Republican Grifter's New Scam Backfires Instantly...

[00:00:00]This story from NPR, very upsetting. The relentless Um, the homophobic >> Homophobic attacks.

[00:00:10]>> [laughter] >> Just the ongoing harassment of this great American after he served how much time in jail? Was it 6 months or a year?

[00:00:20]>> Was it longer or shorter than he was in Congress?

[00:00:23]>> got He got um I guess pardoned or his sentence commuted >> Yeah.

[00:00:28]>> by Donald Trump.

[00:00:30]>> 3 months he spent.

[00:00:31]>> 3 months in jail and his sentence was commuted, right? What was he originally in there for?

[00:00:36]>> He was originally in there for 87 months and got out after 3.

[00:00:40]>> So he served [laughter] It's less than 5%. He served like 3% of his uh >> I did way more in my military contract >> [laughter] >> than he did in his prison sentence.

[00:00:52]>> In February, writes NPR, 4 months after being released from federal prison, former Republican Congressman George Santos took to social media to express his enthusiasm about attending President Trump's upcoming State of the Union address. I'm going to be there for the State of the Union in the gallery, guys.

[00:01:14]>> [laughter] >> Uh at the time, traders on the prediction market site Kalshi were placing millions of dollars worth of bets on who would attend.

[00:01:28]>> Oh my god.

[00:01:29]>> [laughter] >> Santos' video confirming his presence sent odds soaring.

[00:01:37]>> Oh god.

[00:01:41]>> But he didn't show up.

[00:01:44]Watching the State of the Union address from an airport TV was not part of the plan. Uh FML, is that family?

[00:01:52]>> Uh F my life.

[00:01:53]>> Oh, F my life. Sorry. Uh Santos wrote on X. Uh oh yeah, okay, there we go. He posted the message as Trump was speaking and making those same odds in the Kalshi market plummet.

[00:02:07]>> [laughter] >> What Santos didn't say was that he had already placed bets on the Kalshi that he was not going to appear at the State of the Union address. This is according to three people with direct knowledge of his trades who are not authorized to speak publicly.

[00:02:25]They say Santos misled the public and turned a profit based on that deception in the tens of thousands of dollars.

[00:02:32]Kalshi detected uh Santos' trades, froze his account, and referred the case to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Department of Justice, which both opened investigations into Santos.

[00:02:44]>> Even Kalshi's like, we don't need this kind of action.

[00:02:47]>> Nope.

[00:02:48]We're an arbiter of truth.

[00:02:50]>> Yeah, we're a prediction market.

[00:02:52]>> [laughter] >> Reached by NPR, Santos said, "Well, that's news to me."

[00:02:58]>> [laughter] >> That's what the news journalists are asking you about.

[00:03:03]>> Um, NPR asked if he had had a Kalshi account, and Santos said, "I'm not saying yes.

[00:03:12]I'm not saying no."

[00:03:13]>> [laughter] >> So, the advice your lawyer gave you?

[00:03:17]>> Exactly, right? Like, I had no idea there's an investigation going on, but I want to make it clear I plead the fifth to you.

[00:03:25]>> Yeah. The lawyer is like, "Don't don't confirm or deny." And then he just says, "I can't confirm or deny."

[00:03:31]>> He went on to say the co-founder of Kalshi, Luna Lopez Lara, is a fellow Brazilian whom he personally knows. He said he would call her to get to the bottom of whether an investigation had been launched.

[00:03:44]>> [laughter] >> A fellow Brazilian?

[00:03:46]>> Santos promised to update NPR on how the call went.

[00:03:52]But weirdly, he did not respond to NPR's follow-up messages.

[00:04:00]Must have the call must have gone great.

[00:04:04]I'm sorry, I can't return your call NPR because I'm so ecstatic that I'm not being investigated.

[00:04:15]Oh, this is weird.

[00:04:18]Person familiar with Cauchi's investigation said Santos does not know Lara.

[00:04:26]That's weird. Is it possible >> lie about something >> George Santos wouldn't lie about something so random and weird like that, would he?

[00:04:33]>> The fellow Brazilian?

[00:04:35]>> I mean, they're both Brazilian.

[00:04:37]>> There's only 213 million Brazilians.

[00:04:39]>> Are they >> [laughter] >> He knows all of them.

[00:04:42]>> And then it goes on then it becomes a hit piece by NPR. He said he is Jewish, he is not. He claimed his grandparents escaped the Holocaust, they did not. I mean, JUST COME ON.

[00:04:56]Um You know what I love about George Santos and we don't know, this is just an allegation.

[00:05:04]Um we don't even know if there's an investigation.

[00:05:09]Although NPR says that there is. So, according to the reporting, there is an investigation.

[00:05:15]How >> [screaming] >> um >> [clears throat] >> how guilty do you have to be for the DOJ to be like investigating you when they know you're Donald Trump's buddy?

[00:05:27]>> Yeah, I didn't know we still had a CFTC.

[00:05:29]I didn't even know that existed.

[00:05:31]>> Barely.

[00:05:32]>> This must be their only case.

[00:05:35]>> [laughter] >> And how like how bad are you at this?

[00:05:43]You like you he must have so few friends.

[00:05:46]>> Yeah.

[00:05:47]>> Like at the very least just go to like Well, he's radioactive.

[00:05:52]I mean, dude, don't you have a neighbor or something and go like, "Hey, look.

[00:05:56]>> Right.

[00:05:58]>> Yeah. Uh a basketball players are like, "I'm not going to be playing tonight."

[00:06:00]>> Here's [laughter] Here's 5,000 bucks.

[00:06:03]>> Yeah.

[00:06:04]>> Bet on me to uh not show up at the State of the Union and let's split it.

[00:06:12]>> Did you hear about the story out of France? Um hair dryer trick behind 25 million euro win. France probes potential weather data scam linked to ply market. And this guy bet on the weather and then went up to the sensor with a hair dryer.

[00:06:25]>> [laughter] >> Shot the hair dryer Shot the temperature sensor to make the air the temperature >> [laughter] >> spike.

[00:06:33]>> I DON'T UNDERSTAND.

[00:06:36]I DON'T UNDERSTAND how Kalsee can allow for bets on something that can be so the outcome of which can be so easily manipulated.

[00:06:47]Like >> Yeah.

[00:06:50]>> Okay, so he bet that he was not going to be there.

[00:06:53]Why would Why wouldn't he What Why is he not allowed to bet on whether he's not going to be there?

[00:06:59]>> Right. Right. Why Why is anyone allowed to bet on like what >> Would we have gotten in trouble if we bet on that Katherine Harris hadn't Like it's something in the past. Like it's not my fault somebody's making this bet. It's not like I have insider information. I have information that everybody has, which is we didn't do it.

[00:07:17]Hey folks, don't forget to hit the subscribe button and check out our daily show. We do it every day at 12:00 p.m.

[00:07:23]Eastern for about 2 and 1/2 hours. We even take phone calls. You should check that out.