The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - #BecauseMiami: From Miami With Lev

Episode Date: October 25, 2024

Lev Parnas, the subject of Billy Corben's pop-doc, "From Russia With Lev", joins Because Miami to talk about his relationship with Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump. Plus, Lauren Brenzel, campaign director for Yes On 4 Florida, talks to Billy about the First Amendment violation committed by governor Ron DeSantis as he threatened criminal charges to Florida broadcasters for an advertisement about the abortion initiative on the state ballot. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Their insurance solutions are designed to help protect you and your loved ones financially, giving you the peace of mind to focus on what truly matters. Find their products through banks, credit unions, and associations, or visit securiancanada.ca. Securian Canada. Insurance designed for life. I'm here with my friends Lev and Igor. It was like a bromance made in heaven. At some point, almost overnight, Rudy became Lev's, I don't know, work wife or something

because they spent so much time together and they had such an intimate relationship. They were almost like father and son. Four to five days out of the week, four or five, six times a day with phone calls and text messages. And he was the godfather to my son, Nathan. There's a picture of him wiping his mouth. I don't think Lev has ever offered me that service. That was a clip from From Russia with Lev, our latest Rack and Tour pop doc which premiered

last month on MSNBC from executive producer Rachel Maddow to record-breaking audiences on MSNBC. You can find it now on NBC.com. Just search from Russia with Lev. Lev Parnas was not just an associate, a friend, a confidant, but a client of America's former mayor. I said the former America's mayor, the former mayor of America, the mayor of 9-11,

Rudy Giuliani, his other client at the time was Donald Trump. And Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani, according to Lev, sent Lev and his buddy Igor, his business partner, off on a scheme to Ukraine to dig up dirt on Hunter Biden and Joe Biden in an effort to effectively collude with a foreign power, in this case, Ukraine, to impact the outcome of the 2020 presidential election in the United States. Lev Parnas is

joining us now, hot off the press, Lev, this week. Your former buddy Rudy Giuliani ordered to turn over his New York apartment worth an estimated five point seven million dollars in valuables to the former Georgia election workers that he defamed after a $146 million verdict against him. This is of course, Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Shay Moss, who Giuliani repeatedly falsely accused. These were Georgia election workers, volunteers, I believe.

He claimed in this doctored video that they were sneaking a USB drive to each other, you know, in an effort to fix the election in Georgia. You remember when Donald Trump was trying to? Donald Trump tried to shake down two presidents of Ukraine. I know because Lev tried to do it for him. And then he tried to shake down, you remember, in Georgia with the governor and the elections people trying to just find me 11000 new votes. Well, this was part of this bullshit conspiracy theory about the election in 2020 being stolen by the way, Roy, that USB drive that they were

passing back and forth. Ginger mints. They were mother and daughter were passing mints to each other because they were sitting there doing their civic duty as election workers. Irregardless, $146 million. Rudy Giuliani thought he was above the law. He barely even responded to the lawsuit, gets this monstrous judgment. Then he tries to not pay these ladies by filing for bankruptcy.

The judge dismisses that shit, because once again, he doesn't show up to court, he doesn't respond to the judge, he doesn't respond to the plaintiff's attorneys. And so now he has to turn over check this out Not only his apartment a car once owned by Lauren Bacall from 1980, but all of his Yankees memorabilia Oh, this includes odd assigned Joe DiMaggio Jersey No, Reggie Jackson photo his 9-leven watches. These are watches given to him by...

The watches is big for him, I can tell you that. By the dignitaries, by European leaders after 9-Eleven as a sign of respect and hope, including a watch given to him by his grandfather, Lev. So let's start there with the watches. How devastating is that for Rudy Giuliani to give up those watches? You spent way too much time with this guy.

I spent more too much. Yeah, you can say that again. But no, the watches, the most important thing for Rudy and his collections were the watches and his rings, the Yankee memorabilia, the Yankee rings that he wore every day. And the watches, he was also a watch collector. We mean Igor have given him several watches as presents and actually have a watch that he gave me as a present. So I got to retain one of those watches out of his collection.

Hey, Lev, you might be able to buy those watches back at some auction here if you like. But hang on. I want to talk. So Roy, Rudy Giuliani has three New York Yankees World Series rings. These are prized possessions. Lev, I gotta read to you what Rudy has claimed here because the judge has yet to order him to turn those rings over because his son, Andrew Giuliani claims that his father gave him those three Yankees rings as, he's laughing already. Why are you laughing? Because that's such bullshit, I can't even tell you because first of all, Andrew only wishes that Rudy would leave him the rings. I don't think Rudy

would even have left him the rings in his will. I mean, for Rudy, you could tell, first of all, you could see every picture Rudy's wearing at least one or two of the rings. He does with his prized possessions. He had them on all the time. And I've never heard of him saying he's giving them to Andrew or anybody else. On the contrary, as late as prior to my arrest, when we were in Spain, I remember him taking off the rings and my kids were wearing them. And he was talking about like that, that that's his prized possession that he would never give it to anybody. So seeing Andrew come up with this ploy out of all people, I can understand that maybe Caroline, his daughter came out with this. I would give more benefit that he would leave it.

But Andrew, remember Andrew's like, you know, Don Jr. with Trump, Andrew's the same way with Rudy. He's that like, you know, lost child that doesn't belong. So there's no way he would have left those rings to Andrew. So you think he's not even going to leave them to Andrew? You think he's going to get buried? Rudy Giuliani is going to get buried with those World Series rings, probably. It's going to be a skill that have left those rings to Andrew. So you think he's not even gonna leave them to Andrew? You think he's gonna get buried? Rudy Giuliani's gonna get buried with those World Series rings, probably.

It's gonna be a skeleton with those rings. Yeah. Yeah. You know what reminds me of when Warren Sapp filed for bankruptcy protection, he miraculously, Roy, lost all of his rings. National championships, bowl games, Super Bowl, couldn't find his rings.

You're not gonna believe what happened, though, Roy. After he survived bankruptcy protection, you're not going to believe what he found. He found his rings. Every single one of those rings. I can't believe it. Wow. Unbelievable. I should have made sure you were sitting down, Roy, before

I asked you about that. Unbelievable. So, Lev. I'd like to see in court the judge or somebody ask Andrew anything else his father has given him. Why the rings? Show me one other thing. He's giving him nothing. I remember he wouldn't even go buy him clothes like he would. I remember on a weekend we were in. It was like on a Sunday and Andrew came up and Giuliani took him shopping to buy him some suits.

And that was like a big thing because that was a very rare thing. So, I mean, it's just when I saw that filing by Andrew, I was like, oh my God, that's such bullshit. Lev, you famously were indicted originally for a scheme that involved pressuring the president of the United States, Donald Trump, with whom you had a pretty close relationship with pressuring him to fire Marie Yovanovitch, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, with whom you had a pretty close relationship with, pressuring him to fire Marie Yovanovitch,

who was a career State Department employee, a public servant. She was at the time the ambassador to Ukraine during a very sensitive time, obviously, in the history of that country and tensions with Russia and the United States. Of course, later, they rescinded all that. They superseded your indictment and just said, Oh, no, he's a fraudster.

And you were convicted and went to federal prison for fraud. On that initial scheme, you were very involved in helping. I'm guessing that wasn't your idea, but in helping Rudy Giuliani, working as the private counsel to the then President of the United States, Donald Trump to basically extort, right? A quid pro quo, as it was called. Oh, 100%. Not one, but two successive Ukrainian presidents,

Poroshenko and Zelensky. Tell me what that scheme was all about. Well, basically it started from a conversation that we had at dinner with Trump. This was like in 2018. That was a private dinner we had at the Trump International Hotel. And at that time, the subject of Ukraine came up. And at that time, we were just basically donors.

It had nothing to do with Ukraine. And I just started talking about nonsense and different information that I heard from Igor and people around town that were saying that the ambassador in Ukraine was not friendly to Trump, that she wouldn't hang up his picture on the wall, that she was talking about him getting impeached. So I went ahead and I said that. When he heard that, that was the first initial interaction that we really saw that he basically stopped, turned around and said, get rid of her. And you saw that in the movie that you put together, which is an incredible movie, by

the way. I know you gave Rachel Maddow credit, but Billy, you deserve all the credit on that one. When you put together that is incredible. So I'm just going to say right here to Billy Corbin and Alfred Stelman. But with that said, that was the beginning because there was other fractions at the time that was also working, trying to get information in Ukraine, because at that time there was a whole big trying to get information in Ukraine, because at that time there was a whole big misinformation campaign being spread that it wasn't the Russians that meddled

in the 2016 election, it was the Ukrainians. So there was different fractions in Trump world that we're looking into. Then at that time, one of those fractions was Pete Sessions, because after the dinner that I had with Trump, and literally the next day, I had a meeting with Congressman Pete Sessions at the time. And we were sitting there just discussing

about what happened at the dinner and then I told Trump about the ambassador and he said, get rid of her. All of a sudden he stopped and turned around and said, I'm dictating a letter to Pompeo because I have constituents that have been coming to me telling me the same exact thing. And that's the infamous letter that he gave me to hand over to Donald Trump, which I handed over to him.

Lev, I want to stop you there because these are very high level communications. This is some serious, intense shadow diplomacy happening outside of the State Department, happening outside of the normal channels of government. Who the hell are you? Why are you involved in any of this shit? I mean, with all due respect, you're kind of,

you know, you're a New York hustler, kind of Russian mobbed up kid from Brighton Beach from Little Odessa, and you're running, you're kind of, you know, like a Florida man, kind of, you know, subsisting from hustle to hustle. Why are you in rooms with the President of the United States, with his private counsel, Rudy Giuliani, with Congressman Pete Sessions, talking about the highest levels of diplomacy

with a nation, with an ally at war at that point. Of course, Russia had already invaded Ukraine in 2014, and they're desperate for aid, for assistance from the United States. And all due respect, what do you have anything to do with this, Lev? How? Why? Well, that's the whole thing, Billy. And that's what people need to understand about who Donald Trump is. Donald Trump cannot have conversations on foreign policy with different with people that know foreign policy, because Donald Trump himself has no idea.

If you see in the movie and in his own words, he had no idea that Ukraine even had oil. He had no idea how they could defend themselves against Russia. And this is the president of the United States because it just shows you he wasn't even reading his own information that his own state department and his own sources were giving him

because he relied more on conversations that he would have with people like me that were donors. The other thing you have to understand is me and him are the same thing. We're both hustlers. We're both New York hustlers. Just that he was on a different level. He had millions of dollars and I came from the streets, but we all came from that same

mentality. And that's why, like you say, Florida, but Florida was the beginning of when we had that first dinner with him where me and him had that interaction where we spoke for almost like 40 minutes. And that bond kind of interacted that grew the relationship because that was a very low time in his candidacy and his life because he thought he was going to lose. We all thought he was going to lose. It was when the video came out of him saying, her by the it was when he was completely down. His ratings were like a 30% I think at that time.

So that small group of people and me happened to be the one that like came out of that group where we like bonded. Remember we spent every day together for a month from traveling to debates. I was with him front row with the Hillary debate the third debate he had with her. We were together in New York when he won. I mean, all of that transpired to, you

know, basically having a relationship where he had more of a trust in me because he knew I had more of a loyalty to him than any of his people that were there because the people that were surrounding him that were working in the positions of power had a loyalty to the constitution, had a loyalty to the people of the United States. They didn't have a loyalty to Donald Trump. And that's why he relied on people like myself that had more of a loyalty to him than a loyalty to our constitution, the people. And that's why it's so dangerous to even think about if he could get away with these things. And when you say there you say there were no guardrails,

there were guardrails because there were people in power like General Kelly's, the Mattis's, the, I mean, you could go on and on, that there were still people around. They were trying to keep some way controlled, bolted. You might not like these people. You might not agree with their politics, but these are career people that were in there

to try to say, keep some sort of, you know, normalcy in our democracy. And Trump chose to go away from all of that and deal with people like myself, because he knew that we had loyalty to him and nobody else. And that's the danger, because if he gets elected today,

none of those people are around. There's nobody around, not even his own daughter, who was the biggest force of having him come back to normality, Monica. The only people around him, you have the crazy nuts, like the General Flynn's, the Cash Patels, the Matt Gaetzes of the world. These are the people that are gonna be in power,

loyalist to him. And that's why it's even more dangerous to think of what he could do next time around, because of what he did this time because of What you're saying Billy the guardrails are off like no matter what you think completely no matter what we may think of You know John Bolton or Mike Pompeo or any of those ghouls that were around the first administration They at least like you said had a loyalty Somewhat to the Constitution to the United States and served as guardrails to Trump's worst instincts. Those are all gone now. Now

everybody's fueling not only his worst instincts but well. And not only that, but don't forget with the Supreme Court. The immunity clause that they gave him. He can do whatever the f**k he wants. Exactly. So now I mean just think about that. Imagine how excited Trump is. They're coming all over the place. So, Lev, you were there in the White House, around the administration. Trump is a f***ing idiot. During this era. And also there was General John Kelly, retired four-star general.

He served as Trump's chief of staff for a year and a half, from like 2017 to December of 2018. I sent you a picture of me and John Kelly. I think we met at the inauguration actually. Yeah, absolutely. And here's what John Kelly recently said this week. Do you think he's a fascist? Well, I'm looking at the definition of fascism.

It's a far right authoritarian, ultra nationalist political ideology movement characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized hypocrisy, militarism, disposable suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy. So certainly in my experience, those are the types of things that he thinks work better in terms of running America. He's certainly an authoritarian, admires people who are dictators. He has said that. So he certainly falls into the general definition of a fascist for sure. There is a four-star general of the United States military calling the former Commander-in-Ch chief Donald Trump a fascist. And speaking of his admiration for dictators, here's another headline

also from Kelly this week. Trump said Hitler quote, did some good things end quote, and wanted generals like Nazis, people who would be loyal to him and do whatever the hell he says. Lev, what is your reaction? I mean, I'm in shock, but in reality, I mean, that's exactly what it was. I mean, just like going back to dealing with Trump wants is he wants people. He doesn't want anybody to have any loyalty but to him. And that's why he references Hitler and references the general to Hitler because it's his way or the highway. If Donald Trump wants to go to war,

he doesn't want to be able to talk to Congress or Senator or have anybody tell him no. Or if he wants to use the military against his own citizens. Yeah, or arrest anybody he wants or have his attorney general start arresting everybody that speaks up against him or stops. He talks about the First Amendment and the right to speak.

But he's the first one talking about that once he becomes president, he's gonna go after all the journalists. So, I mean, just think about what he's saying. And it's just, and the crazy part, really to think about that, we have people in our country that are going out and are doubting what General Kelly's saying.

I mean, like, really? Are we like, he has nothing better to do? This is a man that served our country his whole life. And now we're doubting what he's saying compared to a criminal, a fraudster, or somebody that's lied over 100,000 times. I mean, it's just incredible. But it's not just a he said he said. What Kelly is saying, Trump has said most of that public that's what I'm saying

He said he admires these dictators. He admires Vladimir Putin. He admires the dictator of North Korea Victor Orban, etc Etc, etc. And let me ask you that love you were born in in Soviet Ukraine. It was the Soviet Union at the time you were born and fled and escaped effectively time you were born and fled and escaped effectively. You are not unfamiliar with that way of life, with that mentality, with Vladimir Putin, who you have actually met before. What do you want to tell people about? What is your closing argument, so to speak,

about the possibility? We are a coin toss away from a second Trump presidency. What do they need to know about his fascist tendencies, about his affection and relationship with Vladimir Putin? What do people need to know, do you think, Lev? Well, it's very simple. It's not as complicated as you think. I mean, we live in a country

where you could literally Google and take a look and take a look at how people live in the Soviet Union, how people live in North Korea, how people live in China, and take a look at this is exactly what Donald Trump is trying to achieve for America. But the problem is it's not only the way of life, even if you might agree and say, OK, well, America first and all of that. Think about the reason we haven't had all these nuclear or bad wars in all of this time

is because we've had a strong alliances with countries in NATO. We have strong alliances around the world. We've been able to be the leader in the world of democracy. You might not agree with our policy. You might not agree like America's policies, but that's why we live in America. That's why we have all of that. That's why nobody here wants to go live in Russia.

Nobody wants to go live in North Korea. But a vote for Donald Trump is basically wanting to go move to live in North Korea or live in China or live in Russia. And that's what I don't understand why people are looking at and not understanding that he's telling you exactly what he wants to do. He wants to destroy NATO. He wants to destroy all of these relationships that have taken decades and centuries to achieve. He wants to destroy them in one day. So what's gonna happen 20 years from now, 10 years from now, 30 years from now,

when America's not the leader in the free world, where Russia now is not the Russia that we're seeing that can't defeat Ukraine in three days, but when Russia is back to the Soviet Union, when it had control of all of these countries, like Ukraine, like Poland, Czechoslovakia, and I could go on and on. And then it's not Russia, it's the Soviet Union. Then it's not like, you know, travel is not the same. Trade is not the same. When Trump talks

about that we're going to be a better country, when he destroys these relationships all over the world, just think about how expensive it's going to be here to try to get other products that are not made in the USA. You're not going to be able to then travel as freely as you want. Life will not be the same way as it was. It's all in the biggest thing that what fascism is about and what you can see is Donald Trump tells you what you want to hear. He doesn't tell you how he's going to achieve it.

He doesn't tell you if he could achieve it. He just tells you what you want to hear and that's all. And he repeats it nonstop. It's the same spiel. It was what Stalin did. It's what Hitler did. If you keep repeating the same thing long enough, eventually people start to believe it. And the biggest problem also is that his cohorts like the Matt Ga Matt Gaetz's, are out there that have the presence of being congressmen and going out there and supporting him and repeating the same thing. And that is the problem. So my message to the people out there, unless you want to live in Russia, unless you want

to live in North Korea, get out and vote for Kamala Harris's walled campaign, because Donald Trump needs to go where he belongs and that's prison. And that's what has to happen. I think it's November 27th is his sentencing day. Let Parnas, before we go, Donald Trump is a Florida man. He's gonna be voting here in Florida if he hasn't already. Where do you think he stands on amendment four on abortion? I think Donald Trump is, that's the whole problem.

If we take a look at Donald Trump's history, I think he's probably paid for more abortions or had more than he's bought. So, I mean, Donald Trump is a flip-flopper liar. He's going to vote yes, obviously. And he's going to also vote yes for cannabis also. So that's one for Ron DeSantis. I think the real problem in this situation is he's a felon. Why is he able to vote?

Well, thank you. I can't vote. I can't vote. How is he able to vote? That's a, thank you. That's a great analogy. Wait, Lev, who has been convicted of more felonies, you or Donald Trump?

You know, I'm going, shit, he wins again. You know, Donald Trump's a winner he wins again. You know, Donald Trump's a winner. He has more convictions than me. Yes, no, totally, totally. Yes. The next time Lev comes on the show, we are going to talk about cannabis because Lev gotten a little bit of trouble. Part of the illegal campaign contributions he was making that he was ultimately convicted for and went to federal prison

for involved a marijuana business that he was ultimately convicted for and went to federal prison for, involved a marijuana business that he was trying to push and curry favor with Republican lawmakers by donating to them in an effort to hopefully get grow licenses. As you know, Amendment 3 is on the ballot. Shouldn't be controversial, but it is. It's the adult personal use of marijuana legalization. And we're going to find out how Lev not only helped Donald Trump get elected in 2016, in a year when Lev himself was not even registered to vote and had never voted before, by the way, in his life, was

a major financial supporter of Donald Trump, but Lev also helped make the love connection between Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis during the 2018 Republican gubernatorial primary and may have very well helped Ron DeSantis get elected governor all over marijuana. This was this all had to do with marijuana. So I'm very excited to hear about that story the next time you join us. Listen, I just what what can I say? It's always a blast. I hope everybody sees from Russia with Lev.

You've been making a mea culpa tour here. You said you were cultinized and you have since escaped and snapped out of it. And I appreciate you trying to be a better man, be a better husband, be a better father, and make amends to not only your family, but to both of your countries that you betrayed, Ukraine and the United States. And thank you for being here. Thank you for having me, Billy, and thank you for the great work you do and continue doing. Thank you guys for having me.

Hey, everyone. It's Mike Ryan. You hear that? That is the sound of me cracking open an ice cold Miller Lite. Maybe if you're the lucky winner of the DraftKings Weekend Observation presented by Miller Lite Prediction Pool, you and a friend can come crack one open with me and the rest of the Day on Levitard show with Sugats. All you have to do is go to Draft Kings and predict what will happen during a segment, Weekend Observations presented by Miller Light on October 29th.

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Boyden, Ontario. Bonus, bets expire 168 hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see dkng.co. slash bball. Metrolinx and Crosslinx are reminding everyone to be careful, as Eglinton Crosstown LRT train testing is in progress. Please be alert, as trains can pass at any time on the tracks. Remember to follow all traffic signals. Be careful along our tracks and only make left turns where it's safe to do so. Be alert, be aware, and stay safe. The former lead attorney for Florida's Department of Health is now revealing how state letters

demanding TV stations stop airing a pro-choice political ad is what ultimately led him to abruptly resign earlier this month. In this sworn affidavit filed Monday morning as part of an ongoing federal court case over the state's TV station threats, former health department attorney John Wilson said he was directed by Governor DeSantis' general counsel to quote, send them under my name and on the behalf of the Florida Department of Health. Last week, a federal judge ruled the ad was political free speech, and the state's threatening letters needed to stop.

He stated, to keep it simple for the state of Florida, it's the First Amendment, stupid. ["The First Amendment," by The New York Times, playing in background music.] Lauren Brenzel is the campaign director for Yes on 4 Florida. You can find them at Yes4Florida.com. That's Yes, the number four, Florida.com. Amendment four is on the ballot this year, well really this week. It's to limit government interference with abortion and overturn the state of Florida's,

I can't even say onerous but draconian Six-week abortion ban which I've said it once on this show and I'll say it every time Six-week abortion ban is an abortion ban. It's not six weeks. It's not a real number It's simply an abortion ban and regardless of what restrictions I should say exemptions They claim they have those rights are being violated and women are dying. Babies are dying. Women are being allowed to bleed to death and give birth to stillborn babies in public toilets because doctors are afraid to treat them and offer them potentially life-saving health healthcare because they think they might lose their license or worse, get arrested.

That, my friends, is the free state of Florida. Lauren is part of the organization that was the plaintiff in that federal lawsuit that was just being referred to. I don't really know where to start here, Lauren, because this is so fucking crazy. I'm sorry, I got a little excited there. But you have the governor of the free state of Florida, who is an attorney, and a well trained attorney.

Where'd he go? Went to Harvard? Yeah, I went to Harvard Law School. And you have a judge saying it's the First Amendment, stupid. Like that's a direct quote from this temporary restraining order that you successfully got in this lawsuit. So let's start here. You get these threatening letters, or I should say the TV stations that you are running these ads on get threatening letters not just with civil penalties but with criminal prosecution the governor is threatening them with.

If they continue to run these ads, did anybody stop running them as a result of this obvious threat to freedom of speech? We did see that. We saw Wink TV in Fort Myers, Florida, stop running an advertisement for us. And it happened while Hurricane Milton was barreling towards them. They actually called us and let us know they were currently boarding up their windows, but they believed that they had to pull the Caroline ad because of the criminal threats know they were currently boarding up their windows, but they believed that they had to pull the Caroline ad because of the criminal threats that they were receiving. After that temporary restraining order, they are now back up on the air.

But we were so worried about the spread of that. Once one station decides to pull an ad, it gives everybody else a permission structure to do that, especially when they're being threatened with criminal charges. So we were incredibly happy to see the court's decision come down. So let's talk about that. You sued Dr. Joseph Ladopo, the quack that is somehow the, it's just unbelievable, with

the so-called Surgeon General of the state of Florida, also has a no show job at the University of Florida that he gets paid for. I mean, this is just, it's such a hustle man too. That's the frightening thing. Through all of this demagoguery, and through all of this, just the threats to people's health and lives, this is ultimately just like a heist movie, Roy.

They're just out here just stealing all the things about school choice and Christian nationalism and all this. They're just out here stealing from our schools and stealing from our treasury. This guy, this governor is paying attorneys millions of dollars in taxpayer money to defend lawsuits against laws that he knows are unconstitutional. He's an attorney. He knows before they pass them, before he

signs them into law that they're going to lose. But what's the difference? His buddies are getting set billing $700, $800 an hour to defend this absolute bile. And in the meantime, let's talk about this lawyer here. One of the other defendants in this lawsuit who you were suing was an attorney, John Wilson, who used to work for the Florida Department of Health under Ladopo and no longer does. And we have a little bit of a better understanding

as a result of an affidavit he filed, I guess in response to your lawsuit. Tell us a little bit about who this guy is, what happened, how he was put up to this, and then I guess how he kind of becomes a conscientious objector or something here. Who's John Wilson? Yeah, it was a wild ride.

I never know week from week at this point what to expect with government interference with this campaign. So we received those cease and desist letters. John Wilson had signed off on them. One of the things that I want to note that I think was particularly egregious about these letters is that we received them in regards to an advertisement

where a woman named Caroline shared her abortion experience after receiving a terminal brain cancer diagnosis. And the letter referred to our advertisements as being a public nuisance. They actually couldn't even state in the letter that Caroline would have been able to access an abortion under Florida's current abortion ban, because she wouldn't have.

There wasn't a workable exception for her in her case. We then sued the state and found out that John Wilson had quit his position at the Department of Health. And it later became revealed to us that he actually did not draft the letter that we received. It came from the governor's office. It was written for him in his name.

And he was forced to sign off on it. He left because he did not want to send additional criminal threats to other TV stations or different entities throughout the course of this campaign. So what we are seeing is people who should be neutral bureaucrats in charge of things like our public health being forced

to send unconstitutional and potentially criminal threats to television stations. It's just absolutely unbelievable what we're encountering in this campaign as far as state interference is concerned. And we're talking a lot about abortion bans and how we need to make sure that we are protecting abortion care.

And one of the things that is really disturbing when it comes to any fight around abortion is that there are extremists who are willing to push the absolute limits of democracy because they are so hell bent on keeping their abortion bans in place. So we're seeing genuinely authoritarian attacks. We're seeing a dismantling of Florida's democratic process. And it really gives me pause as somebody

who believes in our fundamental rights as citizens to petition our government and to have our voices heard that we're seeing this much interference from our state. Let me say that too, because no matter where you stand on this issue, the way that the governor and the state is comporting itself in this matter is antithetical to our values as Americans, we have the ability to disagree, we have the ability to place these issues on our ballot in an effort to garner 60%, which is what you have to,

the threshold you have to meet in order to amend the state constitution. So you have the ability to get this on the ballot, to campaign for it, to run ads for it. And what is happening here is beyond dictatorial and also is hypocritical and a lie in the face of what everyone said when Roe was overturned, which is well now it's going back to the states. Now we'll let the states decide. It's like okay well this is a good thing right that

the federal government, the president of the United States doesn't get to tell women how to you know what to do with their bodies and their health. No, now Ron DeSantis gets to do it? No, of course not. The people of the state of Florida should vote on it and they should vote on it in a fair and democratic process. But that's not what this is. I was complaining, Lauren, about the amount of money

we spend, our money, taxpayer money, that Ron DeSantis spends defending unconstitutional horseshit and laws. But how much money are we spending the state to fight against a citizen led initiative that is on our ballot? We know of 20 million. I feel confident saying that in post election investigation, we're going to find out it's potentially tens of millions of dollars more. I think that opposition is struggling to raise from individual donors because historically, this is a losing issue. People don't want to see abortion bans in place. So you're having to treat

the taxpayers as campaigners. I know as a Floridian, I certainly don't want to be paying to stop Florida's abortion ban. To me, one of the most disturbing uses of taxpayer dollars within this absolutely unbelievable drawing of public resources is from the Agency of Health Care Administration, which is in charge of our Medicaid program. Since 2020, we have disenrolled almost half a million, no, more than half a million children from Medicaid in the state of Florida. Children who have been taken off Medicaid in the state of

Florida because we refused federal funding to extend their ability to stay on the program after COVID. And now we are running millions of dollars out of that state agency that could be used to get those kids back on Medicaid enrollment to fight an abortion ban. I'm sorry, but these kids don't even pay taxes. What do these freeloaders expect, health care? What are we doing about these?

Do you honestly believe that's credible? Yeah, I mean, come on now. Pick yourself up by your high heel bootstraps as Ron DeSantis does. Now, let me ask you this, though. Last two things before you go. Cheating works. That's why people cheat.

Oh, that's BS. No, totally, totally BS. I understand that several weeks ago or months ago, Amendment 4, which as you say is good policy, it's bipartisan, it was polling well above the 60% threshold required for passage. More recently, in light of these attacks mounted against it by unconstitutional attacks, no less, and possibly illegal in terms of how the state is financing them, it's pulling now closer to 60, which is right at the threshold, which is a little bit more concerning. When you consider this is very much the will of the people, abortion polls higher, as does marijuana, than any of our elected officials.

Whatever margin they were elected by, marijuana and abortion are far more popular than they are. And yet, 60% are you concerned at all? The 60% threshold in the state of Florida has always been one of our biggest hurdles. But we also were told that we weren't going to collect the number of petitions that we needed to collect to get on the ballot. We did it in record time. We also were told we wouldn't make it past the Florida Supreme Court. We made it past the Florida Supreme Court. Every hurdle we've been given, we've been told we weren't going to make it. And fundamentally, I believe that

votes are not, we're not fortune telling when we say how an election is going to turn out. We are working every single day to earn a vote. And I have to believe that Floridians understand that we have to stop this abortion ban, that they don't want to see an abortion ban in effect. And at the campaign, and with all of our partners across the state, we are going to do everything that we can

to make sure that we meet that 60% threshold. Before we go, let's do closing argument here. You got about 30, 40 seconds. You want to combat some of the misinformation or just make the best case for yes on Florida Amendment 4. This isn't an extremist initiative. If we keep believing politicians who are lying about abortion access,

we're never going to have abortion access back in this country. We can't believe people about it's about undoing parental consent. It's about providing late term abortions. It's about people who are tattoo artists providing abortions. These are the same people who told us they wouldn't overturn Roe v Wade. They're the same people that told us they wouldn't pass a six week abortion ban. And look at where we are. There is only one way to end Florida's abortion ban. And it is to vote

yes on four this November, but we need everybody to get out there and vote. Right now, the turnout is not where it needs to be. We have a really exciting election with a lot on the ballot and we need people to get to the polls by November 5th and vote yes on four because this is our one shot. It is a generational shot to end Florida's abortion ban. Lauren Brunzel, campaign director,

Yes on Four Florida. Find them at Yes4Florida.com. That is yes, number four, Florida.com. Lauren, thanks so much for joining us. Good luck. Thank you. Take care. Hey everyone, it's Mike Ryan. So I'm hearing that you still haven't entered the DraftKings Weekend Observation presented by Miller Lite Prediction Pool. Let me ask you, what exactly are you waiting for? You don't want to guess how many times two gods might

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