Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / Texas Designates Muslim Brotherhood as a Terrorist Organization, plus Crooked Gambling Crisis in Pro Sports

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Texas Designates Muslim Brotherhood as a Terrorist Organization, plus Crooked Gambling Crisis in Pro Sports · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome.
0:01
Speaker 2: It is Verdicus Center, Teed Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.
0:05
Speaker 2: It's nice to have you with us, and if you're
0:06
Speaker 2: watching us on YouTube, also really nice to have you
0:09
Speaker 2: with us on YouTube and on Facebook as we're doing
0:11
Speaker 2: a lot of these shows now on video as well. Centator,
0:14
Speaker 2: We've got a lot to talk about. This is like
0:16
Speaker 2: on my bingo card today I did not have.
0:18
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk about.
0:19
Speaker 2: The Muslim pot of the Hood gambling, but that is
0:22
Speaker 2: the show tonight.
0:22
Speaker 1: It's gonna be really fun.
0:24
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're talking about of the Muslim Brotherhood. Texas is
0:26
Speaker 3: leading the way and this week the state of Texas,
0:29
Speaker 3: the governor designated the Muslim Brotherhood designated care as terrorist organizations.
0:34
Speaker 4: That's something I've.
0:34
Speaker 3: Been fighting for a decade to get the federal government
0:37
Speaker 3: to do. It's something I believe President Trump will do.
0:40
Speaker 3: But Texas leading the way, I think is a very
0:43
Speaker 3: important step moving forward.
0:45
Speaker 4: I want to commend the governor in the state of Texas.
0:47
Speaker 3: We're gonna break that down, tell you why that matters.
0:49
Speaker 3: We're also gonna talk about an investigation that I've launched
0:52
Speaker 3: in the Senate Commerce Committee into gambling in professional sports.
0:55
Speaker 3: And we've seen the scandal at the NBA of NBA
0:58
Speaker 3: players and coaches engaged and being indicted for and prosecuted
1:03
Speaker 3: for illicit gambling, and also the scandal in Major League
1:07
Speaker 3: Baseball and the challenge that the explosion of gambling has
1:12
Speaker 3: had with incentivizing players to engage in cheating. The Senate
1:16
Speaker 3: Commerce Committee as jurisdiction over sports, we're investigating it. We're
1:19
Speaker 3: going to we're gonna explain to you all about that.
1:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's gonna be really interesting to see how that
1:24
Speaker 2: works out. And we'll have those details for you in
1:25
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Speaker 2: slash and verdict. All right, Senator, So let's get into
3:12
Speaker 2: the topic. Number one. This is something that you've been
3:15
Speaker 2: talking about for a while, yeap, designating the Muslim Brotherhood
3:19
Speaker 2: is a terrorist organization, and Texas is now taking a
3:22
Speaker 2: big step. I think this is gonna be a great
3:24
Speaker 2: example for the rest of the country and talk about
3:27
Speaker 2: how big of a victory this is in Texas leading
3:29
Speaker 2: the way.
3:30
Speaker 4: Well, it's a big victory.
3:31
Speaker 3: Let me tell you about what Texas did, and I'm
3:33
Speaker 3: going to take it more broadly into the national fight
3:35
Speaker 3: over designating the Muslim Brotherhood. So Texas this week declared
3:39
Speaker 3: CARE and the Muslim Brotherhood is terrorist groups, preventing land purchases.
3:43
Speaker 3: Let me read from Fox News. Texas Governor Greg Abbott
3:46
Speaker 3: designated the Council on American Islamic Relations CARE and the
3:50
Speaker 3: Muslim Brotherhood is foreign terrorist and transnational criminal organizations Tuesday,
3:55
Speaker 3: preventing both groups from obtaining land in the Lone Star state.
4:00
Speaker 3: Abbot said the statement that he made the move as quote,
4:03
Speaker 3: the Muslim Brotherhood in CARE have long made their goals
4:05
Speaker 3: clear to forcibly impose Sharia law and establish Islam's mastership
4:11
Speaker 3: of the world. The actions taken by the Muslim Brotherhood
4:15
Speaker 3: and CARE to support terrorism across the globe and subvert
4:18
Speaker 3: our laws through violence, intimidation, and harassment are unacceptable to day.
4:23
Speaker 3: I designated the Muslim Brotherhood in CARE as foreign terrorist
4:26
Speaker 3: organizations and transnational criminal organizations. These radical extremists are not
4:32
Speaker 3: welcome in our state and are now prohibited from acquiring
4:35
Speaker 3: any real property interest in Texas. A proclamation signed by
4:39
Speaker 3: Abbot claims that Care QUOTE is an Islamist organization that,
4:43
Speaker 3: according to the FBI, was founded as a front group
4:46
Speaker 3: for HAMAS and its support network in the United States.
4:51
Speaker 3: It added that Quote CARE and its members have repeatedly employed,
4:55
Speaker 3: affiliated with, and supported individuals promoting terrorism related activities, including
5:01
Speaker 3: Gasan Elashi, a founding member of the Texas branch for
5:05
Speaker 3: CARE and treasurer of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief
5:08
Speaker 3: and Development charity QUOTE, who was sentenced to a total
5:12
Speaker 3: of sixty five years in prison for financing terrorism in
5:15
Speaker 3: two thousand and nine. The proclamation also states that HAMAS
5:20
Speaker 3: was QUOTE formed in nineteen eighty seven as the Palestinian
5:23
Speaker 3: branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, and that activities of the
5:25
Speaker 3: Muslim Brotherhood branches have similarly been eliminated or prohibited by
5:30
Speaker 3: the governments of Austria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and
5:34
Speaker 3: the United Arab Emirates in light of the Muslim Brotherhood
5:37
Speaker 3: encouraging terrorism or attempting to destabilize these countries. Look, this
5:41
Speaker 3: is real leadership from the State of Texas. It is
5:44
Speaker 3: what the federal government should be doing. The Muslim Brotherhood,
5:47
Speaker 3: I believe, is unquestionably a terrorist organization, and we have
5:51
Speaker 3: yet to designate them, as Governor Abbitt noted, many other
5:55
Speaker 3: countries on Earth have, and I believe the United States
5:58
Speaker 3: during the Trump administration, we're going to do this. I've
6:00
Speaker 3: introduced legislation literally for ten years to make this happen
6:03
Speaker 3: at a federal level.
6:04
Speaker 1: So what has been the hold up there?
6:05
Speaker 2: For people that are new to this subject we talked
6:07
Speaker 2: about before, Maybe they missed an episode. How the hell
6:10
Speaker 2: is it so hard to get the Muslim Brotherhood to
6:13
Speaker 2: be declared to terrorist organization through the US government?
6:16
Speaker 1: What is the hold up? Yeah, you mentioned this is
6:18
Speaker 1: like a decades long fight.
6:19
Speaker 3: Now So for five consecutive congresses, I've introduced legislation designate
6:24
Speaker 3: the Muslim Brotherhood. The hold up, we got very close
6:27
Speaker 3: during the first Trump administration. I thought we were going
6:29
Speaker 3: to get it done. During the first Trump administration. The
6:32
Speaker 3: resistance was from the deep state at the State Department,
6:36
Speaker 3: the career bureaucrats there. And I'll tell you the old
6:39
Speaker 3: versions of the legislation. The way I wrote it, it
6:42
Speaker 3: was top down. What does that mean? It directed the
6:44
Speaker 3: State Department to designate the Global Muslim Brotherhood, which is
6:48
Speaker 3: the big umbrella organization's a terrorist organization. Here's the argument
6:52
Speaker 3: the career employees that State made. They said, look, there
6:55
Speaker 3: are lots of different affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood. We
6:58
Speaker 3: cannot definitively prove that every one of the affiliates meets
7:01
Speaker 3: the statutory criteria for being a terrorist organization. That's how
7:05
Speaker 3: they stopped it from happening in Trump one. So in
7:08
Speaker 3: Trump two, I rewrote the legislation and instead of being
7:12
Speaker 3: bottom down or top down, I rewrote it to be
7:15
Speaker 3: bottom up. And so what the legislation currently says is
7:19
Speaker 3: it says that the State Department should designate every one
7:23
Speaker 3: of the Muslim Brotherhood affiliates for which the evidence is
7:26
Speaker 3: clear and unequivocal as terrorist organizations. For example, Hamas. Hamas
7:31
Speaker 3: is the Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine. It is indisputable that
7:35
Speaker 3: Hamas is a terrorist organization. They carried out October seventh,
7:39
Speaker 3: murdered twelve hundred Israelis, raped and murdered women and little girls.
7:43
Speaker 3: Hamas is unquestionably a terrorist organization. That's true of multiple
7:47
Speaker 3: Muslim Brotherhood affiliates. What my new legislation said is designate
7:51
Speaker 3: those affiliates, and then it directs the State Department to
7:55
Speaker 3: designate the Global Muslim Brotherhood because it gives money to
7:58
Speaker 3: those affiliates, and so design date the umbrella organization for
8:02
Speaker 3: material support of for giving money to unquestionable terrorist organizations. Now,
8:09
Speaker 3: part of the reason I think we're going to get
8:10
Speaker 3: this done is that chain of reasoning. There's not a
8:13
Speaker 3: step in that reasoning that is assailable.
8:16
Speaker 4: The Deep State can't fight that.
8:18
Speaker 3: Yeah, but at the end of the day, let me
8:20
Speaker 3: tell you this is not going to be a fight.
8:22
Speaker 3: I think that is won legislatively. So I've introduced the legislation.
8:26
Speaker 3: I tried very very hard in this Congress to get
8:29
Speaker 3: a Democrat to support me. I will tell you I
8:31
Speaker 3: talked to numerous Democrats. They said no, they said no. Look,
8:35
Speaker 3: the Democrat Party is very afraid, unfortunately, of disturbing the
8:41
Speaker 3: pro Hamas wing of their party in the House. The
8:46
Speaker 3: companion legislation of my legislation has four Democrats on board,
8:49
Speaker 3: so we do have some Democrat support. I was able
8:52
Speaker 3: to get one Democrat, so John Fetterman is supporting me.
8:54
Speaker 3: So the legislation is Cruz Fetterman. It is bipartisan.
8:58
Speaker 2: By the way, can we just pause there and just
8:59
Speaker 2: talk about how cool that is. The more that we
9:03
Speaker 2: have interacted, that you've interacted with John, the more respect
9:05
Speaker 2: I really do have for him as a Democrat, the
9:08
Speaker 2: way he stood up to his party on the shutdown. Look,
9:10
Speaker 2: there are some places where you don't win races. I
9:14
Speaker 2: never thought I would say I am thankful for John
9:16
Speaker 2: Fetterman and his leadership in the Senate when he was
9:19
Speaker 2: first elected. I got to tell you he may be
9:22
Speaker 2: the biggest surprise in the last decade for me of
9:25
Speaker 2: a true Democrat statesman that is willing to come to
9:30
Speaker 2: the table on sane issues like the government shutdown or
9:34
Speaker 2: like this. And I think when this happens, we as
9:37
Speaker 2: conservatives should take that moment and say job well done
9:40
Speaker 2: to Senator Fetterman. I'm really impressed because there's a lot
9:43
Speaker 2: of issues.
9:44
Speaker 1: He says.
9:44
Speaker 2: Politics are a side. I don't care the heat I'm
9:46
Speaker 2: going to get from my party for this. I'm gonna
9:48
Speaker 2: do the right thing. We used to have a lot
9:50
Speaker 2: more of that in politics.
9:52
Speaker 3: Yeah, it used to be much more commonplace. When I
9:55
Speaker 3: showed up in the Senate thirteen years ago, there was
9:58
Speaker 3: such a thing as moderate Demo Democrats, they largely don't exist. Actually,
10:03
Speaker 3: someone before that was Kirston Cinema. Kreson Cinema was elected
10:07
Speaker 3: from Arizona. When she came in, there was not a
10:10
Speaker 3: whole lot of reason to believe she would be a moderate.
10:12
Speaker 3: And I will say Kirsten, I really like Kirsten. She
10:15
Speaker 3: stood up to her party. She demonstrated real courage. And
10:18
Speaker 3: you know what happened. The Democrats chased her out of
10:20
Speaker 3: the party. Both Cinema and Joe Manchin, who were the
10:22
Speaker 3: only two Democrats who said no to eliminating the filibuster,
10:26
Speaker 3: the Democrats chased both of them out of the party.
10:28
Speaker 3: They said, we don't want a dissent you must obey
10:31
Speaker 3: the dictates of the radical left. Well, John Fetterman got elected,
10:35
Speaker 3: and listen, You and I both did not support him
10:39
Speaker 3: when he was running for the Senate. To begin with,
10:41
Speaker 3: he was a Democrat, and his prior record as Lieutenant
10:45
Speaker 3: governor of Pennsylvania gave little reason to think that he
10:48
Speaker 3: would be anything other than a left wing Democrat. That's
10:51
Speaker 3: certainly what I anticipated. He has astonished me. I like
10:55
Speaker 3: John personally. He obviously during the campaign suffered a stroke.
11:00
Speaker 3: He had had serious medical issues. It was very difficult.
11:04
Speaker 3: His mind could not process the spoken words. So when
11:07
Speaker 3: he was newly elected, you would talk to him, but
11:10
Speaker 3: he would carry around an iPad that translated the words
11:14
Speaker 3: that are being said into text, and he would have
11:16
Speaker 3: to read the iPad because it was just one of
11:18
Speaker 3: the consequences of the stroke that when you talk to him,
11:21
Speaker 3: his brain was operating, but the input of the oral
11:25
Speaker 3: spoken word did not make it through. I will say
11:29
Speaker 3: his health has improved significantly. He's now able to have
11:32
Speaker 3: a conversation and engage. So the aftermath of the stroke
11:36
Speaker 3: thankfully has gotten better. But Fetterman has shown real courage
11:40
Speaker 3: and standing up to his party on the shutdown he
11:43
Speaker 3: stood up to Schumer and said this shutdown is stupid.
11:45
Speaker 3: We need to end the shutdown. And on Israel, the
11:48
Speaker 3: level of courage he has shown by saying the Prohamas
11:51
Speaker 3: wing of our party is wrong. It is terrible, and
11:54
Speaker 3: I John Fetterman, are proud to stand with Israel. It's
11:57
Speaker 3: been heroic. And I got to say he's been demonized
12:00
Speaker 3: by his own party, the Democrats, they treat him terribly.
12:05
Speaker 3: The Republicans of the Senate treated much better than the Democrats.
12:08
Speaker 2: Do well and not only demonize him. And this goes
12:10
Speaker 2: back to his civility. He had a fall this past
12:12
Speaker 2: week and Democrats were cheering his fall before we even
12:18
Speaker 2: knew like his health. Now he put up a picture
12:19
Speaker 2: of himself. I was glad to see he's going to
12:21
Speaker 2: be okay. But like, it just tells you about how
12:24
Speaker 2: much if you don't get in line with the Democratic Party.
12:26
Speaker 2: It didn't matter if for names Fetterman or Schumer at
12:29
Speaker 2: this point or Nancy Pelosi, like it is off with
12:32
Speaker 2: your heads in the Democratic Party as a leadership perspective
12:35
Speaker 2: from them, they are done with you if you are
12:38
Speaker 2: not going to the extreme left on every issue.
12:41
Speaker 3: So Bennett's worse than that. When Fetterman newly arrived in
12:44
Speaker 3: the Senate, the Democrats all assumed he would just be
12:47
Speaker 3: a left wing reliable vote. And so you had all
12:49
Speaker 3: the Democrats putting out statement, he's fine, his health is
12:52
Speaker 3: not a problem. And as I said, the stroke had
12:54
Speaker 3: very real and limiting effects on him. I mean it was,
12:57
Speaker 3: it was significant. But every Democrat defended him. And then
13:02
Speaker 3: as his health started to get better, he was willing
13:05
Speaker 3: to buck the Democrats. And if you disagree with the
13:08
Speaker 3: Democrat party line on even one issue, but especially on
13:11
Speaker 3: an issue like the current Democrat party's embrace of Hamas
13:15
Speaker 3: and their anti Israel animis, they turned on him viciously.
13:20
Speaker 3: And I got to tell you there have been dozens
13:22
Speaker 3: of articles written with quotes from Democrat senators, Democrat staffers
13:27
Speaker 3: just doing everything they could to shive him, to say,
13:32
Speaker 3: to actually attack his mental capability and say, oh, he's
13:35
Speaker 3: not able to do the job. The irony is they
13:38
Speaker 3: attacked him once he had improved significantly, was recovering, but
13:42
Speaker 3: yet in their view, the unforgivable sin was daring to
13:46
Speaker 3: deviate from what every other Democrat was saying. And I
13:50
Speaker 3: view Fetterman as the exception that proves the rule. That
13:54
Speaker 3: being said, this legislation to designates the Muslim Brotherhood at
13:58
Speaker 3: the national level at Cruz Fetterman to pass, we would
14:02
Speaker 3: need sixty Senators. That would mean we would need at
14:05
Speaker 3: least seven Democrats. I have no indication that seven Democrats
14:10
Speaker 3: are likely to support this. I'm going to try. I'm
14:12
Speaker 3: going to keep pressing it. We'll see, we'll put it
14:14
Speaker 3: for a vote. I would love to have that bipartisan support,
14:18
Speaker 3: but as of now.
14:20
Speaker 4: I've not been able to get any other Democrats urging it.
14:23
Speaker 2: I mean, when you were in for Senate, you know,
14:25
Speaker 2: several years ago, did you ever think you would govern
14:30
Speaker 2: in a body work with a group of people where
14:32
Speaker 2: you can't even get agreement on a designating a terrorist
14:36
Speaker 2: organization a terrorists organization?
14:38
Speaker 3: Oh? Look, partisan politics has always been part of Washington.
14:42
Speaker 3: That being said, it's gotten much much worse. And actually
14:46
Speaker 3: President Trump. When President Trump got elected in twenty sixteen,
14:50
Speaker 3: it broke the heads of the Democrats. Their minds are melted.
14:53
Speaker 3: They just hate him, and so there's much less middle ground.
14:57
Speaker 3: But anyway, my strategy on the Muslim brotherho legislation is
15:01
Speaker 3: not necessarily to pass it through Congress, although I'd love to.
15:04
Speaker 3: I'm going to continue trying to pass it through Congress,
15:07
Speaker 3: but it is instead to build the public case for
15:09
Speaker 3: this so that the Trump administration does so unilaterally. They
15:13
Speaker 3: have the authority to do so. There's notice be it.
15:15
Speaker 3: As I said in Trump One, we almost got it done,
15:18
Speaker 3: and I believe that President Trump will do so. I
15:21
Speaker 3: think he'll do so probably in the next year. I
15:25
Speaker 3: was in the White House just a couple of weeks ago.
15:27
Speaker 3: I talked with the President directly about designating the Muslim Brotherhood.
15:32
Speaker 3: I have met with Seb Gorka, who is the senior
15:35
Speaker 3: official in the National Security Council who's handling this issus.
15:38
Speaker 3: I've talked with Seb about it. I believe the Trump
15:41
Speaker 3: administration will do it this time. I think the fact
15:44
Speaker 3: that we redesigned it to be bottom up is going
15:46
Speaker 3: to make it much harder for the deep state to
15:49
Speaker 3: oppose it. And I want to commend Greg Abbott in
15:51
Speaker 3: the state of Texas because Texas is designating the Muslim
15:54
Speaker 3: Brotherhood in care as well. Really helps for building the momentum.
15:59
Speaker 3: The whole purpose the legislative push is to build the
16:02
Speaker 3: momentum to pride the air cover for the Trump administration
16:06
Speaker 3: to do so.
16:06
Speaker 4: And I think that's going to happen, all right.
16:09
Speaker 2: I also want to bring up CARE, and this is
16:11
Speaker 2: another aspect of this legislation in Texas. Make it clear
16:17
Speaker 2: it's not just some Muslim brotherhood, it's also CARE. This
16:20
Speaker 2: one's a little bit more of a complicated organization.
16:22
Speaker 1: Break that down. Why they're also getting on the list.
16:25
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's not actually that complicated. I mean, Care is
16:28
Speaker 3: a domestic organization. They had previously been implicated in supporting Hamas,
16:32
Speaker 3: supporting other terrorist organization. Let me read a story from
16:36
Speaker 3: the New York Post. It's entitled Muslim group Care cutting
16:39
Speaker 3: one thousand dollars checks for anti Israel agitators who have
16:43
Speaker 3: been disciplined by colleges.
16:44
Speaker 4: And here's what the New York Post reported.
16:46
Speaker 3: Anti Israel agitators who spread disruption at US college colleges
16:50
Speaker 3: and we're punished by authorities were awarded checks for one
16:54
Speaker 3: thousand dollars by a Muslim nonprofit. The Post has learned
16:58
Speaker 3: the money was given to students who faced penalties for
17:00
Speaker 3: leading pro Palestinian protests before and after the Hamas attack
17:04
Speaker 3: on Israel on October seventh, twenty twenty three, According to
17:08
Speaker 3: a bombshell report by the Network Contagent Research Institute and
17:11
Speaker 3: the Intelligent Advocacy Network, the cash was awarded from a
17:15
Speaker 3: Quote Champions of Justice fund set up by a California
17:19
Speaker 3: chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations CARE as
17:23
Speaker 3: an institutional endorsement. The report claims in California, the largest
17:28
Speaker 3: arm of the CARE web of nonprofits affiliates in San
17:31
Speaker 3: Francisco and Los Angeles raised more than one hundred thousand
17:35
Speaker 3: dollars in donations for the campus radicals, while the main
17:39
Speaker 3: group solicited sixty four thousand dollars in red donations. Record
17:43
Speaker 3: show the money was then offered as interest free loans
17:48
Speaker 3: in grants of one thousand dollars to students who lost scholarships, housing,
17:52
Speaker 3: or other support because of their advocacy. Accorded to care's website,
17:56
Speaker 3: this is you have CARE. Literally, you want to know
17:58
Speaker 3: why you had antisemity protest on college campuses. I've been
18:02
Speaker 3: saying from the beginning, follow the money. There's follow the
18:05
Speaker 3: earning money behind me.
18:06
Speaker 1: Follow the money.
18:07
Speaker 3: The tents all matched, and it's because this is being funded,
18:11
Speaker 3: and this is being funded by Islamist This is being
18:14
Speaker 3: funded by communists, this is being funded by foreign nations,
18:17
Speaker 3: this is being funded by left wing billionaire donors who
18:22
Speaker 3: frankly want to undermine America. And so Texas designating care
18:25
Speaker 3: as well, that's a big step forward.
18:28
Speaker 2: Also, I want you to just pause what you're doing
18:31
Speaker 2: for the next sixty seconds, and I want you to
18:33
Speaker 2: imagine Lucy, a seven year old. Her stomach often aches
18:37
Speaker 2: with hunger, her small hands instead of holding crayons, now
18:41
Speaker 2: only the struggle of survival on dusty streets. School is
18:45
Speaker 2: a distant dream, Medical care forgotten hope. Lucy's potential is overshadowed,
18:51
Speaker 2: her future is dim. But what if someone stepped in?
18:54
Speaker 2: What if there was a way to ignite hope for
18:57
Speaker 2: children just like Lucy? Well there is, and that with
19:00
Speaker 2: Compassion International Partners and the local churches that provide children
19:06
Speaker 2: holistic support more than just food. They receive critical medical care,
19:11
Speaker 2: life changing education, vital skills training, and spiritual development, all
19:16
Speaker 2: in Jesus's name, And you can empower a child just
19:20
Speaker 2: like Lucy to break free from poverty. I want you
19:23
Speaker 2: to do what I've done and sponsor a child today.
19:26
Speaker 2: You can visit Compassion dot com. That's compassion dot Com.
19:32
Speaker 2: I want to move to another issue, and that is
19:35
Speaker 2: sports gambling. This is a issue I've just genuinely this
19:39
Speaker 2: is like my TMZ my soap opera.
19:42
Speaker 1: I'm loving watching.
19:44
Speaker 2: The the the corruption slowly unfold before our very eyes.
19:49
Speaker 2: I say that because I'm a sports fan, you are
19:51
Speaker 2: as well. We've gone to games together, we've got to
19:52
Speaker 2: playoff games, and I've noticed and I've got friends that
19:56
Speaker 2: are that literally play pro sports, and they will watch
19:59
Speaker 2: games and they'll hexabic. That's not normal. That was weird.
20:03
Speaker 2: The end of that game was strange. Look at the cut,
20:06
Speaker 2: look at the points spread, what the game, what the
20:09
Speaker 2: gambling line was here?
20:11
Speaker 1: Look at the over under.
20:12
Speaker 2: I mean, I have friends that are in these sports
20:15
Speaker 2: and they're like, they even are like this is a
20:18
Speaker 2: red flag, Like this doesn't make sense. What just happened
20:22
Speaker 2: the last two minutes of the game or the last
20:25
Speaker 2: four minutes of that game. And now we're finding out
20:27
Speaker 2: we weren't crazy. There's a lot of fixing that's going
20:31
Speaker 2: on now. It may not be fixing the outcome of
20:33
Speaker 2: the winner and the loser. And that's what people need
20:34
Speaker 2: to understand. The caveat here a lot of times. This
20:37
Speaker 2: is like total number of points that are going to
20:39
Speaker 2: be scored, yep, the margin between the two teams, how
20:43
Speaker 2: much we'll want to win by our losing. It can
20:45
Speaker 2: even be as simple as a certain player not hitting
20:48
Speaker 2: what they were projected in points or three pointers or
20:52
Speaker 2: even free throws. And you see these these anomalies or
20:56
Speaker 2: weird things that happen with an individual player, or fake
21:00
Speaker 2: an injury so that they make sure they don't finish
21:02
Speaker 2: the game. This was happening in a widespread way among sports,
21:07
Speaker 2: and there were people that were literally getting rich off it.
21:10
Speaker 2: It's called fixing. It may not be fixing the game
21:13
Speaker 2: as in a score, it's fixing aspects of the game
21:16
Speaker 2: that you can bet on.
21:18
Speaker 3: Well, look, you and I are both big sports fans.
21:20
Speaker 3: Sports is an amazing thing and brings people together and
21:23
Speaker 3: give you something to cheer for.
21:24
Speaker 4: It's powerful, it can unify.
21:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's so fun.
21:27
Speaker 3: But you know, look, unfortunately, as long as there's been sports,
21:30
Speaker 3: there's been some risk of corruption in sports, and I
21:33
Speaker 3: got to say the proliferation of betting on sports has
21:37
Speaker 3: increased that risk. And it's not just betting. It's one
21:40
Speaker 3: thing to bet that your team's going to win or lose.
21:42
Speaker 3: Presumably if you're betting, particularly that your team will win,
21:45
Speaker 3: the incentives are aligned that all the members of the
21:48
Speaker 3: team want to win.
21:49
Speaker 4: But you now have these prop.
21:51
Speaker 3: Bets where you can bet on all sorts of different
21:53
Speaker 3: aspects of the game, and that I think significantly increases
21:57
Speaker 3: the risk of corruption because a prop bet, an individual
22:01
Speaker 3: player can can have really significant impact on the outcome
22:04
Speaker 3: of that bet. And so we've seen there's an ongoing
22:08
Speaker 3: criminal investigation involving the NBA, involving coaches and players fixing games,
22:13
Speaker 3: and Major League Baseball as well. And so I'm chairman
22:18
Speaker 3: of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Part
22:20
Speaker 3: of the jurisdiction of the Commerce Committee is sports, both
22:23
Speaker 3: college sports and pro sports. And so I've launched an
22:26
Speaker 3: oversight investigation into into the problem of corruption and the
22:32
Speaker 3: impact of prop bets in particular on sports. And so
22:37
Speaker 3: I want to read to you a portion of I
22:39
Speaker 3: sent a letter to Major League Baseball and and let
22:42
Speaker 3: me just just read you a portion of it, because
22:45
Speaker 3: the facts are really concerning. Here's what my letter said.
22:48
Speaker 3: Dear mister Manfred, game fixing allegations are not new to baseball.
22:52
Speaker 3: One hundred and five years ago, a Chicago grand jury
22:55
Speaker 3: indicted eight Chicago White Sox players for allegedly rigging the
23:00
Speaker 3: nineteen nineteen World Series, labeled the Chicago Black Sox in
23:04
Speaker 3: the press. The players were eventually acquitted by a Chicago jury,
23:08
Speaker 3: even though some had earlier confessed, and all eight were
23:11
Speaker 3: banned from baseball for life. Major League Baseball and American
23:16
Speaker 3: sports generally are facing a new integrity crisis. Last week,
23:20
Speaker 3: prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York unsealed an
23:23
Speaker 3: indictment against two pitchers for the Cleveland Guardians, accusing them
23:28
Speaker 3: of rigging their own pitches to make a profit. That
23:32
Speaker 3: indictment comes just a few weeks after prosecutors leveled similar
23:35
Speaker 3: allegations against coaches and players in the NBA. Ranking member
23:40
Speaker 3: Cantwell and I sent a letter to the NBA requesting
23:42
Speaker 3: documents in information about that matter, and we now seek
23:45
Speaker 3: information from Major League Baseball about how the league is
23:48
Speaker 3: addressing alleged game manipulation and threats to baseball's integrity. The
23:53
Speaker 3: recent indictment alleges Cleveland Guardians players Immanuel Claise and Luis
23:59
Speaker 3: Ortiz purposely threw certain pitches for balls or strikes.
24:04
Speaker 1: Yep.
24:05
Speaker 3: Both players allegedly told friends of their plan and to
24:09
Speaker 3: place prop bets beforehand. Clace allegedly even made some bets himself.
24:16
Speaker 3: Perhaps most shockingly, this scheme lasted more than two years
24:20
Speaker 3: before Major League Baseball found out. On May nineteenth, twenty
24:24
Speaker 3: twenty three, Clay pitching in relief against the New York Mets,
24:28
Speaker 3: allegedly informed friends he would throw a pitch faster than
24:32
Speaker 3: ninety four point nine to five miles per hour. He did,
24:36
Speaker 3: and his accomplices won twenty seven thousand dollars.
24:40
Speaker 2: I mean, can you just hit pause there for a
24:42
Speaker 2: second to letter so people understand this is like making
24:45
Speaker 2: a mockery of the game, but yes, also just fixing
24:48
Speaker 2: the game where you're like, hey, I'm going to perform
24:51
Speaker 2: differently so that my friends can get hooked up and
24:54
Speaker 2: make twenty seven thousand dollars.
24:56
Speaker 1: There. It went on for years, and it's not like
24:59
Speaker 1: this was like one person.
25:00
Speaker 4: Yeah.
25:01
Speaker 1: I actually believe this is.
25:02
Speaker 2: Probably a lot more widespread than we are being told.
25:05
Speaker 2: And part of that is I think that Major League
25:07
Speaker 2: Baseball and others are going to cover their ables. Is
25:10
Speaker 2: they want to make sure that we don't realize just
25:12
Speaker 2: how bad it actually was or is well.
25:15
Speaker 3: And with individual players and prop bets, they have almost
25:18
Speaker 3: total control over the outcome of that bet. Yep, And
25:21
Speaker 3: so look, the twenty seven thousand dollars is not the
25:23
Speaker 3: worst part. Let me give you a few more of
25:24
Speaker 3: the facts from the letter. Clace would go on to
25:27
Speaker 3: blow a save opportunity as the Guardians lost ten to
25:31
Speaker 3: nine and extra innings. In June twenty twenty three, Clace
25:36
Speaker 3: flung a pitch into the dirt in two separate games,
25:40
Speaker 3: well short of the strike zone. While Cleveland fans were
25:43
Speaker 3: shouting in frustration, Clace was apparently cashing in. In both games,
25:49
Speaker 3: he allegedly sent texts notifying his friends that he would
25:52
Speaker 3: throw balls. They placed prop bets on his pitches, winning
25:59
Speaker 3: a combined ninety six thousand.
26:01
Speaker 1: Dollars unbelievable across.
26:05
Speaker 3: Other games from twenty twenty three to twenty twenty five,
26:08
Speaker 3: Clays and his accomplices are accused of winning at least
26:12
Speaker 3: four hundred thousand dollars through fraudulent bets.
26:15
Speaker 2: I mean, that's a lot of money, folks. And that's
26:17
Speaker 2: just one example that got busted. You got to wonder
26:20
Speaker 2: how many others are out there, right, I mean, we've
26:23
Speaker 2: seen what's interesting.
26:24
Speaker 1: I was reading an article the other day.
26:26
Speaker 2: I was talking about there's been an uptick in wild pitches.
26:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, because you.
26:32
Speaker 2: Can bet on that, and there's they're just saying there
26:35
Speaker 2: is there is certain data that has significantly changed since
26:40
Speaker 2: prop betting got introduced nationwide basically you know where everybody
26:44
Speaker 2: can bet on these things and has grown. And it's
26:46
Speaker 2: like that didn't happen for fifty years of baseball before.
26:49
Speaker 2: When we have data or thirty years in football of
26:51
Speaker 2: data or whatever it may be, and then all of
26:55
Speaker 2: a sudden, they're like, Wow, this is happening a lot
26:57
Speaker 2: more often. This is weird that they would get worse
27:01
Speaker 2: at these anomalies when technology and cameras and coaching has
27:08
Speaker 2: gotten so much better. You'd think that would actually reduce
27:11
Speaker 2: the number of these unique moments that happened in sports,
27:14
Speaker 2: and now we're finding out, yeah, it may not be
27:15
Speaker 2: unique at all.
27:16
Speaker 3: Well, and negative prop bets are one hundred percent within
27:19
Speaker 3: the control of an individual player. So if you think
27:22
Speaker 3: about it, if you or I were a major league pitcher,
27:26
Speaker 3: we may not be able to win a bet that
27:28
Speaker 3: my next pitch will be a strike, because you might
27:30
Speaker 3: try to throw a strike and fail.
27:33
Speaker 4: I could not throw a major league strike.
27:35
Speaker 3: But you know what, you and I could win a
27:36
Speaker 3: bet on that my metch next pitch will be a ball.
27:40
Speaker 3: Because as much like I suck at baseball, but yet
27:44
Speaker 3: I can throw the ball into the dirt. I'm quite
27:46
Speaker 3: confident I can pitch a ball. I could pitch a
27:49
Speaker 3: ball one hundred percent of the time with no deviation,
27:52
Speaker 3: and some of the times, and in this instance, you know,
27:55
Speaker 3: someone who's good at cheating would not pound it into
27:59
Speaker 3: the dirt. They would just a little bit outside the
28:01
Speaker 3: strike zone, so you couldn't tell. It looks really obvious
28:04
Speaker 3: when you don't even make it to home plate. But
28:07
Speaker 3: that problem. Look, you were a Division one tennis player.
28:12
Speaker 3: I'm pretty sure they didn't have sure.
28:14
Speaker 1: I could double fault on command.
28:16
Speaker 2: I could hit a ball long on command one hundred
28:18
Speaker 2: percent of the net on command. I could whiff at
28:22
Speaker 2: a ball if that was a prop bet and make
28:23
Speaker 2: money off of it.
28:24
Speaker 1: Yes, all of those things you can a hundred.
28:28
Speaker 3: By the way, I want our listeners to know, if
28:30
Speaker 3: you also get in Ben's head and screw with him,
28:33
Speaker 3: you can make him double fault even when he doesn't
28:35
Speaker 3: want to. But that's a totally different He's an infinitely
28:38
Speaker 3: better tennis player than I am. But I do have
28:40
Speaker 3: a little bit of ability to taunt him and if
28:42
Speaker 3: he gets pissed enough that that that can happen.
28:45
Speaker 2: Either that or you're going to get hit with the ball.
28:47
Speaker 2: It's one of the two, one of the one of
28:48
Speaker 2: the two is gonna happen. Well, one of the two,
28:52
Speaker 2: and that would be a great prop bet, by the way.
28:54
Speaker 4: Okay, there is that.
28:55
Speaker 3: Although the sad thing is when Ben and I play tennis,
28:57
Speaker 3: we usually play together, so if he's hitting me with
29:00
Speaker 3: the ball, he's really doing it wrong because it's the
29:02
Speaker 3: one thing to hit your opponent. If you're hitting your teammate,
29:04
Speaker 3: good god, you're doing it.
29:05
Speaker 2: It's only when you get lackaday'sical can you become a target.
29:08
Speaker 1: It's just motivation. It's just a straight up motivation. There.
29:11
Speaker 2: Final question on this, I've seen a lot of people
29:14
Speaker 2: in sports journalists say, how do you fix this? If
29:20
Speaker 2: it's not saying no more prop bets, right, you have
29:23
Speaker 2: normal gambling on games, Like I don't know if you
29:27
Speaker 2: can even fix this.
29:28
Speaker 1: Is that far out of control?
29:30
Speaker 2: And is it the job of major league sports to
29:32
Speaker 2: police their own or can they be trusted?
29:36
Speaker 3: Look, I think there need to be some steps taken
29:38
Speaker 3: to fix this. I'm not sure exactly what those steps are,
29:41
Speaker 3: and so I'm starting with sending letters to the NBA
29:45
Speaker 3: in Major League Baseball because you've got scandals in both sports.
29:47
Speaker 3: And listen, as you know, I'm a die hard Rockets fan.
29:52
Speaker 3: I'm a die hard Astros fan. By the way, did
29:54
Speaker 3: you happen to see the Rockets last victory against Orlando? No?
29:58
Speaker 1: I did not. It was it a beat down?
30:00
Speaker 3: Oh no, no, it was an overtime victory. It was spectacular. Look,
30:03
Speaker 3: the Rockets actually were trailing almost the entire regular season,
30:07
Speaker 3: and I DVR every Rockets game and so I watched
30:09
Speaker 3: this actually, wat By.
30:11
Speaker 2: The way, you haven't mentioned my almost rebels in a
30:13
Speaker 2: few weeks, and I just want everybody to know. That's
30:15
Speaker 2: because we're winning and we're now, what is it ten
30:18
Speaker 2: and one? I think that's right. Just want to throw
30:19
Speaker 2: that out there, beat the Gators. Just now back to
30:21
Speaker 2: your Rockets. But when my team loses one game this year,
30:25
Speaker 2: there's two shows in a row that it was brought
30:27
Speaker 2: up the other ten weeks, not a peep out of you.
30:30
Speaker 1: I just want to be clear about that record. Keep going.
30:33
Speaker 3: Look, I got to say, as a Texan and beating
30:34
Speaker 3: the Gators, I'm kind of like, that's that's that's interesting.
30:38
Speaker 3: It's one of my favorite images when when Florida played
30:41
Speaker 3: A and M I tweeted out there was a giant
30:45
Speaker 3: barbecue truck in College station that had I think five
30:48
Speaker 3: seven foot gators on a rotisseri rotating around being cooked.
30:53
Speaker 4: So so, okay, fine, I'm you know, you guys beat
30:56
Speaker 4: the Gators.
30:56
Speaker 1: That's fine, thank you, Thank you for that moral support there.
31:00
Speaker 1: I felt that. I felt that tonight.
31:03
Speaker 3: I'm just saying that the Rockets win against Orlando was
31:06
Speaker 3: really sweet because we were not playing great during the
31:08
Speaker 3: whole of the game and then it was this huge comeback.
31:11
Speaker 3: And Katie, I'm going to say, right now, I think
31:15
Speaker 3: the Rockets can win the whole damn thing.
31:16
Speaker 1: And oh that's an early season prediction right now.
31:20
Speaker 3: Now, look, most seasons I think the Rockets can win
31:22
Speaker 3: it all. But listen, last season we got.
31:25
Speaker 2: It the way you just said it with me with me,
31:27
Speaker 2: like's there's hoping and then there's like the real possibility.
31:30
Speaker 1: So you think They're the real deal this.
31:32
Speaker 4: Year, I really do.
31:33
Speaker 3: They've got a ton of young talent. They're really good.
31:36
Speaker 3: Our problem last season is we didn't have a closer.
31:38
Speaker 3: We didn't have someone who in the last two minutes
31:41
Speaker 3: of the fourth quarter you could give the ball to
31:44
Speaker 3: and he could bring it home. And Katie, I mean, look,
31:47
Speaker 3: he's one of the greatest players in history. And in
31:50
Speaker 3: the game against Orlando, I mean it was you want
31:52
Speaker 3: to talk about cold, he hit two three pointers that
31:56
Speaker 3: were just devastating, and and you had Schengu AND's who's
32:00
Speaker 3: a great center who played a great game as well.
32:03
Speaker 2: But butt on that overtime. By the way, I'm just curious,
32:06
Speaker 2: because you're really into this right now.
32:09
Speaker 4: I didn't. I just had great joy.
32:11
Speaker 3: And as I said, I DVR the games and I
32:13
Speaker 3: watch them typically late at night at the end of
32:14
Speaker 3: the day. But anyway, my point is, it's one thing.
32:19
Speaker 3: And I will say I like to I like to
32:20
Speaker 3: play poker, but but I've never been in sports betting,
32:23
Speaker 3: so so so among vices that that is not one
32:26
Speaker 3: that that has impacted me. But I get you know,
32:30
Speaker 3: I'll put five bucks in a March Madness pool and
32:33
Speaker 3: I'm gonna say. My picks are almost always wrong. So
32:35
Speaker 3: I don't know that I've ever won a March Madness pool,
32:37
Speaker 3: but I'll throw in my five.
32:38
Speaker 2: You're what we referred to as a charity bracket, and
32:40
Speaker 2: we appreciate your service to the charity community.
32:44
Speaker 3: Okay, so I actually I just pick a homer thing.
32:46
Speaker 3: I picked Texas teams. I tick teams I like, and
32:49
Speaker 3: I'm just like, I'm gonna go with I think my
32:51
Speaker 3: final four year or two ago was I think three
32:54
Speaker 3: Texas teams in the final four.
32:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, that work out too well for you. I'm not
32:57
Speaker 1: gonna lie.
32:59
Speaker 4: Yeah, excuse me? Did ole miss when the turnament?
33:03
Speaker 2: We do football very well, sir. We do football very well.
33:06
Speaker 2: We win natties and golf, baseball and tennis. I'm just yeah,
33:11
Speaker 2: I know where I am, I know where we live.
33:13
Speaker 2: Basketball is not there yet. I'm okay with that, But
33:16
Speaker 2: I don't pick them to go to the final four.
33:18
Speaker 2: That I can promise you.
33:20
Speaker 4: Yeah.
33:20
Speaker 3: So look on the question of gambling, and by the way,
33:23
Speaker 3: you got pro sports, but I'm also concerned about college sports,
33:25
Speaker 3: and in any ways, with such a proliferation, you know,
33:29
Speaker 3: you look at a small school with a game that's
33:33
Speaker 3: not in the headlines and an individual player there you
33:37
Speaker 3: know you may have.
33:38
Speaker 4: It's one thing.
33:39
Speaker 3: For you know, am I that worried about massive superstars
33:43
Speaker 3: making millions or tens of millions of dollars of being corrupted?
33:46
Speaker 4: Well, yes, because we're.
33:47
Speaker 3: Seeing this in the NBA and Major League Baseball. But
33:51
Speaker 3: the incentive is less than some you know, nineteen year
33:54
Speaker 3: old kid playing at podunk school who has a chance
33:57
Speaker 3: to make ten grand uh fixing the game. And so
34:02
Speaker 3: I think that is a real challenge. I think the
34:05
Speaker 3: leagues can maybe take some steps about it, but it
34:08
Speaker 3: would not surprise me to see Congress act. And it's
34:10
Speaker 3: one of the reasons I'm just trying to start with saying, Okay,
34:13
Speaker 3: tell me the facts of how many allegations you're getting
34:16
Speaker 3: up cheating. What are the facts, Tell me what you know,
34:18
Speaker 3: Tell me what you know. And then, particularly the more
34:23
Speaker 3: serious the problem is. My hope is we may see
34:25
Speaker 3: Congress acting a bipartisan way to fix it.
34:28
Speaker 1: It's going to be very interesting. Don't forget.
34:30
Speaker 2: We do this show Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Hit that
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