In this battle against COVID, Sean has been there throughout the year bringing you the science and real-life impact of this pandemic. Sean is joined by Senator Rand Paul, Senator Ron Johnson, Adam Carolla and some important front-line workers who all share their experiences fighting the COVID battle.The Sean Hannity Show is on weekdays from 3 pm to 6 pm ET on iHeartRadio and Hannity.com. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
You want smart political talk without the meltdowns?
We got you.
And I'm Carol Markovich.
And I'm Mary Catherine Hamm.
We've been around the block in media and we're doing things differently.
Normally it's about real conversations.
Thoughtful, try to be funny, grounded, and no panic.
We'll keep you informed and entertained without ruining your day.
Join us every Tuesday and Thursday.
Normally on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.
I'm Ben Ferguson and I'm Ted Cruz.
Three times a week, we do our podcast, Verdict with Ted Cruz.
Nationwide, we have millions of listeners.
Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we break down the news and bring you behind the scenes, inside the White House, inside the Senate, inside the United States Supreme Court.
And we cover the stories that you're not getting anywhere else.
We arm you with the facts to be able to know and advocate for the truth with your friends and family.
So down a verdict with Ted Cruz now, wherever you get your podcasts.
So I interviewed this guy on TV the other night.
His name is Anton Van Happen.
And he is an LA restaurant owner.
By the way, in case people don't know, I lived in Santa Barbara a few years.
It's actually warm in Southern California.
Anyway, asking government officials, are you going to pay my rent?
Because they went in, gave this guy another citation.
Now they're shutting down the whole state.
And that's leading to now this recall petition that apparently has gotten a lot of traction out in California.
Listen to this poor guy.
This got this like so many people in the shutdown, everything, every hope, every dream, every dollar they ever had, they throw into their businesses only to have the government come in, shut it down and destroy their dream.
Listen.
I followed the rules.
I continue to follow the rules, and you guys still, time after time are giving me citations.
Tell them I have to close my business.
You're not going to be able to do it.
What about my employees?
You're not buffering.
I mean pulling the rules, my tables are inside.
Just because the health department has the whole process to go through that takes however long that takes, I have to close my payments for that time.
Who's it?
Are you gonna pay my rent?
Are you gonna pay six months to make those decisions?
I chose to protest by putting my tables outside, and I reiterate again.
I never served one single person outside.
I did all take out food and delivery to what exactly I was supposed to be doing.
That's exactly what I did.
I did not break any, and it's not even the law.
I did not break any rule.
Yeah, I'm gonna pay my rent, I'm not closing.
It's unbelievable.
Uh Adam Carolla, who hosts his own podcast, weighed in on the support of the recall of Gavin Newsom.
Listen, I don't know who Newsom thinks he is.
He's not a monarch.
No.
Can't shut down society.
You gotta offer some proof why it's dangerous.
And by the way, sheep, wake up, sheep.
It's not newsome, it's all the sheep that just listen to news.
I get it.
This newsome recall thing.
What do you think about that?
Be nice.
Yeah, yeah.
Do you think it'll it'll gain some uh ground?
I think it is gaining some ground because he's an imbecile and he's incompetent he's running this state into the ground, so hopefully we can uh listen.
We should recall him and just replace him with one of those plastic owls they put on top of restaurants so seagulls don't shit on the roof.
And we would be much better off.
You understand?
We'd be much better off with no replacement than with Gavin Newsom.
Adam Carolla joins us now.
I couldn't tell because it sounded like an audience there.
Were they hissing and booing when you said that, or did they like it?
I was uh going to a friend of mine's restaurant in Burbank, California, who uh I've known since uh high school, who's essentially going out of business because the state of California has made it impossible for him to do business.
But he said, as long as I'm going out of business, screw it.
I'm opening my patio and uh I'm defying the lockdown.
So uh me and my son went there for dinner two nights ago to support him.
Good for you.
You know, I but I honestly I'm I'm I'm getting like COVID, you know, the COVID roll because I'm trying to support all my friends that own restaurants where I live.
I mean, they're dying.
They're all they're all struggling, and they you know, they'd be happy if they could even break even at this point.
And then in comes the government.
Now, in Southern California, Adam, I I think everybody out there understands social distancing, wearing the mask, right?
There's nobody that's ignorant of of what they're being told.
Am I right there?
I see the lion share people, and I say lion share, probably into the mid-90s wearing a mask, walking alone.
I see people in my neighborhood, which is a very quiet neighborhood, walking at night alone with a mask on.
Okay, but another what I'm trying to get to here, if you get in your car and you're driving, you know, the the one on one and freeway, or you're driving wherever you're driving in Southern California, uh, you know there are risks with driving.
Every time you've gotten on an airplane, you know the risk of getting on an airplane.
If everybody knows the risks and then they would choose, for example, outdoor dining in Southern California with whatever mass mandate you have, except when you're eating your food, why are they not providing the freedom to even make that choice?
I don't know.
I mean, you think about uh New Year's Eve is coming up.
You know, every year a bunch of Americans die driving drunk at night, coming home from New Year's Eve's Eve parties.
It's the most dangerous night to drive a car.
So according to their logic, why not just lock it down?
Why not just sit at 10 p.m.
New Year's Eve curfew?
I mean, people are going to die.
I mean, uh, listen, I'd like to say that life doesn't have risks, but w I think the government, they did their job.
They've educated everybody.
I'll tell you, they even did better than their job.
Nobody would have ever dreamed of a vaccine.
Trump should get credit.
Nobody can ever say one nice word about the guy with Operation Warp Speed and the fact that we have now numerous vaccines.
People are getting vaccinated as we speak.
Um, but I know people just like your friend, I mean, every single cent they've ever saved in their life, and then going into debt up to their eyeballs in and every dream they've ever had, it's being wiped out, and it's just like, oh, check, check, check, without any consideration of any alternatives that would provide them a means of of even paying the rent and keeping people working.
Well, they were closing, remember, they closed the beaches down here.
You know, every time someone tells me to follow the science, I go, what about a couple of months ago when they closed the beaches down?
What about after when they closed the beaches down?
They said you could walk on the beach, but you couldn't lay down on the beach.
Should I have followed that science?
What science are we talking about?
There isn't there is no science meeting outdoors is dangerous.
No science.
And as a matter of fact, the health director in Los Angeles County just admitted there is no science.
We just want people to stay home.
Well, I don't know if that's the job.
I don't know if that's part of your job.
Your job is to tell us the science, let us weigh the risk, and then get on like American.
You know, I it's interesting you say this.
Now you take a lot of heat just for saying that.
Just for saying that, okay, people get the choice.
People get to decide.
Now, the only thing I would urge other people is you do have to think of those that would be vulnerable, most vulnerable to coronavirus, older people, underlying conditions, compromised immune systems.
If you're going to be going out, I'd strongly advise you, you know, not to see grandma and grandpa at this time until they get the vaccine and they're safe.
Does that sound fair?
Absolutely.
But we act, you know, when this thing started, we'd say, well, how come the schools are closed?
Kids don't, kids aren't harmed by this.
Uh, they don't seem to be able to spread it.
Seems like one of the safest places in the world.
I mean, what's the difference between airport TSA and a tool teacher?
The TSA shows up at the airport every single day and sees thousands of people go by them.
Is that less dangerous than a school teacher standing 10 feet away from a class with a piece of Lexan in front of them?
And who is an essential worker if not teachers?
But they act like, well, your kids are gonna go, your kids are gonna be safe, but then they're gonna return and they're gonna give it to their grandparents.
They act like 70% of Americans live with their elderly parents.
That's insane.
I don't live with elderly people.
I'm the oldest person in my house.
I have 14-year-old twins, reopen the schools, follow the science.
You know, the the thing too is then now it creates this this problem for parents because they got to take off work, and maybe the work's not gonna let them work from home.
Uh then their income is lost on top of it, and then you have a you know uh literally it starts like a snowball running downhill and you don't know where this thing ever stops.
You know, but at the end of the day, you know, you live in a state where they have a state income tax at 13 and a half percent.
You're watching the biggest mass exodus out of states like California, New York, New Joycey, and uh and Illinois.
The problem I have, I don't care, it's and it's all told in the one statistic.
If you want a U-Haul from LA to Texas, it's probably gonna cost you about 2500 bucks.
If you take the U-Haul from Texas and drive it back to California, you'll get it for 400 bucks.
The reason being is there's a need for people to bring the trucks back because so many people are leaving your state.
Well, you know, two things.
Gavin Newsom, who's a complete imbecile, did an interview I heard on a podcast a few weeks back.
He said, Hey, where are you gonna go?
Is if people aren't fleeing and going everywhere.
Number one, number two, as you know, Elon Elon Musk.
Elon Musk uh left.
All right.
Here's a little thought experiment.
And he's leaving California.
What does that say about California?
500,000 people out of New York City.
Now you have big Wall Street companies, Goldman and others taking some of their largest divisions and moving them down to Florida.
So they'll go from a 13% state-city income tax down to zero, and they'll save money galore.
Now, I'm I'll tell I'll also tell you what people will never know is the New York government will go in and offer them sweetheart deals that nobody else gets in order to keep the perception that Wall Street is really in New York.
Watch that as the next move.
Um, but you know, it's very, very frustrating.
It seems like nobody really does want to think for themselves.
You know, if I did a segment with a doctor from Yale or a doctor from Baylor or, you know, Dr. Oz for crying out loud, and they said, Yeah, let me tell you about the studies that show that hydroxychloroquine with a Z pack uh and zinc and quicken and vitamin D3 and vitamin C, if taken early, shows that it's effective.
And now there are numerous studies that that have come out since then.
Just by even exploring a choice for somebody, somehow I'm a bad person for even even discussing it.
The only two medical papers pulled on hydroxy were ones that were negative towards it because they wanted to rush them out to propagandize people, and it seemed like Donald Trump recommended it, therefore we've got to hate it.
Well, hydroxychloroquine is a perfect example of the news, the media, and the bias of the mainstream media.
I mean, this drug is inert, it's been around for 60 years.
It's given out of the city.
Yeah.
And here's an interesting piece of information because uh I sit next to Dr. Drew and talk to him about it all the time.
Do you know that if you are on hydroxychloroquine and you become pregnant, you don't have to get off it.
Now, how could that drug be dangerous if pregnant women don't have to stop taking it?
Pregnant women can't drink a glass of white wine when they're pregnant, but they get hydroxychloroquine.
What else do you need to know?
And of course, the meet the mainstream media could find all this information out in 10 minutes on their phone, and of course they choose not to.
You know, it's so funny you say that.
I mean, you have out there at Cedar Synai, the pro the premier expert in hydroxychloroquine.
He has the largest rheumatoid arthritis and lupus practices in the country, over 400 peer-reviewed articles, and early in April of this year, he wrote it and said that the risks of people using it as a treatment are nil at the at the doses and the time that he was even talking about using it for 30 or 60 days.
Most people it's five, ten or two weeks max, and and the recommended doses, the risk is nil.
And still these these people, Daniel Wallace's name, Dr. Daniel Wallace, Cedar Sinai Medical Center.
I mean, but still you couldn't even discuss it without having your head chopped off.
Well, this is how you know the media is corrupt and you know they have an agenda.
If the media was just ignorant to hydroxychloroquine, and they said, I don't know if it helps.
I I I don't I don't know that there's any proof that it helps with COVID-19, but doesn't seem to hurt anybody.
If they couched it that way, I would tend to believe that at least they didn't know what they were doing.
When they came out with a smear campaign to talk about how dangerous it was, that's when I knew they had an agenda.
No normal person who looked into this medication for more than five minutes would come a would come back with that conclusion.
And if it is dangerous, as we heard how dangerous it was four months ago from the mainstream media, then where's all the follow-up reports on all the Americans that have been injured or harmed or permanent permanently damaged by hydroxychlorocks?
Where's your follow-up stories then?
CNN, where's the follow-up?
You said it was dangerous five months ago.
Good.
Millions of Americans took it.
Now we should be having a story about all the Americans that were harmed, right?
You'd think so.
They'd love to stick it in our face and say they were right.
By the way, you're in your 12th year of uh your show.
Congratulations.
You've written a book.
I I don't even know what to begin to think of the title.
I'm your emotional support animal, navigating out of all woke, no joke culture.
Isn't it really sad that even comedians, I mean, there's like a checklist of what you cannot say.
Oh, you know, the saddest state is the comedians, because the comedians were always there to push back against the man.
So think about this concept.
You know, Lenny Bruce or Mort Saul or Richard Pryor, uh uh George Carlin, always there to push back against the man.
I am the only comedian I'm aware of who's pushing back against California and its lockdowns in Gavin Newsom.
And the comedians who are essentially cowards think that Donald Trump is the man.
Donald Trump is not the man.
Gavin Newsom is the man.
All the comedians live in Los Angeles.
Very a word, not even a joke about Gavin Newsom.
I can't watch them anymore.
Like Chris Rock is the only one that just lets it rip.
And I love him.
I love his on stage act.
Says it all, and he doesn't give a flying, you know what?
He doesn't care.
I mean, it's so sad all of this uh that's going on.
Anyway, yeah, your new book, congratulations uh on it.
We really appreciate it.
And it's uh Adam Carolo's book, it's I'm your emotional support animal, navigating our all-woke, no joke culture.
We need to get back to joking again, even if it's about me.
Tear me apart, tear me to shreds.
I'd love it.
All right, thanks, Adam.
Appreciate it.
800-941 Sean.
You want to be a part of the program, quick break, right back.
We'll continue.
Hey there.
I'm Mary Catherine Hammond.
And I'm Carol Markowitz.
We've been in political media for a long time.
Long enough to know that it's gotten, well, a little insane.
That's why we started normally a podcast for people who are over the hysteria and just want clarity.
We talk about the issues that actually matter to the country without panic, without yelling, and with a healthy dose of humor.
We don't take ourselves too seriously, but we do take the truth seriously.
So if you're into common sense, sanity, and some occasional sass.
You're our kind of people.
Catch new episodes of Normally every Tuesday and Thursday on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen.
I'm Ben Ferguson, and I'm Ted Cruz.
Three times a week we do our podcast, Verdict with Ted Cruz.
Nationwide, we have millions of listeners.
Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we break down the news and bring you behind the scenes inside the White House, inside the Senate, inside the United States Supreme Court.
And we cover the stories that you're not getting anywhere else.
We arm you with the facts to be able to know and advocate for the truth with your friends and family.
So Delaware, verdict with Ted Cruz now, wherever you get your podcasts.
Welcome back, everybody.
Joe Concha in for Sean Hannity on this Thanksgiving week.
Yeah, it's a week.
A lot of people spreading out uh celebrations throughout.
Perhaps, you know, you want to keep your older relatives from maybe the younger folks in your family.
So I I know that you know, some some people are doing a Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday kind of piecemeal for lack of a better term, uh, Thanksgiving.
Uh so welcome and thanks for joining us today.
I am a media opinion columnist for the Hill, also a Fox News contributor, and I want to welcome to the show right now.
First time I think I've ever spoken to the senator, and uh I've always been a fan of his uh maybe not everything on policy.
I don't think that's the way it works.
Uh, but uh he's always just so authentic, I think, in his convictions and his thoughts and and just so for lack of a better term, articulate uh when making those arguments.
So we welcome Senator Rand Paul to the program, Kentucky.
How are you, sir?
Very good, Joe.
Thanks for having me.
Of course.
So I I want to start with this because this really is just unbelievable to me.
I I remember going on Fox the the day after that you were attacked after leaving the White House by a mob in Washington, D.C. Uh the Hill's offices are right there on K Street, uh, right right where you were attacked, basically.
And uh you you spoke about at the time that your feeling was there was interstate criminal traffic being paid for across state lines.
They flew there by plane, they got fresh new clothes, and they were paid to be there, and they were paid to basically harass and possibly even hurt people.
And you and your wife were were attacked on a street, it's on video, and then today the DC U.S. attorney said what?
Said uh they're not interested in finding out uh who finances these people.
In fact, they wouldn't reveal whether they investigated it at all.
They just said they weren't going to pursue it.
And I asked her, the U.S. attorney, district attorney, the deputy attorney, I said, Well, what have you done?
Oh, I can't reveal that.
I can neither confirm nor deny that we did anything.
And I said, Well, you know, many of the people that were in the video that were attacking us were also in other cities attacking us.
One of them, you know, bloodied a police officer who had to go to the hospital.
And I said, What do you have about that person?
He said, Oh, she can't, I can't tell you anything about that.
I got the feeling they had no idea even about the police officer being injured, or that they'd done any investigation.
The DC judiciary actually let the guy who assaulted the police officer off on his own recognizance.
And my response to that was, yeah, if you're looking for him, look in Kenosha.
Because uh these people are going from city to city, but someone needs to look at with a proper subpoena from a judge, look at who's paying for all this stuff.
And you were somebody who was attacked at his own home uh a couple of years ago, where you're actually in the hospital for an extended period of time.
I believe you had a collapsed lung at one point.
So uh that that that moment when when this was happening, if the police weren't there, you you you could have been seriously hurt or even killed, it seemed.
Yeah, we really feared for our lives, and we thought even with the police that we might not make it out.
We had initially had three policemen uh helping us, and uh the crowd though numbered over a hundred, and they were pressing in on the policemen.
They were throwing things on us, different fluid, we didn't know what it was.
Uh, they were yelling threats to us, and they were pressing closer and closer.
And I leaned into the policeman and I said, They know who I am because they were chanting my name.
And I said, You've got to call for reinforcements.
And he did.
But interestingly, I never had any words with the policemen.
They were brave.
And also interesting, they were both black and white.
The crowd that was attacking us was both black and white, but the police officers defending us, we're both black and white.
This isn't a race thing.
This is about whether or not you're gonna have law and order or whether or not you're gonna have mayhem.
And that's that's what was amazing.
Just uh last week, uh last weekend, where Trump supporters at at a MAGA march uh were were attacked.
Uh there were 21 arrests, uh, one man was stabbed, two police officers hurt.
Uh, and and yet, you know, it's just seems that all that's gonna be forgiven, that that nothing's actually gonna happen uh in these situations.
And Joe Biden, who ran on Unity and bringing everybody together, uh didn't make a public statement himself about it.
He put out a statement, but it seems like this is something that's gonna continue.
I want to ask you.
It's even worse than that.
The associated press reported that this violence was a result of Trump demonstrations, and they never revealed who the violent people were.
The violent people were the Antifa people, the violent people were the Black Lives Matter people that were committing these crimes.
And the AP reported it as if it was like, oh, there's a little bit on both sides of violence and crime.
But the bottom line is it's not safe to go out and eat in DC, particularly for a public figure, but even for a regular person to go out in DC is not safe.
And if they don't prosecute the people that went after my wife and I, they don't prosecute the person who assaulted a police officer, you can see how it's gonna Get worse.
No one you can't eat inside because the mayor won't let you eat inside, and you can't eat outside because the mob will attack you.
That's exactly right.
And an attack by launching fireworks at people.
And look, we don't know.
I saw one restaurant, I think it was P.J. Clark's right on K Street, where people were eating outside and fireworks were launched at them.
You don't know if these people are Republican, Democrat, Libertarian.
Anyone could have been killed in that situation.
And and again, law and order just completely breaks down.
We're talking to Senator Rand Paul.
I'm curious, uh, because you're also a doctor by trade, Rand like my wife.
Um, do masks work?
Do what does what work?
Do masks work in terms of stopping uh COVID in terms of stopping coronavirus.
Now I wear one, I'll I'll just be from a personal standpoint.
You can't go into a store here in New Jersey where I live without wearing a mask, and I don't think about even doing that.
Uh if I'm around my older relatives, I always wear a mask.
Uh, but then it seems like we're seeing all this conflicting kind of evidence around it.
And I I don't know if we've exactly are 100% sure uh what the effective this is, and I know you have some thoughts on that.
There's only two randomized scientific controlled studies, one from 2015, and it did not show any benefit from wearing a cloth mask.
In fact, the people with cloth masks got more infections than the people who wore no masks.
Wow.
They measured virus sized particles to see what goes through the cloth mask, and virus-sized particles penetrate the cloth mask ninety-seven percent of the time.
Now the study did find that the N95 mask, when worn properly by health professionals, do protect against infection.
They found that regular surgical masks did not work.
And now there was a recent study, the Danish study, which was a population study, and it showed basically no significant benefit, uh, no statistically significant benefit.
The other way to look at this is in large population studies.
Look at when Hawaii banned or made masks mandatory and banned uh group groups gathering.
Look at when California did, look at when Kentucky did, and see if you see any correlation with a drop in the incidence of infections.
In fact, it's the opposite.
If you look at every mandate worldwide on wearing masks, the incidence of infection went up afterwards, after the mandates.
And there is evidence that people are wearing masks.
In Kentucky, you can't go in a store without a mask.
It's a probably a hundred percent of people are wearing masks going into public places, and yet the incidence of infections is five fold what it was in the spring when nobody was wearing a mask.
So there's real very little, if any, proof that this works.
And the reason why this is important, this is not a short-lived thing.
Dr. Fauci wants you to wear a mask for the rest of his life, for the rest of our lives.
He said when the vaccine comes out, he still wants you to wear a mask.
So you're gonna have to ask Dr. Fauci's permission five years from now.
And I'd say to young people, and particularly young people have had it, you gotta resist this kind of crazy nuttiness that is not based backed by science.
Yeah, that that's I believe what Dr. Fauci said in a paraphrasing is that even if you have the vaccine, you could still have coronavirus and shed it, you just won't get sick from it type of thing.
But to that if that's the case, then yeah, I could see mass mandates in public places going on for infinity because the virus doesn't go away because of the vaccine, you just simply have a way uh to fight it.
Uh what are you gonna do, Senator Rampall?
Uh, and we're talking to obviously uh uh the great senator from Kentucky, uh, for Thanksgiving.
Like what what what's your plan then?
Uh everything after everything that you just said.
Are you gonna have a gathering large gathering at home?
Do you do it outside?
Is it warm enough?
Uh what what what what are you gonna do?
Ours will be underground in a cave with armed guards to keep the governor away.
Well done.
Uh the guards have orders to shoot on site if if anybody comes to try to stop our family from gathering.
And I'm saying that facetiously.
No, but we're having a normal Thanksgiving.
We are uh, you know, it's not a it's our business.
In a free country, every individual and every society makes their own rules.
And we will take precautions for elderly family members.
We already do and have been taking precautions, but we are not going to uh simply say, you know, it's just kind of crazy.
These people will not even admit that you have immunity if you've already had it.
Even though 12 million people have had it, they found five people who might have had it again, and they say, Oh, well, that proves they don't have immunity.
No, that proves the opposite, you idiot.
It proves that the vast majority of people do not get it again.
They do develop immunity.
And actually, all the science now is arguing that you do have immunity if you've had it.
The only question is how long, but even the how long question is that For eight months now we are showing it.
And some of the people that were infected with SARS 17 years ago still have memory immunity.
So there's a very good chance that we are going to have long-standing immunity.
But this is good news not only for the people who had it, but for the vaccine, that it may not be you have to take a vaccine every year.
It may be that one vaccine can protect you for quite a while.
That's interesting.
And the treatments are getting so much better too, right?
So we're seeing this nearly 200,000 cases in the U.S. on Friday, yet the death rate is much, much lower than it was in in March and April, Senator.
Yeah, if we had the same death rate right now that we had in March and April, we'd have 10,000 people dying a day, and we've averaged about a thousand dying a day, which is still terrible.
But just be we should be thanking our lucky stars.
We should be extolling our doctors and thanking them, our doctors and nurses.
We should be thanking the president for moving forward with the vaccine.
Instead, it's all recriminations and hate towards the president.
And I'm just sick and tired of it.
They they won't report any good news.
The vaccine is good news.
Immunity is good news.
Treatment is good news.
The treatment with steroids with remdesivere and now with monoclonal antibodies has cut the death rate for severely ill from 26% of people dying to about 9%.
So, you know, almost uh doubling your chances, or a little more than doubling your chances of staying alive when you're seriously f sick because of advancements that have been discovered in the last six months.
Yeah, fear certainly sells.
And uh last question for you, Senator, and it involves Georgia, and obviously those two Senate seats just so crucial in terms of the future of the country, quite frankly, because if you have a blank check from the House to the Senate, right to the Oval Office with Democrats in charge of all three, uh, you're looking at abolishing ICE, you're looking at abolishing the filibuster, you're looking at abolishing the Electoral College, expanding the Supreme Court, expanding the Senate, uh banning fracking, uh reallocation of police funds, and I could go down the line with about a hundred other things.
Yet in Georgia, we're seeing Hollywood and the media saying, you know what, you should move to Georgia, you should vote there to get these two Democrats in.
But you saw it in Kentucky, right, with Amy McGrath and uh Senate majority leader McConnell, where outside influence comes in, and suddenly people don't like that that much when local elections, state elections get nationalized, and and we heard that McConnell was in such trouble.
He only won by 20 points, right?
So uh what what do you see happening in Georgia ultimately?
Uh will Republicans keep the Senate.
You know, one of the things that I've been trying to do is talk to libertarians there.
We had a great libertarian candidate that ran.
He got 2.3% of the vote, Shane Hazel.
And uh I think we need to talk to libertarians.
There was over a hundred thousand people who voted for the libertarian in the Purdue race.
Um they don't want socialism, they don't want DC to be a state equal to Georgia.
Uh so I think there's a lot of common ground, but they're frustrated with the Republicans the same way I am.
I'm frustrated with Republicans who spend too much.
I'm frustrated with all the bailouts that have been passing this year, but at the same time, the Democrats are only worse.
And I do think that there are things that a Republican majority will stop.
You know, I'm one of the most libertarian members of the Senate.
I will have more power in a Republican Senate than a Democrat Senate.
I will continue to speak out for ending the Afghan war.
I will continue to speak out for young people getting a second chance if they make a mistake with drugs.
So there are all kinds of things that are beneficial for libertarian-leaning people.
And I hope that they will consider there won't be a libertarian on the ballot this time.
It'll be Republican or Democrat.
I hope they will consider coming out for Republican, even if they don't think the Republicans are perfect, just because frankly the Democrats are so darn evil.
And we'll have to leave it there.
Senator, I hyped you up a lot before this interview, and I'm glad we were able to finally speak for a first time.
We covered a lot of ground.
I really appreciate you making time for us today.
Hey there.
I'm Mary Catherine Hamm.
And I'm Carol Markowitz.
We've been in political media for a long time.
Long enough to know that it's gotten, well, a little insane.
That's why we started normally a podcast for people who are over the hysteria and just want clarity.
We talk about the issues that actually matter to the country without panic, without yelling, and with a healthy dose of humor.
We don't take ourselves too seriously, but we do take the truth seriously.
So if you're into common sense, sanity, and some occasional SAS.
You're our kind of people.
Catch new episodes of Normally every Tuesday and Thursday.
On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen.
I'm Ben Ferguson, and I'm Ted Cruz.
Three times a week we do our podcast, Verdict with Ted Cruz.
Nationwide, we have millions of listeners.
Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we break down the news and bring you behind the scenes inside the White House, inside the Senate, inside the United States Supreme Court.
And we cover the stories that you're not getting anywhere else.
We arm you with the facts to be able to know and advocate for the truth with your friends and family.
So Dallas, verdict with Ted Cruz now, wherever you get your podcasts.
I'm reading on Twitter.
I have not confirmed it yet that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled Philadelphia did not violate state election law when they restricted how close uh poll observers could stand to uh buy to watch the processing of mail and ballots because of COVID.
Uh how about no they should have um made accommodations, knowing considering they were ignoring the great Dr. Fauci.
And by the way, I do like Dr. Fauci.
I I know everybody made a million mistakes in this, and uh every model was wrong.
Everybody got everything wrong.
Nobody did it maliciously.
I don't believe that.
And I I think he worked with the best of intentions.
No mask, yes, mask, no mask, CDC guidelines.
This one changes, that one changes.
Um I just think nobody expected the worst pandemic since 20 since 1917 and 18 for crying out loud.
Um, and but with that said, this is where I get into a fight with Linda here, and I don't even know if I want to open this door because this is not gonna work in my favor.
Um we got a lot of issues emerging out of this.
Governor's now ratcheting up all these restrictions ahead of Thanksgiving.
I mean, there are a lot of them.
And, you know, some people saying it cancel it altogether.
California, Pennsylvania, governors, mayors, you know, restrictions, and you know, you how how are you gonna eat outside when it's like 20 degrees out?
I d that's that's not gonna work well.
Uh, you know, and then I love Governor Whitmer's husband, he breaks the rules.
Gavin Newsom breaks the rules.
Who else broke the rules, you know, that's out there lecturing the rest of us.
Um, but the big news to me is Operation Warp Speed, and the president pushing for a vaccine fast has now paid off because now we've got two of them.
We told you about Moderna's announcement yesterday, 94.5% efficacy rate, which is amazing, especially you know, January 31st 21st was the first known case of coronavirus.
If you can believe it, what a year this has been that we had, and here we are, less than a year later.
We've never broken down the sequence of a virus this fast ever in human history, uh, with a vaccine that's 94.5% effective.
I mean, it's and I know that a lot of states now are experiencing what we said would happen, which is it's not if, it's when you get a rebound.
Uh, talked about that a lot at the time with Dr. Oz and our medical aid team here.
Um by the way, California authorities with all their restrictions, they're traveling to Hawaii as they tell residents in California to stay home.
Governor Cuomo ripped for telling others to admit mistakes, but you know, let's not let's not deal with that nursing home decision.
And I think Governor Cuomo did it on purpose.
No, I don't.
I think he made a mistake, and it was a costly one and can happen, especially when you had the beds that were built by the president that nobody used.
Actually, this is I'm not even making this up.
The Blaze has a story today that strip clubs are set to reopen in California, but churches remain locked down.
You can't make that story up.
Uh coronavirus death rate for kids has fallen to zero point zero one percent.
I mean, that's the strangest thing.
People devote their entire lives to viruses and studying viruses and finding vaccines and cures.
And, you know, like for example, N1H one, as Joe calls it, you know, swine flu, that impacted kids more than adults.
This thing attacks older people more than younger people and people who compromised immune systems.
Um then we have, you know, some people, by the way, Sweden, remember they they had the herd mentality thing.
Now they're they're putting on restrictions because I guess it worked and it didn't work, then it worked again.
I I never bought into it myself, but you know, it's I I don't think again, I think people were trying what they thought would work best.
I don't think they wanted to kill people, at least I would hope that's not their intention.
Um Biden is says he wouldn't hesitate to get a COVID 19 vaccination if deemed safe.
Well, I think these pharmaceutical companies are saying that it's safe.
Um then you have uh the battle on Thanksgiving.
And you got, for example, a county in New York is saying they're not gonna comply with Governor Cuomo's orders, citing mass depression and stress resulting from a constant barrage of regulations.
This is Fulton County Sheriff Richard Giardino announcing the decision in a skating Facebook post on Saturday.
I guess they're gonna come and arrest him probably by week's end.
Uh and you know they're telling some people not to even have Thanksgiving.
Or to have it outside, or to only have three people.
Which family member are you gonna say no to?
Good luck with that.
Uh now I think it's just the to me, I'm I'm mesmerized, fascinated.
I have a lot of friends that are doctors.
One's a brain surgeon.
I actually watched up front a brain surgery because I'm a lunatic.
And you know, anyway, Linda doesn't like the idea of taking the vaccine.
So we'll get to that in a second.
Uh Dr. Josh Umber is with us right now, uh, with Atlas MD, good friend of the program.
Dr. Harvey Reich is back with us, Yale epidemiology professor.
Guys, welcome back.
Thank you for being with us.
Good to be with you.
Always Dr. Josh, you've been with us the whole time, and and Dr. Rice, you two.
Great job, both of you.
Uh I look at this as like an amazing thing.
And half my friends say under no circumstances would they ever take it.
Dr. Umber.
You know, I I agree with you that this is really a miracle of modern medicine and and science that um we could leverage 20 years of studying the SARS family of uh viruses into uh functional, safe, and incredibly effective vaccine in the course of eight, nine, ten months.
Uh it's nothing short of fantastic.
We stand on the shoulders of all the science that has come before us, and and I think this is a great opportunity.
Dr. Reich, what do you think?
Well, I think there's reason to be optimistic.
I think that there are some uncertainties, and I think the likelihood of benefit is much stronger than the likelihood of harm.
And I think it has to play out, and I think that people who are feeling that they're at more at risk will be more willing to volunteer to take it, and they'll become, in a sense, our society's guinea pigs, and that's what it'll take.
It'll take some months, you know, three to six months before that plays out more, and people become more comfortable with it, and there will be gradual uptake, and assuming that it's found to be highly effective.
And that's a transition time where we'll still need to cover the people for whom it doesn't work, or who uh or doesn't work well enough, or who can't get it, or we may find out that there are variants of the virus like the the newly um increasing the N439 K variant mutation of the of the virus that it may not work for at all because it's got a a different protein on the outside than the the regular virus.
So all these are unknowns, and we'll just have to work through it.
And Dr. Umber, I mean, what frustrates me too, I mean I I like the phrase Oz used, which when he would say that you go to army with the war you go to the war with the army you have, not the one you wish you had.
And that's when we were talking about different treatments like hydroxy chloroquine, uh Zithromax zinc, etc., or later Remdisivere, or now even regeneron or convalescent plasma and all these other treatments.
Um there's still, like, for example, a lot of kids are coming home from college, they have this thing because it's been spreading like wildfire on some college campuses, which then puts mom and dad at risk and grandma and grandpa at risk, right?
I mean, definitely the the you know, there's that exposure, and as people travel again, um they're gonna get it and then they're gonna go back home for the holidays, and and which is why we do see a spike of you know just even normal influenza as as people travel.
So I I think some of that um is uh preventable, and some of it's just not, as we have to go in and live our lives.
And Dr. Rish, I mean, what would it what would be your preferred treatment at this point?
I think that doctors now have a repertoire of drugs to use that are very effective in outpatients used early.
Hydroxychloroquine is one, ivermectin is another, the vitamin D, zinc, um steroids if indicated.
Uh there's uh the even more.
There's there's a number of things that have been increasingly shown to be useful, and these are clinical judgments that doctors make with each patient, and it's not a cookie cutter recipe, but it's why b doctors practice medicine with their patients.
The strangest thing that I noticed, Dr. Umber is some people, you know, that they really fall prey to this thing.
Other people get it, and by the way, younger and older, not just younger, and they have either zero symptoms or next to zero symptoms.
Why is that?
Well, I I think yeah, that's definitely an interesting aspect of it.
Um, and probably lots of reasons.
One, I think we have a lot of false positives on the test.
Um, you know, for example, if it's not a PCR test, it's not as accurate, and the airlines won't accept it.
Uh as an example of the proof that it's less accurate.
And so then you have people who say, well, I tested positive uh but didn't have any symptoms, and so you'd wonder if they were a false positive.
Uh for the patients who we've seen that have tested positive on PCR, uh, the vast majority have had you mild to moderate, moderate to severe symptoms, uh very few hospitalizations.
I think that is aspect of a younger, healthier group uh potentially.
Um but I there was an interesting study out yesterday that started to explain why people might be reacting differently, and it's really in some cases it's the body's response to the infection more than the infection itself, much more like an autoimmune illness.
And so then the body revs up and attacks everything, um, which might uh give an interesting mechanism of action for the uh medicines like plaquinil uh HCQ uh for uh why they help is because they calm down that body's um inaccurate over response.
So I agree we we have a lot of ways to to manage the the people who uh all spectrums of of their response.
Last question.
Dr. Rich, are you inclined to take the vaccine?
I'm thinking about it.
Um I personally would choose hydroxychloroquine as a prophylaxis or ivermectin as a prophylaxis versus the vaccine.
But then again, I'm in my seventies already, and um for me I think the vaccine's less likely to to be that strong uh of uh you know protection compared to the medications, but I'm open to it.
Well, Dr. Josh?
Oh, can't wait to get it.
What are you oh you can't wait to get it?
Is that what you said?
Can't wait to get it, yeah.
Okay.
Thank you.
Uh and I said that now I'm gonna be very blunt.
The fact that I get a flu shot every year drives half my friends nuts.
Linda cannot believe I do this every year.
And I I did it, I don't know, whatever two months ago.
Well, so the one.
Yeah, I mean, but all right.
Well, anyway, Dr. Rish, thank you.
Dr. Umbert, thank you.
There's our answer.
Uh Linda, why are you so resistant towards this?
Why?
Resistant towards what?
The flu shot?
Yeah, any sh the flu shot, the vaccine, you're like, no way, never happening, not gonna happen.
Well, I'll take that thing, you know.
I think a lot of things that happen in our country can be avoided by self-care, self-awareness, taking the proper supplements, eating right, working out, and all these other things.
I think Americans on the whole are pretty lazy.
They don't like to get out, they don't like to work out.
What?
Am I wrong?
So are you saying working out is not gonna stop you from getting the virus?
This is not a no, you're not listening to me.
That's a different conversation.
You mean having a strong immunity?
I'm saying just be being healthy.
So being healthy in general, taking your part in your own well-being is one conversation.
Then the second conversation is okay, now there's a vaccine out there.
Now, I'm not saying that the vaccine is good or not, because I don't know enough about it, but on the whole, there was a lot that we could do for the American people from the beginning, but we weren't allowed to do because of government restrictions.
As Dr. Rish just said, there are other ideas and prescriptions and therapeutics that can be used, hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin with the use of selenium and zinc and other items that you would check with your own personal primary care physician to discuss will allow you to be prophylactic and prepare yourself when you first get it.
We could have saved people in their eighties and their nineties, we could have saved people with pre existing conditions.
And I'm in this group chat with all of these huge Stanford, Harvard, Yale, Cornell, you know, practicing at Lenox Hill Hospital.
Wait, wait, let me finish.
And they were able to treat all these people in all these compromised groups, and they were okay.
And now we have a vaccine that costs a fortune.
Okay, but this is the saddest part.
The saddest part was you couldn't even have the discussion.
Exactly my point.
Politicized it and shut it down.
Where, okay, do we have the perfect answer?
No.
But what do we got to maybe work with and have some hope and try to save these lives?
You're right.
And that that by the way, I blame the mob for that.
A lot of the media mob.
Couldn't even mention Donald Trump is selling he's, you know, whatever.
Because he mentioned hydroxychloroquine or that he had taken it at one point early on.
Um it's just sad.
Um, but then we've made more advancements.
Then it was from Dissevere, then it was convalescent plasma, then it was Regeneron.
Then it's a good thing.
Right, but the bottom line is they politicized the American people's health.
Long enough to know that it's gotten, well, a little insane.
That's why we started normally a podcast for people who are over the hysteria and just want clarity.
We talk about the issues that actually matter to the country without panic, without yelling, and with a healthy dose of humor.
We don't take ourselves too seriously, but we do take the truth seriously.
So if you're into common sense, sanity, and some occasional sas.
You're our kind of people.
Catch new episodes of Normally every Tuesday and Thursday on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen.
I'm Ben Ferguson, and I'm Ted Cruz.
Three times a week we do our podcast, Verdict with Ted Cruz.
Nationwide, we have millions of listeners.
Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we break down the news and bring you behind the scenes inside the White House, inside the Senate, inside the United States Supreme Court.
And we cover the stories that you're not getting anywhere else.
We arm you with the facts to be able to know and advocate for the truth with your friends and family.
So down with verdict with Ted Cruz now, wherever you get your podcasts.
Catherine in Florida.
Catherine, how are you?
Good.
How are you doing, Sean?
I'm good.
What's going on?
So yeah, I'm down here in Miami.
I'm a frontline COVID nurse, uh, pandemic nurse, I guess you would say.
And my husband's a um frontline police officer down here in Miami.
And uh we're, you know, diehard uh Republicans.
Both of them.
Now, have you been able to avoid getting this thing, even though you're on the front lines?
That's pretty tough.
Yes.
Thank God.
Thank God, because let me tell you, I work at a government hospital, and it President Trump was amazing from the first week that we got our first COVID case.
We had no problems getting PPEs.
We had no problems getting ventilators.
He was an amazing, amazing force to be reckoned with.
He protected us like unbelievable.
You don't hear about this in the media.
He was just a savior.
What he did with COVID is unprecedented.
And he doesn't get enough credit.
And if Biden thinks that he's gonna come along and take uh advantage of all the work that Trump has done, no, we will let him know that that is not the case.
Long Island next weekend through NYU and Langone, I know uh will have over a hundred thousand vaccines just next week alone.
Nassau County alone.
Um, I'm gonna be the one of the first ones to be vaccinated in a couple weeks.
Listen, I'll tell you what I think.
I think distribution should be very simple.
Frontline healthcare workers like you and your husband, next the elderly, the most vulnerable, those with pre-existing conditions and underlying or compromised immune systems.
And I'm not sure why, but I keep reading again and again and again that this is disproportionately hitting and impacting most negatively in minority communities.
I'd go there third.
Go where the need is, go where it would be most useful, and then the general population at large, and starting with older people moving down to younger people.
Now, there's gonna be people that don't want to take it, and they don't have to.
They should not be forced.
You know, now you get people that you go from the anti-vax, you know, crazies out there, uh, because I think it's a little nuts.
I'm not anti-vax, but Linda kind of is a little bit.
Um but I think people have to have the choice of whether they they look, people are gonna decide what risk they're comfortable with.
At this point, everybody knows about social distancing and masks.
They know they know what the risks are.
We also know what the the options are available from Rem Disivere to Rengen, you know, make your own decision with your doctor on any of that, or hydroxychloroquine and azithromyosin and zinc.
You know, everybody's got to make up their own mind.
And but if you're not gonna I know so many people they call me and ask me, now what were you saying on TV and radio about this stuff?
I feel like I'm like I'm like, here, here are the articles I most rely on, the ones that I think are the most valuable.
Here are the studies that I think are the most valuable, and I pass them on, but ultimately people have to decide.
But uh will you get the vaccine when it's available?
Absolutely.
I already signed up to be one of the first ones to get the vaccine.
And as far as uh hydroxy and the remdiziver, I could tell you firsthand, you know, I'm not a scientist.
I'm on the front lines, and I've dealt with hundreds and hundreds of patients, and I can tell you that I have seen them circling the train, probably going to die, get remdizivere or get plasma and immediately turn around and get better.
It's amazing.
Happened right before my eyes.
I wouldn't have to do it.
How about hydroxychloroquine?
Did that work too?
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
It all depends.
You know, everybody has a different system that reacts differently to different types of medications.
But I definitely have seen it work firsthand.
I could attest, I have seen it work myself, and it's amazing how the media wanted to politicize the whole thing and make all Americans be afraid to take it because Donald Trump suggested it.
Donald Trump is saved.
They've done a great disservice.
That Lancet, I think it was the New England Journal of Medicine.
Those two those two medical studies that they pulled on hydroxy were damaging, and then politicizing it was was damaging in my view.
And again, I'm not pushing for it, I'm not advocating it.
No, but it's the 65-year-old drug who's the one guy that knows more than anything about it and has dispensed it for 42 years.
Dr. Daniel Wallace, I don't know, uh he convinced me.
And it's not just him, then it's the doctors that I've interviewed from Harvard and Baylor and Princeton and all over the country, and Dr. Roz and our medical aid team, and they've all said pretty much the same thing in some way.
Um, but you can't even have the discussion.
And look, if people want to go into a bar in their local bar and they don't and they're willing to take the risk at this point, you're not gonna stop them.
I mean, then the idea that you're shutting down these economies again, it's gonna have a devastating impact on everybody.
Um, you're proving every single day that if you take the proper precautions that you're gonna be okay.
And I'm listening to people like you.
Anyway, you're a hero.
Hey there.
I'm Mary Catherine Hamm.
And I'm Carol Markowitz.
We've been in political media for a long time.
Long enough to know that it's gotten, well, a little insane.
That's why we started normally a podcast for people who are over the hysteria and just want clarity.
We talk about the issues that actually matter to the country without panic, without yelling, and with a healthy dose of humor.
We don't take ourselves too seriously, but we do take the truth seriously.
So if you're into common sense, sanity, and some occasional sass.
You're our kind of people.
Catch new episodes of Normally every Tuesday and Thursday on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen.
I'm Ben Ferguson, and I'm Ted Cruz.
Three times a week, we do our podcast, Verdict with Ted Cruz.
Nationwide, we have millions of listeners.
Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we break down the news and bring you behind the scenes inside the White House, inside the Senate, inside the United States Supreme Court.
And we cover the stories that you're not getting anywhere else.
We arm you with the facts to be able to know and advocate for the truth with your friends and family.
So Delaware, verdict with Ted Cruz now, wherever you get your podcasts.
Thank you, Kath.
So we're we're chronicling, you know, the real life impact of all of these COVID government shutdowns on real restaurant owners.
Now in New York today, they they had been at 25% occupancy indoor dining in New York.
That is now gone away.
Um we've been we've been bringing business owners on.
It is d devastating to them.
Uh remember we told you about this New Jersey gym owner.
Remember this guy, the cops had to come, they arrested him for now.
Meanwhile, the guy, I remember interviewing him at the time.
I mean, he literally, I mean, there's social distancing in the gym.
People are wearing masks in the gym.
They have wipes everywhere in the gym.
They have Purelle everywhere in the gym.
And people are choosing to go.
Now, everybody understands the rules with COVID, social distancing masks, etc.
We've gone over the med nausea.
Do you know the fines against this one gym owner now have exceeded more than a million dollars?
It's over for him.
His business is dream.
Now, I just happen to know a lot of entrepreneurs and people that risk it all to open that restaurant, open that bakery, open that store, open that gym, open whatever.
And even though their customers want to go and choose to go, knowing everything we know, no, I did think one of the coolest things we did see this weekend was the vaccine leaving Kalamazoo, um, Michigan, or there around there, the Pfizer plant there, I think it's in Portage.
And and getting on their UPS trucks and the FedEx trucks and and routed now around the country.
It is a tribute to medical researchers and scientists and doctors.
I mean, it's just an incredible, miraculous advancement in terms of a vaccine.
Anyway, you got a couple kicked off a United flight to New Jersey because the two-year-old little girl on the flight didn't wear the mask the right way.
And you know, she was struggling to put the mask on.
Now, I'm sure there's a way to work with the girl and make that happen if you if you have the patience for it, but that there wasn't enough patience for it from what I read.
You know, the girls in tears in the video.
I mean, it's breaks your heart to see this.
And, you know, then you've got, of course, well, they're actually now looking for a recall petition as it relates to Gavin Newsom out in California, because they've shut down the whole state out there.
And the burdens that are placed on Americans, I don't think people really understand.
Most people I know that open a small business, everything they have, they throw into it.
Every penny they have, their heart and soul they throw into it.
And it's hard enough to make it as it is.
Here's a case, for example, uh, if you look at California.
Now, there's a woman who's an incredible, her story would make you cry.
Owner of the Pineapple Hill Saloon and Grill.
Anyway, I've heard her story.
I think she was on with Laura In Ingram when I saw her the the other night.
And anyway, she owns her saloon, her store, her restaurant.
Nobody's allowed in.
And right next door, they've got a trailer in an area where they're, I guess, doing film production, and they're in closer contact than anybody would have been in her own restaurant that she has to pay for.
But she's now closed down.
Anyway, Angela Marston, let me first play some of the comments that she made uh calling out Hollywood hypocrisy over this.
Well, I'm I'm gonna say this.
It's it is a sad day when there is a huge humanitarian crisis in your backyard, and you want to bicker over who's wearing a mask or who isn't.
And that is even not the point because I actually believe in wearing masks.
My servers wear shields, they wear gloves, they wear masks.
And if you go into TJ Maxx right now, it's packed with people inside, and they're allowed to be open.
You know, so I I don't understand why, you know, Hollywood, their careers are made in pubs and bars.
You know, you start off as a waiter trying to be an actor, or you know, we I have a huge community of the entertainment industry that comes in that by the way have been very, very supportive.
And the reality is, you know, I've been saying it, saying it for a long time is that pitting us against each other for survival is not the way to go about this.
If anything, Netflix should be starting a fund to help save the bars and and and help Feed the people that have supported their industry right here in their hometown of Hollywood.
You know, I I don't I don't understand why they feel they have to be defensive and try to attack me because it's not about politics, it's about people.
How about they just cater out of Angela's saloon and girl?
Angela Marsden joins us now.
Uh first, I'm sorry about all you're going through.
I I would imagine that everything you your heart, your soul, your finances you put into this, this is killing you.
Yeah, yeah, Hannity.
Um literally, I'm not rich.
Uh I I'm I don't come from a rich family.
Um I have a silent partner, and um his sister actually at the time is a friend of mine, and she was you know diagnosed with cancer, and he was like, Look, if I can get us a loan, maybe this will help both of us.
And I mean, we literally took out a loan to pay this bar off.
And we've been working for 10 years.
The first two years I didn't even take a salary.
I worked as a bartender just so that we could have a retirement and some money coming in to help both of us have a better life.
So yeah, I I I mean, you hit it on the nail.
Every small business owner I talk to, it's the same thing.
You know, this is their life savings, this is their retirement.
And and we employ, you know the the the independent restaurant um association did gave me some stats.
We employ a million single parents across the country.
You know, we supply so many jobs to to the economy.
And you know, that's another thing that gets lost is these people, you know, employees that can't pay their rent, and the rent's piling up and their unemployment's running out.
And it's just it it's a it's a vicious circle of things that are like a tidal wave that's about to hit our community.
And and that's why I don't understand why, you know, we we all know COVID's bad.
Actually, um I have family members that have gotten COVID, and if my father gets it, I don't think he would survive through it.
I myself have had tuberculosis, Hannity.
I I was told I wasn't supposed to be working in the public, you know, and I've had to work in the public from day one.
Uh I'm gonna lose everything.
You know, at my age, going back home and living in my mom and dad's house with nothing, that's not an option.
I I mean, I'm just listening to your story.
I mean, what I hear and I totally understand is desperation.
But your state is now shut down.
And then by the way, you do see your state officials like Gavin Newsom.
He's sitting around elbow to elbow, you know, at uh his own dining table.
I didn't see anybody at that table with a mask on.
Yeah, but I don't know if you know this.
Far as I know, Gavin Newsom's wineries have been open the entire time.
I'm actually, you know, thinking about uh taking a pro protest there.
It's a little far from where I'm at, but I've been talking to people about it.
His been open the entire time.
And it just came out that he has, I think something like eight, eight businesses that he's a part of, of which those eight got like three million dollars in PPP loans.
And I know bar owners, you know, I'm gonna give a shout out right now to Maui's Sugar Mill.
You know, if you want to go and donate to them, that bar has been around forever, and it really caters to the music industry and bringing in people, you know, big bands, but also making careers for people.
They did not have food.
And in LA County, if you don't have food, you haven't been able to open for nine months.
And the landlords still want the rent.
They to they took out a personal loan, Hannity.
A personal loan that's almost gone and their unemployment's running out just to try to save their bar or have a chance to open God knows who when because there's no they're not telling them when they get to open.
So they don't even know when they're gonna.
I mean, I I truly, truly am one of the lucky ones, I say, because I did get a PPP loan.
I was able to go outdoors because I have food, you know, or more of a bar with food.
110,000 restaurants have been put out of business already.
It's just the tip of the iceberg.
It's just the tip of the iceberg.
I could tell listen, all I do now is buy my food as often as I can from all my my restaurant buddies.
I and even and by the way, I'm gaining weight because of it, but I'm I mean, I seriously, I just I buy more food than I ever will eat.
I know these waiters, I know the chefs, I know the owners.
I mean, I mean, think of what you have to pay in rent or mortgage.
Think about putting the lights on.
Think about building out your restaurant.
Think about, you know, you need glasses.
The margins how many cheeseburgers do you have?
What do you what's your like your favorite thing on the menu that you have at your place?
Uh well, we're we're we're we we are really known for hamburgers, but we're very known for our our chicken wings, believe it or not.
We have to do it.
I love chicken wings.
Oh man.
Oh.
We sell we have the best in town.
We sell a lot, you know.
But you know, can you deliver to New York?
Can you stick it on one of those FedEx trucks?
But well, you know, but I wish I could and they would still taste good.
You know, but this but the serious side of this, this is your whole life now.
And now it's literally hanging in the balance.
And I'm probably sure, if I'm guessing right, that a lot of your regular study customers are probably, you know, trying to order, you know, pick up, curb pickup, and all that, but it's not the same.
And I mean, when we first did to go, I knew that doing to go, I would lose thousands of dollars, but I wanted to stay open so I could pay some of my staff at least, and and also keep the community together.
And and I did everything I could to get my sales up because we're not really known for to go, and my regular customers did everything they could to support me.
And I even did a fundraiser for the nurses.
You know, if you bought food from me, I would take it and deliver lunches to the hospitals.
Even with that, we were only we were losing ninety percent of our income.
We were not we only made 10% of what we normally would make.
And I was taking a hit of about 20 to 30,000 a month.
I was like, Now do you do you own the building or do you pay rent?
No, we we pay rent as as do most people on LA.
But that probably means you can't pay you can't pay the normal rent.
I mean, then what do you do?
Then what does your landlord do?
I'm already sixty thousand dollars behind in rent.
And nobody, the landlord will not work with you.
I mean, here's the vicious cycle that you know, I guess I'm taking it off the subject of small businesses.
I don't want to.
But this is why I continue to keep talking.
It's not just about my pub.
I pray and hope that my pub will be here.
I've I've gotten so much love and generosity.
But everywhere around me, I'm talking five, like within a mile, five or six businesses that are never gonna reopen that are trying to do go go fund these now.
But the thing is is like I have they these are the customers that would come into my patio and tell me what's you know, they're going under.
They're not making it.
We have people in LA.
Your rent is say 1,500, right?
Maybe even more, who can't even pay their rent.
Their unemployment has run out, they're on their last check, and the building owners aren't working with them because the banks are not working with the building owners.
The building owners still have to pay taxes and they still have to pay expenses.
Not they're not not all the buildings, you know, a lot of people own little apartment buildings as a retirement as well.
They're not getting any.
By the way, Linda Linda sent me the article on this.
Uh, you're right about the winery owned by or founded by Gavin Newsom.
Well, his winery's open.
I wonder if they have taste tests on weekends.
It's unbelievable.
No, can I believe it?
Yeah, the answer the answer, sadly, is yeah, I can believe it.
Yeah.
There's gotta be a happy medium.
Now, I've been to restaurants here that were well, now they're all closed.
Well, New York, I you know, I've heard 20 years.
21 just shut down.
You know how long 21, I'm now I've gave a speech there.
I've not you never used to dine there, but I've given speeches.
How many years, Linda's 21 club been in New York?
I read that and I broke my heart.
Oh my gosh.
I've never been there, but you know, uh here it's happening here.
We have the Valley Inn.
It's been here for 50 years.
They're drowning in debt, and they don't think they're gonna make it.
I can tell you 10 places that have been here that long with history that are gone.
They're not gonna make it.
By the way, Linda just you could say it on air.
You can get the credit.
I'm not stealing.
1939, my credit, give it to Ethan.
All right, thank you.
But I mean, it's that's a lot of that's a lot of time.
And now it's gone.
Just gone.
It's like we're coming up on our hundredth anniversary.
See you later.
Hey there.
I'm Mary Catherine Hammond.
And I'm Carol Markowitz.
We've been in political media for a long time.
Long enough to know that it's gotten, well, a little insane.
That's why we started normally a podcast for people who are over the hysteria and just want clarity.
We talk about the issues that actually matter to the country without panic, without yelling, and with a healthy dose of humor.
We don't take ourselves too seriously, but we do take the truth seriously.
So if you're into common sense, sanity, and some occasional tasks.
You're our kind of people.
Catch new episodes of Normally every Tuesday and Thursday.
On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen.
I'm Ben Ferguson.
And I'm Ted Cruz.
Three times a week, we do our podcast, Verdict with Ted Cruz.
Nationwide, we have millions of listeners.
Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we break down the news and bring you behind the scenes inside the White House, inside the Senate, inside the United States Supreme Court.
And we cover the stories that you're not getting anywhere else.
We arm you with the facts to be able to know and advocate for the truth with your friends and family.
So download Verdict with Ted Cruz now, wherever you get your podcasts.
All right, glad you're with us.
800-941-SHAWN.
If you want to be a part of this extravaganza, I'll be right back.
Other news, and we'll get to all of this with uh Congressman Jim Jordan here in a second.
Uh Bill Barr moved today to protect the Durham investigation uh from interference uh if there were a future Biden administration, and he elevated John Durham now to the role of special counsel, which means that he would be protected from any interference by any potential Biden administration of any of the Russia gate hoaxers in the Obama Biden administration end up under investigation.
And should since Joe Biden took part in that January 5th, 2017 meeting where he, Comey, Yates, Susan Rice, note to self, memo to self, what happened in this office 15 days ago, Obama said do everything by the book.
Anyway, the attorney general made that appointment today.
Uh a lot of news has been made uh at the A.G.'s comments that the DOJ is yet to find widespread voter fraud that could have changed the 2020 election.
Uh specifically, although this is a nuanced point, but it is an important one.
Uh he's saying that that would be on a federal criminal in the criminal justice system with allegations that uh he is saying should be made in civil lawsuits, all of the campaigns litigation, just so you know, is civil.
Uh, in that sense, that really doesn't have an impact on the ongoing litigation.
Uh distinction, important point, but would it be criminal?
I think it would be.
And I would hope that the testimony we've been hearing all day would be compelling.
Jim Jordan of Ohio joins us right now, ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee.
How are you, sir?
I'm fine, Sean.
Good to be with you.
Hope you had a good Thanksgiving.
Uh I did, and I want to talk about that in a second.
So with the Attorney General's announcement uh about protecting Durham and and elevating him to a special counsel, your thoughts.
No, I think you said it right.
Remember, Joe Biden was in the Oval Office at that January 5th meeting.
Joe Biden's a guy who brought up the Logan Act that they wanted that they were thinking about using to go after uh Michael Flynn.
And of course, that's this that's the meeting where they had the strategy to go after Michael Flynn to take him out because he would have uncovered uh exactly what they had they had done uh to the Trump campaign.
So I think this is a a good move.
If you look at the letter, though, I think there's there's two interesting points of the letter that the attorney general sent to Mr. Natler, Mr. Uh Graham, uh uh Senator Feinstein and myself, and in that letter he says additional information has been uncovered.
So what what is that information?
How's that gonna be the so Durham is obviously found something?
The other thing, though, the other point that I would I'd make from that that that cover letter that he sent, he talks about tolling the notification.
He was supposed to, the attorney general was supposed to tell us this when he made the determination and exactly named um named Durham the special counsel, which took place back on October 19th.
I wish he would have made this public beforehand before the election.
Uh unfortunately he didn't, but I I do think it's a good move because uh if in fact it's a Biden administration, we need to remember Joe Biden was intricately involved in that key January 5th meeting that you pointed out.
All right.
Have you been watching all of the testimony today?
Have you had an opportunity to watch this?
I have not.
I've been I've been in meetings and stuff here on Capitol Hill.
I'm not.
No, well, you've been hearing from one whistleblower after another, and I played earlier in the program, I'll play it later, but I thought Democrats and the media love whistleblowers, but all these people signed uh legal affidavits under the threat of perjury, and they're all giving their testimony about all the irregularities that they saw, and it's beyond compelling, including a truck driver talking about uh transporting ballots across state lines in in large quantities of maybe up to 300,000.
Yeah.
No, I I agree.
And just step back for a second.
Sean, they're still counting votes.
Four weeks after the election, they're still counting votes in California and New York.
Ask yourself this question.
If the United States of America, if we sent people to some other country, some country on a different continent to oversee their election, and that country that we were overseeing the elections was still counting votes twenty-eight days after the election was supposed to happen.
We'd say, Oh, this is a problem.
We better talk to the UN about this.
We better do something.
We better withhold foreign aid to that country.
But here in the United States, we have two of our two of our four biggest states, California, New York, still counting ballots today.
So everybody knows something's not right with this election.
We can see the all the all the fact that this president got 10 million, 10 plus more million votes.
We won twenty-seven out of twenty-seven toss-up seats in the House.
We kept the Senate.
We picked up a bunch of seats in the House.
He increased his vote with Hispanic Americans, African Americans, and yet somehow comes up short.
So we we know there's something and then we have all these people coming forward willing to swear under oath that this is in fact the you know crazy things that happen.
So of course we should look at this.
And it comes back to the fundamental question.
Why don't Democrats win too?
Why do they want to why do we why do they want to rush through this?
We have plenty of time.
We've got two more weeks until the Electoral College meet.
We've got six and a half weeks until inauguration.
So let's get to the bottom of everything because something doesn't feel right.
And when you have 70 percent of the 74 million people who voted for President Trump, 70 percent of that number think that something was wrong with this election.
That's a third of the electorate.
When a third of the electorate thinks something's wrong, it is it is good for the country that we figure out exactly what happened.
Well, the president said in his interview with Maria Burr Torromo that if the electoral college decides that it's Biden, he will abide by that.
Um and I I don't know if I want to go there yet.
I think this process needs to play out completely.
You know, I guess if there's a level of frustration to me, Jim Jordan, is that they've been accumulating these affidavits.
Why haven't we heard from the people themselves directly sooner?
It's a month later.
Yeah.
Well, I I don't know.
I w I I'm like you, I wish we would.
Uh I I'm like you, I want this I want to exhaust every avenue that we can and and get to the truth.
Um I do believe we're going to begin to hear from these folks.
I I certainly hope so.
Um, but um, you know, you remember though, Sean.
Remember the lady in uh in in in Detroit uh Michigan in Wayne County, when she was gonna hold off on on certifying the elections from that county.
Remember what the left did to her, what the cancel culture mob did to her and to her family.
So obviously some of these people are uh are are a little nervous, and as you pointed out, it used to be that that you know uh people on in Democrats and Republicans supported whistleblowers coming forward.
But now no, that's not the case with Democrats.
The only whistleblower they supported was the one that we weren't allowed to know his name, right?
The one that the real whistleblower wasn't it a hearsay whistleblower.
Yeah, exactly.
Exactly right.
So uh yeah, I I but but the my my guess is that's some of the reluctance on some of these uh some of these people who've signed affidavits and and and want to testify to things.
They're a little nervous about what the what the cancel culture mob on the left will do to them.
No, look, I mean, you live this every single day.
Um do we know how many House seats were picked up by Republicans in this election yet?
Have we ever gotten the final number?
I know all 27 toss-up races went Republican.
Yep.
Looks like we're gonna get to 213, I believe is the number going to get to.
As you saw, Mike Garcia was just named the the winner yesterday in that California seat, David Balladeo won back his seat that's a good thing.
Lee Zeldon won his race, that was done today, too.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So so I think he won by 40,000 votes.
Why are we even here?
But okay, that's a congressional race.
But um, so two thirteen, what's the margin then?
So they got they they have five votes.
And remember they had ten people, uh ten people who who won re-election who voted against uh Pelosi for speaker.
So we'll see what happens.
My guess is she she figures out some way to to you know stay a speaker.
They can they can only lose a few votes on the on the House floor that uh uh on on important issues, and so it'll be an interesting uh interesting uh is there any chance that that the squad members could win that seed?
I mean, I don't know.
I I don't I don't know.
You know, I I I I I don't mind when the Democrats are fighting.
I figure the more they're fighting the less they're tired to take away your rights and your your liberties.
So um if they got all this infighting going on between the squad and between Speaker Pelosi and other members of their conference, I mean that's fine because that's that in the long run, that's good for the country.
It's less time for less time for them to do damage and raise your taxes and all the other crazy things they want to do.
Yeah.
Now d when you we're looking at like a nine seat difference then between Democrats and Republican.
I mean, that's really close.
But every state legislature was held as well.
Which also brings up, you know, the again, there's so many spectacular firsts.
Don't you find it odd, Jim Jordan, if you when you look at all of the statistics and numbers that we're now being able to put together, and you know, this is just the nature of elections.
You don't find out a lot about it until till after.
Um but when you look at all of this, you know, Biden's gonna enter the White House as the first incumbent to gain votes.
The President Trump will gain eleven million votes but lose the election since Grover Cleveland 150 years ago.
Right.
And then you then you look at, for example, he won your state by eight points, Florida by over three points.
The two swing states weren't even close.
That would make Biden the first candidate in sixty years to lose Florida and Ohio and still become president.
Uh nineteen bellwether counties that all correctly picked the president each year since Reagan, eighteen were Trump by an average of fifteen percent.
Uh if you look at Biden unpre underperform Clinton and Obama in major liberal cities with minorities, New York, Chicago, LA, but outperform Clinton and Obama in swing state cities like Milwaukee, Atlanta, Detroit, and Philadelphia.
Is that an accident or just a great lucky coincidence for Joe?
Yeah, i all the while while while President Trump was getting a higher percentage of uh African American vote, Hispanic American vote, and yet somehow Biden does so exceptionally well in some of these key urban areas in in in some of the key swing states.
So yeah, I mean the bellwether counties that like as you pointed out, the Ohio gone by over eight points for the president.
Yeah, Ohio was the the state that always over the last several years, like you said sixty, but i it's the state that you have to carry if you're gonna win the White House and the president carries it it by a huge margin.
So all those things together, when you just list them all out, you would think, and there was a great article in the Federals that pointed some of the things out you were talking about, and and and y the the the headline was why won't the media do the ask the questions about this?
I mean, that's the job of journalists.
Go you you see all these strange things and something tells you why.
Why did this all happen?
And yet somehow Biden wins the the the White House.
It's never happened in history before.
We've never seen anything like this.
So that should tell us something that there needs to be an investigation of this.
We've actually called for one.
We've called for Jerry Nadler and and and Cherwin Maloney of the Oversight Committee to do an investigation.
We'll help him with it.
We'll help them.
We'll we'll begin to find out exactly what happened.
Of course, we've gotten uh silence from uh from both of those chairmen.
You know, I saw that you uh warned on Friday that the left is gonna target Christmas next after Thanksgiving.
I think the funniest viral video in New York that was going around everywhere was uh a picture of of Governor Cuomo peering into people's homes and wind and through the window.
I don't know how many counting how many people might be at the Thanksgiving Day dinner.
Now, obviously we have an a a big wave of corona around the country.
Obviously, I think most Americans understand what social distancing and masks are.
I think you have a greater risk, all these kids tend to be asymptomatic, and many are not getting tested, and they come home to mom, dad, grandma, grandpa.
That's a danger I hope everybody takes seriously.
Um but I also get the impression that Americans they they have a they are going to make their own risk assessment after a year.
I think everybody's pretty well informed on this.
Of course, because we're Americans.
There's one fundamental thing about Americans.
We hate being told what to do.
That it's part of our DNA.
I you know, the old joke always comes to mind for most Americans when they're traveling down the highway and you see the sign that says 55 miles per hour.
For most Americans, that's not the limit.
That's the challenge.
So that that's just how that's just part of who we are and our heritage people coming here to settle this this this great country.
So now you've got government.
Government, think about this.
In in in Ohio, you have to be in your home at 10 o'clock.
In Pennsylvania, when you're in your home, you have to wear a mask.
But in Vermont, when you're in your home, you don't have to wear a mask because you're not allowed to have friends over to your home.
Government that's what government is doing to Americans, telling them how they have to behave in their own home, their own property.
And if you don't think that kicks a lot of Americans off, then that this is craziness what we're doing.
The crazy rules Gavin Newsom had for for Thanksgiving.
Oh my goodness.
You could be you had to be outside, but outside was defined as you could have a roof and you could have three sides.
So you can really be in your garage with the door up but you can they call it outside.
You can only be there for two hours.
I mean it was ridiculous.
You could have only three households so you and your you and your your your family, your mom and dad and your brother's family could be there for Thanksgiving, but you and your mom and dad and your brother's family and your sister's family couldn't be there for Thanksgiving.
This is just ridiculous and Americans have had it with the crazy rules especially the fact that these people make the crazy rules and then they don't follow them.
My question is you know if we don't fix this, we never win another election.
I'm I'm worried uh about Georgia right now.
Yep.
No, I am too um we got two good Senate candidates there.
We got to do everything we can to make sure they win.
Uh but you're right we've got to stop this vote by mail.
You can't just and you gotta you can't you can't have states do what Pennsylvania did just change the rules at the last minute.
And you have all these rules in place you had the legislature pass the law and then all of a sudden the state supreme court bunch of hacks on the court along with the the Democrats uh Secretary of State and the Democrat governor that they go and change the rules at the last minute and and do this massive mail in voting concept so that's the big problem we we called this and we we did a report uh Mr. Colmer and I and our our staffs on the two committees and and unfortunately it it played out and you know it was just a few years ago even the New York Times are saying you can't do massive mail-in voting the potential for
fraud the potential for problems is so huge.
So um we've said many times Sean if you can protest in person you can vote in person let's vote in person unless it's absentee where you specifically request the Board of Elections knows who you are knows where you live knows you're actually a real voter and has done that with voter ID just like you need to get in the DNC.
How about signature verification that's real?
Yeah, we have both.
In Ohio, the state that President Trump won by eight points, the bellwether state, you have to present your ID when you vote.
You have to sign so there's a signature match.
We only have absentee that you request for, and it can only happen in that 30-day window prior to.
So we have the kind of system in place that makes sense, that is actually not fraught with this potential for fraud.
So that's how we have to do it.
these states I mean here in I've got a role book all right Jim Jordan we're gonna hit the phones when we get back thank you sir you want smart political talk without the meltdowns we got you now I'm Carol Markovich and I'm Mary Catherine Hamm.
We've been around the block in media and we're doing things differently normally is about real conversations.
Thoughtful try to be funny grounded and no panic.
We'll keep you informed and entertained without ruining your day.
Join us every Tuesday and Thursday normally on the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast I'm Ben Ferguson and I'm Ted Cruz three times a week we do our podcast Verdict with Ted Cruz nationwide we have millions of listeners every Monday Wednesday and Friday we break down the news and bring you behind the scenes inside the White House inside the Senate inside the United States Supreme Court.
And we cover the stories that you're not getting anywhere else we arm you with the facts to be able to know and advocate for the truth with your friends and family.
