Glenn has said before that he think Ted Cruz understands what the country is facing economically and, if elected, will help put a stop to some of the big spenders in Congress. Cruz joined Glenn on radio to discuss his campaign - as well as some attack ads targeting him that are so bad they seem like an SNL parody.
Transcript of interview:
GLENN: We're just listening to these amazing Ted Cruz, anti‑Ted Cruz commercials.
PAT: Oh, they're horrible.
GLENN: Here in Texas. You have to hear just one of them.
PAT: Here's one of them.
GLENN: See if one word sticks out.
VOICE: The competition Ted Cruz is also lawyer Ted Cruz. Cruz is helping this Chinese company put this American manufacturer out of business. Cruz's Chinese client stole American blueprints.
VOICE: The jury found them liable for stealing our blueprints.
VOICE: But with lawyer Ted Cruz's help, the Chinese keep counterfeiting and Ted Cruz keeps getting paid.
VOICE: There's too many people like Ted Cruz.
PAT: That's because he's a lawyer. Have you ever noticed how closely lawyer and liar sound?
GLENN: Many of the same letters in "lawyer" and "liar."
STU: (Laughing.)
PAT: Quite a few, in fact.
GLENN: Is it a coincidence that not only lawyer, but trial lawyer politician Ted Cruz.
PAT: Following in the footsteps of other trial lawyers like John Adams.
GLENN: John Adams was a lawyer.
PAT: Who tried to overthrow the U.S. Government.
STU: Traitor.
PAT: Call Ted Cruz and ask him why he's a traitor lawyer, lawyer traitor.
GLENN: Lawyer, politician trial lawyer.
PAT: Lawyer.
GLENN: Revolutionary lawyer.
PAT: Lawyer.
GLENN: (Laughing.) And this is all done by Dewhurst who is just ‑‑
PAT: A nightmare.
GLENN: ‑‑ a nightmare. Texas, come on, come on, you're better than this. Ted Cruz is on the ‑‑ lawyer Ted Cruz.
PAT: Thank you, Glenn. Lawyer. Ted Cruz, who's a lawyer.
GLENN: Have you noticed, Ted, how many letters in "lawyer" are also in "liar"?
PAT: And liar?
CRUZ: I've got to say y'all have a future in comedy and attack ads.
GLENN: Really?
CRUZ: That is right in front of you.
GLENN: Will you defend us when we're in court trying to put American companies out of business?
PAT: Call Ted's office and ask him, why do you defend people? Why?
STU: (Laughing.)
GLENN: Why do you defend?
PAT: Is it because you're a defense lawyer?
GLENN: (Laughing.)
CRUZ: Well, we know it's silly season when we're 19 days out from the election.
STU: Yeah, we probably think this is a lot more funny than Ted does.
PAT: Probably.
GLENN: Ted Cruz isn't laughing when we call him lawyer.
PAT: So Ted, tell us about the Chinese company, the Chinese company and why you defended them.
CRUZ: Look, the ad that you played is filled with lies, and Dewhurst is spending $3 million saturating the airwaves with it.
PAT: Yep.
CRUZ: It's a lie.
PAT: I hear it every day, several times a day.
STU: All the time.
PAT: Yeah.
GLENN: I have to tell you I've met with people in Texas, I was for Ted Cruz but have you heard he's a lawyer?
PAT: He's a lawyer?
GLENN: He's a lawyer politician.
CRUZ: It is filled with lots of lies, the biggest one of which is they tell you that the opposing party in this lawsuit is, quote, an American manufacturer.
PAT: Mmm‑hmmm.
GLENN: What they don't tell you is 20 years ago, he moved his factory to China.
PAT: Oh, my gosh.
CRUZ: This is, in fact, a lawsuit between two Chinese tire factories.
PAT: Really?
CRUZ: Really.
PAT: That is conveniently missing from the ad.
CRUZ: They just omitted, he incorporated his company in the Channel Islands, a notorious tax haven, and he spends eight months a year in China running his factory there.
PAT: What was the underhanded technique that was used supposedly? Because one of them, one of them is that supposedly some underhanded technique was used to defend them?
CRUZ: Which is that the company filed an appeal, and there are actually three tire companies in the case. All three appealed, including the plaintiff, including the fellow in the ad. He appealed.
PAT: Wow.
STU: Wow, he used the same underhanded technique?
PAT: As lawyer Ted Cruz?
GLENN: There's too many people like you, Ted Cruz.
CRUZ: Well, and you know what's interesting, he also doesn't tell people that I didn't argue the case. I wasn't the lead lawyer. And if you look at a case I did argue last year in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on Chinese counterfeiting. I represented a major manufacturer against a Chinese company that stole a U.S. patent.
GLENN: So let me translate. He was using his tricks again in a courtroom, as a lawyer.
STU: On the same topic.
PAT: Again, with China being involved.
CRUZ: It IS hard to argue with that.
GLENN: We can turn it against you any way you throw it at us.
GLENN: And you know what? If I were Dewhurst and I had millions and millions and millions of dollars, I would turn it against you every single way. I mean, it wouldn't matter anymore. "Do we have enough lawyers? Don't we have enough Dewhursts in Washington already"?
PAT: Boy, that's for sure.
GLENN: We do.
PAT: We do have more than enough Dewhursts in Washington already.
GLENN: Tell me about ‑‑ tell me why you should be there, Ted.
CRUZ: Because our nation is in crisis and we've got too many go‑along‑to‑get‑along establishment politicians to Washington. We need conservatives and with he need fighters.
GLENN: Are you a Club For Growth guy?
CRUZ: Club For Growth has endorsed me, Freedom Works has endorsed me, the five strongest conservatives in the U.S. Senate, Jim DeMint, Mike Lee, Rand, Paul and Pat Toomey, and Tom Coburn have endorsed me. And just an hour ago, you may not have seen the news, Governor Sarah Palin endorsed me.
PAT: Wow, that's nice.
GLENN: Now let me ask you this: Texas, what the hell is wrong with you! How are the poll numbers doing?
CRUZ: The poll numbers are great. It is a two‑man race between me and David Dewhurst. He is the moderate establishment. He is a tax‑and‑spend Republican.
PAT: Mmm‑hmmm.
CRUZ: And our numbers are surging because conservatives are uniting behind Tea Party activists, Republican women. And I'll tell you the Dewhurst campaign is terrified, after Mourdock's win in Indiana.
GLENN: They should be.
CRUZ: Because as you know, all the pundits said that the moderate incumbent there was unbeatable and the people rose up and said, look, we're tired of these spineless jellyfish that don't believe anything.
GLENN: But how do you honestly, how do you combat somebody who has unlimited funds that are running ad campaigns? I mean, these ad campaigns make you ‑‑ Ted, I don't know you well but I've met you several times. You're not a monster and you're certainly not the guy that is portrayed in these ads.
CRUZ: Right.
GLENN: And, you know, if I didn't know you and I was just kind of a casual person, I'd think... he's a lawyer.
PAT: A Chinese operative.
GLENN: I mean, I would think you were the worst monster on the planet. How do you fight this without a lot of money against a guy who has an unlimited amount of cash?
CRUZ: Yeah, he's putting a million bucks of his own money in. You know the answer is support from the people all over Texas and all over the country. We've raised over $5.2 million from 19,000 people. Every time I'm on your show, Glenn, I've got to tell you hundreds and hundreds of people all over Texas and all over the country come to our website, TedCruz.org. They contribute. And it's how we're keeping up because this is conservatives all over the country.
GLENN: But here ‑‑ hang on. Here's something interesting. I mean, here's a guy who's running for the Senate seat from Texas and again one of his dirty tricks: He doesn't spell "Cruz" the way you would normally spell "cruise." Another dirty underhanded trick. So if you're going the Website and you're trying to find "cruise" ‑‑
PAT: Yeah. TedCruz.org, you would spell it Ted Cruz, C‑r‑u‑z, if I'm not mistaken.
CRUZ: That is exactly right.
PAT: Isn't that the underhanded trick you're using?
GLENN: Underhanded trick.
PAT: Yeah.
GLENN: It's not "cruise" like, hey, I'm putting it in cruise control.
PAT: No.
GLENN: It's that kind of underhanded stuff ‑‑
PAT: Yeah.
GLENN: ‑‑ that we've had enough of.
PAT: Tell us, what's the biggest difference between you and David Dewhurst? Why should Texas vote for you as opposed to him, the guy everybody knows?
CRUZ: I'm a conservative and I'm a fighter. I've spent my entire life fighting for the Constitution and fighting for freedom. As the solicitor general for Texas for five and a half years serving under Greg Abbott, we led the nation fighting for conservative opinions, we defended the Ten Commandments and won, defended the "Pledge of Allegiance" and won, defended the Second Amendment and won. And we stood up and fought the world court and the United Nations and the president of the United States defended U.S. sovereignty and won.
PAT: Against Mexico, right?
CRUZ: Mexico and actually 90 nations against us. Mexico sued the United States and the world court.
GLENN: You did that as a lawyer.
PAT: As a lawyer. Tell us about that case because that ‑‑
GLENN: I didn't know you were the guy who did that.
PAT: Yeah, that was an important case. Tell us about that one.
CRUZ: Well, it was a case that began tragically in Houston. Two teenage girls were gang‑raped and murdered.
PAT: 1993?
CRUZ: Yeah.
PAT: Yeah.
CRUZ: And one of the gang rapists and murderers was named José Medellin. He was an illegal alien. And he was convicted and what happened was Mexico sued the United States and the world court, and the world court issued an order to the United States to reopen the convictions of 51 murderers across the country.
PAT: And in my final straw with George W. Bush, he actually sided with Mexico on this.
CRUZ: It was heartbreaking. I think he received some very, very poor advice.
PAT: Yep.
CRUZ: And he signed an order that attempted to order the state courts to obey the world court.
GLENN: This is ‑‑
PAT: Unbelievable.
GLENN: This is ‑‑
PAT: That was unbelievable.
GLENN: This is where I really lost it with George Bush.
PAT: Me, too.
GLENN: When this stuff was starting to happen, this was when I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
PAT: What?
GLENN: What the hell was George Bush doing? And you're the guy who fought it and argued it in the Supreme Court?
CRUZ: Yeah, I argued it twice. And as you know, one of the things we need ‑‑
PAT: And won, by the way.
GLENN: Yes.
CRUZ: Is we need leaders who have the backbone to stand up not just to Democrats but to fellow Republicans when they go off the reservation and they are not honoring the Constitution.
GLENN: Thank you.
PAT: Exactly.
GLENN: Thank you. Okay, now look. Last Tuesday Indiana, the Tea Party and Freedom Works and everybody else got together and they got Dick Lugar out.
CRUZ: Yep.
GLENN: We're not fighting the Democrats. We're fighting the Republicans. Got Dick Lugar out. Now the eyes are going to turn to Texas. Can the Tea Party, can freedom lovers, can constitutionalists, can real conservatives stand and make it past somebody who has millions of dollars and deep pockets to smear this guy left and right? This guy doesn't have deep pockets.
PAT: An established, moderate establishment candidate in David Dewhurst.
GLENN: Big time. Big time.
PAT: That's who that guy is. I mean, "moderate" is giving him the benefit of the doubt.
GLENN: Big time. This is ‑‑ you know, this is another one of those RINOs, this is one of those GOP "I'll play whatever game they want me to play" and Ted Cruz is not. Running for U.S. Senate out of Texas. If you want to donate, if you want to help him, go to TedCruz.org, C‑r‑u‑z‑e. TedCruz.org.
PAT: C‑r‑u‑z.
GLENN: What did I say?
PAT: No E.
GLENN: Okay. Another dirty trick?
PAT: Yes. Still another one.
GLENN: Oh, my goodness. I don't know if I can ‑‑
PAT: It's a long U sound without the E at the end. How did he pull that off?
GLENN: He's being outspent 9‑1. Early voting starts on Monday all over Texas. Dewhurst needs 50% of the vote to avoid a runoff which would most likely be with Ted. Concentrate your efforts one at a time. We've got to take the Senate back and that means even taking it back from the Republicans. We've got to have people who understand what we're facing, and Ted is one of those guys. Thank you, Ted. I appreciate it, man.
CRUZ: It's always a pleasure. You guys are fighting for freedom and making a difference. And you know what? A lot of the media said the Tea Party was dead. Tuesday proved that wrong. And on May 29th, 19 days from today, Texas is going to prove it wrong. We're going to send a strong conservative and a fighter to the Senate. And you have my word: Texas will lead the fight to stop the Obama agenda, to defend free market principles, and to restore the Constitution.
GLENN: And you have my word that if you don't hold that up, you will... you'll receive the wrath, the wrath of this program and everybody who voted for ya.
CRUZ: And Glenn, I am asking you, hold me accountable.
GLENN: Oh, we will. You don't have to ask. It's our pleasure.
CRUZ: Because if I am anything other than leading the fight with arrows up and down my torso.
GLENN: Oh, yeah.
CRUZ: I mean, Glenn, as you know my dad fled oppression in Cuba. I mean, he was imprisoned. He was tortured. Freedom for me is not an abstract concept in a book.
GLENN: Yeah, yeah. Is your dad still alive?
CRUZ: He is. He's a pastor ‑‑
GLENN: We'll get him on a plane and we'll personally have him punch you in the face if you start screwing around in Washington. No, I mean it. It will be your worst nightmare. I mean it.
CRUZ: I'm much more scared of my dad than I am of you.
GLENN: You should be.
CRUZ: Because I'd have to look him in the eyes if I didn't fight for freedom and help turn this around.
GLENN: All right. Ted, thanks a lot. I appreciate it, man.
PAT: TedCruz.org.
GLENN: Again is lawyer Ted Cruz.
PAT: TedCruz.org.
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