened under George W. Bush, when you had when you had the Mediine cartel, when you had a massive wave of drugs coming in and President Uribe and Colombia asked for America's help, said please come in and help us get rid of the drug dealers, and we did. We sent the military in and eradicated much of their leadership. I think that would make enormous sense. But I didn't hear anyone point out that to do this you would need the Mexican government's approval, that we should not be in the business of invading Mexico. And I think fundamentally the reason people are saying let's send the military in and invade Mexico is because they're not explaining what has caused this crisis. It is a deliberate, deliberate choice by Joe Biden, by Kamala Harris, by Alejandro Majorcis, and by the Democrats in Congress to open up our borders. And that choice could be reversed immediately by a president who understood the problem and was prepared to say, if you are apprehended, you will be deported, we will put you on a plane, we will send you back. The numbers would plummet, Both the numbers of illegal immigration and the numbers of drugs coming into this country would plummet. I'll mention something else also, which is on immigration. Vivek talked about our northern border and he said another thing that I thought was really kind of odd, and he said, we need to build two walls, one on our southern border, one on our northern border. I don't know what the guy's talking about, the idea that we would build a wall on our border with Canada. Number one, it would be a massive wall that's a much much bigger wall than our southern border. And number two, there is nowhere near the traffic to justify building a massive wall across what is in many cases open wilderness between Canada and very sparsely popular related parts of the United States. That was an odd policy recommendation, but I think look, people are looking for something that sounds catchy and sexy to solve this problem, rather than explaining and articulating what really caused it.

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Could we do that?

Could a president do that without the permission, just airspace and all the other logistics that are involved, and go after these cartels are bringing in fentanyl, because that sounds like a great promise that may be very hard to fill eagerly.

Look, could a president do that? A president's commander in chief, you could order the military to go in. But ordinarily, if you invade another country, that's considered a declaration of war. And listen, I would love to and the military after the cartels. If if, if the Mexican government asked for our help, and to be clear, Colombia did, but it took the situation getting bad enough that they recognized they needed our help. And one of the problems is under Joe Biden because he's opened up the border. The cartels in Mexico have have increased their profits by two six hundred percent. Back in twenty eighteen, they made roughly five hundred million dollars profits from human trafficking. Last year they made thirteen billion dollars from human trafficking. The consequence of that is the cartels have become one of, if not the dominant player in Mexican society. We've seen crime rate skyrocket. We see murders and kidnapping and disappearing all across Mexico. It is tragic. We see Mexican politicians, Mexican journalists, we see prosecutors, judges threatened at massive numbers. I sat down with with with the mayor Reinosa, major American city right across from McCallen, just a few weeks ago for lunch along with several others in McCallen. He was describing how in Renosa they've had roughly six thousand people disappeared by the cartels. These are horrific numbers, and so right now at least Amlo, who is viciously anti American, has become more anti American with a weak president like Joe Biden would never ever ever invite the military in to take out the cartels. Now AMLO's going to be out of office. The next president will see what happens. But I think the answers on illegal immigration were fine, but none of them expressed a deep understanding of what in fact is happening.

It was interesting as I was watching it, and I want to get your take. I was looking at these answers and almost like they were saying, I'm with Trump too, and then Rama Swami's like, I'm with Trump, and then I'll build even more wallwa in Canada. It was like an overreach there. There wasn't any sense of like ownership of their own ideas on how to deal with Fetano, how to deal with China, and how to deal with the cartels, and how to deal with the southern border. It was regurgitating what I think. It's like they'd all already heard that was popular. That concerned me as a Republican.

Yeah, and remember, look, every one of these candidates is theoretically running to be the alternative to Trump. Having an immigration debate where nobody mentions the name Joe Biden and nobody mentions Donald Trump. It's just kind of weird, like it's sort of missing the point. It's people reading a few kind of like I said, talking points without acknowledging. Number one, this is an area Trump had very significant success, and he negotiated the remaining Mexico deal. That was a big damn deal. It was a game changer. It was unbelievably successful, and then Biden on his first week in office ripped it to shreds and caused this crisis. And to have that discussion without acknowledging that context, I think, let me put it this way, I don't think any of those candidates in discussing illegal immigration moved a single voter, and that from their perspectives is a problem.

Yeah, it certainly is.

There was also a grand debate over pro hamas propaganda on TikTok. Now, we've had debates about TikTok before. Should it be banned? It's been banned on government devices, and many states have banned from state government devices. Is it a spying app ration is also in a sense of mind control, where they're pushing propaganda in the face of young people, in the face of people on TikTok twenty four to seven. What we saw after what happened with the attack on Israel is a massive and there's data to back this up, A massive onslaught of pro Hamas propaganda that was being pushed into the feeds, into the scrolling of people that are on TikTok. This is a reason why I don't use TikTok. I believe it is nothing more than the Chinese Communist Party spying apparatus and propaganda machine.

This was part of the debate.

I want you to hear it, and I want to get your debate, your reaction to it as well.

We're going to stay on China and we're going to talk specifically about TikTok. Last week, Congressman Mike Gallagher, who is chairman of the House Bipartisan Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, published a long essay on TikTok. Following the flooding of pro Hamas propaganda on the TikTok accounts across the United States, Chairman Gallagher called it shocking. He called the app predatory controlled by America's pre eminent adversary, one used to push propaganda and divide America. It's spyware, he said, a means of surveievance Governor Christy, do you agree with Chairman Gallagher and if so, would you ban or force the sale of TikTok.

I agree one hundred percent with Chairman Gallagher. And let me say this, TikTok is not only spyware, it is pool looting the minds of American young people all throughout this country. And they're doing it intentionally. And when you saw what happened in the last few weeks with all of this anti Semitic, horrible stuff that their algorithms were pushing out at a gargantuan rate, this is China trying to further divide the United States of America.

And this is one of the big.

Failings among many of the Trump administration. He talked tough about TikTok. I heard him do it many times, but when it came down to it, he did not ban them what he could have and should have. And now since then, we've had an additional nearly six years of this type of poison be put out throughout the United States, even.

Putting aside the spine which we.

Know is going on and the theft of American personal data and information. So in my first week as president, we would ban TikTok. They want to go ahead and sell it, Let them go ahead and sell it. But I'll tell you another reason we would do it. Facebook's not in China. X is not in China. They're not permitting a free full of information to the Chinese people from our social media companies. Yet we just open the door and let them do what they're doing. TikTok's to be banned because they are poisoning American minds, and I would do it week one.

Governor, Senator.

You hear those talking points that came there from a guy that actually, I think is a pretty good debater, and it probably hit with a lot of Americans the way that Chris Christy described them, And I think the comparing contrast with China is brilliant. He's like, look, they ban our stuff all the time. They don't let X in their Twitter, they don't let Facebook in there. Why are we so shy as a nation to get rid of of TikTok? Are forced to sale your thoughts on that?

Look, I think you're right. I think Chris's answer there was quite good. But at the same time, one of the things that was striking is is as I saw it, there was basically complete agreement on TikTok across the debate stage that immediately after that, Hugh Hugh had asked asked DeSantis if he agreed. He said he did, He asked Nicky Haley, and Ramaswami Vivek said that he agreed, although he said more broadly that other tech companies are are sharing information with China. We need to crack down on that. He's right on that, and then he asked Nikki Haley, and Nicki Haley used it as a chance to punch back at other candidates on the stage who had attacked her on China generally. So I didn't hear her answer the question. But look, the answers were good, and what you just played from Chris was well articulated. Again, I don't know that any of these answers are differentiating. When you get everyone on the stage agreeing, it's difficult to see what votes are being moved. If they're all saying the same thing. It's status quo. And I will say, you know, Chris there saying if I were president, I would ban it. You know, I would have liked to actually have seen a follow up from the moderator, Well, what under what legal authority would you ban it? Look, she and China can ban whatever the hell he wants because it's a dictatorship. But to actually ban something in America takes some legal authority. And it's one thing to say I would go to Congress and push legislation to ban it. That's that's a position. That is a reasonable position for a presidential candidate to make. But I have not seen an effective argument that the president has the unilateral power to wave a magic wand and suddenly say TikTok is banned in America. And if Christy has an argument for that, he certainly didn't articulate.

How would you ban it?

I mean, explain to people how that would work legally if you let's let's say that any one of these people magically could do this instantly tomorrow.

It's not as simple as as you just described it. Right.

This is one of those empty promises in a campaign that people make which drive voters insane. But what would it actually take to get rid of TikTok or force a sale?

Oh?

Look, you could have and there was discussion under Trump of trying to force a sale. And there they're existing laws, there's there's there's a process called SCIPHIUS that deals with foreign investment in the United States. I'm not saying it is impossible to come up with an argument of executive power to do this, but but Christy did not present any argument under that, and I haven't seen a persuasive argument that it can be done as an executive matter. If it's not done as an executive matter, then it would take legislation, and you'd have to actually get get that to move through Congress, and it certainly has not moved yet. I do agree. Look TikTok. The Chinese government has has control of TikTok, the ability to monitor, monitor what's happening on TikTok. They are pushing very harmful messages. I think they are deliberately harming the United States. I think they are targeting our kids. They're targeting our kids with garbage. They're targeting our kids with self harm messages. They're targeting our kids with with substance abuse and drug use messages, and and on hamas. It has been horrific the pro Hamas propaganda that's being pushed on on TikTok. Now, I will say that we saw we saw it back and forth where NICKI Haley slammed Vivek because he's on TikTok, and and he came back with a pretty good response and said, well, look, you know, all the lefties are on TikTok and we need to actually have some positive messaging there. I understand that argument. I'm not on TikTok myself, but but but because of the Chinese control. But it worries me at times that if all conservatives abandoned that platform and so many kids are are following it, that that that we're leaving it to be almost entirely negative. And so I thought Vivek's response there was pretty good until he went too far and he had a nasty shot at Nikki Haley where he said, well, your daughter's on it, and you're a hypocrite and and and NICKI quite rightly got pissed off at that.

Yeah, and this was this was that response for this point. It was a great back and forth. And if you missed it, here's what it sounded like.

Well, I want to laugh at why Nikki Haley didn't answer your question, which is about looking at families in the eye. And the last debate she made fun of me for actually joining TikTok while her own daughter was actually using the app for a long time, So you might want to take care of your family first. A daughter, the next generation of Americans are using it. And that's actually the point. You have her supporters cropping her up. That's fine, here's the truth. The easy answer is actually to say that we're just going to ban one app. We got to go further. We have to ban any US company actually transferring US data to the Chinese.

Here's a story.

Most people.

I'm going to jump back in there because you heard the back and forth where she even says you're just scum.

Yeah.

Look, I think that was a very very bad moment for VIC. When you're attacking someone's kid, she was exactly right to pop back at him. And I just think that's out of bound. Don't don't attack people's kids. You will you want, you want to criticize the candidate, great, but going after their kid. I I think Vivek lost votes and lost support on that, and and I think a lot of parents are like, leave the kids the hell out of it, and and and and her reaction, look the disgust she had where I think that was real, and and that was I think one of the most consequential moments of the debate.

And I want to move to Israel real quick and get your reaction. This obviously has become a presidential election cycle, that is that is heavy in now foreign policy. Ron DeSantis was asked the question about Israel. There's an obsession now, you and I talked about this yesterday. Uh, there's an obsession by the laugh for a ceased fire. Now the White House is pushing for a ceasefire. Babe has made it very clear, No, if you want to seize fire, then release all of the hostages. Otherwise, we're moving forward and we're not stopping until we get rid of Hamas. And now there's new warnings coming from the UN and even the White House about Israel. If you go too far in their words, they're now the atturning Israel and the bad guys. Also what you predicted, they had a few weeks to do what they need to do, and after that they were going to people are going to turn on them very quickly. But Desantas said this when he was asked about America's foreign policy and net Yahoo.

I would be telling Bbe finish the job once and for all with these butchers Hamas. They're terrorists, They're massacring innocent people. They would wipe every Jew off the globe if they could. He cannot live with that threat right by his country. That Hamas should release every hostage and they should unconditionally surrender.

I'm sick of hearing the media.

I'm sick of hearing other people blame Israel just for defending itself. We will stand with Israel in word and indeed, in public and in private. And I can tell you, as governor, I actually did something about it. Biden's and neglect has been atrocious. We had Floridians that were over there after the attack.

He left them stranded.

They couldn't get flights out, so I scrambled resources in Florida.

I sent planes over.

To Israel and I brought back over seven hundred people to safety. There could have been more hostages had we not acted. And I'll tell you this. I met the first planeload when they came to Florida and one of the mothers pointed to a six year old daughter and she said, my daughter had been saying the last two nights, mommy, I don't want to hear any more bombs.

No more rockets.

I just want to get back to Florida. So there's a difference between words and deeds. We acted and we save lives.

I thought that was a strong point, not just about American leadership and how we should make sure that we get people out of countries when we can. This is I think a clear indirect shot in essence at the President for what happened in Afghanistan and also what's happening now, but also him saying to me, be you can't expect it to do anything but what he's doing now to keep his people safe.

He cannot live with terrorists next door.

Now, that was an excellent answer. It was one of, if not the strongest moment of the night. It was excellent both on substance that he was calling out the need to support Israel and destroying hamas he called out Biden. So unlike the other points I made where they were reluctant to call out Biden, he went very directly at Biden. And part of what made that answer so strong is that Dessanus acted decisively. He had something to say there because as governor of Florida, sending those planes to bring Floridians home from Israel, that was a big deal, that was well done, that showed initiative, that showed leadership. It's part of why Ron has such a strong record as governor of Florida. As an executive, He's able to act Youni latterly in a way the other candidates can't. It's not something it's not like Chris Christy could suddenly send planes to take people to New Jersey. He does not have that capacity. Ron as governor did, but no other governor did that. They're fifty governors in America and only one did that. And so it was a combination of substantively strong combined with a unique moment in his record that Ron was able to capitalize on. And Look, this is one of the things that I've been emphasizing. Debates are all about one of a couple of things. Number One, are you moving votes? Are you moving votes and moving them from whom they've got to come from somewhere. So if you are adding to your vote total, you're taking votes from somebody else. For the candidates on that stage, if they're adding to their vote total, they're either taking votes from one of the other candidates on that stage or from Donald Trump. And you do that through points of differentiation. If you all say the same thing, nothing changes. Well that's an instance where what de Santus was saying was different and I think that was a differentiating moment. There needed to be more of those in the debate for the candidates. I do think the field is shrinking. I think it is more and more becoming between Dissantus and and Haley. I think Nikki had a good and effective night. She's articulate, she defended herself well, there were lots of shots coming at her. But I think all of the candidates would have been better off by having more differentiators between themselves and the other people on that stage, and critically between themselves and Trump and between themselves and Biden.

Do you think, lastly on the debate that there will be this many candidates on the next debate stage or do you think there will be more that fall off? And it goes to as you mentioned earlier that DeSantis Nikki Haley, you know, kind of two people.

So I don't know. I have read the press speculation. So the RNC has increased the threshold for the next debate, and at least the press speculation is that Tim Scott is unlikely to clear that next threshold. I don't know if that's right, and we'll see where things are, but I do think falling off the debate stage is effectively fatal in this race that if you're not there, it is difficult to see how a candidacy survives if it can't make the debate stage. I don't know if Christy makes this the debate stage or not. I have not looked at his numbers closely enough to see if he would make the stage. It would be a very different debate if it were down to three people. I think the three that will make it for sure our DeSantis, Haley, and probably Vivek. His numbers are strong enough, and I will say so in twenty sixteen when I was doing debates, and this is true of every debate that I do. You try to think in terms of moments. Do you have a moment that catches fire, that goes viral, that results in fundraising. So if you have a really good moment that catches fire the next day and even that night, your fundraising can explode. I had debates where within twenty four hours we'd raise millions of dollars because you had a moment that really just just resonated and it can move votes. You know, when we had a great debate, it was striking where we'd go to events and events that used to have three hundred people would have two thousand people, and it was an immediate effect of a really strong debate.

And so that feeling, I mean, it's no joke.

You can really feel like, wow, we really did well last night because the people showed up for us today.

Yeah, and so there were not a whole lot of moments like that. Now, I will Sayvivek had a good moment in his opening and his opening he blasted the RNC and it was memorable, and he blasted the debate moderators. And if you have that clip, you ought to play that because that was one of the more striking moments of the debate.

I'm mister Ramaswami. Let me turn to you. Please make your case.

Why would you Why should you be the nominee and not the former president?

I think there's something deeper going on in the Republican Party here, and I am upset about what happened last night. We've become a party of losers at the end of the day. Is a cancer in the Republican establishment.

Speak the truth.

I mean, since Ronald McDaniel took over best chairwoman of the R and C in twenty seventeen, we have lost twenty eighteen, twenty twenty, twenty twenty two.

No red wave that never came.

We got trounced last night in twenty twenty three. And I think that we have to have accountability in our party for that matter. On if you want to come on stage tonight, you want to look the GOP voters in the eye and tell them you resign, I will turn over my yield my time to you, and frankly, look the people they're cheering for losing in the Republican Party. Think about who's moderating this debate. This should be Tucker Carlson, Joe Rogan and Elon Musk. We'd have ten times the viewership, asking questions that GOP primary voters actually care about and bringing more people.

Into our party.

You think the Democrats, and I've got Christian Walker here, You think that Democrats would actually hire Greg Guttfeld toast a Democratic debate.

They wouldn't do it.

And so the fact of the matters, I mean, christ I'm.

Gonna use this time because This is actually about you in the media and the corrupt media establishment.

Ask you the.

Trump Russia collusion hoax that you pushed on.

This network for years.

Was that real or was that Hillary Clinton made up disinformation?

Answer the question, go.

Mister, this is how we get a puncher.

We need accountability because this media rigged the twenty sixteen election. They rigged the twenty twenty election with the Hunter Biden laptop story, and they're.

Gonna rig this election accountability.

By the way, I love how fast he jumped in there to take those blows, which, by the way, his attack on that debate moderator is accurate. She did, in fact push the Russian hoax for years on the network.

So listen. I will say that that was a striking opening. I mean that that that is unusual, that may be unique in the in the history of presidential debate openings, and it will be memorable. I'm not sure uh that it moved a lot of votes, but it's the sort of thing that will go viral online. It's the sort of thing there was fire flowing now. It also feels a bit performative. So for example, unloading on on Rona McDaniel, listen, I'm frustrated. We're all frustrated at the election results last night, and that we've had multiple elections with with results that that that were subpar, and and and we can have long discussions about why that is. I gotta say it is a bit of a weird argument to say it's Ronal McDaniel's fault, like, I'm sorry, the head of the r NC is not winning or losing national elections. And so what I felt that was it is really Vivek has run his whole campaign never ever ever criticizing Donald Trump, so he didn't want to blame Trump, and and so Rona was kind of a convenient whipping boy for that. But the sort of solution he was pointing to is you need to resign, I thought was less effective. And you could point to Trump, you could point to Mitch McConnell, you could point to candidates selection as to why we lost, you could point to messaging. But targeting Rana on there I thought was odd. Look, going after the media is pretty much always a good strategy and a Republican debate, and I will say his substantive point is exactly right and something I've called for for a long time. I believe Republican presidential primary debates should only be moderated by people who will vote in a Republican primary debate. If you look at Democrat primary debates, you have media journalists, all of whom are Democrats, who moderate the debates, and every one of the moderators wants one of the Democrats on the stage to win. If you look at many Republican debates, they're moderated by journalists. Often all of them are going to vote in the Democrat primary, want every person on the stage to lose. And and so tonight the only person on that stage who's going to vote in the Republican primary is Hugh Hewett. And I thought Hugh did did an admirable job. I like you, He's a smart guy, he's very knowledgeable on foreign policy and national security. I thought he did an admirable job. And and I did think Vivek's point about Welker pushing the the the Russia hoax was was really it scored. I will say it would have been more effective if the moderators had been more blatantly biased. And I will say I did think that that that Welker and Lester Holt did not do a bad job tonight. There have been debates where where we've seen moderators do horrible, horrible jobs and make it all about themselves. And and here I thought the moderators were fairly restrained and and and did a good job of not making it about themselves. And it's striking there, even at the end after he blasts Welker, where she doesn't engage, she just says, okay, you know, moving on and you know when it comes to authenticity. I mean that that whole riff felt to me a bit like a performance piece because he was resolved to blast the moderators before they'd done anything. I think it would have been more effective in response to demonstrated bias and and and and I didn't see nearly as much bias from the moderators as we've seen in other debates.

Yeah, great point.

It was like you said, when sometimes you have lines that you get ready for and you look for, and he played that hand before they showed their bias in this debate. Uh, and it may have looked like you said, two pre planned there. I want to tell you about Augusta Precious Metals. You may have noticed that gold prices have gone up significantly over the last few weeks, and that is because of uncertainty that's going on around the world, whether it's in the Middle East, whether it's with our dead in this country, Wall Street and how it's reacting interest rates and inflation. And if you're like me and you've wanted to buy gold for years, there are lots of commercials out there, but who can you really trust. Well, I want to tell you about Augusta Precious Metals. They give you information, they give you knowledge, and they will talk to you about how if you have an Ira or a four oh one K and you want to buy a physical gold and eliminate fear and uncertainty from the process, you can do that with a gust of Precious Metals with a new gold Ira Company Integrity checklist. It helps you evaluate and choose the best gold IRA company.

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Ted Cruz has a new book. It's called Unwoke. It's uh, he's you know what, he's so cool. He's you can tell it's Ted's book because the dust jacket doesn't quite fit.

It won't won't button in the front. But this is Cruse's fifth book.

The last one was called Ted Cruz A Time for Truth there without the beard. He also wrote Ted Cruz head Ooze. He wrote Glued Pubes, the Guy from Islasa Katuro Beard. It, of course, the new York Times bestseller, A partially Digested Rat, and other things I found in my Chin Pouse. There are many interesting musings and revelations in the books. He says The Princess Bride is his favorite movie and he's seen it hundreds of times, which is definitely not true. No one's seen anything hundreds of times. And apparently he's not a big fan of late night television. This is an excerpt, real excerpt. He wrote a late on TV is virtually unwatchable. I love comedy, but watching angry leftists scream about how much they hate Donald Trump, is it remotely funny?

It's pitiful.

Well, all I'll say is it's an honor to be called pitiful by a man who abandoned his dog in an ice storm to go to Mexico.

But congrats ted Is.

And seriously, I do want to say, you.

Know, writing writing a book like this is a huge accomplishment, especially for him.

You know, it's very difficult to type with.

Hook I mean cider. It doesn't it prove your point that you just wrote in your book. That was the part that made me laugh is as he's forcing this comedy on the audience, and there's some awkward laughter. It's like, yeah, thanks for proving the point of what that you just wrote about in your book.

Sure, look, I mean it was when when he did that last night. I actually tweeted his monologue out this morning and I said, hey, thank thanks for pitching my book. You forgot the link to where you can buy it, and I sent the link, and I did something that that that is is fairly obligatory also, which is Kimmel regularly blasts me in his late night monologues, and every time he does, I respond and I point out that that that ever since I whipped Jimmy Kimmel's ass in one on one hoops, it seems that I'm living rent free in his head.

Uh.

And so I sent a video of me scoring on him and blocking him, just to remind him of that moment that I think he probably still wakes up in Tremor's about. But I thought it was hysterical what he read. There was an actual excerpt from the book, and he put up the book cover and I think that's fabulous. But I do wish the substantent point that late night humor I wish was actually funny. I love comedy. I grew up watching sn L. I like real comedians who are funny, and they used to be funny. And now it's one of the many examples that I discussed it at length in the book Unwoke How How Trump broke the media, Trump broke the Democrat Party, and Trump broke late night comedy because they just it's a partisan, primal skeet scream instead of good comedy, makes fun of both sides. I'm perfectly fine with making fun of me, but they never ever make fun of the Democrats. It's purely a I am leftist? Hear me, roar Yeah. It's a great point.

Don't forget grab the book, especially you know now that Jimmy Kimmel's promoting it. Unwoke How Did Defeat Cultural Marxism in America? Congrat Center. It's number one in multiple categories right now on Amazon. You grab it right now on Amazon will get to you really quickly. You can grab a copy for a great Christmas gift as well, or wherever you get your books. It is out now, Unwoke How to Defeat Cultural Marxism in America. And there's also another liberal book, by the Way, that you were beating earlier today just a little side note, Rachel Maddow has her new book out and you were ahead of that, which made me just grint a little bit.

Senator, Well, that is a good thing, and beating the lefties is a great American pastime.

There we go. Don't forget this show is money was Ay Friday.

Hit that subscribe, auto download or follow button because if you don't, you'll miss special pods like this one when we give you debate reaction on a normal night where we don't do it. So make sure you hit that subscribe auto download button as well and give us a five star review. And the Senator I will actually see you back here tomorrow for our regular episode on Friday, and we'll see you then