Things Ted Cruz Has Said on Podcasts

“The people leading the lobbying against it were Democrat Cory Booker and Democrat Chris Murphy, both from the far left. And they were doing everything they can to defeat this bill.” — Ted Cruz on Cory Booker, The Ben Ferguson Podcast

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on his Verdict podcast, after a Senate vote on the Protect College Sports Act that he sponsored. He describes opposition from Sens. Booker and Murphy.

The Ben Ferguson Podcast · 2026-09-16 Permalink → Listen →

The Ben Ferguson Podcast Around 09:45 into the episode

Ben Ferguson

month of service. That's patriotmobile.com slash verdict. You can also

Ben Ferguson

…so this bill, it is passed. That's amazing. Like you said, it's been a long time in the works. You got bipartisan support. Give us some of the key highlights of what now changes in college sports to protect all of those other sports because of some of the rules that are now going to be implemented.

Ted Cruz

Yeah, I'm going to tell you what's specifically in the bill, but let's not bury the lead. So today we had a vote. It was the first time we've had a vote on college sports, and there was some furious lobbying against it. The people leading the lobbying against it were Democrat Cory Booker and Democrat Chris Murphy, both from the far left. And they were doing everything they can to defeat this bill. Well, we ended up having a massive, massive victory today. There were a total of 74 senators that voted for the bill today.

Ben Ferguson

By the way, that doesn't happen just to put it in perspective. When was the last time on a pretty intense and debated piece of legislation, not a kumbaya piece of something, like this was not kumbaya, where you get 74? I don't remember another vote that I can think of that was this significant.

Ted Cruz

Well, and I will say also, look, we said from the beginning, I've said on this podcast a number of times, my objective was not to eke by with 60. 60 is what you need to clear a filibuster. And to be clear, Cory Booker and Chris Murphy are trying to filibuster this bill. To defeat a filibuster, we…

Speaker 3

We got 74.

Speaker names come from our own diarization. The position is estimated from where the line sits in the episode.

“You notice there was not one word of, I disagree with him, he's wrong, saying America deserves 9-11. That's wrong. Pritzker didn't say any of that. He's like, I don't know. I don't want to talk about that. Please don't ask me about that.” — Ted Cruz on JB Pritzker, The Ben Ferguson Podcast

Ted Cruz on his Verdict podcast with Ben Ferguson, reacting to a clip of Pritzker on ABC's This Week declining to denounce streamer Hasan Piker, who has appeared alongside Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed. In the clip, Pritzker said he was not focused on streamers and wanted to talk about stopping Donald Trump.

The Ben Ferguson Podcast · 2026-09-21 Permalink → Listen →

The Ben Ferguson Podcast Around 25:17 into the episode

Speaker 1

Doesn't mean anything to my election.

Ben Ferguson

That's one heck of a way of describing it and throwing someone under the bus there, right?

Ted Cruz

Well, look, he, he spoke accurately when he says he doesn't want to talk about him. He really doesn't want to talk about him, but, but, You know, Jonathan Karl doesn't press him at all. I mean, these powderpuff interviews, I can't imagine what it's like to be a Democrat and just have all of these reporters basically acting like your press secretary. You know, he doesn't press him. Well, I get that you don't want to talk about him, but are you troubled that your party's nominee in Michigan is campaigning alongside him, welcomes him? Look, without Hassan Pike or Abdul Al-Sayed probably doesn't win the nomination. And Al-Sayed repeatedly refuses to distance himself. And by the way, Al-Sayed said many of the same things. Do you support him? Are you troubled that Chuck Schumer is supporting him? Those would be the questions that would be asked of a Republican if the tables were turned. But, you know, from Pritzker's perspective, and this is true of every Democrat, they welcome these America-hating radicals, or at least they…

Speaker 7

I mean, a lot of the energy in the Democratic Party right now is clearly on the left, far left. I mean, Democratic Socialists of America, DSA, you've had a number of their candidates winning in these Democratic primaries. Are you concerned about that? That that's like a message that may work in…

Speaker 6

Look, there haven't been very many of those, at least DSA candidates who are winning. It's true that there are progressives that are winning.

Speaker 7

Around the country. We're going to have trouble in the House. A few.

Speaker names come from our own diarization. The position is estimated from where the line sits in the episode.

“Cory Booker is a liberal Democrat from New Jersey. He and I together co-authored a letter to the CEO of every one of the Fortune 1000 companies urging every one of them to contribute to the Trump accounts of the kids of their employees” — Ted Cruz on Cory Booker, The Ben Ferguson Podcast

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on his Verdict podcast, discussing a CEO roundtable on "Trump accounts" investment accounts for children. He describes a bipartisan effort with Sen. Booker to encourage employer contributions.

The Ben Ferguson Podcast · 2026-09-02 Permalink → Listen →

The Ben Ferguson Podcast Around 10:17 into the episode

Speaker 3

Well, and on the employer side, so we had Robert Eisen, the CEO of American Airlines there, and American Airlines announced that they're going to match the contributions to Trump accounts for all their employees.

Speaker 5

Incredible.

Speaker 3

And they have employees all over the country. They have 40,000 employees just in the state of Texas. And you look at those employees for those kids, I think this is going to become a ubiquitous employee benefit, just like 401k accounts are now. And to give you a sense... Why do I say the Trump accounts are the most consequential element of the working family's tax cut? You know, in 1974 is when Congress passed Section 401k of ERISA. And I don't think anyone in Congress had any idea how fundamentally they were changing how Americans save for retirement. Today, Ben, there's more than $ 12 trillion invested in 401k accounts. It's a massive amount of cash. Trump accounts are 401ks for kids. They're going to be We're going to have trillions of dollars invested in Trump accounts and the employer contributions. Dell is doing it. American is doing it. Lots and lots of companies are doing so. But then the second piece of it, and I'm urging, you know, Cory Booker. This is also there's now bipartisan support for this. Cory Booker…

Speaker 1

Which is a game changer. It's a massive game changer.

Speaker 3

One of the people at the roundtable was Gwen Shotwell. Now, Gwen is the president and chief operating officer of SpaceX. And obviously SpaceX just had a massive IPO.

Speaker 1

Yep.

Speaker names come from our own diarization. The position is estimated from where the line sits in the episode.

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