November 19, 2025 • 34 mins
1. Texas Declares Muslim Brotherhood & CAIR as Terrorist Organizations
- Action Taken: Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued a proclamation designating the Muslim Brotherhood and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as foreign terrorist and transnational criminal organizations.
- Implications: These groups are now prohibited from acquiring real property in Texas.
- Governor’s Statement: Abbott cited their alleged goals of imposing Sharia law and supporting terrorism globally.
- Background:
- CAIR is described as a domestic organization linked to Hamas and implicated in supporting terrorism.
- The Muslim Brotherhood is portrayed as an umbrella group with affiliates like Hamas.
- Federal Context:
- Senator Cruz has pushed for federal designation for over a decade.
- Legislative efforts have faced resistance from State Department bureaucrats.
- Cruz introduced bipartisan legislation with Senator John Fetterman to designate affiliates first, then the global organization.
- Political Dynamics:
- Discussion of partisan challenges and rare bipartisan cooperation.
- Praise for Fetterman’s independence and criticism of Democratic Party’s internal politics.
2. Gambling Crisis in Professional Sports
- Issue: Widespread corruption linked to prop bets (bets on specific game events rather than outcomes).
- Examples:
- NBA and MLB scandals involving players and coaches fixing aspects of games.
- Detailed case: Cleveland Guardians pitchers allegedly manipulated pitches for betting gains, earning hundreds of thousands of dollars.
- Risks:
- Increased vulnerability due to proliferation of sports betting.
- Individual players can easily influence prop bets (e.g., throwing a ball instead of a strike).
- Senate Investigation:
- Cruz launched an oversight inquiry via the Senate Commerce Committee.
- Letters sent to MLB and NBA requesting information on integrity measures.
- Concerns:
- Potential for corruption in college sports.
- Discussion on whether leagues can self-police or if Congress should intervene.
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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 Verdicus Center, Teed Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.
It's nice to have you with us, and if you're
watching us on YouTube, also really nice to have you
with us on YouTube and on Facebook as we're doing
a lot of these shows now on video as well. Centator,
We've got a lot to talk about. This is like
on my bingo card today I did not have.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
We're gonna talk about.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
The Muslim pot of the Hood gambling, but that is
the show tonight.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
It's gonna be really fun.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Yeah, we're talking about of the Muslim Brotherhood. Texas is
leading the way and this week the state of Texas,
the governor designated the Muslim Brotherhood designated care as terrorist organizations.
Speaker 4 (00:34):
That's something I've.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Been fighting for a decade to get the federal government
to do. It's something I believe President Trump will do.
But Texas leading the way, I think is a very
important step moving forward.
Speaker 4 (00:45):
I want to commend the governor in the state of Texas.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
We're gonna break that down, tell you why that matters.
We're also gonna talk about an investigation that I've launched
in the Senate Commerce Committee into gambling in professional sports.
And we've seen the scandal at the NBA of NBA
players and coaches engaged and being indicted for and prosecuted
for illicit gambling, and also the scandal in Major League
(01:07):
Baseball and the challenge that the explosion of gambling has
had with incentivizing players to engage in cheating. The Senate
Commerce Committee as jurisdiction over sports, we're investigating it. We're
going to we're gonna explain to you all about that.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Yeah, it's gonna be really interesting to see how that
works out. And we'll have those details for you in
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slash and verdict. All right, Senator, So let's get into
the topic. Number one. This is something that you've been
talking about for a while, yeap, designating the Muslim Brotherhood
is a terrorist organization, and Texas is now taking a
big step. I think this is gonna be a great
example for the rest of the country and talk about
(03:27):
how big of a victory this is in Texas leading
the way.
Speaker 4 (03:30):
Well, it's a big victory.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
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 is foreign terrorist and transnational criminal organizations Tuesday,
(03:55):
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 in CARE have long made their goals
clear to forcibly impose Sharia law and establish Islam's mastership
of the world. The actions taken by the Muslim Brotherhood
and CARE to support terrorism across the globe and subvert
(04:18):
our laws through violence, intimidation, and harassment are unacceptable to day.
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 are now prohibited from acquiring
any real property interest in Texas. A proclamation signed by
(04:39):
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 promoting terrorism related activities, including
(05:01):
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 eighty seven as the Palestinian
(05:23):
branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, and that activities of the
Muslim Brotherhood branches have similarly been eliminated or prohibited by
the governments of Austria, Bahrain, 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 from the State of Texas. It is
(05:44):
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 Abbitt 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 1 (06:04):
So what has been the hold up there?
Speaker 2 (06:05):
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 (06:16):
What is the hold up? Yeah, you mentioned this is
like a decades long fight.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
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
(06:42):
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 that 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
(07:05):
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
(07:26):
clear and unequivocal as terrorist organizations. For example, Hamas. Hamas
is 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
(07:47):
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 design date the umbrella organization for
material support of for giving money to unquestionable terrorist organizations. Now,
(08:09):
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.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
The Deep State can't fight that.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Yeah, but at 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
(08:41):
pro 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 (08:58):
By the way, can we just pause there and just
talk about how cool that is. The more that 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 was
(09:19):
first elected. 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 sane 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
(09:40):
to Senator Fetterman. I'm really impressed because there's a lot
of issues.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
He says.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
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 (09:52):
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 Demo Democrats, they largely don't exist. Actually,
someone before that was Kirston Cinema. Kreson Cinema was elected
from Arizona. When she came in, there was not a
whole lot of reason to believe she would be a moderate.
(10:12):
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 a dissent you must obey
the dictates of the radical left. Well, John Fetterman got elected,
(10:35):
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.
(11:00):
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 text, 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,
(11:21):
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
(11:43):
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, they treat him terribly.
(12:05):
The Republicans of the Senate treated much better than the Democrats.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Do well and not only demonize him. And this goes
back to his civility. 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 going to
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 for names Fetterman or Schumer at
(12:29):
this point or Nancy Pelosi, like it is off with
your heads in the Democratic Party as a leadership perspective
from them, they are done with you if you are
not going to the extreme left on every issue.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
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,
it was significant. But every Democrat defended him. And then
(13:02):
as his health started to get better, 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
(13:22):
of articles written with quotes from Democrat senators, Democrat staffers
just doing everything they could to shive him, to say,
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
(13:46):
deviate from what every other Democrat was saying. And I
view Fetterman as the exception that proves the rule. That
being said, this legislation to designates the Muslim Brotherhood at
the national level at Cruz Fetterman to pass, we would
need sixty Senators. That would mean we would need at
least seven Democrats. I have no indication that seven Democrats
(14:10):
are likely to support this. I'm going to try. 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.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
I've not been able to get any other Democrats urging it.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
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 of people where
you can't even get agreement on a designating a terrorist
organization a terrorists organization?
Speaker 3 (14:38):
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 brotherho legislation is
(15:01):
not necessarily to pass it through Congress, although 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 notice be it.
As I said in Trump One, we almost got it done,
and I believe that President Trump will do so. I
(15:21):
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 issus.
I've talked with Seb about it. I believe the Trump
administration will do it this time. I think the fact
(15:44):
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 in care as well. Really helps for building the momentum.
The whole purpose the legislative push is to build the
momentum to pride the air cover for the Trump administration
(16:06):
to do so.
Speaker 4 (16:06):
And I think that's going to happen, all right.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
I also want to bring up CARE, and this is
another aspect of this legislation in Texas. Make it clear
it's not just some Muslim brotherhood, it's also CARE. This
one's a little bit more of a complicated organization.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Break that down. Why they're also getting on the list.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
Yeah, it's not actually that complicated. I mean, Care is
a domestic organization. They had previously been implicated in supporting Hamas,
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.
Speaker 4 (16:44):
And here's what the New York Post reported.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
Anti Israel agitators who spread disruption at US college colleges
and we're 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
(17:08):
a bombshell report by the Network Contagent Research Institute 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
(17:28):
arm of the CARE web of nonprofits affiliates in San
Francisco and 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
in grants of one thousand dollars to students who lost scholarships, housing,
(17:52):
or other support because of their advocacy. Accorded to care's website,
this is you have CARE. Literally, you want to know
why you had antisemity protest on college campuses. I've been
saying from the beginning, follow the money. There's follow the
earning money behind me.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
Follow the money.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
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 (18:28):
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(18:51):
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(19:16):
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I want to move to another issue, and that is
sports gambling. This is a issue I've just genuinely this
(19:39):
is like my TMZ my soap opera.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
I'm loving watching.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
The the the corruption slowly unfold before our very eyes.
I say that because I'm a sports fan, you are
as well. We've gone to games together, we've got to
playoff games, and I've noticed and I've got friends that
are that literally play pro sports, and they will watch
games and they'll hexabic. That's not normal. That was weird.
The end of that game was strange. Look at the cut,
(20:06):
look at the points spread, what the game, what the
gambling line was here?
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Look at the over under.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
I mean, I have friends that are in these sports
and they're like, they even are like this is a
red flag, Like this doesn't make sense. What just happened
the last two minutes of the game or the last
four minutes of that game. And now we're finding out
we weren't crazy. There's a lot of fixing that's going
on now. It may not be fixing the outcome of
(20:33):
the winner and the loser. And that's what people need
to understand. The caveat here a lot of times. This
is like total number of points that are going to
be scored, yep, the margin between the two teams, how
much we'll want to win by our losing. It can
even be as simple as a certain player not hitting
what they were projected in points or three pointers or
even free throws. And you see these these anomalies or
(20:56):
weird things that happen with an individual player, or fake
an injury so that they make sure they don't finish
the game. This was happening in a widespread way among sports,
and there were people that were literally getting rich off it.
It's called fixing. It may not be fixing the game
as in a score, it's fixing aspects of the game
(21:16):
that you can bet on.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
Well, look, you and I are both big sports fans.
Sports is an amazing thing and brings people together and
give you something to cheer for.
Speaker 4 (21:24):
It's powerful, it can unify.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Yeah, it's so fun.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
But you know, look, unfortunately, as long as there's been sports,
there's been some risk of corruption in sports, and I
got to say the proliferation of betting on sports has
increased that risk. And it's not just betting. It's one
thing to bet that your team's going to win or lose.
Presumably if you're betting, particularly that your team will win,
the incentives are aligned that all the members of the
(21:48):
team want to win.
Speaker 4 (21:49):
But you now have these prop.
Speaker 3 (21:51):
Bets where you can bet on all sorts of different
aspects of the game, and that I think significantly increases
the risk of corruption because a prop bet, an individual
player can can have really significant impact on the outcome
of that bet. And so we've seen there's an ongoing
criminal investigation involving the NBA, involving coaches and players fixing games,
(22:13):
and Major League Baseball as well. And so I'm chairman
of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Part
of the jurisdiction of the Commerce Committee is sports, both
college sports and pro sports. And so I've launched an
oversight investigation into into the problem of corruption and the
impact of prop bets in particular on sports. And so
(22:37):
I want to read to you a portion of I
sent a letter to Major League Baseball and and let
me just just read you a portion of it, because
the facts are really concerning. Here's what my letter said.
Dear mister Manfred, game fixing allegations are not new to baseball.
One hundred and five years ago, a Chicago grand jury
indicted eight Chicago White Sox players for allegedly rigging the
(23:00):
nineteen nineteen World Series, labeled the Chicago Black Sox in
the press. The players were eventually acquitted by a Chicago jury,
even though some had earlier confessed, and all eight were
banned from baseball for life. Major League Baseball and American
sports generally are facing a new integrity crisis. Last week,
prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York unsealed an
(23:23):
indictment against two pitchers for the Cleveland Guardians, accusing them
of rigging their own pitches to make a profit. That
indictment comes just a few weeks after prosecutors leveled similar
allegations against coaches and players in the NBA. Ranking member
Cantwell and I sent a letter to the NBA requesting
documents in information about that matter, and we now seek
(23:45):
information from Major League Baseball about how the league is
addressing alleged game manipulation and threats to baseball's integrity. The
recent indictment alleges Cleveland Guardians players Immanuel Claise and Luis
Ortiz purposely threw certain pitches for balls or strikes.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (24:05):
Both players allegedly told friends of their plan and to
place prop bets beforehand. Clace allegedly even made some bets himself.
Perhaps most shockingly, this scheme lasted more than two years
before Major League Baseball found out. On May nineteenth, twenty
twenty three, Clay pitching in relief against the New York Mets,
(24:28):
allegedly informed friends he would throw a pitch faster than
ninety four point nine to five miles per hour. He did,
and his accomplices won twenty seven thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
I mean, can you just hit pause there for a
second to letter so people understand this is like making
a mockery of the game, but yes, also just fixing
the game where you're like, hey, I'm going to perform
differently so that my friends can get hooked up and
make twenty seven thousand dollars.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
There. It went on for years, and it's not like
this was like one person.
Speaker 4 (25:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
I actually believe this is.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
Probably a lot more widespread than we are being told.
And part of that is I think that Major League
Baseball and others are going to cover their ables. Is
they want to make sure that we don't realize just
how bad it actually was or is well.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
And with individual players and prop bets, they have almost
total control over the outcome of that bet. Yep, And
so look, the twenty seven thousand dollars is not the
worst part. Let me give you a few more of
the facts from the letter. Clace would go on to
blow a save opportunity as the Guardians lost ten to
nine and extra innings. In June twenty twenty three, Clace
(25:36):
flung a pitch into the dirt in two separate games,
well short of the strike zone. While Cleveland fans were
shouting in frustration, Clace was apparently cashing in. In both games,
he allegedly sent texts notifying his friends that he would
throw balls. They placed prop bets on his pitches, winning
(25:59):
a combined ninety six thousand.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
Dollars unbelievable across.
Speaker 3 (26:05):
Other games from twenty twenty three to twenty twenty five,
Clays and his accomplices are accused of winning at least
four hundred thousand dollars through fraudulent bets.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
I mean, that's a lot of money, folks. And that's
just one example that got busted. You got to wonder
how many others are out there, right, I mean, we've
seen what's interesting.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
I was reading an article the other day.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
I was talking about there's been an uptick in wild pitches.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
Yeah, because you.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
Can bet on that, and there's they're just saying there
is there is certain data that has significantly changed since
prop betting got introduced nationwide basically you know where everybody
can bet on these things and has grown. And it's
like that didn't happen for fifty years of baseball before.
When we have data or thirty years in football of
data or whatever it may be, and then all of
(26:55):
a sudden, they're like, Wow, this is happening a lot
more often. This is weird that they would get worse
at these anomalies when technology and cameras and coaching has
gotten so much better. You'd think that would actually reduce
the number of these unique moments that happened in sports,
and now we're finding out, yeah, it may not be
(27:15):
unique at all.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
Well, and negative prop bets are one hundred percent within
the control of an individual player. So if you think
about it, if you or I were a major league pitcher,
we may not be able to win a bet that
my next pitch will be a strike, because you might
try to throw a strike and fail.
Speaker 4 (27:33):
I could not throw a major league strike.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
But you know what, you and I could win a
bet on that my metch next pitch will be a ball.
Because as much like I suck at baseball, but yet
I can throw the ball into the dirt. I'm quite
confident I can pitch a ball. I could pitch a
ball one hundred percent of the time with no deviation,
and some of the times, and in this instance, you know,
(27:55):
someone who's good at cheating would not pound it into
the dirt. They would just a little bit outside the
strike zone, so you couldn't tell. It looks really obvious
when you don't even make it to home plate. But
that problem. Look, you were a Division one tennis player.
I'm pretty sure they didn't have sure.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
I could double fault on command.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
I could hit a ball long on command one hundred
percent of the net on command. I could whiff at
a ball if that was a prop bet and make
money off of it.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
Yes, all of those things you can a hundred.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
By the way, I want our listeners to know, if
you also get in Ben's head and screw with him,
you can make him double fault even when he doesn't
want to. But that's a totally different He's an infinitely
better tennis player than I am. But I do have
a little bit of ability to taunt him and if
he gets pissed enough that that that can happen.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
Either that or you're going to get hit with the ball.
It's one of the two, one of the one of
the two is gonna happen. Well, one of the two,
and that would be a great prop bet, by the way.
Speaker 4 (28:54):
Okay, there is that.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
Although the sad thing is when Ben and I play tennis,
we usually play together, so if he's hitting me with
the ball, he's really doing it wrong because it's the
one thing to hit your opponent. If you're hitting your teammate,
good god, you're doing it.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
It's only when you get lackaday'sical can you become a target.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
It's just motivation. It's just a straight up motivation. There.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
Final question on this, I've seen a lot of people
in sports journalists say, how do you fix this? If
it's not saying no more prop bets, right, you have
normal gambling on games, Like I don't know if you
can even fix this.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
Is that far out of control?
Speaker 2 (29:30):
And is it the job of major league sports to
police their own or can they be trusted?
Speaker 3 (29:36):
Look, I think there need to be some steps taken
to fix this. I'm not sure exactly what those steps are,
and so I'm starting with sending letters to the NBA
in Major League Baseball because you've got scandals in both sports.
And listen, as you know, I'm a die hard Rockets fan.
I'm a die hard Astros fan. By the way, did
you happen to see the Rockets last victory against Orlando? No?
Speaker 1 (29:58):
I did not. It was it a beat down?
Speaker 3 (30:00):
Oh no, no, it was an overtime victory. It was spectacular. Look,
the Rockets actually were trailing almost the entire regular season,
and I DVR every Rockets game and so I watched
this actually, wat By.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
The way, you haven't mentioned my almost rebels in a
few weeks, and I just want everybody to know. That's
because we're winning and we're now, what is it ten
and one? I think that's right. Just want to throw
that out there, beat the Gators. Just now back to
your Rockets. But when my team loses one game this year,
there's two shows in a row that it was brought
up the other ten weeks, not a peep out of you.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
I just want to be clear about that record. Keep going.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
Look, I got to say, as a Texan and beating
the Gators, I'm kind of like, that's that's that's interesting.
It's one of my favorite images when when Florida played
A and M I tweeted out there was a giant
barbecue truck in College station that had I think five
seven foot gators on a rotisseri rotating around being cooked.
Speaker 4 (30:53):
So so, okay, fine, I'm you know, you guys beat
the Gators.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
That's fine, thank you, Thank you for that moral support there.
I felt that. I felt that tonight.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
I'm just saying that the Rockets win against Orlando was
really sweet because we were not playing great during the
whole of the game and then it was this huge comeback.
And Katie, I'm going to say, right now, I think
the Rockets can win the whole damn thing.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
And oh that's an early season prediction right now.
Speaker 3 (31:20):
Now, look, most seasons I think the Rockets can win
it all. But listen, last season we got.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
It the way you just said it with me with me,
like's there's hoping and then there's like the real possibility.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
So you think They're the real deal this.
Speaker 4 (31:32):
Year, I really do.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
They've got a ton of young talent. They're really good.
Our problem last season is we didn't have a closer.
We didn't have someone who in the last two minutes
of the fourth quarter you could give the ball to
and he could bring it home. And Katie, I mean, look,
he's one of the greatest players in history. And in
the game against Orlando, I mean it was you want
to talk about cold, he hit two three pointers that
(31:56):
were just devastating, and and you had Schengu AND's who's
a great center who played a great game as well.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
But butt on that overtime. By the way, I'm just curious,
because you're really into this right now.
Speaker 4 (32:09):
I didn't. I just had great joy.
Speaker 3 (32:11):
And as I said, I DVR the games and I
watch them typically late at night at the end of
the day. But anyway, my point is, it's one thing.
And I will say I like to I like to
play poker, but but I've never been in sports betting,
so so so among vices that that is not one
that that has impacted me. But I get you know,
I'll put five bucks in a March Madness pool and
(32:33):
I'm gonna say. My picks are almost always wrong. So
I don't know that I've ever won a March Madness pool,
but I'll throw in my five.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
You're what we referred to as a charity bracket, and
we appreciate your service to the charity community.
Speaker 3 (32:44):
Okay, so I actually I just pick a homer thing.
I picked Texas teams. I tick teams I like, and
I'm just like, I'm gonna go with I think my
final four year or two ago was I think three
Texas teams in the final four.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
Yeah, that work out too well for you. I'm not
gonna lie.
Speaker 4 (32:59):
Yeah, excuse me? Did ole miss when the turnament?
Speaker 2 (33:03):
We do football very well, sir. We do football very well.
We win natties and golf, baseball and tennis. I'm just yeah,
I know where I am, I know where we live.
Basketball is not there yet. I'm okay with that, But
I don't pick them to go to the final four.
That I can promise you.
Speaker 4 (33:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (33:20):
So look on the question of gambling, and by the way,
you got pro sports, but I'm also concerned about college sports,
and in any ways, with such a proliferation, you know,
you look at a small school with a game that's
not in the headlines and an individual player there you
know you may have.
Speaker 4 (33:38):
It's one thing.
Speaker 3 (33:39):
For you know, am I that worried about massive superstars
making millions or tens of millions of dollars of being corrupted?
Speaker 4 (33:46):
Well, yes, because we're.
Speaker 3 (33:47):
Seeing this in the NBA and Major League Baseball. But
the incentive is less than some you know, nineteen year
old kid playing at podunk school who has a chance
to make ten grand uh fixing the game. And so
I think that is a real challenge. I think the
leagues can maybe take some steps about it, but it
(34:08):
would not surprise me to see Congress act. And it's
one of the reasons I'm just trying to start with saying, Okay,
tell me the facts of how many allegations you're getting
up cheating. What are the facts, Tell me what you know,
Tell me what you know. And then, particularly the more
serious the problem is. My hope is we may see
Congress acting a bipartisan way to fix it.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
It's going to be very interesting. Don't forget.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
We do this show Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Hit that
subscriber auto Dowoa button on those in between days. Grab
my podcast, The forty seven Morning update. You'll get the
biggest news coming out of the White House each day
and the Ben Ferguson podcasts as well, and i'll give
you the other breaking news of the day. So grab
those the center and I will see you back here
in a couple of days
Welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
It is Verdicus Center, Teed Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.
It's nice to have you with us, and if you're
watching us on YouTube, also really nice to have you
with us on YouTube and on Facebook as we're doing
a lot of these shows now on video as well. Centator,
We've got a lot to talk about. This is like
on my bingo card today I did not have.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
We're gonna talk about.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
The Muslim pot of the Hood gambling, but that is
the show tonight.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
It's gonna be really fun.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Yeah, we're talking about of the Muslim Brotherhood. Texas is
leading the way and this week the state of Texas,
the governor designated the Muslim Brotherhood designated care as terrorist organizations.
Speaker 4 (00:34):
That's something I've.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Been fighting for a decade to get the federal government
to do. It's something I believe President Trump will do.
But Texas leading the way, I think is a very
important step moving forward.
Speaker 4 (00:45):
I want to commend the governor in the state of Texas.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
We're gonna break that down, tell you why that matters.
We're also gonna talk about an investigation that I've launched
in the Senate Commerce Committee into gambling in professional sports.
And we've seen the scandal at the NBA of NBA
players and coaches engaged and being indicted for and prosecuted
for illicit gambling, and also the scandal in Major League
(01:07):
Baseball and the challenge that the explosion of gambling has
had with incentivizing players to engage in cheating. The Senate
Commerce Committee as jurisdiction over sports, we're investigating it. We're
going to we're gonna explain to you all about that.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Yeah, it's gonna be really interesting to see how that
works out. And we'll have those details for you in
a second. All right, I got to tell you about
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Speaker 1 (02:16):
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Speaker 2 (02:18):
I'm doing Constitution one on one again because look, I've
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Speaker 1 (03:05):
You weren't at your own pace and it's amazing.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
So thanking of the people at Hillsdale Hillsdale dot eu
slash and verdict. All right, Senator, So let's get into
the topic. Number one. This is something that you've been
talking about for a while, yeap, designating the Muslim Brotherhood
is a terrorist organization, and Texas is now taking a
big step. I think this is gonna be a great
example for the rest of the country and talk about
(03:27):
how big of a victory this is in Texas leading
the way.
Speaker 4 (03:30):
Well, it's a big victory.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
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 is foreign terrorist and transnational criminal organizations Tuesday,
(03:55):
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 in CARE have long made their goals
clear to forcibly impose Sharia law and establish Islam's mastership
of the world. The actions taken by the Muslim Brotherhood
and CARE to support terrorism across the globe and subvert
(04:18):
our laws through violence, intimidation, and harassment are unacceptable to day.
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 are now prohibited from acquiring
any real property interest in Texas. A proclamation signed by
(04:39):
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 promoting terrorism related activities, including
(05:01):
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 eighty seven as the Palestinian
(05:23):
branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, and that activities of the
Muslim Brotherhood branches have similarly been eliminated or prohibited by
the governments of Austria, Bahrain, 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 from the State of Texas. It is
(05:44):
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 Abbitt 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 1 (06:04):
So what has been the hold up there?
Speaker 2 (06:05):
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 (06:16):
What is the hold up? Yeah, you mentioned this is
like a decades long fight.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
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
(06:42):
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 that 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
(07:05):
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
(07:26):
clear and unequivocal as terrorist organizations. For example, Hamas. Hamas
is 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
(07:47):
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 design date the umbrella organization for
material support of for giving money to unquestionable terrorist organizations. Now,
(08:09):
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.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
The Deep State can't fight that.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Yeah, but at 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
(08:41):
pro 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 (08:58):
By the way, can we just pause there and just
talk about how cool that is. The more that 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 was
(09:19):
first elected. 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 sane 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
(09:40):
to Senator Fetterman. I'm really impressed because there's a lot
of issues.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
He says.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
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 (09:52):
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 Demo Democrats, they largely don't exist. Actually,
someone before that was Kirston Cinema. Kreson Cinema was elected
from Arizona. When she came in, there was not a
whole lot of reason to believe she would be a moderate.
(10:12):
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 a dissent you must obey
the dictates of the radical left. Well, John Fetterman got elected,
(10:35):
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.
(11:00):
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 text, 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,
(11:21):
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
(11:43):
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, they treat him terribly.
(12:05):
The Republicans of the Senate treated much better than the Democrats.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Do well and not only demonize him. And this goes
back to his civility. 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 going to
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 for names Fetterman or Schumer at
(12:29):
this point or Nancy Pelosi, like it is off with
your heads in the Democratic Party as a leadership perspective
from them, they are done with you if you are
not going to the extreme left on every issue.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
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,
it was significant. But every Democrat defended him. And then
(13:02):
as his health started to get better, 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
(13:22):
of articles written with quotes from Democrat senators, Democrat staffers
just doing everything they could to shive him, to say,
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
(13:46):
deviate from what every other Democrat was saying. And I
view Fetterman as the exception that proves the rule. That
being said, this legislation to designates the Muslim Brotherhood at
the national level at Cruz Fetterman to pass, we would
need sixty Senators. That would mean we would need at
least seven Democrats. I have no indication that seven Democrats
(14:10):
are likely to support this. I'm going to try. 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.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
I've not been able to get any other Democrats urging it.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
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 of people where
you can't even get agreement on a designating a terrorist
organization a terrorists organization?
Speaker 3 (14:38):
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 brotherho legislation is
(15:01):
not necessarily to pass it through Congress, although 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 notice be it.
As I said in Trump One, we almost got it done,
and I believe that President Trump will do so. I
(15:21):
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 issus.
I've talked with Seb about it. I believe the Trump
administration will do it this time. I think the fact
(15:44):
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 in care as well. Really helps for building the momentum.
The whole purpose the legislative push is to build the
momentum to pride the air cover for the Trump administration
(16:06):
to do so.
Speaker 4 (16:06):
And I think that's going to happen, all right.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
I also want to bring up CARE, and this is
another aspect of this legislation in Texas. Make it clear
it's not just some Muslim brotherhood, it's also CARE. This
one's a little bit more of a complicated organization.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Break that down. Why they're also getting on the list.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
Yeah, it's not actually that complicated. I mean, Care is
a domestic organization. They had previously been implicated in supporting Hamas,
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.
Speaker 4 (16:44):
And here's what the New York Post reported.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
Anti Israel agitators who spread disruption at US college colleges
and we're 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
(17:08):
a bombshell report by the Network Contagent Research Institute 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
(17:28):
arm of the CARE web of nonprofits affiliates in San
Francisco and 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
in grants of one thousand dollars to students who lost scholarships, housing,
(17:52):
or other support because of their advocacy. Accorded to care's website,
this is you have CARE. Literally, you want to know
why you had antisemity protest on college campuses. I've been
saying from the beginning, follow the money. There's follow the
earning money behind me.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
Follow the money.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
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 (18:28):
Also, I want you to just pause what you're doing
for the next sixty seconds, and I want you to
imagine Lucy, a seven year old. Her stomach often aches
with hunger, her small hands instead of holding crayons, now
only the struggle of survival on dusty streets. School is
a distant dream, Medical care forgotten hope. Lucy's potential is overshadowed,
(18:51):
her future is dim. But what if someone stepped in?
What if there was a way to ignite hope for
children just like Lucy? Well there is, and that with
Compassion International Partners and the local churches that provide children
holistic support more than just food. They receive critical medical care,
life changing education, vital skills training, and spiritual development, all
(19:16):
in Jesus's name, And you can empower a child just
like Lucy to break free from poverty. I want you
to do what I've done and sponsor a child today.
You can visit Compassion dot com. That's compassion dot Com.
I want to move to another issue, and that is
sports gambling. This is a issue I've just genuinely this
(19:39):
is like my TMZ my soap opera.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
I'm loving watching.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
The the the corruption slowly unfold before our very eyes.
I say that because I'm a sports fan, you are
as well. We've gone to games together, we've got to
playoff games, and I've noticed and I've got friends that
are that literally play pro sports, and they will watch
games and they'll hexabic. That's not normal. That was weird.
The end of that game was strange. Look at the cut,
(20:06):
look at the points spread, what the game, what the
gambling line was here?
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Look at the over under.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
I mean, I have friends that are in these sports
and they're like, they even are like this is a
red flag, Like this doesn't make sense. What just happened
the last two minutes of the game or the last
four minutes of that game. And now we're finding out
we weren't crazy. There's a lot of fixing that's going
on now. It may not be fixing the outcome of
(20:33):
the winner and the loser. And that's what people need
to understand. The caveat here a lot of times. This
is like total number of points that are going to
be scored, yep, the margin between the two teams, how
much we'll want to win by our losing. It can
even be as simple as a certain player not hitting
what they were projected in points or three pointers or
even free throws. And you see these these anomalies or
(20:56):
weird things that happen with an individual player, or fake
an injury so that they make sure they don't finish
the game. This was happening in a widespread way among sports,
and there were people that were literally getting rich off it.
It's called fixing. It may not be fixing the game
as in a score, it's fixing aspects of the game
(21:16):
that you can bet on.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
Well, look, you and I are both big sports fans.
Sports is an amazing thing and brings people together and
give you something to cheer for.
Speaker 4 (21:24):
It's powerful, it can unify.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Yeah, it's so fun.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
But you know, look, unfortunately, as long as there's been sports,
there's been some risk of corruption in sports, and I
got to say the proliferation of betting on sports has
increased that risk. And it's not just betting. It's one
thing to bet that your team's going to win or lose.
Presumably if you're betting, particularly that your team will win,
the incentives are aligned that all the members of the
(21:48):
team want to win.
Speaker 4 (21:49):
But you now have these prop.
Speaker 3 (21:51):
Bets where you can bet on all sorts of different
aspects of the game, and that I think significantly increases
the risk of corruption because a prop bet, an individual
player can can have really significant impact on the outcome
of that bet. And so we've seen there's an ongoing
criminal investigation involving the NBA, involving coaches and players fixing games,
(22:13):
and Major League Baseball as well. And so I'm chairman
of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Part
of the jurisdiction of the Commerce Committee is sports, both
college sports and pro sports. And so I've launched an
oversight investigation into into the problem of corruption and the
impact of prop bets in particular on sports. And so
(22:37):
I want to read to you a portion of I
sent a letter to Major League Baseball and and let
me just just read you a portion of it, because
the facts are really concerning. Here's what my letter said.
Dear mister Manfred, game fixing allegations are not new to baseball.
One hundred and five years ago, a Chicago grand jury
indicted eight Chicago White Sox players for allegedly rigging the
(23:00):
nineteen nineteen World Series, labeled the Chicago Black Sox in
the press. The players were eventually acquitted by a Chicago jury,
even though some had earlier confessed, and all eight were
banned from baseball for life. Major League Baseball and American
sports generally are facing a new integrity crisis. Last week,
prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York unsealed an
(23:23):
indictment against two pitchers for the Cleveland Guardians, accusing them
of rigging their own pitches to make a profit. That
indictment comes just a few weeks after prosecutors leveled similar
allegations against coaches and players in the NBA. Ranking member
Cantwell and I sent a letter to the NBA requesting
documents in information about that matter, and we now seek
(23:45):
information from Major League Baseball about how the league is
addressing alleged game manipulation and threats to baseball's integrity. The
recent indictment alleges Cleveland Guardians players Immanuel Claise and Luis
Ortiz purposely threw certain pitches for balls or strikes.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (24:05):
Both players allegedly told friends of their plan and to
place prop bets beforehand. Clace allegedly even made some bets himself.
Perhaps most shockingly, this scheme lasted more than two years
before Major League Baseball found out. On May nineteenth, twenty
twenty three, Clay pitching in relief against the New York Mets,
(24:28):
allegedly informed friends he would throw a pitch faster than
ninety four point nine to five miles per hour. He did,
and his accomplices won twenty seven thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
I mean, can you just hit pause there for a
second to letter so people understand this is like making
a mockery of the game, but yes, also just fixing
the game where you're like, hey, I'm going to perform
differently so that my friends can get hooked up and
make twenty seven thousand dollars.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
There. It went on for years, and it's not like
this was like one person.
Speaker 4 (25:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
I actually believe this is.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
Probably a lot more widespread than we are being told.
And part of that is I think that Major League
Baseball and others are going to cover their ables. Is
they want to make sure that we don't realize just
how bad it actually was or is well.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
And with individual players and prop bets, they have almost
total control over the outcome of that bet. Yep, And
so look, the twenty seven thousand dollars is not the
worst part. Let me give you a few more of
the facts from the letter. Clace would go on to
blow a save opportunity as the Guardians lost ten to
nine and extra innings. In June twenty twenty three, Clace
(25:36):
flung a pitch into the dirt in two separate games,
well short of the strike zone. While Cleveland fans were
shouting in frustration, Clace was apparently cashing in. In both games,
he allegedly sent texts notifying his friends that he would
throw balls. They placed prop bets on his pitches, winning
(25:59):
a combined ninety six thousand.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
Dollars unbelievable across.
Speaker 3 (26:05):
Other games from twenty twenty three to twenty twenty five,
Clays and his accomplices are accused of winning at least
four hundred thousand dollars through fraudulent bets.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
I mean, that's a lot of money, folks. And that's
just one example that got busted. You got to wonder
how many others are out there, right, I mean, we've
seen what's interesting.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
I was reading an article the other day.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
I was talking about there's been an uptick in wild pitches.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
Yeah, because you.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
Can bet on that, and there's they're just saying there
is there is certain data that has significantly changed since
prop betting got introduced nationwide basically you know where everybody
can bet on these things and has grown. And it's
like that didn't happen for fifty years of baseball before.
When we have data or thirty years in football of
data or whatever it may be, and then all of
(26:55):
a sudden, they're like, Wow, this is happening a lot
more often. This is weird that they would get worse
at these anomalies when technology and cameras and coaching has
gotten so much better. You'd think that would actually reduce
the number of these unique moments that happened in sports,
and now we're finding out, yeah, it may not be
(27:15):
unique at all.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
Well, and negative prop bets are one hundred percent within
the control of an individual player. So if you think
about it, if you or I were a major league pitcher,
we may not be able to win a bet that
my next pitch will be a strike, because you might
try to throw a strike and fail.
Speaker 4 (27:33):
I could not throw a major league strike.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
But you know what, you and I could win a
bet on that my metch next pitch will be a ball.
Because as much like I suck at baseball, but yet
I can throw the ball into the dirt. I'm quite
confident I can pitch a ball. I could pitch a
ball one hundred percent of the time with no deviation,
and some of the times, and in this instance, you know,
(27:55):
someone who's good at cheating would not pound it into
the dirt. They would just a little bit outside the
strike zone, so you couldn't tell. It looks really obvious
when you don't even make it to home plate. But
that problem. Look, you were a Division one tennis player.
I'm pretty sure they didn't have sure.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
I could double fault on command.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
I could hit a ball long on command one hundred
percent of the net on command. I could whiff at
a ball if that was a prop bet and make
money off of it.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
Yes, all of those things you can a hundred.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
By the way, I want our listeners to know, if
you also get in Ben's head and screw with him,
you can make him double fault even when he doesn't
want to. But that's a totally different He's an infinitely
better tennis player than I am. But I do have
a little bit of ability to taunt him and if
he gets pissed enough that that that can happen.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
Either that or you're going to get hit with the ball.
It's one of the two, one of the one of
the two is gonna happen. Well, one of the two,
and that would be a great prop bet, by the way.
Speaker 4 (28:54):
Okay, there is that.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
Although the sad thing is when Ben and I play tennis,
we usually play together, so if he's hitting me with
the ball, he's really doing it wrong because it's the
one thing to hit your opponent. If you're hitting your teammate,
good god, you're doing it.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
It's only when you get lackaday'sical can you become a target.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
It's just motivation. It's just a straight up motivation. There.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
Final question on this, I've seen a lot of people
in sports journalists say, how do you fix this? If
it's not saying no more prop bets, right, you have
normal gambling on games, Like I don't know if you
can even fix this.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
Is that far out of control?
Speaker 2 (29:30):
And is it the job of major league sports to
police their own or can they be trusted?
Speaker 3 (29:36):
Look, I think there need to be some steps taken
to fix this. I'm not sure exactly what those steps are,
and so I'm starting with sending letters to the NBA
in Major League Baseball because you've got scandals in both sports.
And listen, as you know, I'm a die hard Rockets fan.
I'm a die hard Astros fan. By the way, did
you happen to see the Rockets last victory against Orlando? No?
Speaker 1 (29:58):
I did not. It was it a beat down?
Speaker 3 (30:00):
Oh no, no, it was an overtime victory. It was spectacular. Look,
the Rockets actually were trailing almost the entire regular season,
and I DVR every Rockets game and so I watched
this actually, wat By.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
The way, you haven't mentioned my almost rebels in a
few weeks, and I just want everybody to know. That's
because we're winning and we're now, what is it ten
and one? I think that's right. Just want to throw
that out there, beat the Gators. Just now back to
your Rockets. But when my team loses one game this year,
there's two shows in a row that it was brought
up the other ten weeks, not a peep out of you.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
I just want to be clear about that record. Keep going.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
Look, I got to say, as a Texan and beating
the Gators, I'm kind of like, that's that's that's interesting.
It's one of my favorite images when when Florida played
A and M I tweeted out there was a giant
barbecue truck in College station that had I think five
seven foot gators on a rotisseri rotating around being cooked.
Speaker 4 (30:53):
So so, okay, fine, I'm you know, you guys beat
the Gators.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
That's fine, thank you, Thank you for that moral support there.
I felt that. I felt that tonight.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
I'm just saying that the Rockets win against Orlando was
really sweet because we were not playing great during the
whole of the game and then it was this huge comeback.
And Katie, I'm going to say, right now, I think
the Rockets can win the whole damn thing.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
And oh that's an early season prediction right now.
Speaker 3 (31:20):
Now, look, most seasons I think the Rockets can win
it all. But listen, last season we got.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
It the way you just said it with me with me,
like's there's hoping and then there's like the real possibility.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
So you think They're the real deal this.
Speaker 4 (31:32):
Year, I really do.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
They've got a ton of young talent. They're really good.
Our problem last season is we didn't have a closer.
We didn't have someone who in the last two minutes
of the fourth quarter you could give the ball to
and he could bring it home. And Katie, I mean, look,
he's one of the greatest players in history. And in
the game against Orlando, I mean it was you want
to talk about cold, he hit two three pointers that
(31:56):
were just devastating, and and you had Schengu AND's who's
a great center who played a great game as well.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
But butt on that overtime. By the way, I'm just curious,
because you're really into this right now.
Speaker 4 (32:09):
I didn't. I just had great joy.
Speaker 3 (32:11):
And as I said, I DVR the games and I
watch them typically late at night at the end of
the day. But anyway, my point is, it's one thing.
And I will say I like to I like to
play poker, but but I've never been in sports betting,
so so so among vices that that is not one
that that has impacted me. But I get you know,
I'll put five bucks in a March Madness pool and
(32:33):
I'm gonna say. My picks are almost always wrong. So
I don't know that I've ever won a March Madness pool,
but I'll throw in my five.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
You're what we referred to as a charity bracket, and
we appreciate your service to the charity community.
Speaker 3 (32:44):
Okay, so I actually I just pick a homer thing.
I picked Texas teams. I tick teams I like, and
I'm just like, I'm gonna go with I think my
final four year or two ago was I think three
Texas teams in the final four.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
Yeah, that work out too well for you. I'm not
gonna lie.
Speaker 4 (32:59):
Yeah, excuse me? Did ole miss when the turnament?
Speaker 2 (33:03):
We do football very well, sir. We do football very well.
We win natties and golf, baseball and tennis. I'm just yeah,
I know where I am, I know where we live.
Basketball is not there yet. I'm okay with that, But
I don't pick them to go to the final four.
That I can promise you.
Speaker 4 (33:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (33:20):
So look on the question of gambling, and by the way,
you got pro sports, but I'm also concerned about college sports,
and in any ways, with such a proliferation, you know,
you look at a small school with a game that's
not in the headlines and an individual player there you
know you may have.
Speaker 4 (33:38):
It's one thing.
Speaker 3 (33:39):
For you know, am I that worried about massive superstars
making millions or tens of millions of dollars of being corrupted?
Speaker 4 (33:46):
Well, yes, because we're.
Speaker 3 (33:47):
Seeing this in the NBA and Major League Baseball. But
the incentive is less than some you know, nineteen year
old kid playing at podunk school who has a chance
to make ten grand uh fixing the game. And so
I think that is a real challenge. I think the
leagues can maybe take some steps about it, but it
(34:08):
would not surprise me to see Congress act. And it's
one of the reasons I'm just trying to start with saying, Okay,
tell me the facts of how many allegations you're getting
up cheating. What are the facts, Tell me what you know,
Tell me what you know. And then, particularly the more
serious the problem is. My hope is we may see
Congress acting a bipartisan way to fix it.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
It's going to be very interesting. Don't forget.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
We do this show Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Hit that
subscriber auto Dowoa button on those in between days. Grab
my podcast, The forty seven Morning update. You'll get the
biggest news coming out of the White House each day
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you the other breaking news of the day. So grab
those the center and I will see you back here
in a couple of days
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Ben Ferguson
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