Minnesota Fraud Whistleblowers Hunted, the Fight for the Future of College Athletics & Controversial DA Practices in PA Week In Review

Summary

Podcast Summary: The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
Episode: Minnesota Fraud Whistleblowers Hunted, the Fight for the Future of College Athletics & Controversial DA Practices in PA Week In Review
Date: July 4, 2026
Host: Ben Ferguson | Guest: Senator Ted Cruz

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Episode Overview

In this special Independence Day week-in-review episode, Ben Ferguson and Senator Ted Cruz break down three of the most consequential stories they've covered recently:

1. The alleged intimidation and retaliation against whistleblowers who reported a multi-million-dollar Somali-linked fraud scandal in Minnesota.
2. Major legislative momentum in Congress to save college sports from systemic collapse.
3. Yet another controversy involving a Philadelphia District Attorney, with a focus on the destructive impact of George Soros-backed “activist DAs.”

The discussion offers urgent analysis, direct appeals to accountability, and behind-the-scenes insights into how these cases connect to wider political trends.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

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1. Minnesota Fraud Whistleblowers Intimidated

[01:49–14:27]

• Story Breakdown:

  • A newly released House committee report alleges that Governor Tim Walz’s administration paid private investigators to intimidate and silence state employees who attempted to blow the whistle on massive social services fraud in Minnesota.
  • Whistleblowers, including a Minnesota Department of Education official, allege being pressured, monitored, and threatened for trying to expose fraud involving federal and state funds funneled to Somali groups—some allegedly with connections to terrorist organizations like Al Shabaab.

• Legal and Systemic Implications:

  • Senator Cruz underscores the importance of whistleblower protection laws and argues that attacking whistleblowers points to a coverup by those in power:

    “If a government official goes after the whistleblowers, attacks the whistleblowers, refuses to follow the law... that is powerful indication of a guilty mind, that you’re covering something up.”
    (Ted Cruz, 03:13)

  • The report details tactics used against whistleblowers, including surveillance, de-anonymizing hotlines, and retaliatory HR actions.

  • Cruz and Ferguson question whether Walz, AG Keith Ellison, and high-ranking state officials could face civil or criminal accountability.

• Systemic Political Context:

  • Cruz claims these actions were tolerated and even encouraged for political gains, with fraudulent funds allegedly supporting political ambitions and donations:

    “This happened because it was in politicians’ political interest for this to happen, because they were getting money from campaign donations and votes.”
    (Ted Cruz, 13:20)

• Notable Quotes:

  • On whistleblower intimidation:

    “It's DI [diversity and inclusion] and fraud all coming together along with corruption to elect Democrats."
    (Ted Cruz, 04:44)

  • On the scope of the problem:

    “...the single largest funder of Al Shabaab... was the taxpayers of Minnesota.”
    (Ted Cruz, 13:06)

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2. The Fight for the Future of College Athletics

[16:05–26:24]

• Legislative Update:

  • Senator Cruz details bipartisan progress on his legislation (passed in the Senate Commerce Committee by a 19–9 vote) to “save college sports” by creating stability amidst lawsuits, the NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) era, and chaos around eligibility and the transfer portal.

• The College Sports Crisis:

  • Cruz argues that non-revenue sports and even major football/basketball programs are at risk of collapse due to financial stress and “mini-NFL” dynamics.
  • Ferguson highlights that 98–99% of college athletes are NOT in football or basketball and that the loss of college sports would devastate educational and socioeconomic opportunities:

    “It completely changed the trajectory of their family tree. And it was because of athletics.”
    (Ben Ferguson, 22:41)

• Broad Stakeholder Support and Opposition:

  • Cruz lists broad-based endorsements (24 conferences, NFL, NBA, coaches like Nick Saban and John Calipari, the US Olympic Committee).
  • Opposition mainly comes from Big Ten and SEC leadership, whom Cruz accuses of wanting to create an exclusionary super league:

    “We explicitly prohibit a super league in the bill because I want to keep all the other programs alive.”
    (Ted Cruz, 26:01)

• Notable Quotes & Moment:

  • Cruz on widespread implications:

    “If Congress doesn't act, I think five years from now there will be 30 to 50 competitive college football programs—basically a mini-NFL... all the other programs go under.”
    (Ted Cruz, 18:23)

  • Ferguson’s testimony:

    “I'll be honest with you, I'm not sure I would have gone to college if it wasn't for having the scholarship which came through the tennis court.”
    (Ben Ferguson, 22:01)

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3. Controversial DA Practices in Philadelphia and the Soros Effect

[26:24–37:07]

• Activist DA Concerns:

  • Cruz and Ferguson sound the alarm about Philadelphia’s DA Larry Krasner, funded by George Soros, and other “Soros DAs” who, they claim, prioritize releasing violent criminals over public safety.

• Judicial Rebuke:

  • A Democrat-majority appellate court sharply criticized Krasner for more than 100 instances of “untrustworthy concessions” and failing to be candid—primarily in murder cases:

    “They found that he is so quick to falsely concede error in murder cases to try to free convicted murderers that it is tasked the Pennsylvania Attorney General with checking to make sure that the Soros DA is not lying.”
    (Ted Cruz, 30:46)

  • Cruz reads directly from the court opinion, highlighting a pattern of false stipulations, withheld evidence, and lack of adequate investigations.

• Wider Soros Agenda:

  • The hosts argue Soros deliberately funds “abolish the police” and “bail reform” campaigns to create anarchy:

    “I do not know any other motivation for George Soros that makes any sense to me other than that he wants to destroy America because his actions seem perfectly calculated to destroy America.”
    (Ted Cruz, 29:16)

• Notable Quotes:

  “Is society better if there are more murderers on the street...? Soros says, yes. And he spends millions of dollars to elect DAs who agree with him.”
  (Ted Cruz, 30:14) “I’ve never seen that, and I’ve practiced law a long time.”
  (Ted Cruz, 35:46, after reading the court’s rebuke of the DA’s office)

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Memorable Moments & Notable Quotes by Timestamp

• Whistleblower Suppression in Minnesota:

  “If a government official goes after the whistleblowers, attacks the whistleblowers, refuses to follow the law... that is powerful indication of a guilty mind...”
  — Ted Cruz, 03:13

• Connection to Al Shabaab:

  “The single largest funder of Al Shabaab... was the taxpayers of Minnesota.”
  — Ted Cruz, 13:06

• Personal College Sports Story:

  “I'm not sure I would have gone to college if it wasn't for having the scholarship which came through the tennis court.”
  — Ben Ferguson, 22:01

• On “Soros DAs”:

  “I do not know any other motivation for George Soros that makes any sense to me other than that he wants to destroy America, because his actions seem perfectly calculated to destroy America.”
  — Ted Cruz, 29:16

• Judicial Opinion on DA Krasner:

  “We find the District Attorney’s office conceded relief, although none was warranted, based on the existing record... violated its duty of candor... submitted a false stipulation of fact, misstated facts in its pleadings, failed to conduct a reasonable investigation, and opposed a required evidentiary hearing...”
  — (Cruz quoting from appellate decision), 32:29

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Important Timestamps

• [01:49–14:27] — Minnesota Whistleblower Suppression and Fraud Coverup
• [16:05–26:24] — The College Sports Bill and the Threat to College Athletics
• [26:24–37:07] — Philadelphia DA Controversy and the Soros DA Phenomenon

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Tone and Language

The tone throughout is urgent, combative, and highly critical of Democratic leadership. There’s an undercurrent of advocacy—for accountability, for legislative action, and for the protection of American values as defined by the hosts and their political perspective. Both Ferguson and Cruz blend analysis with personal anecdote and rhetorical flourishes, aiming for both rapport and alarm.

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For listeners seeking context, this episode delivers a passionately articulated conservative view on state-level fraud, education policy, and criminal justice reform—anchored by headline cases and direct legislative involvement.

Transcript

[Ben Ferguson]

This is an iHeart podcast.

[Newt Gingrich]

Guaranteed Human on New Troy podcast. We're celebrating America's 250th birthday and I asked my guests how they're spending their 4th of July. Brett Baer I will be working. I'll be in Washington because it's a big, big day. Jared Isaacman.

[Ted Cruz]

I plan to be flying in an

[Ben Ferguson]

F5 fighter jet painted in Freedom 250

[Ted Cruz]

colors, along with four other fighter jets flying over the nation's capital.

[Newt Gingrich]

Listen to new on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast or wherever you did your podcast.

[Ted Cruz]

Why should you listen to Armstrong and Getty on demand? We're not boring. A lot of news is boring and tedious and depressing and makes you angry. You don't want to live your life like that. Hey, I'm Jack Armstrong.

[Ben Ferguson]

He's Joe Getty.

[Ted Cruz]

We're Armstrong and Getty. We try to bring you the truth and help you figure out this crazy modern world about something about a comedic tone. We have a winner. Yes. Listen to Armstrong. You get on Demand on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What if your favorite way to unwind could actually reward you with mistplay? It can stop scrolling social media for nothing. Mistplay lets you earn points just for

[Ben Ferguson]

discovering and playing mobile games.

[Ted Cruz]

Redeem them for gift cards from brands you love simply for doing what you already do to relax. Download Mistplay today and make your downtime more rewarding. Your schedule isn't 9 to 5. Your education doesn't have to be either. Post University offers nursing programs with flexibility for busy schedules. Keep moving forward. Learn more at post. Edu.

[Ben Ferguson]

Welcome. It is verdict with Ted Cruz. We can review Ben Ferguson with you and Happy 4th of July. Here are the big stories that you may have missed mess that we talked about this past week. We have got a shocking story coming out of Minnesota that the governor there actually paid private investigators to spy and to intimidate government employees who had whistleblown on the massive fraud that was taking place. Also, a bill that is actually moving through Congress that is now quite possibly going to save college sports forever. And lastly, an activist DA in Philadelphia yet again, letting criminals walk. Why is this happening and who's behind it? We explain that for you. It's the weekend review and it starts right now. All right, I want to move on to this other incredible story. Senator, coming out of Minnesota and in life, especially in government work, you're told that if you're a whistleblower that you have protections and that if you're a whistleblower, you should not be afraid for your job or that someone's going to come after you. Certainly the government that you work for. Well, apparently that's not the case in Minnesota. And if you want to know how the Somali fraud got so bad, it might actually be because the governor was coming after the whistleblower, not those that were committing the crimes in Minnesota with his new shocking report.

[Ted Cruz]

Well, that is inevitably, number one, the law, federal law and typically state law that protects whistleblowers, that gives you legal protection because you want whistleblowers to, to call attention to fraud. But number two, if a government official goes after the whistleblowers, attacks the whistleblowers, refuses to follow the law and whistleblowers, that is powerful indication of a guilty mind, that you're covering something up. It's sort of like if someone is murdered in Central park and you catch a person burning their clothes from that night and destroying the murder weapon. Yeah, that is powerful, powerful evidence that they're the murderer. That it is typically the guilty who destroys evidence, who tries to cover it up. That if you're not guilty, you have far less motivation, far less likelihood to try to silence whistleblowers to try to destroy evidence. So here's the story that broke in the Daily Caller. The headline is Tim Waltz's staff hired private investigators to silence fraud Whistleblowers Committee report Finds Senior Minnesota state officials allegedly hired outside investigators to silence whistleblowers in an attempt to cover up widespread state social services fraud, a House committee report released Monday found. The 200 page staff report by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform found that Democrat Minnesota Governor Tim Waltz's state's administration intimidated and retaliated against state employees who raised concerns about fraud, soliciting private investigators to reveal employees personal details titled the Cost of Doing Nothing How Tim Waltz and Keith Ellison Fueled Minnesota's Fraud Explosion exposed that senior state officials as high as allegedly Governor Waltz were aware of widespread fraud for years and neglected to respond to reports. A Minnesota Department of Education official who contacted the FBI told federal investigators she was pressured, quote, at every turn by her superiors to stop raising fraud concerns and was quote, hand slapped when she continued to investigate, according to the report. The official also reported that she was warned by state administrators to, quote, stop digging into things as it would appear that she was, quote, targeting certain groups. This is di and fraud all coming together along with corruption to elect Democrats. The article continues. Dozens of other whistleblowers reported, dozens that they were told to stay silent about Fraud concerns by the Minnesota Department of Human Services because they would be labeled, quote, racist or Islamophobic. DHS also told state employees that raising fraud concerns would harm the state, the report said. Whistleblowers reported the DHS conducted arbitrary investigations to photograph their cars and houses, monitor their phones and computers, and asked employees where their kids attended school. Now it's going to get worse. Then temporary commissioner Sherene Gandhi. By the way, I'm going to give you some foreshadowing that, that, that, that Ms. Gandhi did not behave like Gandhi. Instead, she confirmed in a testimony copied in the report that the State Department used outside entities to conduct these investigations of employees, but could not confirm whether independent law firms were used. Gandhi also confirmed in her testimony that DHS management would regularly meet and, quote, check in on employees who had reported fraud concerns. Gandhi continued to conduct these check ins on DHS whistleblower Fay Bernstein, quote, a year or two after her investigatory leave. So they hunted them down and they stayed harassing them. Bernstein alleged that Gandhi, quote, shamed her in a meeting after she raised concerns about fraud and quote, excluded her from further meetings on the topic. Whistleblowers also alleged that former state Commissioner Jody Harpstead held a division wide meeting and told attendees that, quote, employees would be punished if they reported concerns about fraud and DHS programs. According to the report, DHS employee Emmanuel Nwala told colleagues that he, quote, did intelligence research within the army and appears to have threatened to provide IP addresses to former colleagues in order to find the locations of whistleblowers email addresses. An email obtained through a public data request showed. Now it's about to get even worse. The report also alleged that DHS de anonymized an internal fraud hotline for employees in an attempt to intimidate fraud reporters. After whistleblowers later created an anonymous external email to report fraud, DHS blocked the email address. Whistleblowers reported that their fraud hotline tips were sent to human resources and used against them. The hotline was originally anonymous, but was de anonymized under Gandhi's tenure as deputy commissioner of HR. Governor Waltz appointed Gandhi as commissioner of DHS in February 2026, but removed her in May before her confirmation hearing amid scrutiny of her response to fraud allegations. This is anyone who claims, gosh, the. The elected officials of Minnesota, they were victims. They didn't know they wanted to go after the fraud. Which by the way, both Waltz and Ellison keep saying, oh, we wanted to go after the fraud, we wanted to prosecute it. This demonstrates, I think, powerfully they are lying. Not only did they not want to go after the fraud, they were doing everything they could to silence the whistleblowers and prevent anyone from knowing about the fraud.

[Ben Ferguson]

Yeah, and this goes back to the other question of accountability. If everything that we just mentioned turns out to be true, there's obviously now an open investigation into this. If you do these things, are you breaking the law? And if it goes all the way, the governor, is he breaking the law? And the people below him, are they breaking the law? And is there any accountability for this? Or is this just. Well, Waltz isn't running for reelection, so it doesn't really matter anymore, and we'll just move on and. Yeah, we may continue to do things like this in the future without accountability.

[Ted Cruz]

Listen, the Department of Justice has created an entire new division focused at going after fraud. And I hope everyone who made these decisions faces accountability if they committed criminal violations, that they are prosecuted. I am hopeful. I can tell you I'm urging the Department of Justice hold them accountable. The way our constitutional system works, it's not the legislature. Look, I'm in the Senate. I can't prosecute anybody. I don't have executive authority. I have legislative authority. I can write legislation, which I have, but I can't. The power to bring an indictment, the power to go before a grand jury to get an indictment, to prosecute, that is exclusively within the executive branch, within, principally, the U.S. department of justice at the federal level. And so I can tell you this. I am urging the attorney general and DOJ prosecute every single person who committed criminal acts, who covered up this fraud, who benefited from it, who knew what they were doing. And this is a real smoking gun.

[Ben Ferguson]

And if the ag. I go back to Ellison there, we know his name well, if he's involved in this and is using and weaponizing the government to go after those that were not committing the fraud, those that were trying to whistleblow on the fraud. Fraud. And they are harassed. Is there any lane for the people that were being harassed to somehow have, like, you know, restitution for what they went through? If you're being harassed for two years after you put in a tip, that's got to put a lot of stress on your life. I'm assuming it puts stress on your career. I'm assuming it could have affected a lot of people getting promotions that they deserve.

[Ted Cruz]

Yeah, look, and I would assume we're going to see civil litigation of people filing lawsuits and seeking compensation for this. And that litigation could well be successful in terms of criminal prosecution. This Would not surprise me, I don't know, sitting here, if Minnesota law makes doing this a criminal violation in Minnesota. Now, of course, the federal government can't prosecute violations of Minnesota law. It would take a Minnesota district attorney to bring that case. And I got to admit, I'm very skeptical that there are any prosecutors in Minnesota willing to hold the corrupt Democrats in charge of that state accountable. If they're not, then there's not really a mechanism to enforce Minnesota law, which means you would be left with federal law. And given that these are federal funds that were effectively being stolen and funneled to Somalia, funneled to Somalian fraudsters being sent, among other places, to Al Shabaab. And we before on this podcast that the single largest funder of Al Shabaab, which is the radical Islamic terrorist group that is in Somalia, their number one funder was the taxpayers of Minnesota. And those are also federal taxpayer money. So look, I expect the Department of Justice, they've already prosecuted a number of the fraudsters at the lower level, but I hope they go right up the ladder of accountability and any politicians that are responsible. And to be clear, this happened because it was in politicians political interest for this to happen, because they were getting money from campaign donations and they were getting votes from allowing Somalian fraudsters to rob the taxpayers of Minnesota and the American taxpayers. And look, this has happened also in other states. It's happened in Maine under the Democrat governor there. It's happened in California. It's happened in Illinois. It's happened, I think, all over the country, but predominantly in Democrat states where there are Democrat politicians who are benefiting from, from turning the other way to fraud. And I think everyone who committed a criminal act should face prosecution and real consequences.

[Ben Ferguson]

Now if you want to hear the rest of this conversation, you can go back and listen to the full podcast from earlier this week.

[Newt Gingrich]

This is Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House and a proud American citizen. I'm celebrating America's 250th birthday on my podcast, Newts World with 15 special episodes. And I've got some great guests. Walter Isaacson, Jonathan Turley, Brett Baer. I will be working because it's a big, big day. I'll be in Washington and have all kinds of coverage through the day of America. 250 Rachel campus Duffy.

[Ted Cruz]

There's nothing like American music. We're the home of rock and roll. We're the home of rap. We're the home of pop music.

[Newt Gingrich]

Eric Metaxas, Jared Isaacman.

[Ted Cruz]

I plan to be flying in an

[Ben Ferguson]

F5 fighter jet painted in Freedom 250

[Ted Cruz]

colors, along with four other fighter jets flying over the nation's capital, the story

[Newt Gingrich]

of the national anthem and the president of the United States, Donald J. Trump. Join me and let's celebrate America's 250. Listen to Newts World on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast.

[Ted Cruz]

Why should you listen to Armstrong and Getty on demand? We're not boring. A lot of news is boring and tedious and depressing and makes you angry. You don't want to live your life like that. Hey, I'm Jack Armstrong.

[Ben Ferguson]

He's Joe Getty.

[Ted Cruz]

We're Armstro and Getty. We try to bring you the truth and help you figure out this crazy modern world about something about a comedic tone. We have a winner. Yes. Listen to Armstrong. You get it on Demand on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Ben Ferguson]

Now on to story number two. All right, so center, let's move into. This is something you've been really working on. This is the most like jock bro I've ever seen you since I've known you. And it's really been fun for me because usually you're geeking out over like Supreme Court stuff. I feel like our friendship has moved to another level because now we've got to talk sports and nil so much. And the college sports bill, it is now reality. Let's walk us through how this was done and what it means for sports fans and saving many sports that were getting canceled around the country that were non money making sports.

[Ted Cruz]

So this week was a very, very big week for college sports because the Senate Commerce Committee, which I chair, passed my legislation to protect college sports and it passed with a big bipartisan vote. The vote was 19 to 9. So we got a bunch of Republicans, bunch of Democrats. We got more than two thirds of the committee voted for it. That's really important. It has momentum now going to the Senate floor. I think it's going to pass on the Senate with a big bipartisan vote and it's going to go to the House and President Trump is eager to sign it. Now, what's going on in college sports? Listen, college sports is in crisis right now. Every week you see another story about a program being canceled, women's sports being canceled, track and field being canceled, Olympic sports being canceled, non revenue sports, tennis being canceled. And what is happening is you've got total chaos with the transfer portal. You've got athletes transferring two, three, four, five times. You have Essentially no rules on eligibility. They're all being decided by lawsuits. It got so ludicrous. You had the Brendan Sorsby case where even though he was gambling on his own games, you had a hometown judge say, no, he can still play anyway. Now, thankfully, Texas Tech backed away from that decision. I'm glad Tech made that decision to back away. That was an indefensible decision. But it illustrated the chaos we have. You have people that are 26, 27 years old still playing college sports and 28 year olds playing against 18 year olds, which is not fair, not right. And athletic programs, they're almost all losing millions of dollars. Many of them are losing tens of millions of dollars because the cost keeps spiraling out of control. And then if Congress doesn't act, I think five years from now there will be 30 to 50 competitive college football programs. Basically a mini NFL.

[Newt Gingrich]

Yeah.

[Ben Ferguson]

And I think it'll be a franchise. If you're an SC school, you own a franchise.

[Ted Cruz]

Yeah. And I think all of the other programs go under. And what that means, by the way, that's not just college football going under. The way athletics works in colleges is football pays for everything else. And so if football goes under, it means those schools, they lose women's sports, they lose, they lose their entire athletic program. It means our Olympic athletes are just devastated and the college programs where they develop their skills right now go away. And I think that would be a terrible outcome. And it would also be a terrible outcome. Do you know right now there are more than 500,000 college athletes competing? Yeah. At any given time.

[Ben Ferguson]

Yep.

[Ted Cruz]

If we allow this chaos to continue to play out, hundreds of thousands of those slots will disappear, those scholarships will disappear. And sports has been an avenue, by

[Ben Ferguson]

the way, millions of young men and

[Ted Cruz]

women to go to school.

[Ben Ferguson]

Well, let's be clear, the 500,000 you just mentioned, this is the part I want people to understand. The majority of college athletes, like 90s, I think I saw a study, you may know the number. I want to say it was 98 or 99% of college athletes do not play football or basketball. So if you think about college sports, it is all the other sports. The majority of them are not revenue making sports. Football barely is on most cambuses sometimes. And depending on what school you're at, if you're at a basketball school, then that will be your revenue sport. Outside that, almost all the others lose money. If you don't fix this, everything goes away. And then many of those football programs, that 1% of the student body, or basketball, which Is, I mean, most basketball teams, they have, I think, scholarships. I want to say it's nine in D1, maybe it's 11 scholarships. I can't remember. They're always moving it around. But for men like, that's not many people. Folks, if you don't fix this, you have a university that now doesn't even have an identity in sports.

[Ted Cruz]

Yeah, look, look, my philosophy in addressing this was. Was number one, I didn't worry too much about the powerhouse programs, the big, big programs. Listen, in Texas, University of Texas and Texas A and M, I love them both. I go to games every year. I cheer them on. They're incredible institutions, to be honest. UT&A& M, they are going to survive and thrive regardless of what happens. They would survive the mini NFL and they'd continue to win national championships. But I worried about all of the other programs. To be honest. If we don't act, I'm not convinced any other program in Texas survives. And if you can imagine a Texas without smu, without tcu, without Baylor, without Texas Tech, without Rice, without University of Houston, that would be a tragic outcome. And so my focus was on maintaining the entire ecosystem. But secondly, my focus was not on the superstar athletes. If you're Michael Jordan, if you're Arch Manning, you know what, you're going to get millions of dollars, you're going to be on the Wheaties box. You're going to do great. 99% of college athletes will never play in the NFL, will never play in the NBA, but yet athletics is their ticket to college. Look, it was for you. Playing tennis is how you went to Ole Miss.

[Ben Ferguson]

I'll be honest with you, I'm not sure I would have gone to college if it wasn't for having the scholarship which came through tennis court to pay for college. My family did not have a lot of means and my dad was the first to admit. And it was like, if you want to go to college, if you want to go to good school, you're going to have to get there and earn it. Sports was my way in. It wasn't going to be the academic road, and that's another avenue you can go. But. But sports was. And for many of my friends, it was a savior to a better life afterwards, a better member of society. By the way, we pay a lot more taxes when you're successful, so it's a great reinvestment in the country from that standpoint as well. You want your kids to go to college, but for so many. I had roommates. They would have never gotten into college if it wasn't, and gotten their family many. I had two different roommates. They were the first kid in their families to ever go to college. It completely changed the trajectory of their family tree. And it was because of athletics.

[Ted Cruz]

Well, and some people have said, well, why is Congress getting involved in college sports? And the reason is it's federal laws that Congress has passed that created this chaos. It's why all of the rules got thrown out, because they're being sued under existing federal law, and every rule keeps getting thrown out. And so Congress created the problem, which means only Congress can fix it, because only Congress can alter that federal law. And if we don't act, we can see the crisis unfolding around us. And for millions of young men and women, many college athletes are coming from economically disadvantaged circumstances. Many of them are African American or Hispanic. Over years and decades, we're talking about millions of young men and women who. This may be their only path to, A, going to college and getting an education, but B, learning the disciplines that come from being in organized sports of teamwork and hard work and discipline and sportsmanship. And look, I didn't have the skills to play college sports. I would have loved to, but I played high school sports. And it was, you know, being on. I played basketball and football and soccer and being on a team in high school, those are really important skills. And it's amazing. I actually asked this at our Senate Republican lunch. I said, all right, how many people around this table played college sports? And I would say about 20% of the Republicans in the Senate raised their hand, and they were college athletes. I mean, that's true. And that's true. You find that with CEOs, you find that the discipline and nobody in the Senate played professional sports, but the discipline of. And the skills you learn set you up for success in life.

[Ben Ferguson]

Let me ask you one final question on this. Who was behind this that surprised you the most? Nick Saban was one that I was excited to see that the African American University of Memphis, my hometown football coach, he got behind this and had some great testimony there in front of you guys. I was proud of that as well. But who shocked you that was behind this?

[Ted Cruz]

So the support we've seen has been overwhelming. 24 conferences have endorsed this bill. They represent. Those conferences represent. Over 200 different colleges and universities are enthusiastically supporting the bill. The NFL endorsed the bill. The NBA endorsed the bill. Major League Baseball endorsed the bill. The NFL Players association endorsed the bill. The NBA Players association endorsed the bill. The College Football association association endorsed the bill. We've had. Nick Saban has endorsed it. John Calipari led over 100 college coaches who endorsed the bill. The U.S. olympic Committee endorsed the bill. So we've seen just enormous support. And I will say the primary opposition came from the leadership of the Big Ten and the SEC. And look, the SEC is really important in Texas, obviously. UT A&M, I think they're great if Congress doesn't act. I believe the SEC and Big Ten wanna create a super league where they're the only football that exists and everyone else goes out of business.

[Ben Ferguson]

Billion dollar franchise organizations, that's what they would have.

[Ted Cruz]

And that is a terrible outcome. We explicitly prohibit a super league in the bill because I want to keep all the other programs alive. That's where the resistance has come from. I think we're going to end up having a big, big bipartisan vote on the Senate floor. My objective is to do this, get it done, get it passed. The President's eager to sign it and do all of that before school starts this fall.

[Ben Ferguson]

As before. If you want to hear the rest of this conversation on this topic, you can go back and download the podcast from early this week to hear the entire thing. I want to get back to the big story number three of the week you may have missed. I want to move on to another big issue. We've got another activist DA that's been busted flat out lying Senator, this time in Philadelphia. You can, you can say thank you to the Democratic Party, to the George Soros's for allowing this to happen. And this is a story that needs to be on your radar screen as well.

[Ted Cruz]

It is. And let's talk about who this is. You know, we talked about Singman and a left wing billionaire spending money to do real damage to America. This is a story about another left wing billionaire spending money to do enormous damage to America. In this case George Soros. George Soros has spent billions of dollars. He is the single most effective political giver, I think in American history. Now effective is not a compliment. He is effective in being unbelievably harmful. There are, I believe thousands of Americans who are dead because George Soros has spent the money so effectively. So he spent propaganda in support of open borders. And you look at all of the people who have been raped and killed by illegal immigrant violent criminals. All the people that have been subject to terror attacks from, from illegal immigrant violent criminals. But, but Soros also is, is creative in his destruction and he realized that, that our democratic society has vulnerabilities and vulnerabilities that he can target. So he doesn't just target a presidential race. That's an easy, big, sexy target. Yeah, he really pioneered targeting district attorney races. Now district attorney races used to be sleepy little races. You'd have a Democrat and a Republican, but they both were prosecutors. They both were going to lock up criminals. If you were a murderer, you, you'd lock up the murderer, you'd prosecute them. There didn't used to be a massive difference between the two sides on, on DA's. You'd have a little bit different priorities from the one to the other. But, but everyone agreed violent criminals will lock em up and throw the book at him. That changed when Soros began flooding millions into DA races. Now these races didn't used to have millions of dollars in them. So this money just appeared out of nowhere and he elected what are called Soros da's. Yeah, and Soros da's are the prosecution side of the Abolish the Police campaign. Look, Soros funded the Abolish the Police campaign too. If you want to destroy a society, I can think of few more effective ways to do it than eliminate law enforcement because the result is anarchy and chaos. It's more murders, more rapes, more children being abused.

[Newt Gingrich]

That is.

[Ted Cruz]

I don't like to ascribe ill intent to someone, but Ben, I will say quite seriously, I do not know any other motivation for George Soros that makes any sense to me other than that he wants to destroy America because his actions seem perfectly calculated. To destroy America.

[Ben Ferguson]

Yeah, if you look at the. And it's very calculated. It's prison reform, it's bail reform, it's defund the police. You do that trifecta which is saying, well, we're going to let people out of jail because we just believe jail is somehow fundamentally wrong. You then say you want to defund the police, so then you have no law enforcement. And then you have bail reform, which says we're going to not put you in jail while we hold you for trial because you don't have a lot of money. So then you're letting rapists and murderers literally back on the street as fast as we catch them. That, that, that you combine those three. This is a framework for total anarchy in society, which is clearly what Soros wants.

[Newt Gingrich]

Yeah.

[Ted Cruz]

Look, just ask yourself the simple basic question. Is society better if there are more murderers on the street, more murderers in your community, more murderers living in your neighborhood? Any rational person would say, no, I don't want more murderers in my community. Soros says, yes. And he spends millions of dollars to elect DAs who agree with him. And so one of those Soros DA's is a guy named Larry Krasner. He is the left wing Soros DA in Philadelphia. And instead of going in with a mission of I'm gonna go lock up the bad guys, his mission is, quite literally, I'm going to release as many bad guys as I can. Now, now you may be saying, come on, that can't be true. That's so extreme. All right, let me just give you the facts. So just this week, a 5:2, Democrat court. So I'm going to read, read you what judges who are Democrats said about Larry Krasner. They found that he is so quick to falsely concede error in murder cases to try to free convicted murderers that it is tasked the Pennsylvania Attorney General with checking to make sure that the Soros DA is not lying. Now, now, let me give you a little context of this, because legally, this is astonishing. I've never seen anything remotely like this. So a lawyer, particularly a government lawyer, has the ability to do what, what's called confess error. And confessing error is you go to the court and you said, you say, we screwed up, we made a mistake, we made a legal mistake, we made a factual mistake, and we're confessing error. You should take it from us, we were just wrong. And, and courts generally give enormous weight to that because nobody, almost nobody, ever confesses error falsely. Like, like confessing error is against your interest.

[Ben Ferguson]

So you're saying you screwed up your job. Right.

[Ted Cruz]

That's what you're saying. So it confessing error doesn't happen often, and you usually believe it because it's against the interest of the litigant. I want to read from an appellate decision in one of these cases here. In this case, reviewed under a king's bench jurisdiction, the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office, on behalf of the Commonwealth, conceded that Levar Brown, a convicted murderer sentenced to death for a separate murder, was entitled to a new trial based upon a facially untimely claim under the pcra. Upon careful review, we conclude this concession was not reliable. More specifically, we find the District Attorney's office conceded relief, although none was warranted, based on the existing record, violated its duty of candor to the PCRA court, withheld material evidence from the court, opposed efforts by Amiki to gain access to this evidence, submitted a false stipulation of fact, misstated facts in its pleadings, failed to conduct a reasonable investigation, and opposed a required evidentiary hearing. The predictable result was an erroneous grant of a new Trial. These circumstances, troubling as they are, would not warrant a remedy beyond reversal of the PCRA Court's order in this particular case if they were confined to one case. Unfortunately, they aren't. Since 2018, the district attorney's office has conceded relief well over 100 times.

[Ben Ferguson]

By the way, if that's your record, that would mean that you're basically the worst attorney in the history of the world.

[Ted Cruz]

It's worse than that. But let me get back to. Let me finish reading it. And then I'm as conceded relief well over 100 times, mostly in murder cases like this one.

[Ben Ferguson]

Incredible.

[Ted Cruz]

There have been numerous instances of untrustworthy concessions, lack of candor, misrepresentations of fact, lack of adequate investigation and avoidance of hearings. And the problems are poised to continue. There are apparently more than 1,000 cases yet to be reviewed by the District Attorney's Office Conviction Integrity Unit. And the District Attorney's Office vigorously defends its checkered concession program as a necessary corrective to pass misdeeds by prior administrations. The District Attorney's Office active, ongoing and problematic concessions program requires broader remedial action to promote just outcomes. Accordingly, in addition to reversing the PCRA Court's grant of a new trial here, we also hold that in any PCR case in which the District Attorney's Office concedes relief, the PCRA Court shall grant the Office of the Attorney General notice and the right to intervene in the case before ruling on the concession. Regardless of the Attorney General's position on the concession, if it chooses to intervene, it may well agree relief is warranted. Its independent assessment and participation will enhance the reliability of the proceedings and the PCRA Court's ultimate decision.

[Ben Ferguson]

Wow.

[Ted Cruz]

I've never seen that, and I've practiced law a long time. So you said 100 times. That means they're terrible lawyers. It's actually worse than that. This is not Larry Krasner saying, I Larry Krasner screwed up a hundred times. What he's doing is he's looking at murderers who are in jail right now that were put there by his predecessors, by previous district attorneys. And he's going and finding murderers and saying, we should release you. We should release you. We should release you. And then he's going in. He's not just conceding error, he's conceding relief. Relief means, what do you get? He's saying, nope, throw out your conviction altogether. Over a hundred times, almost all with murderers. And he's lying. Look, the only reason you do that. Go back to the fundamental question that I asked at the beginning of this segment, do you think America is better off if there are more murderers walking the streets or fewer murderers walking the streets? Do you want more murderers living in your neighborhood with your family or do you want fewer murderers living in your neighborhood with your family? Anyone who is rational, anyone who loves America, anyone who is not trying to destroy our nation, the obvious answer is of course we don't want more murderers. And yet George Soros and Larry Krasner both do. And by the way, Singham does too.

[Ben Ferguson]

As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you. Don't forget to download my podcast and you can listen to my podcast every other day you're not listening to Verdict or each day when you listen to Verdict afterwards. I'd love to have you as a listener to again the Ben Ferguson Podcast. And we will see you back here on Monday morning.