‘I'd rather they be American killer robots’ (with Sen. Ted Cruz)

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
Presented by AHIP.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:02)
Health plans work every day to shield Americans from high and rising costs by negotiating lower prices from providers and drug makers and protecting consumers against unexpected medical bills. Learn more at ahip.org.

**Ted Cruz** (0:16)
The message of President Trump tonight, pretend I'm on the ballot, if he can get those voters to come out, I think that could easily be the difference between Republicans winning the House and Senate versus Republicans losing the House and Senate.

**Dasha Burns** (0:33)
Hello, hello, and welcome to The Conversation. I'm Dasha Burns, and every week on this show, I talk to some of the most compelling and sometimes unexpected power players in Washington and beyond. And this week, I sat down with Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz in Dallas at the Republican Midterm Convention. The funny thing about a midterm convention is that it's, well, unconventional. Usually, these major party events are reserved for presidential elections.

**Donald Trump** (0:59)
For some reason, when a president wins, even if he's really a good president or a great president, there aren't too many of them, they don't win the midterms, and nobody quite knows why.

**Dasha Burns** (1:10)
President Trump called for this convention to rally the base, to rally Republicans going into November. He headlined the two-day event with a bunch of other speakers, including Senator Cruz, but we did talk to him before he gave his big speech. With the convention setting the backdrop for our conversation, I talked to Cruz about the state of his party, how he sees Republicans performing in this election, and where things go from here, post-midterms. That's right, we talked 2028 This interview is one of a bunch that you're not going to want to miss because we're hitting the road for the midterms. We'll be talking to candidates and other power brokers in politics. Make sure that you are subscribed to this podcast to catch it all. And now, here is my conversation with Senator Ted Cruz.
Texas Senator Ted Cruz, thank you for having us in Dallas. Thank you for joining The Conversation. We are here in Dallas, first ever Republican midterm convention. We're eight weeks out from election day, which is crazy. Earlier this year, Axios reported some recordings of you speaking with donors where you warned that tariffs, higher prices and falling retirement accounts could lead Republicans into a bloodbath in the midterms. A bloodbath, you said.
Now, months later, do you think that still applies?

**Ted Cruz** (2:27)
Well, my advice to the president at the time, this was right after April 2nd when he had launched all of the new tariffs. And my advice to him at the time.

**Dasha Burns** (2:35)
Liberation Day.

**Ted Cruz** (2:37)
Was to announce. So we spent an hour on the phone with him, it was late Tuesday night and it was 7 senators that we spent an hour on the phone with him, urging him at the time. What I suggested is that tomorrow, the next day, that he announce, pick a country, I said pick any country. And announce that we're cutting the tariffs to that country and they're cutting their tariffs to us. And I said what that will do is calm the markets because the markets at the time were in freefall.
And it will also get people confidence that the path we're on, that these tariffs are leverage to get our trading partners to lower their tariffs. And that, I fully support that. What I don't support.

**Dasha Burns** (3:21)
So are you taking credit for Art of the Deal or are you taking credit for the taco?

**Ted Cruz** (3:26)
So, well, look, people criticized it. So that night we're on the phone and he was in a bad mood. He did not like, because all seven of us were saying this.

**Dasha Burns** (3:34)
He didn't want to hear it.

**Ted Cruz** (3:35)
He did not want to hear it. And at one point, when I said this and actually said the bloodbath line, which I did in fact say, his response was F you, Ted, although he did not abbreviate F.

**Dasha Burns** (3:47)
He doesn't mince words like that.

**Ted Cruz** (3:48)
No, no, no, no. And it was, you know, it was a what is the Washington euphemism, a candid and frank conversation?

**Dasha Burns** (3:56)
Sure, sure, sure. So we got a beating.

**Ted Cruz** (3:59)
So we hung up the phone, it was past midnight. And one of the folks on the call was Lindsey Graham. Lindsey goes, well, that didn't go well.
The next day, Wednesday at noon, he announced the pause and paused all the tariffs. And the seven of us looked at each other and said, well, I guess it went better than we thought. Because that was what we were advising him. And 12 hours later, that's what he implemented. And I think it was good advice. You know, as I was mentioning then, people's 401Ks were way down. Today, people's 401Ks are way, way up.