Jordan Sekulow, Executive Director of the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), co-host of Jay Sekulow Live and author of The Next Red Wave: How Conservatives Can Beat Leftist Aggression, RINO Betrayal & Deep State Subversion and Gregg Jarrett, Host of the New Podcast, “The Brief” and author of two NY Times Bestsellers, the Russia Hoax and Witch Hunt, join us to discuss the impeachment trial. 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.
I'm Carol Markowitz.
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 podcasts.
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.
All right, glad you're with us.
I know.
Yeah, another shift show charade has just started.
Last night on Hannity, I mentioned my buddy Mark Simone's tweet, tomorrow is impeachment day.
Obviously, that's today.
The Democrats impeach Trump every February.
It's now becoming an annual event like the Golden Globes.
Remember last February when they missed the pandemic starting because they were focused on impeachment.
Hmm, good points.
Well, so the Democrats predictable, nothing, it is, it is an amazing spectacle that is not going to end well, my prediction for the Democrats.
The longer this goes on, and they're saying, well, okay, we know we don't have the votes.
This has a predetermined outcome.
But the longer it goes on, the worse it gets for them.
Because he's not president.
There's no removal from office.
And more and more, we have the same mob in the media that went along with the Democrats in this snap impeachment having to now report about how the attack on the Capitol was pre-planned.
There were organizers.
There were people plotting.
There were people planning.
There were people scheming to make this happen on that day.
Now, why is that important?
Because it takes the whole January 6th rally of Donald Trump inciting the mob to go and cause an insurrection at the Capitol.
And it blows it up.
That's a problem for them.
I'll even play some of that coming up throughout the program today.
And so on top of that, and it gets more interesting.
And I didn't pick this up yesterday.
I don't know why I missed Maria's show, Sunday Morning Futures, because I usually don't miss it.
But she had on White House, former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.
And he pointed out how the president had been very vocal about offering the National Guard and a presence at the Capitol on numerous occasions in January, and he was rebuked every time.
Quote, we know that in January, but also throughout the summer, the president was very vocal in making sure we had plenty of National Guard, plenty of additional support, because he supports our rule of law and supports our law enforcement and offered additional help.
Even in January, that was a given.
As many as 10,000 National Guard troops were told to be on the ready by the Secretary of Defense.
That was a direct order from the president.
And yet here is what we see, all kinds of blame going around, but yet not a whole lot of accountability.
Now, this is where I think we need the whole 9-11 style commission report.
And, you know, look, this is going to go down three ways.
One way or another, it looks like that this ends a week from today.
And it's going to be loud and it's going to be never-ending and it's going to be repetitive and it's going to be hyperbole.
It's theater.
This is not real.
This is Washington being the swamp.
When you have a predetermined outcome and you're doing it anyway, that's called a waste of taxpayer time, money, dollars, you name it.
Now, we could be discussing, well, what do we do to get the guys that were working on the Keystone XL pipeline back to work?
We could be talking about how to get the guys that were constructing the border wall back to work.
We could be talking about, well, how do we better distribute the vaccine that Donald Trump had done with Operation Warp Speed because the governors are incompetent at its distribution and how can we fix and solve that problem?
We could be working on relief for American families and businesses that have suffered because of the pandemic and subsequent draconian shutdowns of others.
We're not doing any of the above.
And on top of that, you know, we've got some great ideas for this week.
It's going to be fun.
I'm excited about it all because it just, and it's that, it's sort of like low-hanging fruit going after Democrats and their rank hypocrisy.
Because the bottom line is Democrats are focusing on the, you know, with all the riots that have occurred in the last year, the only one they cared about is the one in Washington.
And we now know that the police chief six separate times called for the National Guard even before they started to be brought in.
They knew hundreds of thousands of people were going to march from the Washington Monument to the Capitol.
And they didn't have any preparation for such.
Now, we know that Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez has acknowledged she knew a week in advance she had been hearing this is all going to happen.
Well, who knew what and when?
And why do we want to know?
Because we need to protect our institutions.
And yes, we need to protect every elected official.
This transcends any political ideology or philosophy or party.
It doesn't matter if you're a conservative or a liberal or a Republican, a Democrat.
They're elected officials.
They need to be protected, period, end of sentence.
And none of which happened.
But the silence over the summer when we had, let's see, police precincts burned to the ground and we had, what, over 2,500 cops injured in the course of the summer and the rioting.
They were being pelted with rocks and bricks and Molotov cocktails and frozen water bottles and sticks and knives and they were being shot at.
Almost 30 people died as the insurrection there.
We had entire city blocks taken over, commandeered by leftists and Democratic politicians saying this is a summer of love zone, a spaghetti potluck dinner zone, a chaz chop zone, an autonomous zone.
Well, the president wanted to send people in and end the occupation, but wasn't allowed to do so.
And the same with attacking federal courthouse buildings and the riots that went on in Portland day after day and night after night, and the utter incompetence and unwillingness to stop or even speak out against the violence and the rioting there.
And for the record, at a briefing today At the White House, as the second impeachment shift show charade starts, it was getting underway.
Gen Saki, the White House press secretary, pressed on how the Biden administration felt about the incendiary rhetoric from Democrats in Congress.
Well, we've been playing a lot of it, and that would be Maxine Waters.
That would be Joe Biden.
I want to beat the hell out of Donald Trump.
And that would be Chuck Schumer threatening Supreme Court justices.
That would be Kamala Harris after the police precinct of Minneapolis burned to the ground, saying they're not going to stop.
You beware.
You take note on both levels.
They're not going to stop.
They shouldn't stop.
We shouldn't stop.
Okay, in the middle of rioting, maybe not exactly the right words.
And then on top of that, adding and supporting efforts to bail out those people involved in the rioting from jail.
Wow, that's great.
Anyway, the attorneys for the president now pointing to comments from 2018, Maxine Waters is one of them, called supporters at a rally.
You are to confront them.
You're to create a crowd.
And you're to follow them into the grocery stores.
He's talking about members of the cabinet of Donald Trump.
They're not wanted anywhere anymore.
Biden advise Cedric Richmond had even defended Waters, saying she had a constitutional right to express those views.
Well, then all the time, well, Trump said fight like hell at the January 6th rally.
Well, we've played all the montages of every Democrat.
It's a common term of politicians.
Go out and fight.
Fight for your values.
Fight for this.
Fight for that.
They're not saying to go out and have a physical brawl.
And the president, you can't ignore the fact that he said many of you will peacefully, patriotically now march to the Capitol so your voices will be heard.
Well, how do you overcome that shift show?
Whoopsie-daisy.
Over at NBC, they have a reporter noting that, you know, all of these instances, Jensaki, for example, how does this, how does the White House view this as any different what Waters said?
Well, Joe's the president.
He's not a pundit.
He's not going to opine on the back and forth arguments, nor is he watching them that are taking place in the Senate.
What happened to Mr. Unity?
I thought he was going to bring the country together.
Or Nancy Pelosi's comments when the Wisconsin State House, there was their little insurrection issue going on there.
But the president, yeah, apparently offered to deploy the National Guards beforehand.
It kind of goes away from all the arguments that have been made.
But, okay, Democrats now want to focus in on only one of the many riots this country has experienced over the last year.
Wall Street Journal, good piece out too, that Democrats already know the outcome, but they think it'll hurt the GOP.
Actually, that's beginning to shift.
They're beginning to worry greatly because they know that they're now in the that this will be so time-consuming that it will take away from any agenda that they wanted to push through in the first hundred days of Biden.
And then if this doesn't work, they're thinking about a plan B, maybe the 14th Amendment, maybe censure.
Anyway, Trump believes that we'll see what happens, but we already have 45 Republican senators on record believing it's unconstitutional, and they're right.
And the New York Times, Tom Friedman, you know, is right in all the wrong ways on impeachment.
And, you know, he's talking about, you know, they don't have Republicans in Cunan and in China.
And how do we do this week after week, month after month, and think we're a serious country?
We're so deeply unserious as a country now.
And we need to put this crap behind us, he says, and get focused on the future because right now we're going to be falling farther and farther behind.
Okay, Daily Caller said that the outburst by Friedman was complimenting China on their on their faster trains that they have in spite of all the other bad stuff that goes on in that country and all the suppression of individual rights and all the territorial ambitions that are taking place there.
So anyway, you know, what you have is probably both sides looking to avoid a dragged out impeachment battle.
It's likely, I can't say for certain.
I'd say 95% is going to be something that's over in a week.
And there is some trepidation and fear among a lot of Democrats.
And apparently Biden deep down, but Biden, I don't think has the ability to stand up to his radical base.
But if you look at, you know, the president now being out of office, as long as he's been out of office, okay, well, he's still taking, he's still, he's still bringing all the attention to him.
The insurrection charges, I'm pretty sure this is going to break down to three separate arguments for the defense.
And I don't think it's going to take them the 16 hours that they've allocated to each side.
And I would argue that the big part of it's going to be the lack of constitutionality, which would include jurisdictional issues, that he's a private citizen, therefore they don't have the jurisdiction for this trial.
Second, I think it's going to be argued on the whole issue of what actually happened.
And now that we're learning that it was pre-planned and that this was an organized, orchestrated, pre-planned effort, law enforcement is telling us that.
Even the liberal news media mob is telling us that.
Even Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez is telling us that.
And everybody else in between is telling us that.
So now they've got a problem.
FBI investigators, now court documents are all telling us that.
So the idea that this was a spontaneous insurrection, I don't think it's going to work.
And on top of all of that, who's presiding?
It's not Chief Justice John Roberts as the Constitution calls for.
No, they've decided on Patrick Leahy, a guy that is already, again, this is supposed to be a trial.
A guy that has already said Trump should be convicted is presiding over these proceedings.
Now, does that seem like a fair trial to any decent American?
That doesn't sound like America at all to me.
And that's what's unfolding in your nation's swamp, the sewer.
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 down a verdict with Ted Cruz now, wherever you get your podcasts.
All right, 25 to the top of the hour.
Glad you're with us, 800-941, Sean, if you want to be a part of the program.
So there's all this going on.
This show is not going to spend an entire week regurgitating every single argument that we already know is going to be made when we know what the outcome is going to be, that it's predetermined.
I see no point in that at all.
Now, when it gets interesting, we'll let you know because we'll monitor.
Unfortunately, I have now had to task people that work on radio and TV to have to sit and watch this crap.
It's really a horrible thing.
It's like torture.
I actually offered a food bonus.
You can order as much Uber Eat scrub hub food that you can possibly consume in the time that you must suffer through all of this.
Oh, man.
Linda, thank God it's not us, right?
Thank God.
100%.
Oh, could you imagine?
No, it's not.
It's too much.
I think Linda would break the TV.
Oh, Linda would break the TV?
She still might by the time this is all said and done.
That's cool.
I mean, you just have no idea where that's going to end up.
All right, but we'll be watching.
It's going to get interesting.
Now, there's three arguments here.
One, the constitutional argument, jurisdictional issues included.
They don't have jurisdiction.
Number two is going to be, oh, the snap impeachment with no witnesses, no defense, no due process, nothing.
And how they race to get this done because that's what the Democrats do for political purposes.
Now it's a political show trial because 45 senators say, no, it's not constitutional.
Every senator, by the way, I don't care what your political point of view is, you should not be validating this.
This is dangerous to validate and legitimize what the House did here.
Here's an example.
I'm going to play the longer montage.
Pay attention now.
Remember, Ocasio-Cortez says she knew a week in advance that this was likely to happen.
And we had, you know, the chief of police, Capitol Police, yeah, asking in advance for the National Guard, Trump offering the National Guard, Mark Meadows saying on Sunday morning futures with Maria Bartaromo over the weekend.
So all of that happened.
Then now we have court filings and FBI investigators saying it.
And now that has had to result because the mob, the media, went along with all things Democrats because they're the press office.
And even they now know they could not ignore it anymore, especially when the video came out of the pipe bombs actually being planted ahead of time, which now investigators are telling us believe was a diversionary tactic to inflict even more damage.
Anyway, but here's the mob, the media, now, again, going against the very impeachment, the premise of the impeachment, which is the incitement to insurrection.
Listen.
One of the big questions for investigators has been whether or not, whether the people who attacked the Capitol, whether this was just a mob that just got out of control, or whether there was planning.
And we're learning from people we're talking to familiar with the investigation that they're getting indications, some evidence that they've seen that indicates that there was some level of planning.
They've noticed from looking at surveillance cameras, from looking at some of the weaponry that showed up, that there were people who were at the ellipse where there was a Trump rally earlier in the day.
Some people left the scene of that rally early and appeared to have gone to retrieve weapons that then turned up at the scene of the riot at the Capitol.
Based on everything the FBI has learned, it was not some sort of spontaneous decision by a bunch of, quote, protesters to go up to Capitol Hill and storm Capitol Hill.
This was all planned out.
I want to get to this issue of coordination and premeditation because, Elaine, this is really the leading edge of this investigation.
And for the first time today, we heard the U.S. attorney say that he believes the pipe bombs are connected to the rioters and that it was a diversionary tactic.
So, right at the height of this, between 1245 and 1.15, when President Trump is speaking, you have the first group pushing onto the Capitol complex.
The first pipe bomb is reported at the RNC headquarters here in Washington.
Then at 1.15, the second is reported at the DNC.
And the U.S. attorney said today he thought they were diversionary, which means they were an effort to pull first responders away from the Capitol at the very timeframe that they were breaching onto the Capitol so it would further weaken security at that site.
And all of this goes to, I'm sorry, it's a long answer.
It all goes to the idea of premeditation and coordination among individuals.
And now to that chilling new report that there was an FBI internal report the day before the siege warning of a violent war at the Capitol.
New reporting that the FBI received a very specific warning before the riot.
Let's bring in CBS's Jeff McGaze, who's been reporting all day.
Good evening, Jeff.
Dora, that FBI notice warned of war at the Capitol, but for some reason, security wasn't stepped up there to meet the challenge that that attack would pose.
On how much of it was planned, how much of this was strategized ahead of time.
People wandering around exercising their First Amendment rights don't bring ropes and ladders and sledgehammers to a spontaneous event.
This was a planned assault as if going after a castle.
A week before, one week before, the week prior to the insurrection, I started to get text messages that I needed to be careful.
And that in particular, I needed to be careful about the sixth.
And those text messages came from other members of Congress.
They were not threats, but they were other members saying that they knew.
Premeditated, planned attacks.
They plotted, they planned, they schemed.
The FBI was warned and nobody did anything.
Nobody.
Why?
Why?
That's our capital.
That's the country's, these are our institutions.
Why didn't they do anything?
You know, a prepared assault.
So that takes the entire argument, the entire article of the SNAP impeachment, and it disintegrates it because that is the argument.
So the defense has three arguments, three main arguments, and it really isn't that hard.
One is the constitutionality.
Two, no jurisdiction.
There's nobody to remove from any office here.
Do they have jurisdiction over a private citizen?
The answer is no, because he's not in office.
So that is a fairly simple argument.
We've argued that.
We've had on more experts analyzing that for you again and again.
Now you move, then they'll move to the whole issue.
This was all premeditated, that they planned these attacks, that there were warnings, intelligence that was all missed.
A planned assault on the Capitol.
All right.
Now, well, that doesn't get every MAGA person that was at the rally off the hook.
If you look at the size of the crowd that showed up at the Washington Monument, it was massive.
Now, they knew the night before because I remember Dan Scovino tweeting out, we can hear you in the west wing of the White House.
They heard all the people that had been there the night before that were there in Washington to go to the rally.
So law enforcement had plenty of knowledge that the crowd was likely to be large.
Well, the crowd at the Washington Monument for the rally was huge.
And then they're going to focus on, okay, well, if this is now the definition, and this is where, you know, this is the slam-dunk end of this case.
45 senators have voted to end the impeachment show trial.
Predetermined outcome, not constitutional.
No jurisdiction over a private citizen.
You can't remove somebody from an office they don't hold.
And it doesn't matter to Democrats because this is cathartic to get out there.
Any remaining rage, it's sort of like the last Rocky, you know, and his brother-in-law is saying, Rocco, Rocco, clean out the basement, you know, get rid of whatever demons you still have in there.
Well, they're sort of cleaning out their last refuge of rage, psychosis, and Trump hate here.
And then they're going to get into this whole thing about the Democrats and the things that they've said.
I mean, I mentioned a number of people.
I mentioned Kamala Harris.
I mentioned Joe Biden.
I think you can add probably shifty, you know, the corrupt congenital liar Adam Schiff.
Maxime Waters has called for harassment and violence against the president, his staffers, his cabinet, and others.
Talk about, I'm going to take Trump out tonight.
All of these moments.
Well, now, if this is the definition of insurrection, then that same standard has to apply to everybody.
Chuck Schumer threatening two U.S. Supreme Court justices.
Corey Booker, go to the hill, get up, and please get up in some of the faces of some congresspeople.
You know, who talks about taking a president behind a gym to beat the hell out of him?
You imagine if I ever said that about any Democratic president, by the way, I never would.
Never, ever.
Political differences are different, are quite different.
In the context of the precinct burnt to the ground in Minneapolis, that goes to the Kamala Harris part.
You know, nearly every media outlet now and the FBI and court documents and Congresswoman Alexandria Casio-Cortez, that this was all premeditated, pre-planned, and they're giving the details of such because that would then mean there was, you know, then you can go to the president's words.
They're going to spend a lot of time.
The president said to fight like hell or you're going to lose your country.
Okay, I got a montage of Democrats saying fight, fight, fight.
You want to hear them?
I'll play it again if you want to hear it.
What does Congress do about this?
We fight.
We keep fighting.
We're going to keep fighting and fighting and fighting for this.
That doesn't mean we don't fight.
I think we have to fight harder than ever.
We know this is going to be a hard fight.
It's going to be a competitive fight.
We should dream big, fight hard, and take back our country.
This is a fight of our lives.
Stand up and fight for the best of who we are.
And I'm prepared to fight and I know how to fight.
But I'm ready for that fight.
Increasing numbers of people are ready for that fight.
Stand up and fight for democracy.
I will fight every day until he is impeached.
There's only two ways to win a fight.
You can win a fight through submission or through exhaustion.
We can't just imagine a better future.
We've got to fight for it.
We continue to fight for a progressive agenda in our future.
That's what we're fighting against when we fight Republicans in Congress who don't want to pass legislation now because it's time for every single one of us to get up and fight for our country.
This new freshman class in Congress has got to come in and really set the agenda and fight, fight, fight.
Fight, fight, fight.
Well, authorities, the FBI were warned about an impending war at the Capitol that was being planned even weeks in advance.
How did they miss the intelligence?
Why didn't they react to the intelligence?
Why didn't they accept the president's offer for National Guard troops?
Why did they deny the Capitol police chief the guard troops that he asked for before and during?
You know, you've got a new network now.
This comprehensive analysis, New York Post had a story today of a sprawling network of federal and local law enforcement across the U.S. is designed to stave off these terrorist threats.
They failed to protect the Capitol.
We can't have that in this country in a post-9-11 world.
I don't want anybody to have to live through any of these moments again.
We need to secure our institutions and, yes, every elected official.
You know, and the idea that officials didn't act on intelligence, why not?
The Wall Street Journal said yesterday.
Intelligence that they had included warnings from federal, local law enforcement, quote, fusion centers around the country warning of protesters traveling to D.C. with weapons, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing internal documents viewed by the newspaper.
FBI field office was warned by federal and local agencies handling security for the protest and demonstrations, sharing maps of the Capitol and the actual call for war.
Despite the warnings, the intelligence arm of the Department of Homeland Security wrote, well, there's nothing significant to report in a January 5th memo to law enforcement.
As a result, security forces in D.C. were not prepared for what was, we now know, premeditated and planned that day.
We know, according to the journal, that the heads of these fusion centers, as they call them, where local law enforcement share intelligence with federal authorities, they hosted a call on January 4th warning about the number of participants planning to bring weapons.
The intelligence was shared with the D.C. Fusion Center.
And in turn, the offices were tasked with providing the security for January 6th.
Department of Homeland Security didn't answer the journal's questions if it took any action based on the call, while the FBI said it held a separate call to brief other law enforcement officials.
Why didn't they bring in all of their guys and insist the National Guard needed to be called up?
They also pointed out and highlighted how the FBI field office, Norfolk, Virginia, pointed to a message board where one user was urging protesters to go there, quote, ready for war, sharing maps of the Capitol complex.
That intelligence was shared with the Joint Terrorism Task Force in D.C., not acted upon by the FBI, according to the report.
This is, you know, we have a lot of enemies as a country.
We may have a lot of disagreements as Americans, but we're one America.
We're a United States of America.
And one thing we need to agree on is we need to keep our country safe.
And all these other battles become quite insignificant when you have people that are planning such an attack.
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 down a verdict with Ted Cruz now, wherever you get your podcasts.
I'm glad you're with us.
Our two Sean Hannity show.
David Schoen, friend of this program, who is the president's lawyer, has now begun the arguments.
Now, the first part of this is arguing over the constitutionality.
There'll be a motion to dismiss after this, and that will represent the floor of where this will ultimately end.
And in other words, if you get the 45 votes that Rand Paul's motion got prior to this, that would mean that 45 Republican senators, which we would expect, vote again after the motion to dismiss not to impeach the president.
Then that would mean that this is an exercise in futility with the complete, full, predetermined outcome.
Before we get to Jordan Seculo and Greg Jarrett getting the legal arguments heal, let's go to our friend.
You recognize his voice, David Schoen, who just started turning up the heat pretty early.
They tell us that we have to have this impeachment trial, such as it is, to bring about unity.
But they don't want unity, and they know this so-called trial will tear the country in half, leaving tens of millions of Americans feeling left out of the nation's agenda, as dictated by one political party that now holds the power in the White House and in our national legislature.
But they're proud Americans who never quit getting back up when they're down, and they don't take dictates from another party based on partisan force feeding.
This trial will tear this country apart, perhaps like we have only seen once before in our history.
And to help the nation heal, we now learn that the House managers, in their wisdom, have hired a movie company and a large law firm to create, manufacture, and splice for you a package designed by experts to chill and horrify you and our fellow Americans.
They want to put you through a 16-hour presentation over two days, focusing on this as if it were some sort of blood sport.
And to what end?
For healing?
For unity?
For accountability?
Not for any of those.
For surely there are much better ways to achieve each.
It is again for pure, raw, misguided partisanship that makes them believe playing to our worst instincts somehow is good.
They don't need to show you movies to show you that the riot happened here.
We will stipulate that it happened and you know all about it.
This is a process fueled irresponsibly by base hatred by these House managers and those who gave them their charge and they are willing to sacrifice our national character to advance their hatred and their fear that one day they might not be the party in power.
They have a very different view of democracy and freedom from Justice Jackson.
Vance at one point, David Schoen just leveled them, and I was actually surprised by this.
Came out with, yeah, okay, what does impeachment basically mean to the Democrats?
Nothing.
With dates starting from pretty much day one in January of 2017, just a small, we have a big montage we use, but it's small montage of impeach him, impeach him, impeach him, impeach.
This is all they've ever wanted to do.
Country knows this at this point, but let's play that part.
Precedent and snap impeachment process, the House of Representatives denied every attribute of fundamental constitutional due process that Americans correctly have come to believe is part of what makes this country so great.
How and why did that happen?
It is a function of the insatiable lust for impeachment in the House for the past four years.
Consider this.
I want to say this for Donald Trump, who I may well be voting to impeach.
Donald Trump has already done a number of things which legitimately raised the question of impeachment.
I don't respect this president, and I will fight every day until he is impeached.
That is grounds to start impeachment proceedings.
Those are grounds to start impeachment.
Those are grounds to start impeachment proceedings.
Yes, I think that's grounds to start impeachment proceedings.
I rise today, Mr. Speaker, to call for the impeachment of the president of the United States of America.
I continue to say, impeach him!
MPH 45!
MP 45!
So we're calling upon the House to begin impeachment hearings immediately on the impeachment dollar shop.
Would you vote yes or no?
I would vote yes.
I would vote.
I would vote too much.
Because we're going to go in there.
We're going to impeach the motherfuckers.
But the fact is, I introduced articles of impeachment in July of 2017.
If we don't impeach this president, he will get re-elected.
My house requires me to be for impeachment, have an impeachment hearing, and he needs to scarlet pie on his chest.
Representatives should begin impeachment proceedings against this president.
It is time to bring impeachment charges against him.
Bring impeachment charges.
My personal view is that he richly deserves impeachment.
at an impeachment rally and we are it's been four straight years of this um I assume a motion to dismiss follows, and we will then get what will be a floor, meaning they're not going to get 17 Republicans to go along with this.
Joining us, Greg Jarrett, host of his new podcast, The Brief, author of two New York Times number one bestsellers, Jordan Seculo, executive director for the American Center for Law and Justice, co-host of the Jay Seculo Live, author of the bestseller, The Next Red Wave.
Thank you both for being here.
I'm watching David Schoen.
We know him well on this program, Greg Jarrett, and pretty powerful open so far from what I see.
I can't really watch the rest of it.
You know, David has really put the matter in proper perspective and done so persuasively and compellingly.
And he needed to do that.
I mean, Jamie Raskin, the lead House manager on behalf of Democrats, took just three minutes into his opening argument before he queued up the graphic video of the mob and blamed it all on Trump when Trump at one point in time said, you know, we need to fight like hell for our country.
Trump was using the term figuratively, not literally, and Raskin knows that.
Democrats knows that.
By the way, Greg, I just played in the last hour for this show a montage of Democrats saying, fight.
I'm going to fight.
We'll fight.
We'll fight.
Common term.
I mean, how many times have lawmakers on the floor of Congress said, we're going to fight this, we're going to fight that?
And of course, they don't mean it literally.
They mean it figuratively.
So they're taking it wholly out of context and conveniently leaving out of the clips what Trump really said to the crowd that was gathered, act peacefully and patriotically when you march down to the Capitol.
So it was a setup.
It was cleverly put together by a movie company.
And this is all intended to stoke and gin up a motion.
Why?
Because they lack merit on the case in earnest.
You know, Jordan Seculo, adding to that, you know, there are three aspects of this, and today's argument is the constitutionality.
Although David Schoen did discuss the fact with a snap impeachment, there had been no investigation.
We now have all of the details of a massive intelligence failure that occurred.
And in other words, we know this was premeditated.
These were plans attacked.
There was a plot, scheme, planning.
The FBI, they go into great detail, had been specifically warned and didn't do a thing about it.
And even a New York Post piece today that you have an admitted Black Lives Matter supporter, John Sullivan, just got slapped with additional charges for playing a primary role in instigating violence during the January 6th Capitol riot, according to their reporting.
So, you know, that's aspect number two that, well, snap impeachment, but it was pre-planned.
It wasn't a spontaneous, quote, insurrection incited by the words of Donald Trump.
And lastly, what about the insurrectionist language that I play often of the Democrats themselves?
Yeah, well, I mean, Sean, this is a continuation, this impeachment, and I was on the floor of the first one on that legal team, of what we call in law, especially in international law, but it's certainly been experienced by this president as lawfare.
And he's going through it right now.
And it's not just the second impeachment, Mueller, the first impeachment over a phone call that 35 other people are on.
He's got DAs.
He's got the Georgia Secretary of State referring a phone call to a DA there.
He's got tax, you know, the tax issue still is in question.
The New York DA, the New York Attorney General, Florida is going, asking for where he lives.
I mean, it is nonstop.
They cannot let go of a former president.
And, you know, that, again, I think plays into the argument of he's not looking to, it's not like you can escape the legal system by leaving office as president.
In fact, when you leave office as president, the legal system can come at you at 100 miles per hour quicker than it could before because of the protections you have while you're president.
And this idea that he's this January exception, I know they wanted to do something that could give the hashtag going.
That is not the case.
If the president is even believed to be guilty of inciting insurrection, as David Schoen said, he should be in handcuffs.
He should be getting knocked on the door.
None of that has occurred because all those prosecutors know, even the ones that hate him, that they're not going to be able to meet any of those standards in a court of law.
So they're trying to do an impeachment by arguing that they have a constitutional authority to try a private citizen, but that they can ignore First Amendment rights.
I mean, that's going to be part of their second argument here, is that it's really the First Amendment doesn't apply when you're president.
You're held to a higher standard.
And no one is held to a higher standard than the Constitution itself, including those members.
And so, yes, they can try to show video.
I think it shows desperation.
The House managers have gotten caught.
And I think you already hear parts of how they're going to take apart their entire article of impeachment, that it was written wrong, that it actually lacked the process, that they rushed this, that they, a month and a half later, this is not the same, and the people don't feel the same.
And why are we talking about Donald Trump every day now for the next week and a half and in the whole lead up to this instead of what the Biden administration is trying to accomplish?
And it's because of that fear that President Trump and his supporters, and I think the word was used, cancel out, the cancel culture, they want to cancel this president, and they want to somehow cancel his supporters.
You know, you could shut down his Twitter account, but you can't shut down 75 million people.
And their views aren't going to change.
And in fact, you're reminding them about why they have these views.
So constitutionally, you know, it's like even Senator Corny and Senate, I keep going back to it.
They go down this road and they'll hold this vote today.
And yes, it will show that the president will not be impeached.
He'll be acquitted again.
He'll be vindicated again.
But they will go down a road that now opens the door for Republican senators to say, you know what?
And a Republican House to say, you know what, Barack Obama with that Tass and Furious where people got killed?
Is he directly responsible?
What about the IRS targeting of conservative groups?
That's certainly a high crime and misdemeanor.
Do we now impeach him for just the purpose of going through it?
And maybe then we get a vote on so he can't hold office anymore to take away all his advantages of being a former president, like his security.
You know, that's an issue here, too.
Taking away your security, taking away your ability to keep your family safe.
That, again, will be part of, I think, the bigger argument here.
But today, it's all about the vote that happens.
It seems like both sides now are shunning witnesses.
Yeah, there won't be any live witnesses.
They're simply manufacturing a case of emotion via videotape by a professional film company.
That's what Democrats and the House managers are doing.
They're playing to emotion, not to facts, not to evidence.
Now we know that there is compelling evidence that the attackers plan their assault days and weeks in advance.
This is evidence collected by the FBI.
It's impossible for a person to incite a pre-planned event.
And so this just underscores how Nancy Pelosi hastily crafted sloppy article of impeachment, charging Trump with incitement where there's no actual evidence of incitement.
You know, nowhere did the president, advocate, or direct his supporters to launch an assault on the nation's capital, to attack police, to threaten lawmakers, and commit destruction of property and looting and vandalism.
Nowhere.
Show me where the president said that.
And Democrats will say, well, you know, there are clips of people who say they were inspired by the president.
Well, that's irrelevant.
This is a specific intent crime called incitement.
You have to intend it.
Nowhere did the president intend that.
Look at his words.
It's not how people perceive the president's words, but what he said and what he intended.
There is no incitement case.
Yeah, your take.
How does it end, Jordan Secula?
All right.
It ends with the president being acquitted and vindicated yet again.
They're trying to tarnish him and his supporters.
They don't really care about the endgame.
I think they care more about just showing the videos, trying to tarnish him for the midterms and the effect he could have on that.
They're barely hanging on to power in the House and the Senate.
And so I think, though, again, it's going to end in an acquittal.
We're going to see that face vote, like you said, very soon.
If the 45 remain, the Democrat, the House managers know they've lost already.
That's why I think that the witness issue is probably not going to happen because neither side wants, especially the Democrat side.
Honestly, I think the president's side could call a lot of witnesses to talk about exactly what Greg just said, is that all this was pre-planned, that we had all this intel, is a failure by the sergeant of arms, the failure of these other policing departments to put enough security in place.
And for God's sakes, if we had to ban, if we can't use the word fight in political rhetoric, then none of the, read all of the fundraising emails you get from both sides of the aisle using that kind of language.
And if I say, well, that encouraged me because that's the reason why I punched my neighbor who's a Democrat, or that's the reason my Democrat neighbor punched me, that is not the country we want to live in when we care about the freedom of speech, which they are trying to trample on.
And that's the second part of this.
Trampling on our First Amendment rights.
Yeah, no, you're right on all points, as are you, Greg.
All right, Jordan Seculo, Greg Jarrett.
Thank you.
When we come back, Congressman Andy Biggs on the Ship Show charade as we 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 Podcast, 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.
All right, 25 till the top of the hour impeachment shift sham charade show.
And it's everything we predicted with a predetermined outcome.
It's pretty amazing.
The underlying theme of the impeachment charge of inciting insurrection.
We're spending a lot of time on this because the Democrats, they're only singularly focused on, well, only one riot that they cared about over the last year.
And the only one they cared about, there were a lot of them last year, but the one they cared about was in D.C.
And their argument is an incitement towards insurrection.
And, well, we had riots all summer.
In the biggest cities run by liberal Democrats, homicides were up 30% last year.
In a period over the summer, we had police precincts occupied and others burned to the ground.
We had city blocks occupied.
Chas, chop, autonomous, summer of love, spaghetti potluck, dinner zones where people died.
New York City, a portion of which, yes, would be reprim, all of which is represented by Chucky and part of which is represented by, say, Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez, the real Speaker of the House.
Yeah, they recorded a record 462 murders last year.
That's up 45% from the prior year.
They had a 97% increase in the number of shootings last year.
We know in New York, for example, 96% of people shot were African-American or Latino.
And if the people shot, you know, by, they weren't being shot by the cops.
But the thing is, so they care about, remember, the silence was deafening.
The comments of Kamala Harris, the insurrection inciting comments, they're not going to stop.
They shouldn't stop.
They won't stop.
You better beware.
You better take note on both levels.
It's not going to, and we shouldn't stop.
That was after the police precinct in Minneapolis was burned to the ground.
That's after the rioting that was going on there and elsewhere.
You know, so let's just take a little bit of some of the incitement, insurrection language of the hypocritical Democrats in terms of all of the other riots that took place in the last year.
And then we'll dovetail it into the sounds of what actually happened as during and after the rhetoric was being used by them.
And you decide.
Pigs in a blanket!
Rally banks!
Pigs in the blanket!
Rally behavior!
PUNCH SOME PEOPLE IN THE FACE WHEN THEY SEEK TO DESTROY THE MOONS AND THE GUNS AND THE GUNS AND THE GUNS.
First off, we need to start killing the White House.
The White House must die.
The White House, the White House, President.
Bernard, they must go.
F ⁇ the White House.
F ⁇ the White House.
Now more than ever, we must choose to fight.
We must choose to resist.
We must choose to stand up for what we believe in.
Teacher kids to throw that fucking cop car in the garbage.
That s has got to go.
That s ⁇ has got to go.
This fight will be long.
This fight will be difficult.
And so I call on everybody standing here and those that can hear my voice, that we now must be determined to fight for the long haul.
All right, there it is.
You have a direct reaction response to the incitement, the insurrectionist language of the left and the riots that they ignored, that they never talked about, that nobody ever got impeached over, that was going on pretty much most of the summer.
Anyway, Congressman Andy Biggs is with us, co-chair, border security caucus, representative from Arizona.
By the way, we'll get to some of your calls this half hour.
800-941-Sean is our number.
And Congressman, I think we could have the exact same impeachment for Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, who wants to beat the hell out of Trump when he's the president, Chuck Schumer threatening Supreme Court justice.
Kamala Harris, you know, after the police precinct burn and the rioting, they're not going to stop.
They shouldn't stop.
We shouldn't stop.
Nancy Pelosi, we could take her back to her Wisconsin days and her support of the rioting in that capital.
And Maxine Waters that takes the cake.
I'm going to take Trump out tonight.
So I think we have a lot of hypocrisy on display here.
Well, Sean, there's never a shortage of hypocrisy in Washington, D.C., but you're seeing the two-tier system.
I mean, what this is all about is nothing about January 6th.
That was the pretext to do what they've always wanted to do.
They just want to continue to hassle Donald Trump, and they would like to erase his legacy, his good policies, everything.
And you're right.
I mean, we hear, we have heard language all summer long.
Don't forget you've got the new representative from Missouri who says that the prison riot, the jail riot was just a bunch of her constituents, and she wants to get in there and help them out and make sure they're all right.
That's the type of thing that's going on up here constantly.
So we can't be surprised at what we're hearing so far in the impeachment hearing.
It's just not a surprise at all.
And the double standard is obvious.
Now, I don't think that the president, and we already know what the outcome is.
It's a predetermined outcome.
So they're putting on a show, and they've got their tapes and they've got their pictures.
But now we know something that's very critical and factual and relevant to the whole SNAP impeachment, why you don't have a SNAP impeachment.
You actually need an investigation.
And that is that we now have all the evidence.
We have court documents.
We have Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez, for that matter.
We now have FBI.
We have investigators and intelligence and videos of what was a pre-planned, an event that was planned and plotted and schemed way in advance and then orchestrated by those people responsible.
Now, did some people that went to the rally, did they join in?
Yes.
Is that Donald Trump's fault?
Well, he said to peacefully, patriotically march to the Capitol so your voices will be heard.
I don't think you have a case to make there.
No, you're exactly right.
I mean, we had two hours of debate in the House.
And we need to find out what Nancy Pelosi knew, what Chuck Schumer knew, and when they knew it.
There's not been a complete investigation here.
And so what we have found out is that there was, I mean, you don't have a pipe bomb that just shows up hours before President Trump speaks as part of this coordinated attack on the Capitol.
I mean, and it was coordinated.
And the president was still speaking when the Capitol is already being breached.
So to say that he incited something that we know is the law.
And it's also against the timeline and the facts and the reasonable standard here.
So in reality, what you've got is you've got people who rushed to a judgment, and they rushed to a judgment because they hate this former President Trump so badly that they're willing to say or do anything.
And they actually hate those of us who support President Trump as well.
How ironic is it that they have a guy leading their impeachment team from your body, the House of Representatives, Jamie Raskin, who is the very guy who challenged the results of the 2016 election.
And then you got a guy that sits on the House Intelligence Committee, Swalwell, that we now know had a long-term relationship with Fang Fang, the Chinese spy.
How does he manage to survive all of this?
You know, Sean, it would be laughable, but in order to really appreciate irony, you have to be able to know shame.
And these people don't know shame.
So you're right.
Raskin was objected in 2017 to one of the states certifying.
You got Swalwell and his issues.
You've got other people on there on that committee that just really don't have any business being there.
And the reality is it is ironic.
It is laughable.
But they don't know that because they don't know shame.
They're not embarrassed by it.
They should be embarrassed, but they're not.
Well, I don't think that's the case.
All right.
So Democrats, from all my sources, they're more afraid of this seemingly than Republicans.
Doesn't look like witnesses on either side are going to be called.
So at that point, is this all over?
Because I understand Tim Kaine, maybe Susan Collins and others say, well, we might move on to the 14th Amendment or censure.
Is that dead on arrival also?
And what's the process for that?
Well, I think the impeachment is going to be that's a favorite company.
It's not going to happen, no conviction.
But the censure, you know, that might happen.
That might happen because it takes, my understanding takes a smaller vote on the majority.
A lot of people say, well, we should come after him for some reason.
I do think, though, that they're going to be swimming upstream at that point because the tide, the momentum, the tide will have gone out on them.
This is their big moment.
It's failing and it will fail.
And to do anything more would just make them look even more petty, even more amazingly weak than they already appear.
And Sean, just never forget, I never forget this.
How would it be to have Donald Trump living in your head every day so that you know you're going to lose this, but you say, okay, well, we'll try something else.
That's kind of what's going on.
And the tide is going out on him.
The momentum is lost.
Well, I think that the country is going to see this and they're going to say, enough's enough.
But okay, thank you, Congressman Andy Biggs, Arizona.
We appreciate you being with us.
800-941 Sean, you want to be a part of the program.
Joe in the great state of Ohio.
What's up, Joe?
How are you?
Glad you called, sir.
Good, Sean.
How are you doing today?
I'm good, sir.
What's happening?
Hey, two things real quick.
First of all, about the election, you know, completely unconstitutional.
I don't understand how they think they're going to impeach a guy that's already out of office, best president ever, in my opinion, anyhow.
Secondly, you know, I'm real worried about our country.
We're essentially teaching the next generation here that it's okay to lie, cheat, and manipulate the system.
We have a guy in office that, you know, we don't know if there was fraud.
We don't know for sure because nobody investigated.
Our government didn't investigate.
And I think it's a shame.
It's really a shame.
How do you have a snap impeachment?
And now look at what's coming out.
A snap, think about this.
A snap impeachment where you don't even do no informational background.
There's no research whatsoever.
Now we're discovering that all of this, apparently there were organizers that plotted, planned, and schemed the whole thing, accompanying videotape.
Then you listen to Trump's words, not the distorted montages that they're putting out or putting up, well, his tweets that he had out there and saying, well, he said that the election was stolen or the president said to fight like hell.
Well, we've montaged over and over again all the Democrats saying, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight.
So that's kind of a common term used in all of politics.
And yeah, they'll waste our time.
They'll waste our money.
But look, even the Democrats sense deep down inside, the longer this goes on, the worse it is for them.
And especially because everybody knows the outcome.
So why are they doing it?
Because they want to squeeze their last bit of rage and spew it on him.
But they're not governing the country.
There's a 9% pollout today that people, only 9% think that the economy under Biden is getting better.
Okay.
I think the American people are speaking loudly, fix the economy, get aid to people that need it.
Open up the economy.
Start distributing the vaccine in an organized fashion.
So that's on them.
If they want to be small, if they want to be petty, as predictably is usually the case, then let them go do their thing.
That's their thing.
That's what they like to do.
That's what they're good at.
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 Podcast, 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.
Let me come back.
News Roundup Information Overload.
All right, we'll get to the legal arguments, which are really weak, pathetic, the pure hypocrisy, double standard that we've been watching unfold as the beginning of what is now, I guess this goes on to Monday.
What's the night?
Maybe next week into the, they say the 16th is the vote, so not exactly a long period of time.
The last impeachment this time last year.
Remember, they weren't focused on coronavirus when Donald Trump was.
And I guess this is probably just their annual event.
Republican president February impeachment trial.
Because this is the Democrats.
They're doing so much to help your economic situation.
They're doing so much to help your personal income.
They're doing so much to help workers by firing everybody and sending out pink slips and promising billions of jobs in the new Green Deal industry.
No jobs available, but they're going to focus on this.
All right, so we'll get to that.
Also, Mark Hemingway, investigative reporter, Real Clear Investigations, is here.
We'll get to that and your calls next hour, 800-941.
Sean, you want to be a part of the program?
Hannity, tonight, 9 Eastern.
The news and information the media mob will never give you.
Quick break, right back.
Investigation into the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol a week ago had new evidence that it was planned.
Also shocking new reporting that the FBI received a very specific warning before the riot.
That FBI notice warned of war at the Capitol, but for some reason, security wasn't stepped up there to meet the challenge that that attack would pose.
That there was an FBI internal report the day before the siege warning of a violent war at the Capitol.
The FBI admitting that it had intelligence before the insurrection that people were planning to travel to D.C. with the intent to cause violence.
All right, there you have it.
Yeah, all of a sudden we're finding out, oh, man, a lot of this happened ahead of time.
And a lot of this, well, I can't believe this, but it looks like people plotted and planned and schemed and orchestrated an attack on the Capitol.
Now, did some, the 1%, as I say, of the people that attended the rally join in and violate the law?
Absolutely.
Are those people going to be in trouble?
Yep, every one of them.
But the fact is that there were warnings left and right.
And we now know that the Capitol Police Chief had requested how many?
Six separate times that the guard be called up.
We also know, we've also learned that, in fact, Mark Meadows saying that the president, President Trump at the time, offered to deploy 10,000 National Guard troops ahead of January 6th.
He said that to Maria on her Sunday program, Sunday Morning Futures, and he said, Yeah, yeah, Trump had been vocal about offering Capitol Police and National Guard presence at the Capitol on multiple occasions last month.
He was rebuked every time.
We know not only in January, but throughout the summer, the president was vocal in making sure we had plenty of National Guard troops and additional support because he supports the rule of law and law enforcement and offered all the additional help.
And in January, he offered as many as 10,000 troops, and they were told to be on the ready by the Secretary of Defense, a direct order from the president.
Well, that puts a whole different spin on things.
And, you know, so I think that kind of lays out and kind of to bear all of the things that the Democrats have been arguing.
Joining us now is Mark Hemingway.
He's a senior writer for Real Clear Investigations.
We'll get his take on this shift show, this show trial with a predetermined outcome.
The rest of the nation's trying to get back to work, trying to pay their mortgages, their rent, and deal with draconian shutdowns and get a hold of the virus that's been mismanaged by many Democratic governors around the country.
Mark, thanks for joining us.
Glad to be here.
Let's talk about your take on this, about Democratic impeachment managers suppressing witnesses and other tactics to protect Biden and allow his media supporters to later cast allegations on some other things.
We'll get to that, but what's your take on this?
On the current impeachment?
Well, it ties into what happened with the first impeachment.
I mean, part of the problem we're dealing with right now is that by violating so many standards of process and transparency with the first impeachment, we have a situation here where Democrats have politicized and cheapened this second impeachment proceeding to the point where, you know, we have a situation where most modern Republicans in this Senate are already saying that this is a farce and we know that there's no point in going through this because he's going to be acquitted.
But, you know, secondarily, impeachment was one of our most solemn processes for holding Democratically elected leaders accountable.
And now it's just being seen completely as a politicized process that doesn't mean anything.
You know, you've written extensively about, for example, the first impeachment.
And what I could never understand in all of that, with all of the witnesses, they were all hearsay witnesses.
This all started because of not a real whistleblower, but a hearsay whistleblower that was anonymous on top of everything else.
Meanwhile, the whistleblowers post-election that saw irregularities with the election process were completely ignored by the media, which I think is a double standard.
But all of you had hearsay, a hearsay whistleblower, anonymous.
You had hearsay witnesses and you had opinion witnesses.
You had only one fact witness.
Correct me, Mark Hemingway, if I'm wrong.
And that one fact witness that talked to Donald Trump said, no quid pro quo, none at all.
He wants nothing.
That was the exact phrase.
Now, Joe Biden's on tape leveraging a billion U.S. tax dollars to fire a Ukrainian prosecutor that he knew, we all know now, was investigating his zero-experienced 50-year-old son, Hunter, who was being paid millions.
Now, why didn't that rise to the level of impeachment?
Well, that was a key aspect of the first impeachment and why it was such a farce in so many ways, which is to say, if the Biden family had corruption issues, then the truth would have been a defense for Donald Trump in the impeachment proceeding, would it not have?
I mean, it would have been perfectly reasonable for the president under national security grounds to ask whether or not Joe Biden and his family were leveraging their political connections to engage in corrupt financial dealings.
But that was never allowed to be a question that was addressed in the first impeachment.
And in fact, they specifically went out of their way to hide any questions about it.
Adam Schiff deposed all of the witnesses except for the first one that you already mentioned, who sort of embarrassed Schiff by establishing that there was no quid pro quo and quite convincingly.
And after that first witness, Schiff deposed every person in the House impeachment trial in such a manner that it was done under secretive testimony, and Republicans could not talk about what that witness said under questioning without facing ethnic charges when it was over.
Meanwhile, they were leaking the one-sided testimony transcripts they were giving beforehand so the press could run wild with this one-sided speculation.
I mean, impeachment, like I said, again, it was supposed to be a solemn process for holding people accountable, and it was completely non-transparent.
I mean, who could trust that after what they had been through?
And now we're in a situation here where Democrats are demanding more accountability, but the well is still poisoned that there's no reason for Republicans to go along with it because they cannot trust Democrats to run a fair impeachment process.
They can't.
I mean, if we're going to be honest about this, and I just got into this in the last half hour or last hour, my friend Andy Biggs, and then the point that we were making with him is that when you take the language of the left and the utter silence of the left in terms of the last impeachment, it is kind of amazing because there was a lot of riots that took place in the last year, and this seems to be the only one that they really cared about.
We had police precincts burned to the ground.
We had police officers over 2,200 or so injured.
We had nearly 30 people dead as a result of the rioting.
And what did we hear?
You know, people like Kamala Harris saying, you better beware.
You better take note on both levels.
They're not going to stop.
They shouldn't stop.
And we shouldn't stop.
Is that insurrectionist language?
You would think so.
There were, you know, you forgot there were 60 Secret Service agents injured in a single night of rioting at the White House trying to protect the president.
The president had to be moved to a secure location.
That was not a cause for urgency.
That was not a symbolic attack on the seat of democracy.
That was never regarded as anything that that was not regarded as a crisis.
And perhaps it should have been, certainly by the standards of what we're treating what happened on January 6th, which I agree was a very serious thing.
But you're absolutely right.
The duplicity and the double standards here, again, make it very hard for the average citizen to look at what's going on, to look at the process and say, you know, what, this is fair.
And they're probably concluding the opposite.
You know, when riots happen, when Republicans do it, it's the end of democracy.
When, you know, the entire media establishment buys in, when the entire corporate establishment buys in and supports ongoing riots, you know, across, you know, dozens and dozens of U.S. cities that do billions of dollars in damage, you know, kill dozens of people.
That's okay.
And I just don't see how we get through this current impeachment process without people, a significant number of voters being disgusted by the duplicity, at least.
Yeah, I mean, it's pretty amazing.
It's really an amazing time.
You know, and you can add some other issues here that begin to flow from all of this, the double standard, the hypocrisy, which is pretty breathtaking.
Then you go back to the first impeachment.
Now you got a federal criminal investigation for possible tax fraud as it relates to, you know, 50-year-old Hunter Biden.
Then you have big tech censoring the New York Post story, you know, with an accompanying picture.
And I'm told other far worse pictures, but the one that they printed had Hunter asleep with a crackpipe in his mouth, barely a word about it.
And it's pretty amazing to me that that goes under the radar by so many others.
And, you know, here you are, an investigative reporter, and you do the comparison objectively.
You tell me, am I being too conservative here, too prejudiced in my outlook in life?
Well, you know, I don't think so.
I mean, and again, it goes back to the first impeachment.
You know, we weren't allowed to ask any questions publicly about Biden corruption and whether or not this was a problem.
You know, we didn't have any sort of like public hearing on these issues.
And not only did we not have any public hearing on these issues, once we got through impeachment, basically the word had gotten out.
The Democrats suppressed asking questions about corruption.
So by the time the New York Post runs around in the heart of the campaign, everyone's decided that the questions about Biden corruption have been asked and answered.
So they completely suppressed the New York Post story to the point where they take the absolutely stunning move where they censor it on social media online.
Biden ekes out the narrowest victory of 40,000 votes spread across three states.
And then barely two months after the election, we come to find out that, oh, by the way, there has been an ongoing Justice Department investigation into Hunter Biden's corruption for years.
And oh, by the way, we already had in the heat of the campaign knowledge of one man coming forward and saying that Joe Biden was personally involved in this.
And even now, no one's asking any questions.
He's the president now.
So if you were at least going to pretend to, you know, try and swing the election for Biden, you know, you could at least, you'd think, take a breather and go back to doing your regular journalistic responsibility of holding the guy in power responsible now.
We have a serious interest in knowing whether or not the president of the United States is in any way beholden to these business dealings that Hunter Biden was making with foreign governments, including China.
You know, this is a very, very serious matter, and journalists need to take that responsibility to getting to the bottom of that very, very seriously.
Let me ask you about another real clear investigation that has to do with how Democrats crafted the first impeachment, helping, you know, and the impact it had on 2020 and the help of the media.
And more specifically, you know, if you look at the razor-thin swing state margins, perhaps am I wrong in thinking that if the American people had access to a lot of the information that was suppressed on behalf of Joe Biden by big tech, by the news media, the mob as I call them, is it a leap to think that that could have swung the election in Trump's favor?
Oh, not at all.
I mean, there's been polling that has shown basically that almost certainly Biden would have lost if it had been sort of widely discussed.
You know, there were polls that showed that huge numbers of Biden voters weren't even aware of the Hunter Biden corruption stuff.
It was so successfully blocked out by this, you know, sort of, you know, I hate to use the word, but collusion between the Democratic Party and the media.
And I have no doubt that it would have made a massive difference in the election if the press had been fair in terms of covering that stuff.
And we all know if there had been this kind of corruption involving one of the Trump kids, the media would have gone overboard.
On top of that, in November, just at the election, we had reporters like Sam Stein, who I believe is now the White House editor for Politico, like literally spiking the football online and saying that the difference between the Biden story and the Hillary Clinton laptop story that was the big October surprise with Anthony Wiener back in 2016 was that we made sure that in the media, we made sure that the Hunter Biden laptop story didn't spread out into the mainstream news.
And we deliberately made that choice to call it Russian disinformation.
And that must have been the difference in Trump's narrow victory in 2016 and Trump's narrow victory in 2020.
He may not have been wrong, but learning just a few weeks later that they had suppressed the true story, you think that would prompt some sort of dramatic reflection upon the media establishment that they went out calling a story that turned out to be an author.
Mark, I'm kind of laughing about media reflection or introspection or an examination of their practices.
These are the same people that spread nothing but a pure conspiracy theory for three straight years, and they never retracted.
They never apologized.
They never corrected the record.
Yeah, I mean, there obviously it's not just impeachment and or Biden corruption or any of these numbers of wild goose chases that the media covered ad nauseum, Russia being the chief example, where, you know, that might have been the difference in the election, too.
And what if they hadn't spent, you know, four years saying that Trump was treasonously colluding with Russia?
Would that have swung 40,000 votes?
I mean, we could just go down the line here, but yes, it is truly alarming, I think, the way that the media have decided to basically, you know, cheerlead and, you know, compete for Democrats, essentially.
Well said.
All right, Mark Hemingway, senior writer, Real Clear Investigations.
Thank you, sir, for being with us.
We appreciate your insight.
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 down with Verdict with Ted Cruz now, wherever you get your podcasts.
Hi, 25 to the top of the hour, and glad you're with us.
We'll get to your calls, 800-941.
Sean, you want to be a part of the program?
You know, I love taking little trips down memory lane to listen to Democrats and their rank hypocrisy, the double standard.
You know, let's take a little trip down memory lane, Democrats defending Bill Clinton during impeachment.
Listen.
They are driven by hatred.
They hate Bill and Hillary Clinton so much they will stop at nothing to bring him down.
Because we are here, as we are here today, because the Republicans in the House are paralyzed with hatred of President Clinton.
And until the Republicans free themselves of this hatred, our country will suffer.
And one of the reasons we all feel so angry about what they are doing is that they are ripping from us.
They are ripping asunder our votes.
They are telling us that our votes don't count.
This is their president.
We are talking about.
And we in Congress had better be very careful before we upset their decision and make darn sure that our decision to impeach him was based upon principle and not politics.
My fear is that when a Republican wins the White House, Democrats will demand payback.
All right, let's get to our busy telephones here.
Let's say hi to, let's see, Iwa is in Florida.
Iwa, hi, how are you?
Glad you called.
Thanks, Sean.
Sean, I just wanted to ask you a couple questions real quick.
Number one, why is our taxpayer dollars going to try to impeach somebody who's not even in office?
That's number one.
Number two, that money could be used for the people and their constituents, and they're wasting all this time on all the circus, and they're not helping the people.
I mean, what is this?
Really?
They should pay the people back for the four years of sham impeachment and pay the people back for what they're trying to do right now.
This is coming out of our taxpayer dollars, and it really upsets me.
It should upset you because listen, look at all the people that got pink slips thanks to Joe Biden, the 50 some-odd now executive orders.
This is not the people's business that's going on here.
You know, this is irrational psychotic rage, just outright hatred.
You know, the danger to the Constitution, the whole snap impeachment, why they would ever validate, legitimize what the House did is unbelievable to me.
And because it's not a legitimate process, they race through it in record time.
Anyway, I share your feelings.
I just want to say one more thing before I go on.
I know you're a busy man, but listen, Trump said, I'm going to do these things if you elect me.
He has checked off almost every box except draining the deep-filled swamp.
What has the Democrats done?
Where's their checklist?
What have they checked off that they've done for the people, for America, for our freedoms?
Nothing except suppress them.
Listen, you're right.
Every American should be angered at all of this.
You know, that's why I keep saying, and people are like, what do you mean you want it to go on for long?
Let it go as long as they want it to go.
Let them impeach every day.
Let's go for 99 more by the time they're done with this one.
Because every day they do it, that's less damage that they're doing to the American economy.
Now, they should be doing things like COVID, vaccine distribution, helping small businesses that have been struggling, shut down draconian shutdown measures that have been in place.
They should be worried about, oh, those oil workers, the pipeline workers, no, they'd rather listen to Leonardo DiCaprio.
Now shut down the Dakota pipeline.
Well, obviously, he doesn't have to worry about it himself.
It's just sad.
And anyway, thank you for the call.
And then on top of it all, then you got the mob, the media.
Now, after the snap impeachment, oh, this was all pre-planned.
Oh, my goodness.
Well, I guess the incitement to insurrection charge, spontaneous nature of it can't be true if it was pre-planned.
I got a long montage here.
Just listen to the media, you know, having to report on this being pre-planned.
I want to get to this issue of coordination and premeditation because, Alain, this is really the leading edge of this investigation.
And for the first time today, we heard the U.S. attorney say that he believes the pipe bombs are connected to the rioters and that it was a diversionary tactic.
So right at the height of this, between 1245 and 1.15, when President Trump is speaking, you have the first group pushing onto the Capitol complex.
The first pipe bomb is reported at the RNC headquarters here in Washington.
Then at 1.15, the second is reported at the DNC.
And the U.S. attorney said today he thought they were diversionary, which means they were an effort to pull first responders away from the Capitol at the very timeframe that they were breaching onto the Capitol so it would further weaken security at that site.
And all of this goes to, I'm sorry, it's a long answer.
It all goes to the idea of premeditation and coordination among individuals.
And now to that chilling new report that there was an FBI internal report the day before the siege warning of a violent war at the Capitol.
New reporting that the FBI received a very specific warning before the riot.
Let's bring in CBS's Jeff McGays, who's been reporting all day.
Good evening, Jeff.
Dora, that FBI notice warned of war at the Capitol, but for some reason, security wasn't stepped up there to meet the challenge that that attack would pose.
On how much of it was planned?
How much of this was strategized ahead of time?
People wandering around exercising their First Amendment rights don't bring ropes and ladders and sledgehammers to a spontaneous event.
This was a planned assault as if going after a castle.
Such rank hypocrisy.
All right, let's get back to our phones.
Robert Texas, what's up, Robert?
How are you?
Glad you called, sir.
Glad you're in a state that has, well, a good decent amount of common sense and decency.
God bless Texas.
I got a question for you, Sean.
God bless Texas.
I agree.
So how is it or why is it that Chief Justice Roberts is not proceeding at this kangaroo court?
That's part one.
Part two is why doesn't the judicial branch grow a spine and stop this travesty with a nine to zero vote about its constitutionality?
You know, they all took an oath to protect, defend, and follow the Constitution.
And right now, they're lying to 330 million Americans.
They, you know, you raise an interesting point.
The Chief Justice isn't there for a reason.
Now, how would you like to have a, quote, impeachment trial or any trial, and the judge is already determined before the start of the trial that you're guilty as hell?
Boy, that sounds like the American way, doesn't it?
That sounds like a good old American way to me.
Unbelievable times, Robert.
Yep.
God bless Texas.
Moses New Joisy, what's up, Moses?
How are you?
I'm doing great, Sean.
Great to talk to you, my friend.
Thank you for taking my call.
Thank you.
All right.
So a couple of comments I want to make, Sean.
And I've seen it especially after like, you know, the events that's happened in the last couple of months, but I understand even more clearly now why Trump got elected.
It's because of Republican weakness and inaction, decades of it.
You know, the Republicans don't have to fight back.
All they have to do is just simply respond in kind.
We've now had two unconstitutional impeachments.
We've had Adam Schiff completely destroy presidents when it comes to impeachment, release phone records of sitting members of Congress, release phone records illegally of lawyers like Rudy Giuliani and other and other private citizens.
And now the hypocrisy.
You have Alcy Hastings.
They're talking about impeachment, right?
You have Al C. Hastings, congressman from Florida, Democrat, who was a judge that was impeached for bribery.
And he sits on the Democrat Rules Committee, is the vice chairman.
But yet they want to go after, but they want to go after Donald Trump.
Republicans, what they need to do is attack the establishment, you know, like obviously peacefully, of course.
Let me just make that very clear.
Listen, I've said this for years.
You're onto something here, Moses, and that is, yeah, weak Republicans, they helped create Donald Trump.
And a lot of them still didn't learn the lesson of Trump.
Now, you might have personality differences or stylistic differences, but you can see the passion for the people that went out in by far record numbers to vote for him for president.
And it's rare that you get that much more in terms of voters a second time around.
And the reason is simple, is he made promises and he went literally every day, rolled up his sleeves and fought to keep the promises.
Now, can you argue that maybe he shouldn't have fought so much on Twitter stylistically?
You know, is there America knew they were electing a disruptor and an iconoclast?
And frankly, it was probably the cleaning out that the swamp needed.
But with that said, do I see Republicans in the House and Senate as willing to fight as he is?
No, I don't.
Some.
I do see some.
I don't see enough.
Yep.
And that is the problem.
You know, and let me tell you something, Sean.
You know, I'm a former Marine, and it's just like you said.
You're never a former Marine.
Semperfy.
I've never, and here's the thing.
I don't approve of all of the former president's style, his approach.
But guess what?
If I was overseas in Iraq, right, and our embassy, which it was attacked, was attacked, I would rather have President Trump as the commander-in-chief than any other past president because he responded within hours with an entire battalion of Marines and several helicopters to make sure that there was never going to be another Benghazi.
And at the end of the day, it's results that matter, not style.
Who do you think, if you had to guess, we have a hostile actor, Vladimir Putin, hostile regime Russia.
You have hostile Iranian Mullers.
You have hostile regime China, President Xi.
Who do you think?
And they're paying very close attention to America.
They're spying on all of us in all likelihood.
Who do you think they fear more?
Fear Trump or Biden?
And who do you think they think is of the two, which would they view as a pushover?
That's not even a question.
You know, they fear Trump more.
And they're even bragging about it.
What is it?
Last month, your network reported.
You have Chinese academics right now.
And the video got taken down a couple hours later bragging about the deals that they already put in with Hunter Biden.
So whether Joe Biden knows it or not, maybe he forgot.
Like legitimately, he probably forgot.
But he is compromised.
And you have to give it a score.
If you have to give it a rating, Joe Biden is far, he's done far worse that can be proven than anything that Donald Trump has ever been accused of that's not proven.
All right.
Appreciate the call.
Thank you very much, Moses.
Leo in Massachusetts.
Leo, you're on the Sean Hannity Show.
Sean, thank you very much for taking my call, and thanks for being the patriot you are and truth teller.
I think I offer a pretty unique perspective, and for brevity's sake, I'll get right to it.
My heart breaks for this country.
I served 40 years with this government, 22 active duty combat vet, 18 with civil service.
Thank you, by the way.
Thank you.
Thank you for all you've done.
It was my pleasure to serve, but I will tell you, my brothers and sisters, right now, we feel like we're being sold out.
When did the word patriotism become a dirty word?
When did freedom become some kind of invasion technique as described by the left?
When did the woke media come all together with this unholy alliance, Dorothy, Zuckerberg, Bezos, Pichai, the whole system to, I mean, what I feel is going on is that they're trying to degrade and destroy the will of the American people.
And let's face it, we're not represented by our representatives anymore in Congress.
They're too worried about their next seats.
You know, the very insurrectionists in this country are sitting members of Congress right now.
There's a real insurrectionist.
Look at this farce that's going on.
My heart bleeds.
My heart breaks.
My brothers and sisters who I'm still in contact with and the ones I've lost overseas on many, many deployments for this country, we all feel the same.
We feel like, you know, we've forsaken ourselves for a country that doesn't appreciate us, for a government that doesn't support us, and for a Congress and administrative branch that's selling out this country and selling out the very ideals that I and every one of my brothers and sisters stand for.
And we all believe the same.
When you see a man's legs ripped off or eyes jammed out or a head explode and the blood, there's no race overseas.
There's no race overseas when you're sitting next to a guy defecating in his pants because he's so afraid of what the hell is going on, the next roadside bomb that's going off.
That's what I want our members of Congress to understand.
The millions of us who heart whose hearts are breaking, we're torn.
I can tell you this.
You speak for a lot of people.
What I see saddens me as well.
And I worry about our children and our grandchildren.
I don't like the road we're going down.
It's not going to end well.
I hope I'm wrong.
All right, that's going to wrap things up for today.
All right.
Full coverage, opening arguments and the latest impeachment shift show charade on Capitol Hill.
Chad Pergram, Alan Dershowitz, Greg Jarrett, Don Jr., Senator Ted Cruz, Tammy Bruce, Joe Concha, Pete Hagseth.
Nine Eastern, set your DVR.
We'll see you tonight at nine.
Back here tomorrow.
As always, thank you for being with us.
You want smart political talk without the meltdowns?
We got you.
I'm Carol Markowitz.
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 podcasts.
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.
