Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / Iran Deal—Don’t Give Billions to Lunatics who want to Kill us plus College Sports bill Gets BIG Bipartisan Vote

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Iran Deal—Don’t Give Billions to Lunatics who want to Kill us plus College Sports bill Gets BIG Bipartisan Vote · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

0:00
Speaker 1: Welcome.
0:00
Speaker 2: It is Verdic with Center, Ted Cruz Ben ferguson with
0:03
Speaker 2: you as well, And if you're listening on the radio,
0:04
Speaker 2: it's so nice to have you with us around the
0:06
Speaker 2: country wherever you are.
0:08
Speaker 1: Senator.
0:08
Speaker 2: We've got a lot to talk about in the show,
0:10
Speaker 2: and obviously we're going to start with that big issue
0:12
Speaker 2: Iran and the nuclear deal slash agreement, slash memo of understanding,
0:17
Speaker 2: slash whatever everybody wanted to be at this point.
0:19
Speaker 3: Yeah, our last podcast, we talked about the rumors that
0:23
Speaker 3: were swirling about what might be in the Iran deal.
0:26
Speaker 2: Uh.
0:26
Speaker 3: The administration is now released the memorandum of understanding that
0:29
Speaker 3: that that that has been signed, and so we know
0:31
Speaker 3: the text of it. And as we said the last podcast, UH,
0:35
Speaker 3: it was highly concerning. Uh. And it turns out every
0:39
Speaker 3: bit of those those rumors were were accurate and and
0:42
Speaker 3: and what was being circulated was in fact what was
0:45
Speaker 3: in it. I believe the President is getting very poor
0:50
Speaker 3: advice on this uh. And and and history teaches a
0:54
Speaker 3: very simple proposition, which is that giving billions of dollars
0:59
Speaker 3: to theocratic lunatics who want to murder us is a
1:02
Speaker 3: very very bad idea. This deal in visions funneling three
1:09
Speaker 3: hundred billion dollars to the Ayatola and the Islamic regime
1:14
Speaker 3: in Iran. I think that is that that would be
1:18
Speaker 3: a very serious mistake. I think if the Ayatola gets
1:23
Speaker 3: three hundred billion dollars, that money will be used to
1:26
Speaker 3: fund terrorism and to murder Americans. And so it is
1:29
Speaker 3: very much my hope that the administration goes down a
1:33
Speaker 3: different path that they choose not to send money to
1:36
Speaker 3: the Iotolin. My view, we shouldn't send a penny to
1:40
Speaker 3: the Ayatola, and sending three hundred billion dollars would would
1:45
Speaker 3: be I think enormously dangerous.
1:49
Speaker 2: But before we get to all that, I do want
1:51
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4:09
Speaker 1: You noted for life. All right, I want to.
4:11
Speaker 2: Make sure center that we're extremely clear. On the show,
4:14
Speaker 2: you're gonna say that there's a chance we could send
4:16
Speaker 2: three hundred billion dollars that they could get their hands
4:19
Speaker 2: on in Iran. The pushback I've already seen, I've had
4:22
Speaker 2: a debate this on TV is we're not writing that check,
4:25
Speaker 2: so it's not accurate. Can you explain how they're getting
4:29
Speaker 2: their hands on that amount of money potentially here in
4:32
Speaker 2: this deal so that people understand, because the argument as well,
4:35
Speaker 2: Obama sent Pallette to cash, We're not sending any cash
4:38
Speaker 2: for American taxpayers, so therefore that that argument still avoid
4:42
Speaker 2: explain this out so people understand why this is a
4:45
Speaker 2: concerning moment.
4:46
Speaker 3: Yeah. Look, the folks trying to defend the deal. That
4:49
Speaker 3: is the talking point they're using as they're saying that
4:52
Speaker 3: that cash would not be US taxpayer money. Let me
4:56
Speaker 3: just read to you. I'm going to read verbatim from
4:59
Speaker 3: the agreement. Paragraph six begins as follows, The United States
5:02
Speaker 3: of America undertakes with regional partners to develop a definitive,
5:09
Speaker 3: mutually agreed plan with at least three hundred billion dollars
5:15
Speaker 3: for the reconstruction and economic development of the Islamic Republic
5:20
Speaker 3: of Iran. The mechanism for the implementation of this plan
5:24
Speaker 3: will be finalized as part of a final deal within
5:27
Speaker 3: sixty days. All requested licenses, waivers, and permissions needed for
5:31
Speaker 3: the relevant financial transactions will be granted by the United
5:34
Speaker 3: States of America. That is a kit commitment to ensure
5:38
Speaker 3: that Iran receives three hundred billion dollars. You know what,
5:40
Speaker 3: I don't care where it comes from. I don't want
5:44
Speaker 3: a lunatic, religious fanatic who chance death to America to
5:50
Speaker 3: receive three hundred billion dollars, whether it comes from US
5:53
Speaker 3: or it comes from some other regional partners. I don't
5:56
Speaker 3: care where it comes from. Giving people who want to
6:00
Speaker 3: kill you the billions and billions of dollars from any
6:03
Speaker 3: source historically has proven an enormous mistake. And I will say,
6:10
Speaker 3: look to put it in context, the biggest foreign policy
6:14
Speaker 3: mistake that that Biden and Kamala Harris did is they
6:19
Speaker 3: flowed over one hundred billion dollars to Iran. Iran took
6:24
Speaker 3: that money and they used it to fund terrorism across
6:29
Speaker 3: the globe, to attack and kill Americans. And in a
6:32
Speaker 3: very real sense, Biden and Kamala Harris paid for the
6:36
Speaker 3: October seventh terror attacks. Threw the money they flowed into Iran.
6:42
Speaker 3: The number this agreement is talking about is three times
6:46
Speaker 3: as large as what Biden and Harris flowed into Iran.
6:52
Speaker 3: That makes no sense whatsoever. And look, if you look,
6:59
Speaker 3: the single most consequential decision President Trump has made was
7:04
Speaker 3: the decision to initiate military attacks on Iran. And we
7:09
Speaker 3: have completely devastated their military. We've taken out their air defenses,
7:13
Speaker 3: their ballistic missiles, their drones, their manufacturing capability for ballistic
7:17
Speaker 3: missiles and drones. We've destroyed their air force, We've sunk
7:20
Speaker 3: their navy. It doesn't make any sense at all for
7:24
Speaker 3: us to now go and build everything back. What was
7:26
Speaker 3: the point of blowing it up if we're going to
7:28
Speaker 3: build it back. And the idea that we would have
7:30
Speaker 3: effectively a Marshall Plan for Iran is not remotely in
7:37
Speaker 3: America's interest. You know, the Marshall Plan. We came in
7:41
Speaker 3: and rebuilt Europe after World War Two. Look, if the
7:46
Speaker 3: administration wants to leave, we should leave. But sending and
7:51
Speaker 3: the agreement is silent, by the way, on whether that
7:54
Speaker 3: money is from tax payer money or not. It doesn't
7:56
Speaker 3: say one way or the other. It just says the
7:57
Speaker 3: United States will work with regional partners to make sure
8:00
Speaker 3: get three hundred billion. But wherever it comes from giving
8:04
Speaker 3: the Ayatola that money, I believe it is one hundred
8:08
Speaker 3: percent certainty if they get three hundred billion dollars, they
8:11
Speaker 3: will spend that trying to kill Americans.
8:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, as one person said to me in the foreign
8:17
Speaker 2: policy world, they said, if you would have gone to
8:20
Speaker 2: Iran's leadership and said, have a scuffle with America, but
8:23
Speaker 2: they'll give you three hundred million afterwards, or excuse me,
8:26
Speaker 2: three hundred billion afterwards. They will take that deal every
8:29
Speaker 2: single year because cash flow is everything to them in
8:32
Speaker 2: that part of the world, and what they use it for.
8:34
Speaker 2: As you mentioned, terrorism, Hamas has blowed. The list goes
8:36
Speaker 2: on and on. This is an insane amount of cash
8:39
Speaker 2: that they're getting their hands on.
8:41
Speaker 3: And understand the way this MLU is structured, there is
8:44
Speaker 3: an immediate unfreezing of Iranian assets. So what appears to
8:50
Speaker 3: be contemplated is somewhere between ten billion and thirty billion
8:53
Speaker 3: cash immediately flows to them. Now, mind you, that's before
8:57
Speaker 3: they've made any commitment at all on nuclear weapons. All
9:01
Speaker 3: they've committed to do is talk about nuclear weapons. That's
9:05
Speaker 3: the only commitment. There's no promise on enrichment. There's nothing. Well,
9:09
Speaker 3: they say they're not going to develop nuclear weapons, but
9:12
Speaker 3: there's no meat to that other than we will sit
9:16
Speaker 3: down and discuss that. And the agreement sends somewhere between
9:20
Speaker 3: ten and thirty billion dollars to them immediately upfront. I
9:25
Speaker 3: think that is that is a really foolish idea.
9:31
Speaker 2: All right, Sentata, let's talk about the straight of horror moves.
9:34
Speaker 2: This is the part for me that I actually think
9:36
Speaker 2: was the most frustrating. This is international It is not
9:40
Speaker 2: supposed to be governed or owned by certainly a terrorist
9:45
Speaker 2: organization like the RGC in Iran. But this deal now
9:49
Speaker 2: sets up that Iran in quote Oman, will be in
9:52
Speaker 2: charge of the strait. There's nothing in this deal from
9:55
Speaker 2: what and I've read it, unless I just completely misunderstood it,
9:59
Speaker 2: that says eventually they can't start taking tolls on this
10:02
Speaker 2: and using it and weaponizing this straight the same way
10:04
Speaker 2: they did when they at the beginning of this conflict.
10:07
Speaker 2: That is something else in this deal that was shocking
10:09
Speaker 2: to me. Break that down for everyone.
10:12
Speaker 3: Yeah, the memorandum of understanding contemplates that Iran would have
10:17
Speaker 3: ongoing control of the Strait of Horror Moves, and it
10:21
Speaker 3: says that that Iran won't charge tolls or fees for
10:24
Speaker 3: the first sixty days, but it clearly contemplates that Iran
10:29
Speaker 3: will be able to charge tolls to go through the
10:32
Speaker 3: Strait of Horror Moves in the future. That Iran has
10:35
Speaker 3: never been able to do that before. That is a
10:37
Speaker 3: major geostrategic shift. That would be a major revenue source
10:43
Speaker 3: for Iran and for the Iyatola. And listen, I don't
10:48
Speaker 3: think the Iyatola should be able to collect one penny
10:52
Speaker 3: for the free navigation of the seas Iran does not have.
10:56
Speaker 3: This is not Iran's territorial waters. This is free and
10:59
Speaker 3: open sea. And it is simply they're engaging in terrorism.
11:04
Speaker 3: You know, it's not even a toll or a fee.
11:06
Speaker 3: It's more like pirates charging a bounty. And look, I
11:13
Speaker 3: if there are voices in the administration who number one
11:20
Speaker 3: opposed the military conflict with Iran from day one, but
11:24
Speaker 3: number two once it started, immediately wanted to get out.
11:27
Speaker 3: If they wanted to get out, they're better off just leaving, yeah,
11:30
Speaker 3: than just pouring cash into the Ayatolla. And I will say, look.
11:36
Speaker 2: And by the way, let's be clear and Iran, I
11:38
Speaker 2: want you to understand. I was talking to a shipping
11:41
Speaker 2: maritime economist earlier today. He said, the amount of money
11:46
Speaker 2: that they could get from tolls could find terrorism and
11:50
Speaker 2: almost he said it in the way he described it,
11:52
Speaker 2: because there's no cost for them to do this, give
11:55
Speaker 2: them revenue.
11:56
Speaker 1: At a oil like stature.
11:58
Speaker 2: Because he said, look, with oil, you have to actually explore,
12:00
Speaker 2: you have to drill, you have to get out of
12:01
Speaker 2: the ground, you have to put on boats, you gotta
12:03
Speaker 2: ship it. You got to pay for all that. I said,
12:05
Speaker 2: a toll costs you nothing. This is pure profit. Every
12:08
Speaker 2: time a boat pulls up and says, okay, you want
12:11
Speaker 2: to say's passage or we're going to terrorize, you give
12:14
Speaker 2: us money. That's no different than a checkpoint down in
12:16
Speaker 2: Mexico by a cartel.
12:19
Speaker 3: And let me say three hundred billion dollars flows into Iran.
12:24
Speaker 3: That's what's contemplated. Under this agreement. Iran has the power
12:28
Speaker 3: to collect tolls in perpetuity. That would be billions more
12:31
Speaker 3: that would flow into Iran as long as the regime remains.
12:36
Speaker 3: The Ayatola and the Mullahs, they have not changed. They
12:41
Speaker 3: still chant death to America. They still want to kill us,
12:46
Speaker 3: and they will use that money. So for forty seven years,
12:50
Speaker 3: the Islamic regime in Iran has been waging war with America.
12:53
Speaker 3: They've been the number one funder of terrorism worldwide. They're
12:56
Speaker 3: ninety percent of the funds to Hamas, ninety percent of
12:59
Speaker 3: the funds to the WHO, these ninety percent of the
13:01
Speaker 3: funds to Hesbela all come from Iran. That money if
13:06
Speaker 3: we send that money, and by the way, the money
13:08
Speaker 3: is anticipated being deposited in the Bank of Iran, which
13:11
Speaker 3: is controlled by the IRGC. The IRGC is a terrorist group.
13:14
Speaker 3: It is designated as a terrorist group. And now this
13:19
Speaker 3: agreement contemplates billions of dollars flowing into the IRGC's coffers.
13:25
Speaker 3: And I'll say something else also, we can.
13:28
Speaker 2: Should just say this too that if you don't understand URGC,
13:30
Speaker 2: they're basically running the country right now.
13:34
Speaker 3: Look, if the Islamic regime remains in power, that regime
13:41
Speaker 3: I believe will continue to threaten President Trump and his
13:46
Speaker 3: family forever. Yeah, that is that they've twice hired hitman
13:52
Speaker 3: to try to murder the president. I believe the Ayatola
13:56
Speaker 3: with three hundred billion dollars, I think the result of
14:01
Speaker 3: that would be more Americans killed in terrorism. And I
14:06
Speaker 3: also this regime they lie. So yes, they've promised not
14:12
Speaker 3: to develop nuclear weapons. If they get three hundred billion dollars,
14:15
Speaker 3: they will use that money to develop nuclear weapons. And
14:19
Speaker 3: to be clear, the reason the reason I don't want
14:22
Speaker 3: them to have nuclear weapons is I think the odds
14:24
Speaker 3: are unacceptably high they would use those nuclear weapons. The iotola.
14:31
Speaker 3: The risk is that hundreds of thousands of Americans would
14:35
Speaker 3: be killed in a flash of an eye by detonating
14:38
Speaker 3: a nuclear weapon in New York City or Los Angeles,
14:41
Speaker 3: and I believe if the Iyatola were able to do so,
14:46
Speaker 3: he would That's the danger and President Trump. Look, a
14:50
Speaker 3: lot of the reporters have been asking, well, gosh, it
14:52
Speaker 3: isn't isn't President Trump just like Obama and not remotely. Look,
14:57
Speaker 3: President Trump made a heroic decision as commander in chief
15:00
Speaker 3: to take out the military to stop Iran from getting
15:03
Speaker 3: nuclear weapons. That made America safer. That was the right decision.
15:07
Speaker 3: Obama just flooded cash into Iran, and the Obama nuclear
15:12
Speaker 3: deal inevitably would have led to Iran getting nuclear weapons.
15:18
Speaker 3: But I think now President Trump is receiving bad advice,
15:22
Speaker 3: and I'm hopeful that he will choose to go down
15:25
Speaker 3: a different course and not not give billions of dollars,
15:31
Speaker 3: either American money or anybody else's money. I don't want
15:34
Speaker 3: people who want to kill us to have the means
15:36
Speaker 3: to be able to do so.
15:38
Speaker 1: Yeah.
15:38
Speaker 2: One of the other things in this memoryum of understanding
15:42
Speaker 2: deals with Israel and Lebanon. There are a lot of
15:45
Speaker 2: people that have really concerned that this would neuter or
15:48
Speaker 2: ally who is actually going after terrorists organization TAMAS and
15:52
Speaker 2: has bought terrorist fighters I want to get your reaction
15:55
Speaker 2: to that part of this deal as well.
15:56
Speaker 3: Yeah, look the deal. You want to know Iran priorities.
16:00
Speaker 3: The very first thing they negotiate in this deal is
16:04
Speaker 3: stop attacking Hesbela, the terrorists that are murdering civilians. Understand Hesbela.
16:10
Speaker 3: Hesbola is not a government organization. It's not a legitimate organization.
16:14
Speaker 3: It is purely a terrorist organization. They target citizens, they
16:18
Speaker 3: target civilians, they target women and children. They fire rockets
16:22
Speaker 3: into Israel routinely. And the very first thing is a
16:27
Speaker 3: protection for Hesbela in Lebanon. That and understand Hesbela. Yes,
16:33
Speaker 3: it's a threat to Israel. Hesbela is also a threat
16:36
Speaker 3: to America. Hesbela has murdered many Americans, and so protecting
16:40
Speaker 3: Hesbela in this agreement, I think is also counter to
16:44
Speaker 3: US national security interests.
16:48
Speaker 2: All right, so Center, let's move into this is something
16:51
Speaker 2: you've been really working on. This is the most like
16:53
Speaker 2: Jack bro I've ever seen you since i've known you,
16:55
Speaker 2: and it's really been fun for me because usually you're
16:58
Speaker 2: geeking out over like Supreme Court stuff. I feel like
17:01
Speaker 2: our friendship has moved to another level because now we've
17:04
Speaker 2: got to talk sports in nil so much and the
17:06
Speaker 2: College Sports Bill it is now reality. Let's walk us
17:10
Speaker 2: through how this was done and what it means for
17:13
Speaker 2: sports fans and saving many sports that we're getting canceled
17:16
Speaker 2: around the country that were non money making sports.
17:19
Speaker 3: So this week was a very, very big week for
17:22
Speaker 3: college sports because the Senate Commerce Committee, which I chair,
17:27
Speaker 3: passed my legislation to protect college sports, and it passed
17:31
Speaker 3: with a big bipartisan vote. The vote was nineteen to nine,
17:35
Speaker 3: so we got a bunch of Republicans, a bunch of Democrats.
17:37
Speaker 3: We got more than two thirds of the committee voted
17:39
Speaker 3: for it. That's really important. It has momentum now going
17:42
Speaker 3: to the Senate floor. I think it's going to pass
17:45
Speaker 3: on the Senate with a big bipartisan vote, and it's
17:47
Speaker 3: going to go to the House and President Trump is
17:50
Speaker 3: eager to sign it. Now, what's going on in college sports? Listen,
17:54
Speaker 3: College sports is in crisis right now. Every week you
17:58
Speaker 3: see another story about a program being canceled, Women's sports
18:02
Speaker 3: being canceled, track and field being canceled, Olympic sports being canceled,
18:05
Speaker 3: non revenue sports, tennis being canceled. And what is happening
18:11
Speaker 3: is is You've got total chaos with the transfer portal.
18:14
Speaker 3: You've got athletes transferring two, three, four, five times. You
18:18
Speaker 3: have essentially no rules on eligibility. They're all being decided
18:22
Speaker 3: by lawsuits. It got so ludicris You had the Brendan
18:26
Speaker 3: Sorsby case where even though he was gambling on his
18:29
Speaker 3: own games, you had a hometown judge say no, he
18:33
Speaker 3: can still play anyway. Now, thankfully Texas Tech backed away
18:37
Speaker 3: from that decision. I'm glad Tech made that decision to
18:39
Speaker 3: back away. That was an indefensible decision, but it illustrated
18:43
Speaker 3: the chaos we have. You have people that are twenty six,
18:47
Speaker 3: twenty seven years old still playing college sports, and twenty
18:50
Speaker 3: eight year olds playing against eighteen year olds, which is
18:53
Speaker 3: not fair, not right, and athletic programs they're almost all
19:00
Speaker 3: losing millions of dollars. Many of them are losing tens
19:03
Speaker 3: of millions of dollars because the cost keeps spiraling out
19:06
Speaker 3: of control. And ben if Congress doesn't act, I think
19:12
Speaker 3: five years from now there will be thirty to fifty
19:16
Speaker 3: competitive college football programs, basically a mini NFL.
19:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think it'll be a franchise. If you're
19:23
Speaker 2: an SEC school you'll own a franchise.
19:25
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I think all of the other programs go under.
19:29
Speaker 3: And what that means, by the way, that's not just
19:31
Speaker 3: college football going under. The way athletics works in colleges
19:35
Speaker 3: is football pays for everything else. And so if football
19:38
Speaker 3: goes under, it means those schools they lose women's sports,
19:41
Speaker 3: they lose they lose their entire athletic program. It means
19:44
Speaker 3: our Olympic athletes are just devastated, and the college programs
19:50
Speaker 3: where they develop their skills right now go away. And
19:53
Speaker 3: I think that would be a terrible outcome. And it
19:56
Speaker 3: would also be a terrible outcome. Do you know right
19:58
Speaker 3: now they're more than five one hundred thousand college athletes
20:02
Speaker 3: competing at Yeah, at any given time, yep. If we
20:07
Speaker 3: allow this chaos to continue to play out, hundreds of
20:11
Speaker 3: thousands of those slots will disappear, Those scholarships will disappear.
20:15
Speaker 3: And sports has been an avenue. By the way, million, Yes,
20:19
Speaker 3: you're men and women to go to school.
20:21
Speaker 2: Well, let's be clear. The five hundred thousand you just mentioned.
20:23
Speaker 2: This is the part I want people to understand the
20:25
Speaker 2: majority of college athletes like nineties, I think so I
20:28
Speaker 2: saw study you may know the number. I want to
20:30
Speaker 2: say it was ninety eight or ninety nine percent of
20:32
Speaker 2: college athletes do not play football or basketball. So if
20:38
Speaker 2: you think about college sports, it is all the other sports.
20:42
Speaker 2: The majority of them are not revenue making sports. Football
20:45
Speaker 2: barely is on most cambriages sometimes and depending on what
20:48
Speaker 2: school you're at, if you're at a basketball school, then
20:50
Speaker 2: that will be your revenue sport.
20:52
Speaker 1: Outside that, almost all the others lose money.
20:54
Speaker 3: Yep.
20:55
Speaker 2: If you don't fix this, everything goes away. And then
20:59
Speaker 2: many of those football programs at one percent of the
21:01
Speaker 2: student body, or basketball, which is I mean most basketball
21:05
Speaker 2: teams they have I think scholarships chords. I was it's
21:07
Speaker 2: nine in D one, maybe to eleven scholarships, I can't remember.
21:10
Speaker 2: They're always moving it around. But for men like that's
21:13
Speaker 2: not many people, folks. If you don't fix this, you
21:16
Speaker 2: have a university. Now how does it didn't even have
21:17
Speaker 2: an identity in sports?
21:19
Speaker 3: Yeah, look, look my philosophy at addressing this was number one.
21:23
Speaker 3: I didn't worry too much about the powerhouse programs, the
21:26
Speaker 3: big big programs. Listen in Texas University of Texas and
21:30
Speaker 3: Texas A and M. I love them both I go
21:32
Speaker 3: to games every year. I cheer them on their incredible institutions.
21:36
Speaker 3: To be honest, UTNA and m they are gonna survive
21:40
Speaker 3: and thrive regardless of what happens.
21:43
Speaker 1: Uh.
21:43
Speaker 3: They would survive the Mini NFL and then continue to
21:46
Speaker 3: win national championships. Uh, But I worried about all of
21:50
Speaker 3: the other programs. To be honest, if we don't act,
21:53
Speaker 3: I'm not convinced any other program in Texas survives. And
21:56
Speaker 3: if you can imagine at Texas without SMU, without without Baylor,
22:01
Speaker 3: without Texas Tech, without Rice, without University of Houston, that
22:06
Speaker 3: would be a tragic outcome. And so my focus was
22:12
Speaker 3: on maintaining the entire ecosystem. But secondly, my focus was
22:17
Speaker 3: not on the superstar athletes. If you're Michael Jordan, if
22:20
Speaker 3: you're Arch Manning, you know what, You're gonna get millions
22:23
Speaker 3: of dollars. You're gonna be on the Wheaties box. You're
22:26
Speaker 3: gonna do great.
22:27
Speaker 1: Yeah.
22:28
Speaker 3: Ninety nine percent of college athletes will never play in
22:32
Speaker 3: the NFL, will never play in the NBA. But yet
22:35
Speaker 3: athletics is their ticket to college. Look, it was for you.
22:38
Speaker 3: Playing tennis is how you went to Ole Miss.
22:40
Speaker 2: And I'll be honest with you, I'm not sure I
22:42
Speaker 2: would have gone to college if it wasn't for having
22:46
Speaker 2: the scholarship which came through tennis to pay for college.
22:49
Speaker 2: My family did not have a lot of means, and
22:52
Speaker 2: my dad was the first to admit and it was like,
22:54
Speaker 2: if you want to go to college, if you want
22:56
Speaker 2: to go to good school, you're gonna have to get
22:58
Speaker 2: there and earn. It was my way in. It wasn't
23:01
Speaker 2: going to be the academic road, and that's another avenue
23:03
Speaker 2: you can go, but sports was, and for many of
23:06
Speaker 2: my friends it was a savior to a better life afterwards,
23:10
Speaker 2: a better member of society. By the way, we pay
23:13
Speaker 2: a lot more taxes when you're successful, so it's a
23:15
Speaker 2: great reinvestment in the country. From that standpoint as well,
23:18
Speaker 2: you want your kids to go to college. But for
23:19
Speaker 2: so many I had roommates, they would have never gotten
23:22
Speaker 2: into college if it wasn't and gotten their family. Many
23:25
Speaker 2: I had two different roommates they were the first kid
23:28
Speaker 2: in their families to ever go to college. It completely
23:31
Speaker 2: changed the trajectory of their family tree. And it was
23:33
Speaker 2: because of athletics.
23:35
Speaker 3: Well, and some people have said, well, why is Congress
23:38
Speaker 3: getting involved in college sports. And the reason is it's
23:41
Speaker 3: federal laws that Congress has passed that created this chaos.
23:45
Speaker 3: It's why all of the rules got thrown out because
23:48
Speaker 3: they're being sued under existing federal law. And every rule
23:51
Speaker 3: keeps getting thrown out, and so Congress created the problem,
23:55
Speaker 3: which means only Congress can fix it, because only Congress
23:58
Speaker 3: can can can alter that federal law. And if we
24:01
Speaker 3: don't act, we can see the crisis unfolding around us
24:05
Speaker 3: and for millions of young men and women. Many college
24:09
Speaker 3: athletes are coming from economically disadvantaged circumstances. Many of them
24:13
Speaker 3: are African American or Hispanic. Over years and decades, we're
24:18
Speaker 3: talking about millions of young men and women who this
24:21
Speaker 3: may be their only path to go to a going
24:23
Speaker 3: to college and getting an education, but b learning the
24:27
Speaker 3: disciplines that come from being in organized sports of teamwork
24:31
Speaker 3: and hard work and discipline and sportsmanship. And look, I
24:35
Speaker 3: didn't have the skills to play college sports. I would
24:37
Speaker 3: have loved to, but I played high school sports and
24:39
Speaker 3: it was you know, being on I played basketball and
24:41
Speaker 3: football and soccer, and being on a team in high school.
24:44
Speaker 3: Those are really important skills and it's amazing I actually
24:47
Speaker 3: asked this at our Senate Republican lunch. I said, all right,
24:49
Speaker 3: how many people around this table played college sports? And
24:53
Speaker 3: I would say about twenty percent of the Republicans in
24:57
Speaker 3: the Senate raised their hand and they were college athletes.
24:59
Speaker 3: I mean, that's true, and that's true. You find that
25:01
Speaker 3: with CEOs, you find that the discipline and nobody in
25:05
Speaker 3: the Senate played professional sports, but the discipline of and
25:10
Speaker 3: the skills you learn set you up for success in life.
25:14
Speaker 2: Let me ask you one final question on this. Who
25:16
Speaker 2: was behind this that surprised you the most? And Nick
25:19
Speaker 2: Saban was one that I was excited to see that
25:21
Speaker 2: the African American University of Memphis and my hometown football coach,
25:24
Speaker 2: you got behind this and had some great testimony there
25:27
Speaker 2: in front of you.
25:28
Speaker 1: Guys. I was proud of that as well. But who
25:30
Speaker 1: shocked you that was behind this?
25:32
Speaker 3: So the support we've seen has been overwhelming. Twenty four
25:35
Speaker 3: conferences have endorsed this bill. They represent those conferences represent
25:41
Speaker 3: over two hundred different colleges and universities are enthusiastically supporting
25:45
Speaker 3: the bill. The NFL endorsed the bill, the NBA endorsed
25:48
Speaker 3: the bill. Major League Baseball endorsed the bill. NFL Players
25:52
Speaker 3: Association endorsed the bill, the NBA Players Association endorsed the bill.
25:57
Speaker 3: The College Football Association endorse the bill. We've had Nick
26:01
Speaker 3: Saban has endorsed it. John Calipari led over one hundred
26:05
Speaker 3: college coaches who've endorsed the bill. The US Olympic Committee
26:09
Speaker 3: endorse the bill. So we've seen just enormous support. And
26:15
Speaker 3: I will say the primary opposition came from the leadership
26:19
Speaker 3: of the Big Ten and the SEC. And look, the
26:22
Speaker 3: SEC is really important in Texas. Obviously, UTA and M
26:25
Speaker 3: I think they're great. If Congress doesn't act, I believe
26:31
Speaker 3: the SEC and Big Ten want to create a super
26:33
Speaker 3: league where they're the only football that exists and everyone.
26:36
Speaker 1: Else goes out of bill.
26:36
Speaker 2: Most billion dollar franchise organizations, that's what they would.
26:39
Speaker 3: Have, and that is a terrible outcome. We explicitly prohibit
26:43
Speaker 3: a super league in the bill because I want to
26:45
Speaker 3: keep all the other programs alive. That's where the resistance
26:49
Speaker 3: has come from. I think we're going to end up
26:51
Speaker 3: having a big, big, bipartisan vote on the Senate floor.
26:55
Speaker 3: My objective is to do this, get it done, get
26:57
Speaker 3: it passed. The President's eager to sign it and do
27:00
Speaker 3: all of that before school starts this fall.
27:03
Speaker 2: I want you to pause what you're doing for just
27:06
Speaker 2: one minute, and I want you to hear about Alejandra.
27:09
Speaker 2: She lives in a remote community with very few resources
27:12
Speaker 2: and little to no healthcare. So when Alexandra gets sick,
27:17
Speaker 2: her parents have no real options, no doctors in their community,
27:22
Speaker 2: and no money for real medical care. By the third day,
27:26
Speaker 2: her body was shutting down. She woke up and just
27:29
Speaker 2: long enough to tell her mom, I can't take the
27:32
Speaker 2: pain anymore. I can't keep going. Her parents drove hours
27:37
Speaker 2: to find a doctor who tried everything, but she needed
27:40
Speaker 2: a private hospital and that was impossible for her family
27:44
Speaker 2: to afford. And that is when Compassion Internationals stepped in.
27:49
Speaker 2: Now through Compassion Alejandra was treated and against all odds,
27:54
Speaker 2: she survived. She lived because someone just like you took
27:58
Speaker 2: action right now. Unfortunately, there are children just like Alejandra
28:03
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Speaker 2: help a child just like Alejandra. Today you can visit
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28:31
Speaker 1: Sena.
28:31
Speaker 2: We've been talking about sports. You had a really amazing
28:34
Speaker 2: experience this last week. You got to go to the
28:36
Speaker 2: UFC fight at the White House. That fight was incredible.
28:40
Speaker 2: It's also turned into a national security issue that we
28:42
Speaker 2: found out about after that fight, which is really interesting.
28:45
Speaker 2: And some of the people that are getting arrested they
28:47
Speaker 2: were a legal immigrants.
28:48
Speaker 1: Shocker there.
28:50
Speaker 3: So look, I will say Sunday, the UFC fight at
28:53
Speaker 3: the White House was absolutely surreal. It was an amazing day.
28:56
Speaker 3: I was there for the fight. The President invited me.
28:58
Speaker 3: I appreciated the President inviting me. It was number one.
29:03
Speaker 3: It was great fights and and and UFC fight. I've
29:06
Speaker 3: been to one one previously which I went with President
29:09
Speaker 3: Trump and and in Miami, and that was It's amazing.
29:13
Speaker 3: It's it's incredibly violent, but but the the athletes are
29:16
Speaker 3: really skilled. The fight. The fighters are like unbelievably skilled.
29:20
Speaker 2: Uh.
29:21
Speaker 3: And there were a whole bunch of fights through throughout
29:23
Speaker 3: the night. I gotta admit, the whole thing was surreal.
29:26
Speaker 3: As you're looking around going wait, we're on the South
29:28
Speaker 3: lawn of the White House. The White House was there
29:30
Speaker 3: right there. We're like looking over and it was the.
29:34
Speaker 1: Fighters are coming out of the White House.
29:35
Speaker 2: That was the part on TV that I think everybody
29:37
Speaker 2: was like, wait, their dressing room is like the White House.
29:40
Speaker 1: It was, which is pretty awesome.
29:41
Speaker 3: Yeah, No, it was really really cool. It was also interesting, like, uh,
29:47
Speaker 3: you know, the people watching there was was very interesting.
29:50
Speaker 3: Like Mark Zuckerberg was sitting not far from me, and
29:52
Speaker 3: it was interesting. He knows many of the fighters, like
29:55
Speaker 3: like like they would come and and and they bear
29:57
Speaker 3: hug because he's into mm A. But that was kind
30:00
Speaker 3: of interesting. And I was also sitting near Jim Jordan
30:03
Speaker 3: and near Dave McCormick, and they knew a number of
30:06
Speaker 3: the fighters because you know, look, Jim is a Hall
30:09
Speaker 3: of Fame college wrestler and McCormick was captain the wrestling
30:13
Speaker 3: team at West Point, so both of them know the
30:15
Speaker 3: wrestling world. That was I don't know the fighters, but
30:19
Speaker 3: it was interesting to see that those three guys did.
30:22
Speaker 3: The whole thing was an amazing night. And by the way,
30:25
Speaker 3: there's like an eighty percent chance of rain. Yeah, and
30:29
Speaker 3: miraculously we did not get rained out. I talked to
30:32
Speaker 3: Dana White, who was a buddy of mine, and put
30:34
Speaker 3: the whole thing on. And by the way, we had
30:35
Speaker 3: Dana White on Verdicts. You can go listen to the
30:38
Speaker 3: podcast we did with him. But there was a huge
30:41
Speaker 3: storm that was going and I called Dana afterwards and
30:43
Speaker 3: congratulated and me. He said, yeah, it was like the
30:45
Speaker 3: hand of God just parted the storm and it went
30:49
Speaker 3: to the White House, went around the White House, and
30:51
Speaker 3: it was a gorgeous night. So it was I it
30:56
Speaker 3: was a wonderful And to have the fighter jets flying
30:59
Speaker 3: over the World House, I mean, it was a great
31:02
Speaker 3: celebration of America's two hundred and fiftieth birthday was really cool.
31:06
Speaker 3: But then afterwards, the day later, the news broke that
31:09
Speaker 3: the FBI stopped a terror plot, a really elaborate terror
31:15
Speaker 3: plot that had been planning to use drones with explosives, yeah,
31:20
Speaker 3: to kill people at the fight, and then to drive
31:24
Speaker 3: people out into a public square where they were going
31:26
Speaker 3: to have snipers with rifles to just shoot the people there.
31:30
Speaker 3: And you know, one of the participants said that his
31:34
Speaker 3: objective was to kill capitalists, billionaires and people who received
31:39
Speaker 3: donations from APAC, And I will say. One of my colleagues,
31:43
Speaker 3: a Republican who is quite wealthy, I mentioned that to
31:46
Speaker 3: him and he's like, oh crap, I'm o for three.
31:49
Speaker 1: And I yes, that's funny.
31:54
Speaker 3: But look, this could have been a horrific terror attack
31:58
Speaker 3: and it was because the mom of one of these
32:03
Speaker 3: would be criminals called the FBI and and and.
32:06
Speaker 2: So God bless any parent that tim is in their
32:08
Speaker 2: own kid like that is such a I just I
32:11
Speaker 2: mean this as a parent, and I think it we should.
32:14
Speaker 2: We should praise any parent. We've had parents have stopped
32:17
Speaker 2: their kids from doing school shootings. We have had parents
32:20
Speaker 2: in this as a tearis tech. We've have other parents
32:22
Speaker 2: who done the same thing. I mean this so sincerely.
32:26
Speaker 2: If you are a parent and you're dealing with a kid,
32:28
Speaker 2: whether it's mental health issues or just pure hatred in
32:32
Speaker 2: this way, and you do that to your own kid,
32:34
Speaker 2: knowing that your child, you're sending them to prison for
32:37
Speaker 2: probably a very long time. By whistleblowing and warning law enforcement,
32:42
Speaker 2: you are a hero in my opinion, in that moment.
32:45
Speaker 3: Yeah, Look, it's a horrible situation for any parent to
32:48
Speaker 3: be in. You know, the the dad of of the
32:52
Speaker 3: monster who killed our friend Charlie Kirk, Yeah, turned his
32:55
Speaker 3: son in, well, convinced his son to turn himself in.
32:59
Speaker 3: So but look, it's a nightmare for any parent. But
33:03
Speaker 3: in this instance, the momsar son buying guns and ammunition
33:06
Speaker 3: and planning a mass killing event, and she acted and
33:11
Speaker 3: that alerted the FBI to this entire plot. Now the
33:14
Speaker 3: news is broken. I'm going to read the headline from
33:17
Speaker 3: Fox News. White House UFC terror plot ringleader is Mexican
33:22
Speaker 3: illegal immigrant DHS confirmed. And here's what Fox reported. Abraham Alvarez,
33:28
Speaker 3: identified in federal documents as the alleged ringleader of a
33:32
Speaker 3: plot to carry out a mass casualty event at the
33:34
Speaker 3: UFC White House event on June fourteenth, is an illegal
33:38
Speaker 3: immigrant from Mexico who overstayed his visa. According to Homeland
33:42
Speaker 3: Security information, Alvarez came to the United States as a
33:46
Speaker 3: child and was granted by the Obama administration in twenty
33:51
Speaker 3: fourteen deportation relief through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival
33:56
Speaker 3: DHAKA program after he failed to leave the country when
34:00
Speaker 3: his B two visa expired in two thousand and one.
34:05
Speaker 3: Five co conspirators were arrested so far this month for
34:08
Speaker 3: allegedly planning with others to use drones equipped with explosives
34:12
Speaker 3: to force an evacuation from the White House event on Sunday,
34:16
Speaker 3: and in the ensuing chaos, a team of snipers was
34:19
Speaker 3: allegedly set to open fire on the crowds. Federal investigators
34:22
Speaker 3: claim Alvarez was responsible for planning, organizing, and directing the
34:28
Speaker 3: planned attack. Court records ousted Alvarez as a foreign national,
34:33
Speaker 3: considering he consented to a consular notification after his arrest
34:37
Speaker 3: this weekend, though the documents provided no information on the
34:41
Speaker 3: specific immigration status nor his country of origin. AIE lodged
34:46
Speaker 3: a detainer for Alvarez following the FBI's arrest. Alvarez was
34:50
Speaker 3: arrested by the FBI on the day of the fight
34:53
Speaker 3: in Omaha, Nebraska. The White House and the FBI declined
34:56
Speaker 3: to comment, but DHS Assistant Secretary Laura Abyss said in
35:02
Speaker 3: the statement quote, this illegal alien from Mexico should never
35:05
Speaker 3: have been allowed into our country. He was the ringleader
35:08
Speaker 3: of a failed terror attack targeting USC Freedom two fifty
35:12
Speaker 3: at the White House. He will face justice and swiftly
35:16
Speaker 3: be removed from our country. Look, this is when you
35:20
Speaker 3: have open borders and you flow tens of millions of
35:23
Speaker 3: illegal immigrants into the country, You bring in among you
35:27
Speaker 3: to hate US criminals, murderers, rapists, and terrorists, and this
35:32
Speaker 3: is yet another example of how it makes all of
35:35
Speaker 3: us less safe.
35:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, it also goes back to the issue, and I
35:38
Speaker 2: think this is an important point to make people that
35:41
Speaker 2: hate this country, and yes, some of them in that
35:44
Speaker 2: hate this country, this is what they do and we
35:47
Speaker 2: see it time and time again where these stories keep
35:49
Speaker 2: breaking that people there are committing heinous, horrific crimes against Americans.
35:53
Speaker 2: And this would have been trying to kill a president,
35:55
Speaker 2: vice president, cabinet members, members of Congress.
35:58
Speaker 1: The list goes on, billionaires.
36:00
Speaker 2: This was someone that had disdained for the United States
36:04
Speaker 2: of America and everyone in it that has been successful.
36:08
Speaker 2: That is something that I think people need to really
36:10
Speaker 2: really get their head around.
36:11
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it was. It was indiscriminate. They were going
36:13
Speaker 3: to kill as many people as they possibly could, and
36:15
Speaker 3: thank God for law enforcement stopping it.
36:17
Speaker 2: Amen to that, don't forget. We do this show Monday,
36:20
Speaker 2: Wednesday and Friday. So if you're listening on the radio
36:22
Speaker 2: right now, thanks for joining us. We'll be back on
36:24
Speaker 2: this radio station next week, but also grab your phone
36:26
Speaker 2: right now. You have a podcast app on your phone,
36:29
Speaker 2: just do in your little search bar.
36:30
Speaker 1: Podcast It's purple if you have an iPhone.
36:33
Speaker 2: Click on it and you can subscribe to Verdict with
36:36
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36:39
Speaker 1: So makes you do that?
36:40
Speaker 2: Also on YouTube and the Senate and I will see
36:42
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36:44
Speaker 2: on the podcast all week long.