Ted Cruz’s Podcast Looks Like A Seriously Sleazy Side Hustle

On Friday night, MSNBC host Chris Hayes explained why Sen. Ted Cruz’s thrice-weekly podcast “appears to be a serious ethical and campaign-finance scandal in the making.”

First, Hayes pointed out that recording three podcast episodes a week is a big chunk of time away from what is supposed to be Cruz’s full-time job: representing and serving the second-most populous state in the country. That’s in addition to being in the middle of a somewhat tight race for re-election.

But the much bigger stink is how it looks like Cruz is covering up – in cahoots with iHeartRadio - all the dough he’s getting.

HAYES: Back in 2022, Cruz partnered with iHeartRadio, the number one syndicator of U.S. radio programming, reaching 245 million people each month. iHeart would bankroll the whole operation, although Cruz aides and iHeartRadio executives didn't provide details of the deal, including how much Cruz will be paid for the rights to the podcast. That was a murky but important issue, considering the Senate’s strict rules on outside employment. You can't just, like, have another job; there are whole pages about this in the Senate Code of Conduct.

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