Carrie Severino, is chief counsel and policy director of the Judicial Crisis Network and co-author of Justice on Trial: The Kavanaugh Confirmation and the Future of the Supreme Court, brings to light the truth about one of Biden’s nominees, Vanita Gupta for Associate Attorney General.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.
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I'm Ben Ferguson, and I'm Ted Cruz.
Three times a week, we do our podcast, Verdict with Ted Cruz.
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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.
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All right.
Thanks, Scott Shannon, and welcome aboard.
Thank you for being with us.
Toll-free, our number is 800-941.
Sean, you want to be a part of this extravaganza?
Yeah, we've got the border crisis.
Yeah, we got more Cuomo news and so much more that we're going to get to in the course of the program today.
Oh, we got an voter integrity updates that we're going to pass on to you as well.
We got Biden news, though.
He's now finally agreed to hold his very first press conference.
No president in the last hundred years has waited this long to have a formal press conference.
It's going to be next Thursday and March 25th.
Now, do you remember when in February, the Daily Beast broke the story that the White House tried to set the precedent for circle back?
I'll circle back.
I'll circle back, circle back with you.
Jen Saki, the White House press secretary, daily briefings.
She tried to set the precedent that, you know, reactions that maybe they would provide the questions in advance so that she won't have to circle back so much.
Remember, the reaction from reporters was, quote, mixed, which means, I guess, that some were actually willing to go along with that plan, but yet they call themselves journalists.
That would be one of the things that you normally wouldn't agree to.
Like, look, I'm always and will forever be convinced that George Stephanopoulos is the same guy that would get on the phone with Bill Clinton and, let's see, Rahm Emmanuel, Deadfish, and John Podesta, and our old friend James Carville every day.
And the same guy in the video, you can buy it online, war room that was saying, you'll never work in this town again if you report this.
I think it was the Jennifer Flowers thing at the time, threatening reporters.
Wonder how that would go over in this day and age.
What does names address?
I can send you a facts with names, addresses, phone numbers of who you had an affair with.
It wouldn't make it true.
It is completely.
If you went on the radio and said that Bill Clinton is the father of an illegitimate black child, you would be laughed at.
You would think you're crazy.
I guarantee you that if you do this, I might not even be able to do it until 8 o'clock.
You'll never work in Democratic politics again.
Oh, you'll never work in politics again.
Never work again.
Well, I'd say that's weren't they complaining that, well, what did we learn this week about Cuomo?
The people were calling around saying, oh, what's your support for Cuomo?
How many vaccines do you need?
And that was part of the question.
Now we learned today too, and we'll get to this a little later.
Apparently, there was a plan being bannered about on how to destroy the credibility of the first woman, this woman, Lindsay Boylan, who made the allegations against Andrew Cuomo immediately adopting the Clinton attack playbook.
That is discredit, intimidate, and destroy the first accuser.
That also has come out this week.
I don't see many.
Where is Kamala Harris on this?
I don't think she's ever been asked by anybody.
Anyway, so that did come up.
So the question, I guess, is, well, the suck-up, you know, Biden media, you know, the ones that put him, allowed him to stay in the basement bunker with the basement bunker mentality during the whole election.
I called it the candidate protection program, the big tech media mob candidate protection program.
Yeah, that one.
They didn't really, we didn't get answers about the filibuster, ending the legislative filibuster, did we, before the election?
We didn't really get answers to D.C. and Puerto Rico and statehood, did we?
We didn't really get questions about answers to the question about packing the courts now all legitimately on the table.
You know, Biden actually lied through his teeth to George Stephanopoulos.
He said, you know, in the debate in September, he told them, he said, tell immigrants, if you're fleeing oppression, you should come.
This is what he said.
What I would do as president is several more things, because things have changed.
I would, in fact, make sure that there is, we immediately surge to the border.
All those people are seeking asylum.
They deserve to be heard.
That's who we are.
We're a nation that says if you want to flee and you're fleeing oppression, you should come.
Wow.
This is what he said to George Stephanopoulos.
It seems to be getting worse.
By the day, was it a mistake not to anticipate this surge?
Well, first of all, there was a surge the last two years and 19 and 20.
There was a surge as well.
This one might be worse.
No, well, it could be.
But here's the deal.
We're sending back people.
First of all, the idea that Joe Biden said, come, because I heard the other day that they're coming because they know I'm a nice guy and I won't get genius.
Yeah.
Well, here's the deal.
They're not.
Do you have to say quite clearly, don't come?
Yes, I can say quite clearly, don't come.
And what we're in a process of getting set up, don't leave your town or city or community.
Process we're setting up.
Okay, well, we're going to give you, what, engraved invitations later?
Well, how's that going to help Americans that are out of work because of the pandemic or all the workers that were working building the construction wall that have now been given pink slips or all the workers in the energy sector?
I don't know.
But back to this thing.
So I have no trust in George Stephanopoulos.
Well, what are the topics you like to cover, George?
You think that conversation took place?
I don't know.
I'm a little suspicious.
But, you know, the Daily Beast is not exactly conservative.
Yahoo News even picked up the story.
And I'll read verbatim with less than two weeks till President Biden's administration, reporters are raising concerns that the White House press office staffers are trying to get them to give advance notice on which questions they plan on asking at briefings.
During a White House Correspondents Association Zoom call last Friday, reporters brought up the issue of Saki's team trying to coax their questions out of them ahead of time.
Multiple sources telling the Daily Beast that the leaders of the White House Correspondents Association advised reporters to push back or not to respond to such requests.
Quote, while it's a relief to see briefings returned, what do you mean relief?
Donald Trump had a briefing almost daily.
But anyway, the press can't really do its job in the briefing room if the White House is picking and choosing the questions that they want.
One unnamed White House correspondent telling the Daily Beast, that's not really a free press at all.
Eric Schultz, deputy press secretary in the Obama White House, defended the practice of screening questions.
This is textbook communications work.
The briefing becomes meaningless if the press secretary has to repeatedly punt questions instead of coming equipped to discuss what journalists are reporting on.
Oh, is that how we say it's actually just standard operating procedure?
Because I don't think there was any heads up given to anybody.
I'll ask Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and I'll ask Kaylee McEnany, and I'll ask Sean Spicer, because I doubt they got any of these questions ahead of time.
And in a non-COVID environment, this would happen in casual conversation throughout the day and lower and upper press.
And one of the few upsides to reporters hovering over your desk all day is that you get a very quick sense of what they are working on.
Later in the day, several current former White House correspondents, so it's a legitimate question based on the Daily Beast story and what they're saying.
Look, I want to get to this issue, though, and this is everything we told you about, everything we warned you about, is now becoming a scary nightmare scenario reality.
And that was before the election.
Like we talked at length about ending the legislative filibuster.
We didn't get that answer from the Biden campaign.
We got it last night.
We want to make it harder.
And, well, that's what Joe Manchin said.
That means that they're going to filibuster, meaning you have to keep talking and talking and talking to tie things up.
And the idea is to make it impossible because how long can one senator stand up and talk without actually leaving the chamber to even go to the bathroom?
I mean, that's how bizarre that would get, which is one of the reasons I'm sure they probably did it.
Remember, you know, we've been watching all of these executive actions that Joe Biden himself said, I'm not a dictator.
I got to get the votes.
Well, he's now legislating through executive fiat and the stroke of a pen.
Unconstitutional as that is, and you don't really see many Democrats upset that he's completely ignoring a co-equal branch of government, that being the legislative branch.
Then everything that they're trying to pass, they're willing to use the reconciliation process as a means of bypassing the 60 votes needed to move a bill forward.
Apparently, planning on using it a lot.
The issue of court packing is being investigated.
D.C. and Puerto Rico statehood is now being investigated using everything reconciliation.
We're going to use what, a simple majority and the legislative filibuster to pass H.R. 1, which would, I believe, usurp the constitutional authority given state legislatures.
That wouldn't be good either.
Now, there was some pushback.
Finally, Mitch McConnell has answered, and he has said yesterday that if they scrap the filibuster, they will cause, quote, a 100-car pileup for bills in Congress.
Mitch McConnell further goes on defending the procedure.
Now, Mitch McConnell, remember, President Trump was pressuring him all throughout his presidency.
If they get power back, they're going to do it.
You might as well do it yourself.
That was President Trump's argument.
Anyway, but this is the procedure that requires 60 votes to consider a bill.
Now, Dick Durbin, we have on record.
He's actually commented, as has, for example, Chucky Schumer and Amy Klobuchar.
Now, it's interesting.
Republicans have control of the Senate in 2018, and wow, all of these Democrats are against the eliminating the filibuster.
They're all against eliminating the legislative filibuster.
Let's play them two years ago versus now, or two and a half years ago versus now.
What about that nuclear option doing away with the filibuster?
Well, I can tell you that would be the end of the Senate as it was originally devised and created going back to our founding fathers.
Today's filibuster is often used to prevent the Senate from even starting to debate important ideas.
It's not the guarantor of democracy.
It has become the death grip of democracy.
I said, let's not do the Supreme Court.
We should have 60 votes, which we still do, because we should get bipartisan support.
We hope our Republican colleagues will work with us to produce that change.
We will try to get them to work with us.
But if not, we will put our heads together and figure out how to go, and everything is on the table.
The point is, we still left the 60 votes in place for the Supreme Court.
You brought it back.
And Mitch McConnell changed that.
I would prefer to bring it back.
We are where we are.
And now I don't think anyone's going to want to hamstring themselves.
I favor getting rid of the filibuster.
I think we have too much we have to do for this country.
Oh, because what we're doing is way more important than what Republicans were doing when they had control of the chamber.
Now, McConnell said if they do this, that he would then resort to using every arcane Senate rule available.
By the way, one rule even requires, quote, unanimous consent to turn the lights on in the chamber before noon.
We will use every other rule to make tens of millions of American voices be heard.
This chaos would not open up an express lane to liberal change.
It will not open up an express lane for the Biden presidency to speed into the history books.
This Senate would be more like a 100-car pileup, nothing moving.
I hope Republicans stick to that.
I would like to see Joe Manchin and Senator Sinema keep their words, but who knows, right?
You never know with Joe Manchin.
And anyway, Dick Durbin called on his colleagues to join him in eliminating the filibuster, or they're calling it reform.
It's making a mockery of American democracy.
Well, that was the whole point.
The Senate chamber was designed by our framers specifically to be the more deliberative body than its counterpart in the House.
Hey there, I'm Mary Catherine Ham, 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.
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So down a verdict with Ted Cruz now, wherever you get your podcasts.
Yes, happy St. Patty's Day to everybody.
Are we to the Irish?
I guess they didn't have the parade, right?
Anyway, one of the things, New York was never the best place to be on St. Patrick's Day, New York City.
No.
I don't know why.
Everybody, St. Patrick's Day, there was this obsession, every bar, every restaurant selling disgusting-looking green beer.
I don't want green beer.
I like my beer not being green.
That's my own personal preference.
Oh, man.
And people drink a little too much at the parade.
And yeah, you know, you'd see these little areas, little sections and streets in New York of green puke.
It just is so horrible.
Man, city with what, 12 million people, you know, on a working day.
It's just getting into the city on St. Patrick's Day was always an unmitigated disaster.
Just like on the day they light the Christmas tree at Rock Center in New York.
Unbelievable.
Anyway, so let me get back to what it is that their Democrats are doing here, because this is critical.
Of course, they want to end the legislative filibuster.
Of course, they'll use reconciliation.
Of course, they'll use executive action.
Of course, they're going to have a study of court packing, which they want to do.
Of course, they want DC statehood, Puerto Rico statehood.
Of course, they'll use reconciliation.
This is the biggest power grab in the history of this country.
When you add HR1 to this, which would say no voter ID at all, no signature verification at all, meaning you're not going to have any integrity or confidence in election results moving forward.
You know, institutionalized mail-in voting, okay, with no IDs at all.
Everybody's automatically registered.
Felons get to vote.
I mean, this is the single biggest attempt to turn America into their socialist utopia and be a one united socialist states of America through the biggest power grab in the history of this great Democratic Republic.
Hey there, I'm Mary Catherine Ham, 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.
Ah, yes.
We've been to the Irish.
I used to drive my poor grandfather.
He had a bit of an Irish accent.
He just had funny sayings.
I mean, it was amazing people, my grandparents.
All four of them came from Ireland.
All four came without any money.
And they came from two different counties.
It's interesting, the story.
And like 10 bucks in their pocket.
That's it.
And they landed in America.
They never got wealthy.
They never, you know, I know I stand on their shoulders, the courage it took at young ages to make that trip across the sea and come into the country legally.
I want to be very clear about something.
I support legal immigration.
I do.
And they face their challenges.
My parents both grew up pretty poor.
And I know I stand on the shoulders of all of them for any of the blessings I have in my life because they work so hard and never, you know, and sacrificed their lives for future generations.
So many of us, whatever your background is, you have similar stories to tell.
It's the American story so many different ways.
And it is this belief that our rights as Americans come from God, not from government.
Our belief that God created every man, woman, and child.
Our belief that God instilled in every person talent.
Our belief that limited government, liberty, and freedom allow people to find their gifts, their talents, whatever unique talents God gave them and bring it to fruition.
What about the people that aren't good people?
Well, yeah, that's the story of the human existence.
Man's imperfections.
Original sin, if you want to get into religious parlance in some way.
And the idea that out of imperfection, we want to work in our lives to become more perfect.
But human beings, yeah, we have the right to decide good and evil.
And in my Christian faith, it teaches us that, you know, you learn to forgive others as you are forgiven and strive to be better.
I never liked the perception.
Oh, you say you're a Christian.
Oh, look at that hypocrite.
I think I just have a very different take on what Christianity is versus what people say that it is.
And maybe they just believed some stridency of some people that claim to be Christian and maybe don't show it in all the ways that others would like.
But the idea is that you would admit that you need help, want to be better, and desirous of being your better self and finding the reason that we're even here on this earth.
One of the things, what separates us from the animal kingdom, it is that we have an awareness, a consciousness that we are in existence.
Do we have the ability to ever understand God, universes, within universes, within universes, within universes, and the majesty of creation?
No.
Well, that's where this word faith comes in.
I don't want to get off too much on a tangent here.
But anyway, it's St. Patrick's Day, and I'm not going to miss.
Linda, how bad have some St. Patrick's Day been in New York?
I mean, am I wrong?
Every year, I think every single one that I've been in New York City on St. Patrick's Day, somebody that drank way too much green beer throws up somewhere and you either you pass by and see it.
It is, is that not true?
Or am I making that up?
Just to be clear, the parade itself is fantastic.
So the parade is all.
I hate parade, so I'm not in full agreement on that, but go ahead.
That's just an overarching thing that you have.
But I'm saying, like, the parade is really nice.
You know, it's all, it sort of, you know, honors first responders, police, firemen, you know, things like that.
It's really, really nice.
What happens on the bar crawl that follows the parade, where people who might not necessarily have anything to do with the parade decide to take the day off from work and they frequent every pub, every Irish pub, and there's a lot of them in New York City.
And they just stay there all day long.
And there's all kinds of specials and drinks and green drinks.
And that turns into lots of green sidewalks.
So that's true.
Yeah, Green Sidewalks.
That's a very delicate way of putting it for you.
You get a major A for that.
Listen, it's 3 o'clock.
I'm very sensitive to the time.
Well, it's no, 12:30 on the West Coast.
People are probably now in line to get in and out birds and heading back to that after hearing.
You're driving your kids home or you're giggling.
Either way, it's like Linda Blair on the Exorcist.
Remember that scene where I've never been around in circles and she projectile volumes.
That's fine.
That green pea soup.
It's kind of like that.
It's nothing like that.
Enjoy your burger.
By two o'clock, most people actually like that.
I don't know what to do.
I used to come in from Jersey and like all of New Jersey on the train would be coming into New York.
Oh, if it landed on a weekend, I was always so happy on Saturday weekend.
Oh, my gosh.
That would be the worst day.
That's so funny.
Well, anyway, happy St. Patrick's Day.
But, you know, it's just interesting to learn and to know about your.
I know Ancestry.com is such a thriving business and growing business and learning about your family.
That's why we love legacybox.com, by the way, slash Hannity.
They have a 50% off deal coming today.
And you take every family photo you have in your attic, garage, closet, whatever, every video you have, you put it in a box.
They digitize it all by hand.
You preserve your originals.
And you're preserving family memories for literally future generations.
They'll be able to see grandma, grandma, grandma, grandma, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, grandmas.
And just, I'm fascinated by it.
It interests me.
You know, one part of me doesn't kind of feel worthy of like, you know, I've had such a, on one level, a life that I know my parents never have had.
They didn't take vacations, buy new cars until they were much, much older.
They just didn't do it.
There's no money for vacations.
It just wasn't.
It didn't exist in their world.
And the money that they did make, they put their kids through Catholic school educations and struggled to do that, worked a lot of overtime for that.
And it was a big deal for my mom to leave the South Bronx, my father to leave Bedstead, Brooklyn after serving four years in the Pacific in World War II.
And then getting a 50 by 100 lot house and raising their kids.
And I know my dad was proud of that, and he should be.
And what do we all want as parents?
We want the best for our kids.
That's why now the intersection between politics and it's so, there's like a razor's edge difference with the human existence because we've seen what oppression or authoritarianism or communism or stateism can do.
I mean, I wrote in my book, Deliver Us from Evil, last century alone, 100 million human souls were murdered under some ism, communism.
Mao, China, Stalin, Russia, Nazi ism, fascism.
We deal today radical Islam-ism.
And there are people that want power, sick, twisted ideologies.
And my biggest fear of socialism is that it always ends in failure.
Whatever name, whatever manifestation, all the promises are amazing.
You don't have to worry about anything.
And then it ends up, you never get what they promised.
Sort of like you don't get to keep your doctor plan and save money.
That's like Social Security is headed for bankruptcy and Medicare is headed for bankruptcy.
Sort of like, oh, you can't even maintain law and order and safety and security in big cities and towns all across the country, usually run by liberal Democrats for decades, states run by liberal Democrats for decades, or the educational system.
I mean, it's a disaster.
The politics intersection there is that you have the unholy alliance, teachers' unions, and Democrats and the monies that go to elections.
And it all filters in.
Why are some states so wide open?
And their schools have been open since August for crying out loud.
It's unbelievable.
But we can all be our better selves.
One thing, if I give advice to anybody, I don't care who you are, where you come from, because there's too many examples of too many people that come from the worst backgrounds and environments that end up overcoming, circumventing circumstances, and are able to somehow take advantage of this, the greatness that is America.
The first step in that is to own it yourself, which a lot of people don't, you know, might be resistant towards.
I don't know why.
Live your own life.
Find those talents that God gave you.
Education, a duke or a Latin, bring forth from within.
You have them.
Every one of you listening to me has gifts, has talents, whatever it happens to be.
The greatest thing in life is when you meet somebody in the course of this life that has found their passion, their calling, whatever it happens to be, maybe to be a great teacher, maybe to be a minister called to the ministry.
Maybe it is to be a fireman.
Maybe it's to be a policeman.
Maybe it's to be a first responder.
Maybe an emergency medical service person that brings people back to life.
Maybe a medical researcher.
You know, I was looking at some of the work that they've been doing in Israel on COVID, and they have a, I think it's now stage two trial headed towards it.
They believe they have found what potentially can be a cure.
Now, 30 people have tried this treatment that have severe or really severe COVID.
And in all 30 cases, the people lived.
It's only 30 people.
But it's that kind of innovation, genius.
You know, the person that developed it has studied this one particular protein for 20 straight years, one little protein.
And now maybe it's all paying off and maybe lives will be saved in the course of this pandemic.
I mean, that's incredible to me.
It just mesmerizes me.
I love stuff like that.
You know, the idea, if you ever take, if you don't have a telescope, you need to get one.
It's the greatest, coolest thing ever, especially at night.
And you got to go outside and you don't even do that.
You can buy an inexpensive one because even the inexpensive ones are really, some of them are really good.
You can research it online.
You can research anything online.
And you just, you know, you can see the craters when you look at the moon.
I know it's nuts, right?
Now think of how great the human ingenuity is, God-given talents of great scientists, that they actually had the audacity to think we're not only going to fly there, we're going to fly there, we're going to land, and then we're going to turn around and we're going to come home and we're going to get home alive.
That's kind of gutsy, kind of amazing.
I don't know.
And all these people that want to do it like individually, I want to, Elon Musk, I guess, is one of them.
I think I'll pass myself on the idea of getting in one of those in one of those planes.
I think I'm one of those rocket ships.
I think I'm going to pass.
I'm going to be cheering from the sideline.
I don't have that desire to do that.
But I admire the people that do.
Oh, I see Kamala Harris just dodged questions about the border crisis.
Reporter asked if she's concerned about the children detained.
I haven't been briefed on anything today about it, but I will when I get on the plane.
Wow.
Hasn't given a word.
She's not an I believer on Cuomo.
By the way, GOP senators say Biden's decision to block border wall construction was illegal.
You've got Shelly Moore Capito and 40 senators now asking the government accountability office to investigate.
That's going to be interesting to watch out.
Half of those surveyed, Rasmussen, don't believe Biden is actually in charge of his presidency.
Wow.
75% of likely voters back voter ID laws.
In other words, they don't support HR1.
Same Rasmussen poll.
One Trump DHS official warning the Biden transition team that Biden's open border policies.
Yeah, it's going to create a crisis.
They're even admitting it.
The DHS secretary Mayorkis is now admitting it's the worst crisis in 20 years.
But let's see what happens with McConnell on this filibuster.
I hope he holds the line.
Now that we know where Biden is, and it sounds like him and Joe Manchin have talked.
That's what Joe Manchin was saying.
Pretty scary times.
All right, we got a lot to get to today.
We'll get to the border issue.
We also have Bill O'Reilly today, all things simple man.
Carrie Severino will join us.
You got to hear about one of these nominees.
Actually, the person to be the Associate Attorney General of the U.S. has expressed a desire that states decriminalize simple possession of all drugs.
And there are questions about investments her and her family involved in.
We're going to examine it.
I don't know the truth of it, but we'll find out about it all.
Hey there, I'm Mary Catherine Ham, 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.
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All right, Leonard Skinner, Simple Man.
That could only mean one thing.
He's back.
All things BillO'Reilly at billo'reilly.com.
We play Simple Man because he thinks he's a simple man, but he's not a simple man.
He's a complicated man.
And anyway, Mr. O'Reilly, sir, how are you?
I'm searching for leprechauns.
I think I see one in the backyard.
You know, they're tough.
Tough little guys, you know, tough to track down.
You know what's strange?
You know, everyone's getting these ancestry tests.
And I've, you know, when you get the DNA test of, you know, what your background is or whatever, mine came back 100% British Isle, meaning 100% Ireland.
Now, all four of my grandparents came, two came from one county, County Cork, and the other two came from County Down.
All four came to America at the turn of the last century with like $10 in their pocket and pretty amazing lives.
I know that you probably feel the same way.
I feel like I stand on their shoulders.
I would assume there's a lot of Irish in that blood of Mr. O'Reilly.
Yeah, above 90% according to the PBS program, Finding Your Roots.
So they did a big show.
Wow.
I never heard about this show.
Yeah, yeah, you can access that.
And my mother's side, they came over right after the Pilgrims.
Okay.
And they came over.
They went from Ireland to England, and they whipped on a boat and landed in Massachusetts.
And one of my ancestors founded the town of Charlestown north of Boston, which is where Bunker Hill is.
His name is on the charter of the town to this day.
That was in 1633.
You know every detail.
You see, you're a big star.
That's why PBS chose you, because PBS has never even reached out to me to ever do anything.
No, you're not in my league, so that's why I got it.
You see, Bill O'Reilly, simple man.
Go ahead.
Here's an interesting point that ties into today.
On my father's side, they had two acres of land in County Cavan, which is west of Dublin, about two-hour drive.
Famine hit in the 1840s, and all the crops died, and the O'Reilly's could not pay the tax to the British crown.
So London seized the farm, two acres, threw the O'Reillys off the farm.
I have an article that I'm showing everybody tonight on the Nose Bin News on billo'reilly.com, an actual article, and says the O'Reilly family is evicted from their land.
The father died of a heart attack.
The mother was left with two 16-year-old boys, and they were starving.
All right.
They had nothing to eat, and they had nowhere to live.
The mother takes the two 16-year-old boys to Galway, where they get on a boat, and they work their passage to Brooklyn.
And you know what they did on the boat?
You know, what?
They threw bodies into the Atlantic Ocean.
Those were the dead ships, the famine ships that came.
Two 16-year-old boys land in Brooklyn in the late 1840s.
They get off the boat.
The Irish were there.
They take them in.
And that's the start of the O'Reilly-New York connection.
I was looking this up because I was so interested in what you were saying about PBS.
It's actually, it's hosted by Henry Lewis Gates Jr., which this audience may recall was involved in the, quote, Cambridge police acted stupidly common of Obama because he was commenting about Henry Lewis Gates Jr., who's, I guess, a professor at Harvard.
But you know what?
I do think it's a fascinating, interesting topic.
I do have a sign in one of my offices that says Irish Catholics need not apply.
And I remember talking to my grandfather.
He didn't ever want to talk about anything serious in his life.
But those, listen, you look at your parents, you look at our grandparents, you look at people that start out in this country, and I think of how poor they were.
And both my parents actually grew up very poor, my dad in Bedstead, in Brooklyn, New York, and my mom in the South Bronx of New York.
And I look at how blessed I've been in my life, and the appreciative side of me is that I live in the greatest country on earth, and that God has blessed me to live here, blessed all of us to live here.
And I also know I stand on the shoulders of people that had very, very tough, hard lives, challenging lives.
And I know that they would want this for me and their great-great-great-grandkids too, you know?
You know, I like Dr. Gates up at Harvard.
I know him.
We've always had a respectful relationship.
I understand why he did what he did when the Cambridge, the Harvard police, actually, rousted him.
And he was very angry.
And, you know, he vented his anger.
I had no problem with that.
Where Dr. Gates and I disagree is what do you do now?
All right.
Do you condemn your country as so many progressives are?
Do you tear down a system that has allowed millions of Americans to prosper?
Do you tear that apart for socialism?
Do you demonize Washington and Lincoln and Jefferson?
Now, Gates is not on board with all that.
I don't want to give them this impression.
But he doesn't fight it.
He doesn't say to African Americans, look, we got hosed.
And that's true.
No honest historian can say that African Americans didn't get blasted worse than anybody in this country.
They did with slavery.
But now you have an opportunity, and you need to get educated just like I did, just like Henry Louis Gates did, so I could go to Harvard and be a teacher and be on PBS.
You know?
If I could change two things about the conservative movement, about the Republican Party, even, and you know, I'm a registered conservative, but I'm not a Republican by choice.
I would say this.
I believe that Donald Trump has shown that working class Americans can do so much better under American-first policies, controlling our border, energy independence, all of that.
That's why records were set for every demographic groups with low unemployment in the first three years of his presidency prior to the virus, right?
And I would say that Republicans need to, because Democrats in these big blue states and mayors and governors, they're never going to do it.
They have an unholy alliance with the teachers' unions, and Republicans need to champion that every single child in this country be guaranteed a great education, which is reading, writing, math.
I don't even care if you do history, you can do that at home, and computers.
Those would be my four things.
And I put every kid in a uniform, and I make sure school choice was the top agenda item.
And if we did that, and if we can have law, order, safety, security in every city and every town in this country, I think Republicans would make inroads once again, and they show it, and they mean it, and they fight for it, and they deliver to every single American.
I believe that party affiliation shifts would be dramatic in this country.
What say you, Mr. O'Reilly?
Well, look, you know, it's a pipe dream if you think that the Republican Party can control the state of California, New York, New York City, Chicago.
They can't.
And it's correct.
Well, let me just say, you're absolutely correct.
The progressive movement has damaged education in this country to the extent that the poorest kids are getting hosed.
In New York City, I think you know this.
The average spent by the Democratic machine in New York on students is $30,000 per head.
Catholic schools spend $10,000 per head.
It's a little more.
I think you're showing your age, Mr. O'Reilly.
No, no, no.
It's a little bit more than $10,000.
I know kids that go to some of the Catholic schools that get a little more expensive than that.
I'm saying this is the average.
All right.
So guess who gets higher standardized test scores?
The Catholic schools.
Even though they spend two-thirds less educating money on the kids because they teach discipline and they teach goals and they incentivize.
Whereas the public schools, it's victimization.
At least it is in New York City.
They're spending way too much time on things that have nothing to do with educating our kids.
Listen, the way I would bypass it, if you're interested, is very simple.
I would create a curriculum, a one-time curriculum from pre-K all the way through high school.
That if your school system is horrible, parents would have access to it for free.
Make it one-time thing.
A strong curriculum that a parent, that a grandparent, that a neighbor, a loving, concerned anybody in any kid's life, that if you walk that child through this program and they met those yearly goals, that they would achieve, you know, almost perfect scores on their SATs.
It has to be rigorous.
It has to be disciplined.
It has to be reading, writing, math.
It's got to be the fundamentals and the basics.
This is not the place for social engineering.
It just isn't.
Yeah, but the unions are never going to do that.
No, well, that's how you bypass them.
You're right.
Then you're talking about charter schools or private schools because they're the only ones that would do it.
And de Blasio in New York City is trying to kill the charter school.
No, I'm actually taking it a layer even beyond that.
I'm saying that anybody that can get a computer and I'd figure out a way to get a computer into the hands of any kid that needed it because you can get inexpensive ones.
And they would have access to a quality education online with real classes, real curriculum, real teachers.
All they'd need is the desire and willingness to do it.
So they wouldn't go to school.
They'd learn in their house.
Well, no, they might still go to school, but they're going to put aside whatever time needed per day to go through the program.
Yeah, but the principals wouldn't allow it.
But you can't stop it because you're just going to access it from your house.
I understand, but you're running into politics.
And if everybody would come together and say, yes, that Hannity's plan is the best for the children and they'll learn more, that would be great.
But it never happens in the safety.
No, Hannity's plan is a safety net for kids trapped in failing school systems who are not doing well.
But they're never going to do it because they're basically saying they being the democratic control towns, all right, the mayor and the governor.
They're saying, no, we need more money.
That's all about money.
It's not about efficiency.
It's not about discipline.
It's about money.
Give us more money and we'll solve the problem.
And it never happens.
Listen, there's a reason why so many parents, and by the way, this is nowhere where I thought this discussion would go today.
But anyway, I think it's worthwhile having.
All right, quick break.
We'll come back more on this St. Patrick's Day with Bill O'Reilly.
Oh, we better the Idish and Mr. O'Reilly 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 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.
All right, as we continue, Bill O'Reilly on this St. Patrick's Day.
Let's say you are trapped in a horrible school and there's not even kids going to school where there's gangs or violence or drugs and disruption and there's very little education going on.
And let's say you have to go there or else they're going to come and put your parents in jail.
Okay, as soon as you get out of school that day, you would have the ability to go home with a parent, with a loved one, with a grandparent, with somebody, some adult that cares enough and go through your daily curriculum.
And that that child would still be able to access it.
Now, are they going to give up playtime and free time and whatever and other activity time?
They'd have to, yeah.
But they could still get it.
It would still be there.
It'd still be for free and every kid would have access to it.
Well, I liked your plan and I think it would help some kids.
But I also know being a former high school teacher myself.
By the way, this is a whole show.
A whole three hours, you being a teacher.
Oh, my God.
You had to be the biggest hard-ass teacher in the world, weren't you?
I was Mr. Carter.
You were Joe, Mr. Cotton, man.
Welcome back.
Welcome back.
Oh, man.
But this is why we have a divided country now.
And it's why we have income inequality.
And it's why we have so much resentment.
Because the kids who are educating, they are taking advantage of what America offers.
And they can prosper.
But the kids who aren't, the kids who have bad parents, who are trapped in bad schools, they don't have a chance.
All right.
Let me give you one last thought.
We're having now is the root of everything, which is why I'm glad we're having it on St. Patrick's Day.
When I went to high school at St. Pius, I had to take Latin.
I didn't learn much.
I didn't stay in the class long, but I learned one word, educare.
It's from the Latin.
It means to bring forth from within.
Now, that means if you believe as I do that God created every man, woman, and child, I believe that.
And we just have a propensity for good and evil.
But that means God put talent in everybody.
That's right.
And a good educational system would bring out those God-given gifts.
And unfortunately, we're hurting our children.
It is a disgrace.
All right, Bill O'Reilly, great discussion.
I want to hear about some of your teaching days one day.
That ought to be an interesting discussion.
I bet I would have gotten kicked out of your class every day.
All right.
Would have given you so much homework, you never would have seen the light of day.
I'd never do it.
Don't worry.
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 a verdict with Ted Cruz now, wherever you get your podcasts.
Ah, happy St. Patrick's Day.
And I guess they had the parade today, right?
Didn't they have a parade in New York?
I didn't even watch it.
Did you watch it, anybody?
Linda, did you watch it?
I did not.
I'm pretty sure it was canceled.
I think the only place that had an Irish parade was Chicago.
Now, Carrie Severino is the chief counsel policy director of the Judicial Crisis Network and co-author of Justice on Trial, the Kavanaugh Confirmation and the Future of the Supreme Court.
And we all witnessed and we all watched and we all observed what they did to Justice Kavanaugh with his wife and kids, you know, watching this man be torn to shreds.
And we watched stories, oh, I didn't particularly believe the Julie Swetnick story fall apart before our very eyes.
There now is a controversial nominee of Joe Biden that we've talked about.
Bonita Gupta is her name.
And anyway, they are now pushing hard for Senator Joe Manchin to vote no on this nomination as she has a massive stake apparently in a company that manufactures, yes, indeed, a key ingredient in the production of high-grade China white heroin.
You can't make this up.
Listen.
We see drug overdoses.
Death.
Bonita Gupta, she saw money.
Profit.
Gupta has tens of millions invested in a company that made the hidden ingredient in heroin.
The China white heroin that kills.
It's so despicable.
Reports say even Mexico is investigating the company Gupta has a stake in.
We lead the nation in drug overdoses, and it's made Bonita Gupta rich.
Tell Joe Manchin, Bonita Gupta for West Virginia.
Now, when you think of the opioid crisis, I mean, if you look at this particular ingredient, this is heroin's hidden ingredient.
It's a chemical made by U.S. companies.
Costs $324 for a jug of this.
It's called acetic and a hydride.
And it's made also Mexico, publicly traded American company, is enough to produce 90,000 hits of high-grade, quote, they call it China White, according to Bloomberg.com.
And the cartels are getting as much as they want and also using it to cook methamphetamine.
So the answer for states like West Virginia, Ohio, so many states in this country, frankly, every state is now impacted by the opioid crisis.
We're losing 300 Americans a week.
And of course, the fentanyl crisis on top of it, open borders don't help either.
And the push now is to get Joe Manchin to vote no in this particular nomination.
And that was Carrie Severino's group that made that ad.
Carrie, thanks for being with us.
Thanks, Son.
Tell us about, number one, the drug, and tell us about the investment.
Yeah, well, she said it was a substantial stake.
I don't know if you'd call it that.
It's only $11 to $55 million in stock she owns.
So which one of us doesn't have a small investment like that in some shady companies, right?
I mean, this is a huge amount of money we're talking about.
And it's not just that she happens to own stock in this company, Adam Coon.
It's her father is actually the chairman of the board of this company.
And as the Ed said, this is, you've got to be really worried when the Mexican government is investigating your company for criminal charges, because it's not just they're making the chemical.
I'm sure there's reasonable uses of the chemical as well.
But there's a real concern that the way that they're producing it, they happen to produce it in these boxes that are perfect size, that fit in the trunk of a car, really easy to transport, sell in large quantities.
Some of the distributors they contract with aren't even checking IDs.
They're canning the stuff out like candy in Mexico.
And most of these drugs that are coming into the country, like the heroin and meth, are actually being produced in Mexico.
So this is a real problem and feeding the American drug crisis that has now taken an estimated 142,000 West Virginia lives, not to mention, obviously, in states across the country.
That is a real concern.
While all this is going on, Zanita Gupta, major stockholder in this company, is arguing for decriminalization of drug possession.
You know, coincidence?
I think not.
I think we do have to examine, considering the amount of money we're talking about here, I know there have to be other legitimate reasons to produce this chemical.
And then we can get into the issue of why is it being sold to China, et cetera.
And the cartels are obviously getting some of it to make the heroin that's killing our kids.
And it's a hidden ingredient.
But I want to ask you, I think it's important to note, why would they be making it otherwise?
Well, yeah, the chemical itself is not.
It's kind of like we have some of these regular cost medications that now have to be behind the counter instead of over-the-counter, easily accessible, because they are these key ingredients in producing drugs like meth that are becoming such a problem in this country.
This is the same thing.
Yes, it does have legal uses, but the other problem is it's also an absolutely sine qua known essential part in producing and getting the raw opium into the form of heroin.
And so it's a huge, it's a huge point that could be if you could stop that leaking out, not that it can't be produced at all, but not being able, not producing it and then making it easily available.
So it's companies like that that are not being careful.
Well, you're making a really interesting point here because once a year I'll need a product that I use that my doctor recommends called Allegra D.
And it dries you up if you have any type of congestion or a cold or runny nose.
You know, when you get that runny nose thing and you're constantly blowing your nose to the point where your nose is sore from all of the tissues that you've used.
But to get it, you have to literally, I have to show my license and they'll only give you so many of them at any one given time.
And I remember asking my right aid pharmacist, I said, obviously there's a good reason for this, right?
And the answer was yes, because the ingredients that are in Allegra-D, if you have enough quantity of them, then you can make methamphetamine because they extract the ingredients that would be used in that process, which apparently could be used in the process.
This chemical can be used in the process for meth and what they call, what the Bloomberg call China white heroin.
What is the difference between China white heroin versus other heroin, I guess, which is brown?
Yeah, you know, I am not a heroin expert.
Thank God for that.
No, thank God for that.
Yeah.
Yeah, so this is a key one that's causing a lot of the problems.
And again, yeah, you can use acetic anhydride to make it used in making aspirin.
There's other totally legitimate things.
But when you aren't doing anywhere near the caution that we have, again, to buy a Legra in this country, if you're working with people who effectively are using it and getting it right into the hands of the Mexican drug cartels, that's what's triggering this investigation.
You're not just innocently being taken advantage of.
The Mexican government, at least, is investigating, are they intentionally making this easy for them?
Those are real serious questions.
And it's a company that, again, we have to be very careful to make sure that there's not some real problems with someone who's, on the one hand, arguing for drug legalization owning stock in a company that in the Huffington Post arguing that states should decriminalize simple possession of all drugs.
That would be heroin and meth, and crack and fentanyl.
I mean, that's just madness to me.
There are estimates, and I guess this is one of the reasons you're targeting Joe Manchin to pay attention to this, and that is there are 142,000 West Virginians from 2010 to 2018 that died from overdoses just in that eight-year period of time, and making West Virginia the state that has the highest overdose rate of any other state in the country.
And so the question is, are you convinced beyond her radical views, which would be enough for me not to vote for her, and between $11 and $55 million in stock, it's your belief that this company,
do you really believe that they are targeting specifically the illegal drug trade in heroin or methamphetamine and that they know or have knowledge of or are turning a blind eye to what China is importing this product for or Mexico is importing this product for?
Is that your belief?
Well, I think that is the real concern.
And obviously, that's why there's an investigation going on with Mexico.
We don't know currently the status of whether they're being investigated by the U.S. government.
They won't release that information at this point.
But the fact of the matter is there are enough questions raised, I think, that it calls seriously into question the confluence of that with her arguments on drug policy, which as you said, that alone is enough for me.
Some of the arguments she has made about drug policy more generally, I think, call into real question her suitability to be associate attorney general in the first place.
The fact that she's trying to decriminalize all these things, the fact that she has even said the entire drug regime in this country is just inherently racist.
You seem to be arguing that we need to get rid of it all.
And this is someone who's going to be now number three in the Department of Justice charged with enforcing those same drug laws.
How are we to know that she's actually going to be vigilantly enforcing the laws that she's on the books as saying are inherently racist?
So I'm going to be a non-starter.
And then you add this in.
I would just, from my own perspective, say, okay, so there is legitimate use for what they are producing.
There's legitimate use, as I said, for Allegra-D that I'll get once a year, usually.
But yet when I go to the drugstore to get Allegra-D, there's strong controls on it for the very reasons we're talking about.
It would seem to me that this company or that the government would want to put strong controls on any company.
There's no evidence for sure that they're targeting for the use of the production of these drugs.
So I've got to be fair to the company.
I don't know anything about them.
And so we don't have that evidence, but there is the Mexico investigation ongoing.
But I guess the next question I have is, with that said, is if they're going to control my purchasing of Allegra-D, they certainly should be monitoring and limiting even and making sure that anybody that's buying this chemical that can be used for the illicit drug trade, I would think the government job would be to step in and make sure that that could not happen.
Is there any government law that would prohibit them from doing so?
I think the challenge is that what's happening right now is the production in that distribution point is happening in Mexico.
That's why I think that's part of the reason we've got the Mexican government trying to look into it because when these things are located off shores, it's a lot harder for the U.S. government to do it.
That said, if the company is cooperating at the level where there's some kind of conspiracy with Mexican drug cartels, I think that obviously would violate some U.S. federal laws as well.
Again, we can't find out the information yet.
They're not disclosing if there is an investigation with the U.S. government.
But I think the challenge is when these things are happening in other countries, it makes it very hard to monitor.
As you point out, on drug distribution that might not be carried out as effectively in Mexico, right?
Yeah, listen.
In the Bloomberg investigation, yeah, they point out that this company produces and sells a key ingredient that can be used for illicit drug manufacturing.
Got it.
We haven't been able to prove that.
They haven't proved that yet.
That would be up to the Department of Justice, but she's in the Department of Justice, but it's also her own opinions on, again, legalization of all drugs or decriminalization of simple possession of all drugs.
Listen, here's the bottom line.
If you have fentanyl, if you have heroin, if you have methamphetamine, it's a death sentence.
You're going to die unless somebody intervenes or somehow you figure out a way to get off these horrifically addictive drugs and this death spiral that is pretty much guaranteed for anybody that gets addicted to them.
And I would think that if we're going to monitor on a micro level Allegra-D, we ought to be monitoring the mass production of any ingredients that could be used for the manufacturing of these drugs that ultimately create addiction and kill people.
Yeah, this is a real, and you look at just down the line, all of the things that she is advocating for, it's hard to imagine someone who's going to be enforcing the laws who then constantly undercutting them and undermining them.
It's the drug laws.
It's our death penalty laws, which she has said she's opposed to and argued for removing it even for white nationalists and domestic terrorists.
It's trying to get rid of the entire bail system.
There's so much that she is attacking within our justice system.
And this is, you know, it was hard enough under Trump to try to clear out some of the deep state activity going on within the Department of Justice.
Imagine with someone like Vanita Gupta helping to lead the place, someone who is undermining the policies that our national laws have written in them.
Radical views outside of the mainstream.
You really can sum it up that way.
But I don't mean to cut you off, but I'm just running out of time.
Carrie Severino, thank you as always.
We appreciate it.
We're going to watch this vote very closely.
And I'd urge the people in West Virginia to pay attention to Joe Manchin on this vote.
We've got to end this problem of addiction, drugs, smuggling, cartels, death, opioids.
Terrible.
It's awful.
800-941 Sean is our number.
We'll get to your calls also coming up next hour.
Much more.
News Roundup Information Overload Hour, Sean Hannity Show, toll-free.
It's 800-941.
Sean, you want to be a part of this extravaganza?
You know, it's interesting.
You got Joe Biden with the ever-so-liberal progressive socialist Clinton sycophant, the one that used to threaten reporters himself, Georgie Stephanopoulos over at ABC News in the puffy ball interview that he gave Joe Biden last night.
And Biden, what he said last night was interesting because Biden last night said, migrants aren't coming because I'm a nice guy.
Told migrants to stay home.
Well, let's first go back to the campaign.
This is actually in September.
And this is Joe Biden actually saying illegal immigrants should immediately surge to the border when I'm president.
Listen.
What I would do as president is several more things because things have changed.
I would, in fact, make sure that there is, we immediately surge to the border.
All those people are seeking asylum.
They deserve to be heard.
That's who we are.
We're a nation that says if you want to flee and you're freeing oppression, you should come.
You should come.
Well, that's what everyone's going to claim.
That's why the stay in Mexico policy of Donald Trump was so effective because people that had real claims, they'd be willing to stay there while their claims were being looked at.
But instead, he's opened up the borders.
They've been coming in record numbers.
We're now headed towards the highest rate of illegal immigrants in 20 years as a result.
And that's his own DHS head, Mayorkis, making that prediction.
Now, that's very different than what Biden told Georgie Stephanopoulos last night.
It seems to be getting worse.
By the day, was it a mistake not to anticipate this surge?
Well, first of all, there was a surge the last two years and 19 and 20.
There was a surge as well.
This one might be worse.
No, well, it could be.
But here's the deal.
We're sending back people.
First of all, the idea that Joe Biden said come, because I heard the other day that they're coming because they know I'm a nice guy and I won't get.
Yeah.
Well, here's the deal.
They're not.
Do you have to say quite clearly, don't come?
Yes, I can say quite clearly, don't come.
And what we're in the process of getting set up, don't leave your town or city or community.
Here's the deal.
Come on, man.
Senator Haggerty of Tennessee is here to talk about what is a real crisis at the border.
They're looking now at the highest number of illegal immigrants surging the border in over 20 years.
And there are a lot of large surges in the interim those last 20 years.
So this is going to, this is a crisis.
It is one of Joe Biden's own making, and yet he's denying the very words that he said just this past September.
Your reaction, Senator.
Well, Sean, thank you for having me today.
And my reaction is just the same as yours.
This is a crisis of Biden's own doing.
He invited them, just as you've underscored and playing back his own words from the campaign.
He's even created incentives now.
If you look at what's inside this, quote, COVID relief package, illegal immigrants are going to get a check.
So all the wrong incentives are in place.
He's stopped all border enforcement.
And it's amazing.
They want to see schools shut, but they want to keep our borders open.
I find it just incredible.
And they're even putting people to test positive in hotels, but there's no checks to see if they stay in that hotel or if they go out and with the possibility of infecting innocent people.
And then, of course, Americans are going to have to pay the bill for as many people as ultimately come across.
That means education.
That'll mean health care.
That'll mean probably ultimately impacting the criminal justice system, assuming some people break laws, right?
Oh, absolutely.
And my fellow Tennesseans see this all the way in Tennessee.
It's not just at the border, Sean.
I was talking with a couple of sheriffs yesterday in Tennessee.
They've already seen a surge in crime, particularly illegal drug usage.
And these drugs are coming right across that open border in Mexico.
This is something that's got to be dealt with.
Mentioned Biden's removal of the migrant protection protocol, the stay in Mexico plan.
That was working.
President Trump's plan was working, keeping people there in Mexico and dealing with the problem in that regard.
Letting them come across the border as they're doing right now and failing to adjudicate this.
They're just letting them cross the border at every point.
They've stopped building the wall, as you mentioned.
Today, along with 39 of my colleagues, we send a letter to the government accounting organization about this because we believe that this is an infringement of Congress's power of the purse.
If the monies were appropriated, the Biden administration doesn't have the authority to freeze border wall construction, stop funding it.
We appropriated the funds.
They've got to come back to Congress before they can stop it.
We're going to push back on this as hard as we can.
All right.
This to me is all madness and insanity.
Now, a couple of other things, because in 2018, if you recall, President Trump was accused of putting kids in cages.
Remember?
Then we found out something that was very interesting.
We learned that the video that most of the media call them the mob because they have a mob mindset and mentality, all the media mob were playing, well, that actually was video from 2014.
Those cages were built by Joe and Barack.
They weren't built by Donald Trump.
Now we have kids in cargo shipping containers.
I'm not sure if you've had an opportunity to see the outside of them.
I'd love to show you the inside of them, but we can't get any of our reporters inside because they won't let us inside.
Imagine the reaction if Donald Trump was the president and he was putting kids, unaccompanied minors, in cargo shipping containers with a tiny window with bars on it and were told butterflies on the walls.
I don't think that would go over that well, do you?
Not at all, Sean.
I agree with you completely.
As you say, if President Trump had allowed this to happen, it would have been the biggest humanitarian crisis ever.
Now the Biden administration refuses to even use the word crisis, as you acknowledged before.
Mayorkas, again, refused to use that term today.
This is a crisis, just as you describe it.
It's going to be the greatest humanitarian crisis that many of us have seen in our lifetimes.
You know, we have other issues now that are out there.
We've got, finally, Joe, to answer a question, and this is the problem.
If you run a presidential campaign hidden in a basement bunker, rarely, if ever, taking any questions and just showing up for the bare minimum, two debates and a virtual speech at the Democratic National Convention, we never got to the issue of court packing.
We never got to the issue of D.C. Puerto Rico statehood.
We never got to the issue of ending the legislative filibuster.
I'm sure you heard by now Biden's answer on ending the filibuster.
I'm sure you know Mitch McConnell's reaction to it.
Joe Manchin says it should be harder.
That seems in keeping with what Joe was telegraphing last night.
All things that were not told to us before the campaign, things that I warned a lot about, now becoming a reality.
Can they literally get any of that done, in your opinion?
Well, I'd say this, Sean.
You know, we're in the middle of a pandemic, a global pandemic.
We're in the middle of a recession we're trying to recover from.
And as you so clearly articulated, we've got a border crisis going on.
Yet their number one priority is to shove through this HR1, and they're willing to destroy the Senate filibuster to do it.
And that would turn the Senate into a body just like the House of Representatives.
It would take away the long-standing history of open debate here.
And I am extremely concerned that that's the direction they're going to go because it's all about power to the Democrats.
That's what we're doing.
Would the strategy as outlined by Mitch McConnell, would it be effective enough to push back on ending the legislative filibuster?
Other words, apparently they could tie things up in such knots that literally Mitch McConnell was saying, okay, well, if that's what you want, it's going to be a, quote, mess weapon of mass obstruction.
And he said if that happened, they would use every arcane Senate rule that is now available, one of which would even be, which would require unanimous consent to even turn the lights on before noon.
And he says they're going to use every other rule to make tens of millions of Americans' voices heard.
Would that work?
Would that be enough to stop this radicalism?
Well, that's what is going to happen.
As Leader McConnell described it, no one knows the rules better than he does, and no one is better equipped at unleashing this if it happens.
If the Democrats move in this direction, they're going to find massive resistance from the Republicans, and I think we're going to be locked arms standing up to this.
We'll do everything we can because we cannot allow the Democrats to achieve what they want, which is one-party rule here in America.
They want to use this H.R. 1 to basically put them in power till the end of time.
Do you believe as I do that it's unconstitutional, that it usurps the constitutional authority of state legislatures?
Certainly.
Article 2, Section 1, clearly says that the domain of setting election rules falls strictly with state legislatures.
No mention of Congress, no mention of federalizing the elections, but that's exactly what they're going to try to do.
I do believe there's a huge constitutional problem, just as you said.
You know, well, I would argue even on the issue of court packing, which they're having, I guess, some stacked counsel or investigative unit look into the possibility of implementing that.
How do you think the issue of D.C. statehood is going to play out?
How do you think the issue of Puerto Rico statehood is going to work out?
I think if they can get H.R. 1 through, they're going to continue to move in that direction.
With statehood for D.C., with statehood for Puerto Rico, these are going to be the things that you've warned about.
You warned about this during the election.
And what's going to happen is they're going to come to fruition if we don't stand our ground and do everything we can to stop them from destroying the filibuster.
And as you mentioned, this is just the beginning.
If it went all the way to packing the court, we would literally destroy the Supreme Court in our Constitution.
You know, we often talk about this mass migration or people leaving high-tax, highly regulated, Democratic blue, deep blue states like New York and New Jersey and Michigan and California.
And they're headed towards Texas and Florida, but many are also headed towards Tennessee and the Carolinas.
And I love Tennessee.
I have a heart for Tennessee.
I lived 90 miles south of Nashville when I was broadcasting on a radio station in Huntsville, Alabama early in my career.
And I used to go up to Nashville all the time.
And I love Music Row, and I love the city.
I think it's amazing.
And I love the state also.
What I worry about for all of these red states where you see this, you know, a lot of people from these deep blue states moving is that some people are going to bring their liberal democratic socialist policies with them.
Does that concern you?
Because it would concern me.
Well, thank you for acknowledging that what I believe is the best state on earth, the Tennessee.
And I encourage everybody to visit early and often because we're open for business in Tennessee.
I think most of your listeners know that, but we're open for business and we're open for tourism there.
With respect to the demographic trends, though, this has been going on for some time.
Tennessee is one of the best managed states in the nation.
We've had a conservative legislature that has kept our tax rates among the lowest in America.
We've got a great business environment, and we've seen this movement underway.
It's accelerating, though, Sean.
And I think the concern that you raise is something that I hear very often from Tennesseans.
But if we continue to stick to our principles, I think these people that are moving from California, from New York, from Michigan, from Illinois, will begin to see the power of our ideas and the power of our ideology.
I'm not so convinced.
I mean, it's pretty radicalized in New York and California.
You live there every day, Sean.
I don't know.
Listen, I'm tortured.
I mean, I am literally a prisoner here, and I'm stuck.
But I don't, you know, one of the things that's sad to me is you elect conservatives that are fiscally responsible, that don't believe in high taxes and a lot of regulation, and you balance your budgets, you fund your pensions,
and now you got the big emergency COVID relief monies, tens and tens and tens of billions of dollars now that are going to be redirected to states that have always overtaxed and mismanaged and misappropriated so many billions of dollars.
In other words, red states will be bailing out blue states.
Right now, I'm the beneficiary of it.
I don't want to be.
It's not fair to Tennesseans.
Oh, it's not at all.
And I can tell you, Tennesseans are furious about this.
You know, I talk to folks from my home state every day.
I don't want their money.
They deserve to keep it.
They do not want to be bailing out mismanaged blue states and blue cities.
And that's exactly what happened with this so-called COVID relief bill, less than 10% of which is actually aimed at COVID.
This was primarily about what you just described, Sean.
And that's mending the past.
The failed policies of these blue states and blue cities have been repaired on the backs of Tennesseans and other states that have been conservatively managed like ours.
I supported President Trump's tax plan because even though I no longer had the ability to deduct my state income taxes, which are significant in New York, 10%, and because that is not a benefit for you don't get the same benefit in Tennessee, the Carolinas, Florida, Texas, any red state.
You don't get the same benefits at all.
So basically what they're doing is they're rewarding blue state governors, big spending governors, tax and spend states for their irresponsible fiscal policies by taking money or offering tax cuts and abatements in a sense.
You get to deduct your state income tax.
I bet you Biden brings that back too.
You watch.
It underscores their hypocrisy, Sean, when they do something like this.
But what that did was it had states like Tennessee, just as you say, subsidizing the tax rates for folks in New York and other high-tax jurisdictions.
But that tax act that you talk about back in 2017, that was the beginning of President Trump's blue-collar boom.
That and deregulation put our nation on the fast track in terms of economic growth.
You remember Barack Obama saying, no, how are you ever going to get these jobs back?
You know, you must have a magic wand.
Well, Abra Cadabra, President Trump.
There you go.
Brought it back.
Well, you need to do more radio and TV because that message needs to be getting out more often.
Senator Haggerty, thanks for being with us.
Appreciate it.
Thank you, Sean.
Great to be with you.
Thank you.
Best to my friends in Tennessee living better lives than us.
Happy St. Patty's Day.
25 now until the top of the hour, 800-941.
Sean, you want to be a part of the program?
We'll get to your calls here in a second.
You know, I'm looking at what is now going to be the biggest influx of illegal immigrants into this country in 20 years.
Now, they're saying that.
The DHS Secretary, Mayorkis, is saying that.
And what does that mean for us?
It means more competition for American jobs during a pandemic and at the height of ending and eliminating high-paying career jobs in the energy sector.
Where are these people going to work?
Then, of course, the costs associated with, you know, bring in a million new illegal immigrants, 2 million more.
Okay, well, you have to house people.
You have to feed people.
You don't have the stay in Mexico policy.
You've now brought back catch and release.
Then you've got health care issues.
Then education system gets overloaded.
All of that happens with the illegal immigration.
And then on top of it, then you've got the opioid crisis gets worse and the cartels take advantage.
And then you've got, of course, human trafficking.
You know, Andrea Spark talks about the Texas child sex trafficking team director talks about how these kids, you know, the ones in cargo shipping containers that we're not allowed to view, the ones in the cages that Biden and Obama built, as young as six, coming over alone, this treacherous journey, and likely to be exploited by so many bad actors and gangs and cartels.
And Governor Abbott, then I'll play that too, you know, him talking about how unprepared this country is for what Joe Biden is allowing to occur.
We are very concerned at the child sex trafficking team about the youth and the children who are coming across the border.
They are in a perfect storm of vulnerability.
We've heard stories that kids as young as six are crossing the border alone, and they are scared, they are confused, and they are very likely to end up in the hands of an exploiter from what we know about human trafficking and how it works.
The Biden administration opened the floodgates to any child who wants to come across the border is going to be able to come across the border.
And I know from what's going on on the ground, they are completely ill-prepared for this.
One easy example.
And that is when the amount of children coming across the border turned out to be far more than what they expected, they had no clue where to send those children.
On this past Saturday night, there was an email sent from Federal Health and Human Services to my staff at 9.30 p.m. that I did not get until about 10 p.m. on Saturday night, where Federal Health and Human Services, they were scrambling to try to find some location where to send those children.
And they eventually wound up deciding over the night those children would be going to Midland, Texas without knowing whether or not there's running water or workable sewage or what the conditions may be.
They were scrambling talking to other locations around the state of Texas trying to find a location for the children who were coming to Dallas, Texas.
The Biden administration is completely not prepared for the number of children coming across this border.
And the worst thing about it, however, and this is maybe the most important thing I could tell America right now, what the Biden administration is doing by allowing any child who wants to come across the border to come here, it means that he is going to subject thousands upon thousands upon thousands of children to the horrific trauma, maybe assault and human trafficking that these children have to go through as they make that trek through the border.
I urge President Biden, do not traumatize these children by enticing them to make this trek.
President, you have the ability to put an end to this and ensure the safety of these children by not enticing them into that very dangerous trek.
You know, and in Nancy Pelosi running defense, I love this.
Running defense for Joe Biden.
You know, his message to migrants is stay home for now.
What kind of message is that?
Listen.
Do you agree with some of the migrants who say we are coming because Biden's policies, or at least proposed policies, will make it easier for us to come to America and stay.
In other words, we looked at what President Trump and his administration did at the border and said it's not worth the long trip up.
But now it is because Joe Biden will let us in.
Well, it's not a question of agree with.
I don't even, yeah.
What I said was, if they have a well-stranded fear of persecution, if they were asylum seekers, yes, that it is agreeable.
Apart from that, if they're just coming, the message from Joe Biden is stay home for now.
And I watched Joe Biden.
I mean, it's pretty amazing to just listen, stay home for now, come later, just forget the laws of the land, Speaker of the House, head of the legislative branch of government.
Biden lied last night when he told Georgie Stephanopoulos that, in fact, that migrants aren't coming because I'm a nice guy.
I'll tell them to stay home.
It's not what he told us in September.
Let's play what he said in September and then compare it to last night.
What I would do as president is several more things because things have changed.
I would, in fact, make sure that there is, we immediately surge to the border.
All those people are seeking asylum.
They deserve to be heard.
That's who we are.
We're a nation that says, if you want to flee and you're freeing oppression, you should come.
It seems to be getting worse.
By the day, was it a mistake not to anticipate this surge?
Well, first of all, there was a surge the last two years and 19 and 20, there was a surge as well.
This one might be worse.
No, well, it could be, but here's the deal.
We're sending back people.
First of all, the idea that Joe Biden said come, because I heard the other day that they're coming because they know I'm a nice guy and I want them.
Genius.
Yeah.
Well, here's the deal.
They're not.
Do you have to say quite clearly, don't come?
Yes, I can say quite clearly, don't come.
And we're in the process of getting set up.
Don't leave your town or city or community.
Pretty unbelievable hypocrisy, isn't it?
All right, let's get to our busy phones.
Alex, Tennessee, Tennessean.
Ever hear the Kenny Chesney song back where I come from?
Yes, I have, Sean.
Great song.
You're taking the call today.
Thank you, Sean.
Ironically, I teach high school at the same school that Kenny Chesney graduated from.
Is that right?
He was a great football player there, and his mother still lives close to the school.
He comes by to visit every once in a while.
I'm a criminal justice and forensic science teacher.
I've met him.
He's a cool guy.
Very, very good guy.
He's very down-to-earth, and he loves his community.
He loves the Knoxville area.
He's a big volunteers fan, too.
He loves the.
Go ahead, what?
I was going to say, I think you need to pack up the crew, and you guys need to move here to Knoxville.
I think you would love it.
Everybody on the crew would love it.
I'd love it.
And I bet he performs a lot there.
He does these huge stadium tours.
You can actually find them on YouTube.
I mean, he's done one concert at Nealon Stadium where the Tennessee volunteers play football.
And it was a huge success.
It was a huge success.
He sells out these stadiums.
It's so hard to sell that out.
Oh, yeah.
No, they are.
They are.
But he does.
And he does it every summer.
The reason why I wanted to call and talk to you today is over the last few days, you've talked about teachers and our education system.
You know, just so you know, I've been in the classroom teaching.
We went back to school in August.
We actually delayed our start 10 days from what we were supposed to so we could get all of our students the technology they needed if we had to go online teaching.
So there was never any break in our in our teaching and our curriculum and so on.
But I'll tell you, I also coach high school football, and we played a full football season.
We didn't have any issues during football season.
We haven't had any major issues in our schools.
You know, all here, and all we heard was doom and gloom of, you know, teachers in the classroom.
Everybody's going to die.
Everybody now, this and that, and so on.
Well, guess what?
It hasn't happened, Sean.
And Tennessee, and here, I'm in Knoxville, Tennessee, and we are proof that you could go back into the classroom last fall and teach a full school year and not have any issues whatsoever.
And, you know, I'm fortunate we have a governor and a county mayor.
You may know who our county mayor is.
It's the former WWE wrestler, Kane, Glenn Jacobs.
He runs our county government.
They've put a big emphasis on student in the classroom, but also having that opportunity to, if you got to be at home, to learn online.
But they've also focused on our students graduating from high school with skilled trades.
So our vocational programs have been a major emphasis in our schools the last three and four years where these kids are graduating today and they can be a productive member of society and they come out with some kind of a skilled trade and ready to go into the workforce if they don't go to college.
And, you know, I heard you talking with Senator Haggerty about and then talking about the immigration.
What's going to happen when we get these 20 million new people?
Like you said, what kind of jobs are they going to have when the Biden administration keeps shutting down all these different industries?
You know, hopefully my students are going to have the skills and the resources to get out there and work.
You know, obviously I'm teaching a curriculum that is very a hot-button topic every day, being in the criminal justice system.
You know, we talk about all the major cases like you have with Floyd and Brown and all these different things.
And the kids are so engaged in it because they want to learn.
And I think those are the environments we have to create in the classroom.
Wow, that's an unbelievable story.
And like Florida and like all, I don't even want to isolate Texas, Florida, Tennessee, Mississippi.
All these red states have done so well.
You've done so.
Oh, yeah.
And you would think that the teachers want to get back in the classrooms, but no, they're trying to get some of this money through this COVID emergency relief bill and then recommending the teachers that they take vacations in Hawaii.
And meanwhile, you're a teacher and you're thinking, why don't I get to go to Hawaii?
At least you should be.
It's madness.
And it can be done and has been done effectively.
Now, Tennessee, like every other state, has had its moments where you've had your flare-ups, rebounds.
These are all things we knew in the very beginning would likely occur.
But the states that, again, protected the elderly population, the states that put those resources in the right place, didn't send COVID patients into nursing homes or group homes, did so much better than these states with these draconian shutdowns.
And yeah, you're back at school since August, and they're still arguing in New York and California whether or not teachers can go back to school and the teachers' unions have all this sway and control and power over the politicians because of that unholy alliance that they have.
It's just an amazing contrast in terms of, you know, people's lives have not been destroyed.
You think of the lack of normalcy for kids when, and kids in particular, they're not most at risk at all when it comes to the coronavirus.
It's older people with underlying conditions, cold morbidities, and compromised immune systems that are the most vulnerable to this.
Anyway, Alex, I appreciate the update.
Yeah, I'll give you the last word.
You know, we don't work under a teachers union here in Tennessee where I'm at.
So we as a teacher, as a group, we say, hey, we worked with our district and they put together, we put together some programs and a plan to reopen and it has worked.
You know, we're on spring break this week.
Unfortunately, I'm actually out working two other jobs this week just to supplement my income a little bit.
I do some driving with Uber and I have a private security company where I do some bodyguard and VIP executive protection work.
But you know what?
I love being here and I think everybody needs to come visit.
And Sean, you are a great American and I appreciate what you do for the people of this country and I appreciate the support you have for our kids and we need to be back in the classroom.
All right.
Thank you.
We really appreciate all you guys doing.
Good teachers worth it, weight and gold.
All right, that's going to wrap things up for today.
The crisis at the border, even the DHS secretary admitting yeah, the largest influx of illegal immigrants in 20 years, but it's not a crisis.
We have our own Griff Jenkins investigating from Mexico tonight.
Greg Abbott, Eric Trump, Senator Lindsey Graham, and so much more.
We'll have the latest on the recall effort for Gavin Newsom, Leo Terrell, Jim Jordan, Mark Meadows.
Hope you'll set your DVR.
Nine Eastern Hannity on the Fox News channel.
We'll see you tonight at 9 back here tomorrow.
As always, thank you for being with us.
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