Ted Cruz Reveals What Trump Told Him Behind Closed Doors | PBD Podcast #851

**Ted Cruz** (0:00)
So, I'm asleep, and Matthew McConaughey comes rushing into our bedroom. He jumps on our bed, on all fours, and he's jumping up and down.

**Patrick Bet-David** (0:09)
Do you think there's anything you could have done to beat a guy like Donald Trump?

**Ted Cruz** (0:14)
There was a moment in the campaign that when I lay in bed and think back about, I think of as the most consequential role.

**Patrick Bet-David** (0:22)
So, let me ask you, are you saying this to me because if you would have gone up against Hillary, you think you would have beaten her?

**Ted Cruz** (0:27)
Absolutely.

**Patrick Bet-David** (0:28)
You think you would have beaten her worse than Trump beat Hillary?

**Ted Cruz** (0:32)
The day of the meeting, Marco cancels the meeting.

**Patrick Bet-David** (0:34)
No explanation.

**Ted Cruz** (0:35)
No explanation, just I'm not comfortable.

**Patrick Bet-David** (0:37)
Has he said this publicly?

**Ted Cruz** (0:39)
If he has, I have not seen him say it.

**Patrick Bet-David** (0:41)
Who supports you on the Republican side that Trump doesn't have?
Do you know why I'm asking that question? Do you want me to give you the reason why I'm asking the question?

**Ted Cruz** (0:49)
Sure.

**Patrick Bet-David** (0:49)
They know if they give their vote to the wrong person, a socialist could be a president in 2028

**SPEAKER_3** (0:54)
That's humanity.

**Ted Cruz** (0:55)
They just hate Donald Trump and they want to burn it all down.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:59)
Why?

**Patrick Bet-David** (1:01)
It's confusing to me.

**Ted Cruz** (1:02)
Tucker is the single most dangerous demagogue in America. He now says Donald Trump is the antichrist. That is a lot of things, but that ain't conservative and that ain't American.

**Patrick Bet-David** (1:12)
Why can't we just go audit everybody and find it out?

**Ted Cruz** (1:15)
The anti-Semitic protests on college campuses, Qatar and China, are both funding them.
Again, I get frustrated out of my mind with people who say they're conservative, and they go to office and they turn into jellyfish. Show me what you've accomplished.

**Patrick Bet-David** (1:35)
Respectfully, that didn't ask my question.

**Ted Cruz** (1:37)
So I get what you want me to say, but I…

**Patrick Bet-David** (1:39)
No, I don't want you to know. That's not what I'm asking.

**Ted Cruz** (1:41)
We're making the case to Trump, and in the middle of it, that is when Elon Musk tweeted that Trump was on the Epstein list.
I learned some curse words I didn't even know. That's a moment I will never forget of just like, OK, there's a hand grenade thrown in the middle of everything. I'm a very easy guy to understand. I actually believe this shit. There is an advantage to building a reputation for being willing to blow things up. Nobody thinks you're bluffing.

**Patrick Bet-David** (2:13)
OK, so it's great to be sitting down with a podcaster here. Very famous podcaster. He happens to be a senator as well, Senator Ted Cruz, but he's the only guy that's also a podcaster. So it's great to have you on.

**Ted Cruz** (2:23)
Pat, thanks for having me. I'm thrilled to be here.

**Patrick Bet-David** (2:25)
Yes, likewise. I'm looking forward to the conversation for the folks that are watching. I know you just came out with a book going further. I think August 25th, the incomparable Clarence Thomas, already number one on Amazon. If you haven't ordered it, we're going to put the link below. There's also a great interview with him, which maybe we put down as well at the end. If you want to go learn more about him, I thought the interview was great. So I want to start off with some tough questions at first, and then we go to the easy ones. Okay, good. Let's go on to it. You've been visiting Ohio, Iowa. You've been visiting some of the earlier states. You've been making endorsements. You've been kind of playing around with the stuff that's going on for 2020 I'm not going to ask you if you're going to be running or not. I think if I'm a betting man, I'm guesstimating you're going to be running for 2028
But if I were to hire you as a consultant, I'm going to run for office in 2028 I hire Cruz Consulting. Give me three to five issues to be running on in 2028 What do you think those issues should be?

**Ted Cruz** (3:20)
The fact that it starts with sitting down and talking to a little old lady who looks you in the eyes and said, are you telling me the truth? Are you lying to me? I don't want to hear talking points. I want to know who you are. I want to understand what kind of man you are. That process is really important. Look, in Iowa, when I ran the last time, corn is kind of a big deal in Iowa.