Verdict with Ted Cruz - Texas Designates Muslim Brotherhood as a Terrorist Organization, plus Crooked Gambling Crisis in Pro Sports

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.700 Guaranteed human.

00:00:05.600 Welcome.

00:00:06.320 It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.

00:00:09.400 It's nice to have you with us.

00:00:10.420 And if you're watching us on YouTube, also really nice to have you with us on YouTube

00:00:14.180 and on Facebook as we're doing a lot of these shows now on video as well.

00:00:18.200 Senator, we've got a lot to talk about.

00:00:19.840 This is like on my bingo card today.

00:00:21.900 I did not have, we're going to talk about the Muslim Brotherhood gambling, 1.00

00:00:25.440 but that is the show tonight.

00:00:27.160 It's going to be really fun.

00:00:28.220 Yeah, we're talking about the Muslim Brotherhood.

00:00:30.280 Texas is leading the way.

00:00:31.720 And this week, the state of Texas, the governor designated the Muslim Brotherhood,

00:00:36.040 designated CARE as terrorist organizations.

00:00:38.440 That's something I've been fighting for a decade to get the federal government to do.

00:00:42.120 It's something I believe President Trump will do.

00:00:44.680 But Texas leading the way, I think, is a very important step moving forward.

00:00:49.560 I want to commend the governor and the state of Texas.

00:00:51.580 We're going to break that down and tell you why that matters.

00:00:53.960 We're also going to talk about an investigation that I've launched on the Senate Commerce Committee.

00:00:57.780 into gambling and professional sports.

00:00:59.940 And we've seen the scandal at the NBA of NBA players and coaches engaged in and being indicted for

00:01:06.700 and prosecuted for illicit gambling, and also the scandal in Major League Baseball.

00:01:12.600 And the challenge that the explosion of gambling has had with incentivizing players to engage in cheating,

00:01:20.940 the Senate Commerce Committee has jurisdiction over sports.

00:01:23.300 We're investigating it.

00:01:24.160 We're going to explain to you all about that.

00:01:26.720 Yeah, it's going to be really interesting to see how that works out.

00:01:29.080 And we'll have those details for you in a second.

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00:03:14.820 All right, Senator.

00:03:15.500 So let's get into the topic number one.

00:03:18.340 This is something that you've been talking about for a while.

00:03:21.080 So designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization and Texas is now taking a big step.

00:03:27.420 I think this is going to be a great example for the rest of the country.

00:03:30.680 And talk about how big of a victory this is and Texas leading the way.

00:03:34.780 Well, it's a big victory.

00:03:35.660 Let me tell you about what Texas did. 1.00

00:03:37.120 And I'm going to take it more broadly into the national fight over designating the Muslim Brotherhood.

00:03:41.420 So Texas this week declared CARE and the Muslim Brotherhood as terrorist groups preventing land purchases.

00:03:47.620 Let me read from Fox News.

00:03:49.480 Texas Governor Greg Abbott designated the Council on American-Islamic Relations, CARE, and the Muslim Brotherhood as foreign terrorist and transnational criminal organizations Tuesday,

00:04:00.120 preventing both groups from obtaining land in the Lone Star State.

00:04:04.860 Abbott said in a statement that he made the move as, quote,

00:04:07.520 The Muslim Brotherhood and CARE have long made their goals clear, to forcibly impose Sharia law and establish Islam's mastership of the world. 0.99

00:04:17.640 The actions taken by the Muslim Brotherhood and CARE to support terrorism across the globe and subvert our laws through violence, intimidation, and harassment are unacceptable. 0.98

00:04:26.880 Today, I designated the Muslim Brotherhood and CARE as foreign terrorist organizations and transnational criminal organizations.

00:04:34.060 These radical extremists are not welcome in our state and are now prohibited from acquiring any real property interest in Texas.

00:04:42.400 A proclamation signed by Abbott claims that CARE, quote,

00:04:45.640 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.

00:04:54.720 It added that, quote,

00:04:56.820 It added that, quote, CARE and its members have repeatedly employed, affiliated with, and supported individuals promoting terrorism-related activities,

00:05:04.740 including Ghassan Elashi, a founding member of the Texas Branch for CARE and treasurer of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development charity,

00:05:14.660 quote,

00:05:15.000 who was sentenced to a total of 65 years in prison for financing terrorism in 2009.

00:05:20.900 The proclamation also states that Hamas was, quote,

00:05:24.920 formed in 1987 as the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood,

00:05:28.780 and that activities of the Muslim Brotherhood branches have similarly been eliminated or prohibited

00:05:33.340 by the governments of Austria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates

00:05:39.720 in light of the Muslim Brotherhood encouraging terrorism or attempting to destabilize these countries.

00:05:45.500 Look, this is real leadership from the state of Texas.

00:05:48.320 It is what the federal government should be doing. 0.94

00:05:51.140 The Muslim Brotherhood, I believe, is unquestionably a terrorist organization.

00:05:55.080 And we have yet to designate them, as Governor Abbott noted.

00:05:58.960 Many other countries on earth have.

00:06:00.620 And I believe the United States, during the Trump administration, we're going to do this.

00:06:04.720 I've introduced legislation literally for 10 years to make this happen at a federal level.

00:06:08.680 So what has been the holdup there for people that are new to this subject?

00:06:11.840 We talked about it before.

00:06:12.760 Maybe they missed an episode.

00:06:13.700 How the hell is it so hard to get the Muslim Brotherhood to be declared a terrorist organization

00:06:19.380 through the U.S. government?

00:06:20.620 What is the holdup?

00:06:21.880 You mentioned it.

00:06:22.660 This is like a decades-long fight now.

00:06:24.780 So for five consecutive congresses, I've introduced legislation to designate the Muslim Brotherhood.

00:06:29.900 The holdup, we got very close during the first Trump administration.

00:06:33.420 I thought we were going to get it done during the first Trump administration.

00:06:36.220 The resistance was from the deep state at the State Department, the career bureaucrats there.

00:06:42.960 And I'll tell you, the old versions of the legislation, the way I wrote it, it was top-down.

00:06:47.220 What does that mean?

00:06:48.080 It directed the State Department to designate the Global Muslim Brotherhood, which is the

00:06:52.820 big umbrella organization as a terrorist organization.

00:06:56.100 Here's the argument the career employees at State made.

00:06:58.740 They said, look, there are lots of different affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood.

00:07:01.580 But we cannot definitively prove that every one of the affiliates meets the statutory criteria

00:07:07.420 for being a terrorist organization.

00:07:09.060 That's how they stopped it from happening in Trump 1.

00:07:12.620 So in Trump 2, I rewrote the legislation.

00:07:15.600 And instead of being top-down, I rewrote it to be bottom-up.

00:07:20.640 And so what the legislation currently says is it says that the State Department should designate

00:07:26.840 every one of the Muslim Brotherhood affiliates for which the evidence is clear and unequivocal

00:07:31.720 as terrorist organizations.

00:07:33.800 For example, Hamas. 0.81

00:07:35.200 Yeah.

00:07:35.760 Hamas is the Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine.

00:07:37.980 It is indisputable that Hamas is a terrorist organization. 0.97

00:07:41.940 They carried out October 7th, murdered 1,200 Israelis, raped and murdered women and little girls. 0.98

00:07:47.900 Hamas is unquestionably a terrorist organization. 0.87

00:07:50.180 That's true of multiple Muslim Brotherhood affiliates.

00:07:52.620 What my new legislation said is designate those affiliates, and then it directs the State

00:07:58.640 Department to designate the Global Muslim Brotherhood because it gives money to those affiliates

00:08:03.720 and so designate the umbrella organization for material support of, for giving money to

00:08:09.460 unquestionable terrorist organizations.

00:08:12.640 Now, part of the reason I think we're going to get this done is that chain of reasoning,

00:08:17.320 there's not a step in that reasoning that is assailable.

00:08:20.460 The deep state can't fight that.

00:08:23.120 Yeah.

00:08:23.820 But at the end of the day, let me tell you, this is not going to be a fight, I think,

00:08:27.340 that is won legislatively.

00:08:29.000 So I've introduced the legislation.

00:08:31.000 I tried very, very hard in this Congress to get a Democrat to support me.

00:08:35.100 I will tell you, I talked to numerous Democrats.

00:08:37.940 They said no.

00:08:38.660 They said no.

00:08:39.940 Look, the Democrat Party is very afraid, unfortunately, of disturbing the pro-Hamas wing of their party.

00:08:47.260 In the House, the companion legislation to my legislation has four Democrats on board.

00:08:54.160 So we do have some Democrat support.

00:08:56.180 I was able to get one Democrat.

00:08:57.600 So John Fetterman is supporting me.

00:08:59.200 So the legislation is Cruz Fetterman.

00:09:00.960 It is bipartisan.

00:09:02.320 By the way, can we just pause there and just talk about how cool that is?

00:09:05.720 The more that we have interacted, that you've interacted with, John, the more respect I

00:09:10.400 really do have for him as a Democrat.

00:09:12.360 The way he stood up to his party on the shutdown.

00:09:14.940 Look, there are some places where you don't win races.

00:09:18.400 I never thought I would say I am thankful for John Fetterman and his leadership in the

00:09:22.860 Senate when he was first elected.

00:09:24.740 I got to tell you, he may be the biggest surprise in the last decade for me of a true Democrat

00:09:31.760 statesman that is willing to come to the table on sane issues like the government shutdown

00:09:37.960 or like this.

00:09:39.400 And I think when this happens, we as conservatives should take that moment and say, job well done

00:09:44.520 to Senator Fetterman.

00:09:46.100 I'm really impressed because there's a lot of issues.

00:09:48.600 He says politics are aside.

00:09:50.360 I don't care the heat I'm going to get from my party for this.

00:09:52.560 I'm going to do the right thing.

00:09:53.940 We used to have a lot more of that in politics.

00:09:56.560 Yeah, it used to be much more commonplace.

00:09:59.460 When I showed up in the Senate 13 years ago, there was such a thing as moderate Democrats.

00:10:05.380 They largely don't exist.

00:10:07.180 Actually, someone before that was Kyrsten Sinema.

00:10:09.920 Kyrsten Sinema was elected from Arizona.

00:10:12.860 When she came in, there was not a whole lot of reason to believe she would be a moderate.

00:10:17.100 And I will say, Kyrsten, I really like Kyrsten.

00:10:19.220 She stood up to her party.

00:10:20.540 She demonstrated real courage.

00:10:22.480 And you know what happened?

00:10:23.200 The Democrats chased her out of the party.

00:10:25.000 Both Sinema and Joe Manchin, who were the only two Democrats who said no to eliminating the

00:10:29.900 filibuster, the Democrats chased both of them out of the party.

00:10:32.920 They said, we don't want any dissent.

00:10:34.600 You must obey the dictates of the radical left.

00:10:37.820 Well, John Fetterman got elected.

00:10:40.420 And listen, you and I both did not support him when he was running for the Senate to begin with.

00:10:46.020 He was a Democrat.

00:10:47.440 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.

00:10:55.440 That's certainly what I anticipated.

00:10:57.980 He has astonished me.

00:10:59.580 I like John personally.

00:11:01.360 He obviously, during the campaign, suffered a stroke.

00:11:04.880 He had serious medical issues.

00:11:08.100 It was very difficult.

00:11:09.100 His mind could not process the spoken word.

00:11:11.600 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.

00:11:20.200 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, his brain was operating.

00:11:26.860 But the input of the oral spoken word did not make it through.

00:11:32.900 I will say his health has improved significantly.

00:11:35.800 He's now able to have a conversation and engage.

00:11:38.400 So the aftermath of the stroke, thankfully, has gotten better.

00:11:42.500 But Fetterman has shown real courage in standing up to his party on the shutdown. 1.00

00:11:47.260 He stood up to Schumer and said, this shutdown is stupid. 0.99

00:11:49.620 We need to end the shutdown. 1.00

00:11:50.640 And on Israel, the level of courage he has shown by saying the pro-Hamas wing of our party is wrong.

00:11:57.180 It is terrible.

00:11:58.500 And I, John Fetterman, are proud to stand with Israel.

00:12:01.000 It's been heroic.

00:12:02.720 And I got to say, he's been demonized by his own party.

00:12:06.220 The Democrats, they treat him terribly.

00:12:09.880 The Republicans in the Senate treat him much better than the Democrats do.

00:12:12.920 Well, and not only demonize him, this goes back to his civility.

00:12:15.560 He had a fall this past week, and Democrats were cheering his fall before we even knew, like, his health.

00:12:23.260 Now, he put up a picture of himself.

00:12:24.980 I was glad to see he's going to be okay.

00:12:26.720 But, like, it just tells you about how much, if you don't get in line with the Democratic Party,

00:12:31.000 it doesn't matter if your name's Fetterman or Schumer at this point or Nancy Pelosi.

00:12:35.320 Like, it is off with your heads in the Democratic Party as a leadership perspective from them.

00:12:40.400 They are done with you if you are not going to the extreme left on every issue.

00:12:44.880 So, Ben, it's worse than that.

00:12:47.480 When Fetterman newly arrived in the Senate, the Democrats all assumed he would just be a left-wing, reliable vote.

00:12:53.540 And so you had all the Democrats putting out statements, he's fine, his health is not a problem.

00:12:57.140 And as I said, the stroke had very real and limiting effects on him.

00:13:00.940 I mean, it was significant.

00:13:03.400 But every Democrat defended him.

00:13:05.900 And then as his health started to get better, he was willing to buck the Democrats.

00:13:11.360 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 animus,

00:13:22.580 they turned on him viciously.

00:13:24.660 And I've got to tell you, there have been dozens of articles written with quotes from Democrat senators, Democrat staffers, just doing everything they could to shiv him, to say, to actually attack his mental capability and say, oh, he's not able to do the job.

00:13:40.540 The irony is they attacked him once he had improved significantly and was recovering, but yet in their view, the unforgivable sin was daring to deviate from what every other Democrat was saying.

00:13:54.060 And I view Fetterman as the exception that proves the rule.

00:13:58.400 That being said, this legislation to designate the Muslim Brotherhood at the national level, it's Cruz Fetterman.

00:14:04.100 To pass, we would need 60 senators. 0.99

00:14:08.340 That would mean we would need at least seven Democrats.

00:14:12.020 I have no indication that seven Democrats are likely to support this.

00:14:15.920 I'm going to try.

00:14:16.660 I'm going to keep pressing it.

00:14:18.180 We'll see.

00:14:18.880 We'll put it for a vote.

00:14:19.860 I would love to have that bipartisan support.

00:14:23.040 But as of now, I've not been able to get any other Democrats.

00:14:26.680 How discouraging is it?

00:14:27.720 I mean, when you ran 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 terrorist organization?

00:14:42.920 Oh, look, partisan politics has always been part of Washington.

00:14:46.980 That being said, it's gotten much, much worse.

00:14:50.000 And actually, when President Trump got elected in 2016, it broke the heads of the Democrats.

00:14:57.080 Their minds are melted.

00:14:58.200 They just hate him.

00:14:59.540 And so there's much less middle ground.

00:15:01.580 But anyway, my strategy on the Muslim Brotherhood legislation is not necessarily to pass it through Congress, although I'd love to.

00:15:08.200 I'm going to continue trying to pass it through Congress.

00:15:11.200 But it is instead to build the public case for this so that the Trump administration does so unilaterally.

00:15:17.880 They have the authority to do so.

00:15:19.120 There's no dispute.

00:15:20.020 As I said, in Trump one, we almost got it done.

00:15:23.280 And I believe that President Trump will do so.

00:15:26.300 I think he'll do so probably in the next year.

00:15:29.000 I was in the White House just a couple of weeks ago.

00:15:32.060 I talked with the president directly about designating the Muslim Brotherhood.

00:15:36.500 I have met with Seb Gorka, who is the senior official in the National Security Council, who's handling this issue, as I've talked with Seb about it.

00:15:44.880 I believe the Trump administration will do it this time.

00:15:47.680 I think the fact that we redesigned it to be bottom-up is going to make it much harder for the deep state to oppose it.

00:15:54.320 And I want to commend Greg Abbott in the state of Texas because Texas' designating the Muslim Brotherhood and CARE as well really helps for building the momentum.

00:16:03.700 The whole purpose of the legislative push is to build the momentum to provide the air cover for the Trump administration to do so.

00:16:11.260 And I think that's going to happen.

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00:16:43.840 All right.

00:16:44.520 I also want to bring up CARE.

00:16:46.080 And this is another aspect of this, you know, legislation in Texas making it clear.

00:16:52.660 It's not just the Muslim Brotherhood.

00:16:53.900 It's also CARE.

00:16:54.980 This one's a little bit more of a complicated organization.

00:16:57.980 Break that down why they're also getting on the list.

00:17:00.800 Yeah.

00:17:01.180 It's not actually that complicated.

00:17:02.780 I mean, CARE is a domestic organization.

00:17:05.180 They had previously been implicated in supporting Hamas, supporting other terrorist organizations.

00:17:10.540 Let me read a story from the New York Post.

00:17:12.900 It's entitled, Muslim Group CARE Cutting $1,000 Checks for Anti-Israel Agitators Who Have Been Disciplined by Colleges.

00:17:20.140 And here's what the New York Post reported.

00:17:22.300 Anti-Israel Agitators Who Spread Disruption at U.S. Colleges and Were Punished by Authorities

00:17:27.540 were awarded checks for $1,000 by a Muslim nonprofit, the Post has learned.

00:17:33.140 The money was given to students who faced penalties for leading pro-Palestinian protests before and after the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023,

00:17:42.820 according to a bombshell report by the Network Contagion Research Institute and the Intelligent Advocacy Network.

00:17:48.620 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,

00:17:58.580 as an institutional endorsement, the report claims.

00:18:01.720 In California, the largest arm of the CARE web of nonprofits, affiliates in San Francisco and Los Angeles,

00:18:08.580 raised more than $100,000 in donations for the campus radicals,

00:18:14.240 while the main group solicited $64,000 in donations, records show.

00:18:19.860 The money was then offered as interest-free loans in grants of $1,000 to students who lost scholarships,

00:18:27.240 housing, or other support because of their advocacy, according to CARE's website.

00:18:30.500 This is, you have CARE, literally, you want to know why you had anti-Semitic protests on college campuses.

00:18:37.140 I've been saying from the beginning, follow the money.

00:18:40.140 There's clear money behind it.

00:18:41.920 Follow the money. Follow the money.

00:18:43.080 The tents all matched, and it's because this is being funded, and this is being funded by Islamists, 0.93

00:18:49.340 this is being funded by communists, this is being funded by foreign nations,

00:18:52.680 this is being funded by left-wing billionaire donors who, frankly, want to undermine America.

00:18:58.940 And so Texas designating CARE as well, that's a big step forward also.

00:19:03.940 I want you to just pause what you're doing for the next 60 seconds,

00:19:07.400 and I want you to imagine Lucy, a 7-year-old.

00:19:11.020 Her stomach often aches with hunger.

00:19:13.260 Her small hands, instead of holding crayons.

00:19:16.260 Know only the struggle of survival on dusty streets.

00:19:20.020 School is a distant dream.

00:19:22.400 Medical care, a forgotten hope.

00:19:24.680 Lucy's potential is overshadowed.

00:19:27.040 Her future is dim.

00:19:28.160 But what if someone stepped in?

00:19:30.240 What if there was a way to ignite hope for children just like Lucy?

00:19:33.900 Well, there is.

00:19:34.900 And that is with Compassion International Partners and the local churches that provide children holistic support.

00:19:42.540 More than just food, they receive critical medical care, life-changing education,

00:19:48.360 vital skills training, and spiritual development, all in Jesus' name.

00:19:52.740 And you can empower a child just like Lucy to break free from poverty.

00:19:58.260 I want you to do what I've done and sponsor a child today.

00:20:01.980 You can visit Compassion.com.

00:20:04.700 That's Compassion.com.

00:20:07.180 I want to move to another issue, and that is sports gambling.

00:20:11.820 This is an issue.

00:20:13.540 I just genuinely, this is like my TMZ, my soap opera.

00:20:17.320 I'm loving watching the corruption slowly unfold before our very eyes.

00:20:24.340 I say that because I'm a sports fan.

00:20:26.160 You are as well.

00:20:26.800 We've gone to games together.

00:20:27.820 We've gone to playoff games.

00:20:28.560 And I've noticed, and I've got friends that literally play pro sports,

00:20:33.320 and they will watch games, and they'll text them like, that's not normal.

00:20:37.540 That was weird.

00:20:39.000 The end of that game was strange.

00:20:41.200 Look at the point spread, what the gambling line was here.

00:20:46.400 Look at the over-under.

00:20:47.780 I mean, I have friends who are in these sports, and they're like,

00:20:51.840 they even are like, this is a red flag.

00:20:54.660 Like, this doesn't make sense.

00:20:56.640 This is what just happened in the last two minutes of the game

00:20:59.500 or the last four minutes of that game,

00:21:01.500 and now we're finding out we weren't crazy.

00:21:04.420 There's a lot of fixing that's going on.

00:21:06.660 Now, it may not be fixing the outcome of the winner and the loser,

00:21:09.480 and that's what people need to understand, the caveat here.

00:21:11.700 A lot of times this is like total number of points that are going to be scored.

00:21:15.560 The margin between the two teams, how much will one win by our losing.

00:21:20.160 It can even be as simple as a certain player not hitting what they were projected

00:21:25.240 in points or three-pointers or even free throws,

00:21:28.700 and you see these anomalies or weird things that happen with an individual player

00:21:34.120 or faking an injury so that they make sure they don't finish the game.

00:21:38.100 This was happening in a widespread way among sports,

00:21:42.680 and there were people that were literally getting rich off it.

00:21:45.900 It's called fixing.

00:21:47.080 It may not be fixing the game as in the score.

00:21:49.540 Or it's fixing aspects of the game that you can bet on.

00:21:53.560 Well, look, you and I are both big sports fans.

00:21:56.360 Sports is an amazing thing.

00:21:57.620 It brings people together.

00:21:58.680 It gives you something to cheer for.

00:22:00.020 It's powerful.

00:22:00.760 It can unify.

00:22:01.760 Yeah, it's so fun.

00:22:02.920 But, you know, look, unfortunately, as long as there's been sports,

00:22:05.700 there's been some risk of corruption in sports.

00:22:08.360 And I've got to say the proliferation of betting on sports has increased that risk.

00:22:13.920 And it's not just betting.

00:22:14.920 It's one thing to bet that your team is going to win or lose.

00:22:17.980 Presumably, if you're betting particularly that your team will win,

00:22:20.880 the incentives are aligned that all the members of the team want to win.

00:22:24.860 But you now have these prop bets where you can bet on all sorts of different aspects of the game.

00:22:29.720 And that, I think, significantly increases the risk of corruption because a prop bet,

00:22:35.460 an individual player, can have really significant impact on the outcome of that bet.

00:22:41.760 And so we've seen there's an ongoing criminal investigation involving the NBA,

00:22:46.160 involving coaches and players, fixing games, and Major League Baseball as well.

00:22:51.580 And so I'm chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

00:22:55.540 Part of the jurisdiction of the Commerce Committee is sports, both college sports and pro sports.

00:23:00.840 And so I've launched an oversight investigation into the problem of corruption

00:23:06.820 and the impact of prop bets in particular on sports.

00:23:11.000 And so I want to read to you a portion of it.

00:23:14.080 I sent a letter to Major League Baseball.

00:23:17.360 And let me just read you a portion of it because the facts are really concerning.

00:23:22.260 Here's what my letter said.

00:23:23.300 Dear Mr. Manfred, game-fixing allegations are not new to baseball.

00:23:28.020 105 years ago, a Chicago grand jury indicted eight Chicago White Sox players

00:23:33.100 for allegedly rigging the 1919 World Series.

00:23:37.860 Labeled the Chicago Black Sox in the press, the players were eventually acquitted by a Chicago jury,

00:23:43.660 even though some had earlier confessed and all eight were banned from baseball for life.

00:23:49.180 Major League Baseball and American sports generally are facing a new integrity crisis.

00:23:54.340 Last week, prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York unsealed an indictment against two pitchers

00:24:00.420 for the Cleveland Guardians, accusing them of rigging their own pitches to make a profit.

00:24:07.020 That indictment comes just a few weeks after prosecutors leveled similar allegations against coaches and players in the NBA.

00:24:13.760 Ranking member Cantwell and I sent a letter to the NBA requesting documents and information about that matter.

00:24:19.900 And we now seek information from Major League Baseball about how the league is addressing alleged game manipulation

00:24:25.740 and threats to baseball's integrity.

00:24:28.520 The recent indictment alleges Cleveland Guardians players,

00:24:31.980 Emanuel Klase and Luis Ortiz, purposely threw certain pitches for balls or strikes.

00:24:40.020 Yep.

00:24:40.860 Both players allegedly told friends of their plan and to place prop bets beforehand.

00:24:47.840 Klase allegedly even made some bets himself.

00:24:51.760 Perhaps most shockingly, this scheme lasted more than two years before Major League Baseball found out.

00:24:57.620 On May 19th, 2023, Klase, pitching in relief against the New York Mets,

00:25:03.700 allegedly informed friends he would throw a pitch faster than 94.95 miles per hour.

00:25:10.480 He did.

00:25:11.780 And his accomplices won $27,000.

00:25:15.120 I mean, can you just hit pause there for a second so people understand?

00:25:19.540 This is like making a mockery of the game.

00:25:22.140 But it's also just fixing the game where you're like,

00:25:24.680 hey, I'm going to perform differently so that my friends can get hooked up and make $27,000 there.

00:25:32.080 It went on for years.

00:25:33.720 And it's not like this was like one person.

00:25:36.240 I actually believe this is probably a lot more widespread than we are being told. 0.96

00:25:40.960 And part of that is I think that Major League Baseball and others are going to cover their ASSs.

00:25:45.140 They want to make sure that we don't realize just how bad it actually was or is.

00:25:49.860 Well, and with individual players and prop bets, they have almost total control over the outcome of that bet.

00:25:56.100 Yep.

00:25:56.320 And so, look, the $27,000 is not the worst part.

00:25:59.060 Let me give you a few more of the facts from the letter.

00:26:01.920 Klase would go on to blow a save opportunity as the Guardians lost 10-9 in extra innings.

00:26:07.520 In June 2023, Klase flung a pitch into the dirt in two separate games, well short of the strike zone.

00:26:17.120 While Cleveland fans were shouting in frustration, Klase was apparently cashing in.

00:26:22.380 In both games, he allegedly sent texts notifying his friends that he would throw balls.

00:26:28.960 They placed prop bets on his pitches, winning a combined $96,000.

00:26:38.100 Unbelievable.

00:26:39.640 Across other games from 2023 to 2025, Klase and his accomplices are accused of winning at least $400,000 through fraudulent bets.

00:26:50.800 I mean, that's a lot of money, folks.

00:26:52.520 And that's just one example that got busted.

00:26:55.140 You got to wonder how many others were out there, right?

00:26:57.860 I mean, we've seen—what's interesting, I was reading an article the other day that was talking about there's been an uptick in wild pitches.

00:27:05.880 Yeah.

00:27:06.540 Because you can bet on that, and they're just saying 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.

00:27:21.460 And it's like, that didn't happen for 50 years of baseball before when we have data, or 30 years in football of data, or whatever it may be.

00:27:29.540 And then all of a sudden, they're like, wow, this is happening a lot more often.

00:27:33.600 This is weird that they would get worse at these anomalies when technology and cameras and coaching has gotten so much better.

00:27:44.740 You'd think that would actually reduce the number of these unique moments that happen in sports.

00:27:49.440 And now we're finding out, yeah, it may not be unique at all.

00:27:52.080 Well, and negative prop bets are 100% within the control of an individual player.

00:27:56.860 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.

00:28:07.720 I could not throw a major league strike.

00:28:09.980 But you know what you and I could win a bet on?

00:28:13.080 That my next pitch will be a ball.

00:28:16.080 Because as much like I suck at baseball, but yet I can throw the ball into the dirt.

00:28:21.260 I'm quite confident I can pitch a ball.

00:28:23.620 I could pitch a ball 100% of the time with no deviation.

00:28:28.100 And some of the times, and in this instance, you know, someone who's good at cheating would not pound it into the dirt.

00:28:34.740 They would just be a little bit outside the strike zone, so you couldn't tell.

00:28:37.620 Well, it looks really obvious when you don't even make it to home plate.

00:28:41.840 But that problem, look, you were a Division I tennis player.

00:28:48.040 I'm pretty sure they didn't have prop bets.

00:28:49.540 I promise you I could double fault on command.

00:28:51.640 I could hit a ball long on command.

00:28:53.740 100% of the time.

00:28:54.660 I could hit a ball in the net on command.

00:28:56.300 I could whiff at a ball if that was a prop bet and make money off of it.

00:28:59.740 Yes.

00:29:00.420 All of those things you can 100% control.

00:29:03.620 By the way, I want our listeners to know, if you also get in Ben's head,

00:29:07.620 and screw with him, you can make him double fault even when he doesn't want to.

00:29:11.040 But that's a totally different.

00:29:12.760 He's an infinitely better tennis player than I am.

00:29:14.980 But I do have a little bit of ability to taunt him.

00:29:17.800 And if he gets pissed enough, that can happen.

00:29:20.700 Either that or you're going to get hit with the ball.

00:29:22.320 It's one of the two.

00:29:23.180 One of the two is going to happen.

00:29:26.220 One of the two.

00:29:27.640 And that would be a great prop bet, by the way.

00:29:29.540 There is that.

00:29:30.720 Although the sad thing is when Ben and I play tennis, we usually play together.

00:29:34.460 So if he's hitting me with the ball, he's really doing it wrong.

00:29:37.480 Because it's one thing to hit your opponent.

00:29:39.060 If you're hitting your teammate, good God, you're doing it wrong.

00:29:41.020 It's only when you get lackadaisical can you become a target.

00:29:43.900 It's just motivation.

00:29:45.060 It's just a straight-up motivation there.

00:29:47.060 Final question on this.

00:29:48.400 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?

00:29:58.580 You have normal gambling on games.

00:30:01.400 I don't know if you can even fix this.

00:30:04.040 Is that far out of control?

00:30:05.340 And is it the job of major league sports to police their own?

00:30:09.140 Or can they be trusted?

00:30:11.260 Look, I think there need to be some steps taken to fix this.

00:30:14.620 I'm not sure exactly what those steps are.

00:30:16.660 And so I'm starting with sending letters to the NBA and Major League Baseball because you've got scandals in both sports.

00:30:23.300 And listen, as you know, I'm a diehard Rockets fan.

00:30:27.360 I'm a diehard Astros fan.

00:30:29.120 By the way, did you happen to see the Rockets' last victory against Orlando?

00:30:33.540 No, I did not.

00:30:34.360 Was it a beatdown?

00:30:35.600 Oh, no, no.

00:30:36.320 It was an overtime victory.

00:30:37.820 It was spectacular.

00:30:38.900 Look, the Rockets actually were trailing almost the entire regular season.

00:30:43.020 And I DVR every Rockets game.

00:30:44.640 And so I watched this.

00:30:45.960 I actually watched this.

00:30:46.860 By the way, you haven't mentioned my Ole Miss Rebels in a few weeks.

00:30:49.560 And I just want everybody to know that's because we're winning and we're now, what is it, 10-1?

00:30:53.860 I think that's right.

00:30:54.480 Just want to throw that out there, beat the Gators.

00:30:56.440 Now back to your Rockets.

00:30:57.820 But when my team loses one game this year, there's two shows in a row that it was brought up.

00:31:03.140 The other 10 weeks, not a peep out of you.

00:31:05.460 I just want to be clear about that record.

00:31:07.180 Keep going.

00:31:08.180 Look, I got to say, as a Texan beating the Gators, I'm kind of like, that's interesting.

00:31:13.660 That's interesting.

00:31:14.260 One of my favorite images, when Florida played A&M, I tweeted out, there was a giant barbecue truck in College Station

00:31:22.380 that had, I think, five seven-foot Gators on a rotisserie rotating around being cooked.

00:31:29.120 So, okay, fine.

00:31:30.540 You guys beat the Gators.

00:31:31.840 That's fine.

00:31:32.880 That's very good.

00:31:33.340 Thank you for that moral support there.

00:31:35.360 I felt that.

00:31:36.360 I felt that tonight.

00:31:38.360 I'm just saying, the Rockets' win against Orlando was really sweet, because we were not playing great during the whole of the game,

00:31:44.940 and then it was this huge comeback. 0.97

00:31:47.340 And KD, I'm going to say right now, I think the Rockets can win the whole damn thing. 0.97

00:31:52.140 Really? 0.88

00:31:52.640 Oh, that's an early season prediction right there.

00:31:55.260 Now, look, most seasons, I think the Rockets can win it all.

00:31:58.420 Yeah, but you've never said it the way you just said it with me.

00:32:03.360 There's hoping, and then there's the real possibility.

00:32:06.060 So you think they're the real deal this year.

00:32:07.740 I really do.

00:32:08.980 They've got a ton of young talent.

00:32:10.700 They're really good.

00:32:11.420 Our problem last season is we didn't have a closer.

00:32:13.980 We didn't have someone who, in the last two minutes of the fourth quarter, you could give the ball to,

00:32:19.840 and he could bring it home.

00:32:21.480 And KD, I mean, look, he's one of the greatest players in history.

00:32:24.840 And in the game against Orlando, I mean, it was, you want to talk about cold.

00:32:29.460 He hit two three-pointers that were just devastating.

00:32:34.200 And you had Shang-Goon, who's a great center, who played a great game as well.

00:32:38.980 Did you have a problem on that overtime, by the way?

00:32:41.020 I'm just curious because you're really into this right now.

00:32:44.260 I didn't.

00:32:45.300 I just had great joy.

00:32:46.680 And as I said, I DVR the games, and I watch them typically late at night at the end of the day.

00:32:50.460 But anyway, my point is, it's one thing, and I will say, I like to play poker, but I've never been in a sports betting.

00:32:58.480 So among vices, that is not one that has impacted me.

00:33:04.120 But I get, you know, I'll put five bucks in a March Madness pool, and I've got to say my picks are almost always wrong,

00:33:10.580 so I don't know that I've ever won a March Madness pool, but I'll throw away my five bucks.

00:33:14.100 You're what we refer to as a charity bracket, and we appreciate your service to the charity community.

00:33:19.180 Okay, so I actually, I just pick a homer thing.

00:33:21.980 I pick Texas teams.

00:33:23.140 I pick teams I like, and I'm just like, I'm going to go with, I think my final four a year or two ago was, I think, three Texas teams in the final four.

00:33:31.420 Yeah, that didn't work out too well for you, I'm not going to lie.

00:33:34.440 Yeah.

00:33:35.420 Excuse me, did Ole Miss win the tournament?

00:33:38.080 We do football very well, sir.

00:33:40.320 We do football very well.

00:33:42.020 We win natties and golf, baseball, and tennis.

00:33:45.960 I just, yeah, I know where I am.

00:33:48.080 I know where we live.

00:33:49.460 Basketball's not there yet.

00:33:50.640 I'm okay with that, but I don't pick them to go to the final four.

00:33:53.740 That I can promise you.

00:33:55.160 Yeah, so look, on the question of gambling, and by the way, you've got pro sports, but I'm also concerned about college sports.

00:34:01.280 And in many ways, with such a proliferation, you know, you look at a small school with a game that's not in the headlines,

00:34:09.840 and an individual player there, you know, you may have, it's one thing for, you know, am I that worried about massive superstars making millions or tens of millions of dollars of being corrupted?

00:34:21.680 Well, yes, because we're seeing this in the NBA and Major League Baseball, but the incentive is less than some, you know, 19-year-old kid playing at Podunk School who has a chance to make 10 grand fixing the game.

00:34:37.160 And so I think that is a real challenge.

00:34:40.240 I think the leagues can maybe take some steps about it, but it would not surprise me to see Congress act.

00:34:45.340 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 of cheating.

00:34:52.020 What are the facts?

00:34:52.820 Tell me what you know.

00:34:54.120 Tell me what you know.

00:34:55.500 And then particularly the more serious the problem is, my hope is we may see Congress act in a bipartisan way to fix it.

00:35:03.460 It's going to be very interesting.

00:35:04.640 Don't forget, we do this show Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

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00:35:20.400 The Senate and I will see you back here in a couple of days.

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Verdict with Ted Cruz - November 19, 2025

Texas Designates Muslim Brotherhood as a Terrorist Organization, plus Crooked Gambling Crisis in Pro Sports

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