-
Massive Welfare Fraud in Minnesota Funding Terrorism
- Allegations that Minnesota taxpayers indirectly funded the terrorist group Al-Shabab through fraudulent welfare programs.
- Fraud reportedly involved members of the Somali community, with billions of dollars stolen and millions sent to Somalia, some ending up with Al-Shabaab.
- The program cited is Minnesota’s Medicaid Housing Stabilization Services (HHS), which ballooned from an estimated $2.6 million to over $104 million annually before being scrapped.
- Criminal indictments have been announced, but the commentary criticizes lack of media coverage and political accountability.
-
University of Minnesota’s “Whiteness Pandemic” Concept
- The university published material describing “whiteness” as a cultural pandemic driving racism.
- Family systems perpetuate whiteness and calls for self-reflection and re-education for white individuals.
- The commentary strongly condemns this as Marxist, anti-family, and anti-American ideology, framing it as indoctrination in higher education.
-
Texas Designates Muslim Brotherhood and CARE as Terrorist Organizations
- Texas Governor Greg Abbott declared CARE (Council on American-Islamic Relations) and the Muslim Brotherhood as foreign terrorist and transnational criminal organizations.
- This move prevents these groups from acquiring land in Texas.
- The discussion highlights CARE’s alleged financial support for anti-Israel campus protests and the broader legislative push to federally designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization.
- Mentions bipartisan efforts in Congress (Senators Ted Cruz and John Fetterman) and resistance from the State Department.
Please Hit Subscribe to this podcast Right Now. Also Please Subscribe to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson and The Ben Ferguson Show Podcast Wherever You get You're Podcasts. And don't forget to follow the show on Social Media so you never miss a moment! Thanks for Listening
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
It is Verdict with Ted Cruz Weekend Review, Ben Ferguson
with you, and these are the stories that you may
have missed that we talked about this past week. First up,
the largest funder of the terrorist organization Al Shabab apparently
is the American taxpayer.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
How did this happen? We'll explain it in just a moment.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Also, whiteness is apparently a pandemic so dangerous that one
university says it's a major study point that we have
to talk about. And finally, Texas designates the Muslim Brotherhood
a terrorist organization and the President follows suit. It's the
Weekend Review and it starts right now. There is a
(00:44):
story that broke that is should make every American angry,
and that is this story of the largest funder of
Al Shabab turns out to be an Al Shabab is
a tarist organization, a smalling terarist organation, is actually the
Minnesota taxpayers. Now that may just seem like a weird
(01:05):
headline to people, but what we're witnessing is tax hours
funneling directly to the Islamic terrorist organization. And it's been
going on at numbers that were clearly warning signs when
Joe Biden was president in the amount of funds that
were leaving Minnesota, and no one seemed about an eye
or no one seemed to care that this was happening.
(01:28):
Break it down for everybody that doesn't know anything about this.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Well, this is a story that's really at the intersection
of two issues that matter enormously. Number one is waste,
fraud and abuse in government, and we see that at
the federal government, we see that at the state level,
particularly in big blue states. But secondly, the rise of
radical Islam in America, and it's dangerous, it is threatening
our liberty, and it is spreading. It's spreading often with
(01:52):
the enthusiastic cheerleading of Democrat elected officials. This story is
right at the intersection of both of them. And so
the City Journal reported I'm just going to read a
portion of this article because it really is. It's a
stunning report, and it begins the largest funder of al
Schebab is the Minnesota taxpayer. How some of the state's
welfare funds ended up in the hands of a terror group.
(02:15):
Minnesota is drowning and fraud. Billions in taxpayer dollars have
been stolen during the administration of Governor Tim Waltz alone.
Of course, Tim Waltz was Kamala Harris's nominee to BVP.
Democrat state officials overseeing one of the most generous welfare
regimes in the country are asleep at the switch, and
the media, duty bound by progressive pietes, refused to connect
(02:37):
the dots. In many cases, the fraud has allegedly been
perpetrated by members of the Minnesota sizeable Somali community. Federal
counter terrorism support sources confirm that millions of dollars millions
in stolen funds had been sent back to Somalia, where
they ultimately landed in the hands of the terror group
Al Schebab. One confidential source put it quote, the largest
(03:01):
funder of Al Shabab is the Minnesota taxpayer. Our investigation
shows what happens when a tribal mindset meets a bleeding
heart bureaucracy, When imported clan loyalties collide with a political
class too timid to offend, and when accusations of racism
are cynically deployed to shield criminal behavior. The predictable result
(03:21):
is graft, with taxpayers left to foot the bill. If
you were designed to design a welfare program to facilitate fraud,
it would probably look a lot like Minnesota's Medicaid Housing
Stabilization Services program. The HHS program, the first of its
kind in the country, was launched with a noble goal
to help seniors, addicts that disabled in the mentally ill
secure housing. It was designed with quote low barriers to
(03:45):
entry and quote minimal requirements for reimbursement. Nonetheless, before the
program went live in twenty twenty, officials pegged its annual
estimated price tag at two point six million dollars. Cost
quickly spiraled out of control. In twenty twenty one, the
program and paid out more than twenty one million dollars.
By the way, it was projected to be two point
six million. In the following year, annual cost shot up
(04:07):
to forty two million, then seventy four million, then one
hundred and four million. On August first, Minnesota's Department of
Human Services moved to scrap the HHS program, noting that
payment to seventy seven housing stabilization providers had terminated this
year due to credible allegations of fraud. Joe Thompson, then
the acting US Attorney for the District of Minnesota, when
(04:30):
even further saying the vast majority, let me repeat that
the vast majority of the HHS program was fraudulent. On
September eighteenth, Thompson announced criminal indictments for HHS fraud against
Maktar Hassan Aiden, Mustafa daib Byli, Khalid Ahmed daib Ab
de Fita, Mohammed Mohammad, Christopher Adisoli Falad. By the way, Ben,
(04:56):
you try to go through those names, yeah, I'm.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Going to pass on that. Great job. I give you
a B plus on that.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Okay, six of whom, according to the US Attorney's Office,
are members of Minnesota Somali community. Thompson made clear that
this is the first round of charges for HSS fraud
that his office will be prosecuting most of these cases.
Unlike a lot of medicare fraud, medicaid fraud nationally aren't
just over billing, Thompson said a press conference announcing the indicements.
(05:22):
These are often just purely fictitious companies solely created to
defraud the system. And that's unique in the extent to
which we have that here in Minnesota. Thompson said. Many
of the firms enrolled in the program operated out of
dilapidated storefronts or run down office buildings. The perpetrators often
targeted people recently released from rehab signed them up for
(05:43):
Medicaid services they had no intention of providing. He noted
many of the owners of companies engaged in HHS fraud
had other companies through which they built other Medicaid programs,
such as the EIDBI Autism Program, the Adult Rehabilitative Mental
Health Services Program, the Integrated Community Services Program, the Community
Access for Disability Inclusion Program PCA Services, and other Medicaid
(06:08):
waivered services. What we see are schemes stacked upon schemes,
draining resources meant for those most in needs. It feels
never ending. I have spent my career as a fraud prosecutor,
and the depth of the fraud in Minnesota takes my
breath away.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
You read that and you just think about how much
money this is that not only was stolen from the taxpayers,
and they go into how much it kept growing and
growing and growing these programs, but it's obvious that people
knew there was fraud. Then you find out it's going
to a terrorist organization, and so we're funding the terrorist organization.
(06:49):
How the hell do people not go to jail for this?
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Well, they are a number of people are being prosecuted.
But you know what is striking is not just was
their massive fraud, but the massive fraud God was funding terrorism.
Here's what the City Journal continues saying. Perhaps the most
surprising aspect of the Somali fraud story is the scale,
with total costs running into the billions of taxpayer dollars,
(07:12):
that raises the question what happened to all that money?
The Somali fraud rings have sent huge sums and remittances
or money transfers from Minnesota to Somalia, according to reports,
and estimated forty percent of households in Somalia get remittances
from abroad. In twenty twenty three alone, the Somali diaspora
(07:33):
sent back one point seven billion dollars, more than the
Somali government's budget for that year. Our investigation reveals for
the first time that some of this money has been
directed to an even more troubling destination, the al Qaeda
linked Islamic terror group Al Shabab. According to multiple law
(07:54):
enforcement sources, Minnesota's Somali community has sent untold millions through
a network of jualas informal clan based money traders that
have wound up in the coffers of al Shabab. According
to Glenn Kerns, a retired Seattle Police Department detective who
spent fourteen years on a federal Joint terrorism task force,
(08:16):
the Somalis ran a sophisticated money network spanning from Seattle
to Minneapolis, and we're routing significant amounts of cash on
commercial flights from the Seattle airport to the Huala networks
in Somalia. One of these networks, Kerns discovered, sent twenty
million dollars abroad in a single year. So this is
money that's coming from the Minnesota taxpayers. It is going
(08:40):
through the Somalia Somali community in Minnesota back to Somalia
on the order of magnitude of one point seven billion
dollars a year, and millions of those dollars were flowing
directly to Al Shabab, an al Qaeda linked major terrorist organization.
That this is tragic, it is shocking. And and by
(09:00):
the way, I'm curious, have you seen it on CNN, No, NBCCBS.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Nope, none of them, none of them touching it.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
MSNBC, no, Washington Post, New York Times, Nope, you would
think that would be news.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
I also look at.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
The amount of money and how quickly it grew. That's
something else that I do think is interesting. Here is
how I mean you want to talk about warning signs center,
there was clear warning signs, like very very clear warning
signs that this was happening, and and yet no one
(09:35):
in government seemed to stop, pause or ask a question.
That part, also to me is just like is it
always unlimited funds?
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Is that how it's now? In government? And whatever?
Speaker 2 (09:46):
You start just keep making it grow and double and
triple in size year after year after year, and spending
and and no one's like, hold on a second, this
doesn't add up this many kids with autism that doesn't
seem normal. Well, how much it went doubled from last
year the year before the year before that. I mean,
there's a clear line here of like red flags that
no one seemed to care about.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
Well, and it's worth remembering Tim Waltz is not someone
at the fringe of the Democrat Party. Tim Waltz is
who Kamala Harris thought should be Vice President of the
United States. Presumably Kamala thought that she should he should
succeed her and become the president of the United States.
And Tim Waltz like many Democrats, but what but Waltz's
is worse than many of them. Just look the other way,
(10:28):
just turned a blind eye. And one combination. It's a
combination of a number of factors. One piece of it
is just the left wing view that the more money
you're giving away in welfare the better. And so it
doesn't matter how much it grows. If you're giving a
million dollars this year, they wanted to be two million,
then four, then six, then eight and twelve. They want
it to grow without any any consideration about number one,
(10:52):
bankrupting the state and the taxpayers, but number two about
the impact of spending all that money trapping people independency.
But a second component of it, it's not just dependency.
Dependency assumes someone's actually getting well for payments. It is
also bleatant fraud. And there is unfortunately a network of
(11:12):
corruption where many of those engage in fraud are also
writing checks to elect Democrats. And if you look at
the Somali community in Minnesota, it is a major voting
network that votes for Democrats in Minnesota, and so at
the end of the day, the Democrats, when it comes
to buying votes, shoveling this cash into this maw of fraud,
(11:35):
even though the taxpayers were being robbed and the money
was going to a radical Islamic terrorist organization. If you're
a Democrat, it made political sense on some level because
you got money and you got votes. And it is
astonishing that there's not do you know of a single
Democrat denouncing this. No, I mean that's a striking thing.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation,
you can go back and listen to the full podcast
from earlier this week. Now onto story number two center.
Finally on the show, let's deal with a major problem.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
It's huge.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
A university is now warning of a quote unquote whiteness pandemic.
Not a problem, but a pandemic, a whiteness pandemic. This
is coming from the University of Minnesota. I'll let you
take it from there.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
Yeah, I got to say this is going to piss
you off. Are you white?
Speaker 1 (12:33):
Then?
Speaker 3 (12:33):
Apparently you are an evil, noxious scourge on America. You
are a pandemic, You are a virus, you are a disease,
and woke leftists are going to re educate the whiteness
right out of you. Like I wish I were making
this up. Like when I say these words, you sound
like a lunatic. You sound like you're wearing like a
(12:53):
tinfoil hat, and you believe in conspiracy theories. But I
want to read to you from a website from the
University of Minnesota, by the way, the state website. This
is all right. Here's what the website says. Quote. What
is the whiteness pandemic? Racism is an epidemic that can
also be considered a pandemic given its large cross national
(13:16):
proportion and spread. However, there is another pandemic lurking behind
and driving the racist pandemic, the whiteness pandemic. Whiteness refers
to culture, not biology. The centuries old culture of whiteness
features color blindness, in other words, not being a racist.
That is the whiteness pandemic. Passivity, and white fragility were
(13:40):
all covert expressions of racism common in the United States.
Naming the whiteness pandemic shifts our gaze from the victims
and effects of racism onto the systems that perpetrate and
perpetuate racism. Starting with the family system. In other words,
families are racist. If you believe in families, if you
believe in a mom and dad raising kids, loving kids.
(14:01):
That is, the family system is part of the whiteness pandemic.
At birth, young children growing up in white families begin
to be socialized into the culture of whiteness, making the
family system one of the most powerful systems involved in
systemic racism. That this is open. We hate families is
(14:22):
what the University of Minnesota is saying. And okay, what's
the next section? Quote? How do we halt and reverse
the whiteness pandemic? If you were born and raised in
the United States, you have grown up in the whiteness pandemic,
and you can play a role in halting or reversing
this pandemic, especially if you are white, because of the
(14:45):
power and privilege you hold in this racialized society. If
you were socialized into the culture of whiteness during your childhood,
it is not your fault, but as an adult, it
is now your responsibility to self reflect, to re edge
kate yourself and act. If you are a white adult,
anti racist action involves an ongoing process of self reflection
(15:09):
in order to develop a healthy, positive white identity while
encouraging courageous anti racist parenting slash caregiving. What utter and
complete garbage, what racist leftist communist drek. And this is
the University of Minnesota. By the way, Look, there are
(15:30):
like great people in Minnesota, They're great people in every state,
and yet these people are racist radicals. And this is
what they're indoctrinating our children with.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Not only the indoctrinary children, but this is where a
lot of our dollars are tax hours go, which is
the other frustrating part that this is what they're indoctrinating
them with.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
Undoubtedly. And by the way, our podcast on Monday, so
we do this podcast three days a week, Monday, Wednesday,
and Friday. Our podcast on Monday talked about what is
the number one funder of Al Chebab, the Radical Islamics
(16:11):
terrorist group, And the answer, terrifyingly enough, is the taxpayers
of the state of Minnesota. So in Minnesota has a
huge Somali community. Somalis have invaded the state of Minnesota's
how you elect Ilhan Omar who actively is anti American
racist radical, embraces and supports radical Islamic terrorists, and the
(16:35):
Somali community sends billions every year back to Somalia, and
millions of that money sent back ends up directly in
the pockets in the coffers of al Shabab, and it
is the Minnesota state taxpayers. So we detailed this on Monday,
how welfare fraud, fraudulent collection of welfare payments, an entire
(17:02):
welfare system set up seemingly on the face of it
to encourage fraud, to facilitate fraud, is resulting in Minnesota
taxpayers sending millions of dollars to radical Islamic terrorists. This
is the same ideology, like what do you do if
(17:22):
you happen to be a white kid at the University
of Minnesota. You show up and be told by the way,
you're just you know, you're seventeen, eighteen year old kid.
You show up as a freshman, and if you're white,
you're told you're a pandemic, you're a virus. And the
only answer is re educate yourself because who you are,
(17:43):
who America is. And understand this screed against quote anti
whiteness is also a screed against America. That these Marxists
hate the United States of America, They hate the Constitution,
they hate our freedoms. And this garbage that is anti racism,
this garbage that is DEI, this garbage that says we
must institutionalize, by the way, the fix for the anti
(18:07):
for the whiteness pandemic is to discriminate against anyone who
is white, is to institutionalize racism. And that is grotesque,
it is wrong. It is contrary to the fourteenth Amendment
of the Constitution, which protects provides the equal protection of
the law to all people are regardless of race. It
is contrary to the founding notions of this country. The
(18:29):
Declaration said, we hold these truths to be self evident,
that all men are created equal, not some, not just
white people, not just black people, not anyone. All men
and all women are created equal, That they are endowed
by their creator with certain unvailable rights, that among them
are life liberty in the pursuit of happiness. That's what
this country was built on. And these Marxists who have
(18:51):
taken over our institutions hate that notion, and this kind
of garbage is being spewed to our children and being
used to brainwash our children at a massive rate.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
I tell this all the time to parents when they
ask be careful where you send your kids to college,
because they could be indoctrinated to literally hate this country.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
This is another exam.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
And to hate you exactly, to hate their mom and dada.
But by the way, what I just read the family system,
they are attacking families. They're telling your kids family is evil.
That's what Marxists believe.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
As before.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
If you want to hear the rest of this conversation
on this topic, you can go back and dow the
podcast from earlier this week to hear the entire thing.
I want to get back to the big story number
three of the week.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
You may have missed.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
This is something that you've been talking about for a while. Yea,
designating the Muslim Brotherhood is a terrorist organization and Texas
is now taking a big step. I think this is
going to be a great example for the rest of
the country and talk about how big of a victory
this is in Texas leading the way.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
Well, it's a big victory. Let me tell you about
what Texas did and I'm going to take it more
broadly into the national fight over designating the Muslim Brotherhood.
So Texas this week declared care and the Muslim Brotherhood
is terrorist groups preventing land purchases. Let me read from
Fox News. Texas Governor Greg Abbott designated the Council on
American Islamic Relations CARE and the Muslim Brotherhood as foreign
(20:19):
terrorist and transnational criminal organizations Tuesday, preventing both groups from
obtaining land in the Lone Star state. Abbot said the
statement that he made the move as quote, the Muslim
Brotherhood and CARE have long made their goals clear to
forcibly impose Sharia law and establish Islam's mastership of the world.
(20:41):
The actions taken by the Muslim Brotherhood and CARE to
support terrorism across the globe and subvert our laws through violence, intimidation,
and harassment are unacceptable. Today I designated the Muslim Brotherhood
in CARE as foreign terrorist organizations and transnational criminal organizations.
These radical extremists are not welcome in our state and
(21:01):
are now prohibited from acquiring any real property interest in Texas.
A proclamation signed by Abbot claims that CARE quote is
an Islamist organization that, according to the FBI, was founded
as a front group for HAMAS and its support network
in the United States. It added that quote CARE and
its members have repeatedly employed, affiliated with and supported individuals
(21:25):
promoting terrorism related activities, including Gasan Elashi, a founding member
of the Texas Branch for Care and treasurer of the
Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development charity quote, who
was sentenced to a total of sixty five years in
prison for financing terrorism in two thousand and nine. The
proclamation also states that Hamas was quote formed in nineteen
(21:49):
eighty seven as the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood,
and that activities of the Muslim Brotherhood branches have similarly
been eliminated or prohibited by the governments of Austria, by
b K, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab
Emirates in light of the Muslim Brotherhood encouraging terrorism or
attempting to destabilize these countries. Look, this is real leadership
(22:11):
from the State of Texas. It is what the federal
government should be doing. The Muslim Brotherhood, I believe, is
unquestionably a terrorist organization, and we have yet to designate them,
as Governor Abbott noted, many other countries on Earth have,
and I believe the United States during the Trump administration
we're going to do this. I've introduced legislation literally for
ten years to make this happen at a federal level.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
So what has been the hold up there? For people
that are new to this subject we talked about before.
Maybe they missed an episode. How the hell is it
so hard to get the Muslim Brotherhood to be declared
to terrorist organization through the US government?
Speaker 1 (22:44):
What is the hold up? Yeah? You mentioned this is
like a decades long fight.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
Now, so for five consecutive congresses, I've introduced legislation designate
the Muslim Brotherhood. The hold up, We got very close
during the first Trump administration. I thought we were going
to get it done during the first Trump administration. The
resistance was from the deep state at the State Department,
the career bureaucrats there. And I'll tell you the old
versions of the legislation. The way I wrote it, it
(23:10):
was top down. What does that mean? It directed the
State Department to designate the Global Muslim Brotherhood, which is
the big umbrella organization's a terrorist organization. Here's the argument
the career employees a State made. They said, look, there
are lots of different affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood. We
cannot definitively prove that every one of the affiliates meets
the statutory criteria for being a terrorist organization. That's how
(23:33):
they stopped it from happening in Trump one. So in
Trump two, I rewrote the legislation and instead of being
bottom down or top down, I rewrote it to be
bottom up. And so what the legislation currently says is
it says that the State Department should designate every one
of the Muslim Brotherhood affiliates for which the evidence is
(23:54):
clear and unequivocal as terrorist organizations. For example, Hamas Hamas
the Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine. It is indisputable that Hamas
is a terrorist organization. They carried out October seventh, murdered
twelve hundred Israelis, raped and murdered women and little girls.
Hamas is unquestionably a terrorist organization. That's true of multiple
(24:15):
Muslim Brotherhood affiliates. What my new legislation said is designate
those affiliates, and then it directs the State Department to
designate the Global Muslim Brotherhood because it gives money to
those affiliates, and so designate the umbrella Organization for material
support of for giving money to unquestionable terrorist organizations. Now
(24:37):
part of the reason I think we're going to get
this done is that chain of reasoning. There's not a
step in that reasoning that is assailable. The deep state
can't fight that.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
Yeah, but at.
Speaker 3 (24:47):
The end of the day, let me tell you this
is not going to be a fight. I think that
is won legislatively. So I've introduced the legislation. I tried
very very hard in this Congress to get a Democrat
to support me. I will tell you I talked to
numerous Democrats. They said no, they said no. Look, the
Democrat Party is very afraid, unfortunately, of disturbing the pro
(25:09):
Hamas wing of their party in the House. The companion
legislation of my legislation has four Democrats on board, so
we do have some Democrat support. I was able to
get one Democrat, so John Fetterman is supporting me. So
the legislation is Cruz Fetterman. It is bipartisan.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
By the way, can we just pause there and just
talk about how cool that is.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
The more that.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
We have interacted, that you've interacted with John, the more
respect I really do have for him as a Democrat,
the way he stood up to his party on the shutdown. Look,
there are some places where you don't win races. I
never thought I would say I am thankful for John
Fetterman and his leadership in the Senate when he.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
Was first elected.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
I got to tell you, he may be the biggest
surprise in the last decade for me of a true
Democrat statesman that is willing to come to the table
on saane issues like the government shutdown or like this.
And I think when this happens, we as conservatives should
take that moment and say job well done to Senator Fetterman.
(26:09):
I'm really impressed because there's a lot of issues.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
He says.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
Politics are a side. I don't care the heat I'm
going to get from my party for this. I'm gonna
do the right thing. We used to have a lot
more of that in politics.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
Yeah, it used to be much more commonplace. When I
showed up in the Senate thirteen years ago, there was
such a thing as moderate Democrats. They largely don't exist. Actually,
someone before that was Kirson Cinema. Kierson Cinema was elected
from Arizona. When she came in, there was not a
whole lot of reason to believe she would be a moderate.
(26:40):
And I will say, Kirsten, I really like Kirsten, she
stood up to her party. She demonstrated real courage, and
you know what happened. The Democrats chased her out of
the party. Both Cinema and Joe Manchin, who were the
only two Democrats who said no to eliminating the filibuster,
the Democrats chased both of them out of the party.
They said, we don't want any dissent. You must obey
the dictates to the radical left. Well, John Fetterman got elected,
(27:03):
and listen, you and I both did not support him
when he was running for the Senate. To begin with,
he was a Democrat and his prior record as Lieutenant
governor of Pennsylvania gave little reason to think that he
would be anything other than a left wing Democrat. That's
certainly what I anticipated. He has astonished me. I like
John personally. He obviously during the campaign suffered a stroke.
(27:28):
He had had serious medical issues. It was very difficult.
His mind could not process the spoken words. So when
he was newly elected, you would talk to him, but
he would carry around an iPad that translated the words
that are being said into texts, and he would have
to read the iPad because it was just one of
the consequences of the stroke that when you talk to him,
(27:49):
his brain was operating, but the input of the oral
spoken word did not make it through. I will say
his health has improved significantly. He's now able to have
a conversation and engage. So the aftermath of the stroke
thankfully has gotten better. But Fetterman has shown real courage
and standing up to his party on the shutdown. He
(28:11):
stood up to Schumer and said this shutdown is stupid.
We need to end the shutdown. And on Israel, the
level of courage he has shown by saying the Prohamas
wing of our party is wrong. It is terrible, and
I John Fetterman, are proud to stand with Israel. It's
been heroic. And I got to say he's been demonized
by his own party, the Democrats.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
They treat him terribly.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
The Republicans of the Senate treated much better than the
Democrats do.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
Well and not only demonize him. This goes back to
his civility.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
He had a fall this past week and Democrats were
cheering his fall before we even knew like his health. Now,
he put up a picture of himself. I was glad
to see he's gonna be okay. But like, it just
tells you about how much if you don't get in
line with the Democratic Party. It didn't matter if you
names Fetterman or Schumer at this point or Nancy Pelosi like,
it is off with your heads and Democratic Party as
(29:02):
a leadership perspective from them, they are done with you
if you are not going to extreme left on every issue.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
So Bennett's worse than that. When Fetterman newly arrived in
the Senate, the Democrats all assumed he would just be
a left wing reliable vote, and so you had all
the Democrats putting out statement, He's fine, his health is
not a problem. And as I said, the stroke had
very real and limiting effects on him. I mean it
was significant, but every Democrat defended him. And then as
(29:30):
his health started to get better, Yep, he was willing
to buck the Democrats. And if you disagree with the
Democrat party line on even one issue, but especially on
an issue like the current Democrat party's embrace of Hamas
and their anti Israel animis, they turned on him viciously.
And I got to tell you there have been dozens
of articles written with quotes from Democrat senators, Democrat staffers
(29:55):
just doing everything they could to shive him, to say,
to to actually attack his mental capability and say, oh,
he's not able to do the job. The irony is
they attacked him once he had improved significantly, was recovering.
But yet, in their view, the unforgivable sin was daring
to deviate from what every other Democrat was saying. And
(30:18):
I view Fetterment as the exception that proves the rule.
That being said, this legislation to designates the Muslim Brotherhood
at the national level at Cruz Fetterment to pass, we
would need sixty Senators. That would mean we would need
at least seven Democrats. I have no indication that seven
Democrats are likely to support this. I'm going to try.
(30:40):
I'm going to keep pressing it. We'll see, we'll put
it for a vote. I would love to have that
bipartisan support, but as of now, I've not been able
to get any other Democrats urging it.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
I mean, when you were in for Senate, you know,
several years ago, did you ever think you would govern
in a body work with a group people. You can't
even get agreement on a designating a terrorist organization a
terrorist organization?
Speaker 3 (31:06):
Oh look, partisan politics has always been part of Washington.
That being said, it's gotten much much worse. And actually
President Trump. When President Trump got elected in twenty sixteen,
it broke the heads of the Democrats. Their minds are melted.
They just hate him, and so there's much less middle ground.
But anyway, my strategy on the Muslim Brotherhood legislation is
(31:29):
not necessarily to pass it through Congress. So though I'd
love to, I'm going to continue trying to pass it
through Congress, but it is instead to build the public
case for this so that the Trump administration does so unilaterally.
They have the authority to do so. There's noiceput it.
As I said in Trump One, we almost got it done,
and I believe that President Trump will do so. I
(31:49):
think he'll do so probably in the next year. I
was in the White House just a couple of weeks ago.
I talked with the President directly about designating the Muslim Brotherhood.
I have met with Seb Gorka, who is the senior
official in the National Security Council who's handling this issue.
As I've talked with Seb about it, I believe the
Trump administration will do it this time. I think the
(32:11):
fact that we redesigned it to be bottom up is
going to make it much harder for the deep state
to oppose it. And I want to commend Greg Abbott
in the state of Texas because Texas is designating the
Muslim Brotherhood and Care as well, really helps for building
the momentum. The whole purpose of the legislative push is
to build the momentum to pride the air cover for
(32:33):
the Trump administration to do so, and I think that's
going to happen all right.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
I also want to bring up CARE, and this is
another aspect of this legislation in Texas. Make it clear
it's not just the Muslim Brotherhood, it's also Care. This
one's a little bit more of a complicated organization. Break
that down why they're also getting on the list.
Speaker 3 (32:53):
Yeah, it's not actually that complicated. I mean Care is
a domestic organization. They had previously been implicated in supporting Moss,
supporting other terrorist organization. Let me read a story from
the New York Post. It's entitled Muslim group Care cutting
one thousand dollars checks for anti Israel agitators who have
been disciplined by colleges. And here's what The New York
Post reported anti Israel agitators who spread disruption at US
(33:17):
colleges and were punished by authorities were awarded checks for
one thousand dollars by a Muslim nonprofit. The Post has
learned the money was given to students who faced penalties
for leading pro Palestinian protests before and after the Hamas
attack on Israel on October seventh, twenty twenty three. According
to a bombshell report by the Network, Intagent Research Institute
(33:39):
and the Intelligent Advocacy Network, the cash was awarded from
a Quote Champions of Justice fund set up by a
California chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations CARE
as an institutional endorsement. The report claims in California, the
largest arm of the CARE web of nonprofits affiliates in
(33:59):
San Francis on Los Angeles raised more than one hundred
thousand dollars in donations for the campus radicals, while the
main group solicited sixty four thousand dollars in red donations.
Record show the money was then offered as interest free
loans and grants of one thousand dollars to students who
lost scholarships, housing or other support because of their advocacy.
(34:22):
According to carer's website, this is you have care. Literally,
you want to know why you had anti Semitic protests
on college campuses. I've been saying from the beginning, follow
the money. There's learning money behind me.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
Follow the money.
Speaker 3 (34:36):
The tents all matched, and it's because this is being
funded and this is being funded by Islamist this is
being funded by communists, this is being funded by foreign nations,
this is being funded by left wing billionaire donors who
frankly want to undermine America. And so Texas designating care
as well, that's a big step forward.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
Also, as always, thank you for listening to Verdict with Sentner,
Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you don't forget to deal
with my podcast and you can listen to my podcasts
every other day you're not listening to Verdict or each
day when you listen to Verdict. Afterwards, I'd love to
have you as a listener to again the Ben Ferguson
podcasts and we will see you back here on Monday morning.
Welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
It is Verdict with Ted Cruz Weekend Review, Ben Ferguson
with you, and these are the stories that you may
have missed that we talked about this past week. First up,
the largest funder of the terrorist organization Al Shabab apparently
is the American taxpayer.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
How did this happen? We'll explain it in just a moment.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Also, whiteness is apparently a pandemic so dangerous that one
university says it's a major study point that we have
to talk about. And finally, Texas designates the Muslim Brotherhood
a terrorist organization and the President follows suit. It's the
Weekend Review and it starts right now. There is a
(00:44):
story that broke that is should make every American angry,
and that is this story of the largest funder of
Al Shabab turns out to be an Al Shabab is
a tarist organization, a smalling terarist organation, is actually the
Minnesota taxpayers. Now that may just seem like a weird
(01:05):
headline to people, but what we're witnessing is tax hours
funneling directly to the Islamic terrorist organization. And it's been
going on at numbers that were clearly warning signs when
Joe Biden was president in the amount of funds that
were leaving Minnesota, and no one seemed about an eye
or no one seemed to care that this was happening.
(01:28):
Break it down for everybody that doesn't know anything about this.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Well, this is a story that's really at the intersection
of two issues that matter enormously. Number one is waste,
fraud and abuse in government, and we see that at
the federal government, we see that at the state level,
particularly in big blue states. But secondly, the rise of
radical Islam in America, and it's dangerous, it is threatening
our liberty, and it is spreading. It's spreading often with
(01:52):
the enthusiastic cheerleading of Democrat elected officials. This story is
right at the intersection of both of them. And so
the City Journal reported I'm just going to read a
portion of this article because it really is. It's a
stunning report, and it begins the largest funder of al
Schebab is the Minnesota taxpayer. How some of the state's
welfare funds ended up in the hands of a terror group.
(02:15):
Minnesota is drowning and fraud. Billions in taxpayer dollars have
been stolen during the administration of Governor Tim Waltz alone.
Of course, Tim Waltz was Kamala Harris's nominee to BVP.
Democrat state officials overseeing one of the most generous welfare
regimes in the country are asleep at the switch, and
the media, duty bound by progressive pietes, refused to connect
(02:37):
the dots. In many cases, the fraud has allegedly been
perpetrated by members of the Minnesota sizeable Somali community. Federal
counter terrorism support sources confirm that millions of dollars millions
in stolen funds had been sent back to Somalia, where
they ultimately landed in the hands of the terror group
Al Schebab. One confidential source put it quote, the largest
(03:01):
funder of Al Shabab is the Minnesota taxpayer. Our investigation
shows what happens when a tribal mindset meets a bleeding
heart bureaucracy, When imported clan loyalties collide with a political
class too timid to offend, and when accusations of racism
are cynically deployed to shield criminal behavior. The predictable result
(03:21):
is graft, with taxpayers left to foot the bill. If
you were designed to design a welfare program to facilitate fraud,
it would probably look a lot like Minnesota's Medicaid Housing
Stabilization Services program. The HHS program, the first of its
kind in the country, was launched with a noble goal
to help seniors, addicts that disabled in the mentally ill
secure housing. It was designed with quote low barriers to
(03:45):
entry and quote minimal requirements for reimbursement. Nonetheless, before the
program went live in twenty twenty, officials pegged its annual
estimated price tag at two point six million dollars. Cost
quickly spiraled out of control. In twenty twenty one, the
program and paid out more than twenty one million dollars.
By the way, it was projected to be two point
six million. In the following year, annual cost shot up
(04:07):
to forty two million, then seventy four million, then one
hundred and four million. On August first, Minnesota's Department of
Human Services moved to scrap the HHS program, noting that
payment to seventy seven housing stabilization providers had terminated this
year due to credible allegations of fraud. Joe Thompson, then
the acting US Attorney for the District of Minnesota, when
(04:30):
even further saying the vast majority, let me repeat that
the vast majority of the HHS program was fraudulent. On
September eighteenth, Thompson announced criminal indictments for HHS fraud against
Maktar Hassan Aiden, Mustafa daib Byli, Khalid Ahmed daib Ab
de Fita, Mohammed Mohammad, Christopher Adisoli Falad. By the way, Ben,
(04:56):
you try to go through those names, yeah, I'm.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Going to pass on that. Great job. I give you
a B plus on that.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Okay, six of whom, according to the US Attorney's Office,
are members of Minnesota Somali community. Thompson made clear that
this is the first round of charges for HSS fraud
that his office will be prosecuting most of these cases.
Unlike a lot of medicare fraud, medicaid fraud nationally aren't
just over billing, Thompson said a press conference announcing the indicements.
(05:22):
These are often just purely fictitious companies solely created to
defraud the system. And that's unique in the extent to
which we have that here in Minnesota. Thompson said. Many
of the firms enrolled in the program operated out of
dilapidated storefronts or run down office buildings. The perpetrators often
targeted people recently released from rehab signed them up for
(05:43):
Medicaid services they had no intention of providing. He noted
many of the owners of companies engaged in HHS fraud
had other companies through which they built other Medicaid programs,
such as the EIDBI Autism Program, the Adult Rehabilitative Mental
Health Services Program, the Integrated Community Services Program, the Community
Access for Disability Inclusion Program PCA Services, and other Medicaid
(06:08):
waivered services. What we see are schemes stacked upon schemes,
draining resources meant for those most in needs. It feels
never ending. I have spent my career as a fraud prosecutor,
and the depth of the fraud in Minnesota takes my
breath away.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
You read that and you just think about how much
money this is that not only was stolen from the taxpayers,
and they go into how much it kept growing and
growing and growing these programs, but it's obvious that people
knew there was fraud. Then you find out it's going
to a terrorist organization, and so we're funding the terrorist organization.
(06:49):
How the hell do people not go to jail for this?
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Well, they are a number of people are being prosecuted.
But you know what is striking is not just was
their massive fraud, but the massive fraud God was funding terrorism.
Here's what the City Journal continues saying. Perhaps the most
surprising aspect of the Somali fraud story is the scale,
with total costs running into the billions of taxpayer dollars,
(07:12):
that raises the question what happened to all that money?
The Somali fraud rings have sent huge sums and remittances
or money transfers from Minnesota to Somalia, according to reports,
and estimated forty percent of households in Somalia get remittances
from abroad. In twenty twenty three alone, the Somali diaspora
(07:33):
sent back one point seven billion dollars, more than the
Somali government's budget for that year. Our investigation reveals for
the first time that some of this money has been
directed to an even more troubling destination, the al Qaeda
linked Islamic terror group Al Shabab. According to multiple law
(07:54):
enforcement sources, Minnesota's Somali community has sent untold millions through
a network of jualas informal clan based money traders that
have wound up in the coffers of al Shabab. According
to Glenn Kerns, a retired Seattle Police Department detective who
spent fourteen years on a federal Joint terrorism task force,
(08:16):
the Somalis ran a sophisticated money network spanning from Seattle
to Minneapolis, and we're routing significant amounts of cash on
commercial flights from the Seattle airport to the Huala networks
in Somalia. One of these networks, Kerns discovered, sent twenty
million dollars abroad in a single year. So this is
money that's coming from the Minnesota taxpayers. It is going
(08:40):
through the Somalia Somali community in Minnesota back to Somalia
on the order of magnitude of one point seven billion
dollars a year, and millions of those dollars were flowing
directly to Al Shabab, an al Qaeda linked major terrorist organization.
That this is tragic, it is shocking. And and by
(09:00):
the way, I'm curious, have you seen it on CNN, No, NBCCBS.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Nope, none of them, none of them touching it.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
MSNBC, no, Washington Post, New York Times, Nope, you would
think that would be news.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
I also look at.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
The amount of money and how quickly it grew. That's
something else that I do think is interesting. Here is
how I mean you want to talk about warning signs center,
there was clear warning signs, like very very clear warning
signs that this was happening, and and yet no one
(09:35):
in government seemed to stop, pause or ask a question.
That part, also to me is just like is it
always unlimited funds?
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Is that how it's now? In government? And whatever?
Speaker 2 (09:46):
You start just keep making it grow and double and
triple in size year after year after year, and spending
and and no one's like, hold on a second, this
doesn't add up this many kids with autism that doesn't
seem normal. Well, how much it went doubled from last
year the year before the year before that. I mean,
there's a clear line here of like red flags that
no one seemed to care about.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
Well, and it's worth remembering Tim Waltz is not someone
at the fringe of the Democrat Party. Tim Waltz is
who Kamala Harris thought should be Vice President of the
United States. Presumably Kamala thought that she should he should
succeed her and become the president of the United States.
And Tim Waltz like many Democrats, but what but Waltz's
is worse than many of them. Just look the other way,
(10:28):
just turned a blind eye. And one combination. It's a
combination of a number of factors. One piece of it
is just the left wing view that the more money
you're giving away in welfare the better. And so it
doesn't matter how much it grows. If you're giving a
million dollars this year, they wanted to be two million,
then four, then six, then eight and twelve. They want
it to grow without any any consideration about number one,
(10:52):
bankrupting the state and the taxpayers, but number two about
the impact of spending all that money trapping people independency.
But a second component of it, it's not just dependency.
Dependency assumes someone's actually getting well for payments. It is
also bleatant fraud. And there is unfortunately a network of
(11:12):
corruption where many of those engage in fraud are also
writing checks to elect Democrats. And if you look at
the Somali community in Minnesota, it is a major voting
network that votes for Democrats in Minnesota, and so at
the end of the day, the Democrats, when it comes
to buying votes, shoveling this cash into this maw of fraud,
(11:35):
even though the taxpayers were being robbed and the money
was going to a radical Islamic terrorist organization. If you're
a Democrat, it made political sense on some level because
you got money and you got votes. And it is
astonishing that there's not do you know of a single
Democrat denouncing this. No, I mean that's a striking thing.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation,
you can go back and listen to the full podcast
from earlier this week. Now onto story number two center.
Finally on the show, let's deal with a major problem.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
It's huge.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
A university is now warning of a quote unquote whiteness pandemic.
Not a problem, but a pandemic, a whiteness pandemic. This
is coming from the University of Minnesota. I'll let you
take it from there.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
Yeah, I got to say this is going to piss
you off. Are you white?
Speaker 1 (12:33):
Then?
Speaker 3 (12:33):
Apparently you are an evil, noxious scourge on America. You
are a pandemic, You are a virus, you are a disease,
and woke leftists are going to re educate the whiteness
right out of you. Like I wish I were making
this up. Like when I say these words, you sound
like a lunatic. You sound like you're wearing like a
(12:53):
tinfoil hat, and you believe in conspiracy theories. But I
want to read to you from a website from the
University of Minnesota, by the way, the state website. This
is all right. Here's what the website says. Quote. What
is the whiteness pandemic? Racism is an epidemic that can
also be considered a pandemic given its large cross national
(13:16):
proportion and spread. However, there is another pandemic lurking behind
and driving the racist pandemic, the whiteness pandemic. Whiteness refers
to culture, not biology. The centuries old culture of whiteness
features color blindness, in other words, not being a racist.
That is the whiteness pandemic. Passivity, and white fragility were
(13:40):
all covert expressions of racism common in the United States.
Naming the whiteness pandemic shifts our gaze from the victims
and effects of racism onto the systems that perpetrate and
perpetuate racism. Starting with the family system. In other words,
families are racist. If you believe in families, if you
believe in a mom and dad raising kids, loving kids.
(14:01):
That is, the family system is part of the whiteness pandemic.
At birth, young children growing up in white families begin
to be socialized into the culture of whiteness, making the
family system one of the most powerful systems involved in
systemic racism. That this is open. We hate families is
(14:22):
what the University of Minnesota is saying. And okay, what's
the next section? Quote? How do we halt and reverse
the whiteness pandemic? If you were born and raised in
the United States, you have grown up in the whiteness pandemic,
and you can play a role in halting or reversing
this pandemic, especially if you are white, because of the
(14:45):
power and privilege you hold in this racialized society. If
you were socialized into the culture of whiteness during your childhood,
it is not your fault, but as an adult, it
is now your responsibility to self reflect, to re edge
kate yourself and act. If you are a white adult,
anti racist action involves an ongoing process of self reflection
(15:09):
in order to develop a healthy, positive white identity while
encouraging courageous anti racist parenting slash caregiving. What utter and
complete garbage, what racist leftist communist drek. And this is
the University of Minnesota. By the way, Look, there are
(15:30):
like great people in Minnesota, They're great people in every state,
and yet these people are racist radicals. And this is
what they're indoctrinating our children with.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Not only the indoctrinary children, but this is where a
lot of our dollars are tax hours go, which is
the other frustrating part that this is what they're indoctrinating
them with.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
Undoubtedly. And by the way, our podcast on Monday, so
we do this podcast three days a week, Monday, Wednesday,
and Friday. Our podcast on Monday talked about what is
the number one funder of Al Chebab, the Radical Islamics
(16:11):
terrorist group, And the answer, terrifyingly enough, is the taxpayers
of the state of Minnesota. So in Minnesota has a
huge Somali community. Somalis have invaded the state of Minnesota's
how you elect Ilhan Omar who actively is anti American
racist radical, embraces and supports radical Islamic terrorists, and the
(16:35):
Somali community sends billions every year back to Somalia, and
millions of that money sent back ends up directly in
the pockets in the coffers of al Shabab, and it
is the Minnesota state taxpayers. So we detailed this on Monday,
how welfare fraud, fraudulent collection of welfare payments, an entire
(17:02):
welfare system set up seemingly on the face of it
to encourage fraud, to facilitate fraud, is resulting in Minnesota
taxpayers sending millions of dollars to radical Islamic terrorists. This
is the same ideology, like what do you do if
(17:22):
you happen to be a white kid at the University
of Minnesota. You show up and be told by the way,
you're just you know, you're seventeen, eighteen year old kid.
You show up as a freshman, and if you're white,
you're told you're a pandemic, you're a virus. And the
only answer is re educate yourself because who you are,
(17:43):
who America is. And understand this screed against quote anti
whiteness is also a screed against America. That these Marxists
hate the United States of America, They hate the Constitution,
they hate our freedoms. And this garbage that is anti racism,
this garbage that is DEI, this garbage that says we
must institutionalize, by the way, the fix for the anti
(18:07):
for the whiteness pandemic is to discriminate against anyone who
is white, is to institutionalize racism. And that is grotesque,
it is wrong. It is contrary to the fourteenth Amendment
of the Constitution, which protects provides the equal protection of
the law to all people are regardless of race. It
is contrary to the founding notions of this country. The
(18:29):
Declaration said, we hold these truths to be self evident,
that all men are created equal, not some, not just
white people, not just black people, not anyone. All men
and all women are created equal, That they are endowed
by their creator with certain unvailable rights, that among them
are life liberty in the pursuit of happiness. That's what
this country was built on. And these Marxists who have
(18:51):
taken over our institutions hate that notion, and this kind
of garbage is being spewed to our children and being
used to brainwash our children at a massive rate.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
I tell this all the time to parents when they
ask be careful where you send your kids to college,
because they could be indoctrinated to literally hate this country.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
This is another exam.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
And to hate you exactly, to hate their mom and dada.
But by the way, what I just read the family system,
they are attacking families. They're telling your kids family is evil.
That's what Marxists believe.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
As before.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
If you want to hear the rest of this conversation
on this topic, you can go back and dow the
podcast from earlier this week to hear the entire thing.
I want to get back to the big story number
three of the week.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
You may have missed.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
This is something that you've been talking about for a while. Yea,
designating the Muslim Brotherhood is a terrorist organization and Texas
is now taking a big step. I think this is
going to be a great example for the rest of
the country and talk about how big of a victory
this is in Texas leading the way.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
Well, it's a big victory. Let me tell you about
what Texas did and I'm going to take it more
broadly into the national fight over designating the Muslim Brotherhood.
So Texas this week declared care and the Muslim Brotherhood
is terrorist groups preventing land purchases. Let me read from
Fox News. Texas Governor Greg Abbott designated the Council on
American Islamic Relations CARE and the Muslim Brotherhood as foreign
(20:19):
terrorist and transnational criminal organizations Tuesday, preventing both groups from
obtaining land in the Lone Star state. Abbot said the
statement that he made the move as quote, the Muslim
Brotherhood and CARE have long made their goals clear to
forcibly impose Sharia law and establish Islam's mastership of the world.
(20:41):
The actions taken by the Muslim Brotherhood and CARE to
support terrorism across the globe and subvert our laws through violence, intimidation,
and harassment are unacceptable. Today I designated the Muslim Brotherhood
in CARE as foreign terrorist organizations and transnational criminal organizations.
These radical extremists are not welcome in our state and
(21:01):
are now prohibited from acquiring any real property interest in Texas.
A proclamation signed by Abbot claims that CARE quote is
an Islamist organization that, according to the FBI, was founded
as a front group for HAMAS and its support network
in the United States. It added that quote CARE and
its members have repeatedly employed, affiliated with and supported individuals
(21:25):
promoting terrorism related activities, including Gasan Elashi, a founding member
of the Texas Branch for Care and treasurer of the
Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development charity quote, who
was sentenced to a total of sixty five years in
prison for financing terrorism in two thousand and nine. The
proclamation also states that Hamas was quote formed in nineteen
(21:49):
eighty seven as the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood,
and that activities of the Muslim Brotherhood branches have similarly
been eliminated or prohibited by the governments of Austria, by
b K, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab
Emirates in light of the Muslim Brotherhood encouraging terrorism or
attempting to destabilize these countries. Look, this is real leadership
(22:11):
from the State of Texas. It is what the federal
government should be doing. The Muslim Brotherhood, I believe, is
unquestionably a terrorist organization, and we have yet to designate them,
as Governor Abbott noted, many other countries on Earth have,
and I believe the United States during the Trump administration
we're going to do this. I've introduced legislation literally for
ten years to make this happen at a federal level.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
So what has been the hold up there? For people
that are new to this subject we talked about before.
Maybe they missed an episode. How the hell is it
so hard to get the Muslim Brotherhood to be declared
to terrorist organization through the US government?
Speaker 1 (22:44):
What is the hold up? Yeah? You mentioned this is
like a decades long fight.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
Now, so for five consecutive congresses, I've introduced legislation designate
the Muslim Brotherhood. The hold up, We got very close
during the first Trump administration. I thought we were going
to get it done during the first Trump administration. The
resistance was from the deep state at the State Department,
the career bureaucrats there. And I'll tell you the old
versions of the legislation. The way I wrote it, it
(23:10):
was top down. What does that mean? It directed the
State Department to designate the Global Muslim Brotherhood, which is
the big umbrella organization's a terrorist organization. Here's the argument
the career employees a State made. They said, look, there
are lots of different affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood. We
cannot definitively prove that every one of the affiliates meets
the statutory criteria for being a terrorist organization. That's how
(23:33):
they stopped it from happening in Trump one. So in
Trump two, I rewrote the legislation and instead of being
bottom down or top down, I rewrote it to be
bottom up. And so what the legislation currently says is
it says that the State Department should designate every one
of the Muslim Brotherhood affiliates for which the evidence is
(23:54):
clear and unequivocal as terrorist organizations. For example, Hamas Hamas
the Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine. It is indisputable that Hamas
is a terrorist organization. They carried out October seventh, murdered
twelve hundred Israelis, raped and murdered women and little girls.
Hamas is unquestionably a terrorist organization. That's true of multiple
(24:15):
Muslim Brotherhood affiliates. What my new legislation said is designate
those affiliates, and then it directs the State Department to
designate the Global Muslim Brotherhood because it gives money to
those affiliates, and so designate the umbrella Organization for material
support of for giving money to unquestionable terrorist organizations. Now
(24:37):
part of the reason I think we're going to get
this done is that chain of reasoning. There's not a
step in that reasoning that is assailable. The deep state
can't fight that.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
Yeah, but at.
Speaker 3 (24:47):
The end of the day, let me tell you this
is not going to be a fight. I think that
is won legislatively. So I've introduced the legislation. I tried
very very hard in this Congress to get a Democrat
to support me. I will tell you I talked to
numerous Democrats. They said no, they said no. Look, the
Democrat Party is very afraid, unfortunately, of disturbing the pro
(25:09):
Hamas wing of their party in the House. The companion
legislation of my legislation has four Democrats on board, so
we do have some Democrat support. I was able to
get one Democrat, so John Fetterman is supporting me. So
the legislation is Cruz Fetterman. It is bipartisan.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
By the way, can we just pause there and just
talk about how cool that is.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
The more that.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
We have interacted, that you've interacted with John, the more
respect I really do have for him as a Democrat,
the way he stood up to his party on the shutdown. Look,
there are some places where you don't win races. I
never thought I would say I am thankful for John
Fetterman and his leadership in the Senate when he.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
Was first elected.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
I got to tell you, he may be the biggest
surprise in the last decade for me of a true
Democrat statesman that is willing to come to the table
on saane issues like the government shutdown or like this.
And I think when this happens, we as conservatives should
take that moment and say job well done to Senator Fetterman.
(26:09):
I'm really impressed because there's a lot of issues.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
He says.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
Politics are a side. I don't care the heat I'm
going to get from my party for this. I'm gonna
do the right thing. We used to have a lot
more of that in politics.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
Yeah, it used to be much more commonplace. When I
showed up in the Senate thirteen years ago, there was
such a thing as moderate Democrats. They largely don't exist. Actually,
someone before that was Kirson Cinema. Kierson Cinema was elected
from Arizona. When she came in, there was not a
whole lot of reason to believe she would be a moderate.
(26:40):
And I will say, Kirsten, I really like Kirsten, she
stood up to her party. She demonstrated real courage, and
you know what happened. The Democrats chased her out of
the party. Both Cinema and Joe Manchin, who were the
only two Democrats who said no to eliminating the filibuster,
the Democrats chased both of them out of the party.
They said, we don't want any dissent. You must obey
the dictates to the radical left. Well, John Fetterman got elected,
(27:03):
and listen, you and I both did not support him
when he was running for the Senate. To begin with,
he was a Democrat and his prior record as Lieutenant
governor of Pennsylvania gave little reason to think that he
would be anything other than a left wing Democrat. That's
certainly what I anticipated. He has astonished me. I like
John personally. He obviously during the campaign suffered a stroke.
(27:28):
He had had serious medical issues. It was very difficult.
His mind could not process the spoken words. So when
he was newly elected, you would talk to him, but
he would carry around an iPad that translated the words
that are being said into texts, and he would have
to read the iPad because it was just one of
the consequences of the stroke that when you talk to him,
(27:49):
his brain was operating, but the input of the oral
spoken word did not make it through. I will say
his health has improved significantly. He's now able to have
a conversation and engage. So the aftermath of the stroke
thankfully has gotten better. But Fetterman has shown real courage
and standing up to his party on the shutdown. He
(28:11):
stood up to Schumer and said this shutdown is stupid.
We need to end the shutdown. And on Israel, the
level of courage he has shown by saying the Prohamas
wing of our party is wrong. It is terrible, and
I John Fetterman, are proud to stand with Israel. It's
been heroic. And I got to say he's been demonized
by his own party, the Democrats.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
They treat him terribly.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
The Republicans of the Senate treated much better than the
Democrats do.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
Well and not only demonize him. This goes back to
his civility.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
He had a fall this past week and Democrats were
cheering his fall before we even knew like his health. Now,
he put up a picture of himself. I was glad
to see he's gonna be okay. But like, it just
tells you about how much if you don't get in
line with the Democratic Party. It didn't matter if you
names Fetterman or Schumer at this point or Nancy Pelosi like,
it is off with your heads and Democratic Party as
(29:02):
a leadership perspective from them, they are done with you
if you are not going to extreme left on every issue.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
So Bennett's worse than that. When Fetterman newly arrived in
the Senate, the Democrats all assumed he would just be
a left wing reliable vote, and so you had all
the Democrats putting out statement, He's fine, his health is
not a problem. And as I said, the stroke had
very real and limiting effects on him. I mean it
was significant, but every Democrat defended him. And then as
(29:30):
his health started to get better, Yep, he was willing
to buck the Democrats. And if you disagree with the
Democrat party line on even one issue, but especially on
an issue like the current Democrat party's embrace of Hamas
and their anti Israel animis, they turned on him viciously.
And I got to tell you there have been dozens
of articles written with quotes from Democrat senators, Democrat staffers
(29:55):
just doing everything they could to shive him, to say,
to to actually attack his mental capability and say, oh,
he's not able to do the job. The irony is
they attacked him once he had improved significantly, was recovering.
But yet, in their view, the unforgivable sin was daring
to deviate from what every other Democrat was saying. And
(30:18):
I view Fetterment as the exception that proves the rule.
That being said, this legislation to designates the Muslim Brotherhood
at the national level at Cruz Fetterment to pass, we
would need sixty Senators. That would mean we would need
at least seven Democrats. I have no indication that seven
Democrats are likely to support this. I'm going to try.
(30:40):
I'm going to keep pressing it. We'll see, we'll put
it for a vote. I would love to have that
bipartisan support, but as of now, I've not been able
to get any other Democrats urging it.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
I mean, when you were in for Senate, you know,
several years ago, did you ever think you would govern
in a body work with a group people. You can't
even get agreement on a designating a terrorist organization a
terrorist organization?
Speaker 3 (31:06):
Oh look, partisan politics has always been part of Washington.
That being said, it's gotten much much worse. And actually
President Trump. When President Trump got elected in twenty sixteen,
it broke the heads of the Democrats. Their minds are melted.
They just hate him, and so there's much less middle ground.
But anyway, my strategy on the Muslim Brotherhood legislation is
(31:29):
not necessarily to pass it through Congress. So though I'd
love to, I'm going to continue trying to pass it
through Congress, but it is instead to build the public
case for this so that the Trump administration does so unilaterally.
They have the authority to do so. There's noiceput it.
As I said in Trump One, we almost got it done,
and I believe that President Trump will do so. I
(31:49):
think he'll do so probably in the next year. I
was in the White House just a couple of weeks ago.
I talked with the President directly about designating the Muslim Brotherhood.
I have met with Seb Gorka, who is the senior
official in the National Security Council who's handling this issue.
As I've talked with Seb about it, I believe the
Trump administration will do it this time. I think the
(32:11):
fact that we redesigned it to be bottom up is
going to make it much harder for the deep state
to oppose it. And I want to commend Greg Abbott
in the state of Texas because Texas is designating the
Muslim Brotherhood and Care as well, really helps for building
the momentum. The whole purpose of the legislative push is
to build the momentum to pride the air cover for
(32:33):
the Trump administration to do so, and I think that's
going to happen all right.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
I also want to bring up CARE, and this is
another aspect of this legislation in Texas. Make it clear
it's not just the Muslim Brotherhood, it's also Care. This
one's a little bit more of a complicated organization. Break
that down why they're also getting on the list.
Speaker 3 (32:53):
Yeah, it's not actually that complicated. I mean Care is
a domestic organization. They had previously been implicated in supporting Moss,
supporting other terrorist organization. Let me read a story from
the New York Post. It's entitled Muslim group Care cutting
one thousand dollars checks for anti Israel agitators who have
been disciplined by colleges. And here's what The New York
Post reported anti Israel agitators who spread disruption at US
(33:17):
colleges and were punished by authorities were awarded checks for
one thousand dollars by a Muslim nonprofit. The Post has
learned the money was given to students who faced penalties
for leading pro Palestinian protests before and after the Hamas
attack on Israel on October seventh, twenty twenty three. According
to a bombshell report by the Network, Intagent Research Institute
(33:39):
and the Intelligent Advocacy Network, the cash was awarded from
a Quote Champions of Justice fund set up by a
California chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations CARE
as an institutional endorsement. The report claims in California, the
largest arm of the CARE web of nonprofits affiliates in
(33:59):
San Francis on Los Angeles raised more than one hundred
thousand dollars in donations for the campus radicals, while the
main group solicited sixty four thousand dollars in red donations.
Record show the money was then offered as interest free
loans and grants of one thousand dollars to students who
lost scholarships, housing or other support because of their advocacy.
(34:22):
According to carer's website, this is you have care. Literally,
you want to know why you had anti Semitic protests
on college campuses. I've been saying from the beginning, follow
the money. There's learning money behind me.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
Follow the money.
Speaker 3 (34:36):
The tents all matched, and it's because this is being
funded and this is being funded by Islamist this is
being funded by communists, this is being funded by foreign nations,
this is being funded by left wing billionaire donors who
frankly want to undermine America. And so Texas designating care
as well, that's a big step forward.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
Also, as always, thank you for listening to Verdict with Sentner,
Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you don't forget to deal
with my podcast and you can listen to my podcasts
every other day you're not listening to Verdict or each
day when you listen to Verdict. Afterwards, I'd love to
have you as a listener to again the Ben Ferguson
podcasts and we will see you back here on Monday morning.
Host
Ben Ferguson
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