The Daily Beast Podcast - Florida’s House Republicans Are Even Worse Behind the Scenes

Episode Date: May 9, 2023

In this episode of The New Abnormal podcast, Florida state Rep. Anna Eskamani shares what it’s like to be a Democrat in Florida’s Republican-led House, which is somehow more “disgusting” behind the scenes. Eskamani also shares her response when she heard her colleague, Webster Barnaby, call trans people mutants and demons and what her party is doing to combat bad bills that just keep on coming in the Sunshine State. Plus! TNA hosts Andy Levy and Danielle Moodie talk through Clarence Thomas’ ongoing grift and whether or not the general public should be exposed to graphic photography depicting carnage from mass shootings. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hi, I'm Andy Levy, former Fox News and CNN-HLN guy, and current cable news conscientious objector. I'm a former libertarian who now sits pretty comfortably on the left. Hi, I'm Danielle Moody, former educator and recovering lobbyist. But today, I'm an unapologetic, woke commentator on America's threats to democracy. And I'm producer Jesse Cannon, and I'm here to make sure things don't go too far off the rails. We're here to have fun, smart conversations with some of the most knowledgeable and entertaining people in politics, media, and beyond. goal is to try and make sense of our current crazy world, our new abnormal, and hopefully even make you laugh through the tears.

What an excellent show we have today. Ida Ascomani, who represents Florida's 47th district in the statehouse, we'll stop by to talk to us about the egregious legislation and all the various fuckery that's going on down there, and you won't want to miss this. But first, let's have some fun. So, Danielle, before we jump into the horrors of the new week, which are truly horrific, We do have a lighthearted story maybe coming out of Washington, D.C., where it is being reported by Axios that first lady, Jill Biden, is trying very hard to get her husband. You may know him as President Joe Biden to stop being what apparently is known as a pediatrician, and that is someone who has the eating habits of a child.

Joe apparently likes his pizza. He likes his cookies. He likes his spaghetti and red sauce. No word on whether he calls it Piscetti. And he likes his P.B. and J sandwiches. And Jill is trying very hard to get him to eat things like vegetables and salmon and stuff like that. So anyway, I think it's very important for the nation that Joe Biden stop being a pediatric. What say you, Danielle Moody? I mean, the man is 80. You should be able to eat whatever the fuck you want at this point. At this point. And he can still ride a bike and jog up stairs. And he looks a hell of a lot better than his competitor.

So if Donald Trump is eating McDonald's and throwing ketchup bottles and acting like a toddler, I think that Joe Biden can in fact eat like one. Yeah, I'm on the same wavelength as you. But I do appreciate that Dr. Jill wants her husband to be around for a long time. and I suppose at any age, eating healthier is a good idea. Man, I sound like a parent. What the hell is wrong with me? I thought that this is your brain on drugs.

This is like, everyone eat your greens. Right. I know. All right. So we had our fun. And now, because we live in America, we have to talk about yet another mass shooting. This one down in Texas, in a shopping mall, at least eight people dead, including I saw there was a husband and wife and a three-year-old who were killed and a six-year-old in that family is the only survivor in the family.

And it's just so god-awful. The killer who is dead, been identified as Maricio Garcia. And there seems to be some evidence that he is a right-wing nut job, white supremacist, Nazi sympathizer, whatever you want to call him. We'll see as more evidence comes out, but he had a patch on his chest that he was wearing at the time of the massacre that said RWDS, which authorities believe stands for right-wing death squad. And we'll see what comes from that. But I guess also his social media accounts had tons of posts that had violent extremist rhetoric, racist stuff, ethnically motivated stuff, according to NBC News, neo-Nazi material, etc. So once again, this is America 2023, and I guess it's just never going to end. You know what's amazing?

So before this, right, we're talking about the difference between Nazis and Nazi sympathizers. And then Jesse goes ahead and sends us some wonderful social media photos of said now dead shooter. And like I just am stuck on the cosplay of Nazism and then actual Nazism. But the thing that is clear and evident is that in a majority of the mass shootings that we see in this country, they are all linked to the right wing. They are all linked to some type of hatred, whether it is hatred of Asian Americans, trans Americans, black Americans, Hispanic Americans. It doesn't matter. So the idea that once again that the rights rhetoric and their policy insurrection doesn't actually turn into a death squad, turn into mass killings on a regular basis is bullshit.

And the laziness of the mass media to not connect the dots and say we don't have a two-party system. We have one party that is literally inciting violence every single fucking day. how we are able to keep track of these mass shootings is beyond me. Because at some point in time, like I look in the comments when different media outlets, whether they be black media, hip hop media, queer media, mainstream or what have you. I look in the comments to get a sense of like what are people feeling and thinking every day, every week when they hear about another mass shooting.

People are fucking exhausted. They are like, you can't go anywhere. I was just home visiting my family on Long Island and my mom is like, I am sometimes afraid to leave the house. And then I realize I'm also not safe in the house. This is the world that we're living in. This is the Republicans fucking Wild Wild West fantasy where Texas just passed legislation that says you don't need a license.

You don't need a permit. You don't need any fucking training. Carry a gun, yeah. Days after, like, however other many shootings that happened in the state of They're still fucking passing legislation that makes it easier for mass shootings to happen in Texas. How do you fucking rationalize with people like this? You can't. Yeah, it's out of control.

You mentioned that Jesse sent us some links. I should point out that Eric Toller from Bellingcat found this guy's profile on a Russian media site called Adna Klesniki. And he straight up has swastika tattoos. He has the SS lightning bolts on his bicep. And right above that, oddly, or maybe not oddly, he has a tattoo of the state of Texas. So, yeah, assuming this is the right account, and Eric Toller is a very, very good researcher. And Matt Binder from Mashable also posted a bunch of pictures from that site, and he's also a very good researcher.

So they don't tend to post things unless they've verified who the person is. So, yeah, we have a very clear view of what this guy is and what he believed. And I want to talk for a second about the fact that he has an Hispanic name because I've seen people saying, oh, he can't be a white supremacist. His name is Mauricio Garcia. I would urge those people to do a couple of things at minimum. And one is do a 10 second Google search for white Hispanics. Just 10 seconds.

10 seconds. That's all it takes to see how many people there are who identify as white Hispanics. And also maybe take, I don't know, a quick look at the history of Mexico post-colonialization by the Spanish and see what the deal is down there and how darker-skinned people were pushed into a lower caste and the lighter-skinned European people, because remember, Spaniards are Europeans. And they became the upper caste. So this white Hispanic thing is not new. And there were people, I saw Michael Tracy and other so-called journalists scoffing at the idea

that someone with the last name Garcia could be a white supremacist. And it's just simply not true. And again, five seconds of research will explain to you why. So we need to throw that right-wing talking point out the window. I mean, along with all the other fucking ones, it doesn't matter whether it not. I mean, the head of, what was it? The man that was just convicted, the former head of the proud boys. Enrico Tario.

Enrico Tario, just convicted on seditious conspiracy, among other charges, was also a Latino man. So like let us understand. And again, this is what happens when we don't use education to the fullness of being able to show how white supremacy, how colonialism has shaped our perspectives and understanding around identity and skin, color, and all of these things. And so it isn't pun intended as black and white as people would like to believe. Yeah, no, absolutely. And again, And just to get back to this horrific, the shooting itself, it's just, there are a lot of videos going around showing the aftermath and showing just how horrific it looked. And now there's some discussion that some people are saying, people need to see this.

And other people are saying they really don't because the people who need to see it won't be swayed by it. And there are a lot of people who don't need to see it because it's very trauma-inducing. And I tend to side with those people. And I feel like the people who say we need to see this are the same people that will say things like what we need to bring this country together is another 9-11. Oh, dear God. And I just feel like it's the same mentality. It's like we need something horrific and that will bring us all together. First of all, I don't think that's the case here.

Again, I really do think that I think we've just reached the point where anyone with common sense knows what a bullet from an AR-15 does to someone. And unfortunately, we've been forced to learn that, and we're forced to relearn it every fucking week. So I don't need to see a picture of a child with their face gone. I don't need to see it. And I don't need people telling me I need to see it. I'm well aware of how destructive an AR-15 is. And I don't think that anyone who wants to get those rifles off the street needs to see those pictures because they're already there. And I just don't think the people who fetishize the AR-15s or whatever, they don't care.

They simply don't care. That's the cost of freedom to them. And they say things like that. Like, I'm not even putting words in their mouth. So I get that there's a danger in being desensitized because these killings happen so frequently. And I understand that that's maybe what people are saying. It's like, look, we can't become desensitized to this stuff. I get that.

I don't think anyone is desensitized to these things. happening every week. I think there are people who want them to stop happening every week, and there are people who basically do not care. And I think that's where we are as a country right now. I think that with regard to showing the graphic pictures, the videos, I am of mixed emotions around this, because if not for the photography and the videography of the white domestic terrorism that black people were facing in Jim Crow America, we would have never had the civil rights bill and legislation. Nothing would have ever changed. People would have continued to stick their head in the sand if not for the bravery of Mammy Till showing what the brutality of white

supremacy did to her son, Emmett Till, without that imagery, without seeing fire hoses, badder black children's bodies. I don't know if white America would have come to the conclusion that this is not okay. So on one hand, I think that pictures and video are really important to get people off of the fence or believing that this can't happen to them or won't happen to them. I think that one of the videos that I did watch following the Allen Texas Mall shooting is of it was a white man, former cop, gun owner, set on air, I love guns, we need gun legislation. This ain't okay. It's not okay.

And I think that by more people who are avid gun buyers and gun advocates now all of a sudden being like, shit, I actually can't go anywhere. And more guns is not going to stop me or my family member from getting killed at a grocery store at the mall anywhere. So a part of me wanted the family. of the kids in Newtown in that elementary school, in Yuvaldi, to show what an AR-15 does. That it is not a fucking, like, gun for hunters for hobbies.

It is for war. So, again, I think that images and video are important, as grotesque and gruesome as they are, you can choose not to look. But at some point, I feel like, how does everyone outside of the law enforcement, outside of the parents and family members that have to go identify these bodies, understand the carnage that is being produced by Republicans who just don't give a shit? Okay. I just want to say that, Danielle, I have heard what you're saying and you may have even modified my position.

Oh, damn. Look at me. I sometimes am guilty of forgetting that there are a lot of people in the middle. and I only think of the people on the strong sides of both issues. And maybe you're right. I don't think these images should be thrust in people's faces on social media without some kind of warning. But I hear what you're saying. And I think you have modified my position.

So I hope you're happy about that. You've ruined my day. Speaking of things that shouldn't be thrown in people's faces. Speaking of things that are going to ruin my day, Danielle, go ahead. Even more. Clarence Thomas. Let's just start there. Clarence Thomas just can't seem, or Chief Justice Roberts for that matter, can't seem to get a hold of this grifting-ass story that just continues and gets worse every single day that we understand that the rules do not apply to anyone that wears a robe, wears a badge, has enough money.

And I look at these stories and I think, you know what would be great? you know, a hearing, you know, a subpoena, using the actual tools that are in the Senate's toolbox to get things done. And then I realize where we are and who is actually in the Senate like Kristen Cinema and Joe Manchin. And I realize it doesn't really fucking matter if we were to sit down and go through all of the things that ProPublica, the New York Times, everyone has been. reporting at this point that we know is illegal, that we know is criminal. But when you have people who don't really care about anything but their own power and their own fiefdom, as Kristen Cinema continues to show, even though she says she's not a Republican would never be a Republican, I'm just like, okay. Yeah, Andy, I don't know. But I'm tired of the grift being thrown in my face as

like I am forced to being a law-abiding citizen. Look, I think cinema is being honest. I don't think she's a Democrat or a Republican. I think she should have an L next to her name for lobbyist, because I think that's the party she belongs to. But I do want to say that at least we have a Senate Democrat, like the chair of the Judiciary Committee, Dick Durbin, fighting for us. Because remember, he did send a polite letter to Chief Justice John Roberts asking him to pay a visit to the committee. And John Roberts, of course, said he would be there as soon as he could. Oh, no, wait, I'm wrong, he said, nah, son, and he will not be there. And so Dick Durbin then goes on State of the Union, I think it is, the CNN show over the weekend, and says that everything is

on the table as they look at these ever-expanding ethical concerns raised by Clarence Thomas's lack of disclosures, et cetera. So I don't know. Does everything is on the table include subpoenas? because so far it hasn't. And I want to know what Dick Durbin thinks is everything. And I hope it's more than a bagel. And I hope that it will lead to compelling testimony. And I don't mean like compelling like, wow, that was amazing to watch. I mean like forcing them to testify, compelling them to testify.

Whether it's Clarence Thomas, I'd be fine if it was Chief Justice Roberts as well. I am not holding my breath, Danielle. This may surprise you. I mean, I don't want you to pass out. No, exactly. And I don't know if it's possible to hold your breath for so long that you died, but I think that's what would happen to me here. And I'll invoke a phrase that I say a lot on this show.

I would be happy to be wrong. But I just don't see it. In 2018, my next guest became the first Iranian-American elected to any public office in Florida when she won a seat in the State House of Representatives. Joining me now is Anna Eskimani. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you so much for having me. It's good to be here.

So ordinarily, I give sort of a quick summary of who a guest is, but I decided in this case, I wanted to turn that over to you. Tell our listeners a little about yourself. Well, again, it's a pleasure to be here. I come from very humble beginnings. Don't come from a political family. I don't come from money. I was born or raised as a daughter of immigrants here in Orlando.

As you mentioned, both my parents came from Iran. but they met each other working at the same donut shop in Orlando. I have a twin sister named Ida and a big brother named Aria. And my family did everything we could to achieve the American dream. And like so many families hit a lot of roadblocks along the way. And in fact, my mom was diagnosed with cancer when I was about nine years old and passed away when I was 13. And so a lot of what I do every single day is committed to honoring those no longer with us through action and trying to create a world where parents don't lose their kids and kids don't lose their parents. And unfortunately, especially the United States, not only do we have issues like gun violence and health disparities and suicide, but there's just so many preventable problems we have that we don't have politicians who have the courage or even the empathy sometimes to try to solve them.

So I went to public schools. I went to the University of Central Florida where I got really involved in campus organizing and doing voter registration at UCF and so many other issues really intersecting with women and girls. And in fact, I started volunteering at Planned Parenthood when I was a college student as a house center escort. And then I was a patient there myself looking for contraception and was hired at Plent Parenthood back in 2012. And I worked there for six years, becoming the scene director of public affairs and communications across 22 counties. When I made the decision to run for office, I'm following the election of former President Trump. I was definitely a part of that wave of women for some candidates who made that leap and it allowed us to not only build a presence. our state, but to set a tone of what it means to be a Democrat, what it means to actually serve

your community. And I flipped my seat from red to blue. We've kept it that way now with two other election cycles where we've kind of drawn a path of what winning can look like in a tough state like Florida. And that brings me to where I am today in the state house. Just an amazing story. I was going to save this for later in the interview, but I think I'll touch on it now since you talked about working with Planned Parenthood. Florida just recently passed a six-week abortion ban, and I know that there's now a fight to do something about that. Talk to me about the coalition that's been put together and what y'all are doing. Well, it has been a long time coming to bring abortion to the ballot here in the Sunshine State. We've seen in other parts of this country success in either

stopping bad, found initiatives or achieving successful ones like codify abortion rights in state constitutions. So that's what we're doing this year for 2024. We've launched a intersectional coalition of community groups and faith leaders and directly impacted people and doctors to bring protections before the voters so that voters can decide and basically circumvent what has been a gerrymandered and extreme legislature that most recently has banned abortion at six weeks before people even know they're pregnant. And of course, Florida is kind of an outlier in the southeast because we've actually been able to fend our state from these extremist bans in the past for several years. Florida has been maybe one of the most liberal states when it comes to abortion access because

of a strong right to privacy in our state constitution that's already there. But we are concerned with dissentist's appointment on the state Supreme Court that when we get a ruling on a 15-week abortion ban, which is what is a law currently in Florida, that it will override that right to privacy. So rather than wait for that to happen, we're hitting the doors now and begin the process of collecting over a million signatures to then hopefully succeed in achieving what has to be a 60% plus one passage rate to get this interstate constitution. And what can Floridians do if they want to sign other than waiting for someone to knock on their doors? There's something that they can do. Oh my God. There's so much that folks can do.

Absolutely. So the actual campaign leading this is Floridians protecting freedom. And you can go to Floridians, protectingfriedom.com, where you can not only volunteer, but be able to download that petition and sign it and mail it yourself, collect it with your neighbors. We're hosting several grassroots events across the state of places where you can be trained, how to collect petitions, and then pick up a stack of copies and help us reach that goal of over a million signatures.

And I think it's important that we integrate this campaign to all parts of our lives, not just with our loved ones, but our friend network, our work. networks, our faith networks, we need to really reach into every part of Florida to only be able to collect a million plus signatures to qualify, but then, of course, achieve that 60% thresholds. And candidly, this might be our last chance because the Florida legislature is trying to increase that threshold to 66%. And in fact, on the 2024 ballot, there's going to be a question that was there by the legislature asking Florida voters to increase the threshold to 66%. So, So in 2024, now will we be advocating for folks to vote yes on protecting Floridians' freedoms,

but to vote no on increasing a threshold because that'll make it close to impossible for any future initiatives, whether it's on things like Medicaid expansion or cannabis or you name it. The legislature hates the fact that there's been many successful bowel initiatives where they're trying to make it much harder for us to do that. Yeah, I mean, I guess they're so excited about their gerrymandered supermajority that they don't really like it when the people speak. That's exactly it. Yeah, they'll go extra measures to silence the public, whether that requires incarceration and criminal violations for protesting or the case of Bound initiatives making it very

hard to have success. And I will say it's not new for them. I mean, they have tried this 66% threshold for about four or five years now, but they never had the super joint legislature to get it done. And unfortunately this year, they got it done. So let's talk more about what you're kind of up against as a Democrat in the Florida House of Representatives, which has this super majority of Republicans. Just last week, we saw the passage of a bill that bans transgender people from using bathrooms and changing areas that, I guess, line up with their gender identity in public facilities. How horrific is it, knowing that a bill like this is going to pass? And there's only like limited things you can do. And I know you and your Democratic colleagues got the bill.

water down a bit, but I'm just curious what it's like knowing that you're sitting there and the people sitting around you are going to pass this. It's very challenging and it is dystopian to some degree, right? Because the challenges you face as a legislature and a body like Florida's House and Senate is you're the super minority. So your options are limited in what you're able to get done. I always break it down in three factors of delay, amend, destroy. Those are your three options when you're trying to navigate really bad bills. You try to delay their movement because at the end of the day, we're a part-time legislature. So every day is another day where you can try to stop a bill from passing. And we've had mixed success with that. I mean, there has been some bad bills in the past

we've stopped by just running down the clock. Amendments can help delay things. For example, on the six-week abortion ban, we filed more than 50 amendments as a Democratic caucus to try I slow down that bill or at least get people on the record voting against good amendments that are in the best interest of Florians. We also, of course, do try to amend policy. As you mentioned, this bathroom ban alongside the gender affirming care ban and even the attack on higher education, academic freedom, those were all bills that we were able to water down. They're still incredibly harmful, but they were going to be worse. And so we try to leverage whatever we can in that arena. And then, of course, destroy, just be trying to upset the process as much as possible, engaged with your constituents, bring people

to the Capitol, try to make sure that none of this happens in the darkness. And those are the tools we have. And it's very challenging, especially when you also have to work with these colleagues and other issues that are the best of your constituents. So flipping a seat also means that like my constituents expect me to deliver something. And so you also have to work on the budget with some of the same colleagues that are voting for these things. But I will say that it's been a very interesting session because I've never seen so many no Republican votes on different bills. In fact, one of the bills that have the most Republican opposition was a union busting bill. There were about 10 Republicans in the Florida House who go to no and five in the Senate. But because of the supermajority, that was enough to

actually stop the bill from passing. But we are seeing a bit of party line shaking up, if you will, where to our credit as Democrats, we've stayed pre-united of most social issues. I would say that I lose my Democrats on more corporate accountability issues. It's different conversation. But we've actually seen a lot of Republicans cross that party line against what their caucus is doing. That's really interesting because obviously we on this podcast and just nationally in general, people talk about Florida a lot in the last few years. And if you're on the left, it's usually not in very favorable terms.

But that's interesting to know that you're seeing at least some Republicans seem to have, I don't know, a little bit of common sense or anything. But then there are, we talked about this on this podcast a couple of weeks ago or last week. Webster Barnaby, one of your Republican colleagues, called trans people mutants and demons. And like it just makes me think like, how do you sit there and listen to that? It's disgusting. I mean, in that situation, I was actually in my office because I don't serve in that committee, but I watched it happen. and immediately text every Democrat in that committee because I was also really upset about the chair not stopping him, right? Because that's what's so frustrating about, quote, decorum in these spaces,

is that they don't hold their own to the same standard they expect us to follow. If I make one comment on the House floor that could impugn another member, even if it's something as soft as there are people in the chamber who take corporate money from companies destroying our planet. Like if I say that, I'll get stopped. And yet here you have a situation where a Republican is not only impugning members, but really imputing members of the public in such a disgraceful and disgusting way. And the chair just let him do it. And this is the same chair who made a comment regarding slavery on the House floor saying that some people came to the South and freed some people, didn't even like really reference or acknowledge what slavery is. So

there are a lot of people in the Republican caucus that really should just be at home watching Fox News, not with a title next to their name, right? Right. Yeah, I mean, it's incredibly alarming. And I think it's important to expose, right? People need to see that to understand how broken the system is, how we have so many unqualified people in office. And my hope is that inspires people to run against them and to realize that you are just as qualify, if not more than some of these people.

I mean, I sat behind another member and he said it wasn't what he meant to say, but he made a comment about how terrorists in other countries hate LGBTQ plus people more than he does. I mean, it was just like mouth drop of like, what did he just say? But again, like, I always make the point that so many of the attacks Republicans pursue its accusations in a mirror its projection. And oftentimes when they when they say what they mean bluntly, and kind of unexpectedly, but that's the honest truth. And you got to take them for who they are. And in the case of Representative Barnaby, he kept going. Like, he went online and kind of kept digging the hole deeper and deeper. And so, yeah, incredibly upsetting and disgusting and must be called out. And it was disappointing to see just the lack of accountability among the Republican caucus.

Whenever the speaker was asked about it, he would just say that private conversations have been had, but clearly no lessons have been learned. And I think that's indicative. of how Republicans have been operating. Yeah, it really is incredible. And I'm just looking, so the Florida House, there was a bill passed that bans gender transition medical treatment for minors, makes it harder for adults to get care. There's another bill that punishes businesses that admit minors to drag shows, another that prohibits public school employees from using students' preferred pronouns if they don't match

their gender at birth. Is it fair to say your Republican colleagues have an obsession? Yes, especially with the people, Sinatelia. And it's disgusting. I mean, it's absolutely disgusting. From the bathroom ban to the gender from a care ban to the drag shows and targeting drag shows, it is not only an obsession, but I mean, it's a distraction, right? Because it's much more difficult to solve real problems.

If you want to actually address issues like housing affordability and property insurance and public safety and teacher pay and mental health, if you actually want to address these issues, it requires not only working with multiple stakeholders. So local government, nonprofit, faith, private sector, and your Democratic colleagues, right? Like, it requires time and focus and data and research. My Republican colleagues, they want to manufacture problems and it look like the heroes when they pass these bills. And I mean, I try really hard not to show my emotions on the house floor. But there were many moments where I'm just sitting on my desk in tears because it's just incredibly painful, especially when you know it impacts people you care about and your constituents

and you don't have the numbers to stop it. And it further just reinforces for me how you have to navigate an inside outside strategy. At the end of the day, you fight like hell in the chamber. You try to bring money back to your district. you try to pass policies that are a political nature, if you will, like one of the bills that I was successful in getting to the finish line this year was an elimination on Florida sales tax on diapers and adult and contents products. And I'm proud of that. And I could not have done that unless I found an opportunity to work across the aisle. But oftentimes, no matter what positive you came out with,

it's incomparable to the negative. I mean, complete devastation. Every part of our communities and on our personal freedoms and liberties. And it's so important to also think about what resources are on the ground. So for example, right now, just like we have abortion funds that help individuals travel out of state and cover those kind of costs for abortion, we've now launched gender affirming care fund. So we're raising money in Florida for patients in those situations. We have patients that are adults, but they're providers, our nurse practitioners.

this bill also bans anyone but DOs and MDEs to provide gender affirming care. So we have patients that are adults, but they're not going to be able to access care from their provider anymore. So now we're trying to figure out, okay, what can we do at a local level to help them, right? So it just creates all these new problems that we have to solve to ensure that every person can be healthy and healthy and safe. And at the same time, the current problems persist, whether it's, like I said, issues with rent, economic security, so forth, disability services. Those problems also continue to exist

and are unaddressed by the Republican supermajority. Well, yeah, I want to ask you about something that you posted on Blue Sky the other day for those people who don't know, Blue Sky is a new social media app, sort of like Twitter. You posted or skeeted, as they say, Republican politicians have used inaccurate and sensational rhetoric like mutilation to describe gender affirming care. Meanwhile, mutilation is exactly what an assault weapon does to a child's body. I am sick of the distracted culture wars when we have real problems to solve. And that's exactly what you're getting at here. Exactly. I mean, watching the images out of the most recent mass shooting in Texas at a mall, and I'm sure many of us saw,

whether it was something we clicked on or not, screenshots, and the video of those that were murdered and including children and also reading the testimony of everyday people who became first responders and turned over a child's body to see no face. I mean, it's so upsetting. And Paul's Nightclub is in my district. And so I'm very passionate about gun safety. I have filed these assault weapons ban here in Florida. And I just think that these are weapons of murder that should not be in our streets. Bottom line. And again, it's just so disgusting when my colleagues will use terminology that is inaccurate to describe what is health care for individuals that are diagnosed with gender dysphoria, which, by the way, it's the same talking points for abortion.

Like so many of the talking points and rhetoric use to demonize gender affirming care, it's the same playbook with abortion. They sensualize it. They dramatize it. They use medically inaccurate terminology. And the sad reality is that if you really cared about, quote, the mutilation of children, then you would do something about stopping gun violence in America because that is truly mutilation of our children. And it's actively killing and creating a generation of trauma for

Generation Z and those that come after. And the lack of courage and just the complete disregard for solving this crisis is just something that I can't. It keeps me up at night thinking about it because each one of us are just a day away from gun violence. I mean, I actually not only, have experienced a mass shooting in my community with Pulse, but I have been evacuated before because of an almost active shooter at my college campus. And I'm a millennial. For those that are Gen Z, it's even more common for them. And it's just so upsetting the lack of courage on this. And yeah, just the hypocrisy of it too. I've been talking to Florida State Representative Anna Eskimani. Anna, thank you so much for being here and for fighting hard against the insanity on the other side of

the aisle down there. I really appreciate it. Thanks for having me. And we appreciate all the good vibes coming down to Florida. We need it. Andy Levy. Danielle Moody. Andy, how are you kicking off this fucking week with your fuck that guy?

I'm kicking us off with some Hitler lovers. Oh, Jesus. And these are two people who both have shows on the streaming site Rumble, which is like a sort of right-wing YouTube. And one is named Scott McKay. and he has said things along the lines of, I don't know, the Jews orchestrated 9-11, the Jews killed Abe Lincoln, JFK, and William McKinley, because who can forget William McKinley, and that Jews routinely torture children and eat their hearts.

He has praised Hitler, saying that Hitler was actually fighting the same people that we're trying to take down today. This is all per media matters. And the other guy is a guy named Charlie Ward. He has shared posts that praise Hitler for warning us about Jews. Judaism. He has claimed that viruses are man and then in parentheses Jew made. And he has gone after the quote unquote Jewish media for lying about the Holocaust. Why am I drawing attention to these two people, Danielle, is probably what you're asking right now? It is because these two people will be speaking at the Trump National Dural Resort at an event in Miami.

And other speakers at that event include Eric Trump, Lara Trump, and. Devin Nunez. Wow. That's a wagon full of shit. Yeah. So this is where we're at now. We got the Trump family sharing a podium at a thing called the Re-Awaken America tour, which, considering how anti-woke these people are. I know. That just doesn't even make sense. Yeah, not really clear about this. Maybe it sounds better in German. So you've got Michael Flynn's going to be speaking there, Peter Navarro, former acting attorney general Matt Whitaker, Roger Stone. And then you're you've got the Hitler lovers right next to them on the podium, sharing the same space. So my fuck that guy goes out to the Trump family. It goes out to the Republican Party that makes room in its big camp for these people.

And it also, just as an aside, goes out to groups like the Republican Jewish Coalition, who continue to break bread with the Republican Party, even though the Republican Party is the home of and is welcoming to people like this. So it's sort of a mass fuck that guy for today. But fuck all those guys and groups. I like your big tent to fuck it. Thank you. That it is great to include all people. It's an orgy is what it is.

Yeah, a fuckery. Yes. I love that. So who is your fuck that guy? You know, Danielle. I too am a big tent person. So I'd like to say collectively the entire state of Texas, but I know that there are good people that happen to live there or are trapped, you know, however you want to say it.

But my fuck that guy is a Hall of Famer, if you will, Governor Greg Abbott. Once again, there is another mass shooting that we talked about at the top that happens in his state that he will do nothing about except to tweet and say, this is an unspeakable act. And I'm like, bitch, I wish you would speak on it. I wish you would offer some type of fucking policy ideas other than. than saying that it's unspeakable. How could something continue to be unspeakable when it happens literally every week? Like in your state, I'm just, I'm outdone by the fact that he, along with the Texas Republican-controlled Senate, just passed a bill that would allow for his appointees, Greg Abbott's appointees, to overturn elections in Harris County, which is a county that Democrats performed really well in, according to ABC 13.

And so those people now their vote is null and void. Because if it doesn't move alongside in alignment with what Republicans in that state want, then it doesn't matter. Right. So those people no longer have the right to vote. I hope they recognize that. Tie that into the fact that they are also passing legislation three days before the Allen, Texas mass shooting, that would allow for people to get a gun without a permit and without any training in this state. And so I guess that the entire goal is to drive Democrats, drive progressive, drive people who care about their lives out of that state.

I think that the short-term game that Republicans are playing is not going to play out in the long term. So we will see. But my God, fuck you, Greg Abbott, you piece of shit. Fuck all of the Republican-controlled Senate. You don't care. You don't care about your consent. You don't care about people. You don't care about humanity at this point.

It's really, I am at a loss for words. Shameful, isn't it? Disgusting, isn't it? Cruel, isn't it? Because nothing can encompass really, truly what they are doing to the people in that state. So fuck you, Greg Abbott. Yeah, I think that was so perfectly said. I don't really know what to add to it.

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