The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - #BecauseMiami: The City of Miami vs. #BecauseMiami

Episode Date: January 5, 2024

Three brand new podcasts popped up in response to the work we do at #BecauseMiami. Its enough for Billy Corben to realize the difference the show is making. Today, we have Miami commissioner Miguel Gabela discussing his call for Mayor Francis Suarez to resign. National political correspondent for The Messenger, Marc Caputo, is asked if we can stick a fork in Florida governor Ron DeSantis's presidential campaign. And Billy's grandfather, Jerry Cohen, shares stories from Miami's past. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to Giraffe King's Network. What you be willing just to have the clerk put you under oath in state that since you sign up to run for office. No, sir. I am not in the courtroom. You are not a judge. You are not going to deposition me. No, sir. I am not in the courtroom. You are not a judge. You are not deposing me. And I know my rights. So you can you can you can you can take that out.

Well, I am not under. I am not under deposition. Do I have a motion? They need to hear the other side. What's the other side that that we put your house in and you go to protect you to protect you. To protect you to protect your house. I don't hear- Commission meeting is now in recess. Thank you, Chair. No, no, Chair. Happy New Year. May. Feliz Anio Nuevo. Right?

If you say so. It's a new dawn. It's a new day in the city of Miami, certainly in Miami City Hall. That bullies yo, Coroio He's not just gonna be up there on the day as pushing people around anymore because we've got a new sheriff In town we'll be talking with Commissioner Miguel Gabella, Mike Gabella who replaced your boy boy, Alex Diaz Laportia, Roy, who you remember was arrested on charges, including bribery, money laundering, and campaign finance crimes. Your boy. I don't know. I fully enthousen. Yeah. That's my boy. Later in the show,

Markaputo joins us to stick a fork in what's left of the DeSantis primary campaign. And later my grandpa is on the program. Awello is the new Poppy, because Miami, but right, I gotta tell you, it's so heartening to see somebody on the dayus, speaking truth to power, pushing back, telling the truth. I mean, it's been exhausting watching the Miami Mafia circle the wagons and put their head in the sand and Joe Corolla especially has been up there pushing people around not just in the city government and his fellow

commissioners, but the residents and the business owners and the taxpayers and the activists and the people who care who show up to the meetings to talk to their and engage their government, he tries to shout him down. And it's not happening anymore. I mean, craziness is happening. I mean, you know, up is down, down is up. The cows have come home. The pigs are flying. Ball and chain. Yes. I mean, I want you to take a look at this after decades of silence, Joe Corollio's daughters have broken their silence. And they told Linda Robertson at the Miami Herald, Kelly, Corolla 32.

She's an interior designer in New York City. She hasn't seen her talk to her father since 2003. She says, quote, we used to get a birthday phone call two days late, but that stopped. I was emotionally attuned as a child. I'm told, and I remember I used to cry when he held me. He was not likable, and I just sensed it. Her memories of him quote him yelling, throwing tantrums being unpleasant." Asked if there's another side of Corrello, beside his

cantankerous public image, Kelly paused, no she said. He's a controlling chauvinistic man who has to dominate and make others suffer. What have I learned from my father to seek the exact opposite of him in a partner? Caroline, Caroleo, 34 of Miami attorney has had no contact with her father since 2008. She said the most important lesson she's learned from him is, quote, it is better to remain silent and be thought of fool than to speak and remove all doubt. By the way, Kelly Caroleo was 10 years old 20 years ago

when she called 911 to report that my dad is hurting my mom. Oh, my dad's hurting my mom. What happened? Come, my dad's hurting my mom. What's your address? In the house. Give me address, ma'am.

He's coming out please. I don't know. No, he's not. I just. He's going to have to come. Well, Joe Keroio is victimized. He's coming out please. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I just want to see you. He's coming out.

Well, Joe Correo is victimized, his wives, his children, and the city of Miami. But no more. Commissioner Miguel Gabella, thank you for joining us. Thank you for telling your truth and speaking truth to power and being a voice for so many who have felt powerless and voiceless. And that includes thousands of decent, hardworking city workers who have been held hostage through this toxic culture of fear and revenge and intimidation that

has won the city. You were elected on a mandate of anti-corruption of pro accountability. And now you have joined your colleague, sitting commissioner Damian Pardo, elected the same election as you were this past November, calling for the resignation of Miami mayor, Francis Suarez. Let's start there, because we are turning the page here in the city of Miami, and these are exciting days. Why have you asked for the resignation of the mayor? So first before I get to that,

let me thank you for having me on your program and let me just also say, I'm not the sheriff of town. I'm one of the sheriffs in town because Pardo is also a sheriff. Commissioner King is also a sheriff. Manuel Reyes is also a sheriff. So we're kind of five sheriffs here. It's just that we've been accustomed to hearing the city

of Miami to having one sheriff, which is Caroa, you that was imposing his will. And now that's gone. And he's having a little bit of a temper tantrum because he can't deal with it. That's the fact of the matter. So we're many sheriffs. And I'm proud to be here, Billy sitting among Pardo and Commissioner King, especially as I say, Monroe raised the good commissioners that actually want to get things done for the benefit of the residents. And now the question was, I'm sorry, why I was calling for the resignation of the mayor. Yes, sir. What happened to me was, Parto must be given credit because he was the first one that actually called for the resignation of the mayor. So that credit cannot be taken

away from him. I joined Parto days later because what happened to me, as you well know, I wanted to give him a chance to speak in front of the commission. He wanted a meeting with us. We had the meeting and it was clear to me after that meeting that he was not going to shore up to the commission. I don't think he's going to have many answers for us because they're not good answers, according to the accusations that the Harold has made. That's my impression of the body language and what I took away from that conversation. I then switched gears because I realized as you know I made it public weeks earlier that I may know bones about it that I was going to

motion to put my house back in the district that for those of you that don't know. My house was taken out of the district June 14 illegally to to favor then candidate Portia, commissioning courtier, which was in a resident corruption charges. At the same time, Corollio's house in district two, which was never part of district three, was put into district three to favor Corollio. Corollio that day gained an advantage, a benefit that didn't have before, because unlike my house that was always in district one for more than 23 years, Coroius House was never in district three. They did that to a comedy Coroio so he would have homestead exemption. Now he has protection against his creditors against Bill Fuller and Company and the $63 million lawsuit awarded to them and he now doesn't have to rent in Little Havana like he had to before, now he can move to his house and still be part of the district.

So they broke coconut grove up in half to accommodate Mr. Crowley. This is a pure benefit that he gained, okay? What I was trying to do was to put my house back in the district as it is always been. I'm not gaining a benefit. They took a benefit away from me. I was just regaining that act,

that resolution that was passed on June 14, which in my view was illegal. There was malfeasance involved and probably they violated the Sunshine Law. Essentially what happened is there was a, in illegal and in fact, unconstitutional redistricting process. Multiple judges, appeals courts have already found this to be the case. In addition to the racial gerrymandering involved, there was as you put it, this kind of corrupt horse trading going on between Joe Corroyo, Alex Diaz La Portia, in which they were putting for their own personal political and just personal benefit, their own homes and their opponents in your case home, in and

out of the districts as they wished, which undoubtedly gave them a benefit. They did not recuse themselves from that vote. The city attorney, Vicki Mendes, allowed them to vote on these matters that had a benefit to them, which one could reasonably assume was a conflict of interest. And now, in your effort to undo that illegal and unconstitutional redistricting effort, and put things back simply to the way they were before, now there's all these accusations against you that you're acting in your self-interest, that you have a conflict and should have recused yourself from this vote, that there's some sort of state law that prohibits you from

doing this. the mayor has argued What do you say to your your critics about this? I got plenty to say the mayor's a hypocrite at the least and intellectually dishonest at the worst Why do I say that because he cites a law that took effect July 1st that this in other words if this kind of thing were done to me After July the first a one-have-fl. Their resolution wouldn't have passed because they were clearly taking a can and it out. Now he's citing this law and hiding behind this law okay because he's got a personal vendetta I think he wants to join the bad guys and he's got a personal vendetta against myself. Why? The man called me on the election day and I couldn't talk to him. I didn't talk to him to 10 days later. I think he's resented

about this because maybe he thinks I'm not showing him respect. And this is his way of showing me that, hey, you messed with me, I'm going to, I have veto power, okay, which is okay. He has the right to do what he has to do. And I got the right to do what I have to do. But here's the thing, he's hiding behind the law that says the July 1st law that says number one, there must be an election. In this case, in my case, of trying to write the wrong that has been done to coconut growth, the grove of the night, the disenfranchised voters and growth, the disenfranchised voters in this work one, because there were three houses apart from mines that were taken out just south of me

during this process. So many, many voters have been disenfranchised without them even having a say in this process and this was done all illegally. And so the fact of the matter is that the July 1st ruling or statue, if you will, that Tallahassee passed early in the year and took effect July 1st doesn't apply in this case because number one, that applies to when there's an election or 270 days before an election or a candidate or an incumbent. In this case, I am not an incumbent because there is no candidate. I am a sitting this case, I am not an incumbent because there is no candidate. I am a sitting commissioner, but I am not an incumbent because there is no candidate,

because there is no election. In fact, Commissioner, that law that the state passed was specifically to make it illegal what it is the city of Miami did to you last summer. That's exactly what the law does because what they do was so flagrantly inappropriate. So I guess my question is, I mean, I'm looking at the agenda for next week. This is going to be a wild meeting. I've done a flyer, a strip club flyer for it because this is the hottest show in town, this novella at city hall.

Make your make your make your move. I mean, this is, the agenda is absolutely wild. There's all kinds of things on there. There's the absentee mayor and his side hustles. We've got the reunification of the grove. We've got Bayfront Park on there and Corollio's corruption over there. I mean, there's all kinds of stuff.

Now, how do you overcome, though? You know, I mean, Christine can vote with you. She can win the meeting, but then she can also win the issue when the mayor vetoes. So she could say, hey, I tried to help, but what can I do if the mayor is going to veto it? So she gets to have her postolitos and eat them too, you know? Well, look, in the case of Christine King, she voted in our

favor. She was Christine King, part of and myself that voted for the resolution to pass and it passed. And then the mayor vetoed simply because now the mayor, after he's been absent for a whole year or maybe more, now he wants to prove to the world that he's the mayor. And what does he do? He vetoes my resolution, okay, which I made clear to the public that I was going to do. I've never hit anything, Billy. I went on Roberto Tejera and other newscast and radio and I said I was going to do this

before it happened. So I've got nothing to hide you. There's no I'm prepared to hear. I'm just remedy my own situation, but they put me in with malfeasance in mind to keep me out as a candidate, then running against Commissioner Portilla. And also, the city attorney has acted in all of this.

She's interfered in this election. She had three lawsuits against me, and she's lost them all. The latest one, I think she lost them, the 28th. I think it was the appeal on the appeal. Okay, and she's lost them all. The latest one I think she lost on the 28th. I think it was the appeal on the appeal. Okay, and she's lost that too. And at the same time she tells me that she's working for all the commissioners. Okay, but when we ask her for certain things, we don't get them now. If Joe, you ask her for anything, he'll get it. For example, right now I understand that Joe Karo you has another lawsuit against him personally has nothing to do with the city is him personally and I Understand that she's provided outside counsel of three separate attorneys. We've asked for outside counsel a couple of These back now and the email that we got from her is she's got to think about it and the explanation is very simple

We're asking for outside counsel. Okay, because she says that she represents all the commissioners Well, how can she be representing me when she had three previous lawsuits against me I am now a sitting commissioner and the third lawsuit she still had against me when she did not retire willingly or voluntarily she lost that one in order for that to go away Okay, so then how in God's name can I trust this woman when this woman has done all of the opposite to try to take me out first as a candidate and now making an impossible for me as a city commissioner, she responds in my view to Joe Corroyo, she's Joe Corroyo's personal attorney paid by the taxpayer.

And this in fact, this was going on in City Hall and Francis now comes in and now wants to use a petty thing that he knows that the law is not on his side. He says he's an attorney. He says he's paid a lot of money for being an attorney. I don't know about that because this interpretation of this statute, using it for what I did, what I did was to put my house the way it was before and to put the district, the way it was before

before they jerrymandered the district, okay? Well, let's be honest, Commissioner, he doesn't get paid over a million dollars by Quinn Emmanuel, the law firm, to be a lawyer. He gets paid to be unregistered lobbyist and foreign agent for his private clients and to exploit his public position for profit. For their profit. I mean, that's the bottom line. And you have also, of course, called for the resignation of city attorney, tricky Vicki Mendes, who I agree has worked as nothing but a mob lawyer

for Joe Corroyo and the Miami Mafia. How could she possibly be representing your best interest? Of course, you need outside counsel. And you've also revealed at your day one of your very first commission meeting that the city has spent over eight million dollars on just one of the myriad lawsuits that they are defending the taxpayers are defending Joe Corillo over on what we're at a time commissioner but I really look forward to next week's commission meeting commissioner Miguel Gabella has come to kick ass and e croquette us and he is all out of Croquetas. Thank you, Billy, and hope to be on your program very soon. Thank you for the invitation. I appreciate it. Season's greetings, everybody. It is Mike Ryan here to talk to you about Miller Lite,

but also here to talk to you about this festive season and how Miller time can make holiday time even better. I love this winter weather. It's great excuse to go outside and toast some wonderful memories with some friends. Why don't you do that with an ice cold Miller light in your hand. And in some parts of the country, you don't need a coosie. It just stays cold out there. How wonderful is that? Take a sip, my friends. Look around.

Reflect on your year. You made a lot of good calls and no call better than having this Miller light right now. A beer that is brewed for taste. You know, it's triple hops brewed. They could have stopped brewing it twice with hops, but they didn't. They went that extra mile. And they brewed it with hops three times. The original light beer since 1975 and still the best one I'm talking about Miller light. Great taste, 96 calories. Go to Millerlight.com slash Dan to find delivery options near you or you can pick up some Miller light pretty much anywhere they sell beer. Taste like

Miller time. Celebrate responsibly, Miller Brewing Company Milwaukee, Wisconsin 96 galleries, and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces. Everyone, I got some exciting news to share with you. We are changing our format from got this little tech talk to me. How can I help podcast? Welcome to another edition of the Kingdom Podcast. I am Christine King, Chairwoman of the City of Miami Commission. Hey everyone, this is Art Noriega City Manager for the City of Miami.

I think it's probably the appropriate time to sort of reintroduce myself to social media. So I'm gonna start a regular series where every week or two I'm to sort of focus on what's happening in the city. Roy, I have a confession to make. What's that Billy? During the holiday vacation, I made a decision that I was not going to come back to the show in the new year. I was going to put it on an indefinite hiatus. This is a lot of work this show. You know that.

Yes. And it's a lot of work to prep for. It's a lot of work to produce. Yes it is. I don't get paid for this. I got to go back to my paying job. And I knew we were doing the right thing. I just didn't know if we were making a difference

and I kind of thought like, let me put it on the back burner for a bit. Maybe we'll revisit it later in the year. And then a few things happened, right? First thing that happened was, while out and about in Miami during the holiday season, I ran into people at restaurants and bars, grocery stores on the street who came up to me and thanked me for what we're doing here. People who thought that they had no voice, that you can't fight City Hall, that this kind of accountability journalism doesn't make a difference, but now we're starting to see some positive change just by virtue of sunlight being the best disinfectant. And speaking truth to power, calling these clowns out.

If you put garbage in, you're going to get garbage out. Honestly, it was humbling and it was heartening and it made me feel like, oh, maybe people are paying attention and maybe it is making a difference. And then, as you saw from that little montage that David put together for us, the city of Miami has launched, not one, not two, but at least three podcasts to counter what it is that we do here on the Because Miami podcast. But how can I help podcasts? How can I help?

There's a shot across the bow. First of all, he's rebranding the Caffecito Tech Talk podcast because you know when anything is successful, the first thing they do, Roy is they rebranding. And they rename it. Ponzi Bautalita, obviously that he's a con man is the thing. And so when you're a con man, you don't have a brand. You have to just like go move on to the next hustle, right? So that's what he's doing. He's moving on to the next hustle. Here's the thing. The taxpayers of the city of Miami Roy, who are the, the victims of this Miami mafia of this criminal

racketeering organization, masquerading as a municipal government, they're financing this. They're paying for this grandma-esque propaganda, this official mouthpiece of the regime. All these podcasts, Christine King's The Kingdom, which by the way I thought was about Saudi Arabia, turns out it's just a pun on Christine King's name, thousands of dollars in episode taxpayers are spending. Francis War has announced in that video they've got a new podcast studio and art general Noriega, the city manager is doing his own podcast now and all of this, they're explicit in all of these podcasts

that this is to counter us. The haters, by the way, haters is truth tellers because Miami's one of those places where lies are love and truth is hate. You know, where we don't have reality, we have realty. And so we've got people like. Five, deep most of each other.

The underhanded man child fell son. And that manifold baby with the brain of a mosquito. Oh, art Noriega. Talking about he wants to reinvent himself. Really? Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Art, into the Oriega. Get outta here, man.

I gotta tell you, with a lot of these guys, it's gonna be grand opening, grand closing, because I think it's time to turn the page and flush the toilet on all these clowns. But I gotta tell you, Roy. Just when I thought I was out, they pulled me back in. Welcome back. I mean, if they just ignored us, then we'd all have it a lot easier, you know? But the fact that they are going to combat our facts

with their lies and they're gonna continue to victimize the residents, business owners, and taxpayers of the city of Miami by taking advantage of them and continuing to misappropriate their money to do what to tell lies, to be like, to tell everybody that, no, no, everything is just fine in the city of Miami. Pay no attention. Just let us piss on your leg and tell you that it's raining.

It's just, literally, extraordinary bit of gaslighting. And that cannot stand, man. You're definitely right about that. But again, Grand Opening, Glaring Closon, because Francis Suarez most likely will be arrested, right? Oh, don't, listen. I don't tell you, if this lasts longer than four hours, I'm gonna need to call the doctor.

I mean, when you tease me like that, Roy. So other crazy shit that has happened that has really inspired me to keep going here. We have these new commissioners like Abella and Pardo calling for the mayor's resignation, calling for the city attorney's resignation, really trying to just end this era of criminal impunity in the city of Miami government is very inspiring. Also breaking news this week, the federal government, the SEC, to be precise, is suing Rishika Pore for fraudulently defrauding his investors. This is the guy, by the way, who is secretly paying mayor Francis Suarez $10,000 a month, at least $170,000 to be his quote unquote, secret consultant

while the mayor's office was working to help Kapoor navigate the city and work through you know, whatever issues he was having. Basically, you know, his problem solver and fixer and expediter in the city. Meanwhile, Kapoor was paying Miami Dade's second greasiest mayor, Vince Lago of Coral Gables and Suarez's cousin, who was a real estate partner of his, over $12,000 a month in rent, totaling over $152,000 for an empty, never-used office building that Lago initially failed to disclose that he owns. At the same time that Lago was helping Kapoor

with real estate hustles in Coral Gables City Hall. And now, we talked about this with J. Weaver, remember, in the last episode of 23. But now, Vince Lago is suing the Spanish language talked about this with j weaver remember in the last episode of twenty three but now vince lago is suing the spanish language radio station here in my immediate actually dot radio

and veteran radio journalist rebert or i'd reggae stahara uh... does outstanding work suing him for liable because apparently according to the complaint, he told the

truth about him on the radio. So that's what I said for baby. So this is, that's not what it says for beta, but I'm, I'm paraphrasing allegedly because he went on the radio and talked about how Vince Lago's brother, little brother, who they call little Lago, is a lobbyist for a real estate developer who was looking to get some stuff done in what they call little gables. And Vince Lago was trying to annex that neighborhood into the city in order to expedite this real estate hustle

because everything in Miami, as you know, is a real estate hustle. Is a big logo? There is a big logo. He's a great big ol' logo. Yeah. Jopped a big ol' logo. At politicalcortadito.com, Elaine DeValle does a brilliant job of talking about how Vince

Lago ruined his reputation all by himself. Did not need the help of any journalist telling the truth about him to do that. And was really funny. One of Lago's lawyers represents Joe Carroyo and lost that $63.5 million corruption lawsuit last year. So good luck. I just hope the judge doesn't throw this bullshit case out before actually Dodds lawyers have a chance to give this guy a

deposition on camera and under oath because that's going to be a documentary really that you might know that i'm going to do like during the lawsuit for crying out loud that said because Miami is here to stay i think that a guy like me is the nominee will be able to keep the focus on Biden, keep the focus on the Democrats' failures. But then, more importantly, after you win the election, start holding these people accountable who have weaponized the legal system to go after their political enemies. And that starts with day one firing somebody like Jack Smith that

goes to dealing with people who are violating constitutional rights at the state and local government area. Republicans have turned a blind eye to abuses of power for far too long. We need to actually do something about it. In Florida, we've actually done things. We've held people accountable and we've drained the swamp in a major way. We need that in the United States. Fear and Florida men on the campaign trail once again.

We are on the DeSantis campaign death watch. Mark Caputo is the national political reporter for the messenger.com. Are we ready to stick a fork in it yet, Mark, or to paraphrase Mark Twain, our reports of DeSantis' campaigns demise greatly exaggerated? I'd say it's a little bit in between. At a certain point, the question is going to be this. Is everything we're seeing on the ground in Iowa, everything we're seeing in polling, both conducted by internet, by phone, by a robo call, are all the experts we're talking

to in the Iowa caucus who understand Republican politics and how the caucus works? Are all of them wrong and is de-santis right and therefore de-santis will win Iowa if they're all right then yeah I think de-santis is pretty much going to be done he's barely holding on to second in Iowa well behind Trump and then a new half-shoot he's fourth or fifth de-santis is so it's difficult to see how de-santis could lose Iowa and still make a claim to even being in second place in this race. So you're telling me there's a chance? A dumb and dumb or chance, yeah. There's a chance. Not a big one.

But also does Iowa even matter at this point if he comes in? Yes, second, does it? Yeah, it does. I mean, I have to say this in a simple way. I understand the presidential campaigns, people talk about delegates and all of these things of which you need to win to get to the convention. Presidential campaigns are essentially momentum campaigns. And we've never seen a candidate who's a non-incombat and technically yes, Donald Trump is a non-incombat. In such a, Donald Trump is a non-incomment. In such a strong position, and all the polling and all the states, so the rational reasoning

goes this way. If Donald Trump wins in Iowa, where he's up by big double digits, what's going to stop him from losing, or better said, what's the soften from winning in New Hampshire, where he's up by big double digits? And if that happens, what's the stop him from in New Hampshire? Where he's up by big double digits. And if that happens, what's the soften from winning in Nevada? Where he's up by big double digits. And then South Carolina, where he's up by big double digits. No one has ever won all of the early states and not been the nominee in either party in

modern times. And let's say it gets down to a two person race after South Carolina, where again, he's up by double digits over Nikki Haley, the former governor of South Carolina. Why is she suddenly going to start to win after losing all this time? And why is Donald Trump going to start losing after winning all this time? It just doesn't add up. So bottom line, yes, Iowa matters because that's sort of the beginning of the snowball effect of Trump's kind of cascade of wins. If indeed he wins, and right now all the indications are that he's going to win. Well, to be fair, Trump's base believes that he is the incumbent, so there's that.

And there's that too. But my question is, I mean, I just think that many people in this country don't know just how batshit 2024 is going to be politically in this country. I mean, people thought 2020 was nuts with the pandemic, the George Floyd uprising with the presidential election that led to an incumbent president, the United States denying the outcome of the election and an insurrection that the beginning of the following year, the second impeachment of the president at the beginning of 2021. But I think that 2024 could dwarf all of that. And hopefully without a knockwood a pandemic

or a George Floyd-like incident, but I mean, we've got potentially five trials of a former president of the United States. We've got all kinds of craziness here, but is that DeSantis's Trump card? I mean, is that what he's been waiting in the wings for is for this guy to wind up on a private jet to Moscow or Saudi Arabia as a Deposed, you know, a deposed candidate and there he is showgirl style tossing the beads onto the staircase like going now the

Understudy is going to rise here. Yeah, I think another way to phrase that is the Chokan a cheeseburger hope. That is, if you talk to some, I'm not joking, that's actually a phrase. There are some folks in DeSantis's orbit a few weeks ago, a few months ago, we should say, who are acknowledging privately that look doesn't look like DeSantis is going to make it, but hey, anything can happen. And then you'd say, well, what can happen? And then they would literally say, well Trump could choke on the cheeseburger. So yeah, that could happen. But yeah, I might take the under on 2024 being crazier than 2020, because when you just listed out 2020, we had a pandemic. I mean, that was really nuts.

I'm not saying this is going to be sane, might not stretch to the imagination. But maybe we're going to be less crazy. We are certainly in uncharted waters here. We have no idea what's going to happen if Donald Trump actually goes to trial. If he gets convicted, it's really, really going to be in this. But let me ask you if Trump chokes on a cheeseburger in that hypothetical scenario is DeSantis the second guy? No, not right now.

I mean, that's the thing is like he's barely coming in second in iowa and again he might be in third and if he does come in third it's hard to see him staying in the race now that having been said when you start to kind of drill down into the minor republican voters ronda sances is much more in line with today's republican voters and republican party the niki hailey is but he in part because of all the way in which he's run as campaign to

santa sas and in part just because of the dynamics of the race there's been the space created for niki hailey to sort of filled this avoid and be sort of this alternate brand acts quick mark what was the cause of the civil war slavery not the government not states rights right right what was the cause of the war right

states rights that slavery exactly what the rule of government to have slavery i will what's really remarkable by the way of niki hailey civil war slip up there is like it was a new hampshire if you go to new hampshire on the campaign trail or whatever and you go in these lovely small New England towns, you'll actually see civil war monuments and statues of civil war soldiers,

not Confederate soldiers. They are union soldiers. And so for her to come up there in that patriotic place to say, oh, you know, we don't basically, you know, asylum on slavery. That just does not hunt. That dog does not hunt in New Hampshire at all. And you saw the result. Dude, she was the governor of South Carolina, the first state to succeed from the union, the first domino that fell on the road to civil war and they were explicit in their succession documents, exploit like life. At the very beginning. Atcession documents. Explain like, line one. At the very beginning.

Yeah, I know. The S word was right there. I mean, it was right there. She just couldn't reach up and grab it off the shelf. They're trying to forget history, Billy. You know what I would say. Oh, man. Mark, so last couple things.

First, what does a down defeated disantis returning to florida look like what is the revenge for when so many florida lawmakers i mean he probably perceives it betrayed him endorsed trump early and often uh... they've got a legislative session coming up right that's gonna run concurrent to his losing effectively the the republican primary what is this look like is he powerless legislative session coming up right that's going to run concurrent to his losing effectively the Republican primary. What does this look like?

Is he powerless? Is he out for blood? What is a Florida with a DeSantis like retribution tour look like? I don't fully know that, but number one, only about what eight, nine, think about eight, Florida legislators out of 160 have endorsed Donald Trump. So there's not going to be that much revenge, you need it out on those Republicans and mainly in the House. Now, that said, he does return to Santa, he would return, he will return, diminished politically

overall, but he still has powers of office, which give him line item veto authority. That is, he can cross out little sections of the budget and cancel hometown spending products and lawmakers, and he can also veto their entire legislation. He's shown a willingness and a zeal for using his veto pen and has certainly communicated to people not to cross them and show them what happens when they do or when he even perceives the slight. So he's not going to be that weakened legislative late so the question to kind of recast is what does a dissentist look like after he comes

back home and has to sort of rebuild his brand sort of nationally through his office i do see him continue to pick culture war fights, continuing to govern as a very reactionary and powerful conservative. I would caution people against writing as a obituary, the guy's 44. There's a lot of time for him to run for office again. So you were going to see now the reality is is he does get out of office in two years, right? And there's going to be an extra two years there for him to sort of do nothing. And the question is, who's going to succeed him? And there is chatter about Casey DeSantis.

His wife possibly running it again, because that carries on to the Sanctus name, and also sort of keeps him relevant, and possibly eyeing another presidential run. I don't know. Let's be honest. No, that's not the Italian. That'll leave me. Yes. The rise of tacky. Oh, speaking of Republican primary losers, I know you read the news, the Miami Herald, their bombshell investigative series, Shake Down City, which covered the

latest scandal regarding Miami mayor, Francis Suarez. One of the shortest primary campaigns in the history of Estados Unitos, you tweeted in reference to this scandal involving the mayor possibly working as an unregistered foreign Asian for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, particularly using his mayor's office. Saudi Arabia is a client of his private law firm and he used the mayor's office to help set up this junket, this kind of infomercial that happened in Miami Beach.

And according to your Twitter feed, you are actually offered a chance to interview Liv Galves Greg Norman at this event that for the purpose of helped put together. And despite good money, you turned it down because they wouldn't let you ask the questions. I don't know. Come on, say, do you say a journalist would want to ask? Tell me about this.

Yeah. So I got a text message from a PR person who I've known in the past, but not very well. And they offer me this chance like, hey, do you want to come to this live golf event? You've written about live golf in the past. You can talk to Greg Norman. And I said, look, I said, that sounds great. But like, I don't want to fly in her false colors here. If I'm going to have Greg Norman there and I'm going to be talking to about live golf,

I've got to get into the Saudi related issues. And then it was like, well, you sure you got to do that? I'm like, yeah, I kind of have to do that right like nothing personal and I told him I'm not gonna devote the entire time to this issue But if I'm talking to him about this like it would be a conspicuous absence not to ask about this kind of very timely issue Again, you know having written about it literally people criticizing Donald Trump for having the live golf tournament hosted in derailleur i said i i just couldn't see how i couldn't ask about it so we went sort of back and forth and we just couldn't make it work so i thought it was just best to just not fly in a full scholar say

look i'll do this happily but i i i can't just be silent and they're like man we probably need someone to be silent about it i mean they, they didn't quite say that, but certainly was the indication. I don't know who want of doing it, but I can assure you this. They didn't ask about the Saudis 9-11 and live goal. And to be clear, then, this event that Mayor Francis were as help to put on, this was a effectively a sportswashing type of event, right? This was a PR event, junk it at infomercial the way I've characterized that. I mean, that was what the information

you were going on now. I didn't quite know what fully it was, but having written about them in the past, I knew what Saudi Arabia, the sovereign wealth fund was doing. Yeah, I mean, part of the problem that the Saudis have is there's a section of the 9-11 Commission report which has still not been released, which shows complicity by people in the kingdom in the 9-11 attacks in 2001.

And then in addition to that, you had the new dictator or strong man or whatever we want to call it of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, who had been complicit, allegedly given the order for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist, and the response to this from the Saudis has essentially been to expand their sort of cultural and sport footprint in the United States accordingly. I'm not saying they have no right to do that, but if you're going to have a reporter or journalist on stage at one of these events, it's certainly stuff. I'm going to ask about Well, you said no. Thank you and Francis where I said how can I help mark a pudo national political reporter find him at the messenger.com

Thanks mark. Happy New Year. Thank you been here. My grandfather, Jerry Cohen, was born 95 years ago in Manhattan and has been in Miami more or less since 1946, graduated university of Miami law school, all four of your kids, two sons, two daughters, including my father were born in Miami Beach, say, France and South Sputtle, making me a second generation Miami and I suppose in part anyway, half. You spent part of your time here. I mean, you were always in building construction real estate for a spell in kind of the peak era of the golden age of Miami Beach nightclubs

and entertainers. You were briefly in the nightclub business in what we now know as South Beach. A business that at the time was filled with celebrities, gangsters, and racism. Could you tell us a little bit about what that was like in Miami Beach, and then really I guess in the 1950s? My introduction to the business was in 1948

when I became friends with Murray Wanger, the owner and proprietor and the shoman of the Copa. That friendship continued right up until his passing. Where was the Copa? Daid Boulevard between Alton Road and the Venetian Causeway entrance. So you managed to get involved in this business. Who are the entertainers like at the time? Well, for example, when Copa City reopened, which my company built, the building, they played the biggest stars, which many movie people, etc. The important thing is that in the lounge, they had a commentator by the name of Barry Gray, and they had Steve Gibson

and the Red Caps with his, David Ajo. That's important because that's how I got into the night. David Ajo, I've heard of. Who else would we have heard of that was around in Miami Beach in those days? Oh my goodness, I can't even remember them all. Jimmy Duranty was a regular. Sammy Tucker. No, Sammy Davis Jr. was a new actor, was first played at the Beach Coma right next door to the Copa. Nat King Cole.

Nat King Cole was a regular Copa city, not Copa city, but Copa Cabana, and then Copa city after that. A lot of these were black acts at the time. I wouldn't say a lot. No, there were singular black acts. I can't remember a lot of black acts at that time, except for the musical groups that played the lounges. Each night club had a lounge. They were big money makers because the heavy drinkers were allowed. But Miami Beach was basically, I mean, it was the South. In the 1950s, it was a...

Oh, very much so. It was a sundown town, which meant that black people were not welcome in Miami Beach after dark. Well, they were welcome to do all the jobs that black people were doing in those days. That's what welcomed them. They all had to be registered with... Well, what does that mean? They had to be registered. Well, that's interesting because you have to understand how I got on the nightclub business. I wasn't really in the nightclub business at that point in time. But I was friends with Murray.

And every year, Murray came back and I leased the copa from the then owner of the copa and Murray ran it because Murray had beverage department issues. Was that mob related? No, not at all. He was not a mobster of any kind shape before him. The mobsters came later, as I was concerned. There were very few black acts or entertainment on Miami beach at least.

They were not limited, but generally appeared at the various clubs in the over town. But you had black employees and you did occasionally have black entertainers, you said they had to be registered. That's what I was asking. That's correct. What does that mean? They had to get in an ID card in order to be on the beach after sundown. Where would you go? To the police station, to be fingerprinted? This was just Jim Crow. Shit. Absolute Jim Crow. And what did you do? Well, later in the story of my nightclub story, it's when I bowedros in this particular nightclub. The mob was just slightly involved. That's what you're waiting to hear.

And I went into this deal with one of the well-known mobsters, and he and I were partners in the nightclub, and we opened up with Demita Joe and the Ternayers and the Lounds. They were going down to register at Miami Beach for the ID card at the police department. And I said, I'll go with you, and I took them down there in my vehicle, and they were going through the process. And I said, I'll go with you, and I took them down there in my vehicle, and they would go through the process. And I said, okay, where do I register? And you don't have to register. I want to register.

If they have to register, I want to register. So I registered. You've seen this card, and that's how this card is. He's got props. He's got props. He carries it around in his wallet. I've got two props. This is the first one.

This is the card. My picture's on the back from the Mime Beach. And that's 1958. Mime Beach Police Department. Yeah, right. It says in the back, 1958, Mime Beach Police Department. A December 3rd, actually, in 1958. But this month, that's the month. So what's birthday? Really? Happy Birthday, please,rd actually in 1958.

So what's birthday? Really? Happy Birthday, please, Comblionius. Grandpa, why did you insist upon registering along with the axe? I thought it was untoward. I had plenty of experience with help that I had, needing cards to be on the beach. I did a lot of work where we stayed very late

if you're poor and concrete. So I had to get a lot of my people registered over the years and I kind of sort of resented it. So I said, if they have to register, I have to register. Fine, all the policemen knew me because I was in the nightclub business. The end of my nightclub career is both mobbed up. It's a very quick story.

It's mobbed up. I can make it very quick. And it deals with Sammy Davis Jr. I don't believe you about the quick part. Let's do it. Tell me about the end of your nightclub business. After being registered, we played an act in the club, and he was falling flat on his face. And he was a friend of mine. I asked him to get out of the contract, and I went to my partner, part of the mob issue, if you will.

And I told him that we need an act. He's a mobster, is what you're saying? Or was he mobbed up? He's mobbed up more than being a mobster. Within an hour or two of telephoning, back and forth, he said, what do you think about Sammy Davis, Jr.? He came down, no contract, to the halfway through this performances and smash hit it. And that was the end. I went out on a big, big round of applause with Sammy Davis, Jr. South Beach. He buys this beautiful mansion on Ocean Drive and 11th Street. He wants to build a pool next door just to the south of his property right there on the corner actually

of Ocean Drive and 11th Street. Do you remember this? Very well. All right. What happened? What was there actually on that point? What was there was a hotel I built called the Revere. You built a 1950? Built a 1950, yes. But it was an architect hotel. Right in that style. In the style. Right.

Versace wants to knock it down to build what is now this gorgeous pool with this very elaborate mosaic with like 24-karat gold gardens. Yeah, it's beautiful right there next to the house. So tell me about the demolition of the hotel that you built. Well, I didn't know anything about what was going on with respect to the Sachi until I read in the paper that a very good friend and an attorney who represented me, Cliff Schulman, was representing Mr. Versace with an effort to demolish the revere. And I was absolutely shocked.

I got a hold of him on the telephone and I said, Cliff, how can you think about knocking down that beautiful architect hotel and representing Versace to do so. So he said, what are you talking about? I said, Cliff, I built it. It's not much of a building. But I said, you can tear it down with my permission. You told me this story a little bit differently. And I was wondering how you were going to tell it today because what you told me is that you called him a little later in the process working to get the building knocked down.

Yeah, it was a little lady had to go through design preservation. He had to go through all of these, jump through all these hoops. And you said you called him and you said, I built that garbage building and I hope you knock it down. And he says, Jerry, we're very good friends. Why didn't you call me sooner if i had the original builder of the building to appear at these meetings and to tell you know to say basically say there's no

historic value we would've gotten done easier and you said to him you said and admit i built that piece of shit that's how you told it to me and i was what we have to do you have to believe that right i don't know if you have no I think I think you're the one who Embellish that's no that's how you told me this story what is it props Roy props we have what do we have your grandpa careful no I first said to him that how can you

demolish that gem and I said I built it he said Jim and I said I built it. He said no, you didn't build it. All I'd built that. I said that was me. But by then I was laughing so hard is what I told you that I said Cliff, tear it down. It's a mess of a building. What do you have there? Clifford gave me that he was with Greenberg drawing the law firm. Yeah, the law firm Greenberg target. It says built by Jerome Cohn in 1950 demolished in 1993. Yeah, I think so. Right. So it's a rock. It's a, so I'm guessing it's a piece of the concrete. It's a, it's a revered says revered. It's kind of like a, a rocky. It's like a, it's like this jagged piece of rock with a plaque on the top that says Revere Hotel and then a plaque on the inside by this piece of rubble that says built by Jerome J. Cohen 1950 demolished by Clifford Schillman in 1993. It's a beautiful pool and garden area now. It's a lovely restaurant there. I made it my business to go to several events there and it's really outstanding

when he did to that corner. By the way, I built three identical buildings at that time. One of the... Oh, like the same plans as well. Or with the same architect, same plan. The other one is the Bolivar, but I can't remember for the life of me the third one We'll find it. I'm sure thank you grandpa. I love you I hope you'll come back again and give us some more great old school Miami stories and now the first Miami moment of 2024 Roy We're gonna kick kick it with city attorney, tricky, Vicki Mendes, the mob lawyer for the Miami Mafia. At a recent hearing,

she saw that I was on the Zoom, and this is a court case that involves her and her husband allegedly exploiting her public position for his private real estate hustle of allegedly praying on vulnerable elderly and sick homeowners in Miami for this house flipping scheme that he's got going. So they're being sued over this. And during this zoom hearing after the porn hackers had hijacked the whole thing, she saw me on there. She saw Danny Rivera from WLRN and some other journalists on there.

And she was super scared that we were going to report the facts that were coming out of this public hearing. And so wanted to institute a gag order. And the judge said, no thank you, cocaine. Judge Miller. Yes. Good morning. This is Victoria Mendes.

How are you? Good. How are you, Ms. Mendez? Good. Your Honor, I would ask that there's plenty of media in the room. I would ask that you instruct them not to take any photographs and post this on their media pages while the case is ongoing or at least this day on the hearing. So you want a gag order? Not a gag order, you're on it,

or just at least not posting of photographs, unless you let everybody take photographs in your courtroom, that's a different story. Well, I think if the media were allowed in, they'd have a camera, right? They're allowed one camera, so I'm not sure what the rules are on zoom. But generally speaking, there was always a pool camera because that was in the courtroom and we only wanted one camera.

And everybody shared the feed with respect to zoom. I really don't have a problem with it mostly because I don't have any way to control it, Miss Mendez. Could you imagine how am I supposed to stop someone from snapping a picture of the screen? And how would I enforce that and what kind of investigation? It's just sort of impractical, so I really not, I'm not going to restrict it. Okay, thank you. It just sort of impractical, so I really not come like I'm restricted. Okay, thank you.