Podcast Summary: "Al-Shabaab & the Minnesota Taxpayers, University Declares ‘Whiteness’ a Pandemic plus Texas Takes Aim at Terror – Week In Review"

Verdict with Ted Cruz – November 29, 2025
Hosts: Senator Ted Cruz & Ben Ferguson

Episode Overview

In this "Week in Review" episode, hosts Senator Ted Cruz and Ben Ferguson break down three significant stories:

1. How Minnesota taxpayers’ funds ended up bankrolling the terrorist group Al Shabaab.
2. The University of Minnesota’s declaration of ‘whiteness’ as a “pandemic” and the pushback on racialized academic activism.
3. Texas’s recent designation of the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization, with discussion on national implications and legislative battles.

The tone is unapologetically conservative, sharply critical of progressive institutions, and focused on the intersections of governmental waste, terrorism, and culture wars in America.

1. Minnesota Taxpayer Money Flows to Al Shabaab

[03:08–15:03]

Key Points

• Story Origin: Report from City Journal reveals Minnesota taxpayers have, through welfare fraud, inadvertently become the “largest funder of Al Shabaab,” a Somali Islamic terrorist group.
• Government Waste & Radicalization: Cruz argues this scandal sits at the intersection of “waste, fraud, and abuse in government,” and the unchecked growth of radical Islam in America.
• Fraud Mechanism: Billions in Minnesota’s generous welfare funds were stolen, with much attributed to members of the state’s Somali community. These funds were funneled to Somalia via remittances through informal money networks (“hawalas”), then on to Al Shabaab.
• Program Breakdown:
  • HHS Housing Stabilization Services program's costs exploded from an estimated $2.6 million (2020) to $104 million.
  • Most of these funds paid out to fictitious companies created solely to defraud the system.
  • Some money was filtered through stacked schemes involving other Medicaid programs.
• Scale of the Issue: Federal counterterrorism sources confirm “millions in stolen funds” reached terrorist hands. Cruz and Ferguson allege government officials and mainstream media looked the other way.
• Political Incentive: Cruz asserts Democrats, especially Governor Tim Walz, allowed or ignored the abuse due to political alliances with voting blocs in the Somali community.
• Quote:
  • “The largest funder of Al Shabaab is the Minnesota taxpayer. Our investigation shows what happens when a tribal mindset meets a bleeding heart bureaucracy.” — Senator Ted Cruz (05:09, reading City Journal)

Notable Quotes & Moments

• Ben Ferguson: “It’s obvious that people knew there was fraud. Then you find out it’s going to a terrorist organization and so we’re funding the terrorist organization. How the hell do people not go to jail for this?” (09:33)
• Senator Cruz:
  • “These are often just purely fictitious companies solely created to defraud the system, and that’s unique in the extent to which we have that here in Minnesota.” (08:20)
  • “There is unfortunately a network of corruption where many of those engaged in fraud are also writing checks to elect Democrats.” (13:30)
  • “You would think that would be news.” (12:17), referring to mainstream outlets ignoring the story.

2. University of Minnesota: ‘Whiteness’ as a Pandemic

[18:40–26:05]

Key Points

• Controversial Study: The hosts discuss material from a University of Minnesota web page claiming there is a "whiteness pandemic" underlying all of racism, implying white culture itself must be dismantled.
• Direct Excerpts (Read by Cruz):
  • “Racism is an epidemic that can also be considered a pandemic... However, there is another pandemic lurking behind and driving the racist pandemic, the whiteness pandemic.” (19:56)
  • “The centuries old culture of whiteness features colorblindness... Passivity and white fragility were all covert expressions of racism...” (20:06)
  • “Naming the whiteness pandemic shifts our gaze from the victims and effects of racism onto the systems that perpetrate and perpetuate racism, starting with the family system.” (20:26)
• Critique:
  • The hosts argue that this ideology openly demonizes white students and families as inherently racist, fostering anti-American and anti-family sentiment.
  • Cruz equates these teachings with Marxism, asserting they are attacks on core American values and constitutional principles.
• Use of Tax Dollars: Discussion on taxpayer dollars funding universities accused of promoting divisive and harmful ideologies.
• Parental Concern: Both hosts advise parents to scrutinize where they send their children for higher education.

Notable Quotes & Moments

• Senator Cruz:

  • “Are you white? Then apparently you are an evil, noxious scourge on America. You are a pandemic. You are a virus. You are a disease and woke leftists are going to re-educate the whiteness right out of you.” (19:06)
  • “This is open, 'We hate families,' is what the University of Minnesota is saying.” (21:00)
  • “The fix for the whiteness pandemic is to discriminate against anyone who is white — to institutionalize racism. And that is grotesque, it is wrong. It is contrary to the 14th amendment...” (24:18)

• Ben Ferguson: “I tell this all the time to parents when they ask — be careful where you send your kids to college because they could be indoctrinated to literally hate this country.” (25:41)

3. Texas Designates the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR as Terrorist Organizations

[29:47–45:05]

Key Points

• Texas Steps Forward: Governor Greg Abbott designated both the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Muslim Brotherhood as foreign terrorist and transnational criminal organizations, barring land ownership and sending a political message.
• Basis for Designation: CAIR described as an “Islamist organization” with ties to Hamas, according to the FBI and cited court cases. The Muslim Brotherhood designated as a terrorist group by several Middle Eastern countries.
• Legislative Battle:
  • Ted Cruz has attempted for 10 years to get Congress to officially designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO).
  • He outlined the resistance from the State Department and how he has revised his legislation from a “top-down” to a “bottom-up” approach to circumvent bureaucratic roadblocks.
• Bipartisan Collaboration:
  • Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) has joined Cruz on this bill, signaling rare bipartisan cooperation.
  • Both Cruz and Ferguson express surprise and respect for Fetterman’s willingness to defy his party on Israel and this issue.
• Strategic Focus: Cruz reveals that he now aims for public pressure and executive action (expecting a potential Trump administration to make the designation) rather than a purely legislative route.
• CAIR’s Campus Activity: CAIR was identified as awarding financial grants to pro-Palestinian students disciplined for activism on colleges, raising concerns about foreign or extremist influence on campus protests.

Notable Quotes & Moments

• Fox News Excerpt (Read on Podcast):
  • “The Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR have long made their goals clear: to forcibly impose Sharia law and establish Islam’s mastership of the world.” (30:22)
• Senator Ted Cruz:
  • “When President Trump got elected in 2016, it broke the heads of the Democrats. Their minds are melted. They just hate him. And so there's much less middle ground.” (41:15)
  • “The whole purpose of the legislative push is to build the momentum, to provide the air cover for the Trump administration to do so. And I think that's going to happen.” (42:27)
• Ben Ferguson on Fetterman:
  • “He may be the biggest surprise in the last decade for me of a true Democrat statesman that is willing to come to the table on sane issues.... I’m really impressed because [...] he says politics aside, I don’t care the heat I’m going to get from my party for this. I’m going to do the right thing.” (35:35)
• Cruz on Senate Partisanship:
  • “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, they turned on him [Fetterman] viciously.” (39:26)

Memorable Moments & Timestamps

• Minnesota fraud and Al Shabaab story: [03:08–15:03]
• Reading and critiquing University of Minnesota’s ‘whiteness pandemic’ content: [19:06–26:05]
• Abbott and Texas's new terror designations; legislative process and Fetterman’s role: [29:47–41:15]
• Follow the money in campus protests (CAIR financing): [43:02–45:05]

Final Thoughts

This episode delivers a pointed conservative critique of progressive governance — from state welfare fraud to university culture and federal legislative inertia. The show’s language is blunt, the tone adversarial, and the focus is on linking issues of security, identity politics, and governmental responsibility. Notably, bipartisan moments (Cruz and Fetterman) are highlighted as rare bright spots. The takeaways are cautionary warnings about the unintended consequences of government largesse, campus liberalism, and political gridlock around confronting terrorism.