Welcome at his verdict with Senator Ted Cruz. Ben Ferguson with you. Senator, I feel like the entire

show tonight we should just scream at one another and yell in honor of the State of the Union

that you just walked out of. Are your ears okay? Well, they're not. I have a little bit of

trauma. It is 12.17 in the morning. And I just spent a little bit over an

hour sitting on the floor of the house being yelled at by a deranged old man. It was an experience.

And I'll tell you what, we're going to talk about that. We're going to break down everything

that happened. But we also have a very special feature

tonight, and it is a happy twist of fate, because I was not the only person in the chamber

listening to that angry old man screaming, but an unemployed podcaster and radio hosts and former marquee actor and book author

turned out that he was desperately in need of some liquor and cigars and so sent me a text

earlier tonight and so I'm actually quite proud to welcome back to verdict.

My original co-host and my dear friend Michael Knowles, Michael, welcome, welcome back.

Senator, it's good to be back. Ben, it's good to be back. But you tricked me. You tricked me.

Because I, look, you're right. I, what do I do?

I don't do verdict anymore. So I had a lot of time on my hands. I sauntered down to DC. I said,

I got nothing better to do than listen to this old man yell at me for three hours, however long

it took at the State of the Union. And I said, but you know what will make this night totally redeemed is I will text my friend, Senator Cruz,

and we'll have a nice cigar.

And you said, absolutely, Michael, come on over and we'll have cigars right after we finish

the podcast.

And I said, all right, you got me.

I already agreed.

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