Iran Invites Neighbors to War by Attacking Them, Noem Out-Mullin In & Elections are BIGGER in Texas Week In Review

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Welcome in his verdict with Ted Cruz, a week in review, Ben Ferguson with you,

and these are the stories that you may have missed that we talked about this week.

First up, Iran doing everything wrong, now attacking countries all around them.

So what does that mean for the region and the escalation of this war?

Also, a big shake-up of the Department of Homeland Security as Christy Nome is out,

who's replacing her will give you the background.

And finally, it was election night in America, a big primary on Tuesday,

and a lot of big things happening in Texas.

We break it all down for you.

It's the week in review, and it starts right now.

Well, let's go back to the Middle East for a moment.

One of the things that we talk about, you know, the Ayatollan and his team,

they're homicidal, and you could also even say suicidal in their obsession with killing innocent people in their own country,

going after Americans, going after Israelis as well.

But one of the things that I was even a little bit shocked by was how quickly they decided to bring in every other country

on the side of Israel and the US by attacking these other Middle Eastern nations around them that weren't involved.

They were outside.

Were you as shocked as I was that they just decided,

all right, like whoever's still left standing, let's just go after Bahrain.

Let's go after Qatar.

Let's go after, I mean, the list is pretty long now of countries they've attacked,

and now they brought them into the fold.

I mean, that to me just seems like a suicidal mission on their port.

Yeah, I will admit, I was surprised by that.

There's been a lot of public reporting that suggested that other Middle Eastern nations

were discouraging President Trump from going after Iran.

I'm a little bit skeptical of that.

I have not recently had those conversations with other Middle Eastern nations,

but I've had many conversations with the Saudis, UAE, Bahrain.

And they have always been very focused on number one,

doing everything necessary to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.

The Saudis have said publicly,

if Iran ever got a nuclear weapon that they would do everything possible to get a nuke themselves

to defend themselves from Iran.

And so I don't know if it's true or not that in the recent weeks Saudi Arabia

and other Middle Eastern countries were urging Trump not to attack,

but I do know that Iran's behavior,

so they fired missiles and sent drones and had attacks

at almost every single Arab country all throughout the Middle East.

So they've attacked Saudi Arabia, they've attacked UAE, they've attacked Kuwait,

they've attacked Qatar, they've attacked Bahrain,

they've attacked Jordan.

And we've seen statements from many of those other Middle Eastern countries,

mostly Arab countries expressing condemning Iran's response.

And in my view, they're just indiscriminately firing abroad.

And I think their reasoning was that if the United States and or Israel

hit them that they wanted to make it as painful as possible for the entirety of the region,

what they haven't assured is that there's basically nobody standing up

and siding with the Iranians.

They're demonstrating essentially they're willing to kill anybody and everybody.

I got to say that's also a really powerful illustration.

If that's what they do now, what would they have done with a nuclear weapon?

Yeah, can you imagine how much worse if they had a nuclear weapon?

And during the whole go back to Obama and the debates on Obama's terrible Iran nuclear deal.

I always said most of the debate rotated around well.

If they had a nuclear weapon, it would change the balance of power.

It would make them more aggressive.

They would fund more terrorism.

And I always said, look, that's the best case scenario.

The best case scenario is a horrible situation.

The worst case is that they would actually use the nuclear weapon.

And everyone operates under an assumption, well, having a nuclear weapon doesn't mean you use it.

Listen, when the Iatola chance death to Israel and death to America, I believe him.

When he calls Israel the little Satan and America the great Satan, I believe him.

And I think the odds are unacceptably high.

I don't know what they were, but they were unacceptably high that the Iatola, if he had a nuclear weapon,

would detonate it maybe in Tel Aviv or maybe in New York or Los Angeles.

And I don't want to wake up and discover, uh-oh, the predictions were wrong because we have a mushroom cloud

and hundreds of thousands or even millions of Americans being killed.

The reason, and by the way, I'm going to say a lot of the news reporting is challenging.

Why would Trump do this attack?

You heard Margaret Brennan there say, say Trump campaigned on, on, on, on not getting in wars.

I did after face the nation.

I also did state of the union with Dana Bash.

And, and Dana Bash asked a question of me.

She said, uh, you know, president Trump campaigned on, on no more wars.

And, and, and I, in my response, I said, well, Dana, you actually misquoted what the president said.

What the president said was no more forever wars.

Yeah.

Referring to Afghanistan.

Exactly.

Totally.

And troops on the ground is completely different doctrine you can tell.

Yeah.

And, and I said, listen, we're not going to see troops on the ground in Iran.

We're not going to see hundreds of thousands of Americans there for an extended period of time.

I don't think we'll see that at all.

Um, that is very different.

And I said, look, there, there are isolationists who want, want America to withdraw from the world.

Donald Trump has never been an isolationist.

And he is acting to protect America.

This is America first.

The reason we are striking Iran right now is because the odds are unacceptably high.

Iran has already killed nearly a thousand Americans and they have every desire to kill more.

As I told the president, driving in the beast, I said, if the Iatola could kill the two of us right now, he would.

The only thing that is preventing him is that he's not able to because he is trying.

And so if we have an opportunity to take out this regime and look, my hope is we see a new government in Iran that wants to be friends with America.

That would make this country massively safer, uh, removing these psychopaths from power and replacing them with anything resembling a normal government would massively improve the safety of every American.

Two questions to wrap things up.

Number one, I thought it was really interesting to see the comparing contrast of the women standing up for themselves in Iran on the streets risking their lives.

Well, women in America were actually standing up angry at America for going into Iran.

We saw that in New York City, for example, we saw that in some other college campuses, like the disconnect from reality from some of these leftists is amazing.

I want to get your take on that real quick.

I want to talk about the possible closing street of her moves and what that means and what America's role could be in that as well.

Yeah. So, so today, uh, comrade mandami put out a statement that I want to read to you.

Today's military strikes on Iran carried out by the United States and Israel mark a catastrophic escalation of an illegal war of aggression bombing cities, killing civilians, opening a new theater of war.

Americans do not want this. They do not want another war in pursuit of regime change.

They want relief from the affordability crisis. They want peace.

I am focused on making sure every New Yorker is safe.

I've been in contact with our police commissioner and emergency management officials.

We are taking proactive steps, including increasing coordination across agencies and enhancing patrols of sensitive locations out of an abundance of conscious caution.

I want to speak directly to Iranian New Yorkers.

You are part of the fabric of this city.

You are our neighbor's small business owner students, artist workers and community leaders.

You will be safe here.

Look, this is comrade mandami cheering for the iatola.

Yeah.

Because they are both jihadists and they both want to see the great Satan of America.

They want to see this country fundamentally change and to become an Islamic caliphate.

That was the iatola's objective.

That sadly I believe is comrade mandami's objective.

And I want to contrast that with the reaction of protesters, Iranians, like his line to Iranians, you will be safe here.

I know a great many Iranians.

Every Iranian I know hates the regime is cheering.

And I want you to watch in particular this scene that played out on the ground in Austin, Texas and a CBS news reporter who was told don't cover the protest celebrating the iatola being killed.

Cover that up.

And this brave reporter didn't do that.

Give a listen.

Give a watch.

It's incredible there.

And again for people that can't see the video, you have this Austin CBS reporter.

He was handed the phone from his cameraman and he reads it and he's like, what does that mean?

And the cameraman responds, they don't want us to focus on this.

And this brave local reporter said, all right, well I am.

And now it's out there on the internet of him having this moment.

It's sad that you've got to be this brave in America at a local affiliate to report the news, which was the news that you had people celebrating and waving American flags and Iranian flags.

And standing up for the people, the innocent people in Iran and they're like, no, no, we don't want you to focus on that at CBS.

Yeah, look, this is happening all all over the country, all over America.

It's happening on the ground on the streets of Iran.

It's happening around the world.

You know, Kamala Harris today put out a statement quote, Donald Trump is dragging the United States into a war.

The American people do not want.

Let me be clear.

I am opposed to a regime change war in Iran and our troops are being put in harm's way for the sake of Trump's war of choice.

Now I will tell you, I responded to her on X and I said, your administration gave over $100 billion to the Iatola who kept killing Americans.

We know you're sad that your friend isn't with us anymore.

Look, the Democrat party was all in in support of the Iatola.

Now sometimes they pretended they weren't, but when Joe Biden and Kamala Harris sent over $100 billion flowed that money into the Iatola, they funded his terror.

The Obama Iran nuclear deal was designed to inevitably lead to a nuclear Iran to the Iatola with nuclear weapons.

And so this is, I'll tell you, and folks that deal with conflict in the Middle East and deal with foreign policy frequently refer to Iran as quote, the head of the snake.

Why do they call it the head of the snake?

Because it is what is leading and directing and funding the vast majority of the terrorism you see.

Without Iran, Hamas has no resources.

Without Iran, Hezbollah and the Houthis have no resources.

And so what President Trump is doing here is being a strong commander in chief and making Americans safer.

Final question on the story of the Hormuz and the reality of what's happening there.

Give us your thoughts and perspective on that and what you think can happen moving forward.

So we don't know that there is reporting that the Iranians may have mined the Straits of Hormuz.

So we don't have an answer to that right now.

Right now, there's not shipping.

There are not ships going through the Straits of Hormuz until it is determined whether or not they have mined it.

I'll be clear, that's significant.

People that just don't understand how important it is.

A significant amount of oil, world's oil supply goes through there.

Yeah, so right now that is shut down.

By the way, right now, civilian air traffic is shut down throughout the Middle East.

You can't get on an airline and fly into and out of most of the cities in the Middle East because you've got missiles flying everywhere.

And so all of the countries have understandably shut their airspace down.

And so I am confident that we will have mine sweepers go into the Straits of Hormuz.

That may be happening now, I don't know.

An examine and determine if they're mines there, but at least right now you're not seeing ships go through there because these guys are just crazy enough to have put mines there.

And so no one wants to risk it until it's determined one way or another whether it's safe.

Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation, you can go back and listen to the full podcast from earlier this week.

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She lives in a remote community with very few resources and little to no health care.

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She woke up and just long enough to tell her mom, I can't take the pain anymore.

I can't keep going.

Her parents drove hours to find a doctor who tried everything, but she needed a private hospital, and that was impossible for her family to afford.

And that is when compassion international stepped in.

Now through compassion, Alejandra was treated and against all odds she survived.

She lived because someone just like you took action.

Right now, unfortunately, there are children just like Alejandra who won't survive unless someone like you steps in.

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A sacred season is approaching.

Passover.

When we remember God's deliverance, the night he brought his people out of bondage and into freedom.

This year, many of God's people will observe in darkness under the shadow of war.

Across Israel, red alert sirens pierce the air.

Families run to shelters with seconds to spare.

Elderly men and women fear they'll be left behind.

And parents are comforting their frightened children as explosions shake the night.

Sleeplessness and uncertainty have become daily life in Israel.

And Passover reminds us that God hears the cries of his people and answers with love and compassion.

And that's why the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews is on the ground in Israel right now.

They're providing food and emergency supplies, equipping bomb shelters and caring for elderly Holocaust survivors.

Just as his people once cried out for deliverance, vulnerable Israelis need your help today.

With your generous Passover gift, it shows you stand with God's people.

And if you are ready to stand with the people of Israel, then stand with the IFCJ and help.

You can call them 888-488-IFCJ.

That's 888-488-IFCJ to rush your gift right now.

Or you can give online at IFCJ.org.

That's IFCJ.org.

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From storm warnings to pollen levels, write at your fingertips.

Get the fastest local alerts and comprehensive 10-day forecasts wherever you are.

It's hyper-local, real-time customizable alerts.

Make sure the weather never takes you by surprise so you can plan every day with confidence.

Download the free weather bug app from the App Store today and start getting accurate weather forecasts 24-7.

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you can stay mission-ready while you get market-ready.

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Plus military service members, veterans, and their families can save up to 45% on master's tuition

with AMU's special rates and grants.

Learn more at AMU.apus.edu.

Steady through every mission.

Now on to story number two.

There was a shake-up.

You don't want to ever be the first one to be a cabinet secretary to get the boot,

but it was pretty clear, Christy Known got the boot this week.

One of your colleagues is going to take over at Department of Homeland Security.

Mark Wayne, at moment, I want to get your take on all of that.

Well, the president announced this week that he was removing Christy Known from Secretary of DHH.

And replacing her with Mark Wayne Mullen.

I have to say this was not much of a surprise to anyone watching closely.

Christy Known testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee this week.

I was part of that hearing.

I questioned her on it.

The questioning was bumpy.

And she got, the Democrats, of course, went after her hard.

But a number of Republicans went after her hard as well.

And I have to say one of those that was the most effective was my friend and colleague

from Louisiana, John Kennedy.

John has been on this podcast.

And he's someone who's a good friend of mine.

I want to play John Kennedy's cross-examination of Christy Known,

because this proved very consequential cross-examination.

Give a listen.

How do you square that concern for waste, which I share,

with the fact that you have spent $220 million running television advertisements

that feature you prominently?

Sir, the president tasked me with getting the message out to the country

and to other countries where we were seeing the invasion come from,

with putting commercials out that told them that if they were in this country illegally,

that they needed to leave, or we would detain them and remove them,

and they'd not get the chance to come back to America the right way.

That has been extremely effective.

I asked you to run these advertisements.

Is that right?

We had that conversation, yes, before.

I was put in this position and sworn in and confirmed and since then as well.

Did you bid at those service contracts?

Yes, they did.

They went out to a competitive bid and career officials at the department

chose who would do those advertising commercials.

The people that you ended up picking were people who had formerly done your political work

back in South Dakota, is that right?

No, that's not correct, sir.

No, it's not, sir.

We, the individuals who, I believe, the careers who they chose were two different media firms.

There's been conversation about their subcontractors,

but we have no legal authority to look into subcontractors on work like that.

Okay.

And you're saying that you're testifying that President Trump approved this.

They had a time, some understanding.

We had conversations about making sure that we were telling people.

No, ma'am.

I'm asking you, sorry to interrupt, but the President approved ahead of time.

You spending $220 million running TV ads across the country in which you are featured prominently.

Yes, sir.

We went through the legal processes.

Did it correct me?

Did the President work with OMB?

Yes.

He did.

Yes.

Okay.

And one thing, Senator, I think, would be helpful to know is how effective that communications has been.

Well, overwhelmingly.

Well, effective in your name or recognition.

I mean, I personally just, I mean, to me, it puts the President in a terribly awkward spot.

And it, and I just, I'm not saying you're not telling the truth.

It's just hard for me to believe.

You know, and the President has, I do that you said, Mr. President, here's some ads I've cut.

And I'm going to spend $220 million running them that he would have agreed to that.

I don't think Russ vote at OMB would have agreed to that.

It's something we have to defend.

I'm only appropriations committee.

I mean, my research shows that you did not bid them out.

In fact, one of the people you picked, the strategy group, I'm sorry, say for America Media was a company formed on 11 days before you picked them.

And that the strategy group got most of the money.

The head of that is married to your former spokesperson.

I'm, look, we all have friends who are qualified.

I'm not crippling with that.

I'm just, it troubles me quarter, fifth to a quarter of a billion dollars of taxpayer money.

When, when we're scratching forever, penny and we're fighting over recession packages.

I just can't agree with Madam Secretary.

Are you still running those ads?

Senator, I did not have anything to do with picking those contractors.

I had no politicals at the Department of Homeland Security did it.

Are you still running those ads?

Are you still running those ads?

I think the ads are due to end here in March.

I think within a week.

The one that is running is focusing on angel families.

Have you seen that?

It is the one that's talking about this is our why.

This is why we work every day.

It's for the angel families and their victims.

Senator, it was, it was not, not a good showing there for, for her.

And, you know, you're calling there.

Senator, can any asking questions?

I think a lot of Americans care about.

The President's also come out saying she did not run this by him

in the, in the amount of money being spent either.

That, that also didn't work well for her either.

Well, and, and that, that's something that, that, that, that John Kennedy pointed out.

He, he said in the aftermath.

He, he said that President Trump was quote,

mad as a murder hornet,

that gnome claimed he approved the $200 million ad contract.

And, and, and listen, John is a good friend of mine.

I, I talked to him today on the Senate floor and, and I just,

the number of nominees that his cross examinations have taken out.

It, it is quite remarkable.

And, and I think it was John Kennedy's cross examination that, that was pivotal in the decision to, to shift from Christy.

Look, I, I like Christy personally.

I had dinner with, with, with her just a few weeks ago.

And, and I do think the results of the Department of Homeland Security in terms of securing the border

have been very effective.

And, and so that, that is beneficial.

I, I think John Kennedy's line of questioning here was fair.

And, and, and it was, it, it was incredibly effective.

I, I also think and we've talked about this on, on the podcast before,

that the messaging from the administration, particularly following the shooting of two different Americans in Minneapolis,

that the, the messaging was, was wrong.

And, and it did real damage.

That, that, that, that I think that the, the, the messaging was,

look, any time an American citizen is killed in a confrontation with law enforcement, it, it's a tragedy.

And, and we should see our officials acknowledging it's a tragedy.

We should see our officials saying, listen, if there's an officer involved shooting,

there's going to be an investigation where it examine what happened and, and determine what exactly caused it.

And, instead the rhetoric immediately leaped to, to really aggressive rhetoric,

calling both of the individuals, using language like terrorists and seeking mass murder.

And, and, and that was, that was hard to square with the facts of what occurred.

I, I think that rhetoric did damage to the administration.

And, I think it was one of the things that contributed to the decision of the president to shift from,

Christie Dome, as, as the leader of, of Homeland Security.

Mark Wayne, Mark Wayne, I've, I've served with him in the Senate.

He, he, he's a good guy.

He's someone the president trusts.

I think he will be confirmed. I think it will be a party line vote in the Senate.

We may get John Federman, but I would be surprised if any other Democrat votes for him.

So my prediction is the vote on Mark Wayne Mullen will, will be 54 to 46, that 46 Democrats will vote now.

And, and I think Mark Wayne, look, the, their, their advantages to being an experienced elected official.

He was a House member. He's been a senator.

I'm hopeful that he will bring a level of professionalism and effectiveness.

The results of DHS have been quite strong.

But, but I, I, I do think I, I do think that the testimony that Secretary Nome gave,

it was not an easy day for her. And I think John Kennedy, Tom Tillis also lit into her really hard.

But, but I think the Kennedy cross examination was more significant.

There's been quite a bit of reporting that, that the president was unhappy.

That she said that he knew about the ad she had run.

And, and, and I don't have independent knowledge of that.

But, but, but I don't have reason to, to doubt that reporting.

Yeah. And, and, and so, look, we need to secure our border.

We've had an incredible success rate doing so, so far.

I'm hopeful the Barquade Mullen coming in will continue with that success and consent,

continue to keep our family safe.

As before, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation on this topic,

you can go back and download the podcast from early this week to hear the entire thing.

I want to be honest with you for a second about how an active compassion really feels.

A couple of years ago, I made the choice to partner with an amazing organization called Compassion International.

Why? Because I wanted to sponsor a child in need.

It was a nice idea, sure, but I had no idea just how much that simple act would change my life as well.

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going from starving literally alone on the streets to getting the healthcare and education she needs to reach her God given full potential.

I got to be a part of that change and the light of that compassion not only illuminates in her,

it illuminates now in me.

That is the power of compassion, the light of Christ shines on all of us.

Feel it for yourself and change literally a child's life.

Change the world and you also change yourself.

You can sponsor a child today, visit Compassion.com.

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This is Chris Klein with Bitcoin IRA.

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A sacred season is approaching, Passover.

When we remember God's deliverance,

the night he brought his people out of bondage and into freedom.

This year, many of God's people will observe in darkness under the shadow of war.

Across Israel, red alert sirens pierce the air.

Families run to shelters with seconds to spare.

Elderly men and women fear they'll be left behind.

And parents are comforting their frightened children as explosions shake the night.

Sleeplessness and uncertainty have become daily life in Israel.

And Passover reminds us that God hears the cries of his people,

and answers with love and compassion.

And that's why the international fellowship of Christians and Jews

is on the ground in Israel right now.

They're providing food and emergency supplies,

equipping bomb shelters and caring for elderly Holocaust survivors.

Just as his people once cried out for deliverance, vulnerable Israelis need your help today.

With your generous Passover gift, it shows you stand with God's people.

And if you are ready to stand with the people of Israel,

then stand with the IFCJ and help.

You can call them 888-488-IFCJ.

That's 888-488-IFCJ to rush your gift right now.

Or you can give online at IFCJ.org.

That's IFCJ.org.

No one knows what the future holds,

but you deserve a weather app that can help.

Weatherbug is easy to use and provides forecasts for your every need.

From storm warnings to pollen levels, right at your fingertips.

Get the fastest local alerts and comprehensive 10-day forecasts wherever you are.

It's hyper-local, real-time customizable alerts.

Make sure the weather never takes you by surprise so you can plan every day with confidence.

Download the free weather bug app from the app store today

and start getting accurate weather forecasts 24-7.

Military life isn't predictable,

but earning your master's degree can be.

With American Military University's 40-plus flexible online master's programs,

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I want to get back to the big story number three of the week you may have missed.

It was election day on Tuesday in America.

It was a very big election day in Texas.

There was certainly some upsets on the house side.

There's a lot of people around the country watching Dan Crinchel's race.

He lost that race to someone that you endorsed.

That was a big one that was, I was on national TV talking about over and over again.

And then there's obviously the Senate race that's happening as well.

That's now gone into a runoff between two people that you know well.

Your colleague in the Senate and also Ken Paxton.

So we're going to have to wait and see how that plays out as well.

But then there's also the Democrat running against whoever wins that runoff.

And this is a guy that Democrats are really excited about.

He's talented.

He's radical.

He's extreme.

But he comes across like a very moderate guy if you listen to him today.

Well, we had primary day in Texas this week and it was highly consequential.

Number one, there were a number of House candidates who I endorsed who prevailed.

We had one Jessica Steinman who was my former regional director in Houston.

She won decisively the Republican primary.

She is going to be in all likelihood the next Republican Congress member from Houston.

We had another Chris Gober who's been my lawyer for 10 years.

He won his primary decisively.

He's going to be a new Republican congressman from Central Texas.

We had another John Bonk who I endorsed who is a close friend.

He is the son-in-law of one of my closest friends in the world who has been my national finance chairman for years.

By the way, that was a fun night.

Let's take a moment to talk about how fun that was.

So you were obviously in DC, but I went to the Victory Party.

It's fun to see someone that you and I know personally and the smile on your dear friend Willie's face.

And even Heidi was there as well at your wife.

It was really a cool evening to see someone work hard and win.

I know you had to have a really, that had to feel personal to you.

So Willie, whose John Bonk's father-in-law is one of my two or three closest friends on planet Earth.

And I love him. He's a good man. He's a principled man.

He's a conservative. He's a godly man. He's someone who frankly I rely on for advice, for spiritual counseling.

We pray together. We talk together.

And John is very likely to win.

He did not clear 50% so unfortunately there's going to be a runoff, but I think he's going to prevail.

I actually did a rally for him just a week ago in the middle of the rally.

While I had several hundred people there rallying for him.

I got the chance to announce from the stage while I was up there that President Trump had endorsed him.

That was a very cool moment.

We knew it was likely to come. I thought there was a chance that Trump would call on the cell phone.

If he had called I would have put the cell phone up to the microphone and let him announce it to the whole crowd.

Instead I got to announce that the crowd went nuts.

That was really gratifying to have three people who are two who are members of my team and have been employees

and another who is a very close friend to see three new likely members of Congress coming.

That was a big deal.

We also had Don Huffins who I endorsed for Comptroller in a statewide position in Texas that won decisively.

That was a big victory.

Then you noted Dan Crenshaw.

Look, in my 14 years in the Senate, I almost never endorse against Republican incumbents.

There's a reason. If you're serving in the Senate, if you're working in Congress,

if you're endorsing against your colleagues, it makes it very hard to get anything done.

That makes lifelong enemies.

I just have to be really reluctant to do so.

I endorse and open races, but I almost never endorse in races against Republican incumbents.

I've made two exceptions in 14 years.

The first was Liz Cheney.

Liz Cheney lost her mind and became a radical leftist who hated President Trump.

I endorsed her opponent, Harriet Haguemen, who beat her and is getting ready to be the new senator for Wyoming now.

I did it again for Dan Crenshaw for much the same reason, because he had really lost his way.

He had got angry with his constituents.

There were multiple instances in which he yelled.

There's one instance where he yelled at a 14-year-old girl and just got angry.

In this race, there's a very good friend of mine who's been a longtime supporter and close friend.

Who was supporting Dan's opponent and Dan decided to just light him up.

This is a banker, a private citizen in Texas and Dan decided to go after him personally.

I got to say that pissed me off.

He's a close friend of mine and I didn't like Dan just attacking him directly.

I endorsed his opponent, Steve Toath.

Steve Toath has been a state legislator for a number of years.

He's a very strong conservative.

It ended up that Steve Toath won and won decisively, won by a big margin.

That was a little bit of a cannon shot.

I will say, Dan also, a couple of months ago, we were on a plane landing in DC and in the jetway walking off Dan began screaming and cursing at me.

It was really a little unhinged and he was like, why are you coming after me?

I was like, well, I'm not.

He was mad that supporters of mine were supporting his opponents.

Look, I don't control what my supporters do there.

Individuals who have free choice.

He was literally screaming and cursing at me.

I told him at the time, I said, Dan, if I come after you, I promise you, you will not be subtle.

It will not be hidden. You will have full awareness of it.

But I told him afterwards, I said, listen, in 14 years in the Senate, you are the only house member who's ever screamed and cursed at me on an airplane and that includes all the Democrats.

It pushed me beyond the edge and the voters of Texas decided that he was not reflecting their conservative values.

And so they've elected Steve Toath will be a great member of Congress.

He'll be a strong conservative.

Now, we've got the Senate race. The Senate race, there is a runoff between John Cornyn, my colleague right now, and Ken Paxton, the Attorney General.

Both of them, I know very well. Both of them are friends of mine. Both of them, I've worked together closely with for years.

I've endorsed both of them in the past. I've campaigned with both of them in the past.

And I got to say, this primary is better in nasty. Look, it is to date the most expensive primary in American history.

Yeah.

And John and Ken really dislike each other.

And so it is going to be brutal. It is going to be ugly.

I don't know how it's going to resolve. The President Trump tweeted out this week that he is going to make an endorsement.

He is not yet. So we'll see what the President decides to do on this.

But I will say at the same time, the Democrats nominated a guy named James Talleriko as a state rep.

And this guy is dangerous. He's an ordained minister.

He's a radical.

He's a hardcore leftist and will and subsequent podcasts break down just how radical and extreme his record is.

But what makes him dangerous is he sounds reasonable.

He masks. He masks his radicalism in reasonable sounding soft language.

He masks it in the language of a pastor.

It's incredibly deceptive and dishonest, but that makes it dangerous.

And so we've got a real fight in Texas. And I don't know what the result will be.

As always, thank you for listening to verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.

Don't forget to download my podcast and you can listen to my podcast every other day.

Not listening to verdict or each day when you listen to verdict afterwards.

I'd love to have you as a listener to again, Ben Ferguson podcast.

And we will see you back here on Monday morning.

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