BONUS: Why We Should Designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a Terrorist Organization, plus IRS Concludes Churches Can Endorse Candidates & NYT Reports Biden Unaware of Many Autopen Pardons
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
iHeartPodcasts
4.5 • 11.4K Ratings
🗓️ 17 July 2025
⏱️ 33 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Verdict with Ted Cruz: Why We Should Designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a Terrorist Organization, plus IRS Concludes Churches Can Endorse Candidates & NYT Reports Biden Unaware of Many Autopen Pardons
In this episode of Verdict with Ted Cruz, Senator Ted Cruz dives into three major topics shaping U.S. politics and policy:
Muslim Brotherhood Terror Designation
Senator Cruz outlines his long-standing push to officially designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. He explores the group's historical roots, international influence, and alleged ties to extremist violence. Cruz also critiques the Obama and Biden administrations for their handling of the Brotherhood and introduces a modernized, bottom-up legislative approach targeting violent factions first.
IRS Ruling on Churches & Political Speech
Cruz breaks down a significant IRS decision affirming that churches and pastors can endorse political candidates without jeopardizing their tax-exempt status. He frames this as a major shift from the Johnson Amendment and shares a personal story about defending Houston pastors who were subpoenaed for their sermons.
Biden Autopen Pardon Controversy
The episode also covers a New York Times report revealing that President Biden used an autopen to sign pardons, potentially without reviewing them personally. Cruz argues this could make the pardons legally questionable under DOJ guidelines and discusses the broader legal and political fallout.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:05.5 | Welcome, it is verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you. It's nice to have you. |
| 0:10.5 | And, Senator, we've got some very interesting legislation that you are heading up that is making waves. |
| 0:17.6 | Fill people in on what you're wanting to do. |
| 0:20.0 | Well, this week I introduced legislation |
| 0:22.2 | to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. This is a fight I've been |
| 0:27.8 | fighting for over a decade. I think the Muslim Brotherhood clearly is a terrorist organization. |
| 0:32.6 | It is profoundly dangerous. And I think we are closer right now to victory on this issue than we ever have been. |
| 0:39.1 | We're going to do a deep dive, explain the background, what the issues are, why we're close to |
| 0:44.8 | victory, and what that would mean. We're also going to talk about an amazing development, a really |
| 0:49.5 | important development, which is the IRS has now said explicitly that churches and pastors can endorse |
| 0:58.4 | political candidates. That is a big, big deal. For a long time, there was legislation known |
| 1:05.4 | as the Johnson Amendment that was interpreted as stripping the ability of pastors and churches |
| 1:09.8 | to express their views on |
| 1:11.6 | politics. The IRS entered into a consent agreement that now makes clear churches and pastors |
| 1:17.7 | can tell their congregations exactly what they think about politics. That's a big, big deal. |
| 1:25.3 | And finally, the New York Times in a shocking expose looked at the Biden |
| 1:32.1 | auto-pen scandal. And they reported that for a significant portion of the auto-penned pardons that |
| 1:40.1 | Joe Biden signed, that he was not individually aware of who it was that was getting |
| 1:46.4 | pardoned. That is incredibly consequential. It means as a legal matter, those pardons are null and |
| 1:53.1 | void. We're going to explain all of that right now. Yeah, it's a really interesting story. |
| 1:57.6 | We're going to have all those details for you in just a moment. Let me also just say many of you may be listening to the show for the first time, |
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