The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - #BecauseMiami: Pardon My Trump

Episode Date: August 18, 2023

Immigration activist Tomas Kennedy joins Billy Corben this week and they both have a very contentious interview with Miami Beach mayor Dan Gelber. Gelber wrote an opinion piece in the Miami Herald saying Joe Biden should pardon Donald Trump if he is convicted of any of his 90+ charges. Plus, we have former Florida state attorney Andrew Warren to talk about his efforts to get his job back after Ron DeSantis wrongfully dismissed him from his post. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Your listening to Giraffe King's Network. This week, former president Donald Elizabeth Trump was charged with 13 additional felonies in Georgia, bringing the grand total to over 90, like about 91. I think it's 91. Felony charges in four criminal cases, in four different jurisdictions. The charges include violations of the espionage act, stealing nuclear secrets, violating, Georgia's racketeering influence in corrupt organizations or RICO Act, and conspiracy to defraud the United States in an attempt to overthrow the government,

effectively normalizing violence against American institutions, and our democracy itself. Meanwhile, in Florida, where Democrats never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity, Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber, a Democrat, himself a former Florida state representative, a former Florida state senator, a former assistant U.S. attorney who for nearly a decade helped prosecute public corruption cases. Did I mention he's a Democrat? He wrote an op-ed in the Miami Herald, the headline of which reads, for the good of the country, President Biden should pardon Donald Trump.

Yeah, you can kiss my ass. Oh, that's a cart, if ever there was one. Our guest co-host today, and because Miami is immigration activist, Tomas Kennedy, Tomas, what do you make of this? I want to tell the viewers, if you're in Miami Beach and you see that Dan Galver name with the D next to it on the ballot, don't be fooled. That D doesn't really stand for Democrat.

It actually stands for the ballot but based on his actions. You know, I just think it's just ridiculous, you know, in this country where we all know, common sense people know, we have a two tier criminal justice system that lets the powerful, the rich, the politically connected, get away with pretty much everything and we see that lets the powerful, the rich, the politically connected, get away with pretty much everything, and we see it in the city all the time.

You talk about it all the time. You have the mayor of a failing city trying to get protagonism out of it, writing this ridiculous op-ed, you know, and where he acknowledges that Donald Trump did it and his guilty of the crimes, but because of some Minsk and Strude nonsense argument about healing the country says that we should let him get away with it, it's insane. And now let's hear what Mayor Galber has to say about this op-ed.

Mayor, thank you for joining us. I've read it several times in the interest of expediting things. I believe your position boils down to by the should pardon trump because a trial potential conviction in sentencing would exacerbate divisions in the country is that essentially your thesis that's not unfair uh... there's more to it but i i think you you were fair in that explanation

okay what more to it is there then i would say there's less to it but well i mean listen i think that uh... whether you pardon him now whether you let it go a little bit i i think you're right though i at least you're right about what my view is because i don't think there's a question about whether he's guilty i think it's pretty clear from what he has said publicly in what in the details of the indictment said he he did what the indictment say he did and

it's not a question whether the crimes are serious. They clearly are. For me, the question is, well, two or three or four years of motions and trials, heal our nation or make us more divided. Well, the alleged crimes are not simply serious. They are among the most serious crimes. I think you could possibly charge in the history

of the country, particularly for a former commander in chief. But I'm curious, is this just like a heckler's veto here that we just grant, we let 30% of one political party basically threaten and intimidate their way out of legal accountability here. If you have a big enough cult following, you're off the hook. Look, that's a very fair argument. And I think people will have that lens. A lot of people, probably my daughters, have the lens that you have on this as they've told

me, but I think there's a whole other lens, which is a practical one. And I think it's a serious one, by the way. You know, I used to think that the greatest threat to a democracy, our democracy, was al Qaeda or a nuclear suitcase or Russia or something like that. And now I think it is our divisions. I've been talking about this for years now because they've only seemed to be getting worse. It doesn't seem like, as I said in the article, a pendulum coming back.

It feels a lot like a vortex. And obviously Trump has used a lot of those divisions to foster them, as foam-at-the-them. And to me, the only question is whether this two or three years of Trump trials and Trump's sentencing or Trump motions will move us to a better place or whether it will simply exacerbate these divisions, which I think are both serious and potentially fatal to our country.

So for me, you may be right. Billy, you may be right that we, the best way to put Trump behind us is to put him in jail for 20 years. But, but isn't, but isn't at least to give him the, you've already said he's guilty. Now, I don't even know that that's true. I think he's entitled to his day. So, I think he's entitled to his, to his day in court. I also think that we're entitled Democrats and Republicans alike to our day in court.

To paraphrase Nixon, shouldn't we know if our president is a crook? Isn't that the criminal justice system that we have in this country? Great point, but I would just say this, you know, first of all, not all the indictments are very, I mean, the Manhattan, I think we would agree, is not like the others in any way. But the others are very serious. And certainly the Fulton County one, as well, you know, wouldn't even apply because obviously a President Biden can't pardon for that. Right. But I don't really see this as a close question of whether he did

or not. Most of this stuff has been public. I mean, we sat through an impeachment hearing, and we watched and listened to it all. And by the way, the federal trials won't even get to watch it or hear it because obviously in federal court, you don't have to. You brought up, you brought up the impeachment trial. In the second trial, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell voted to not convict Trump. And he said, quote, impeachment was never meant to be the final forum for American justice.

We have a criminal justice system in this country. We have civil litigation and former presidents are not immune from being held accountable by either one. So McConnell says the political world isn't where to handle this. It should be handled in the criminal justice world. You're saying it shouldn't be handled in the criminal justice world. It should be handled in the political world. So there's no institution that can hold a man responsible for 91 felonies in this country. You're gonna say something, Bill, you know. This is a very unique, let me ask you a question. Please. Do you think, and by the way, I'm not trying to convince you

you're wrong because I'm not so committed to my position that I think, you know, that I'm absolutely right, but I think that anyone on the other side shouldn't be so committed either. What do you think will happen in two to three years of trials and sentencing's if they happen to retryls and motions. Do you think this is going to exacerbate divisions in our country? Or do you think they're going to heal them? The first thing I would say is that I think a pardon

You know, he's not going to follow Burtick V US that like the acceptance of a presidential pardon is tantamount to an admission of guilt Which is what really President Ford relied upon when he pardoned Nixon. Trump is not, nor is he going to be grateful, nor is he going to say, okay, I admitted I was guilty, he's going to seek revenge. He's going to see this was a witch. You know, it will involve in him.

You know what the problem is here at mayor, you know what the problem is here, this is all speculation and Politicking and punditry and positioning at the end of the day what we deserve is justice beyond The possibility of healing or not healing because we can make the argument either way But what we need is accountability and justice against a man that has gotten away with breaking the law his whole life And it's so entitled and things that he can get away with it that he attested to our democracy and I'll say I come from a country Argentina where we had a military dictatorship that disappeared people and I'm proud to say on like a lot of other

Latin American countries we actually put a lot of those military junta leaders on trial and they ended up dying in jail or on trial and if we don't do this now if we did what we did with Richard Nixon, which is partening criminality and on democratic behavior and corruption, they will keep doing it and they will keep doing it and they will keep doing it until the problem exacerbates and we don't have a democracy anymore. Well, Mr. Mayor, if we, if we, if we, at the risk of,

at the risk of, at the risk of following up your question with a question, another circus trial and a mess that will further divide the country is the prosecution of Hunter Biden. Should President Biden pardon his son Hunter Biden? I don't think any sane Republican or Democrat would suggest such a thing. So let's go down the Dan Gilbert slippery slope here. Okay. Who else is covered?

Who else is covered by your second? I think, okay, I think, I think, I think, I think, I think, I think, I think, I think, I think, D day will only further exacerbate the war, Mr. Mayor, but do we not pursue justice? Do we not do the right thing? I think the risks of not pursuing this, the risks of following a terrible precedent, the Nixon precedent, by the way, which you mentioned in your, in your tweet, if you're bringing the tweet up, I think doesn't even apply here because in that case, first and foremost, Nixon resigned into disgrace. Second, he had no intention of ever running for office again.

And finally, the Republican party of that era, to their credit, he would never win a primary. He would never win that nomination. Like question is, who else is covered by the Gilbert Second Justice system that you're proposing? This hecklers veto immunity. Who else do you pardon? What if unindicted co-conspirators in the federal cases get indicted? Do pardon Giuliani?

How about the proud boys and oath keepers who are already convicted of seditious conspiracy against the United States who are incited by President Trump. They didn't act alone. We watched that happen on television. You can't get and imprison everyone else for conspiracy against this country except the man at the top. I get the point. Want me to respond? Please.

Look, obviously Trump stands apart as unique. He does. In the fact that he has really in many ways become one of the greatest dividers in our country. But I still go back to my initial lens because a lot of the points you make are good points. And by the way, I frankly have thought them myself over the years and you know, maybe the best thing for us to do is to prosecute him every way we can because that's the best thing for the country. But I think there has to be another look at this because nobody has answered the question sufficiently to me. Do you think that two to three years of this spectacle we will leave our country oh I did mayor I did more or less I did answers. It doesn't matter because justice is more important.

The law is important because by the way, in a lot of other countries, to me, less mature democracies, the notion of the ruling party prosecuting the opposition leaders is something that's well known and frankly sort of perilous. I'm sorry, but yes, but Brazil, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm talking about that. Brazil, Brazil, France, Israel, South Korea, former leaders of these democratic nations had been put on trial and imprisoned. So while it may be unprecedented in the United States, and whose fault is that?

The Republicans' fault, it's Gerald Ford's fault. That's not true in mature democracies, to counter what you put in your, in your opinion. But it's also pretty common in, in much less mature democracies to counter what you put in your in your op-up. But it's also pretty common in much less mature democracies. And by the way, I still look, I wrote this because I've been writing things like this for some time. I've been asking to open up primaries because I think the country is too divided. I'd like to.

I agree on that. But at some point, we really have to look at this because if you play this forward, if you treat it, if you really just play it forward, like it's a play, what do you think is going to happen? And I don't know what's going to happen, by the way. Obviously, you're right. There's a lot of wondering and just thinking out loud,

what could happen, but I think what really could happen is that we could end up spending two or three years focused entirely on simply this spectacle that repeatedly just continues to entrench our divides, increase our divides, and it is different than Watergate, 100%. But by the way, Watergate was a different time. We didn't have the fake news. We had Walter Cronkite. Everybody believed him. We didn't have all these algorithms telling us what we wanted to hear. What's happening in our country right now, I think we would all agree, is incredibly concerning to anyone who thinks that this is a good country, because right now I've never

seen anything like this. Now, I was a teenager in the Watergate era. So I remember it. I was teenager and I was a young kid in Vietnam, you know, in the aftermath of it. But this is I've never seen our country not simply so divided, but so apparently in a trajectory where those divisions will only be entrenched and will be furthered. And so the only lens I had with this article and with this point is, at what point do we say, this path is going to just make things worse? I understand that there's a rule of law to be vindicated.

Look, I was a corruption, federal prosecutor, I was an associate independent counsel. So I've been on the other side. I ran the US Senate's Investigations Committee, so I've been involved in these public kind of hearings. But none of those other things compare to the state of our nation right now. And what's next?

And I've felt it. But whose fault is that? And what if Trump is a quick... If it's their fault, Billy, well, then they're going to get whatever happens that know, whatever happens, it's on them. I don't want to be the president of the, I told you so club. I want to try to figure out what is the best route and what will help our country heal or at least not as devide the thing is that I don't know the answer, but I'm sure.

But this is a man who is, this is a man who is the leader of the Republican party who has explicitly stated in writing that he believes he can suspend the constitution weeks before the twenty twenty election he called on his attorney general via tweet to arrest his political opponent and his family you have to have a spine to stand up to this kind of lawlessness yeah can i say something law shocking behavior without a question but again so isn't the ultimate division here is the ultimate isn't the clear and present danger that he's running for president again? And we might have a this command or beyond that. Beyond that.

By the way, Mayor, we have millions of Americans that suffer on just treatment under a two-tier criminal justice system. What kind of message are we sending to these people when this guy who you acknowledge on your op-ed is guilty of what he committed and has been committing fraud and illegality for decades, we just say 30% of the country might storm federal buildings if we don't indict them. They're gonna do it anyway. They're gonna do it anyway. Billy, what you just said is a very fair response, which is, well, if I thought that it was going to happen anyway, no matter what, I would say, well, we might as well

take the route you're suggesting, which is prosking with the full extent of the law and let him sit in a gulag for decades. But if there's a chance that some action can tamp down those divides or at least not exacerbate them, I just think it's worth looking at. This is not a crazy point, okay? Even though I've gotten, even my own children have given me a hard time about it. It's not, I think it's worth thinking about because I don't know why all of us aren't thinking about the one thing that's most important because it's very easy to say all the terrible things you didn't,

how there needs to be a vindication of justice. That's easy to say. But the point is, we're here right now at this point. You prosecute public corruption cases. You know it's not easy to make a public corruption case. It's not even easy to sell one through with the DOJ or the US attorneys who never prosecutes legitimate public corruption cases and hasn't prosecuted police officer for an under the killing in 30 years in office for crying out loud. So

I just don't understand. Don't. All right. I do. I do want to get you know, you're not a rabbit hole right there. Come back. Please come back and let's talk about this. Well, here's my question. What happens when there is a super seating indictment? Jack Smith is continuing to investigate. What happens if he finds that the missing Iran attack documents were shared or sold as has been theorized with the Saudis? What would you give them a free pass for that too? I'm wondering where your slippery slope leads us. Look, I don't really view it as a slippery slope.

I don't. Because you're applying it to things I'm really, but I think Trump stands aside. It's very unique. I think the federal government trying the opposition leader is something that has some peril to it. But I think, and I don't disagree that what he did was horrible. I think, on the documents case, it felt like he wanted to get indicted because he all he had to do was turn him over. And he just refused to do that. So obviously, this is somebody who has done nothing but create disorder, disrepute, and obviously committed crimes. But that's not the point I'm making

as we stand here today with knowing what's behind us and knowing what could be in front of us. Do we think two to three years of these sort of public spectacle prosecutions? Maybe a good thing, but will they be all possibly abatting because at the end of the day, we're gonna be a country that will never have the ability to be anything other than divided and entrenched.

Will this be so fracturing to us that it just not gonna matter? And I don't think that saying, well, it'll be their fault if that happens, is an answer because from my point of view, it doesn't really matter who's fault. It is I when I was the Democratic leader in the state legislature I used to always say I don't want to be the president of the I told you so I prosecutor a prosecutor who who believes it doesn't matter whose fault

It was a man who has been accused of stealing top secret nuclear secrets and war plans and refuse to return them I confess to I confess that all those things you're saying, I don't disagree with them, but I get back to my point and I really don't think you guys have answered, which is, do you think the next two or three years will make us better? Worse or the same? I have. I know, I have. I think from an international and an international standpoint, it is important

that the United States of America stands up for the rule of law, says that no one is above the law and holds everyone accountable for serious potential crimes against the United States of America. And this op-ed should be to you what the Munich Agreement was, the Neville Chamberlain. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for joining us. Thanks, thanks, Bill. Thank you Mr. Mayor for joining us. Thanks thanks though. Thank you guys. Bye bye. Gentlemen, what the fuck was that? I'm not sure. It's so rare that we get elected officials on this show.

It was exciting to have that opportunity, particularly to have Mayor Gilbert on to defend that absolutely. Apparently, according to him, indefensible, up at all I heard him say was, you guys are right, you make a good point. Don't mind me, the up at! My daughters agree with you. So that's my question. Okay, so Gilbert is here. I guess, as we didn't answer the question

that we totally answered. I totally understand that. And so Gilbert is nearing the end of his third and final term as Miami Beach mayor. Nobody would say that Miami Beach is better off now than we were six years ago. Why did he do this? Is this just like just a desperate, like, grasp at relevance?

He's gonna, Florida Democrats, who, as I said, never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity or always grasping for, like, oh, maybe moderation. Maybe I can hold this op-ed op as something that helps me run for statewide office because he's run for Attorney General of the State before Attorney General, that would not prosecute public corruption apparently.

That's, I mean, I don't know. He might really believe this bullshit, but I think he probably wants to run statewide and he's to go to like Liberty County and be like, hey, you know, I'm a moderate. I was the voice of reason. My thing is, look, Billy, it's like you said, Mommy Beach. Out of control rents. Out of control flooding.

Out of control towing companies. Out of control. Out of control corruption. Out of control developers. You know what I mean? Like, please, like enough of this, like, yeah, the job to do in Miami Beach, with respect mayor, like, please.

He's like, it's like the quintessential like social media meme. It's like nobody, Colin. You absolutely nobody, Colin, Dan Gelber. You go, Biden should pardon Trump. Who asked them? You go to Miami Beach, one at a three retail stores, or they're empty, they're closed.

Like, do it. I call Washington Avenue for lease boulevard, because that's what every sign on every block says for lease I want to stop talking about this guy I don't want to stop talking about Donald Trump because there's much more important fear and Florida men on the campaign trail I was right in the middle of a Somebody was giving booze to these goddamn things. I'm gonna keep hammering this issue of education and the Deconstruction or the destruction of public

school education in the state of Florida. I'm a product of the Miami-Dade County public school system. So you've never seen that. You got damn right, Meatball. But the situation is getting worse. Kids are going back to school this week and they are the victims here. They are the collateral damage in the woke wars, and Florida is the perpetual, you know, laboratory of democracy.

You know, the Florida of today is the America of tomorrow, and these kids now, kids, are the lab rats that are caught in the crossfire of this culture war, and it's absolutely deplorable. We talked a little bit about Prager U last week, which Ellie Mistyle brilliantly referred to as audio blackface, but it gets far worse because Prager U, with they probably advertises indoctrination, education for children, they have cartoons that the scripts are written by the fossil fuel and coal industries. And the talking points are absolute utter

climate change denialism. Here with record heat in Miami, you have crap like this. Onus parents are proud of her hard work. But when her anxiety gets high and she tells them that fossil fuels will soon lead to a climate disaster, they encourage her to consider how the planet has been warming and cooling since prehistoric times, long before carbon emissions were a factor.

Can she explain that? They ask her if everyone in Poland stops using coal. Will that lower Earth's temperature, especially when countries like China and India burn many times the amount of coal is Poland and are not cutting back. Unlike coal or fossil fuels, energy from wind or sun is unreliable, expensive, and difficult to store. Like so many people, Joseph used to believe that wind and solar energy would be obvious

answer. So, yes, fighting oppression always takes courage. I mean, holocaust exploitation, they compare climate change to communism in another part of the video. China and India don't do anything to save the earth so we shouldn't do anything either. Solar and wind don't work.

They talk about it because the batteries go dead and like it's not always windy and sunny out. So, dude, I just... This is a death cult. These people want to kill us all. Yeah, 97% of scientists agree on this and this is deliberate climate denialism, propaganda, grooming indoctrination in Florida.

In Florida. I mean, have you seen the Brian McCollumey? Whatever his name is in your wallet. Yeah, his Twitter feed is depressing every day's record breaking. We're f**king we're all gonna die and he's right. I mean, he is right. Oh, sorry. I did. I'm sorry. I did all three f**ks. Oh, oh, no. I did it. Damn it, Billy. Stop. Mother. All right. I'm sorry about that. We try to keep the BG. Sorry. The F's to see this is like the time Lutha Campbell was on local radio and set the inward three times in a row.

Well, you don't have like three, seven second delays. You're like 21 second delay. No, that's a fine. See, I did that math really quick. Yeah, yeah, impressive. That's great. So also, Tomas, my name is William, legally. I was born William. You're Tomas. Yeah, William, William, Co.

In Florida schools, if I wanted to be called Billy, instead of William, or my mother wanted to call me Billy instead of William, or you wanted to be called Tom. People call me Tommy. Or Tommy, your parents in Florida now have to sign a permission form to call you anything other than your, the name that is on your birth certificate. That'll fix a property insurance crisis.

Priorities, bro. You got them right, meatball. Unbelievable. Little Billy Corbin. I was a little late. I was a little late on that one. Sorry about that. But, and also, right here a little bit closer to home, the Miami-Dade County Public Schools,

they just banned a book. They quote unquote weeded it out. This is a book called Daddy's roommate. It was published in 1990. It's a children's book that the whole spirit of the thing could be summed up in this line. Being gay is just one more kind of love and love is the best kind of happiness.

And according to the Miami-Dade County Public Schools, it's been yanked from the libraries where they found it for, quote, adult content or sexually charged language. It's just ridiculous. People, gay people exist, trans people exist, it's just a reality. We need to teach that to children and the message is beautiful love is love no matter who you love even though they won't gay i wonder how they will feel about the tv show my two dads band band and band and and absolutely band for paul riser

well he's not going to get those residuals and they should go on strike you know i was actually i was actually reading a story they asked asked, Ron DeCentes, what would you do if your children turn out to be gay or trans? And he said, that's between my wife and I. What a disgusting. I mean, the correct answer is I love my children, no matter what.

Hey, all you homophobes and racists and anti-semites out there, we've got a complaint line for you to call. And man would be loved to hear from you. 786-505-9842. Pick up the phone right now. Leave us a voicemail. 786-505-9842.

Call now. And if you use the end, where we might let you on ear. Ha ha ha ha ha ha. Three times in a row though. It's like. That was ridiculous. Tick-tack-toe. We almost got fired everybody.

Tick-tack-toe. We almost got fired everybody. Last week Florida Governor Ron DeSantis removed the state attorney from Central Florida, the Orlando area, Monique War El from office for seemingly no reason other than that she was an elected Democrat in the state. DeSantis has removed at least, by my count, a dozen elected officials from office. Most of them, if not Democrats, from predominantly Democratic parts of the state.

It also seems to me that all the Republicans, he's removed from office, were actually charged with crimes, whereas a great many of the Democrats were in fact not in the case of the state attorney for Hillsborough County, which is the fourth largest county in Florida's population is in fact larger than 12 entire states in the US. Andrew Warren was reelected in 2020, beating his Republican opponent by nearly a seven-point margin. He was removed from office last year by Governor DeSantis, being accused of incompetence and elective duty, but the only example cited in the executive order, suspending Andrew Warren, was a letter that

he signed, along with dozens of prosecutors across the country pledging that he devoid prosecuting cases stemming from Florida's 15-week abortion ban and potential bans on gender affirming care. That quote, you refrain from using limited criminal legal system resources to criminalize personal medical decisions. End quote joining us now is the former state attorney, Andrew Warren, counselor. Thanks so much for joining us. Just this past June, the Florida Supreme Court rejected your effort to get your job back. All the justices who voted against you in this six one decision incidentally or not incidentally

were appointed by governor DeSantis, but he didn't exactly address the merits of your case, did they? No, they didn't. I mean, first things you're asking me on to talk about this. It's a really important issue, not just for Hillsborough County, but for democracy across the state of Florida. So as you said, the Florida Supreme Court dismissed our case without even addressing the merits. And the bigger point here is a federal judge

had previously said that what the governor did to me was illegal. Now that's not my opinion, that's a fact. A federal judge found that the suspension violated state and federal law that it hadn't done anything wrong, and that there was no legal basis to suspend me. The problem is it's been a year and I still remain out of office. U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkel, the back in January already, it's now nearly September, ruled that Governor DeSantis' suspension of U violated both the Florida Constitution and the United States Constitution. However, he said that he lacked the authority to reinstate you, thus not only disenfranchising you, but disenfranchising the hundreds of thousands of Floridians and tampons who voted for you in a free and fair democratic election.

What is the remedy now? If the governor was found to violate both the state and United States constitutions, now what? How is that allowed to stand? In terms of the case, I mean, we've appealed that decision because we believe that the judge was wrong in concluding that she didn't have the jurisdiction to reinstate me after finding that what the governor did was illegal. But when you say, what do we do about it?

Well, what we do about it is we have a governor who cares about the rule of law. And unfortunately, right now, in Florida, our governor, DeSantis, does who cares about the rule of law. And unfortunately, right now, in Florida, our governor, DeSantis, does not care about the rule of law. Period, full stop. I mean, he has violated the rights of the people whose rights he has sworn to uphold countless times. He's championed in past legislation that is unconstitutional.

Again, that's been found by courts to be unconstitutional. He has suspended elected officials. That's been found by courts to be unconstitutional. He has suspended elected officials. That's been found to be illegal. He's done so many things that just makes you wonder whether he even cares about the law or really just appears to care about it when it's convenient for his own political ambition. And we seem to hear a lot from particularly his political party. We hear people talking about the weaponization of government, autocracy, dictatorships, and they're talking about the Biden administration, the DOJ, Alvin Bragg, Fahni Willis. But I mean, could there be anything less democratic, more autocratic, more an example of the weaponization

of government than a governor who continuously removes elected officials from office. Not really, no. This is a direct attack on one of the most fundamental principles of America, which is that the voters decide who gets to serve in office. And it is, it's totally hypocritical to hear the governor and other Republicans across the country talk about some of these issues.

It's one thing to say I believe in the rule of law. I believe in the criminal justice process. I believe in our law enforcement. Then when law enforcement conducts an investigation and indict somebody through the grand jury process, then let's let the facts play out. Let's let these cases play out where people have been charged with crimes. And if you believe it's political,

then that will come out in the end, and they'll be acquitted. But for the governor to say that other people, or weaponizing the judicial process, where he has broken the law. And again, that's not my opinion. A fact as a judge found that he's broken the law to remove elected officials

like me from office. I don't know how he can stand there and say that he cares one damn about the rule of law in the state. You know, speaking of politics and things being political, a number of polls are finding that the synthesis campaign continues to plummet. He is behind in the polls, behind Rama Swami. He is behind in the polls, behind Ramaswami. He is behind in the polls with Chris Christie. How much do you think this stuff, the removal of elected officials like yourself and the removal

of Manikwarao, particularly in Orange County, is correlated to the governor's need for attention, particularly in right-wing media and just him trying to find any means to exert himself in the headlines and in this right-wing news channels. It's a great question. Look, I have a nine-year-old at home. And when she's upset about something that somebody else did, or she's not getting sufficient attention, she throws a tantrum.

Our governor has done the same. He's thrown unconstitutional tantrums to try to get attention, to resuscitate his floundering presidential campaign. And that's exactly what happened with State Attorney War RL. I mean, it's no coincidence that the day after he has to do his third or fourth reboot of his campaign and get a new campaign manager, they end up issuing this executive order. Does it track to your knowledge in the dozen or so elected officials that he's removed? It seems that the only Republicans he's removed is there's a much higher bar there.

They have to be criminally charged in order for him to finally do his job. He doesn't seem to find incompetence or neglect of duty even when it's flagrant with Republican elected officials. Well, because he's not looking for it, right? I mean, he's using this as a pretext to remove people that he doesn't like, or people who's policies he doesn't like, or people elected by voters he doesn't like. But this is not a fiefdom, this is not a dictatorship of Rhonda Santos. The last I check, this is still the state of Florida. And if it's supposed to be the free state of Florida, it certainly isn't free to the elected officials who have been removed, to the voters who have had their votes taken away, to the people who have had democracy stripped from them and the right to elect their

own officials. I mean, this is a huge problem for the state of Florida. When are we going to say enough is enough and stand up to this man who is clearly willing to violate the rule of law whenever it's politically convenient for him to do so. And to bring it full circle, the justification he used to remove you, duly elected official from office, it strikes me in the ongoing theme of hypocrisy here that your position in the signing of this pledge was an argument for conservatism It was an argument for small government. It was an argument that government and the criminal justice system should not get involved in people's private personal medical

Decisions is that to your knowledge the only excuse that he's given to remove you from office and what was your position in signing that pledge? Well the governor's given a lot of excuses, but all of them failed as the court found. So I signed, as you said, a letter that was really pushing back against the rushed to criminalize abortion after the DOBS decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. In Florida, we had the 15-week law that was passed, and that laws currently under a constitutional challenge. But this was a way for me to say, look, this is not the best use of prosecutorial resources. And there was a letter I signed about

pushing back on discrimination against transgender Americans saying we really don't want to use the criminal justice system and we shouldn't for policy reasons, be using the criminal justice system to prosecute people and discriminate against people based on their gender identity. And the governor said, oh, that's enough. We're going to remove you from office. That shows you're incompetent. Again, a court said that was ridiculous. They sort of left that out of court. But the problem is, I'm still out of a job. The job that I was elected to do by the 1.5 million

people here in Hillsborough County. Why are you still out of a job? Are you getting your job back? Well, we're fighting to get my job back. I mean, we've been fighting since day one of this suspension, which was 375 days ago now. We filed a suit in federal court. We've talked about that, how the judge sided with us, but said he couldn't reinstate me. Why can't they reinstate you? I mean, this is so blatantly legal, like it's crazy. Well, the short of it is that the judge said that he didn't have the power to reinstate me

and I should go to state court because he said that this was more of a state court issue than a federal court issue, even though there was a violation of both federal law and state law. But the problem with that is when one, we went into state court and the state judges said, we're not going to deal with this. But the other thing is, it doesn't just go to me in my position, right?

It's the idea that anytime someone has the rights violated if they have a constitutional right violated under the first amendment like I did Then there is an opinion recourse under federal law and so it's sort of strange for a judge to say while you're right on the law And this was illegal, but I can't do anything But again, that's why there's an appeal and I have faith in the judicial process that this will work out the nexus of your points about hypocrisy and about the allocation of limited resources as a prosecutor. We're hearing a lot from the former president's party, the Republican party about how Fannie Willis should be dedicating her limited resources to violent crime, right?

And to people who are, well, I was going to say racketeering and corrupt organizations, but I think that's exactly what she is doing. In the meantime, Councillor, I hope that you get some rest on your Ruth Bader Ginsburg pillows there, and hopefully you'll have dreams of justice. And I hope to have you back again soon. Thanks so much for being here. Thank you. Thank you very much. We get whoppers with bacon and barbecue sauce and our kitty porn. Oh God. Life-walled soup for being a Ponzi scheme An anti-immigrant bill. We have biometric technology 100,000 people moving out of Miami And 137 degree sand. Wow hot sand. All right, Roy. Let's spin the wheel

Alright Roy let's spin the wheel All right, it is officially landed on an anti-immigrant bill Wave for the sound please thank you sorry, and what what dumb luck that we have a Florida's we have an immigrant well, what is favorite favorite immigrant? This wasn't right at all. Dot, dot, dot, activist. Uh, activist and immigrant. Not a rigged riddle. Oh, no. It's not like we planned it or anything.

Tomas, there was an article in The Miami Hurled this week from Ariel in class about the legendary chain of Cuban restaurants called Columbia Restaurant in Tampa, Florida, the Florida of Florida. And this guy was forced to fire like 19 employees because of the new anti-immigrant bill that you have so passionately you've been on this program and all over the state of Florida protested against. Tell me about this story. This is so bizarre.

You know, I think it's an interesting story because it highlights some of the problems that this bill has caused mainly the worker shortages that are now acknowledged by Republican lawmakers who voted for this bill and are now begging immigrants to stay behind closed doors. And in this case, Republican businesses. Yes. Well, that's what actually pissed me off about this story because if you read it, the guy actually says, I'm a strong supporter of RondSantis and I continue to be, but I think now he's gone too far. And it perfectly illustrates the conservative right wing mentality

that it's like, I don't give a shit what happens to other people until it happens to me, until I have to fire the people that I have had in my restaurants, probably with minimal labor protections, paying them shit wages. Now I have to fire them and I can't get new employees and it's affecting my bottom line. All of a sudden, oh, he's gone too far. Right, I thought the anti-immigrant bill was for Democrats, not for Republican business owners. It reminds me of the famous meme, I never thought leopards would eat my face, says man who voted for leopards eating people's faces party

Exactly Roy spin the wheel Oh It went on a kitty porn oh That sound effect follow. Yeah, it follows everything that we do on this show. Oh, man, well, turns out Miami mayor Francis Suarez is communications director, remember Renee Pedrosa. This week, he was sentenced to six years in federal prison for child porn after he lured a teen boy to city hall.

And then he gropeed him in the mayor's conference room. The city paid the boy $100,000 settlement and taxpayer money to basically cover it up. But the guy is now going to be a registered sex offender and Francis were as literally turned city hall into a crime scene. If you put garbage in, you're going to get garbage out. We're in there, Dan Gilbert thinks we should pardon him too to heal the division. That city of Miami. You have to heal these divisions.

These divisions are spreading fast and wide. Also, Francis, where are our gift cards? Don't need a dollar. You don't need a dollar just to see if I would get a gift card. Francis, where is his desperate, his lottery masquerading as a presidential campaign? Yeah, there's this lottery that he's running. You, so you could buy he's complaining about by

nomics and how everything's more expensive in america and yet he was selling twenty dollar visa gift cards for a one dollar donation to his campaign that you made i i wanted to see if i would get a gift card because so many people online are complaining about it i haven't got my gift card a lot of people having gotten got in the gift cards. Where are our gift cards? You gave them a dollar. I get unfortunately. It doesn't equal the amount that's on the card. I'm supposed to get 19 back, it's a good one. Right, it's out of the deal, baby. By the way, thanks by nobics,

because if you can, everything's not more expensive. If you can buy a $20 visa gift card for a buck. Art of the deal, baby. Let's go. But talk about a Ponzi scheme Where the hell where is my gift is your gift card yeah Look I'm just gonna press all of the Francis Sir Mary are brilliant you were super smart Roy. let's spin the wheel of despair.

Uh, let her on 100,000 people woman out of the city of Miami. Bye. That's what I say. It's it's this is kind of messed up because so between 2020 and 2022, while Florida, the state of Florida, gained over 700,000 new residents, an analysis of the US Census Bureau data by the Brookings Institute shows that Miami did lost nearly 100,000 people moved TF. Can I say TF? Right. Sure.

Moved TF out of Miami. Porque Tomas. Why? Because you can't buy a home. If you buy a home, you can get it insured. The traffic is insane. The heat just drives you crazy. The corruption.

I mean, the quality of life is declining precipitously. You know, and as we've talked about, I won't go into it, but I am moving myself pretty soon. It's just not a place where you can, yeah, you can buy a home, you can build generational equity. You know, it's just too expensive. The quality of life is not great. But look at the bright side.

In Miami, we are definitely not woke. And I will say this, if you move out of Miami, who is going to yell and heckle Ron De DeSantis at the power for the sleep, slightly better. Yeah, because they're not woke. Yeah, they're definitely, definitely not woke. We're being priced out of our town, you know, I'm for Argentinian, but I grew up here, and it's really sad.

They're pricing us out, they're squeezing us out, and the political class on both parties, at the municipal level and at the state level, they don't give a shit. Why are you such a hater? I thought, what about all the hype? It's a tech hub. It's the crypto capital.

It's the capital of capital. Miami coin will make you a millionaire, if you were a billionaire. It's a... So, come, come invest here. Miami survived a lot of boom and bust cycles, but it may not survive this bullshit cycle. Cause it's just like 100% pure uncut mierda at this point

from the mouths of local politicians, botalitas, real estate hustlers, and chamber cheerleaders. But like the truth of the matter is that people cannot afford to live in the homes that they built, that their families have been in for generations. It's crazy. I saw a billboard driving today in the homes that they built that their families have been in for generations it's crazy. I saw a billboard driving today in the morning along us one and it said it was a bizarre one but it said men love to sleep just as much as Miami loves tiny coffees and i'm like okay this is where we are

in the gentrification we have like we have billboards so like the new out of towners in the gentrification. We have billboards, so the new out of towners in the New Yorkers can be like, oh my God, the tiny coffee, the colados. It's no longer for us. The advertisements, the commercials, the bill were so much more than native. It's more like a Miami theme restaurant or theme park than it is actually. Miami, I mean, listen, we're going to live in a time when there there's gonna be no more Cubans, you know, in Little Havana, no more Haitians in Little Haiti, no more Bahamians and Little Bahamas of the West Grove, no more, you know, Dominicans in Little Santa, Domingo. I mean, this is what's going to happen.

It's happening. For our my Emmy moment, in case this is the last time we have you in studio before you move out, like before you get to port it in the middle of this podcast if only well what you're for saying the f dropping those f-bombs I'm building the boat right now but here is a moment of of a minimum moment of zen with our friend and guest co-host for the day to moss kennedy visiting and trying to ask governor to santa some questions at a press conference. The