Verdict with Ted Cruz: The Save America Act — FINALLY on the Floor of the Senate
3/19/202636 mincomplete
0:00This is an iHeart Podcast.
0:02Guaranteed human. Welcome. It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson.
0:07With you, Senator, I can't believe it as we sit here.
0:10It is official. The SAVE Act has actually made it to the floor of the
0:14Senate. So what's going to happen next?
0:16Well, after months of battling, the SAVE America Act is finally on the floor of
0:21the Senate. The SAVE America Act is basic common sense legislation that, number one, requires
0:26everyone registering to vote to prove they're American citizen.
0:30And number two, requires photo ID in order to be able to vote.
0:34Vast majority, super majorities of Americans support both of those requirements.
0:38And yet, the Democrats are fighting against us with everything they got.
0:43I'm leading the fight to get it passed.
0:45We're going to break down exactly what is happening with the SAVE America Act this
0:48week, right now on the Senate floor.
0:51Yeah, before we get to that, though, there are so many of you that listen
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2:00If you've ever wondered what it looks like to stand for Israel and stand for
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2:27It's online at ifcj .org.
2:31That's ifcj .org. So, Senator, let's talk about just first the lay of the land
2:37and how we got to where we are today and the vote.
2:40There's a lot of people wondering what the vote was to move this forward.
2:43So now there's debate. And so tell us who didn't vote for this on the
2:47Republican side. It was a very tight vote.
2:49And also explain what's going to happen over the rest of this week.
2:53Well, the vote on the Senate floor to take up the Save America Act was
2:5751 to 47. So 51 Republicans voted to take it up.
3:02The only no vote was Lisa Murkowski out of Alaska.
3:05And then Tom Tillis from North Carolina, who is retiring, did not vote.
3:09So he was not a no vote, but he didn't vote.
3:12Other than that, every Republican voted to take it up.
3:14And we're now in the midst of the battle.
3:17Now, we can anticipate the Democrats are a hard no.
3:20And so we're taking the case to the American people and trying to build support
3:24for it. And so I went to the Senate floor to lay out the case
3:28for why the Save America Act is so critical and why the opposition for the
3:33Democrats is so ridiculous. And so here's what I had to say on the floor
3:37of the Senate this week.
3:40Mr. President, later this year, American citizens across the country will exercise one of their
3:46most valuable and sacred rights, the right to vote.
3:50A right that has been hard -earned and fought for from the founding generation of
3:56our republic to today. And how is the right to self -government, the right to
4:02vote, secured? It was secured by American colonists who rejected the royal edict and hurtled
4:11tea into Boston Harbor, declaring no taxation without representation.
4:17It was secured by ordinary men who seized their muskets and fired the shot heard
4:23round the world at Lexington and Concord.
4:27It was secured by Continental troops who marched to the fields of Saratoga and the
4:36coastline of Yorktown, repeating those immortal words of Patrick Henry, give me liberty or give
4:44me death. For nearly 250 years, Americans have cast their votes for leaders at every
4:51level, from local officials to state representatives to the President of the United States.
4:58Every member of this body is here today because we were elected, fairly and honestly,
5:04and given a mandate by our constituents to serve them here in Washington and to
5:10protect the liberties and freedoms our founders fought to preserve.
5:16The power of the ballot box determines the course of our nation, the history we
5:22are writing, and the freedoms that we continue to defend.
5:25And while no single ballot in isolation may seem decisive, together, the votes of the
5:32American people shape the course of our nation and the course of history.
5:37But it is worth remembering that our voting system did not begin as it exists
5:43today. When this nation was founded, the right to vote was limited, and over time,
5:49through debate, sacrifice, a bloody civil war, and constitutional amendment, the right to vote was
5:57quite properly expanded. The 15th Amendment prohibited denying the vote based on race.
6:05The 19th Amendment guaranteed women the right to vote.
6:09And the 26th Amendment lowered the voting age to 18.
6:14At every stage of our constitutional amendment process, the goal was the same.
6:20To ensure that the right to vote belonged to American citizens, and that it was
6:26exercised with integrity. And while our system has evolved, one principle has remained constant.
6:36Elections reflect the will of the American people.
6:39For a right so sacred.
6:42For a privilege so hard fought.
6:45It is shocking. It is tragic.
6:49How neglected and vulnerable the protection of our elections has become.
6:55That is why I am here today, on this very floor, urging the members of
7:00this body to pass the Save America Act.
7:06It says that when you register to vote in a federal election, you must provide
7:11proof that you are a citizen of the United States, and you must provide photo
7:18ID to vote, in simple terms, in simple terms, that's it.
7:23This is not some radical, politicized, or weaponized piece of legislation designed to restrict Americans
7:31from voting. It is a common sense measure that protects the integrity of our elections
7:39by ensuring that American citizens and only American citizens are voting in them.
7:48Legitimacy in a democracy rests on two pillars.
7:51First, the mechanical integrity of the system to produce a valid result.
7:56And second, the public's confidence in that system.
7:59If either one fails, the system falters.
8:03If both fail, the system collapses.
8:08A system that cannot be trusted is a system that cannot govern.
8:14If you look around the world, between two -thirds and three -quarters of countries require
8:19some form of identification to vote.
8:22Why? Because it safeguards the integrity of their elections and reinforces public trust in their
8:30system. So it begs the question, why hasn't the United States fully embraced this standard?
8:41Well, for the last several months, we have heard claim after claim about how this
8:47legislation would somehow inhibit people from voting.
8:49That requiring identification is discriminatory, that the American people do not support voter ID.
8:56Mr. President, our Democrat colleagues are fond of bellowing into the TV cameras.
9:02That photo ID to vote is Jim Crow.
9:08They tell us with mock earnestness.
9:12Now, I will admit, our Democrat colleagues should be experts in Jim Crow because it
9:20was Democrat politicians who passed the Jim Crow laws.
9:24It was Democrat politicians who founded the Ku Klux Klan.
9:28It was Democrat politicians for decade after decade who enforced discrimination, separate but equal, poll
9:39taxes, and a host of other laws designed to prevent African Americans from voting.
9:47But do you know who has rejected their disingenuous claim that photo ID to vote
9:52is Jim Crow? The Supreme Court of the United States.
9:57The Supreme Court of the United States, the state of Indiana, passed photo ID law
10:03requiring that you show a photo ID to vote.
10:06A group of left -wing plaintiffs filed litigation challenging that.
10:11The case went all the way to the United States Supreme Court.
10:15At the time, I was the Solicitor General of the state of Texas.
10:17I led a coalition of states before the Supreme Court defending photo ID to vote.
10:23And the left -wing plaintiffs made the same argument that our Democrat colleagues make today.
10:29That requiring photo ID to vote would somehow disenfranchise minorities.
10:33The Supreme Court, by a vote of 6 to 3, rejected their argument.
10:40The author of the majority opinion was John Paul Stevens.
10:43John Paul Stevens was one of the great liberals on the court.
10:47He was not a conservative.
10:48He was not on the right wing.
10:49He was the leading liberal for years on the U .S.
10:53Supreme Court. He rejected that claim and he pointed out that when someone votes illegally,
10:59they are stealing the votes of legal voters.
11:04They are stealing the votes of American citizens.
11:07The Supreme Court explained that when photo ID laws have been implemented, minority participation in
11:14the election goes up, not down.
11:18And the Supreme Court explained that requiring photo ID enhances the integrity of an election
11:23and the integrity of democracy.
11:26Now, our Democrat colleagues don't want to acknowledge any of those facts.
11:31And I guess it's understandable because the American people have heard their specious arguments and
11:38they have rejected them. Mr.
11:41President, 81 % of Americans support requiring photo ID to vote.
11:48But, my Democrat colleagues might say, what about African Americans?
11:52Well, about three quarters of African Americans in the United States require support requiring photo
11:58ID to vote. How about Hispanics?
12:01More than 80 % of Hispanics in America support requiring photo ID to vote.
12:05How about Democrats? Here's an astonishing statistic.
12:11If you get out of elected office, if you ask a Democrat on the street,
12:1570 % of Democrats in America support requiring photo ID to vote.
12:21The one group that doesn't are elected Democrats in the United States Senate and the
12:27United States House. And, by the way, the premise of their argument that minorities, if
12:36you require a photo ID to vote, are not going to be able to vote,
12:39is frankly insulting. Mr. President, I'm proud to be an Hispanic American.
12:45I've been an Hispanic all my life.
12:46You know what I've got in my wallet?
12:49I have a driver's license.
12:51I look at my colleagues across the way.
12:54I feel confident they have driver's licenses in their wallets as well.
13:00Hispanics are not morons. African Americans are not morons.
13:05And when you claim minorities can't figure out how to get a driver's license, well,
13:11gosh, what do you need a photo ID to vote, to do right now in
13:16America? You need a photo ID to purchase alcohol or to purchase tobacco.
13:22You need a photo ID to gamble or purchase lottery tickets.
13:27You need a photo ID to go into a bar.
13:29You need a photo ID to get on a plane.
13:32You need a photo ID to rent a car.
13:35You need a photo ID just to drive a car, not even rent a car,
13:38drive a car. You need a photo ID to apply for government benefits.
13:44You need a photo ID to enroll in college.
13:47You need a photo ID to open a bank account.
13:52You need a photo ID to check into a hotel.
13:56And I got to admit, this is my personal favorite.
13:59You need a photo ID, actually two photo IDs, to shovel snow in New York
14:05City. These are routine, everyday activities.
14:11The gallery is full. I feel confident everyone in the gallery who is not a
14:15child has a driver's license.
14:18And by the way, you wouldn't be admitted to the gallery if you didn't.
14:23And I feel confident every member of this chamber has done just about anything I
14:28listed well, except shoveling snow.
14:30I'm not convinced many of my colleagues have snubbled show.
14:33Although they do shovel other things.
14:37The question is not whether Americans are bright enough to obtain photo ID.
14:44We know they can, and we know they do.
14:47The real question is, why would we not require the same level of verification for
14:54something as consequential and vital as voting?
14:58Well, are our Democrat colleagues saying voting doesn't matter?
15:05Or is it something else?
15:08Voting is not just another everyday activity.
15:10It rolls around every year, a few years.
15:13It is the vehicle that protects the principles of our republic in safeguarding what matters.
15:20This legislation is necessary because there are individuals and systems that can undermine confidence in
15:25our elections. And one of the most apparent ways that we've seen is through the
15:35masses of illegal immigrants that our Democrat colleagues let in through open borders over four
15:40years. During the Biden administration, more than 12 million illegal immigrants flooded into this country.
15:47The vast majority through my home state of Texas.
15:51Now, Mr. President, understand that was not an accident.
15:54That was not something the Democrats could not stop.
15:58That was their desired outcome.
16:00How do we know that?
16:02Because the instant President Trump was sworn into office for his second term, illegal border
16:11crossings plummeted 99 % overnight.
16:22The Democrats said, no, Joe Biden can't secure the border.
16:26He needs new legislation. We now know that was a lie.
16:32It was objectively false, and they knew it was false.
16:38Well, if they could have secured the border for four years, and they chose not
16:41to, they chose to let murderers into this country, they chose to let rapists into
16:46this country, they chose to let child molesters into this country, they chose to let
16:51gangbangers into this country, they chose to let terrorists into this country.
16:57We've had four radical Islamic terror attacks in the last two weeks.
17:04Why, Mr. President, would the Democrats choose to allow more than 12 billion illegal aliens
17:11to invade this country? And I'm going to suggest the obvious reason, because the Democrats
17:18look at those illegal aliens and they want them to cast vote for Democrats in
17:22federal elections. Why are the Democrats lined up and say, no, no, no, under no
17:29circumstances should we test to see if you're an American citizen?
17:34And under no circumstances should we require photo IDs.
17:40You know, there was one activist a few years ago who filmed himself going into
17:44a D .C. polling place.
17:46D .C. polling place said, sir, what's your name?
17:50And he said, my name is Eric Holder.
17:53Now, this activist was not the Attorney General of the United States at the time.
17:57But yet, D .C. handed him a ballot and said, Mr.
18:00Holder, please cast your vote.
18:05The Democrats are lined up in this chamber because they want our elections to be
18:14insecure. They want voter fraud to be rampant and to be easy.
18:23Ask yourself, do the American people have a difficult time buying a beer?
18:28Do they have a difficult time getting into an R -rated movie?
18:31Do they have a difficult time getting on an airplane?
18:33Well, yes, because the Democrats have refused to fund the TSA and so they're long
18:38lines right now. But the lack of a photo ID is not an impediment that
18:43stops people from flying. This debate is about something very simple.
18:50Do our elections matter? Does our democracy matter?
18:54And boy, Mr. President, I've got to say, that is a phrase the Democrats love.
19:00That they are defending democracy.
19:04It's interesting, their voice usually drops an octave when they say that.
19:08They clutch their pearls. And that's just the men.
19:15Defending democracy is what they say.
19:20Ask yourself, why are they not concerned at all about 12 million illegals who they
19:28let into this country voting illegally?
19:31I'll submit. Occam's razor provides the simplest solution is usually the right one.
19:38The simplest solution is very clear.
19:40The Democrats in this body want illegals to vote for.
19:44They want power enough that they are more than happy to undermine democracy, to try
19:51to seize power. I get that from their personal self -interest.
19:57But it is not in the interest of the men and women they represent.
20:00It is not in the interest of the people of America.
20:05This bill is rightly called the Save America Act.
20:09And, Mr. President, if we were voting on the merits of what was good for
20:15America, what was good for democracy, what was good for American citizens, the vote would
20:22be 100 to nothing, although I would note on the other side of this building
20:27at the State of the Union address that you were at that I was at,
20:30we saw why our Democrat colleagues are so adamantly opposed to this bill.
20:36President Trump turned to the Democrats on the right side of the floor of the
20:41House, and it gave him an opportunity to demonstrate with absolute clarity, he said, if
20:47you agree our first priority should be to fight for American citizens and not for
20:53illegal aliens, please stand. And every single Democrat in Congress remained seated.
21:04Not a one of them.
21:06I would note, as we're on the floor today, of the 47 Democrats in this
21:10body, only one is here on the floor.
21:14But a whole lot more were on the floor during the State of the Union.
21:16Every one of them chose to remain seated because they could not support the statement
21:21that we need to support American citizens and not illegal aliens.
21:26That's why they opposed the Save America Act.
21:30Because they want to be handed power over this country by the illegal aliens they
21:34let into this country. That's why we need to save America.
21:41And it's why I urge every member of this body to pass the Save America
21:46Act. That's why we need to save America Act.
21:47That's why we need to save America Act.
21:47That's why we need to save America Act.
21:48That's why we need to save America Act.
21:48That's why we need to save America Act.
21:48Well said, Senator. And so now the big question is for everyone I know that's
21:53listening or watching on YouTube, what's next and where does this move from here?
21:58Look, what should happen is we should have Republicans stand together and we should force
22:04the Democrats to do what's called a talking filibuster.
22:08So throughout most of the history of the Senate, a filibuster involved the right of
22:14unlimited debate. It involved the right to stand up and talk and talk and talk.
22:17Think about Jimmy Stewart in Mr.
22:20Smith Goes to Washington, where he talks and he's pulling a tie and he's falling
22:24over and he's like standing there valiantly battling against bad legislation.
22:30Or for that matter, what what I did in 2013, where I filibustered Obamacare and
22:36talked for 21 hours and stood on the Senate floor.
22:39And by the way, when you're filibustering, you cannot sit down, you cannot leave the
22:43floor and you cannot use the bathroom, which is the most frequent question I get.
22:48Yeah. Trivia point. So before I did that filibuster, Rand Paul had done a filibuster
22:54earlier in the year for 11 hours and I was fixing to get ready to
22:59do it. And so I asked Rand if he had any advice and he had
23:02two bits of advice. He said, number one, he said, wear comfortable shoes.
23:07So I have to admit, I wear just about every day.
23:10Solid advice, by the way.
23:11Yeah. Just about every day in the Senate, I wear boots, cowboy boots.
23:14I went and bought a pair of black tennis shoes that I wore for my
23:1821 hour filibuster. And I confessed at about two in the morning to the people
23:22of Texas. I said, look, I'm embarrassed.
23:24I lacked the strength of character or the strength of foot to stand here 21
23:31hours in my boots. So I'm wearing tennis shoes.
23:33And I said, I hope the people of Texas will give me forbearance and forgive
23:37me. But then second, Rand said, he said, what took him out at the end
23:43of the day was not his legs, but his bladder that after 11 hours, he
23:46just had to go. And, and I don't know about you, but I'd never tried
23:50to go 21 hours without going to the bathroom.
23:52I wasn't sure how that would go.
23:55And in the entire course of the filibuster, I drank one tiny little glass of
24:00water and the basic principle, nothing in, nothing out.
24:04I just take a tiny sip every hour or so and just kind of wet
24:07my throat. But you had to stand there and talk and talk and talk.
24:11That is exhausting. By the way, you cannot lean on the lectern, right?
24:15No, no, you're not. You're not allowed to lean.
24:17So you can't. And even if someone comes to like give you or ask you
24:19a question, there's a famous scene for people that are West Wing watchers where somebody,
24:26they were trying to get a message, the guy that was doing a filibuster and
24:29a guy walked in, he said, may I ask a question?
24:32In essence, it was, you know, some official way of doing that, but you can't
24:37lean on the, on the lectern.
24:38Cause if you do, that's it, right?
24:39Like you can take a question to rest your voice.
24:41Yeah. I mean, the, the, the chair can call it.
24:43So you can do. So what'll happen when you're doing a filibuster is other senators
24:46will come in and ask, will the Senator yield for a question?
24:50And you can say, and you can say, I will yield for a question without
24:54yielding the floor. And then if it's an ally of yours, so for example, Mike
24:58Lee was on the floor all 21 hours.
24:59I was there. He stayed with me the whole time.
25:02So several times at two or three.
25:04So you had an audience of one.
25:05No wonder he's your best friend in the Senate.
25:07Okay. Now I understand. And I had a number, I had about a dozen senators
25:09who came and spelled me for a period.
25:11Cause when you're talking for 21 hours, your voice starts to hurt.
25:14So the, the thing you will do is, is, is Mike would ask, would you
25:18yield for a question? And I say, well, you'll forget a question without yielding the
25:21floor. And then he'd talk 30 minutes and he'd get up and he'd like give
25:26a, you know, and like, like at three in the morning, we went through like
25:30seventies rock songs and horrible puns and jokes.
25:34Um, and, and then after 30 minutes, you know, you can say, wouldn't you agree?
25:39And that's the question you ask.
25:41Um, and so it's a way to give some relief by the way, many people
25:45remember during that filibuster sat down during the 21 hours, right?
25:48He can sit down, you know, anyone else can sit down.
25:51It's just the person that has the floor that can't sit down.
25:54And, and a lot of people remember that during that filibuster, I read green eggs
25:58and ham. What they don't necessarily remember is why I read green eggs and ham.
26:03And the reason is at the time our, our daughters were, were three and five.
26:10And when I was home, I would read them bed nights, you know, uh, bedtime
26:13stories every night. Bedtime stories.
26:15Yeah. Yeah. And so as I was doing the filibuster, it was their bedtime.
26:19And so we called home and, and, and told them, turn on the TV and
26:23turn on C -SPAN. And I read them green eggs and ham because it was
26:27their bedtime story. And it was, and they were my favorite picture.
26:31You've seen it. It's in my, it's in my office.
26:33Oh yeah. It's a picture of the two little girls.
26:35They're in matching, uh, pajamas.
26:38They're three and five and Catherine, the three -year -old, she has her hand on
26:43the TV and she's watching in wonderment as her daddy is reading her green eggs
26:48and ham on the television set.
26:49And the look is just awesome.
26:52And then Caroline, and you know, Caroline, she's now 17.
26:55She was just five. And, and she is, she is a strong -willed and spirited
27:00kid. My 14 years in the Senate, nothing I've done in the Senate has impressed
27:05her except that. And she is in that picture, cracking up laughing.
27:10I mean, she thinks it's the funniest thing she's ever seen.
27:13And when I came home that weekend, she looked at me, her arms were crossed.
27:16She said, okay, Dad, that was pretty cool.
27:20But that's a filibuster. And that's all you needed.
27:22By the way, you want a fun bit?
27:23That's a true filibuster. Okay, you want a fun bit of color?
27:27Yeah. At like 19, 20 hours into it, Glenn Beck, who you and I are
27:32both friends with, Glenn texts me and says, man, you look too damn good.
27:38Your tie is all there.
27:40Your hair is combed. You don't look disheveled.
27:43Well, damn it, you need to look more like Mr.
27:45Smith goes to Washington. So I have to admit, I looked at it.
27:48Glenn's got a good sense of like telling a story.
27:51So I yanked my tie and I don't think I messed up my hair, but
27:55I at least loosened the tie and tried to look a little more disheveled after
27:5821 hours. You know, you shouldn't look like you're just popping out of bed.
28:04That is exhausting. By the way, I didn't realize that you could have your phone
28:08out during the filibuster. That's actually interesting.
28:11You're not supposed to. So technically the Senate rules, you're not allowed to have electronics
28:15on the Senate floor. Everyone violates that rule.
28:18So everyone has their phone.
28:19And that's just a rule that is routinely ignored.
28:22By the way. Did you try to hide it, though?
28:26Did you try to like look down at your phone like it wasn't?
28:28At that point, you didn't do it.
28:29You don't visibly do it while you're speaking, but you can do it.
28:32It may have been during one of the questions that I noticed, like I was
28:35looking at the text and Glenn had sent me a text.
28:37By the way, interestingly enough, during the speech that we just played, so the Senate
28:43parliamentarian, Jim Banks, Republican from Indiana, was presiding.
28:48The Senate parliamentarian tried to convince him to sanction me under Rule 19 of the
28:55Senate rules for impugning the integrity of another senator.
28:59And thankfully he just told her, go jump in a lake.
29:03I'm not going to do it.
29:04And apparently she was mad because I said, you know, it's not surprising that the
29:09Democrats are experts on Jim Crow because they wrote the Jim Crow laws and they
29:13founded the KKK. And she thought that was terrible for me to point out what
29:18are undeniable historical facts. She thought it was somehow a violation of the Senate rules
29:24to speak the truth. I have to admit, the parliamentarian previously, years ago, tried to
29:30get me to Rule 19, to rule that Mike Lee had done the same thing,
29:34and I laughed at her and said, no, I'm not going to do that either.
29:40You know, thankfully it takes...
29:41Those facts are a stubborn thing.
29:42There's history to stubborn things sometimes.
29:45So look, a standing and talking filibuster is exhausting.
29:50It takes a lot of energy.
29:52It takes a lot out of you.
29:53Under the Senate rules, each senator is limited to two speeches in a legislative day
30:00total. Now, the Senate can keep a legislative day going for weeks.
30:07A legislative day goes until you adjourn the day.
30:11So if you look at during the Civil Rights Act...
30:13So it can be multiple days.
30:14Yes, it can be weeks.
30:16If you look at the Civil Rights Act in 1964, the Democrats filibustered against it.
30:21They were opposed to it.
30:22They wanted segregation. And the leadership there forced...
30:28Kept a legislative day open for weeks and kept forcing them to filibuster and talk
30:33and talk and talk and talk and talk, and eventually it wore them down.
30:37And that's how the Civil Rights Act in 1964 got passed.
30:41So what I had been arguing to the conference at length, we had to do
30:44the same thing. We had to force the Democrats explain why you think illegal aliens
30:48should be voting, why you think that it's okay that you need an ID to
30:53buy a beer at a bar but not an ID to vote, and make them,
30:58drive them to the principle of exhaustion, drive them to the point that they just
31:02can't fight anymore. Now, here's the rub.
31:05To do that, Ben, we need 50 Republicans willing to stand strong.
31:10To date, we haven't had that.
31:12We've been arguing about this within the conference for several weeks.
31:15I have been making the case as impassioned as I can to my colleagues.
31:20And we are likely just short of 50.
31:24So if that doesn't change, what's going to end up happening this week is we're
31:30going to vote again on the Save America Act.
31:3450 or 51 Republicans will vote for it, but we'll need 60 unless we force
31:39them to do a talking filibuster.
31:41So it will fail this week unless something changes significantly.
31:44That's infuriating. And so I'm calling on my colleagues, come on, let's stand together and
31:50fight. And I'll tell you, one of the arguments my colleagues have used with me.
31:54They've said, look, Ted, if we fight and at the end of the day lose,
31:59people will be discouraged and demoralized and they'll stay home in November.
32:04And my response is, well, and I do too.
32:09And my response was, look, okay, maybe we lose.
32:11It's not guaranteed 100 % victory.
32:14But you know how you can guarantee 100 % losing?
32:18Don't fight. Like, if we don't fight, it's 100 % that we lose.
32:22So if we stand up and we fight and we're all there all night and
32:27we're battling, we're battling, we're battling, and at the end of the day we come
32:30up short, that gives people a lot more reason to vote than if we don't
32:36get 50 who are even willing to fight.
32:38So I think there's a lot of frustration right now.
32:40To be clear, to be very clear for everybody listening, to do what you're...
32:44advocating for, which is to force a standing filibuster.
32:46How many votes do you have to have to get to that?
32:49You've got to have 50 Republicans who will stand together because the 50 Republicans after
32:54number one, anytime the Democrats want to, they can suggest the absence of a quorum
33:00and we have to be able to produce 50 bodies.
33:03Oh, everybody's got to be there.
33:04Okay. So everybody's got to be there.
33:06Yeah. You've got to physically be able to produce.
33:08And that could go for, to be clear, that could go, as you were saying,
33:10for days, right? For days or weeks.
33:12Yes. And so in other words, there's some senators in the Republican party that just
33:17would rather go home. Yeah.
33:19Would rather go home on Thursdays like they always do.
33:21They don't want to stay over the weekend.
33:22They don't want to fight for this for a week or two.
33:25And secondly, the Democrats can tee up amendments and try to force votes on amendments.
33:30And we got to have 50 Republicans that reject their amendments, that stand together.
33:35And right now we have, I don't know, 47, 48, but we don't have 50.
33:40And so we're having an arguments with a handful who are saying no.
33:43And I hope it changes.
33:46But, but right now, right now we don't have 50.
33:51Love, generosity, and compassion. We say those words all the time and they sound good.
33:57They feel good. But here's the truth.
33:59Those words don't mean anything unless they turn into action.
34:03And right now, not later today, not tomorrow, there's a child in the world who
34:09doesn't know if they'll eat, if they'll have a chance to learn, or if there's
34:14any hope at all. And while we're all busy, life keeps moving forward.
34:20But that child is waiting.
34:22This is where you come in with Compassion International.
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34:49That's Compassion .com. Final question on this one.
34:54When will the American people know what day will you guys make this decision on
34:59either trying to vote for that or just having a straight up vote that you
35:03know you're going to come up short on?
35:05Yeah. If nothing changes, we will likely vote, have the final vote on Thursday of
35:10this week, and we will end up probably with 50, 51, 52 votes for the
35:15Save America Act, but we'll need 60, and so the vote will fail.
35:19If nothing changes, that's where we're headed.
35:22And then do you expect the president to weigh in heavy on the strategy here?
35:26Does he know these two options?
35:28And how much influence would it have if the president came out and said, you
35:31know, damn it, men and women, stay in Washington, D .C.
35:34and fight this thing out, and let's see what happens?
35:36Yeah, the president has said that multiple times, and that has been a significant part
35:40of the argument, but we still, at the end of the day, you can't wave
35:45a magic wand and produce the votes, and we're still frustratingly short of 50.
35:52It's very, it's very interesting and very frustrating for many Americans.
35:55Don't forget, we do this show Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
35:58Hit that subscribe or auto download button.
36:00We will keep you updated all week long on this, and if something major happens,
36:03we'll probably do an emergency pod as well.
36:05And sooner and I will see you back here in a couple of days.