The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - #BecauseMiami: The Death of Cuban Exceptionalism

Episode Date: May 30, 2025

Former congressman Joe Garcia joins Billy Corben to talk about how Cuban Trump supporters voted against their own interests...like not being deported. Also, the beef between Miami city commissioners Joe Carollo and Miguel Gabela continues as Gabela takes over Carollo's former position as chairman of the Bayfront Park Management Trust. Commissioner Gabela joins Billy to talk about his longstanding feud with Carollo. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Proximo. Cuervo.com. Please drink responsibly. Cuervo. I also sent a letter to you concerning 100 Cuban oppressors. They're actually living in the United States. They were granted either asylum or entry into the United States that should have never been here. And we need to deport those. Have you received that letter or what's your what's your department doing about looking into and vetting those hundred names that I gave you? Yes, sir.

I received your letter in reddit this week and will be responding to you and that is something that President Trump is focused on is adding integrity back to the programs that we have. That was Miami Congressman Carlos Jimenez, the Republican Cuban American who was talking with United States Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem. Jimenez's list is kind of the opposite of Schindler's list, it sounds like, Roy. He has a list of 100 plus Cuban immigrants that he once deported.

These are extraordinary times in which we're living in, historic. I mean, we're living history in real time, not just national history or international history, but Miami history. And it is the death of Cuban exceptionalism. And Cuban exceptionalism is a theory, Roy, that has been American immigration policy for going on, I don't know, six decades, in which the proximity of the island of Cuba, 90 miles south of Key West,

the tyranny of its communist regime, and the stranglehold that the Soviets had on it made it such a significant threat, not only politically, but in terms of the humanitarian crisis. We welcomed Cuban immigrants with open hearts and open arms, the exile community that transformed Miami-Dade County. And they had a very easy path to citizenship,

to green cards. It created real inequality in immigration policy with every single other immigration group, including others who were escaping tyranny in the Caribbean and in Latin America. But now the headline at Univision, how Cubans lost their privileged status in the U.S. under the Trump administration and are now also the focus of its immigration offensive. While Trump's promise of mass deportations has frightened migrants of many nationalities, it came as a real shock to the 2.4 million Cuban Americans

who strongly supported the Republican on two occasions and have enjoyed privileged status in the US immigration system for years. We're seeing videos all over the internet of Cuban Americans, Venezuelans who supported Donald Trump, whether they could vote or not. They were supporters of Donald Trump, voters of Donald Trump.

The FIU poll from last October of likely Cuban-American voters in Dade County showed 68% support for Donald Trump. That was double digits above and beyond his extraordinary support in 2016. And now it's adios amigos. We're joined now by former Congressman Joe Garcia. Joe, this is fascinating to me because as a native Floridian and lifelong Miamian, I feel like everything I've been told now in a way is a lie. Everything I was told to believe about the island and about the sanctity of our allowing its people kind of unfettered access to America.

I'm very confused right now as a Miami. Billy, I've always said you're more Cuban than you are Jewish. You just retain some of the cultural attributes that make you a little bit faster. But the reality is that that's exactly right. One of the things that one finds in Trump is that he finds third rails of American politics. He not only grabs them, but he tries to floss his teeth with them. And this is one of those examples, right?

Where the reality is that here was an example of what was, you know, we were the fair haired darlings of the Cold War. We were 90 miles from the United States. And so because of that, we received the full generosity of the American immigration system. No group came faster, quicker, and legalized faster. Believe it or not, the fastest average for legalization

of any immigrant group in the country is Cuban Americans. It takes them less than seven years from the moment they arrive to when they become citizens. And usually that slowdown is simply because of statutory limits and bureaucratic limits, but not because of the lack of Cubans' interest in becoming U.S. citizens. So it is an end to that. But I will say two things. One, I'm going to correct you. He received unprecedentedly high numbers in 2020 when he lost in 2016 when he won. Hillary Clinton performed better with Cuban American voters than any other

Democrat before. I misspoke. I misspoke. You're right. In the full flourish of opening to Cuba, Cubans had literally moved very aggressively. And then, of course, Trump and the Republicans kept mining those wounds, real wounds of family separation, totalitarian government abuses, human rights violations. And he got the numbers way up there

and they continue up there. And the first thing Trump did, true to his word, because I mean, I've never seen a guy go into Hialeah, as Trump did, spoke against immigration. The crowd was over 95% foreign born, and they applauded his attack on immigrants. Of course, Cubans, much to your point, we're not immigrants, we're exiles in our own mindset.

And therefore we are immune from the vagaries of coming here because we have to, we come here because we're forced to, or we want to, but we're forced to. And I think the sheen, as you say, is off. The Cuban exceptionalism is now, we are exceptionally similar to everyone else. And right now, over a million people

who call South Florida their base of operation, that is Cubans, Venezuelans, Nicaraguans and Haitians are on the bubble to be deported. Over a million of them have no status and could be deported at any moment. And we've been watching that, people going into normal immigration proceedings in downtown Miami and being arrested

and summarily put in jail and sent to be deported. I want to play this clip. I want to follow up on that. But the wife of White House Deputy Chief of Staff, Stephen Miller, Katie Miller, a Florida woman herself, I think she went to the University of Florida, go get us. She worked in the administration, the first Trump administration, at both Mike Pence's office, the vice president's office, and she was a spokesperson for the DHS. I want to play this clip. Katie Miller, she was a spokesperson at DHS during the family separation crisis, a vocal, unwavering defender of what we were doing, taking these kids away from their parents. Katie Miller told Jacob Soboroff, quote, My family and colleagues told me that when I have kids, I'll think about the separations differently. But I don't think so.

Homeland Security sent me to the border to see the separations for myself, to try to make me more compassionate. But it didn't work, end quote. Jacob responds, quote, It didn't work? I will never forget what I saw. Seriously, are you a white nationalist?

He asked, exasperated. No, she said, but I believe if you come to America, you should assimilate. Why do we need to have like little Havana? There's a long runway there, but obviously the end of the clip was the salient point for the purpose of our conversation. Why indeed?

We were told this was an exile community who deliberately did not assimilate or learn English because the intent was eventually to return home to a free Cuba, which regrettably has yet to occur. Not regrettably because they haven't gone back, but regrettably because Cuba is still not free all these generations of trauma later. But my question is, as you described Trump standing there in Hialeah, a city which was home to, I think, the first first Cuban American mayor in American history, where over 90% of the residents speak Spanish at home.

A president who signed an executive order making English the official language of the United States, like a group that effectively has voted to deport itself. Why, Congressman? Why do we need a little Havana? I think one of the great things of America, listen, one of the things that America does better than any other country in human history is make Americans. Right?

Like you can be Moroccan, third generation living in Paris, and you know what Parisians refer to you as? Moroccan, right? You will never be French, even though you're nationalized French. And I think one of the great virtues of America, you know, give us your tired, your huddled masses yearning to be free, the reality is we all become American. And we all immigrants probably love America more than anyone else. And in particular, if Miami is a symbol of anything, is that easy immigration creates economic success. There is nothing particularly special about Miami. I mean, we've got nice, we got beautiful beaches. They're

not the best beaches. We have land. It's not the best land in the world for agriculture, yet it's a number two producer in Dade County. We have some of the most valuable agricultural land per square meter in all the United States. You look at our airport, it's plum in the middle of the city, you need a master's degree in understanding geometry to get through there. But if you know it, like you and I locals, we can have our ass sitting in the water within 17 minutes when you know what you're doing in Miami. And in every one of those things, Miami ranks as one of these great cities.

But what makes us great is the people who live here, the commitment to people here. I always say that Americans who live in Miami are the greatest Americans at all. Because if you don't speak a little bit of Pidgin Spanish, it's impossible to order a hot dog or a hamburger at McDonald's because no one behind the counter does. And so Americans or full-blooded Americans

or Americans who are not of Hispanic descent, who live among us, they enjoy it. They enjoy the excitement. They enjoy the beauty of it. But the vibrancy of Miami is created particularly because of this. And I think human Americans took that for granted. I would agree or I would have agreed like last October, I guess.

I'm just I'm wondering now is everybody just going to start speaking English? Donald Trump has declared it the official language. We can say that now. Florida did that many years ago and Miami-Dade County did that. If you'll recall, Billy, you may have you're a little bit younger than I am. But Emmy Schaefer, 1980. Miami declared. The English only ordinance. The official language.

Yes. The next set of elections, we got a majority of Hispanics, with the exception of one vote, then another guy, but the guy was very connected to the Cuban American community. So the reality is,

these are the last gasps of small thinking. It is the fear of seeing Hispanics across the country. These are the last gasps of small thinking. It is the fear of seeing Hispanics across the country. And the reality is they're just the next generation of migrants. Congressman, we thought that last gasp was 30 years ago when we repealed that English only ordinance in Dade County though. It wasn't in Dade County.

It wasn't in Dade County. All those people that you say- Let me give you an example. All those people you say got elected could all be deported now. I mean- They are living in this phony world of trying to suck up to the Republican Party

and its president. And they will literally deny themselves, their culture and everything they stand for so that they can stand next to the president. And to be quite honest, Donald Trump owns the Cuban-American community and perhaps no man has had more power to affect the dynamic not only of this community, but of its relationship with Cuba because this is probably the first president who could find a way to deal with Cuba,

find a way to get Cuba to move off a failed state, find a way to get Cuban Americans to reengage because they're the only chance of a future Cuba. You mean like, you mean like, you mean like end- You know I'm no fan of Donald J. Trump, but he has the Cubans in his hip pocket. End the embargo is what you're saying, potentially.

Yes! But I've been told that's, that would be the worst thing ever his hip pocket. And then to the embargo is what you're saying, potentially. Yes. But I've been told that would be the worst thing ever in the world. You were also told by Marco Rubio that the Russians were the worst in the world. And a few weeks ago, he was calling for investment in Russia. And we were told all sorts of things.

But I will tell you, I once spent a good deal of time with a good hour with Trump alone before he was president. His view of Cuba is very different than what he espouses today. He is a believer and I'm gonna quote him. The only way to kill communism is with capitalism. Capitalism always wins. Congressman, we've been saying that for decades.

Yeah, but we haven't been doing it. I know. We've been building on the embargo. We've been building on family relationships. You had Bush who limited Cubans to one trip a year. You had remittances that were reduced. You had airports that couldn't be used. You had embassies that were closed and then reopened.

It's ridiculous because it's ridiculous, because it's been a tit-for-tat stalemate. This is the last communist redoubt, and the reality is Donald Trump could, if he so chooses, change that, and so could the Cubans. Now, they may not, because both derive tremendous political benefit from the status quo. But what is clear for anybody who watches Cuba is that today was worse than yesterday

and tomorrow will definitely be worse than today. And eventually, for good reasons or other reasons, the Cubans will have to engage with South Florida because most of their human capital, most of the capital that Cuba needs is sitting in South Florida. And we've got to find a solution to this because if we don't, Cuba will blow up and it'll land on us.

And there is no question we do not want Haiti 90 miles away. And the perfect example is that, when was the last time you heard about Haiti? It's a horrible situation that's going on there. And yet, since Haitians are staying in Haiti, we don't hear about them. And Haiti's a long way away from where Cuba is on the doorstep of the United States. Congressman, last question. I've made a lot of true crime documentaries. I have a lot of friends who are Cuban Americans, Colombian Americans, Venezuelans.

They have been convicted of terrible crimes in their past. Some decades ago, drug trafficking, in some cases, violent crimes. They have paid their debt to society as far as the criminal justice system in our country is concerned. They are out. You're talking about the potentially millions of people in fear, living in fear every day in this country, particularly in our community in South Florida about the threat of deportation.

Also Medicare frauds, some of them defrauded the federal government, Medicare fraud, or you know, that's very popular. Most of them are historic, but Billy, you're talking about over 49,000 Cubans who have a deportation order, but Cuba wouldn't accept them. And so some of them are pillars of the community.

You wouldn't know it, but every year they've got to go in and get a new work permit, a new documentation, because the new rules of INS make you do that. Some of them go in and they never come out, but these are people who've been in this country for 50, 60 years. They committed crimes when they were young and unwise and they served their time, some of them quite long sentences,

and now they come out and this administration wants to deport them. If you notice those two cases that the Herald talked about and and that it's been all over the internet, two Cubans, both of them came to the U.S. at a very young age. They got heavy sentences for violence and other crimes. One I think was engaged in murder. They spent some 20 odd years in federal penitentiaries. And when they got out, you know, they've got no family, they've got no migratory status. And of course they tried to throw them back to the Cubans.

And the Cubans said, they've lived in theans and the Cubans said they've lived in the US longer than they've lived in Cuba. We're not taking them back. And of course the US government in its new, I don't know, harkening back to the French government in the 1800s, they're trying to find a devil's island to stick all these people. In this case, I think they sent them to South Sudan,

which isn't a civil war and they're sitting at an airport there at South Sudan. But apparently that's how we treat people we don't want. So so congressman is the message that no one is safe and it doesn't matter if Cuba or Venezuela won't take you back, we'll send you to El Salvador or to Sudan. They already have and and I think it's two of the most horrible things I've ever seen

and by the way there's not enough room in El Salvador to hold all the people who are under deportation orders now which do not qualify for repatriation. Former congressman Joe Garcia, thanks so much for joining us today. Thank you for inviting me. Congressman Joe Garcia, thanks so much for joining us today. Thank you for inviting me. Hey, friends. It's Jarabare here. And I'm here to tell you all about Boost Mobile, which is now a legit nationwide 5G network.

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If there's anything... Commissioner, with all due respect, see dkng.co. slash audio. If there's anything. With all due respect, your time is up. Okay, if there's anything that there's here that anybody wants to bring up, bring it to the state attorney's office. Like I'm gonna bring up the tens of thousands of dollars, sir, that you have gotten in freebies since you become trust chairman.

Really? Have you or you have not gone on Friday, the first Friday of the ultra, with six members of your family in this character, you went there, it cost tens of thousands of dollars, and you didn't pay a penny. Thank you. Just like you did in prior years, just like you did in prior years, just like you did in prior years,

just like Commissioner King was there also, and all the commissioners. That's a lie. I did not do that in prior years. You prove it if I did. That's a lie. See, you want to turn this into a kangaroo court, like you always do.

Like you always do. No, you're the liar, sir. The function was built without permits. He always does the same thing, and this is what I was telling you, gentlemen, not to get into. Okay? He is the one that has a kangaroo court where all the employees, a lot of employees in the

city of Miami are scared of him. If you go talk to the employees without none of his presence, of course, what went on there in Bayfront Trust, you would find that everybody was terrified of this gentleman. Okay? Terrified. He doesn't speak about the facts. What he wants to do with you is he wants to muddy the waters today. He wants to detract. He wants to control the narrative and the narrative is the wrongdoing that was happening in Bayfront Trust and what I

promised as a commissioner to bring forward. I promised transparency and accountability when I became chairman and that's exactly what I'm doing. He doesn't like the fact you know that this is going on okay and I would advise him okay I would advise him we have enough lawsuits already okay in the city of Miami basically 95 percent of them of having to do with him to get into more okay we're simply going to report here what has happened, okay, and let the chips fall where they may. Everybody's favorite telenovela at Miami City Hall continues. How's it say shit show in Espanol, Roy? Shitso. Works, that works.

Listen, believe it or not, there is actually sanity and order going on at City Hall now. I know it sounds a little out of control, but that's because of course, everybody's least favorite commissioner, Joe Corollo. He's a white fever white fever, yeah that's Joe Corollo. He's there doing his thing, trying to distract,

trying to, you know, as Commissioner Gabella, who you heard there, who is now the chairman of the Bayfront Park Trust Management, it's like a bunch of words thrown together, the Bayfront Park Management Trust. The trust was formally chaired by Joe Carollo. It was taken from him after the chaos that he creates everywhere he goes.

He had like seven executive directors in seven years. That was all intentional to create a situation where he was the only person who knew what was going on, who the board answered to. And of course, there are now serious allegations. The headline reads, Miami park leaders allege city commissioner, that's Joe Corollo, misused tax dollars.

That's what that emergency or special Bayfront trust meeting was about that you were just listening to. And Correia was there to just kind of distract attention away, make false accusations. As you know, every accusation is a confession, Roy. So if you want to know what Joe is up to, you just need to listen to what he's accusing other people of. Joining us now is Commissioner Miguel Gabella, Miami City Commissioner and and of course, now the chairman of the Bayfront Trust. Commissioner, that was a little bit of the chaos there in that clip, and it's all good and fun, but the story was a serious one. The meeting was a serious one. Can you give us a little bit of an overview about what it is that you have discovered

since you've taken over at the Bayfront Trust, which for those people who don't know, it's right outside the studio here. It is the Central Park of Miami. It's a beautiful place with a lot of money going in and out of there. And what did you find was happening when Joe Corolla was in charge? Well, first of all, thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak about this issue, which is a very serious issue and important issue for a lot of the residents of the city of Miami, if not all. important issue for a lot of the residents of the City of Miami, if not all.

And, and yes, Billy, what transpired was that since I became chairman, we started to notice irregularities that have been going on in the past, and we brought this to the forefront with a special meaning because this is the equivalent, he has taken funds when he was, when Joe Garoglio was chairman of the Bayfront Trust, apparently funds were diverted from Bayfront Trust entity to other entities that had nothing to do with Bayfront Trust. Hence, for example, the food operation that he was assembling in Bayfront Trust, which had nothing to do with his district, but yet he assembled those bags of food and used paid employees paid from the Bayfront Trust to assemble those bags of food that then went to his district and you see the bags that they have as local. That's

misappropriation of funds. That is fraud in my book because I don't think that I, for example, was put in charge of Bayfront Trust as chairman to divert funds to help my political career or to divert funds from Bayfront Park to my district. That's what he did. And that's what we reported. It's my due diligence and my obligation to report this. And that's simply what we did. He had his answer to this.

If you notice, his answer is, he doesn't defend himself. His answer is throwing, like you said, you know, his answer is he doesn't defend himself. His answer is throwing, like you said, muddy in the water, controlling the narrative, okay, and making it detracting from what really is going on by now, threatening me with a code enforcement by calling, by instructing Art Noriega, our city manager, to come after me and my properties and to investigate my properties. What I can tell you right now, Billy, I have zero violations and have had zero violations with the exception of some trash violations that one of my tenants took out furniture

that they moved and they took it out one day earlier. It's a $150 fine. I told them not to do it again and I paid it out of my pocket. But that's it. I have zero violations since I've owned that property. You know, and the same thing from my house, the most I have on my house is a graffiti that I called for to be removed. There was a service call and that's what I have. This is what he does. This is the weaponization of city government. Yeah. He weaponizes city government like he did with Bill Fuller, like he did with Martin Bonilla.

And this is 2.0 now with me and my wife, and my wife, which is also a citizen of the city of Miami. And now he wants to sick his dogs. Okay. And listen, not all people in the city of Miami or in court enforcement are bad people. Okay. But you must understand that this gentleman is weaponizing city government. It's already cost us in the millions of dollars. He's doing it again. He's got a track record.

He's got an ammo. And this is precisely what he does to his political opponents. You know, the only thing is that he thinks now that he can do it to me and that he can get away with it. The problem is he's got a track record. We all know what he's done before. And like I said, this is costing the taxpayers in excess of $10 million.

We're still at it. We still have lawsuits on top of this that we're now negotiating, okay, trying to settle. Okay, there's legal costs, ramifications, and here he goes again one more time, okay? And I don't know why our city manager allows himself to be put into this position is what I understand. And I think he's in the middle of all this,

but I think, okay, I think that the city manager knows that Joe Garouyo used his chief of staff, William Ortiz as his proxy to basically give an order to ART to investigate my properties. One again, my properties don't have a problem, okay? None of my properties. Now, his properties, Joe Caraglio's properties, they've had problems in the past.

This has been public. And guess what? I asked for an abstract, if you will, of violations on my property, which I have with me, okay? And I've got zero problems. But when you go to search for his past violations, they're all covered up, they're redacted. And if you go on the Miami-Dade County website,

you can't, you put his name in, it's like a police officer, it's erased completely. You go to my stuff and you can see my properties and you can read the information. You do it to him, we just got a redacted copy that a lot of stuff is blacked out. Who knows if he still has the violations. I understand he cut a banyan tree down. He was cited for illegal carports. It's like eight or nine or ten different

things. And the latest one was about one commission meeting ago or two commission meetings ago, I did not know that there was an ordinance being passed for fences from four feet to six feet and guess what? I've learned that this this was supposed to happen to accommodate him because I understand that he might have a problem with offense and and His pool and because they tell me to weird configuration I want to know because I've never been to his house nor plan to okay But this is the thing that that's going on here that, you know, this is serious business. He's making it out to be like it's, you know, some kind of joke, you know. Roy, I want to

clarify what the commissioner is saying is that Joe Correia brought an ordinance to the commission to vote on it about fences that was only for the purpose of benefiting himself because he has an issue. He is violating code with his hands. So he was just trying to change. Yeah, just change the laws. Yeah, so that he could benefit from which he did, of course, with the redistricting, which he's done.

I mean, that is weaponization of government in and of itself, creating legislation solely for his own personal benefit. Commissioner, you brought up a really interesting point a moment ago. Obviously, you've got tens of thousands of employees, I think, you know, working at the city. They are not all bad. Of course not. There's a lot of very hard-working people who just want to wake up in the morning, do their jobs, be public servants, help the city, help the commissioners,

help the residents, the business owners. But those people live and work in fear and in terror and that is part of the weaponization and when they know that shit rots from the top down and when they know the the city manager is in on it, when they know the city attorney is covering for it and enabling it and they know that you've got this wannabe tin pot dictator kind of running the city with an iron fist and Joe Correia, people are scared to come forward. Is there some way to enable whistleblowers to anonymously,

you know, people want to come to your special meeting about the weaponization of city government, but they are scared to show their faces. They are scared to participate because they know they're going to get targeted and have their homes taken away or their businesses, you know, livelihoods destroyed. You know that. Your wife seems in fear. So is there some way that city residents, business owners, city employees, the good ones, can come forward

and bring anonymous tips, whistleblowers, so that they don't get retaliated against from their own government? I would encourage our citizens, if you have any information on the Bayfront Trust and what happened there, please come forward, come to my office and tell me about it because we're trying to get to the bottom of things. And I'm sure that we continue now, we've asked for a forensic audit.

It was supposed to be done a year and a half ago, a year ago, the late commissioner, former commissioner, Malo to raise asked for it. We learned that it has never been done. And now we're doing one of our own. We've picked an auditing company that has no ties with anybody. And all of a sudden we get the city,

the financial department is telling us that they have an auditor already. And we're saying, no, no, thank you. We're picking up our own auditor, you know, and you're late to the game because this should have happened a year ago. That's the next step that we are taking. But this gentleman weaponizes city government. This is what he's done in the past. He's doing it again. Now he's doing it with a fellow commissioner, you know, and it's just sad what's going on and what you have to hear. But

here's the, I would hope that the city manager has gone through this before. This is not his first rodeo. He knows this is not correct, okay? He knows this is not correct. And all we've asked for is look, if he wants to do this witch hunt, okay, he can't do it and weaponize city government.

I wanna pass a resolution so this can never happen again between commissioners, okay? And my resolution says that if you got a complaint against another fellow commissioner, you go ahead and present it to the county and let the county pick a third party and give it to whoever it is that they want to give it to. Because if you see this man, Joe Garou, in the way he acts, he passed a resolution, an ordinance about five years ago that said the city of Miami Police Department cannot investigate the city of Miami commissioners.

I think, you know, good or bad, I think that was a good thing because it avoids conflict of interest. Well, this is the same thing. This is the same thing, you know, it takes the conflict of interest out, you know, but he's against it. You know why he's against it?

Because he's hoping to weaponize the city government against me, a fellow commissioner, because he's got a politicalize the city government against me, a fellow commissioner, because he's got a political ax to grind with me. Understand that he did this through his chief of staff, directing the city manager to take action against me when I have zero problems in my properties. And he did it the same day that I'm gonna do the meeting. He puts this memo out at 12 something, 12.45 in the afternoon,

about 15 minutes before I'm gonna start my meeting. And I don't get the text of that message until the next day from Art Nordeaga. Commissioner, I want to show this clip from the last commission meeting because it's really compelling for a long time, you know, City Hall watcher like myself to finally see Joe Carollo get a taste of his own medicine. The bullying, the kangaroo courts, all the bullshit he puts the city through, the employees through, his family through, his constituents through, but you decided that rightfully so, we're going to shut the meeting down because you have the same vote as him. You have the same power as he does. You're one of five, well now four unfortunately commissioners up there on the dais, you have the same bully pulpitpit he has but he seems to abuse it in ways that make him like the de facto strong mayor

and city manager and police chief and I just want to show this clip and have you give us some context on it. Can I suggest I have an important discussion item that has to do with all of us and I'd like to take that up now. No sir, I would like not to just get to discussion items I'd like to move through the agenda if we possibly can. But you're not going to be here. You said you're not going to be here. But I don't have to be here. There's three of you which makes no no no.

I need your vote on this because I've been I've been targeted by the city of Miami code enforcement department. There's a city manager because of doing my job on Bayfront Trust and Commissioner Garoglio is harassing me. Okay. He wants you want my house to be investigated when I have done. No ma'am. city manager because of doing my job on Bayfront Trust and Commissioner Garoglio is harassing me. Okay, Commissioner. You want my house to be investigated when I have done. Commissioner Gabella, please.

No ma'am, no ma'am. I know what's going on here. No, Commissioner Gabella. So I'll tell you what, that I'm leaving. If I don't do this, I'm leaving right now. This is ridiculous that you don't want to. I did not say that we would not take it up. I said we would take it up in order.

Yeah, but when you leave, I need your vote. I need your vote, Madam Chair. Okay, but Commissioner Gabella, I have a commitment. Okay, then let me let us take care of this. We have other work to be done and we go in order. We will go in order as we always do. The mayor presented something today at the last minute and you took it every time. I always end up in the same thing. Mine's just time sensitive. You know why? Because the code enforcement is coming after me for doing my job.

Oh, ma'am, that's what's going on here. If that's your position, because I'm not going to take the discussion items out of order, if that's your position and you leave, we won't have any more commission meeting if that's what you want. This is a resolution. No No it's a discussion item. Again if we can have some training on the agenda process and how this Commission should work with protocols I would appreciate that because I don't want it to seem as if I'm being unfair. You're being unfair because I am not being harassed.

I am being harassed, ma'am. I am being harassed and I want to save the city of Miami. You will be able to speak when it's... Okay. If you allow me, please. The commission meeting is now in recess. The commission, I will not be here. My commissioners are here.

It's three, they have a quorum. They can't... Okay, so then the commission meeting has now resumed. The commission... Thank you. The commission has recessed. Thank you. The commission meeting is over.

Thank you. My two favorite lines there, Roy, are when chairwoman Christine King, the commissioner says, I don't want it to look like I'm being unfair. Which because she's being unfair. And of course, when Commissioner Gabello, when you say, I know what's going on here. Again, we all know what's going on here. And but I want to know, I'm going to give you the last word right at time. But what did you mean by I know what's going on here and what happened there and why did you feel the need to do what you did? Look, here's what's going on. Okay, number one, she has a tough job to do and I realize this, right, because she's in the middle of what got all you and myself. Okay, but she was willing to take on the mayor's last minute

request and you know what the mayor's last minute request was about? Paddle ball, Padel. Okay, that's what that request was about. That's time sensitive, commissioner. Yeah, that's apparently that's more important than weaponizing city government, I guess, but I'll give her the benefit of the doubt.

You know why? Because I'm not gonna speak ill of my fellow commissioners except for Joe Carollo, okay? Because I don't have beef with the chairwoman. I don't have a problem with Commissioner Pardo. Okay, my problem is with Joe Carollo and what he is attempting to do, which is to get his way always in the city hall.

And earlier in the week, you know there was a building collapse, right Billy? There was a partial building collapse in my area. In Alipada, yeah. In Alipada. I asked Art Noriega that I wanted answers. I wanted answers. The day after it happened, I wanted answers.

And he told me that he would get to it, and I gave him the benefit of the doubt, because I was very livid of what had happened in my area, because this was a building that for five or six years was known to be unsafe, okay, and was left like that until finally almost came down on somebody. Luckily, nobody was injured, but I don't want that to happen again in my area or any parts of the city of Miami. I asked that to be put on as an emergency pocket item, and they said no to me. I got the emails to prove it. If that isn't an emergency for a pocket item, I do not know what it is, Billy. I do not know what it is. And what it is, is that people are scared of Joe Carollo. Okay? They are scared of Joe Carollo,

and therefore they do this. Because Joe Carollo, what Joe Carollo wants is for somehow, he's hoping that Rosado wins this campaign now on Tuesday, and then he has the majority. Then he wants the code enforcement to investigate my properties, which have no merit whatsoever, to be investigated. Maybe his does, I would dare say. But this is what he's doing. So what he did was he did a maneuver. They did a maneuver so I can not pass the resolution

that I wanted to pass. And the resolution was quite simply, you got a problem, send it to the county and let the county deal with it. Whether it's my properties, your properties, whoever's property, we're both elected officials, okay? But this is funny coming from Joe Garroyo, who's known to have violations,

multiple violations on his property. This is funny, okay? That he, you know, does this and his MO, as you know, is always going after his political enemies with anything he has. The problem for him is that I'm also a city commissioner like himself, okay, and I have the same right to ask anybody any questions on that dais, as long as they're fair questions, that's what I'm going to stick to. And they want to, he wants to damage me because again, he wants to detract, he wants to get away

from what happened in Bayfront Trust and we're reporting. He needs to get back to Bayfront Trust to who knows what he's trying, he's scared of us uncovering. I've heard that there's talk that he made a deal with Rosado and if Rosado comes in, they're gonna put him back on the Bayfront Trust. I wonder what he's scared of that we next.

Well, he's petrified of the forensic audit. We know that. That's why it hasn't happened for years. Roy, to be clear, Miami priorities are paddle ball overbuilding collapses. Commissioner Gabbella, thanks so much for being here. Good luck to you and your family. I know that this is a very traumatic experience

when you have your own government going after you and your wife and your grandchildren. So I wish you the best of luck. Thank you very much, sir. Thank you for having me on. God bless. Miami history was made last week, Roy. I don't know if you heard about this.

Did you hear about this? It's usually bad history that's made down here. This is pretty fun. This is going to be an in show, pat on the back, victory lap kind of a thing. Friend of the show, Fernando Mondi, who's been a guest of the years, appeared at Miami City Hall during public comment at that Bayfront Trust emergency meeting

that we talked about with Commissioner Cabela moments ago. And he decided as part of his presentation, he was going to play live in City Hall, echoing throughout the chambers from the speakers, a very long clip from this show, from Because Miami. I don't know if you jump in. It was the Joe Carollo Fountain of Death rant, the monologue. It was actually a breaking news story that we did on this program.

We got some exclusive documents and did this story and he played it for the big front. Was wife Peter on her? It was, no, but Ponzi Postolita is. So the cart from the song, played in City Hall. And this is a... So the mayor caught us straight. It's funny. I saw the mayor's from the chambers of the City Commission.

You can see upstairs there's like this this walkway with glass windows looking down across the entire length of the back wall. And I could see I think the mayor's like sergeant at arms is peeking down there when this video started to play. And so this is a cut down version of the longer segment from the podcast and that we posted to socials. But it was pretty wild. I was sitting there, I think you could probably hear me

and some other people in the gallery there laughing because we just can't believe what's happening before our very eyes. But quite a Miami moment to end the show. Cocats and Cocains. I saw in particular a very powerful piece of local journalism by a local journalist that I think helps set the table, certainly for why many of us are here.

And I think it would be very instructive to watch it. It's only a couple of minutes. More breaking news from the broken city of Miami. It's Joe Corollo's Fountain of Death. The corrupt commissioner's unfinished five and a half million dollar Bayfront Park boondoggle is a money pit and possible death trap. A secret memo obtained exclusively by Because Miami reveals safety concerns about the risk of electrocution and drowning in the newly restored Bayfront Park fountain leading to a temporary ricketyety, rusted, rented chain link fence

around the entire perimeter held up only by a few sandbags. This never before published internal memo provided to the trust in mid-December confirms Corollo's awareness of the deadly risks and possibility of personal injury lawsuits. The memo was reportedly sent by DG Aqua, the company that got a no-bid emergency contract to restore the fountain, even though there was no emergency since the fountain had been shut down for 15 years. Where did then Bayfront Park chairman Joe Carollo find this company, you ask? None other than Mayor Brantas Suarez introduced him to this company, saying, How can I help?

And the next thing you know, they got this crazy $5.5 million deal. If you put garbage in, you're gonna get garbage out. And it's now on its way to becoming the world's largest and most expensive homeless bidet. I just went by there today and discovered the fountain is completely empty, drained of water and filled with workers. Two months after the so-called grand reopening, they have to repaint the entire fountain because it's already showing signs of rust. Grand opening, grand closing!