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00:00Thanks for joining us on Bloomberg TV and radio. Alongside Julie Fine, I'm Joe Matthew in Washington
00:05as we bring you an important conversation from the nation's capital. He's just back from the
00:10airport. The senator from Texas, Ted Cruz, Republican from Texas, is with us here live
00:15and in studio. It's great to have you in the flesh, Senator. Thank you for joining us again
00:19on Bloomberg. Joe, Julie, great to be with you both. Happy day 20. If it's happy, maybe it's not,
00:24but I'd have to start with you here on the shutdown because, of course, that's the talk
00:28of the town right now and having just landed at the airport and having presided over a committee
00:34that involves the FAA. I keep hearing questions from people who ask, how long can the air traffic
00:40control system, can the FAA function effectively in a government shutdown? And I wonder for you,
00:46does the answer determine when this shutdown will end? Look, this shutdown needs to end and it needs
00:52to end now. We're going to vote today, I think, the 11th or 12th time to reopen the government.
00:57The Republicans are all aligned. I'm going to vote to reopen the government. What we've seen
01:01over and over again is the Democrats keep voting to keep the shutdown going and it's irresponsible.
01:08And, you know, I was at Houston's Hobby Airport a couple of days ago. I did a press conference there
01:13where I pointed out there are 50,000 TSA agents right now who are working with no pay. They didn't
01:20get a full paycheck in the last pay period. There are 14,000 air traffic controllers who expected to
01:25come into work, but they didn't get a full paycheck. And this needs to end. It's not right.
01:30It's not fair. And I think Democrats are holding not only the U.S. government hostage, but holding
01:36the American people hostage. And we're already seeing delays climbing. And I got to say, every day
01:42this goes on, I think we can expect more and more of that. At some point, the Democrats need to take
01:47their Trump derangement syndrome and set it aside and let the government open.
01:50Senator, I do have to say that you just talked about Americans who are waiting on this.
01:56Some Americans likely aren't concerned, whether it's the Democrats or the Republicans who are
02:00responsible. So for those or those not getting paychecks, you know, what do you say to them
02:05after this has gone on for so long? Well, look, one of the challenges in terms of predicting when
02:10this is going to end before you and I sat down, you asked, all right, when's this going to be over?
02:13And I said, I don't know, because in many ways, the two parties are living in parallel worlds.
02:20And I think for the Democrats, they're in an echo chamber where they're listening to their
02:25left wing radicals who are happy. Look, last week, it was it was conventional wisdom in the
02:32Senate that there was no chance the government would reopen last week. Why? Because the so-called
02:37no kings rallies were going to happen this weekend. And the Democrats were terrified of reopening the
02:42government before they saw the radicals. And the phrase I kept hearing was that Chuck Schumer was
02:48afraid his head would be on a pike. Metaphorically, not not advocating violence, but he was afraid of
02:54his own left wing radicals. Right now, listen, the way this is going to end is it's going to take
03:02seven or eight Democrats saying, all right, this stuff's gone on long enough. Let's end it. And the
03:07reason the government is shut down, it's a very simple question of math. In order to fund the
03:12government under the Senate rules, you need 60 votes in the Senate. There are only 53 Republicans,
03:17which means we need at least seven Democrats. The reason the government is shut down right now
03:22is the Democrats are voting party line, all but three Democrats, three, three Democrats are voting
03:27with us to reopen the government. Everyone else is voting. Now, until the Democrats give us seven or
03:33eight votes, the government will stay shut down. And I don't know if that's a day. I don't know if
03:36that's a week. I don't know if that's a month. But at some point, this stunt needs to end.
03:41You wonder if we get as far as Thanksgiving. That CR was dated for the 21st, but that's the
03:45big travel weekend I had in mind when I asked you that. You mentioned no kings. Pretty incredible
03:50optics from over the weekend. And the number of cities involved were told that it was some
03:54seven million people. And I know that there was a lot of talk and concern ahead of these,
03:59that there might be rioting, that violence could break out. Were you encouraged to see them be
04:03peaceful? Listen, I was glad that there were not significant acts of violence. That's certainly a
04:07positive development. We've seen other rallies, the Black Lives Matter and Antifa rallies that
04:13turned into violent riots that resulted in a lot of people being injured, stores looted,
04:19police cars firebombed. During COVID. During COVID. So I was grateful that these did not
04:24play out that way. I got to tell you, the total number there, I'm a little skeptical about.
04:30I think those estimates are coming from the organizers. And we've at least seen,
04:34you know, up in Boston, Massachusetts, Elizabeth Warren tweeted out this incredible video of a ton
04:41of people gathered and said, look at all the people that came out for No Kings. The only problem is
04:45the video she sent out was from 2017, not from now. So I'm skeptical as to the numbers. I'll tell you
04:52though, look, what I have been laying out, this protest was not organic. Actually, my podcast
05:00today, I do do a podcast every week, Verdict with Ted Cruz. Today's podcast is actually bringing the
05:06receipts that these protests, they were not organic. One of the things that was striking is they were
05:12almost all old white people. They're basically boomers in mass, which was fairly amazing. But this
05:20is also bought and paid for. This is astroturf. And in particular, George Soros, I lay out on the
05:25podcast, how George Soros's foundation has given millions to Indivisible, one of the lead groups
05:31organizing these protests. And this is, this is bought and paid for in a way. Look, these protests
05:38are really expressing the Democrat rage, we hate Donald Trump. And sadly, that's who today's
05:44Democrat Party is in Congress. So Senator, if you're saying they're bought and paid for,
05:50I mean, don't, do you think this is something that Republicans need to take seriously? If you
05:55remember the beginning of the Tea Party, when that wasn't necessarily taken all that seriously.
06:00So how should you approach these? Look, unquestionably, we should take political peril
06:05seriously. Number one, I think it's bad for America when one of our two major political parties
06:11has gotten so extreme and radical the way the Democrats are. I mean, they're a party that is
06:17unified behind hate for Donald Trump. But but number two, politically, in terms of the midterms
06:24in 2026, it's dangerous. And I'm telling my colleagues, look, if the election in 2026 depends
06:30on results, I think we have a lot to campaign on, whether it is securing the border and seeing
06:35illegal border crossings drop 99%, whether it is ending wars and President Trump negotiating the
06:44deal to release the hostages that Hamas had taken, or whether it is the economy and the record
06:50amount of money being invested in new factories and new jobs in the United States. I think
06:53substantively, Republicans have a lot to campaign on. That being said, and you're exactly right,
06:59Julie, there is a lot of energy, there is a lot of anger on the left. And elections can be dangerous
07:06when one side is mobilized, is angry. I'll tell you, in terms of fundraising, the Democrats are
07:12raising a lot more money because their radicals hate Trump so much. And look, angry, energized voters
07:20show up to vote. And I do worry about just just ordinary voters who are happy or complacent who say,
07:27gosh, Trump won, things are good. I don't need to show up and vote. There's no doubt if one side
07:32shows up and the other doesn't, that that leads to a bad election. Well, I know that you're very
07:36concerned about political rhetoric in this country and political violence. The comments that you made
07:41following the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel made some pretty heavy rounds because you were seen as a bit
07:47of a contrarian in that case. And you've got a piece of legislation, a jawboning bill that's up
07:53before the Senate right now. Is that, you know, you look at the different ends of the political
07:57spectrum and they come around eventually. Is that a different version of a no Kings bill?
08:03No, look, I think it's very different. Let's be real clear. I believe in free speech.
08:07It was Donald Trump, though, who led to Jimmy Kimmel coming off the air. And you were the one
08:12who called him out. Well, to be fair, it wasn't Donald Trump. It was Brendan Carr, the chairman of the
08:16SEC. And I realized there were ratings issues and everything else. But do you see the connection I'm
08:19trying to make? Yeah, listen, listen, I disagreed with with Brendan Carr's comments. And I actually
08:25did an entire podcast laying out that that government should not be threatening to strip
08:30the license away from a media outlet to remove someone they dislike. Now, to be clear, it wasn't
08:36Brendan Carr who invented invented this process during the Biden administration. The Biden FCC was was
08:43talking about stripping away Fox News's license. And by the way, I led the fight against that.
08:47I'm the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over the FCC.
08:52And I led the fight to say, no, just because you don't like what Fox News is saying, the federal
08:56government doesn't get to strip their license away. And so when when this FCC mentioned that
09:03as a possibility, I thought it was important to say, look, government should not be in the
09:07business of censoring whether I agree with the speaker or not. And so I'm introducing legislation,
09:14jawboning legislation that would, number one, make it illegal for the federal government to do
09:19what the Biden administration did widely, which is pressure private organizations, pressure big tech
09:26to engage in censorship. But it also will create a right of action, an ability to sue. If the government
09:33pressures, if the government jawbones big tech or a media organization to censor someone,
09:38it creates damages or a right to seek damages for someone who's been censored, because I think we
09:44should protect free speech, whether we agree with or disagree with the speaker.
09:47Well, it's interesting. We talk about licenses, too. And of course, that's a pretty small slice of
09:51the media landscape, the political media landscape with cable news and everything else going on right
09:56now. But I have to ask you about NASA. We're spending a lot of time on your Commerce Committee
09:59here. Bloomberg is reporting and we heard from Sean Duffy earlier today that the Artemis contract may be
10:04going up for bid, that there might be companies other than SpaceX involved here. Is that the answer
10:09that's needed to finally get America back to the moon? Well, listen, I don't know what NASA is going
10:14to do. I will say I think Sean Duffy is doing a fantastic job as the acting administrator. He's really
10:20dived into the role. And NASA, look, NASA is something that is near and dear to my heart. For the last 13
10:28years, almost every single major piece of space-related legislation that's passed into law,
10:34I've either authored or co-authored it. And being a lifelong Houstonian, Johnson Space Center
10:38is right there. It matters enormously to Houston. It matters to Texas. And it matters to the whole
10:44country. One of the most important parts of the one big, beautiful bill that Donald Trump signed into
10:50law on the 4th of July is a provision that I wrote that funds $10 billion for NASA to go back to the
10:57moon. And it funds Artemis. It funds going back to the moon. And we're in a race. Look, there's a
11:03unifying theme behind all of the legislation that I'm fighting for in the Commerce Committee.
11:08And that is producing jobs and beating China. And we need to beat China going to the moon. China has
11:14stated they intend to go to the moon by 2030. And we cannot lose the race to the moon. In my view,
11:21if we wake up in a few years and see China on the moon, see China establishing a base on the moon,
11:27I think it would be a blow to America that would make Sputnik seem mild. And I'm going to do
11:33everything humanly possible to prevent that from happening. And I will say, Sean Duffy,
11:37at dinner with Sean last week, I think he really is diving in and is committed.
11:41We will go to the moon and we will beat China. That is very good for America.
11:46Senator Cruz, thanks so much for being with us. We'll see you back in Texas.
11:48Look forward to it.
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