Zach Jensen, content developer for The Mob Museum - the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement - calls in to discuss the mafia angle to breaking news of the day on FBI accusations of Chauncey Billups being used as a 'face card' to draw in suckers to lose money on a rigged poker game.
Rep. Jeff Crank (R, CO-5) joins Ryan with his perspective from Colorado's 5th Congressional District on the ongoing federal government shutdown, now in its third week.
Rep. Jeff Crank (R, CO-5) joins Ryan with his perspective from Colorado's 5th Congressional District on the ongoing federal government shutdown, now in its third week.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Individuals such as Chauncey Billups, Damon Jones, and Terry Rozier
were taking into custody today former current NBA players and coaches.
What you don't know is that this is an illegal
gambling operation and sports rigging operation that spanned the course
of years. The FBI led a coordinative takedown across eleven
(00:20):
states to arrest over thirty individuals today responsible for this case,
which is very much ongoing.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Not only did we crack into.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
The fraud that these perpetrators committed on the grand stage
of the NBA, but we also entered and executed a
system of justice against La casinostra to include the Bonano, Gambino, Genevesi,
and Luchas crime families.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
That's lu Casey. And for any of you that do
any amount of mob research, there's no such thing as
the mafia, No such things. All coasta nostra. It's all
in your heads. There's this code of omerta supposed to
bringing you don't tell any details about the business behind
the scenes. And in so doing, I hear the four
(01:11):
of the five major historical mafia families being mentioned Banano, Gambino, Jeneve,
Say Lou Casey, and I'm thinking the Columbo famili has
got to be going, what's going on here? Why weren't
we cut in on this deal? Why were the other
four families involved? I think they would be upset by that,
you would think, and joining us now to put a
special fine point on it and shine a light on
(01:33):
what might be going on behind the scenes here in
this big FBI gambling bus that includes Chauncey billups the NBA.
And that was Cash Betel, of course that you heard
as the director of the FBI. He joined us as
the content developer of the Mob Museum, the National Museum
of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement. Zach Jensen our guest
here on Ryan Schuling Lives. Zach, Welcome, Hi, thank you
(01:56):
for having me just take us from the beginning here
when you first heard about this story and what really
stands out to you.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Well, first of all, you know, illegal gambling is not
anything new for the MOB. You know, this is not
even the first time this year that a ring has
been busted. But what makes this unusual are the high
profile nature of some of the people involved and the
rigged nature of it.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
And to that detail, I remember watching Goodfellas and there's
a lot of conflation between you know, the Mafia, what's fictional,
the Sopranos, the Godfather, and what was really a fact.
What did happen with Henry Hill as part of his
endeavors in the criminal element point shaving Boston College comes
to mind college basketball, but what they were generally doing
there was probably praying upon college players as well. Before
(02:47):
there were you know, lightness contracts for these athletes and
they didn't have a way to make a fast buck,
and this might be a way to do it. That
they're shaving points. Nobody's going to pay attention maybe to
a Boston College Harvard game the way that they would
a high profile file NBA game with a high profile
NBA name like Chauncey Billups. So do you have a
theory or any kind of idea, Zach as to how
(03:09):
they might have roped somebody like Chauncey Billups a big
fish and they called them a face card in this
report into this whole racket.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Well, there are actually two separate indictments that went out today.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
You know.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
One is with these rigged poker games involving some of
the same people as the point shaving in the NBA.
So you know, we see a lot of mobs or
names in the poker game, but not so much mentioned
in the rigged basketball games.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
So it's interesting.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
There might be a mob connection with you know, the
rigged games, but we're not seeing it right now.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Zach Jensen, our guest. He's the content developer for the
Mob Museum. This sounds awesome. The National Museum of Organized
Crime and Law Enforcement. Now, Zach, I got to admit
it's the first I'm hearing about this Mob Museum. Can
you tell us a little bit more about that, how
you became involved with it and what it does, what
it presents to people.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Yeah, you know the MOP Museum where the National Museum
of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement. We're in downtown Las Vegas, Nevada.
And you know what fascinates me about the mob is
first our pop culture. You know, that was my introduction
to organized crime. You know, Goodfellas, Casino, the Godfather, and
so that was my gateway into this story of organized crime.
(04:34):
And once I started working at the MOP Museum, you know,
the deeper you go, the more fascinating it gets. And
it's still happening today.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
You know, I'm so glad you mentioned that it's in
Las Vegas. It'll be one of my first stops the
next time I visit. I enjoy Las Vegas. You know,
I tend to gamble a little bit, but I'm definitely
not the casino's favorite type of gambler because I don't
like to lose. I hate losing a lot more than
I like winning. And I only gaamble that which when
I might be comfortable losing and view it as an
entertainment expense and maybe I walk away. But that being said,
(05:07):
there's been such a blurring of the lines, Zach, as
you well know, between legal sports betting and this sort
of thing that used to be viewed as nefarious point spreads.
Jimmy the Greek had to wink and nod when he
was on the NFL Today with Brent Musberger about how
many points he thinks the Redskins might win by something
like that. And yet the mafia is still trying to
find an edge. That's what they're always looking for here
(05:28):
in this criminal element of engaging in vices like gambling,
and how it might be different and set apart from
say a Draft Kings or some of the online betting
platforms where there's point spreads, there's over unders, there's everything
else that's used in the gambling lingo and world. So
has that become more difficult then to execute an enterprise
like this, that kind of underworld element to it when
(05:50):
so much of it is out in the open and
legal now and advertise. We see it in the broadcast
of these games.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
You know, there's so many ways that you can get
involved illegal gambling, right come to Las Vegas, go online,
and there's safeguards in there for the gamblers. You know,
if you lose a lot of money and you owe money, well,
the worst that might happen is your wages might be garnished.
But if you get involved in organized crime, that illegal gambling,
(06:19):
it might be more convenient. But there's also the risk
of you know, broken bones if.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
You don't pay up.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
That is an added element and dimension to all of this.
Zach Jensen, our guest content developer for the Mom Museum
in Las Vegas, a point of interest if you do visit.
Like I said, I'm going to be trying to do
that myself, but I'm trying to think back to Zach.
I mean, I followed organized professional college sports. I'm probably
older than you going back to the early nineteen eighties,
(06:48):
and I vaguely recall the stories about, like I said,
the Boston College point shaving scandal. I remember Pete Rose.
Of course, he was summarily banned from Major League Baseball
for betting on his own team. So you peel the
layers to this, and it's a still developing story. But
say Chauncey phillips Is are wrapped up in the Polker
angle of this. What begs the question then, like you
(07:09):
said with a broken bones threat, is he's in debt
or he's knee deep in some kind of racket with
the mob, and maybe he owes them something. Might that
turn into, Hey, you have control as a head coach
over the outcome of an NBA game, and we can
get you to fix the score on this game to
make up for it. It just seems to me it
opens the door that Pandora's box, that kind of outcome,
(07:30):
and this could be a very dark day for the NBA,
not just today but going forward.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Well, you know, greed makes people do strange things. You know,
phillips he was making a good amount of money, you know,
two million dollars a year, But you know, I guess
people want more.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
And the thing about.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Getting involved with organized crime is sure, you might find
some opportunity to make some side cash, a good amount
of side cash, but once you're in, it's not that easy.
Speaker 4 (08:03):
To get out.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
In fact, that was featured. I keep going back to
these pop culture references, but in the episode of The
Sopranos where Christopher becomes a made man, he goes once gin,
there's no getting out. And that's kind of what you
just said about getting involved wrapped up in the mob,
because once they got you under their thumb, that's all
part of the modus operandi of what they're trying to
(08:25):
get at. Meaning they have a Chauncey Billups, he's a
mark for them, he can draw others in. It gives
the illusion of fairness of this is a legitimate game. Hey,
Chauncey's involved in it, but he's in on it, and
that these were rigged games. This is what really is
grabbing me, Zach and my analysis of this. It's one
thing if it was an off the books kind of
illegal game. They're running their own thing. They got you
(08:48):
know that that happens all the time in the mafia.
But to actually rig the games themselves and have suckers
on the hook playing a game that they could not win.
That's another dark element to this, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Yeah? It combines two of the mob's favorite things, illegal
games and scamming people.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
So what are you looking for next, Zach? Is you
kind of I know that you've become a historian and
becoming involved with the MOM Museum there in Las Vegas,
and this in many ways as it unfolds, is a
very unprecedented story at least in the modern history of sports.
You have to go back maybe to like Joe Jackson
in the Chicago Black Sox scandal nineteen nineteen, where there's
(09:31):
this kind of nexus of organized crime element and the
actual participants, the athletes, the coaches themselves. But what is
the next kind of layer to this story that you're
looking for that might be a tell as to what
else might be going on here?
Speaker 3 (09:46):
Well, this today just scratched the surface of what's going on.
You know, something I'm going to be paying close attention
to is how deep this goes, how far the MOM
had reached into the NBA, and plus the fact that
they're using this cutting edge technology, you know, X ray
poker tables to cheat these guys. That's what interests me most.
(10:08):
So I'm interesting interested in seeing like what kind of tricks.
Speaker 4 (10:12):
That they've used to fool these people.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
You can find out more online at the mob Museum
dot org. Zach Jensen joining us on very short notice
as the content developer for the MOB Museum. Fascinating stuff. Zach,
you have a very cool job. I'm kind of jealous
of you right now, but we really appreciate your time today.
My pleasure, all right, Zach Jensen joining us. There your
thoughts and reaction five seven seven three nine. It's just
(10:36):
one of those days with one of these stories that
kind of ties it all together. You know, my Michigan roots,
my Pistons, rooting interests in Chauncey Billups and all of
you that have followed his entire career from University of
Colorado and him being spurned by so many NBA teams,
him having to prove himself with a chip on his shoulder.
This is really the entire theme of those going to
(10:57):
work Pistons. These are guys that were cast aside by
other team teams. Rip Hamilton by the Washington Wizards was
involved in the trade for Jerry Stackhouse. He was thrown away,
cast aside by the Wizards. Billups of a few different
teams gave up on him before he landed in Detroit.
Jayshawn Prince was a draft pick Ben Wallace. This guy
becomes one of the best defenders of all time in
the NBA, and he was a vagabond for a time,
(11:20):
just kind of bouncing around team to team amously before
he became kind of the centerpiece, the lynchpin defensively on
this tremendous basketball team coach by Larry Brown, a Hall
of Fame legend in his own right. And then Rashid Wallace.
They made that trade and brought his attitude and his swagger.
They're gonna be a Game seven and it just all
came together. This was unlike many teams. They literally fired
(11:41):
on all cylinders like pistons. It's not just a metaphor,
it's not just a team name. That's who they were,
and they really evoked a lot of fan passion you
might imagine in a city like Detroit with fans that
are blue collar, like you watch right now in real
time in Detroit. When you see Dan Campbell had go
to the Lions, he's just brawling. He's kind of fits
(12:02):
that personality, right, that assembly lie, we're gonna get it
done mentality. And that's what the two thousand and four
Pistons were, and that's who Chauncey Billups was. He was
the leader of that team. He was the leader in
terms of character, in terms of performance, personality, intellect. This
guy was solid on all fronts. And this just breaks
(12:24):
my heart. I can't even put it into words accurately.
You know what this does for all of us fans
that celebrated Chauncey Billups and want the best for him,
But it doesn't look like good times they're gonna be
coming back his way anytime soon. Back to the Fox
Sports story that I was referencing earlier, billups career earnings
exceeded one hundred million dollars as a player, but we
(12:47):
don't know how much of that might have been squandered
away in bad investments, gambling debts. These guys make all
this money, and a lot of times they end up broke.
You can probably think of several examples of those types
of players, and it's a really sad story. Over the years.
It's not clear it says how Billips and Jones became
friendly with the other defendants, many of whom are three
(13:08):
separate Italian American crime families. And think about that four
of the five families referenced in The Godfather and throughout
the history of organized crime LaCOSA and Nostra in the
United States, that which was taken down by Rudy Giuliani,
and his life was very much in danger throughout the
(13:29):
time that he served as the District attorney there in
New York City and then ultimately becoming a mayor of
that city. But if you might recall two I think
the name was Tim Donaghy. He was a referee in
the NBA and he was busted for gambling on games
that he officiated, and there were a lot of questions
not just about him. But I remember going back to
(13:52):
the NBA finals, this is like late two thousands. I
want to say, was whenever the Dallas Mavericks were in
and there was a particular referee that whenever he officiated
a Mavericks playoff game, the Mavericks always lost. And I
can't remember that was Donnige, or it might have been
another one. I think Danny Crawford is the name that
comes to mind. It's been a while I gotta dust
(14:14):
off my memory banks here, but the NBA in recent
years there have been some clouds hanging over it in
terms of maybe having this criminal element and some overlap there.
Major League Baseball has always been extremely sensitive to this
because it almost ruined the game. The example that I
gave of the nineteen nineteen Chicago White Sox then infamously
(14:36):
known as the Black Sox and shoeless Joe Jackson and
Buck Weaver and that whole depiction on film in the
movie Eight Men Out, and they were banned from Major
League Baseball. But Kennesaw Mountain Land as the commissioner of
Major League Baseball at that time, and in that shadow,
Babe Ruth emerged to save the game of baseball. The
(14:56):
Bronx bombers those nineteen twenty seven Yankees just eight years
after that, in which the Cincinnati Reads or basically gifted
the World Series because the White Sox threw it and
it almost brought the entire sport crashing down on the
weight of itself. And then, as I mentioned, Babe Ruth,
lou gerrig the Yankees, they save it face for the
entire operation. Years later, Pete Rose is busted in the
(15:20):
nineteen eighties for betting on baseball. Now, he denied, denied,
denied for much of his life. First he denied that
he gambled at all. Then he denied that he gambled
on baseball. Then he denied that he gambled on his
own team and he only bet on them to win.
And then by the end I think he was admitting that, yeah,
I was just whatever, and Pete Rose had degenerated into
(15:41):
that kind of gambler that was fiending for some action. Yes,
that dopamine hit that you get from various other things,
and gambling can be one of those. And it cost
Pete Rose's legacy. It cost him any kind of presence
in Major League Baseball, albeit he was one of the
best all time players of the twentieth cive entry. It
cost him entrance into the Hall of Fame, at least
(16:03):
during his living years. So this element of ornance, crime, gambling,
and then on the other side, on the level sports
that are presented to a public, to a fan base,
to you, to me as entertainment, but we want to
know that it's not rigged. We know, for instance, that
like WWE Professional Wrestling, it's the outcome is rigged. It's
(16:27):
not fake because these guys going to undergo a lot
of physical punishment and they have to be finely tuned athletes,
and they put themselves through a lot of hell. A
lot of them don't live very long because of that.
And going back to the eighties, the whole steroid scandal,
it's Vincent Man and that sort of thing. But we
go into that knowing this is for show. This is
sports entertainment, but we don't expect the NBA to be
(16:48):
sports entertainment. And whether or not there were NBA games
that were altered or fixed or compromised in some way,
we don't even know that yet. As that points out,
this could be just the tip of the iceberg, and
if there was some kind of game fixing going on,
this is the type of scandal that could explode on
Adam Silver, the entire association. You have to believe that.
(17:10):
Was it just Chauncey Billups that was involved here and
just Terry Rosier it was another one that was arrested here,
or just Damon Jones. I remember him playing for the
Miami Heat alongside O Lambron James there when they won
some championships or at the crest of the wave and
it might be the tip of the iceberg. But as
(17:31):
Steven A. Smith theorized and we played that sound earlier,
is Donald Trump behind all of this. It's the most
humorous take of the day. It is a worse take
rather than a first take like that show was named.
And it might just be enough to nominate Stephen A.
Smith as our Friday Fool of the Week. Much more
to get to. Representative Jeff Crank joins us next. Now,
(17:57):
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Speaker 5 (19:40):
I think this vote today is a really challenging one
for the Democrats. It's very hard to defend voting against
Ron Johnson is offering a counter proposal data that is,
as was pointed out, would pay everybody who's working, so
any what they call accepted employees, anybody who's currently working
and not getting paid, would get paid under this proposal.
The demo Crafts are going to try and counter it
(20:01):
with a political gimmick which would pay federal employees once,
but then continue the shut down. They're trying to have
it both ways. I mean, this is all about politics
for them. If they open up the government, they're left
wing base goals nuts. If they don't vote for Ron
Johnson or something else, then a lot of the federal
employees are going to be without pay.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
And you got a whole lot of.
Speaker 5 (20:22):
Other programs out there, including the SNAP program that's available
to people who really need food incenses in this country,
is going to go away here soon too.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Republican South Dakota Dick Wadhams,
who organized his winning campaign going way back now over
twenty years as he unseated and upset the Senate Majority
leader at that time. Tom Dashelik Watams will join us
tomorrow at three point thirty three to talk more about
fun in the leadership position. I know he has not
(20:52):
been a favorite for die hard conservatives or maga Republicans
that are fervent Trump supporters. But all I can say
is two things. One, he's a tremendous upgrade over cocaine. Mitch,
Mitch McConnell, Okay, just set that aside. And then two,
I've only seen positive words come from the President Donald
Trump when it comes to Senator Thune, and he really
(21:13):
nails it right here. The Dems are between a rock
and a hard place. They can go ahead and try
to run out the clock here, but run it out
on whom These are a lot of the same people
that they pretend to represent, who are standing to lose
benefits like snap checks and who a Democrat member of
the House said yesterday, she knows they're going through pain,
but they need to use this as leverage. And so
(21:35):
Thuon hits the nail on the head right here.
Speaker 5 (21:38):
We're getting to where the consequences of this are very real.
The Democrats continue to play political games. They are afraid,
just absolutely desperately afraid of their base, and that's why
we're in the situation we're in. So it's going to
take five Democrats probably not going to come out.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
Of their leadership. They're in a place they're a lost cause.
Speaker 5 (21:56):
I think it's going to have to be rank and
file Democrats who.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
End this well continue to vote and the Democrats continue
to opt you skate. With a few exceptions, John Fetterman,
Catherine Cortez Masto, and Angus King, who caucuses with the Democrats.
There's one other name I'm going to focus in on
as we bring in our next guest, who represents the
fifth Congressional district right here in Colorado. He is Representative
Jeff Crank here on Ryan Schuling Live. Jeff, thanks for
(22:19):
your time as.
Speaker 4 (22:19):
Always, Hey, Ryan, thanks for having me. Yeah, this is man,
It's just crazy. This vote today is the worst of
them all. Why would you say that, Well, I mean this,
We're getting right down to it. I think Johnson is
exactly right, you know, to vote against this. This would
have simply paid our military, our men and women in uniform,
(22:42):
our TSA agents, our border patrol agents, our air traffic controllers,
and all the employees who are still working. And they
couldn't figure out a way to get that done. We
have fifty five thousand federal employees in the state of Colorado,
and you got two US senators who have voted twelve
times not to open the government, that the thirteenth time
(23:06):
not to open the government and pay these federal employees
all for what. You know, they act like it's about healthcare.
Isn't about healthcare. It's about placating their insane base. Even
if it were about healthcare, Brian, do you know how
many people get these enhanced premium at subsidies. I'm not
going to call them credits, but the subsidies that they're
(23:29):
trying to do, do you know how many people in
Colorado actually receive those?
Speaker 2 (23:33):
How many?
Speaker 4 (23:34):
Thirty two thousand? So we're going to not pay fifty
five thousand federal employees in Colorado or any of our
troops so that we can help placate thirty two thousand people.
And these are not the people who are low income.
Those subsidies continue, they aren't about to expire. What's about
to expire are the enhanced premium tax subsidies for people
(24:01):
who make you know, sixty seventy eighty one hundred thousand dollars.
They're doing this to help those folks. This isn't about
tax subsidies for lower income people.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
Congressman Crank I know that many of your constituents, and
I wish I was one of them. I'm not. Unfortunately,
Jason Crow is the district I live in. However, they
want you to hold the line, and I know that
you're committed to that, and I believe the Speaker Johnson is.
But just walk with me for a second here, because
I get the game that's going on here that the
Democrats are trying to play. But from the starting point
(24:36):
of a continuing resolution that's the exact same dating back
several cycles now, to just keep the government running. There
were no Republican sweeteners in this bill, little goodies, set
asides that were kind of built into this from which
maybe this is the guy I'm going to mention, specifically
Senator John Assoff, whose seat is on the line in
twenty twenty six in a purple state of Georgia, and
(24:58):
he you know he can't before I don't think to
be painted as far left. He's gonna lose, and they're
gonna lose that scene. That's just one of several that
are on the line on that side in that chamber
for the Democrats. But there's nowhere to negotiate. Here's my point.
Should the Republicans have thrown in some sweeteners and given
the Democrats some cover all. We got those out of
the bill, and now we're back to the sea. Are
Is that what should happen?
Speaker 4 (25:17):
I guess no, that's not what should happen. That's what
they're trying to get to happen. You know, I had
somebody ask me the other day, well why don't we
do Why don't you negotiate? And I said, what is
there to negotiate? We've passed a clean continuing resolution? Well
you should negotiate, they say, I said, what should I
negotiate to a thirty continuing resolution? Is that what you're
(25:40):
asking me to do? You want some back room deal
that nobody knows about. We just bring it to the
floor and vote on it at three in the morning.
No way, we passed a clean resolution, and here's the deal, Ryan.
We cannot give in because if we do, what's going
to happen on November twenty first, when this continuing resolution
(26:01):
runs out and they got something the last time. You
don't pay people when they take hostages, or you get
more hostages.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Love that take Congressman Jeff Crank joining US fifth Congressional
District right here in Colorado. To that point, I saw
some analysis from Frank Lunch that he doesn't think there
are winners on either side, and to a degree I
agree with that. We don't want the government shut down.
This is not great for anybody involved. But what you
just said rings true to me in that Republicans have
(26:31):
the ground of Look, we've passed this same exact continued
resolution several times in the past. Nothing has changed from it,
so it's not like we're trying to hide the ball
here and all of a sudden, the Democrats are up
in arms. Their claim, and I'd like you to refute this,
Congressman Crank, is that you the Republicans are shutting down
healthcare benefits for so many people in the nation, Medicaid
(26:53):
and otherwise. But the counter that has been that, of course,
what the Democrats want is the funding of those taxpayer
funded benefits for illegal aliens, which would undo everything that
the Trump administration, the Republicans in Congress have worked toward
when they want a majority in this past election.
Speaker 4 (27:12):
Yeah, absolutely right, Ryan. You know, elections have consequences. Majorities
mean something, and a majority in the House and the
Senate passed the one big, beautiful Bill or Reconciliation Bill.
Included in that were a lot of reforms to healthcare.
One of them was to stop funding of healthcare for
(27:33):
people who are non citizens in the United States, whether
they're here illegally or not, you know, not to fund
non citizens. And other parts of that were to stop
the waste, frauden abuse in Medicaid. We put simple work
requirements for able body recipients. All of these things. Well,
when the Democrats came up with their alternative continuing resolution
(27:57):
to our clean continuing resolution, they wanted to repeal. If
they put it in writing, they said, they said this
out loud, they put it in writing that they wanted
to repeal all of the of the healthcare provisions of
HR one, the one big Beautiful bill, which included all
of those Medicaid reforms. They wanted to repeal all of that.
(28:18):
They wanted to repeal all of the cuts, all of
the recisions. To know where we took money away from
the corporation for public broadcasting. They want to spend one
and a half trillion dollars in the next seven weeks
so as our ransom money to get the government back open.
We're not going to do that.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
Congressman Jeff Crank, our guest, you mentioned Friday, November twenty first,
that's the Friday before Thanksgiving, as another kind of milestone
in which you get to go to the next continuing
resolution to fund the government for what we're dealing with
in the here and now day by day, Does anything happen,
Let's say at the end of this month, Halloween October
(28:58):
thirty first, it's a Friday, And is there a potential
here that is as the pressure grows? Perhaps, and I
would assume this would be on Democrats to cave that
they've proven their point. They threw this bone to their base,
the Senator Foon is telling them, and that by either
Halloween or the following Monday, they're going to come to
the middle. I just don't see any reason, Jeff, for
(29:20):
you or any of the Republicans in Congress to blink
at this point. None at all.
Speaker 4 (29:24):
Yeah, No, there's no reason to blink. There's nothing should
blink over. You know, again, we passed a clean continuing resolution,
something they did thirteen times. And by the way, when
they did it, Republicans joined them in the Biden administration
artisan in the way that it was done back then,
it should be bipartisan. Today, Chuck Chu has voted for
(29:46):
twenty nine out of thirty only. What he doesn't vote
for is when Donald Trump is president. This is simple stuff.
They're playing to their base. He doesn't want to be
primary by Ali Xandro Cosi Cortez. John Osoff even said
he said, look, if I vote to shut down the government,
(30:07):
my base goes crazy. They love it. They send me
money online. Right. They were quoted as saying this, So
what's in it for him? If if he breaks? And
are they going to keep sending in money? Are the
crazies in that party going to keep sending in money?
They have to wean themselves off the crazies in that party,
(30:27):
and until they do, the American people will continue to suffer.
Our military won't get paid unless someone like Donald Trump
tries to find the money as he did in the
Pentagon and pay our troops.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
My prediction is somebody like us off, he's going to
keep collecting that money. I'm so glad you told me
that detail, because the cynic in me really seizes upon this,
and he's going to get to a certain level where
he figures it's enough and then he'll cave. He is
going to come around. I guarantee it. His re election
bid depends on it, and he is the one that's
going to have this CRUs put to them. I think
the heat and if I was John Thune, that might
(31:03):
be a guy at Paul saying we do want to
do here, you know that sort of thing.
Speaker 4 (31:06):
So and Ryan, let me say, you know, forty percent
of the problem right now is in Colorado. Think about this.
Right to take sixty votes, we're five votes short. We
need five Democrat senators to cross the line and stop
philipbustering this. They don't even have to vote for the
cr they just need to stop Philip bustering it and
(31:28):
let it be heard. And two of those five forty
percent are Michael Dinnett and John Hickenlooper. So they're forty
percent of the reason federal government is shut down right now.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Well, we are so proud of those two senators. I
say that very sarcastically. At this moment, we'll keep our
eyes on what comes next. Thankful for the inside view
of Representative Jeff Krank from the fifth Congressional District joining
us here today. Jeff, thanks for the great work that
you're doing. Keep it up. We'll be in touch.
Speaker 4 (31:58):
You got it, Ryan, Thanks as a.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
All right, Congressman Jeff Crank, right, there are your thoughts
to close out the show at five seven, seven, three
nine on Ryan Schuling Live. Representative Jeff Crank is nobody's
fool man. He's doing a great job. Both he and
Gabe Evans stand out to me as freshman congressmen that
(32:21):
have really hit the ground running. And Crank has not
given any quarter, none at all, And even in a
purple district game, Evans has stood his ground. He's doing
so on this government shutdown, and that is my advice.
Hold the line. The Democrats are holding the bag here
on the shutdown. It's theirs. They own it. It's the
Schumer shutdown. It's a continuing resolution. Nothing was added to it.
(32:42):
There were no sweeteners in it for conservatives at all.
It was just what had been done. And the Democrats
are the ones holding it up. And I love this
textor kind of ties the whole show together here today,
Mafia gambling and Democrats dealing on the shutdown. That's a
nice government you got. The shame of it got shut down.
You know I won't want to see that happen. Well done,
(33:05):
Texter Tyna bow on this show, Ryan, can we as
American citizens put it to a nationwide vote that we
don't want Congress and the Senate getting paid while on
a government shutdown. I believe Gabe Evans is refusing his salary.
Speaker 4 (33:18):
I think Michael Bennett a copyed Okay, he hells to do.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
Michael Bennett could vote for the cr Soka, John Hickenlooper
neither doing it. They are part of the problem, not
the solution. And finally, this from Donna. So great to
have you back. Ryan, You're missed no matter who sits
in for you. I share your sadness about Chauncey or
Smooth as he used to be known. I'm still in
his corner. Well, I am default proa Chauncey, but this
(33:45):
looks really bad and I want to keep an open mind.
I want to hear his side of the story. But
the evidence appears to be damning and was the FBI
that presented it. Today, Dan Capris will have more on
this straight ahead. That's all for me from here for now.
Talk to you again tomorrow. I'm Ryan Schuling Live
Individuals such as Chauncey Billups, Damon Jones, and Terry Rozier
were taking into custody today former current NBA players and coaches.
What you don't know is that this is an illegal
gambling operation and sports rigging operation that spanned the course
of years. The FBI led a coordinative takedown across eleven
(00:20):
states to arrest over thirty individuals today responsible for this case,
which is very much ongoing.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Not only did we crack into.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
The fraud that these perpetrators committed on the grand stage
of the NBA, but we also entered and executed a
system of justice against La casinostra to include the Bonano, Gambino, Genevesi,
and Luchas crime families.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
That's lu Casey. And for any of you that do
any amount of mob research, there's no such thing as
the mafia, No such things. All coasta nostra. It's all
in your heads. There's this code of omerta supposed to
bringing you don't tell any details about the business behind
the scenes. And in so doing, I hear the four
(01:11):
of the five major historical mafia families being mentioned Banano, Gambino, Jeneve,
Say Lou Casey, and I'm thinking the Columbo famili has
got to be going, what's going on here? Why weren't
we cut in on this deal? Why were the other
four families involved? I think they would be upset by that,
you would think, and joining us now to put a
special fine point on it and shine a light on
(01:33):
what might be going on behind the scenes here in
this big FBI gambling bus that includes Chauncey billups the NBA.
And that was Cash Betel, of course that you heard
as the director of the FBI. He joined us as
the content developer of the Mob Museum, the National Museum
of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement. Zach Jensen our guest
here on Ryan Schuling Lives. Zach, Welcome, Hi, thank you
(01:56):
for having me just take us from the beginning here
when you first heard about this story and what really
stands out to you.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Well, first of all, you know, illegal gambling is not
anything new for the MOB. You know, this is not
even the first time this year that a ring has
been busted. But what makes this unusual are the high
profile nature of some of the people involved and the
rigged nature of it.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
And to that detail, I remember watching Goodfellas and there's
a lot of conflation between you know, the Mafia, what's fictional,
the Sopranos, the Godfather, and what was really a fact.
What did happen with Henry Hill as part of his
endeavors in the criminal element point shaving Boston College comes
to mind college basketball, but what they were generally doing
there was probably praying upon college players as well. Before
(02:47):
there were you know, lightness contracts for these athletes and
they didn't have a way to make a fast buck,
and this might be a way to do it. That
they're shaving points. Nobody's going to pay attention maybe to
a Boston College Harvard game the way that they would
a high profile file NBA game with a high profile
NBA name like Chauncey Billups. So do you have a
theory or any kind of idea, Zach as to how
(03:09):
they might have roped somebody like Chauncey Billups a big
fish and they called them a face card in this
report into this whole racket.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Well, there are actually two separate indictments that went out today.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
You know.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
One is with these rigged poker games involving some of
the same people as the point shaving in the NBA.
So you know, we see a lot of mobs or
names in the poker game, but not so much mentioned
in the rigged basketball games.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
So it's interesting.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
There might be a mob connection with you know, the
rigged games, but we're not seeing it right now.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Zach Jensen, our guest. He's the content developer for the
Mob Museum. This sounds awesome. The National Museum of Organized
Crime and Law Enforcement. Now, Zach, I got to admit
it's the first I'm hearing about this Mob Museum. Can
you tell us a little bit more about that, how
you became involved with it and what it does, what
it presents to people.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Yeah, you know the MOP Museum where the National Museum
of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement. We're in downtown Las Vegas, Nevada.
And you know what fascinates me about the mob is
first our pop culture. You know, that was my introduction
to organized crime. You know, Goodfellas, Casino, the Godfather, and
so that was my gateway into this story of organized crime.
(04:34):
And once I started working at the MOP Museum, you know,
the deeper you go, the more fascinating it gets. And
it's still happening today.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
You know, I'm so glad you mentioned that it's in
Las Vegas. It'll be one of my first stops the
next time I visit. I enjoy Las Vegas. You know,
I tend to gamble a little bit, but I'm definitely
not the casino's favorite type of gambler because I don't
like to lose. I hate losing a lot more than
I like winning. And I only gaamble that which when
I might be comfortable losing and view it as an
entertainment expense and maybe I walk away. But that being said,
(05:07):
there's been such a blurring of the lines, Zach, as
you well know, between legal sports betting and this sort
of thing that used to be viewed as nefarious point spreads.
Jimmy the Greek had to wink and nod when he
was on the NFL Today with Brent Musberger about how
many points he thinks the Redskins might win by something
like that. And yet the mafia is still trying to
find an edge. That's what they're always looking for here
(05:28):
in this criminal element of engaging in vices like gambling,
and how it might be different and set apart from
say a Draft Kings or some of the online betting
platforms where there's point spreads, there's over unders, there's everything
else that's used in the gambling lingo and world. So
has that become more difficult then to execute an enterprise
like this, that kind of underworld element to it when
(05:50):
so much of it is out in the open and
legal now and advertise. We see it in the broadcast
of these games.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
You know, there's so many ways that you can get
involved illegal gambling, right come to Las Vegas, go online,
and there's safeguards in there for the gamblers. You know,
if you lose a lot of money and you owe money, well,
the worst that might happen is your wages might be garnished.
But if you get involved in organized crime, that illegal gambling,
(06:19):
it might be more convenient. But there's also the risk
of you know, broken bones if.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
You don't pay up.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
That is an added element and dimension to all of this.
Zach Jensen, our guest content developer for the Mom Museum
in Las Vegas, a point of interest if you do visit.
Like I said, I'm going to be trying to do
that myself, but I'm trying to think back to Zach.
I mean, I followed organized professional college sports. I'm probably
older than you going back to the early nineteen eighties,
(06:48):
and I vaguely recall the stories about, like I said,
the Boston College point shaving scandal. I remember Pete Rose.
Of course, he was summarily banned from Major League Baseball
for betting on his own team. So you peel the
layers to this, and it's a still developing story. But
say Chauncey phillips Is are wrapped up in the Polker
angle of this. What begs the question then, like you
(07:09):
said with a broken bones threat, is he's in debt
or he's knee deep in some kind of racket with
the mob, and maybe he owes them something. Might that
turn into, Hey, you have control as a head coach
over the outcome of an NBA game, and we can
get you to fix the score on this game to
make up for it. It just seems to me it
opens the door that Pandora's box, that kind of outcome,
(07:30):
and this could be a very dark day for the NBA,
not just today but going forward.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Well, you know, greed makes people do strange things. You know,
phillips he was making a good amount of money, you know,
two million dollars a year, But you know, I guess
people want more.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
And the thing about.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Getting involved with organized crime is sure, you might find
some opportunity to make some side cash, a good amount
of side cash, but once you're in, it's not that easy.
Speaker 4 (08:03):
To get out.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
In fact, that was featured. I keep going back to
these pop culture references, but in the episode of The
Sopranos where Christopher becomes a made man, he goes once gin,
there's no getting out. And that's kind of what you
just said about getting involved wrapped up in the mob,
because once they got you under their thumb, that's all
part of the modus operandi of what they're trying to
(08:25):
get at. Meaning they have a Chauncey Billups, he's a
mark for them, he can draw others in. It gives
the illusion of fairness of this is a legitimate game. Hey,
Chauncey's involved in it, but he's in on it, and
that these were rigged games. This is what really is
grabbing me, Zach and my analysis of this. It's one
thing if it was an off the books kind of
illegal game. They're running their own thing. They got you
(08:48):
know that that happens all the time in the mafia.
But to actually rig the games themselves and have suckers
on the hook playing a game that they could not win.
That's another dark element to this, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Yeah? It combines two of the mob's favorite things, illegal
games and scamming people.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
So what are you looking for next, Zach? Is you
kind of I know that you've become a historian and
becoming involved with the MOM Museum there in Las Vegas,
and this in many ways as it unfolds, is a
very unprecedented story at least in the modern history of sports.
You have to go back maybe to like Joe Jackson
in the Chicago Black Sox scandal nineteen nineteen, where there's
(09:31):
this kind of nexus of organized crime element and the
actual participants, the athletes, the coaches themselves. But what is
the next kind of layer to this story that you're
looking for that might be a tell as to what
else might be going on here?
Speaker 3 (09:46):
Well, this today just scratched the surface of what's going on.
You know, something I'm going to be paying close attention
to is how deep this goes, how far the MOM
had reached into the NBA, and plus the fact that
they're using this cutting edge technology, you know, X ray
poker tables to cheat these guys. That's what interests me most.
(10:08):
So I'm interesting interested in seeing like what kind of tricks.
Speaker 4 (10:12):
That they've used to fool these people.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
You can find out more online at the mob Museum
dot org. Zach Jensen joining us on very short notice
as the content developer for the MOB Museum. Fascinating stuff. Zach,
you have a very cool job. I'm kind of jealous
of you right now, but we really appreciate your time today.
My pleasure, all right, Zach Jensen joining us. There your
thoughts and reaction five seven seven three nine. It's just
(10:36):
one of those days with one of these stories that
kind of ties it all together. You know, my Michigan roots,
my Pistons, rooting interests in Chauncey Billups and all of
you that have followed his entire career from University of
Colorado and him being spurned by so many NBA teams,
him having to prove himself with a chip on his shoulder.
This is really the entire theme of those going to
(10:57):
work Pistons. These are guys that were cast aside by
other team teams. Rip Hamilton by the Washington Wizards was
involved in the trade for Jerry Stackhouse. He was thrown away,
cast aside by the Wizards. Billups of a few different
teams gave up on him before he landed in Detroit.
Jayshawn Prince was a draft pick Ben Wallace. This guy
becomes one of the best defenders of all time in
the NBA, and he was a vagabond for a time,
(11:20):
just kind of bouncing around team to team amously before
he became kind of the centerpiece, the lynchpin defensively on
this tremendous basketball team coach by Larry Brown, a Hall
of Fame legend in his own right. And then Rashid Wallace.
They made that trade and brought his attitude and his swagger.
They're gonna be a Game seven and it just all
came together. This was unlike many teams. They literally fired
(11:41):
on all cylinders like pistons. It's not just a metaphor,
it's not just a team name. That's who they were,
and they really evoked a lot of fan passion you
might imagine in a city like Detroit with fans that
are blue collar, like you watch right now in real
time in Detroit. When you see Dan Campbell had go
to the Lions, he's just brawling. He's kind of fits
(12:02):
that personality, right, that assembly lie, we're gonna get it
done mentality. And that's what the two thousand and four
Pistons were, and that's who Chauncey Billups was. He was
the leader of that team. He was the leader in
terms of character, in terms of performance, personality, intellect. This
guy was solid on all fronts. And this just breaks
(12:24):
my heart. I can't even put it into words accurately.
You know what this does for all of us fans
that celebrated Chauncey Billups and want the best for him,
But it doesn't look like good times they're gonna be
coming back his way anytime soon. Back to the Fox
Sports story that I was referencing earlier, billups career earnings
exceeded one hundred million dollars as a player, but we
(12:47):
don't know how much of that might have been squandered
away in bad investments, gambling debts. These guys make all
this money, and a lot of times they end up broke.
You can probably think of several examples of those types
of players, and it's a really sad story. Over the years.
It's not clear it says how Billips and Jones became
friendly with the other defendants, many of whom are three
(13:08):
separate Italian American crime families. And think about that four
of the five families referenced in The Godfather and throughout
the history of organized crime LaCOSA and Nostra in the
United States, that which was taken down by Rudy Giuliani,
and his life was very much in danger throughout the
(13:29):
time that he served as the District attorney there in
New York City and then ultimately becoming a mayor of
that city. But if you might recall two I think
the name was Tim Donaghy. He was a referee in
the NBA and he was busted for gambling on games
that he officiated, and there were a lot of questions
not just about him. But I remember going back to
(13:52):
the NBA finals, this is like late two thousands. I
want to say, was whenever the Dallas Mavericks were in
and there was a particular referee that whenever he officiated
a Mavericks playoff game, the Mavericks always lost. And I
can't remember that was Donnige, or it might have been
another one. I think Danny Crawford is the name that
comes to mind. It's been a while I gotta dust
(14:14):
off my memory banks here, but the NBA in recent
years there have been some clouds hanging over it in
terms of maybe having this criminal element and some overlap there.
Major League Baseball has always been extremely sensitive to this
because it almost ruined the game. The example that I
gave of the nineteen nineteen Chicago White Sox then infamously
(14:36):
known as the Black Sox and shoeless Joe Jackson and
Buck Weaver and that whole depiction on film in the
movie Eight Men Out, and they were banned from Major
League Baseball. But Kennesaw Mountain Land as the commissioner of
Major League Baseball at that time, and in that shadow,
Babe Ruth emerged to save the game of baseball. The
(14:56):
Bronx bombers those nineteen twenty seven Yankees just eight years
after that, in which the Cincinnati Reads or basically gifted
the World Series because the White Sox threw it and
it almost brought the entire sport crashing down on the
weight of itself. And then, as I mentioned, Babe Ruth,
lou gerrig the Yankees, they save it face for the
entire operation. Years later, Pete Rose is busted in the
(15:20):
nineteen eighties for betting on baseball. Now, he denied, denied,
denied for much of his life. First he denied that
he gambled at all. Then he denied that he gambled
on baseball. Then he denied that he gambled on his
own team and he only bet on them to win.
And then by the end I think he was admitting that, yeah,
I was just whatever, and Pete Rose had degenerated into
(15:41):
that kind of gambler that was fiending for some action. Yes,
that dopamine hit that you get from various other things,
and gambling can be one of those. And it cost
Pete Rose's legacy. It cost him any kind of presence
in Major League Baseball, albeit he was one of the
best all time players of the twentieth cive entry. It
cost him entrance into the Hall of Fame, at least
(16:03):
during his living years. So this element of ornance, crime, gambling,
and then on the other side, on the level sports
that are presented to a public, to a fan base,
to you, to me as entertainment, but we want to
know that it's not rigged. We know, for instance, that
like WWE Professional Wrestling, it's the outcome is rigged. It's
(16:27):
not fake because these guys going to undergo a lot
of physical punishment and they have to be finely tuned athletes,
and they put themselves through a lot of hell. A
lot of them don't live very long because of that.
And going back to the eighties, the whole steroid scandal,
it's Vincent Man and that sort of thing. But we
go into that knowing this is for show. This is
sports entertainment, but we don't expect the NBA to be
(16:48):
sports entertainment. And whether or not there were NBA games
that were altered or fixed or compromised in some way,
we don't even know that yet. As that points out,
this could be just the tip of the iceberg, and
if there was some kind of game fixing going on,
this is the type of scandal that could explode on
Adam Silver, the entire association. You have to believe that.
(17:10):
Was it just Chauncey Billups that was involved here and
just Terry Rosier it was another one that was arrested here,
or just Damon Jones. I remember him playing for the
Miami Heat alongside O Lambron James there when they won
some championships or at the crest of the wave and
it might be the tip of the iceberg. But as
(17:31):
Steven A. Smith theorized and we played that sound earlier,
is Donald Trump behind all of this. It's the most
humorous take of the day. It is a worse take
rather than a first take like that show was named.
And it might just be enough to nominate Stephen A.
Smith as our Friday Fool of the Week. Much more
to get to. Representative Jeff Crank joins us next. Now,
(17:57):
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Speaker 5 (19:40):
I think this vote today is a really challenging one
for the Democrats. It's very hard to defend voting against
Ron Johnson is offering a counter proposal data that is,
as was pointed out, would pay everybody who's working, so
any what they call accepted employees, anybody who's currently working
and not getting paid, would get paid under this proposal.
The demo Crafts are going to try and counter it
(20:01):
with a political gimmick which would pay federal employees once,
but then continue the shut down. They're trying to have
it both ways. I mean, this is all about politics
for them. If they open up the government, they're left
wing base goals nuts. If they don't vote for Ron
Johnson or something else, then a lot of the federal
employees are going to be without pay.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
And you got a whole lot of.
Speaker 5 (20:22):
Other programs out there, including the SNAP program that's available
to people who really need food incenses in this country,
is going to go away here soon too.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Republican South Dakota Dick Wadhams,
who organized his winning campaign going way back now over
twenty years as he unseated and upset the Senate Majority
leader at that time. Tom Dashelik Watams will join us
tomorrow at three point thirty three to talk more about
fun in the leadership position. I know he has not
(20:52):
been a favorite for die hard conservatives or maga Republicans
that are fervent Trump supporters. But all I can say
is two things. One, he's a tremendous upgrade over cocaine. Mitch,
Mitch McConnell, Okay, just set that aside. And then two,
I've only seen positive words come from the President Donald
Trump when it comes to Senator Thune, and he really
(21:13):
nails it right here. The Dems are between a rock
and a hard place. They can go ahead and try
to run out the clock here, but run it out
on whom These are a lot of the same people
that they pretend to represent, who are standing to lose
benefits like snap checks and who a Democrat member of
the House said yesterday, she knows they're going through pain,
but they need to use this as leverage. And so
(21:35):
Thuon hits the nail on the head right here.
Speaker 5 (21:38):
We're getting to where the consequences of this are very real.
The Democrats continue to play political games. They are afraid,
just absolutely desperately afraid of their base, and that's why
we're in the situation we're in. So it's going to
take five Democrats probably not going to come out.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
Of their leadership. They're in a place they're a lost cause.
Speaker 5 (21:56):
I think it's going to have to be rank and
file Democrats who.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
End this well continue to vote and the Democrats continue
to opt you skate. With a few exceptions, John Fetterman,
Catherine Cortez Masto, and Angus King, who caucuses with the Democrats.
There's one other name I'm going to focus in on
as we bring in our next guest, who represents the
fifth Congressional district right here in Colorado. He is Representative
Jeff Crank here on Ryan Schuling Live. Jeff, thanks for
(22:19):
your time as.
Speaker 4 (22:19):
Always, Hey, Ryan, thanks for having me. Yeah, this is man,
It's just crazy. This vote today is the worst of
them all. Why would you say that, Well, I mean this,
We're getting right down to it. I think Johnson is
exactly right, you know, to vote against this. This would
have simply paid our military, our men and women in uniform,
(22:42):
our TSA agents, our border patrol agents, our air traffic controllers,
and all the employees who are still working. And they
couldn't figure out a way to get that done. We
have fifty five thousand federal employees in the state of Colorado,
and you got two US senators who have voted twelve
times not to open the government, that the thirteenth time
(23:06):
not to open the government and pay these federal employees
all for what. You know, they act like it's about healthcare.
Isn't about healthcare. It's about placating their insane base. Even
if it were about healthcare, Brian, do you know how
many people get these enhanced premium at subsidies. I'm not
going to call them credits, but the subsidies that they're
(23:29):
trying to do, do you know how many people in
Colorado actually receive those?
Speaker 2 (23:33):
How many?
Speaker 4 (23:34):
Thirty two thousand? So we're going to not pay fifty
five thousand federal employees in Colorado or any of our
troops so that we can help placate thirty two thousand people.
And these are not the people who are low income.
Those subsidies continue, they aren't about to expire. What's about
to expire are the enhanced premium tax subsidies for people
(24:01):
who make you know, sixty seventy eighty one hundred thousand dollars.
They're doing this to help those folks. This isn't about
tax subsidies for lower income people.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
Congressman Crank I know that many of your constituents, and
I wish I was one of them. I'm not. Unfortunately,
Jason Crow is the district I live in. However, they
want you to hold the line, and I know that
you're committed to that, and I believe the Speaker Johnson is.
But just walk with me for a second here, because
I get the game that's going on here that the
Democrats are trying to play. But from the starting point
(24:36):
of a continuing resolution that's the exact same dating back
several cycles now, to just keep the government running. There
were no Republican sweeteners in this bill, little goodies, set
asides that were kind of built into this from which
maybe this is the guy I'm going to mention, specifically
Senator John Assoff, whose seat is on the line in
twenty twenty six in a purple state of Georgia, and
(24:58):
he you know he can't before I don't think to
be painted as far left. He's gonna lose, and they're
gonna lose that scene. That's just one of several that
are on the line on that side in that chamber
for the Democrats. But there's nowhere to negotiate. Here's my point.
Should the Republicans have thrown in some sweeteners and given
the Democrats some cover all. We got those out of
the bill, and now we're back to the sea. Are
Is that what should happen?
Speaker 4 (25:17):
I guess no, that's not what should happen. That's what
they're trying to get to happen. You know, I had
somebody ask me the other day, well why don't we
do Why don't you negotiate? And I said, what is
there to negotiate? We've passed a clean continuing resolution? Well
you should negotiate, they say, I said, what should I
negotiate to a thirty continuing resolution? Is that what you're
(25:40):
asking me to do? You want some back room deal
that nobody knows about. We just bring it to the
floor and vote on it at three in the morning.
No way, we passed a clean resolution, and here's the deal, Ryan.
We cannot give in because if we do, what's going
to happen on November twenty first, when this continuing resolution
(26:01):
runs out and they got something the last time. You
don't pay people when they take hostages, or you get
more hostages.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Love that take Congressman Jeff Crank joining US fifth Congressional
District right here in Colorado. To that point, I saw
some analysis from Frank Lunch that he doesn't think there
are winners on either side, and to a degree I
agree with that. We don't want the government shut down.
This is not great for anybody involved. But what you
just said rings true to me in that Republicans have
(26:31):
the ground of Look, we've passed this same exact continued
resolution several times in the past. Nothing has changed from it,
so it's not like we're trying to hide the ball
here and all of a sudden, the Democrats are up
in arms. Their claim, and I'd like you to refute this,
Congressman Crank, is that you the Republicans are shutting down
healthcare benefits for so many people in the nation, Medicaid
(26:53):
and otherwise. But the counter that has been that, of course,
what the Democrats want is the funding of those taxpayer
funded benefits for illegal aliens, which would undo everything that
the Trump administration, the Republicans in Congress have worked toward
when they want a majority in this past election.
Speaker 4 (27:12):
Yeah, absolutely right, Ryan. You know, elections have consequences. Majorities
mean something, and a majority in the House and the
Senate passed the one big, beautiful Bill or Reconciliation Bill.
Included in that were a lot of reforms to healthcare.
One of them was to stop funding of healthcare for
(27:33):
people who are non citizens in the United States, whether
they're here illegally or not, you know, not to fund
non citizens. And other parts of that were to stop
the waste, frauden abuse in Medicaid. We put simple work
requirements for able body recipients. All of these things. Well,
when the Democrats came up with their alternative continuing resolution
(27:57):
to our clean continuing resolution, they wanted to repeal. If
they put it in writing, they said, they said this
out loud, they put it in writing that they wanted
to repeal all of the of the healthcare provisions of
HR one, the one big Beautiful bill, which included all
of those Medicaid reforms. They wanted to repeal all of that.
(28:18):
They wanted to repeal all of the cuts, all of
the recisions. To know where we took money away from
the corporation for public broadcasting. They want to spend one
and a half trillion dollars in the next seven weeks
so as our ransom money to get the government back open.
We're not going to do that.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
Congressman Jeff Crank, our guest, you mentioned Friday, November twenty first,
that's the Friday before Thanksgiving, as another kind of milestone
in which you get to go to the next continuing
resolution to fund the government for what we're dealing with
in the here and now day by day, Does anything happen,
Let's say at the end of this month, Halloween October
(28:58):
thirty first, it's a Friday, And is there a potential
here that is as the pressure grows? Perhaps, and I
would assume this would be on Democrats to cave that
they've proven their point. They threw this bone to their base,
the Senator Foon is telling them, and that by either
Halloween or the following Monday, they're going to come to
the middle. I just don't see any reason, Jeff, for
(29:20):
you or any of the Republicans in Congress to blink
at this point. None at all.
Speaker 4 (29:24):
Yeah, No, there's no reason to blink. There's nothing should
blink over. You know, again, we passed a clean continuing resolution,
something they did thirteen times. And by the way, when
they did it, Republicans joined them in the Biden administration
artisan in the way that it was done back then,
it should be bipartisan. Today, Chuck Chu has voted for
(29:46):
twenty nine out of thirty only. What he doesn't vote
for is when Donald Trump is president. This is simple stuff.
They're playing to their base. He doesn't want to be
primary by Ali Xandro Cosi Cortez. John Osoff even said
he said, look, if I vote to shut down the government,
(30:07):
my base goes crazy. They love it. They send me
money online. Right. They were quoted as saying this, So
what's in it for him? If if he breaks? And
are they going to keep sending in money? Are the
crazies in that party going to keep sending in money?
They have to wean themselves off the crazies in that party,
(30:27):
and until they do, the American people will continue to suffer.
Our military won't get paid unless someone like Donald Trump
tries to find the money as he did in the
Pentagon and pay our troops.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
My prediction is somebody like us off, he's going to
keep collecting that money. I'm so glad you told me
that detail, because the cynic in me really seizes upon this,
and he's going to get to a certain level where
he figures it's enough and then he'll cave. He is
going to come around. I guarantee it. His re election
bid depends on it, and he is the one that's
going to have this CRUs put to them. I think
the heat and if I was John Thune, that might
(31:03):
be a guy at Paul saying we do want to
do here, you know that sort of thing.
Speaker 4 (31:06):
So and Ryan, let me say, you know, forty percent
of the problem right now is in Colorado. Think about this.
Right to take sixty votes, we're five votes short. We
need five Democrat senators to cross the line and stop
philipbustering this. They don't even have to vote for the
cr they just need to stop Philip bustering it and
(31:28):
let it be heard. And two of those five forty
percent are Michael Dinnett and John Hickenlooper. So they're forty
percent of the reason federal government is shut down right now.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Well, we are so proud of those two senators. I
say that very sarcastically. At this moment, we'll keep our
eyes on what comes next. Thankful for the inside view
of Representative Jeff Krank from the fifth Congressional District joining
us here today. Jeff, thanks for the great work that
you're doing. Keep it up. We'll be in touch.
Speaker 4 (31:58):
You got it, Ryan, Thanks as a.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
All right, Congressman Jeff Crank, right, there are your thoughts
to close out the show at five seven, seven, three
nine on Ryan Schuling Live. Representative Jeff Crank is nobody's
fool man. He's doing a great job. Both he and
Gabe Evans stand out to me as freshman congressmen that
(32:21):
have really hit the ground running. And Crank has not
given any quarter, none at all, And even in a
purple district game, Evans has stood his ground. He's doing
so on this government shutdown, and that is my advice.
Hold the line. The Democrats are holding the bag here
on the shutdown. It's theirs. They own it. It's the
Schumer shutdown. It's a continuing resolution. Nothing was added to it.
(32:42):
There were no sweeteners in it for conservatives at all.
It was just what had been done. And the Democrats
are the ones holding it up. And I love this
textor kind of ties the whole show together here today,
Mafia gambling and Democrats dealing on the shutdown. That's a
nice government you got. The shame of it got shut down.
You know I won't want to see that happen. Well done,
(33:05):
Texter Tyna bow on this show, Ryan, can we as
American citizens put it to a nationwide vote that we
don't want Congress and the Senate getting paid while on
a government shutdown. I believe Gabe Evans is refusing his salary.
Speaker 4 (33:18):
I think Michael Bennett a copyed Okay, he hells to do.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
Michael Bennett could vote for the cr Soka, John Hickenlooper
neither doing it. They are part of the problem, not
the solution. And finally, this from Donna. So great to
have you back. Ryan, You're missed no matter who sits
in for you. I share your sadness about Chauncey or
Smooth as he used to be known. I'm still in
his corner. Well, I am default proa Chauncey, but this
(33:45):
looks really bad and I want to keep an open mind.
I want to hear his side of the story. But
the evidence appears to be damning and was the FBI
that presented it. Today, Dan Capris will have more on
this straight ahead. That's all for me from here for now.
Talk to you again tomorrow. I'm Ryan Schuling Live
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