The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - #BecauseMiami: MAGA Tov

Episode Date: December 5, 2025

Billy Corben welcomes Emilio Gonzalez, one of Miami's mayoral candidates, to state his case for the city's upcoming runoff election. Plus, Billy give an update on Monique Pardo-Pope, the daughter of a Neo-Nazi serial killing corrupt cop, who is currently a Miami Beach commission candidate. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I just filed a bar complaint against attorney Monique Pardo Pope, the Miami Beach Commission candidate whose father was a notorious, coke-dealing, corrupt cop, neo-Nazi serial killer, executed by the state of Florida in 2012 after Governor Rick Scott signed his death warrant. This is not about the sins of the father. This is about the lies of the daughter. Now the Florida Bar is announcing this week that they launched an official inquiry and opened a disciplinary file on her. Only 25% of complaints progressed to this stage. All because Monique Pardo Pope is still trying to hide her secret past from voters. Her father Manuel Pardo, who believed Hitler was a great man, murdered nine people in cold blood,

shooting, beating, and stabbing them. His only regret, he said, is that he didn't murder 99 people. The only regret that I have is that instead of nine, I wish I got to do. been up here for 99. He spoke extensively of his hatred for Jews, blacks, gays, and lesbians. His apartment was filled with Hitler books, a Nazi flag on the wall, and a pet Doberman. He reportedly tattooed with a swastika. Why did she hide this from voters and why do she refuse to answer direct questions about it? Should someone so intensely against transparency and accountability be an elected official? While she was very young in 1986 when he committed

these heinous crimes. From 2013 to 2018, well into adulthood, and after she'd become an attorney and member of the Florida bar, Monique Pardo Pope repeatedly celebrated her Hitler-loving father on social media, my hero, my guardian angel. In September 2015, when she was 34, she called him my guiding light in the sky, my eternal best friend. In 2018, at age 37, she wrote, there's no one better suited to have been my daddy, and I will forever be proud to have been your little girl. For you to understand my motive, what I did, because I want my daughter to be proud of her father and my family to be part of my father. She wrote, I would travel those thousands of miles each weekend once more if it meant just one more day with you. She's apparently referring to trips to visit

her father on death row. He was there from 1986 until he was put to death in 2012 when she was 32 years old. What did they talk about? How did it shape her? What made her so proud of him and what was so heroic about him. Setting aside his horrific crimes, what we know about Manuel Pardo's beliefs are not inconsistent with Monique Pardo Pope's current views. For example, As a child, we used to have to say the pledged allegiance in the morning and pray in the classroom. Nowadays, it's illegal, unconstitutional. But it is illegal to allow homosexuals to teach their children and allow communists to teach our children. So what does I tell you? We're being destroyed internally. I sent a message and I just hope some other people carry out my work.

Monique Pardo Pope is not only proud of him, she seems to be carrying on some of his work. A few months ago, she appeared at an event of the Christian Family Coalition, an ultra-conservative organization at the forefront of Florida's most discriminatory anti-LGBQ plus policies, extremist anti-abortion legislation, and ending the separation of church and state. As a lawyer, Monique Pardo Pope has an obligation to the truth, yet she's equivocated on the facts of her father's case, misrepresenting the court's findings on his mental state, and as my bar complaint details, she even outright lied about the outcome of litigation involving me

in order to smear the messenger, inventing a defamatory lie that I lost a lawsuit that I actually won. Best case scenario, she's incompetent and doesn't know how to do the most basic legal research. Worst case, she's a malicious deceiver, willing to spread lies without compunction. Either way, she's grossly unqualified for the position she's running for and perhaps even the profession she's in. Her father was a serial killer, but Monique Parto Pope may be a serial liar. And she is now just one ballot away from being a Miami Beach City Commissioner. And President Trump weighing in on the Miami mayor's race, he endorsed Emilio Gonzalez for Miami mayor on social media yesterday. In a post on truth social, the president released a statement saying in part that Emilio strongly

supports our incredible law enforcement, military, and veterans, and knows the wisdom and courage it takes to ensure law and order. Gonzalez came in second place after Miami-Dade County Commissioner Eileen Higgins, who is endorsed by Miami-Dade Mayor Danielle Levine Kava. That runoff election is scheduled for December 9th. It is the end of an era. On Tuesday, December 9th, we will have a new mayor in the city of Miami. Francis Suarez will not only be gone, he'll be, I guess, sort of retired from politics for now and is term limited for life. He served eight years as a city commissioner, eight years as a city mayor, and now, according to 79% of the voters of the city of Miami, cannot run for office in the city of Miami ever again. Whatever will he do now? If you put garbage in, you're going to get garbage out.

So one of the two people who will be mayor next week, Emilio Gonzalez, is here joining us, Magatav to you on your endorsement from the president. I also invited his opponent, former county commissioner Eileen Higgins, who has been on the program before. I did not hear back from her or her campaign. Friend of the show. We have a surrogate here, former friend of the show. friend without benefits of the show. And we have Eileen Higgins surrogate over here.

Christian Ulver is joining us on the program. Christian, thank you so much for being here. That's sort of an inside Miami politics, inside baseball joke. Nonetheless, we will be volleying some questions to him during the program to see what he has to. Chances are you may have better answers than Eileen Higgins would. It's a little disappointing that she's not here, but it says, oh, so much about her confidence level, I would actually say, Emilio. So let's start there.

There's been a lot of, before we get into the endorsement and the politics behind this race, there is a sense of confidence. Some may call it overconfidence on the part of Eileen Higgins and her campaign. Some may call it hubris. They sort of feel like she is already won or been anointed. What's your take? All of the above. Overconfidence, confidence, confidence, and hubris. she was competing against one person in this primary that we had.

She was competing against Ken Russell. I was competing against 12 other people. She did very well. I did well. But now everything's changing and everybody's coalescing and the voters are finally figuring out who can do the best job, who stands for what. And we're working it. And we're working it hard and I'm not leaving any stone unturned.

I go to every single event pretty much that I'm invited to. I'm not afraid to go into it uncharted territory, if you will, because I think the voters need to know who we are and what we stand for. Christian Elvert, your thoughts? Very good. I want to get into that a little bit more about the differences between the two candidates, which are numerous. But before we do in the Cold Open, we had that clip, which definitely changed the race. Some would argue define the race. Miami Herald headlines.

from that week before Thanksgiving, Trump just turned Miami's mayoral race into a referendum on himself. This is dicey territory politically. You've got a president who did not win the city of Miami last year. He's arguably less popular now, judging by his record low polls. Is this a referendum on Donald Trump this election? You know, I don't really think so, Billy. I think more than anything else, the president is now a resident of the state of Florida. Clearly, Miami is a city where potentially his library will be. So he follows events in Florida, and particularly South Florida. It was an opportunity for him to endorse me.

I would never, ever tell a sitting president, no, I don't want your endorsement. I welcome it. The governor endorsed me. Both our senators endorse me. By the way, Eileen has been endorsed by the county mayor by the Florida Democratic Party. by numerous members of Congress. So this did eventually turn into a very partisan race. I will tell you that long before I even filed,

she was campaigning as the trusted Democrat, that is to say she put that label on herself. And I did not. You know, I wanted to respect the NPA aspect and no party affiliation aspect of the race. The president got on board, the governor got on board, everybody understands. that there's concern about what would happen to Miami,

if somebody with her qualifications or, for that matter, lack of qualifications were to take over the city. Again, does it move the needle? I hope so, but I'm still out there. I'm not hiding from anybody. I'm not hiding from this very subject, which... Well, what choice do you have?

I mean, it's right out. I mean, it's out there. It's out there. And again, you know, listen, if President Biden had wanted to say, You know what? Amelia is a great guy. Fine. Thanks. Really? Really. Is that true? I would.

Some outside chance that Joe Biden was still president and he endorsed you for Miami mayor. What's true is that I would. You would take the- I would accept it. He's a sitting president. You know, he is a sitting president. And that's something that you cannot, in good conscience, say, you know what? Nah, I'm not interested in your endorsement. Take it back. Well, let me ask you this, though. If you could talk now, talk, you are talking now, too, as a proud NPA.

Donald Trump was a Democrat a lot longer than I was a Democrat, but as a proud NPA for the vast majority of my voting life since I turned 18 in 1996 and voted for Ross Perrault, by the way. I've been an NPA and I love nonpartisan municipal elections. I'm not a big fan of these constitutional offices that we've created. I'm even less of a fan that they're partisan. I really do like a partisan race. I don't like the toxicity and tribalism that seeps in to races when they get partisan because it's really about what's best for this community from the government that serves you on a minute by minute basis, which is what local government does. But here's my question. Speaking to Democrats and NPAs who last summer saw you as a different brand, they saw you as a savior of democracy and the election you were the, as we've talked about ad nauseum on this show, the only candidate, the only person who sued the city of Miami to restore the election that the mayor and the city commission had canceled in order to gift themselves an extra year in office.

It was an act of insanity. You were the only person who stood up to it. I had Eileen Higgins sitting in that very chair some time ago asking her why, A, she didn't join the fight, and B, why she then fundraised on it the day that you, the day that you lost and was privately telling people, oh, this one year delay in the election actually benefits me. while she was telling me a totally different story. Maybe that's not why. Maybe that's why she's not here again today.

Christian, overt, what are your thoughts on this? Sorry, Emil, in the interest of equal time here. I just wanted to, anyway, so talk to NPAs and Democrats who may have felt like you were their guy over the summer, but now you have this Maga Mayer thing that may be a turnoff to some of them. I would tell them that nothing has changed, okay? and people were attacking me.

Members of the Democratic Executive Committee were attacking me before I even filed, Billy. They were calling me the Maga Mayor. They were saying, and these are all flyers that I got at home, that I'm doing away with public education, that I'm doing away with health care for seniors. And then when I actually... I don't know what the mayor of Miami has to do with any of those things.

This is why partisan politics is so stupid in these races. Absolutely. Listen, I agree. In municipal elections, I vote for the... the person, okay? Because you know what? You want somebody who's competent. Okay, you know what? I want to make sure that my streets are safe. I want to make sure that the elderly are taking care of. I want to make sure that we don't flood. That's not a partisan issue. Nice parks. There aren't Republican parks and Democratic parks. Nice parks. But my point is, right out of the shoot, they started with the, you know, innuendo and, you know, defamation and you're going to do

this. Folks, I haven't even filed yet. And they were already piling. on. And what that tells you is that they were afraid I was going to get in the race and that I was going to be a force to reckon with. And they're right because nothing has changed. You know what? The president has endorsed me. Nothing has changed. My policy state, I have not adjusted any of my policy positions after the endorsement or before the, it's the same person. I want a Miami that works for everybody. I want a Miami. Listen, and this sounds a little trite, but I tell people this all the time, I don't want to just be the next mayor because if I wanted to be the next mayor, let somebody else be the next mayor. I want to be the mayor that does

the heavy lifting. I want to be the mayor that takes big, bold projects and delivers. That's the guy I want to be. I don't want to be the next guy. I want to get into that heavy lifting in just a moment. I do want to say, nor do I believe that you have to answer for all of the policies and comments for this president, having accepted his endorsement. But there are issues that overlap, these municipal, local issues. You specifically mentioned flooding, which, for those of us who have lived in this community, as long as you have, as long as I have, it doesn't require a culture war or an argument about science.

We can just trust our eyes and see how things have gotten worse over time, which neighborhoods are being disproportionately impacted by, you want to call it climate change, sea level rise. It's fucking flooding is what's happening. On sunny days. But do you see when you have endorsements from a governor or from a president who says that we're going to ban the word climate change.

There's no such thing as global. There's no... That people get concerned because they live in Miami and they're building arcs. Right. Because it feels like it's time. Forget climate change. We get a brief shower and brick will floods. But I'll turn that on

I'll turn that argument on its head. Because nothing that the city does that is consequential with regards to infrastructure, we're going to do by ourselves. We don't have the money for that. You know, 75% of our budget is salaries, benefits, and pensions. So that leaves very little money with which to address key issues. But because of what you just said, I have the wherewithal to go to Tallahassee, to talk to the governor and say, you know what, call it what you want, I need money for this. I can go to Washington and say, you know what, I need your help.

with this. That is something that I can leverage, not the other way around. We have a situation in Miami where the residents don't take the government serious. The residents fear. We talk about weaponization of government a lot. By the way, I am a victim of that weaponization of government. But the bottom line is, is that a lot of folks aren't really involved because of retribution. So now you have weaponization. I've got folks that tell me, Hey, I want to support you, but I'm trying to figure out how to do it and have nobody find out. Well, why? Why? Because I'm afraid the city will shut my business down. And I mean, these are serious people. These are not, you know, insignificant small bodega owners.

These are heavy, heavy hitters in Miami that are afraid that their projects are going to be shut down. So, again, nothing has changed. And I have an endorsement from the governor. I have an endorsement from both our senators. Fine. I will go to Washington. And I will say, it with everybody and I'll say look you know what I need your help call it what you want Miami needs your help and I expect you to deliver I don't want to belabor the point but you brought something up the weaponization of government which has been a key topic in the city of Miami we watched it happen transparently in broad daylight right from the dais we've heard testimony from countless people who have witnessed it experienced it been victims of it memorialized it

We have a $63.5 million civil, federal judgment against Joe Corrello for doing just that. Is there not some incongruity, though? We're sitting here talking about the weaponization of government. And we have a president who is now famously and openly and transparently weaponizing government against his enemies and weaponizing the DOJ and even the Department of War, whatever it's called now. Meaning, is there not some concern that, like I said, there's an incongruity, if not a hypocrisy there? The concerns are valid, but I will tell you that I would be committing mayoral malpractice, if you will, for lack of a better term. If I want to make that the beach I'm going to die on and not worry about my residents, you can only be against stuff so many times. I want to be four things.

I want to be the best mayor the city has. if our federal government, if our state government is conducting itself in a way that a lot of people disagree with, fine. That's why we live in a democracy. But I don't want to be the one like other mayoral cities. I'll mention one. You've got, you know, Michelle Wu in Boston, who's basically declared war against the federal government. You've got in Seattle where, you know, ISIS more under attack than the delinquentes. That's not me. That's not me. I want to serve our public. And by the way, and I want to use, and I want to use these connections, listen, one of the beautiful things about being old is that, you know, you've been around for so long,

you know everybody, right? So I want to use that to our advantage. Why would, why would I want to start as mayor declaring war on a federal department? It makes absolutely no sense for the people that live here. Folks, listen up. You know my holiday pattern by now. Every single year I tell myself, listen, Chris, you're going to be thoughtful this year. You're going to be thoughtful this year. You're to get good gifts. You're not going to be lazy. You're not just going to get gift cards. And this year, guys, I have news. I pulled it off. No panic. No sad little card. You know what I gave? I gave an aura frame. Like, why is it so hard to find a personal gift these days? It's for the people I'm closest to. My parents, my wife, my in-laws, my kid, the most important people in my world,

I have no idea what I'm supposed to get them as a gift. But one thing I know, people light up when they get photos. People love photos. So I loaded up my aura frame with all the moments I know they'll love, my daughter being adorable, random selfies, group pictures where none of us are looking in the same direction. I kept adding them because Aura lets you send unlimited photos and videos right from your phone anytime. And the best part, you can preload the thing before it even ships. So when it's open on Christmas morning, all the memories are already there. I'm telling you guys, this is a great gift. And folks, for a limited time, save on the perfect gift by visiting oraframes.com to get $35 off Orra's best-selling Carver Matt Frames, name number one by

wirecutter by using promo code DLB. This deal is exclusive to listeners and frame sell out fast to order yours now and get it in time for the holidays. Support the show by mentioning us at checkout. Terms and conditions apply. Hey folks, it's Mike Ryan. Happy holidays to you and to our tremendous

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or you can pick up some Miller Lite pretty much anywhere they sell beer. Tis Miller Time. Celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 96 calories, and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces. Big projects. You talked about undertaking. big projects. Before we get into one of my favorite subjects, I want you to be able to elaborate on

that. What do you mean by that when you say that? Listen, I want to do away with property taxes from homestead exception residents. It can be done. The math will allow us to do it. I want to talk to the state about doing away with the death tax. If you want, I can go through these if you like. we have calculated that the city of miami's budget which by the way has grown exponentially in the last five years probably doubled but our standard of living has not doubled our quality of life has not doubled so we figure that homestead exemption properties produce about 102 million dollars a year for the city budget 102 sounds low it vary it's less than seven percent of the of the of the total budget where's the rest of it It comes from fees from all the commercial buildings, all the high rises and so forth. Remember, we're talking about single-family residents that have a three-bedroom house, you know, somewhere in Shenandoah. 103 million. Roughly.

Okay. Okay. We also just had the state CFO come and say, you know what, Miami residents? You guys have been taxed, overtaxed to the tune of $95 million. And that includes all sorts of waste and fraud. So you're looking at a delta of $7 million. You mean to tell me you can't find $7 million in efficiencies in a $3 billion budget? You almost have to try not to be able to do that.

So again, it isn't, by the way, I don't know, not too many people know this. When I was a city man, I was city mayor for two years. My second year budget was actually $100 million less than my first year budget. We didn't miss a beat. We just looked for efficiencies. That's one area that I think we could be incredibly. innovative and putting more money in our residence pockets. Housing is expensive here. Living here is a business. Yeah, I think we all have. But you know what? The city of Miami is

not going to build you a house. We don't have a housing authority. We can't have. The federal government won't allow any more housing authorities. So the idea is to put more money in people's pockets. And you start, by the way, this isn't an end all. You start there. And then you start look for other opportunities. The state of Florida may usurp all of this. anyway by putting some sort of state constitutional amendment on the ballot and if it makes it to the ballot obviously people are going to vote to eliminate it will pass it will yes people are going to vote to eliminate it i don't know that they fully understand that i don't necessarily know that it's the best idea but i do want to get into the specifics on it with the city of miami you mentioned

the 94 million dollars that the cfo of the state blazingolia came in and announced but that was not exactly a forensic accountant he was they were talking about the increase in budget over a period of time, based on inflation, based on certain formulas and calculations, and rather than actually looking at line items, I mean, if you ask me, where's waste, I could, off the top of my head, I could name several, you know, five or, you know, one of the things that Blaze did. One of the things that Blaze did is essentially at the macro level, right? And a very interesting statistic, Miami's population has grown by only 23,000 people. It costs something like 15,000

dollars per person in services. Seems like a lot. Per person. A family of four moves to Miami. It's going to cost $60,000 worth of service. Those are at the macro levels, but you're absolutely right. Look, they won. I said, I am going to conduct a forensic audit of the city budget.

I want to know where the money is. Why? Because anybody can promise anything, but you know what? You got to pay for it. I told you 75% of our budget is salaries, pension. and benefits. That leaves 25% to actually do stuff. You've just brought up a very important point. Most of the budget, most of the money that these cities spend, that taxpayers are paying for, is to pay people who no longer work at the city. Yes. Bottom line, am I wrong? They're

paying them to not work at the city anymore. I'm not saying that they didn't earn it. I'm not saying nobody has, I mean, there's, I don't think any private industry offers like real pensions in that form anymore. But my question is this. you're never going to solve that problem. It's an enbroglia, no pun intended. But what I'm seeing is that if you start cutting from the budget, it's not going to be from that 75% per se of pensions that you're obligated to pay out. It's going to wind up being from services that the current residents

and homeowners and business owners need in the city, right? I'm not saying there's not waste there. I'm just to give you an idea. Just to give you an idea. When I was a city manager, somebody handed me a piece of paper when we were looking at the budget, it had like eight names on them. And they were eight city of Miami employees who, in retirement, made over $250,000 a year. I'm in the wrong land of work.

I get it. It's two five zero. There's eight of them, at least. Okay. But what I'm saying is that through efficiencies, we won't know. Listen, think of all the garbage that the city page. But you can't. That's zero savings there.

All of those people. There's zero savings on those pensions. Absolutely. Absolutely. But once you do a forensic audit on everything, To include, by the way, the contracts for police and fire, let's take a look at those. I'm not saying that we're going to destroy anything, but what I'm saying is that we have not been faithful stewards of the taxpayer. Well, that's a fact.

And we need to just at least put a marker down and say, you know what? Why are we buying this? Who let this contract out? Who won the contract? Those are questions that I don't find those to be unreasonable questions because, Nobody has been able to come up with the right answer. Remember the famous $400 million bond for resiliency and portable housing? I remember.

Where is it? I asked that rhetorically, you know, I'm sure they're spending it somewhere. I know that they have plans to spend it. A lot of it has been unspent six, seven years later. Why? So, again, I think that my going in there, day one, I know what to look for. And I'm going to ask all those questions. and I'm going to say, hey, you know what?

Let's talk about this line item and that line item. And who let this RFP out? And what were the requirements? I know, by the way, who won? You know, businesses don't want to compete here anymore. Why? Guess what? They think this is a corrupt city,

and they know who already is going to win before they even let the RFP out. I think, by the way, not a good parody song for the show, Roy. Who let the RFP out? I don't think the street. I don't know with that. No. I don't know.

So I appreciate the specificity of day one, forensic audit. I don't know that I've heard those kinds of specifics from your opponent. Hang on. Should we ask any specifics on day one? Okay, never mind. So the other one that I feel very strongly about is what I call the death tax. Okay, I have a really nice house that I paid a very modest amount for. Because of the valuations in Miami-Dade County, my house is worth like 15 times what I paid for it. People in Miami cannot afford to live in the homes they built. Correct. With their own hands. So the day I passed, my daughter won't be able to inherit my house.

Why? Because the valuation on that house will be so high that real estate taxes will go from about the $6,000 that I pay. You would have been grandfathered in and she will not be. So in my point is... She'll be forced to sell. And move and, you know, my house will... Because even with all that money, she won't be able to afford to live in Miami.

She'll have to move to Arkansas, you know? So, not that there's anything wrong with Arkansas. So, you know, that's a state issue. Show about that? I don't know about that. Would you accept the endorsement of the governor of Arkansas? I don't know the governor of Arkansas. I bet you would, actually.

It's Sarah Huckabee. Sanders. She got married. Sarah Huckabee, she got married. Sarah Huckabee Sanders. She married the colonel? Holland? Who let the RFP out?

Roy! So, again, by the way, this is a state issue. There's got to be a formula. There's got to be a way where, There's a portability, if you will, so that I can leave my house to my daughter. You can leave your house to your kids and not have them forced to sell because the real estate taxes went from $6,000 to $90,000, which, by the way, nobody in the city makes $90,000, basically. You can't find a house here for less than half a million dollars. And if you do buy it quickly, because it won't be on the market long.

So, again, these are the big issues. Another one, and told me when you want me to stop, listen, as mayor, I'm entitled to health insurance, which, by the way, I never accepted when I was a manager because I didn't need it. But why couldn't the rest of the city of Miami residents be eligible for the same health insurance that their mayor and commissioners are entitled to? We're not going to pay for it. We'll make them eligible. They can then negotiate with whatever provider. I think it's only fair.

You know, these are the things that I think, by the way, I think the number of uninsured residents of the city of Miami is about 16% of our residents are completely uninsured. It sounds terrible. Is that unusually high for a major city? I think it's high. It's not unusually high, but it's high. And by the way, if you have a great insurance, keep it. I kept mine. So these are things that we want to do.

Is that just, if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor? Was that what? No, no, no, no. No, no. By the way, President Obama will not be in charge of this program. Let's just put it that way. Will President Trump? But again, listen, another issue, child care and elder care.

You have working families that have to decide whether to stay home and take care of the kids or work because it costs like $14,000, $15,000 a child. Just don't leave the children in the car. It's too hot. Yeah, in the summer. More like by the pool. No, by the way, that's why we have a county heat officer to tell us. is these things. Thank God. Christian, what do you think?

Christian Oliver. All right, nothing. So you've got childcare, elder care. I mean, all of these things are things that we should consider as... And the city could help provide or subsidize or... That's why I use the tagline families first. Let's help our residents first. Let's not so much concentrate on the guy that pays $30 million for a penhouse.

I don't want to say it's socialism, Emilio. It sounds like, it sounds like socialism. Now, listen, you and I could say, like, the measure of a functioning society, particularly a wealthy society, is how you take care of the people who are less fortunate or are in sick or infirm, your children, your elderly. And certainly, it's helpful for the economy, I would argue, to have child care and elder care opportunities because it gets people out, as you said, out into the workforce and involved in the economy.

By the way, the city of Miami. Riding the metro rail with Eileen Higgins. Just to give you an example, the first week after so, I became the city manager. I was informed that the city operates three child care centers. I had no clue. Did you know that? No. The city operates three.

They're city employees. I went to visit all three of them. And I'm like, wow, these people are doing wonderful work. Now, mind you. Seems like a great idea. But coming from a guy that I'm thinking, you know, there are some things that the city should do and some that they don't. But, you know, child care is probably not one of them. completely convinced otherwise.

Not only did I agree with it, I went back and asked the directors, I said, what do you need for me? And they said, I need one, two, three, I need money, I need this, I got to hire more, done, okay? So we're already doing that. We are already doing that.

We already do that. So why can't we expand that fan a little bit, especially if it helps our working people. It gets the city moving. It doesn't. It's a heartbeat of the city, like you said. I mean, like when you have to take care of an elderly family member,

you have to take care of children, everything stops. Productivity stops, your life stops, everything. Here's another one. Permitting, which we all hate. Ah, it seems fine. Yeah. It affects everything, right? So why can't we, by the way, I've already said day one,

I'm going to put together a permitting task force that will report back in 30 days, best practices. How about just a Molotov cocktail? No, no. Just mix me a Molot on. I'm convinced. I've said publicly, I said, you know, if we blow up the permitting department and take a step back, let's see what works best. No permitting or what we have now. But let me give you an example.

You've got a single family home in Shenandoah, and all of a sudden... I wish I did. And what you did? Okay. And you need to take care of abuela, right? Because she's getting old and infirm. You want to put an addition on your house. If you've got a contractor, if you've got an architect, if you've got an engineer, and they're all licensed and bonded. in the state of Florida. Why does the city of Miami have to show up at your house and inspect it 47 times? At that point, the city should just be the repository of the plans. Build Auela's house. Take care of Awela. Let's get small businesses moving. If you don't get a permit in say 120 days, consider it approved. These are the bold things that are going to make people take notice

that we live in a 2025 city that's organized as a 1975. city, and that's got to stop. One touchdown can change everything, the crowd, the momentum, the entire game. It never gets hold. Feel the same rush with Drafking Sportsbook and official sports betting partner of the NFL. And Missouri listeners listen up, the Show Me State, baby. Draft King Sportsbook is now live in the show me state. New customers download the Draft King's sportsbook app and use code Dan.

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Outside the country. And I'm going to ask it in the context of the 287G agreement, which is a partnership program of ICE and local law enforcement agencies, of which city of Miami and the city of Miami police department has one. I was at that meeting. It was one of the most attended meetings, if not the highest attended meeting at public comment that I've ever seen, let alone attended. And it was, it was really, really powerful because this was not a bunch of latte drinking, liberal, East Coast elitist, white activists. This was an immigrant community coming forward, despondent, broken in many ways, sharing the most powerful and distressing stories of sacrificing. everything separating from their families, traversing shark-infested waters, risking their lives, people who had lost family in the journey and the risk to experience freedom and the American

dream here in Miami. They were begging. They were pleading. It was really powerful. And it really affected me in ways that I didn't realize that it would, sitting there and hearing these people. I don't know if you've watched any of it, but it's really well worth a a watch just to see how people feel about this and how it experiences their lives. What do you say to those people who would be your constituents who are scared in their own homes, in their own country, in their own community because they feel that their police department is colluding with ice to send them away maybe to a country that they weren't born in, that they've never seen, that maybe they were born into, but don't even remember

because they were single digits when their parents put them on an airplane. with a Catholic priest in Pedro Pan and sent them to this strange country which became the only home they ever knew. It was powerful shit, dude. And it was hard not to be really moved by it and to really put a face and a name and stories onto these things that we sometimes think of

as being very archaic. What do you say to those people to reassure them? Billy, I spent two years as a federal immigration director and it is probably the best job I ever had. And I got to tell you, for me, personally as an immigrant, to be able to establish immigration policy, carry it out, be able to help people, that was powerfully moving in itself. I used to get mail, you know, I don't like people reading my mail. So whenever somebody would write a letter to Director de la Migra, the letter would make its way to my desk in stubby little pencil. And I would read every single one. And every one of them was a heartbreak. I had to call parents whose kids were killed in combat. but they weren't citizens yet i had i naturalized over 150 soldiers that died in battle but that were not u.s citizens i by the way the immigration director has the power to posthumously naturalize

those people so the idea that that you would have a mayor that that is uncaring i think is is is a fallacy i i am the immigration director who's going to be the mayor of the city of miami immigration director who will be mayor of the city with the largest immigrant population. I will flip the argument on its head. I know where to go. I know who to talk to. I've already said publicly that one of the first hires that I'm going to make is I'm going to create an immigration services coordinator for the city of Miami. All big cities do. New York City has an immigration commissioner. We should have the same. And we should have a clearinghouse for people who are distressed, who have a problem, who may be their attorneys, or it's turned on them. People might be

be scared to reach out to that office or come to that office. But that's because me as the immigration director, former immigration director is the mayor. I'm going to be there to tell him, you know what, I'm here for you. I know who to call. I know who to go see in Washington if somebody crosses the line. The 287G program is very controversial. I believe the city of Miami is limited to three officers and they're kind of on call. To my knowledge, they're not always assigned to DHS. And again, I will always, always advocate for my community for my immigrant community, but I'm never going to ever advocate what other mayors in large cities do, which is you got a thief, a thug, a rapist, a murderer. Oh, no, let's put

them back on the street because I don't want to give this person to ice. No, that's never going to happen. And it happens now, by the way. And it happens now. So before we go, you've already said that day one you're going to do a forensic audit. I imagine you're going to, you said it on CBS, that you're going to be replacing the city matter. You're going to be hiring a new city manager, obviously, with the consultation, I suppose, of the commission. What other day one, when I say day one, that could be week one, it could be month one. What are some of the initial, you know, top line things that you are, that would make things different, that would let people know that's a new era in Miami. I want a forensic audit.

I'm going to pick a new city manager within the week. I want to create an immediate task force on permitting, an immediate task force on procurement. I want to publish a Citizens Bill of Rights, which does exist in every city agency so that residents, when they go in, they know what their rights are. They know that their rights can't be trampled. I've already said that I'm going to chair the commission. And not only am I going to chair the commission, I'm going to let anybody speak about anything they want, not. Hey, if it's not on the agenda, be quiet and go home. No, you want a minute to talk about something that's not on you and knock yourself out.

That's what a representative democracy stands for, and that's not what we've had in the past. By the way, I want to have Saturday meetings. In fact, I'm thinking my first meeting will be on a Saturday just to break the mold. People can show up. Right now they have to juggle. Do I go to the meeting? Do I go to work? Am I going to get fired?

Sometimes you show up at a meeting and then they cancel the meeting or they don't want to hear your item or that's deferred when you any number of things so again i want to do things differently and the other thing is as as as you've heard me say in spanish saca world relajo you know the idea that you can get away with just about anything and you're okay you'll still have a job no just because it's not criminal doesn't mean i won't fire you okay it doesn't if it if you are behaving in a way that is unprofessional, if you are abusing a resident, if you are taking advantage of your position, even if it's not criminal, you're gone, period. And I think you have to put a marker down. And I look forward to firing that first person, because I'm serious. You've got

to be able to, you have people have to be able to say, wow, this guy fired Billy. Shit, he's serious. And that's the only way you can get people's attention to all of the stuff. And And then we just start chopping away at everything that ails our residents. But I've got to tell you, walking the streets of the city, they all tell me the same thing. The city's corrupt. The city's broken. The city's this. I don't trust my commissioners.

They're in it for everybody up there. Is that top three? What's top three of like when you're knocking on doors? You're talking to a million people, right? Or thousands anyway. What are they, what are top three things? By far. By far.

corruption and governability. They all, listen, Miami residents will tolerate everything just about. But they won't tolerate the fact that. They've had no choice. They have to. But somebody tried to steal their election. That they won't tolerate and that they remember.

So when I talk to people, they're like, no, the delinquentes, they all got to go. They all got to go. No, no, you got to lock them all up. I'm talking old ladies to young couples. Uh-uh. This is unacceptable. No. And then after that, you get the cost of living, the issue with taxes.

the issue with housing, all of those things will fall in. I've had several people tell me, you know what? Just put them all in jail. And then when you do that, come back and talk to me about the homestead exemption tax. I know I've said before we go a whole bunch of times, but I did want to mention this because you've been consistent on this issue of elections and restoring democracy. And I saw your statement on the appointment of Vicki Lopez, which we haven't talked about on this show yet, but I intend to talk about it.

It was a similar heist. It was a hijacking of democracy. And I appreciated that you posted about this because it was a nonpartisan position on a nonpartisan seat. But Vicki Lopez is very prominently in addition to being a convicted felon whose sentence was commuted by Bill Clinton is a Republican. I'm sure those things are unrelated. But you said that's not how this should go. And if I'm not mistaken, Eileen Higgins was a party to whatever scheme, whatever backdoor deal they did to anoint this one. woman. Well, let's back up one. If Ms. Higgins had resigned her office the day she announced for

mayor, we would have had an election this past November. On the same ballot that she was on, that she qualified for us. And we would have had, we would have had a new commissioner. That seems like that should be the law, dude. You would think. But, and then you have people that were going up before the commission and saying, hey, you know, let's have an election. I want to run. And they didn't. I try to be consistent. You know, if, if I'm going to take the city of court for not having an election, I can't in good conscience say, hey, you know what, it's okay if you don't have an election over here. You've got to be consistent. And they did what they did. Fine. I'm sure there'll be an election, what probably in the next six

months or so. Again, a special election brought on because one of the commissioners decided to hang on tooth and nail until the very last day so that we couldn't have an election in November. I want to show you this headline, political cortadito. It says a GOP hugger, that's you, by the way, versus a developer's darling. Miami's mayoral race just got to fine. We talked about your MAGA credentials and your esteemed list of endorsements. But this was incredibly compelling about Eileen Higgins because we could talk about your donors,

but that list was a little, and that fundraiser that they talk about there kind of made my stomach turn. because I was like, oh, it's just the usual suspects. It's like business as usual in the city. You know, I read that article, and listen, I am who I am. And I'm also, you know, you may say I'm a, you know, everybody wants to put the MAGA labor on me, right? Hey, this guy's a MAGA mayor. I don't even own a MAGA hat. Let's put it that way.

But I'm also a candidate, regardless of the party, I'm also a candidate that has an environmental policy, that has a governability policy, that has a family for elders and children, that has a property tax policy, that has an open government policy, that has a no tolerance for crookedness policy, that's who I am. And that's something that escaped her article, by the way. And I also hear that people, by the way, in my backyard, you know, NIMBY, there is a humongous building going up in my backyard. I've actually named the crane who wakes me up at 8 o'clock every morning. The crane's name is Henry.

And from one day to another, this monstrosity of a building is not only going up, but it's going down. They're digging down just as much as they are building up. So it's not that I'm against development, but let's do it in a smart way. Let's think about it. Well, how does this going to affect traffic? How is it going to affect flooding? How is it going to affect a school system? That's something people don't, you know, you build all these guys.

Thank God, Billy, that these are all part-timers. Because if they all moved in with their three kids, one, we wouldn't. be able to walk down the street you won't be able to flush the toilet again and so yeah and and their kid the kids can't go anywhere to school but what about eileen higgins list of sponsors concerns you or should concern residents it's your concern everybody because um you know this whole business of her facilitating um permitting you know it's you can facilitate a permit to build a 12-story building but a small shop owner can't open it up um we're going to concrete the city we're going to concrete the city. Everybody knows. She's the developer's diva. If you know you, if you're a

developer and you got an issue, you know who to go to. And whatever the amount is, you know who to go to. If that's what she's want to be famous for, fine. She should, she should own it. My issue is, let's talk about the families. Let's talk about corruption. Let's talk about flooding. Let's talk about the environment. Let's talk about the tree canopy. Those are things that aren't partisan. Okay. And oh, by the way, there's no money in tree canopies. You do it because it's our city and I want my daughters and my grandson to grow up in a nice city. My family lives here. They're going to live here forever. So there's nothing wrong, quite frankly, with being, as they call me, a Republican that actually cares, as opposed to being a Democrat that doesn't care, admittedly. I'm still

waiting to see what it is she stands for. Well, I want to give her, Christian Overt, representing Eileen Higgins, the last word. And that about wraps it up. So, Emilio Gonzalez, thank you for responding. Thank you for showing up. Thank you for being here and answering the questions. Still waiting to hear back from your girl, Eileen. My girl.

What's up? What's up with that? You're in bridges, Billy. Like, there's no way she's going to contact you because there's a print bridge. Sorry. I don't know about that. We could build a new bridge. It could be a billion-dollar blackwood.

Widow Spider Bridge. Do you realize the infrastructure in the city? Well, are you going to let Donald Trump build a casino across the street here? That's what I want to know. Are you going to give that permit out? Do you want a casino? I do, actually. I really do.

Don't tell anybody that. But I really do want a casino. I really do. I'll tell you what. If we had one, I wouldn't have to fly to Vegas. Listen, I've been telling everybody, you know, they couldn't do it at the Fountain Blue. Genting couldn't even do it. I'm like, if anybody can get a casino.

In Miami, it's going to be Donald Trump. And I'm here for, I'll be first online in the blackjack tables. I can't wait. Emilio Gonzalez, thanks for being here. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. You know, Roy, as we wind down the year and the mayor's race happens next week and these last couple of episodes, we're going to be saying goodbye to a whole cast of characters.

It really feels like a grand finale. Obviously, as you know, there'll be no more Joe Corroyo. We'll have a more formal goodbye to him next week. But as I sort of go through the memories of the years, I'm reminded of this Miami moment from a Miami City Commission meeting almost two years ago now, in which Frank Pichelle, who is a former Miami cop from way back in the day, who later became a mayoral candidate, and also been arrested a handful of times as well.

You know why? Hashtag. Because Miami. Frank Bichelle showed up to a public comment at a commission meeting a couple of years ago and just went ahead and threw out that Miami Mayor Francis Suarez had allegedly been institutionalized in a mental hospital because he's wacko. That is a direct quote. And then nobody ever said anything about it. or talked about it ever again or followed up about it.

You know why? Hashtag because my name. Cocaine's. Between you and Francissi has spent over $25 million of our taxpayers' money, embezzlement, to protect Joe from all the lawsuits. And Francissi, so he can travel the world to make himself presidential, to run for president, that idiot that I've known since he was eight years old. I know that he was institutionalized in a mental hospital because he was.

wacko still is why do we have to pay for this now i'm suing everybody