Verdict with Ted Cruz - The Assault by Men Playing in Women's Sports： An Exclusive one-on-one w Riley Gaines

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.620 Guaranteed human.

00:00:05.300 Welcome.

00:00:05.980 It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you as always.

00:00:09.580 And Senator, every once in a while, you and I get to do a show that I say is one of those

00:00:15.000 where I ask people to share it, and especially if you have girls, if you have kids that are

00:00:22.700 athletes, if you want to defend women and women's rights in sports, this is one of those

00:00:28.740 episodes that will be around forever, and it's a really important conversation.

00:00:33.940 We've been planning on doing this for a while, and now we've actually gotten to have the

00:00:38.180 conversation that's so important, and that is with Riley Gaines, someone that you've

00:00:43.140 had testify that you brought to Congress that had powerful testimony.

00:00:48.500 Well, that's exactly right.

00:00:49.600 We have a special guest on this podcast.

00:00:51.080 It's Riley Gaines.

00:00:52.220 Riley Gaines was an amazingly talented athlete who found herself her senior year competing 1.00

00:00:58.720 against a biological male, Leah Thomas, and what happened to her, it wasn't fair, it

00:01:05.200 wasn't right, and then she's shown just remarkable courage speaking out against it and shining

00:01:10.740 a light at what's happening, and she's paid a price for that.

00:01:14.940 You and I have both gotten to know Riley, and her courage is—a lot of people admire

00:01:20.920 it, and so on this podcast today, we're just going to let Riley tell her story, because

00:01:25.160 I think her story is going to inspire you, but it also speaks powerfully for fairness

00:01:31.540 and against the madness of the current ideological left.

00:01:36.380 Yeah, no doubt about it, and she's also doing a lot of college speaking, and if you've got

00:01:40.220 kids or grandkids at universities and she comes to that campus, I'm telling you, check out

00:01:45.220 what she's doing.

00:01:46.160 It's making a huge impact on protecting women's sports. 1.00

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00:03:46.580 Now I'm glad to welcome to the podcast someone who's become a friend and someone who I really

00:03:50.800 admire, Riley Gaines.

00:03:52.220 Riley Gaines was an All-American swimmer at the University of Kentucky, and she competed 0.99

00:03:56.600 in the 2022 NCAA Division I Women's Swimming and Diving Championships, where she competed

00:04:02.780 against University of Pennsylvania's Leah Thomas, a biological man who much of the politically

00:04:09.520 correct world refused to insist, refused to admit that he was physically male.

00:04:15.360 And I'll tell you, Riley, I think, has shown incredible courage speaking up, not just for

00:04:20.620 herself, but I think for every young girl, every young woman, everyone that wants to see

00:04:25.780 women's sports and girls' sports continue and continue to be a fair and real competitive

00:04:31.080 landscape.

00:04:31.900 And so, Riley, thank you for joining VERDICT.

00:04:33.640 We're really glad to have you.

00:04:35.300 Well, thank you.

00:04:36.280 Thank you both.

00:04:37.460 It is a joy, as always, to be on with you, to be chatting with you.

00:04:42.000 So I very much appreciate you guys.

00:04:44.700 Well, thank you for your courage.

00:04:47.960 All right, I'll tell you what.

00:04:48.540 Let's just start by telling your story.

00:04:50.680 Tell us where you grew up, how you got into swimming, and how, you know, you didn't seek

00:04:55.080 this out.

00:04:55.720 This kind of landed on top of you.

00:04:58.960 To put it lightly, yeah, I grew up in Nashville, Tennessee.

00:05:04.320 Many generations back, we are, I'm a native, which is, as you guys know, in Texas, there

00:05:08.820 are very few of us Nashvilleians who are born and raised, but I am one of them.

00:05:15.660 Come from a family of athletes.

00:05:17.520 My dad is an SEC Hall of Famer.

00:05:19.560 He played football.

00:05:20.740 My mom, she played softball.

00:05:22.720 My oldest sister went to Ole Miss, and she played softball.

00:05:25.180 And my brother, he's in college, he plays football.

00:05:27.960 My youngest sister, she is 15.

00:05:30.260 She is an elite-level gymnast, and I never tell her this, but she's probably the best

00:05:34.860 athlete out of all of us.

00:05:36.680 My dad went on to play in the league for a while.

00:05:39.540 All my uncles won Super Bowls, all the things.

00:05:41.860 So I come from a family of sports.

00:05:44.360 I am...

00:05:44.880 By the way, can we just pause for that one moment?

00:05:47.760 Did you hear that, T.C.?

00:05:49.260 I heard the Ole Miss, and I heard your legs start tripling with excitement.

00:05:55.120 I mean, you know, there's just greatness here, but Ole Miss, another Ole Miss, and athletes

00:05:59.920 at that, I'm just going to bask in this moment of excitement, and I apologize, but that's a

00:06:04.380 big moment here.

00:06:05.140 So keep going, because hotty-totty. 1.00

00:06:07.320 And I've got to say, by the way, Riley, so you came from Tennessee, but then went to

00:06:11.400 University of Kentucky.

00:06:12.400 That's quite the move.

00:06:13.280 I know, I know.

00:06:15.600 You know, Ben, I've got to ask, are you familiar with the Chucky Mullins story?

00:06:20.260 Oh my gosh, yes.

00:06:21.600 So Chucky Mullins, I mean, obviously a legend, but I remember when he got hurt, and George

00:06:29.160 Bush 41 actually visited him in the hospital at the Med in Memphis, because when they brought

00:06:35.080 him to Memphis after he was, the spinal cord injury, and George Bush 41 came and visited

00:06:41.380 him, it was a story I'll never forget, and if you don't know football, for people that

00:06:46.800 are listening, there is still a bust of Chucky Mullins, and every player touches basically

00:06:51.580 his head as they're running the bust of him, as they're running on the field for every home

00:06:55.940 game.

00:06:56.200 So my father was the player that Chucky tackled that game, Brad Gaines, and so the Roots

00:07:04.560 run very, very deep with Ole Miss and all the things, so it's always good to be talking

00:07:10.840 with Ole Miss fans, even after, hey, Kentucky, that win this past weekend, come on.

00:07:16.140 I was waiting for you to throw that in there.

00:07:18.440 I was like, how long is it going to be until the decorum just disappears from this appearance?

00:07:24.200 You guys look good, I'm not going to lie, you almost had Georgia, and I was worried,

00:07:31.780 and I actually got a text from a, I will say, unnamed SEC football coach, who I'm good friends

00:07:38.220 with, and he said, literally before the game in a text, he's like, dude, I'm not joking,

00:07:43.400 you guys better watch out, they're better than everyone thinks this year, and that proved

00:07:47.280 to be true.

00:07:48.980 Well, that's good to hear.

00:07:50.140 But, yeah, you know, I do, it was, it was, I didn't know I was going to go to Kentucky.

00:07:56.500 I thought, truthfully, my entire life, I thought I was going to be a Florida Gator ever since

00:08:00.780 middle school.

00:08:01.640 I, I, that's what I thought was in store for me.

00:08:04.260 I remember taking my official visit there.

00:08:07.800 Truth be told, I could have gone anywhere in the country that I, that I wanted to go,

00:08:11.000 and so, you know, I'm weighing the pros and the cons, and I remember being on my visit,

00:08:14.320 and one of the coaches who was, you know, walking us around all day and assisting the

00:08:19.340 recruits, I asked him, I said, how do you know if you're at the right place?

00:08:22.940 And he said, well, we're going to take you to a football game, you're going to go on the

00:08:25.920 field, you're going to hear the fight song, and if you get the chills when the fight song

00:08:29.180 plays, you'll, you'll know you're at the right place.

00:08:32.200 And so we're on the field, you know, it's, it's a big, it's a big stadium, and the fight

00:08:37.300 song starts playing.

00:08:38.960 And I, I kid you not, I just remember thinking, everyone starts doing that weird chomp thing.

00:08:43.100 I'm like, this is the weirdest thing ever, and orange is objectively ugly.

00:08:46.400 I don't want to be wearing orange.

00:08:48.200 No, thank you.

00:08:49.260 I kept taking my trips, went to Kentucky, and I, I just, I fell in love with the university.

00:08:54.720 Had a pretty illustrious career there, 12-time All-American, five-time SEC champion, actually

00:09:00.460 the SEC record holder in the 200 butterfly, making me one of the fastest Americans of all

00:09:05.420 time, two-time Olympic trial qualifier, SEC scholar athlete of the year, SEC community

00:09:10.800 service leader of the year, but again, just, just really to reiterate it, it's a lifelong

00:09:14.940 journey.

00:09:15.840 All right, Riley, go back, because I, I was looking at your bio, and it actually said 12x

00:09:21.260 All-American, and I was like, 12x, how can that be possible?

00:09:23.860 So I didn't mention the 12x.

00:09:25.480 Like, 12 times?

00:09:26.580 That, that, that, that, that's pretty far out there.

00:09:29.520 Yeah.

00:09:30.020 No, it's, it's, I look back now, and, and it is wild to think, again, all that goes into

00:09:36.640 it.

00:09:36.860 We train six hours every single day.

00:09:39.880 You're swimming 15,000 yards, which is about 10 miles every single day.

00:09:44.300 Three of those hours are before 8 a.m.

00:09:46.320 It's brutal.

00:09:47.420 And so I look back, and, and I'm really proud.

00:09:49.480 I'm proud of my, all the things that I was able to achieve, not just in the pool, but,

00:09:53.860 but also academically, and, and within my, my service, and really, really, it's wild to

00:10:01.780 look back on.

00:10:02.460 But yeah, 12, 12 times, it was definitely, even dealing with COVID during all of this,

00:10:09.780 we were robbed of an NCAA championships in that way.

00:10:13.820 It's, it's crazy to look back on, that's for sure.

00:10:16.740 All right, so, so tell us how, how guys in women's sports intruded on your experience.

00:10:23.860 So my senior year, I was, had a goal of winning a national title, which would, of course, mean

00:10:29.320 becoming the fastest woman in the country.

00:10:31.220 I'm right on pace to achieve this until the NCAA allows a man, a mediocre man at that, actually,

00:10:39.300 that's probably generous, a less than average man competing in his rightful category, the 1.00

00:10:43.440 men's category, where he swam for three years on University of Pennsylvania's men's team,

00:10:49.520 ranking, you know, in the 400s and 500s nationally, to then switching to the women's team in his

00:10:55.620 final year to where he would dominate.

00:10:58.260 He went on to win a national title in the 500 freestyle, and the event that he and I raced

00:11:02.780 in, the 200 free, we actually tied in, which is, is, is really rare, right?

00:11:09.680 It's, it's virtually impossible when you're racing for a minute and 40-ish seconds to go

00:11:13.980 the exact same time down to the hundredth of a second.

00:11:17.280 It's also mildly embarrassing for a six-foot-four man.

00:11:20.120 He couldn't even beat me.

00:11:22.260 Yeah, and how tall are you?

00:11:23.620 You're not that tall.

00:11:25.320 No, I'm like a whopping five-five, five-six, maybe.

00:11:29.280 So he's got almost a full foot on you.

00:11:32.240 That's right.

00:11:32.920 That's right.

00:11:34.120 And that's a lot of arms and a lot of legs. 0.98

00:11:36.680 Oh, you're telling me.

00:11:38.380 His feet on the block.

00:11:39.860 You know, you're standing on the starting block, and you look at the visual of him next to seven

00:11:47.160 women, and his feet take up the whole entire block. 1.00

00:11:51.540 Obviously, he's tall, and his arms are lanky.

00:11:53.800 He still has his Adam's apple.

00:11:55.060 Forget the bulge that is very glaringly obvious in his women's swimsuit.

00:11:59.880 But ladylike is not the word I would use to describe Mr. Thomas.

00:12:06.980 But really what thrusted me over the edge into no longer being willing to lie, I mean, to

00:12:15.840 wait for someone else.

00:12:17.000 That's what I was doing.

00:12:17.880 I was waiting for someone else to say something.

00:12:20.700 But after we tied, we'd go behind the awards podium where the NCAA official looked at both

00:12:25.340 Thomas and myself and said, great job, you two.

00:12:29.420 But you tied, and we only have one trophy, and we're going to give that trophy to Leah 1.00

00:12:33.360 because we've been advised as an organization that when photos are being taken, it's crucial

00:12:38.820 that the trophy is in Leah's hands.

00:12:40.680 Wow.

00:12:41.940 Ultimately, reducing everything we worked our entire lives for down to a photo op.

00:12:46.840 Was it even a conversation, or was it more like we're dictating to you?

00:12:51.040 Because I've dealt with the NCAA when I was playing, and I've said this about the NCAA

00:12:57.900 for a long time.

00:12:59.700 They treat us as athletes like we are their slaves.

00:13:04.680 And we have basically, once you're in their system, you have no rights.

00:13:08.560 They don't care about you.

00:13:09.800 It's all about making money.

00:13:11.220 It's a mafia, is my opinion on the NCAA.

00:13:13.700 I think it's been a terrible organization for far too long.

00:13:16.700 And taking advantage of far too many athletes, you're the biggest example of that.

00:13:20.760 In my opinion, but was there even a conversation with your coach or your AD or anyone that was

00:13:26.820 representing you?

00:13:28.540 There was no conversation at any point the whole season.

00:13:32.900 Forget the trophy incident.

00:13:34.320 There was no...

00:13:35.320 Actually, it was the exact opposite of a conversation.

00:13:38.520 We had to do all of the training and learn how to be kind and inclusive and about pronouns.

00:13:44.640 As a 21-year-old senior in college, they made me go to sensitivity training.

00:13:48.340 And literally, word for word, the verbiage that they used was I had to keep going through

00:13:53.980 this training until they felt like I had been re-educated enough.

00:13:57.660 I will say I had great support from my coaches.

00:13:59.820 There's no doubt about that.

00:14:01.440 My coaches...

00:14:03.440 I mean, my coach was my best friend for four years, really.

00:14:07.400 And he was very supportive, my head coach.

00:14:09.480 My athletic director, Mitch Barnhart at the University of Kentucky, he's been the AD for 20-plus years.

00:14:14.080 He is an incredible...I mean, an incredible human.

00:14:18.240 He is a wonderful Christian.

00:14:19.920 He leads by example.

00:14:21.260 I had tremendous support from him as well.

00:14:23.540 I mean, we talked today.

00:14:24.680 I still stay in touch with him.

00:14:27.240 But the academic, institutional side of things, that's where a lot of this forceful...I mean,

00:14:37.140 the training and all the stuff, it came from the academia side of the university.

00:14:41.620 Now, what do the record books show?

00:14:43.580 Do they list you as the national champion, or what do they say?

00:14:47.140 They just show a tie.

00:14:48.500 That's what it shows.

00:14:49.940 My university went on to nominate me for NCAA Woman of the Year, which is the most prestigious honor

00:14:55.660 for collegiate female athletes, to which I was super excited about this.

00:15:00.180 It's a very humbling award.

00:15:04.120 But this was NCAA Woman of the Year was not exclusive to just women,

00:15:08.700 because Thomas was also nominated.

00:15:11.700 God bless.

00:15:12.380 So, the NCAA, yeah, to your point, Ben, they have remained and continue to remain 0.99

00:15:17.600 the weak-kneed, spineless, morally bankrupt cowards that they are. 0.75

00:15:23.560 I want to take a moment real quick and just pause and say thank you to all of you that have 0.98

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00:15:46.200 Iran's ballistic missile attack against Israel that happened shows you what the people of

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00:17:40.380 in Israel right now.

00:17:42.780 There's two parts of this story and I think part of it is the NCAA, but the other part of

00:17:48.780 it is the threat to female athletes.

00:17:53.520 And your sport is not one where there's like interaction directly with one person like there

00:17:59.460 is in posting up and basketball or football or field hockey or even volleyball, for example.

00:18:05.920 Yours is, you know, you're in your lane.

00:18:08.160 But there is still a very real threat to women, you specifically, when you have to share a

00:18:16.640 locker room with a grown man.

00:18:19.820 And I'm assuming the NCAA did not protect you from that scenario at all.

00:18:26.940 Again, they did the exact opposite of protect us.

00:18:30.040 They told us that we weren't even allowed to oppose this.

00:18:32.900 Actually, we weren't even forewarned that we would be sharing the locker room.

00:18:37.820 But then, of course, once we understood the reality of the situation, only after being

00:18:44.100 exposed and exploited, simultaneously exploited to a six foot four naked man, inches fully intact,

00:18:51.200 by the way, and had no problem exposing himself, inches away from where we were simultaneously

00:18:56.340 fully undressed and approaching, you know, an official on the pool deck.

00:19:01.800 I will never forget, I went up to him and I said, hey, what in the world?

00:19:05.480 I understand the guidelines that allowed a man into the pool with us.

00:19:08.980 Sure, those guidelines are posted, whatever.

00:19:11.540 But what in the, what guidelines allowed a man into our locker room?

00:19:17.280 And so nonchalantly, this official responded back with, oh, well, we actually got around

00:19:23.660 this by making the locker rooms unisex.

00:19:26.180 Meaning, first, I remember the first thought that came through my head actually was, okay,

00:19:31.060 you realize by admitting you had to change the rules, you're admitting that Thomas isn't

00:19:36.280 a woman, right? 0.88

00:19:37.040 You realize that.

00:19:37.980 But secondly, unisex.

00:19:40.460 So any man, any coach, any official, any parent, any pervert who wanted to, quite frankly,

00:19:46.700 could come down there and share this changing space with us.

00:19:50.900 And bare minimum, we weren't even forewarned about this.

00:19:55.360 But any of the women get a choice, get an option to opt out, to say, look, I really don't 1.00

00:19:59.900 want to undress with a naked man? 0.96

00:20:02.100 No, there was no place on the pool deck that we could have gone that Thomas did not have

00:20:06.400 access to.

00:20:07.400 And I really cannot put into words the feelings of, I mean, of course, it's awkward, it's

00:20:14.080 embarrassing, it's uncomfortable, it's humiliating.

00:20:16.180 But really, it's feelings of utter violation and feelings of betrayal.

00:20:21.220 And I mean, it's traumatizing, really.

00:20:23.700 And not even necessarily traumatizing because of what we were forced to see or how we were

00:20:28.620 forcibly and non-consensually exploited, which used to correctly be called sexual abuse

00:20:33.300 or sexual harassment.

00:20:35.220 It was traumatizing for me, again, to know just how easy it was for them to throw our rights

00:20:40.520 to privacy as women entirely out of the window. 0.98

00:20:42.940 I think people need to understand, too, Riley, and if you'll explain it, because I've seen

00:20:47.980 the locker rooms, the NCAA, especially when you're at events, so if you're playing in a

00:20:53.960 championship for your conference, a lot of these venues, the locker rooms, when we say

00:21:01.880 there's zero privacy, there is not a stall to go into to change.

00:21:06.640 There is not a set of lockers, even like you might see at a country club, for example,

00:21:12.900 or a sports club, that you can go in another aisle for some privacy.

00:21:16.880 Many times, the showers, there are not even shower curtains, it's communal showers.

00:21:21.380 When I say there is no privacy in locker rooms, there is not.

00:21:25.980 I'm assuming that's the scenario you guys are in.

00:21:28.780 Yeah, and it's important to set that scene, especially a swimming locker room, not a place

00:21:34.120 of modesty, these suits that you're putting on, I mean, you're racing suits, you know,

00:21:38.060 they're paper thin, they're skin tight, it takes about at least, really, 20 minutes to

00:21:42.600 poke and prod yourself into these suits, and that's 20 minutes of which you're fully exposed.

00:21:47.280 And you have a locker room, it's a giant square, like there's no rooms, there's no nothing,

00:21:54.740 it's a giant square, it's a very intimate space, and that's just growing up a swimmer,

00:21:59.560 of course, locker rooms in general aren't comfortable, but growing up a swimmer, you

00:22:03.420 almost become comfortable being vulnerable in that environment, but let me tell you, that

00:22:08.960 vulnerability was stripped from us when I had my back turned, and I heard a man's voice

00:22:13.960 in that changing space.

00:22:16.320 Now, let me ask you, what did the other women think? 1.00

00:22:19.540 Because you've really, you've demonstrated a courage, and you've paid a price.

00:22:23.640 People have demonized you, you've been attacked and vilified.

00:22:26.540 But I'm willing to guess the other women weren't thrilled about it either, but they

00:22:31.500 just weren't able or willing to speak out the same way you have.

00:22:36.500 Let me tell you, of my team at Kentucky, 40 girls, 38 of us feel the exact same way.

00:22:43.940 That's not because there's 38 staunch conservatives swimming at the University of Kentucky.

00:22:48.800 It's because there were 38 girls who understood we worked our entire lives to get there, all 0.52

00:22:53.780 to have the rug really ripped out from under us, and that's the general consensus of how

00:22:58.280 we all felt.

00:22:59.840 I won't claim to speak for every single person, no, but I do claim to speak for the overwhelming

00:23:06.240 majority of us, because, Ted, look, I can attest to the tears.

00:23:10.520 I can attest to the tears not just from the moms in the stands who were watching as their

00:23:15.160 daughters were being obliterated in the sport that they once loved, but the tears from the

00:23:18.860 girls who placed 9th or 17th and missed out on being named an All-American by one place.

00:23:24.720 And I can attest to the extreme discomfort in the locker room, and I can attest to the

00:23:28.940 whispers, because that's what they were.

00:23:31.020 They were whispers of anger and frustration, again, from girls who, just like me, worked

00:23:36.900 from the age of 4 to be able to compete on that athletic stage.

00:23:44.820 So, understand, people aren't staying quiet because they agree with this.

00:23:51.040 They're staying quiet because they're terrified.

00:23:53.680 But what are the consequences to speaking out?

00:23:55.860 I can tell you what I face.

00:23:57.540 I was told I would lose all my friends.

00:24:00.080 I was told I would never get a job.

00:24:01.760 No employer would ever hire me, because they would look me up, and they would see that I'm

00:24:05.800 a transphobe.

00:24:07.020 My school told me, you know, Riley, you want to go to dental school.

00:24:09.980 No dental school will ever accept you or even look at your application if you speak up about

00:24:15.640 this.

00:24:16.280 They said, you know, you signed a scholarship.

00:24:18.880 And remember, when you signed that scholarship, you gave away your rights to speak in your own

00:24:22.560 personal capacity.

00:24:23.780 Remember who you represent?

00:24:25.020 Remember whose name is across your chest and across your cap, because it's not yours. 0.60

00:24:29.520 It's ours.

00:24:30.220 And, Riley, understand, we have already taken your stance for you.

00:24:33.840 So my university went as far as to tell us that if we did speak out, and any harm whatsoever

00:24:40.140 were to go towards Thomas's way, whether it was in the form of physical harm, emotional

00:24:45.160 harm, self-inflicted for that matter, they said, then understand that could result in a

00:24:50.300 potential death, and that would make you a murderer.

00:24:53.000 And you don't want that, do you?

00:24:54.680 You don't want to be a murderer?

00:24:55.860 No, so I suggest you be kind, and I suggest you be inclusive, because otherwise you'll

00:25:01.600 have blood on your hands.

00:25:03.520 But it's effective.

00:25:05.800 I mean, that type of emotional blackmail, that works when you're talking to 18-, 19-, 20-year-old

00:25:11.520 girls, telling them they're going to be murderers. 0.86

00:25:14.240 I don't blame others for kind of just shutting up and putting up. 0.54

00:25:17.600 So let's talk fairness for a second.

00:25:20.760 One of the things you said at the outset is you said when Leah Thomas was competing as

00:25:25.180 a man, that he was mediocre, in fact, that he was in the bottom half of men competing

00:25:31.160 in college swimming, that he was in, I think you said, the top 400 to 500.

00:25:35.560 So it wasn't close.

00:25:37.340 It wasn't like he was near the top of men and then just ended up the same place in women.

00:25:41.540 It was a pretty massive differential.

00:25:43.320 Is that right?

00:25:43.740 Yeah, this was not a lateral movement at all.

00:25:47.420 He never even got remotely close to qualifying for NCAAs in the men's division to, again, a

00:25:54.760 measly 12 months later winning a national championship.

00:25:58.240 And I forgot to mention, this Will Thomas figure is actually from Texas.

00:26:03.800 He grew up in Westlake, Texas, and swam here, went to school here before going on to UPenn.

00:26:11.560 And so there's a unique connection, of course, to the state here as well.

00:26:17.720 But yeah, no, not a lateral movement at all, which is the case we've seen across the board.

00:26:21.900 The story is the same every single time.

00:26:25.060 A mediocre man turns into a record-smashing woman, of course, in air quotes. 1.00

00:26:30.700 So, Riley, help people who are listening understand who haven't been competitive swimmers.

00:26:34.760 So, you know, maybe you go swimming in your backyard, you play around with other kids,

00:26:38.360 but you haven't competed at the elite level swimming.

00:26:41.380 What are the advantages, the physical advantages, that a biological man has over a biological woman in competitive swimming? 0.74

00:26:49.980 Well, of course, a whole list of them.

00:26:53.800 Let's start with things that I guess testosterone would impact.

00:26:58.020 Things like your, of course, your muscular structure, right?

00:27:05.360 But also things like your lung size, your heart size, the size and length of your limbs.

00:27:11.620 I mentioned his foot size.

00:27:13.540 All things that are paramount in the sport of swimming.

00:27:16.420 Which, let me just add, this is a sport we are working, again, all year in hopes to shave a few one-hundredths of a second off of your time.

00:27:28.660 There's not a lot of margin of error here.

00:27:31.680 Or, you know, we're hoping to shave tenths of a second.

00:27:35.040 So, to compete against someone who has advantages that far outweigh anything you could ever do.

00:27:42.400 There's no amount of training.

00:27:43.860 There's no amount of sleep or diet or anything that you could do.

00:27:49.240 And let's say, for example, a hundred-yard freestyle to shave at that level a full second or two seconds off your time.

00:27:56.880 You're fighting to shave hundredths of a second off your time.

00:28:00.140 We're spending a lot of time talking about, obviously, protecting women and especially young girls going to school.

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00:28:54.880 Don't compromise on your peace of mind.

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00:30:39.600 Riley, you mentioned All-American a moment ago that the girls that were crying and the mothers and the dads that were crying because they were one shot out, one spot out of an incredible prestigious award.

00:30:51.960 When you talk about shaving time and then this advantage that he has over you, what was the difference between first place and 10th place when you're talking about shaving seconds or 10ths of seconds off?

00:31:04.780 Like, I don't think people understand just how close it is at the elite level.

00:31:10.440 Yeah, again, 10ths of seconds.

00:31:12.860 That's how much you're even in the 50 freestyle, for example.

00:31:18.120 It's first place to 16th place, which is what qualifies as being an All-American top 16 in the country.

00:31:25.500 It's 10ths of a second.

00:31:27.020 Now, we're seeing this not just in swimming.

00:31:30.320 We're seeing this in sport after sport after sport.

00:31:32.640 Right now, it's become an issue with San Jose State volleyball, where there's a biological man who's playing on the women's volleyball team.

00:31:40.520 And there have now been multiple women's teams that have refused to play. 0.90

00:31:46.000 Give us your reaction to that, having competed in a different sport but at the same elite level.

00:31:51.480 Well, first, this is the first time we have seen something like this, a movement in motion where teams are standing in unity together saying,

00:32:04.040 we won't allow this to happen, enough is enough.

00:32:07.080 You're not going to continue to discriminate against us on the basis of our sex, which is, of course, everything that Title IX was passed originally to prevent from happening.

00:32:17.160 As you described, San Jose State University, they allowed a man onto their team to take a scholarship.

00:32:24.360 He's taken a roster spot.

00:32:25.760 He has taken, when they travel, you know, that travel spot that rightfully belongs to a girl, to a woman. 1.00

00:32:32.460 But in talking with and working with these presidents of these other Mountain West Conference schools, like, for example, Southern Utah, Boise State, followed by University of Wyoming, and most recently, just last night, Utah State,

00:32:48.360 these four schools have said, hey, we're not going to compete against this team.

00:32:52.800 The universities, of course, haven't specifically cited a reason, but I can tell you in talking to these teams, these girls are fearful of their safety. 1.00

00:33:02.660 Yeah.

00:33:03.300 They understand, look, we know we're going to take a loss.

00:33:07.480 That's what it means when you forfeit a match.

00:33:09.520 But this is a worthy cause.

00:33:12.460 We don't want to be on the receiving end.

00:33:14.120 I've seen this boy give career-ending concussions to girls, and so they cite safety concerns, these women, for not feeling comfortable to play.

00:33:23.920 And I'll tell you, there's more schools in the pipeline coming up who will soon also cancel their games against San Jose State University.

00:33:30.920 Well, and the risks of physical safety, particularly in sports that have more and more direct contact, whether you're dealing with volleyball and someone spiking the ball into your face, or a sport like basketball, or we saw at the Olympics so-called women's boxing with biological males competing.

00:33:50.480 Give us your thoughts on the risks of really serious injury that can happen when you have biological males engaged in direct physical violence in a sport against women.

00:34:04.160 Well, I'm not even going to give you my thoughts.

00:34:06.220 I'll tell you exactly what is happening.

00:34:08.420 I'm going to give you factual information here.

00:34:11.220 Let's look, for example, at Peyton McNabb, a high school senior.

00:34:14.960 She was at the time in North Carolina.

00:34:17.420 A similar situation, actually, it's a sport of volleyball.

00:34:21.700 A man on the opposing team, he jumps up, he spikes the ball, hits her in the face.

00:34:25.820 She's knocked unconscious, where she lays for many minutes before, you know, finally coming back around.

00:34:31.340 Still to this day, that was two years ago.

00:34:33.240 That was September of 2022, so over two years ago.

00:34:37.020 Still to this day, she's partially paralyzed on her right side.

00:34:41.000 Her vision is impaired.

00:34:42.220 Her memory is impaired.

00:34:43.260 She has to have special accommodations for testing at school because she can't retain information like she once could. 0.99

00:34:49.540 She was supposed to play softball in college, but because of this brain injury, she will not go on to do that.

00:34:56.160 She has to have part of her pituitary gland removed out of her brain because of how traumatic the head injury was.

00:35:02.040 Let's look for, or look at, for example, what we saw at a high school in Massachusetts, where a male was allowed to play field hockey with the girls, against the girls.

00:35:15.060 And this boy, he slaps a shot at the women, one of the women on the field.

00:35:19.060 It hits her in the face, in the mouth, and it knocked all her teeth out. 0.97

00:35:22.120 Even if she had to undergo facial reconstruction surgery to reconstruct her jaw, this male player, he's given career-ending concussions to girls, like I said.

00:35:34.100 Most recently, we saw him hit a woman in the face from University of Delaware to where she didn't even have time to defend herself.

00:35:41.020 There was no reaction time for her that would have been able to prevent this hit from hitting her in the head.

00:35:49.860 The list goes on. We saw recently even what the Olympics has done.

00:35:55.420 The IOC allowed two men, two plural males, to compete in women's boxing, which naturally, both of these men went on to win gold medals in their respective weight divisions.

00:36:08.280 And one of the female boxers who fought against this boxer, one of the male boxers, said she had never been punched that forcefully, that hard in her entire life.

00:36:18.520 She said this was nothing, a punch that a woman could throw. 1.00

00:36:23.200 How is this remotely fair? In what universe is this even arguably fair?

00:36:30.700 Well, it's absolutely not.

00:36:32.860 And I'll tell you, the people who are lobbying for this, who are voting in favor of this, who are advocating for this, they don't even believe it.

00:36:41.360 Even recently, Senator Cruz, when I testified, actually before your committee, I had some of your colleagues from across the aisle come up to me before the hearing and say,

00:36:51.500 Hey, look, you know, I played football at Stanford. I totally get where you're coming from.

00:36:56.900 I totally agree.

00:36:57.920 And then gets on the other side of the table.

00:36:59.480 And what does he do? He starts grilling me and sympathizes with those on the other side, not the women. 0.75

00:37:09.360 So they don't believe this. They're, again, just cowards. 0.99

00:37:13.160 And they know that that's why, one, you have been incredible on on many issues outside of the gender ideology movement. 0.95

00:37:22.060 But your opponent here in your state, I was so enthused to see this ad come out recently.

00:37:30.820 It was so powerful. It was so effective.

00:37:33.200 If the people listening haven't seen it, go watch it.

00:37:36.140 I've reposted it on my page.

00:37:38.620 It's this perfect depiction that even if you just watch the last 10 seconds, you see a man in a jersey with all red on the back of it.

00:37:47.740 And he tramples a young girl.

00:37:52.160 And that is the message, perfectly depicted.

00:37:55.280 That is the message that we are receiving and that people are voting for.

00:38:01.620 That's what you're getting if you vote for someone who advances these progressive and harmful policies.

00:38:07.700 Canadian women are looking for more. 1.00

00:38:09.900 More to themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world around them.

00:38:13.880 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.

00:38:17.740 I'm Jennifer Stewart.

00:38:18.980 And I'm Catherine Clark.

00:38:20.240 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women.

00:38:23.980 Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey.

00:38:29.700 So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.

00:38:32.940 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

00:38:37.000 Let me ask you.

00:38:39.760 You've gone to a number of campuses and you've spoken out.

00:38:42.300 And I admire your courage because you've had some really unpleasant receptions and threats of violence against you.

00:38:51.660 Describe a little bit what you've experienced as a consequence of speaking out against this.

00:38:56.880 Well, I was just actually explaining to Ben.

00:39:01.300 I'm actually at University of Texas and Austin's campus today.

00:39:06.660 And I'll tell you, there was some minor heckling, but for the most part was very well received.

00:39:13.360 Because these students are desperate to hear the truth, to be honest with you.

00:39:17.700 They've been denied it from their universities, from these, you know, institutional, academic institutions.

00:39:23.540 They've been denied the truth through censorship and other things.

00:39:28.640 And so I had a great reception tonight, but you're right.

00:39:31.620 I have been in scenarios where I have not been overly well received.

00:39:36.500 One, for example, is San Francisco State University where, I mean, I was accosted.

00:39:42.220 I was ambushed.

00:39:42.900 I was attacked by these protesters, hundreds of them.

00:39:46.240 They rush into the room.

00:39:47.460 They turn off the lights.

00:39:48.960 I mean, I'm being punched in the face by these men wearing dresses, which, again, they ultimately held me for ransom for about five hours,

00:39:57.740 demanding that if I wanted to make it home to see my family safely again, I had to pay them money.

00:40:02.680 All the while, the police are being held for ransom with me because, remember, this is San Francisco,

00:40:07.560 and the police don't know.

00:40:09.040 I shouldn't say they don't know how to do their job.

00:40:10.880 They just don't do their job in this city.

00:40:16.240 Well, and often they're prevented from doing it by the political leadership who doesn't let them protect the rights of innocence because ideology trumps actually defending people's rights and people's safety.

00:40:30.580 And we see, whether it's in San Francisco or Minneapolis or New York or Los Angeles, we see that left-wing Democrats prevent law enforcement from protecting innocence,

00:40:43.620 in many cases from violence, that the ideology on the left is if the violence is carried out by someone whose politics they align with,

00:40:54.740 then they're happy to look the other way and to effectively handcuff police officers from protecting the innocent from violence.

00:41:02.180 And that's exactly what these officers said.

00:41:05.220 You know, I asked them, can't you do something?

00:41:08.240 To which they said, no, we can't.

00:41:10.300 We're not allowed to do anything because we're not allowed to be seen as anything other than an ally to that community or else we'll lose our jobs.

00:41:16.300 Again, the same community who's on the other side of the door where we were barricaded, 0.82

00:41:21.000 who called these officers racist pigs for protecting a white girl like me. 0.98

00:41:26.560 That's who they, again, were almost forcibly had to side with in this scenario. 0.90

00:41:34.160 Well, Riley, thank you for speaking out.

00:41:36.560 Thank you for speaking out, not just for yourself, but you're speaking out for women.

00:41:41.040 You're speaking out for young girls.

00:41:42.680 You're speaking out for the next generation of athletes.

00:41:44.920 You know, Title IX transformed athletics and created opportunity for millions of schoolgirls to compete and develop discipline and teamwork 1.00

00:41:55.100 and get all of the benefits of athletic competition.

00:41:57.980 And I got to say, the current insanity of pretending there is no such thing as girls and boys,

00:42:03.720 there is no such thing as women and men, it really threatens the ability of both women and girls to compete in athletics.

00:42:11.460 And I think your courage, there are a lot of people who are grateful to you, even if they don't say so.

00:42:17.620 I'm telling you, there are millions of Texans and millions of people across the country who are grateful to you, Riley.

00:42:23.200 Well, I appreciate both you, Senator Cruz, and, of course, Ben, for everything that you guys have done.

00:42:29.800 I mean, I think, Senator Cruz, in terms of the gender ideology movement, there are really few who have done it as such a great job as you,

00:42:42.100 as highlighting the insanity, spreading awareness.

00:42:44.680 I think of the activist judge, Sarah Netburn, who, I mean, your line of questioning was just brilliant.

00:42:52.920 It was perfect.

00:42:53.800 It was just enough.

00:42:55.260 I believe the vote was 12 to 11.

00:42:58.900 But, again, that's largely a part of, well, because of everything that you and your colleagues have done.

00:43:05.420 And so just very, very grateful for you guys and doing the necessary work, even when it's not the popular thing.

00:43:14.220 So thank you.

00:43:14.900 Well, there's a power to common sense, and just speaking the truth at a time when it seems so many others are terrified to do so,

00:43:24.960 that has an enormous power and enormous force.

00:43:28.400 Well, thank you, thank you, thank you.

00:43:31.420 I'm waiting for the day when Kentucky and Texas play.

00:43:35.740 Well, that will come soon enough, and I will be happily rooting for Texas, but we'll see what happens.

00:43:41.920 Riley, thanks again for coming on.

00:43:43.440 People can follow you on social media, obviously, and see where you're speaking around the country.

00:43:48.400 If you've never seen Riley speak, put it on your list.

00:43:50.720 Tell your kids, your grandkids at colleges to make sure they see her if she is coming to their campus.

00:43:55.800 Don't forget, we do this show Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, so make sure you hit that subscribe or auto-download button.

00:44:02.320 And make sure you grab my podcast as well, the Ben Ferguson podcast for those in-between days.

00:44:07.340 I will keep you updated on everything going on as well in the latest breaking news.

00:44:11.960 And the Senate and I will see you back here for the Week in Review on Saturday morning.

00:44:17.740 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:44:20.380 Guaranteed Human.

Verdict with Ted Cruz - October 04, 2024

The Assault by Men Playing in Women's Sports： An Exclusive one-on-one w Riley Gaines

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