The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - #BecauseMiami: The Sharpened Veto Pen

Episode Date: January 12, 2024

Billy Corben keeps saying that Ron DeSantis's presidential campaign is almost over. But what's going to happen when his wrath from an embarrassing loss is unleashed on the state of Florida? NBC News senior national politics reporter Matt Dixon talks about how the actual campaign has gone. Florida State Representative Anna Eskamani, out of the 42nd district near Orlando, mentions some of the bad laws being debated in Tallahassee. And executive director of the Florida Women’s Freedom Coalition Anna Hochkammer discusses fighting to get abortion on the ballot. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to Giraffe King's Network. Everyone knows my husband, Ron DeSantis, is endorsed by President Trump. But he's also an amazing dad. Ron loves playing with the kids. Build the wall. He reads stories. Then Mr. Trump said,

you're fired. I love that part. He's teaching Madison to talk. Make America great again. People say Ron's all Trump, but he is so much more. Big league, so good. I just thought you should know. Rondusatus, for governor. A lot of boring math later.

We don't want to run against Rondus Saint Demonius with his high heels. And his of boring math later. We don't want to run against Ron de Sanctimones with his high heels. And his bobble head, bullshit, you know. It looks like a bobble head doll. I don't like him because I endorse him and, you know, I got him elected. Oh, but it's sad when a love affair dies. Isn't it sad? No. Hard breaking, right? No, no, no, it's not.

As this pointless Republican primary chugs along with useless debates and town halls, we are back to fear and Florida men on the campaign trail. I was right in the middle of a reptile zoo. Somebody was giving booze to these goddamn things. As a native Florida man myself, I am well aware that the politics of my home state are tougher to crack than the zodiac killer's cipher. And our last seven years have somehow managed to be uniquely inexplicable. Fear not, my fellow truth seekers, NBC news, national politics reporter Matt Dixon, Florida's own enigma translation machine is here with his new book,

swamp monsters, Trump versus DeSantis. Matt Dixon, thank you for being here. Where did the first cracks in the Maga Love story between Trump and DeSantis first start to form and what was ultimately the anvil that broke the camel's back here in this relationship? I mean, if you want to call it a mage of love story, I think the cracks really started out the beginning. You played that ad, that ad was before on the Santos-wise governor.

You know, forward-facing, they were holding hands, their best friends, picnics in the park, all of that. But even in that moment in time, and we get into it in the book about how the the DeSantis campaign, particularly Casey, who's very influential, didn't particularly like the ad, they thought it was kind of corny,

but we're ultimately convinced to do it because that was sort of peak powers for Trump. His endorsement was rocket fuel. So they were pretty much just seen as checking a box. And that got back to the Trump crew and President Trump himself. And they were none too pleased. So it wasn't boiling over publicly at that point.

They were still good for a couple of years, you know, working hand in hand, but that was really the start of the idea that there was tensioner or a little bit of mistrust. And I think that the Annville, it sort of broke it all. It was just, DeSantis has rise in the polls. I mean, throughout the 2022 midterms, the America's governor stuff,

he was beating Trump and head to head in a lot of polling nationally and in specific states. And it all comes down to one word for Trump. It's all about loyalty, all about loyalty. And he doesn't think Grand The Sanchez was loyal to him because he endorsed him and played a huge role in how to make him governor and then ran against him. And I think this is as personal as it is political. And it's going to go on for past this campaign in the primary season.

The book is kind of filled with, you know, chock full of these kinds of behind the scenes, anecdotes, some really outstanding access, some hilarious interviews and sound bites all throughout, you know, between my mild bouts of PTSD while reading the book. I think it's like an alternately haunting and hilarious first draft of history that I think is pretty essential to understanding one of only two major political parties in this country. And it's now modern transformation and history. And you made an interesting point that I wonder about. Does DeSantis hate this guy?

Has he always hated this guy? Was he ever a true maga believer or did he just need or use Trump to get elected? This was just at least one way a relationship of convenience. Oh, 100%. I think very much a relationship of convenience. And I don't know that the Sanctus has ever been truly sort of a follower of mag or America first, whatever it's called these days. I think he's always kind of been in the power acquisition game.

And he's been concerned about his rise and sort of the quickest way to ascend. And without question that moment in time was a Donald Trump endorsement. He got it. So I certainly wouldn't say that he hates the guy or at least he didn't in the beginning, even though there's been an uneasiness about their relationship the whole time. I mean, I do think some of the policy stuff that the two are genuinely aligned on, but I don't think the San this is a follower of any movement except kind of his own.

There's a really intriguing kind of, I don't want to call it your thesis per se, but among your your thesis in the book that, you know, Florida has gone from swing state where it was important historically and politically, now to the ultimate Republican state. And that's now kind of what seems to be crucial about and super relevant about Florida right now. Want to read this passage from your introduction. The Republican party's mascot has of course remained the elephant, but the new party could

just as easily be represented by a shirtless man from Florida, wearing Mickey Mouse ears while riding an alligator through the Everglades, a pub sub in one hand, a kaffasito in the other, and a half-smoke cigar clenched between his teeth. It is now the party of Florida, man. And so Florida really embodies the WWEification of American politics to me. Performative conflict over policy, culture wars over governing style, over substance. How does this Trump versus DeSantis battle here represent that? It's the first time I've heard that wrote out loud.

It certainly hits different. The book originally was supposed to be about that after it's the first time I've heard that wrote out loud. It certainly hits different. The book originally was supposed to be about that after it was the nation's largest swing state. And it's now, especially after DeSantis and Trump, certainly a center right state. And my publisher sat me down at one point and said, Hey, Matt, if you want to sell any of these books, you got to take your Florida nerd pad off and expand a little bit. Maybe let's focus on the two biggest characters in American politics at the moment. So really, that was kind of the evolution of the book from what you described to what it is today. But we still kept a lot of the initial reporting and a lot of the initial writing about

just that, about how Republicans have not just sort of surpassed Democrats in the state, but Democratic Party is his catered here. There's a 600,000 plus more registered Republicans than there are Democrats in the state right now. And Democrats forever held that registration lead. So, DeSantis' 20 point victory is we're kind of learning his reelection victory by 20 points, as we're kind of learning, was just as much about,

he was a politician on a hot streak, but it was also a, he was functionally running without opposition. And that's kind of, you know, literally implement some of the things you outlined as far as, you know, what he's focusing on, what the state's focusing on and how it's kind of become the, you know, the clubhouse for the post-mogger Republican party. And to be clear, as we enter this presidential election year, Florida is not still a swing state, isn't it? It is not a purple state.

I mean, Georgia is a swing state, certainly compared to Florida. So without question, I mean, I think there's still enough Democrats here. There's potential for it to regain that title. It's some point in the future. I don't know that I would totally count it out, but as of right now, I don't think the Democrats at the state level are in the game of winning President, presidential races, US Senate races, Rick Scott, reelection is up up this cycle. And they're just, they're not getting as much help as they used to from the national Democrats as a

result. The money in 2022 from national Democrats pouring into Florida was significantly reduced from what Democrats are used to. So no money and fewer voters is, it's just not a good equation for, for wind and racism right now. That's kind of the, the rough that's are stuck in. Well, I think the national democratic party has determined that there's no ROI here in Florida. Yeah. I mean, it's, I, I, I think I've tried. Yeah. Yeah. It's not worth the investment when they can invest it in, for example, Georgia. Yeah. Georgia, Arizona, North Carolina are the new Florida's, and they're a lot cheaper. Florida's got 10 really expensive media markets. You can do a lot more in some of those smaller states than you couldn't Florida.

And the Democrats don't need Florida to win a presidential election. The Republicans do. And they're not even, I mean, Democrats nationally don't even make the calculation anymore of that. Well, maybe it's, though we don't need Florida, the other guys do. So let's, you know, spend some resources there and try to take it off the map. That's not even really much of a consideration at the moment. How much of DeSantis' rise can be credited to his wife, Casey, who seems to be, by all

accounts, the more savvy, charismatic, maybe even more ambitious of the two in the couple. Not insignificant. She's a very close advisor. We can talk about how DeSantis is imploding nationally, but coming a two-term governor of the state of Florida is a pretty impressive feat and sort of something more than 99.9% of politicians will ever achieve or ever get to. And her guidance and her counsel is really what resonates most of them. He's got a circle of advisors like every politician does at a major level, but their voices don't break through nearly to the degree that hers does, they're sort of functionally

more yes men than sort of steering the ship. But Casey's weight has sway. So that agreed to which her counsel has helped him win two races, and including a big one in his reelection. I don't think me totally overstated even though, you know, he's limping a bit as a politician right now. Two more questions before we go. First, I wonder what went wrong. Prior to entering this GOP primary, DSantis was pulling through the roof, not just in Florida, but nationally. And now it's just like, I mean, I don't even think he's beating Nikki Haley at this point.

So what went wrong with Ron DeSantis going national? I think there's a lot of people right now, and we've been doing a bunch of interviews on this, sort of point to the six months after his reelection win, 20 actually got in. He was reelected by this huge margin. We've been talking about November of 2022 didn't get in until May 24th, which is a huge window where he lost momentum. His poll numbers just in that time period were already starting to go down and he functionally kind of launched a presidential campaign from a position of weakness. When months earlier, he still had all that America's governor and Moe and was kind of at his

peak political power. So I do think there's a moment there, the governor's team decided, you know, we're going to focus on, do this book tour and sort of pretend like they're political rallies and then project the idea that we're focusing on our state's legislative session where the sort of more effective bureaucrats than Trump, we can actually get things done. And that was the image they were projecting at that time, but it served nothing, but to sort of, you know, create a vacuum that Trump very quickly filled

and sort of brutally filled. It was sort of the, became the meatball Ron era that period of time. I wish I had the carts working. I've got carts for all of this. You got it down right, meatball. Thank you. Thanks Thanks Roy. Roy's, we're doing a manual here. We'll do it live. We'll do the cards live. I like it. I like it. It adds some character. It really does. It does. The soul. Matt Dixon in the last 30 seconds here. I've talked about this

with Mark Caputo. I'm going to talk about it with Florida state rep, Anesca Monty later in the show, with the, I think, inevitable and perhaps imminent end of the DeSantis presidential campaign in 2024. Perhaps only weeks away. What does a bruised battered, defeated lame duck to Santis, look like coming back to the state of Florida with his veto pen sharpened. Yeah, I think he's going to come back angry and try to reassert himself over the legislature. I mean, he had complete and total control over the Republican dominated legislature over the past few years. There are some people who are opining that, you know, getting losing on the national stage

and sort of having to come home with the stay of each of his legs is going to somehow create olive branches or just it'll be a different dynamic and the legislature, which I do not think is going to happen. So I think we're going to see what we saw out of Governor DeSantis in the past few legislative sessions and probably a compliant legislature that's willing to go along with them. It is notable with the legislative session until I see just started in the Santos really has an outline and he sort of policy agenda. That's different than yours past where he would have, you know, big splashy press conferences across the state to announce what he wanted lawmakers to do.

We haven't seen any of this year because he's running for president. So he hasn't really articulated an agenda. He wants them to pass at the moment, but I think the moment he gets back and when that really starts to get going, it's gonna feel a lot like it has the past few sessions here.

NBC News, National Politics Reporter, and author of the new book, Swamp Monsters, Trump versus DeSantis. Matt Dixon, good luck with the book, I love it. All right, thanks so much guys, I appreciate you having me. The Dan Levitard show with Stu Gotts is sponsored by BetterHelp. Around New Year's we get obsessed with how to change ourselves instead of just expanding on what we're already doing right.

Therapy can be helpful for personal growth, managing mental health challenges, improving relationships, or coping with life's changes. Embarking on therapy in New Year can be a positive and transformative step for many individuals. Personal growth and change take time. Be patient with yourself and acknowledge the progress no matter how small. Therapy helps you find your strengths so you can ditch all the extreme resolutions and make changes that really stick. If you're thinking of starting therapy, give better help a try.

It's entirely online designed to be convenient, flexible and suited to your schedule. Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist and switch therapists at any time for no additional charge. Therapy helps you find your strengths so you can ditch the extreme resolutions and make changes that really stick. Celebrate the progress you've already made. Visit betterhelp.com slash DOB today to get 10% off for the first month. That's betterhelpHELP.com slash do be.

Other issues though may not bring bipartisanship. Some in the GOP majority are trying to reverse the rule made after the Parkland shooting that raised the age to buy an assault rifle to 21. It could go back to 18. It comes down to constitutionality and the right to bear arms. You know, the constitution is very clear on this. Shall not be in French. The 2024 Florida legislative session is underway in Tallahassee. Florida lawmakers are

in town and ready to punch down. Joining us now for a sneak preview on all the Florida. F.A.R.E. Thank you. You're welcome. Roy won't have to bleep that one is Anna Eskimani. She is a member of the Florida House of Representatives representing the 42nd District, which covers the Orlando area in central Florida.

Thanks so much for being here. I guess we could begin there. I mean, other than handing assault rifles to teenagers who can't even rent cars, by the way, when they come to visit Disneyland and your neck of the woods, other than that, what are some of the other terrible, terrible ideas Florida legislators would like to make the law of the land in this session? Oh, it's truly horrifying. And thanks for having me on too. It's great to be here.

Wow, what have they not already done? I mean, it's wild. You think that they've gone far enough and they come up with something new and crazy. And so we have a total abortion ban that has been filed by one of South Florida's owner, President of Guerrero. We also have multiple tax on transgender people, including, oh, requiring insurance companies to cover so

called conversion therapy, which is not real. You have child labor efforts to eliminate Florida's child labor protections and to force children to work. And we can easily from to drop out of school. You have legislation preempting any type of restriction on single use plastic. Meanwhile, as governor of the Sanctus goes on his family presidential bid, profit insurance rates are out of control, rent is out of control, and you continue to see just a complete neglect of issues that impact everyday people.

When you say total abortion ban, that is with no exemptions, is that right? Correct. I mean, no exceptions for rape or incest, the only exception in legislation in his very narrow and his life of the pregnant person, which as we see with the 15-week abortion ban, many doctors are even uncomfortable to make that claim for fear of losing a medical license. So they've allowed patients to become more sick before they can even access care. So that's the only exception in this bill. It also criminalizes individuals who mail abortion medication. It speaks to what would be a very invasive policy of checking, you know, who receives abortion by pill by the mail. And so it's incredibly far reaching. And it's just another example of why we need

to codify abortion in Florida and our state constitution because nothing is ever enough for these people. They already did a six-foot-a-borsion band that hasn't even been implemented yet and they want to go further. And of course, when you say life of the mother, that also means that if a child, a young girl, a teenager, unfortunately,

think about these disgusting hypotheticals because that's exactly what they want us to do. If she were raped by her parent, her father, for example, and his pregnant, and her life is in danger, she would have to get his permission at that point as well. I mean, the whole thing is so ghoulish. Well, I'm just to add to that. So this has not gone a lot of coverage, but about a week ago, the first district court of appeal put out a decision denying a Florida minor access to an abortion. She was seeking what's called a judicial bypass, which is a legal process made available to minors under the U.S. Constitution, where if you cannot speak to your adult or guardian to seek that permission, you can go to the court.

It's a very subjective process. You basically have to prove to the judge that you are mature enough to make this decision. And so she was rejected, not just by the first court, but by the appellate court. And the opinion released is disturbing. It basically says that one reason why she was denied this bypass is because the parent wasn't there to be the adversarial party, meeting the judge wanted the parent to be there to basically speak against this minor. And that's not required in Florida law.

Florida law explicitly states this is a non-adviserial issue. So what the judge, and it's the census judge, is trying to do, is set US State Supreme Court president to say that judicial bypass is not illegal in the country. And so they're literally trying to challenge this option for minors everywhere, which to your point, if you are a survivor of sexual assault, buy your guardian, not only right now, do you have to go to this bypass process, but you potentially, if this were to go the USA Supreme Court and judicial bypass will be overruled, you would not have any option to do anything, but force pregnancy. Fabulous.

What else can you say? Why would anybody want to do this? But you said something earlier that I don't want to gloss over because with the exorbitant cost of insurance in this state, insurance companies fleeing the state due to climate change, sea level rise, hurricanes with exorbitant healthcare costs. I mean, we have some of the worst healthcare costs, some of the worst highest cost of living, highest when you can get homeowners insurance costs. But did you just say the Florida legislature, your Republican colleagues want to require insurance companies

to cover the cost of conversion therapy? Are this some, pray the gay away bullshit, isn't it? I mean, this isn't even a pseudoscience. This is science fiction is what this is. This is pure like crackery. They want insurance companies to pay for a completely made up thing. Yeah, they do.

They literally want like a church, you know, who has some bullshit program to pray the gay away to be reimbursed. Like it's wild. It's in a larger anti-trans package. So it includes, you know, other types of policies around erasing trans people. But in that legislation, there's also language

for insurance companies to be mandated around this coverage. Meanwhile, insurance companies in the proper insurance space are just dropping people left and right, leaving the state of Florida. But no, no, no, no, we're gonna make sure that these private companies, at the very least, we want to expand Medicaid, but we're going to make sure that they will cover

a conversion therapy in your plan. It's wild. Also, by the way, they want to push insurance companies not to provide coverage for gender-forming care. And if they do provide access to gender-forming care, they want to require you to also cover so-called the transition care as well, which is clearly designed to just

making sure that companies not provide any access to care. called the transition care as well, which is clearly designed to just make insurance companies not provide any access to care. So once again, you know, the party of freedom is telling the private sector what to do. It's just so disingenuous and of course offensive and dangerous. Oh, yes, the free state of Florida. What other marginalized communities have to fear the wrath of their government this session, do you think? Oh, God. Well, I mentioned the child labor law. I want to go back to that because this is literally legislation that eliminates what our media protection Florida has in place for child labor.

And the bill sponsor, when we were asking questions on this bill, we kept of course referring to the impacted community as kids, as children, as students, and she said, they are not children. They are youth workers. And it was super dystopian because I'm just like, wait a minute, let me get this straight. So if you're 16, but you take a full-time job, you are no longer a child. You're now a youth worker. Does that mean that they can go to a drag show and they can read whatever books they want to read and they can buy cigarettes and can have an abortion without parental consent? Can I get you a, can I get that in writing?

I actually filed an amendment to do that. I filed a amendment to say if you're a full time youth worker, then you don't have to get parental permission to get an abortion. Well, let me tell you, they were mad about that one. My guy, but the point stands, like, oh, mad. Mad about consistency, mad about calling out hypocrisy, mad about, uh, Roy, you, you, you have a youth worker in your family. Don't you?

Isn't Claire, uh, when Claire comes on the show, she's, that's right. She's, uh, again, paid. In fact, she's, again, paid. What an eye on her. As, as a youth worker, outstanding. Yes, childly. This is too be clear, right? Well, let's just understand this.

I want to be honest, those under the age of 18, there are pathways to work. You just can't work one at 30 hours a week. You have to have lunch breaks. And there are curfews for school nights, right? So I want to be clear, like Florida has a pathway for children to get a job. This is eliminating all of those basic protections. And the amendment they added to the bill most recently

makes it easier to also drop out of high school if you're a youth worker. So they basically want kids to stay in properties with us as, right? Because many of our students that you would end up working full time is not going to be the children of my colleagues. It's going to be children of working class families that are struggling oftentimes to make ends meet. So their kids have to go to work. And so it does feed into a structure where families that are experts, the economic insecurity will

continue to do so. This is some Indiana Jones temple of doom shit here, right? Kalimah will rule the world. I mean, this is like, wow, we're just going to have like factories full of children in Florida. I know. It's a hard idea, just. Actually, I was going to say we don't really have factories in Florida as Carl Heisen says all we produce here is oranges and guns. So we'll have children in gun factories.

Well, it's great. They have the small hands, you know, so they can, they can put all the component parts of an AR-15 together, terribly convenient. Before we go, I want to ask, because this is a question I've been asking kind of everybody as we enter this session. And as we approach the inevitable and imminent end of Governor Ron DeSantis' presidential bid, what does a bruised and battered lame duck defeated DeSantis look like back in Florida for his last, what three legislative sessions, particularly this one, is he, you

know, is he going to be, you know, sharpening that venomous veto pen? Well, let me tell you, there are two things a heart dog can do. A heart dog can whimper, a heart dot can bite and bark. And I do feel like a scientist, the kind of guy, the kind of petty, tiny man guy to try to bite a bark instead. So I am not expecting this lives, lives session to be any less extreme than previous ones. And though I'm happy for the country,

that they will not have to deal with Rhonda Santas, I am worried about Trump as each one of us should be. But I'm also concerned about Florida because we're still stuck with this guy. And so we're gonna have to continue to hold my cow d'abode, to push back, to organize against him, to protect our communities because we are still going to be

in the crossfire of extremism, coming out of the legislature and the executive branch. Last two questions, Lightning Round First, whose heels are higher yours are on to santa's ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha all the time, honey, I'm addicted to heels. And last question, I think you're right. You're take on Rhonda Santis here for this lame duck governorship. But what is the legislature gonna do?

Are they just gonna roll over and play dead? Like they usually do. Are they gonna capitulate, play ball? What do you think? Well, we're seeing some crumbling of the DeSantis Empire with Trump, right? Many Republicans that were co-signing DeSantis as every move I've now shifted to Trump. So that tension is something we can definitely amplify and see maybe if that can stop some bad bills, right? But again, like the reality is

that so many Republicans have co-signed the Maga agenda and that doesn't make things better. I mean, the Maga agenda is still making it harder to vote, banning abortion, demonizing immigrants, attacking LGBTQ plus people. So I think we have to continue to keep our guard on regardless of who's leading the, the presidential race. Florida State Rep Anna Skimani. Thanks so much for being here. Happy New Year and good luck this

session. I'll take it. May the first day with you all. Thank you. The issue of abortion rights could be on the November ballot. Supporters of a proposed constitutional amendment say it took them eight months to reach their goal. Now, they needed around 892,000 signatures

to bring the issue directly to voters. The proposed amendment read, no longshow prohibit penalize delay or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient's health as determined by the patient's health care provider. Before Attorney General Ashley Moody Fowde, 50 page brief asking the State Supreme Court to keep the proposed abortion rights amendment off the ballot arguing the language is misleading. Anna Hokimer is the executive director of the Florida Women's Freedom Coalition and a

council member of the village of Pinecrest here in Miami-Dade. And a welcome back to the show. You needed 891,523 petition signatures in time for the February deadline in order to get the subortion rights amendment on the ballot this year. You got 911 and 86, nearly 20,000 more than necessary. Well, ahead of the deadline, congratulations. This was an extraordinary effort by your organization, all the volunteers across the state who worked so hard, but as we heard from that WKMG6 Orlando story, you are not out of the woods yet.

The attorney general, the state of Florida, is taking you to the highest court in the state, the Florida Supreme Court, in an effort to keep voters in the free state of Florida is taking you to the highest court in the state, the Florida Supreme Court, and an effort to keep voters in the free state of Florida from being able to vote on this amendment, which has been quite successful in other states. What is the next challenge here? Well, I mean, I don't want to overstate what's happening at the Florida Supreme Court, either.

It's just it's part of the process, whether the AG objected to the language and said it was misleading or not. The Florida Supreme Court has to sign off on the bout language for all of these initiatives and that's where we are in the process. She's going to make her arguments and we're going to make ours and we drafted the language carefully. I mean, I think we comply with the standard. The Florida standard is it needs to be single subject and it needs to be clear and unambiguous and not misleading. And we think that that's the case. It's two sentences long. Even Floridians, God bless us.

Have the reading comprehension to figure out that it means what it says. So you anticipate overcoming this obstacle then. You don't even see it as an obstacle just as part of the... Part of the process. February 7th, that's when the oral arguments are in Tallahassee. And I would imagine that that will be very interesting. These sorts of oral arguments are always super interesting and there's always different advocacy groups up there.

And because there's media paying attention to it, you really do get people, you know, with the aluminum foil hats and all the crazy stuff out there on the steps of the Florida Supreme Court. So it should be some good fodder. But ultimately, it's a really important issue because it's about the health and well-being of the women and girls in this state. We think that we'll get the opportunity to have Therian's vote on this matter and that when we do in November, we'll win. What is the current state of the state? There was a 15 week abortion ban for time we had

an abortion ban with no exceptions whatsoever, including for rape and incest. Another of such bill has been introduced by a lawmaker for the current legislative session in Tallahassee. And then there was a six week abortion ban subsequently passed that was signed by the governor. Where are we now, though? It's very confusing in terms of what the present law is in the state of Florida. I know there's a lot of women suffering because of this, but where are we now?

What is the present law on the state? The current law in the state of Florida is there is a 15 week ban. There are very few exceptions written into that bill. Most people after 15 weeks who need an abortion for whatever reason have to travel out of Florida. They usually go to Virginia or Illinois to get care. We have a six week ban on the books. The way the six week ban was written, it was written with a trigger. Because the 15 week ban was challenged as unconstitutional,

and the Florida Supreme Court has not yet rendered its decision on whether or not the 15 week ban is constitutional or unconstitutional, the six week ban was written so that once the Florida Supreme Court says the current 15-week ban is constitutional 30 days later, we would be living under a six-week ban, which is for all intents and purposes a total abortion ban. And this crazy bill that this week was filed by a member of the House is really out there in Bunker's Land. It basically awards personhood to a fertilized egg. And one of the reasons why these extremists on these issues want to grant

personhood to a fertilized egg is because then it gives them the standing to try and outlaw birth control. So when we talk about going back, we're not talking about in Florida going back to pre-Rovie Wade in 1973, we're talking about going back to the Comstock Act from the late 1870s in the US that effectively outlawed birth control.

So let's make sure we understand. This is not just about, whether or not we have a 15 week or a six week abortion ban, this is about birth control, this is about modern, normal medical care stuff that American society thought it had dealt with 100 years ago. Can I claim a fertilized egg as a dependent

for the purposes of my taxes? Think about what it means to give a fertilized egg as a dependent for the purposes of my taxes? Think about what it means to give a fertilized egg personhood. Number one, every single woman who ever got her period would have to be having a funeral every single month just in case. The practical implications of that kind of law passing turn a society on its head. I mean, women would literally just be sitting home, I guess wrapped in styrofoam, just in case there's a fertilized egg inside one of us, which might, you know, suffer some harm when we trip and fill in on the way to publics. I don't know how society would function under these laws, but this is the kind of stuff

that people are filing in Florida. They're trying to normalize this sort of thing. A popular activist mantra is abortion is healthcare. These are not just buzzwords, though. We've had Florida women on this show on your cook, Deborah Doerbert, women who have real pain and real suffering as a result of these archaic anti-science big government in your home and your doctor's office in your uterus kind of laws. Same government who don't want people to put on masks or have vaccines for public health purposes, but will tell women and their doctors, medical professionals what they can and can't

do to save their own lives. Can you talk a little bit about this idea that abortion is healthcare and how women, and not just women, but their husbands, their born children and families are suffering as a result of these ridiculous laws and the confusion around them. I was confused with the six week, the 15 week, and doctors and abundance of caution

to avoid going to jail are like, well, you know what, let me just not give you health care. Let me just let you fucking bleed to death. I'm sorry, Roy, you're gonna have to bleed that. No, but it's true. And the passion is adequately placed in this area. I mean, listen, about one third, slightly more than one third of American women will have an abortion at some point in their lives. And many of these abortions are not elective abortions.

Abortion is common health care and pregnancy complications. People have ectopic pregnancies. They have non-viable fetuses. They have, you know, a second trimester complications. They have molar pregnancies. It is a normal part of health care to sometimes have a pregnancy that goes the wrong way and needs to be resolved. And we give a whole bunch of names to that.

That's not abortion. So the people feel a little less stigma and a little less bad, I guess, about what's happened to them. We call them DNXs or DNEs or DNCs or we call them, we tell people we've had a missed miscarriage or an incomplete miscarriage. And then we go to the doctor and the doctor gives us medication to get all of that material out of us

so that it doesn't become infected and kill us. Well, those are all abortions. The medicine that the doctor gives you to finish that miscarriage and make sure that you're not retaining any material and you don't get infected. That's exactly the same medication that's given to a woman who has an elective abortion.

These procedures are incredibly common. And men need to start asking questions about it because their lives, their families' lives, the mothers of their children, their sisters, their friends, their cousins, the people that they love, are going to end up really hurt and really harmed if they can't access normal medical care.

On the flip side of it, let me just go down this route because I think people need to understand long-term how this, the current state is going to damage health care in Florida. Florida has a whole bunch of medical schools in it and we train an awful out of doctors who we hope someday are going to keep us safe and healthy and fix all of our problems. Doctors need to be trained in abortion in order to be able to adequately care for their patients. And right now under Florida law, they can't be adequately trained. Many of the surgical programs in Florida fly their students to New

Jersey and New York so that they can be trained on how to intervene in these circumstances. I've heard cases of people refusing to come to medical school in Florida because they know they won't be able to be adequately trained here. And I know of cases of doctors deciding they're going to go practice elsewhere because they don't feel like they can they can treat their patients adequately in Florida. And when you start seeing the best and brightest of us who this state depends on to keep us healthy, the third largest state in the nation depends on to keep us healthy. When you see those people leaving because it's impossible to practice here, it's impossible

to learn here, it's impossible to train here. You know you've got a serious issue that we as a group of voters are going to have to solve. We've got to fix this. It's incredible. You have to show evidence that this will somehow negatively affect men as well. The healthcare of men in order to maybe convince the legislation that this is, that this is a bad idea. It's not enough that women will die and are suffering and are dying and are dealing with these complications that could forever incidentally keep them from living or being able to give birth to a healthy child again. Oh, and this myth that abortion is strictly for birth control.

It drives me nuts. I'm not gonna play the clip because it makes me too angry. But in a recent interview, Rhonda Santis addresses the, not addresses, but perpetuates the fear mongering in the myths about blue states and abortion up until birth and post-birth abortion. And if a woman is in a position where she needs an abortion at 35 weeks or 30, this is not the image of like some promiscuous woman who wants to spend her money on fentanyl instead

of raising a child. This is not what we're talking about here. I want to give you the last word in 30 seconds on just the fear mongering and myths around late term abortions. Listen, less than 1% of abortions are third trimester abortions. Most abortions, 90% of abortions are first trimester. Those late term abortions and they are exceedingly rare. Our cases of abject total tragedy, something horrible has happened to this poor family. Something horrific is happening in that pregnancy. I hope that no one I ever know or love finds herself, finds himself in that situation because it's, it's got to be the worst thing that has ever happened to people. The few people I've ever met who've had that kind of experience tell me

that it has changed their lives forever. They are completely altered people because of this experience. And what they need from all of us is compassion and love, not judgment, not insults. They need our compassion and our love. These are people that wanted to be parents and couldn't because of a horrible, horrible tragedy. So, you know, every time somebody brings up those thermistor abortions and tries to wave it around as though this is something that we should all be afraid of, I think to myself, we should be afraid of it because God forbid anything like that happened to me or somebody that I care about. I hope it never does. Anna Hokimer, Executive Director of Florida,

Women's Freedom Coalition, fighting to put a portion on the ballot here in Florida in 2024. Thanks so much, good luck. Thank you, Billy, I appreciate it. We'd love to hear from you. Wouldn't you Roy? No. Drunk dial, because Miami complaint line at 786-505-9842. Call right now.

We're locking into your phone and call us whenever you're lonely, afraid, intoxicated. Roy loves going through every single one of these messages, every frame, every morsel of the... He drinks me joy. Roy, it's time for me because Miami Wheel of Despair. Oh, f***. What are th- I'll believe that in post.

What are our topics this week, Roy? Okay. We have Miami Hustles. Yeah, it's a perennial. Yeah. Mea Pasi Posis de Lita. Love it. Commandante Comierda Corroyo.

Hang on, one more time on that. Chippo C. On that one. Commandante Comierda Corroyo. What's the last one? Shakira's docker. Yeah, and that guy'll go whenever, wherever Shakira is. I look forward to all of these.

So, shall we spend the wheels here, where we land? A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A- Oh, can I hear you say it one more time, really? No. All right. Commandante, como mierda, carroyo, Joe Carroyo, that wife, Peter, more bad news, Frankel Joe. Bad news for Miami Commissioner Joe Carroyo. We are learning US federal marshals have been directed to seize the assets of Miami Commissioner Joe Carroyo.

US marshals, a confiscate effective BNS y terreno del comisionado de Miami, Joe Corroyo. U.S. Marshall a confiscar efectivo, B.N.S. y terreno del Comisionado de Miami, Joe Carroyo. A federal court has directed a U.S. Marshall to seize cash, goods, and land from Carroyo, in order to enforce the more than $63 million judgment against him. Back in November, a federal court ordered the city of Miami

to garnish the commissioner's wages. A judge is ordering one quarter of every city paycheck from Carroyo be taken to do so. That oil was found liable last June. Remind you, after two business owners filed a lawsuit accusing the commissioner of trying to destroy their businesses as political retaliation. Bring the popcorn. You ever dance to a dirge before?

I watch to see more two step. Yeah, that's right. That's 63 and a half million dollar corruption judgment against Joe from last summer. The owners of ball and chain, the popular historic bar in Little Havana and Caiocho are coming for them. They're coming for his shoes, socks, his watches, his hair piece if he has one, his house, his car. I mean, everything they can get. And the federal clerk of court has signed a writ of execution that tells the US marshals that whatever ain't nailed down, they can take it away garnishes wages. What have you?

Borrecito Commandante comumiera de acarollo triple C Let's spin the wheel Miami Hossels This is absolutely astounding, but it really shouldn't be. You know, city of Miami is a predator city. The people who run it and charge of it, lead it. They're not public servants.

They pray on the public to serve themselves. And why should the city manager be any different from the city attorney, from the mayor, from a lot of the commissioners. Art Noriega, the city manager, has spent over $440,000 in taxpayer money on his wife's overpriced office furniture company for city government. Since he's been city manager in 2020, And before that, you ran the Miami parking authority for 20 years. Oh, that guy.

And while there, that's right. You know General Noriega, General Hart, Noriega. While he was at the Miami parking authority, he spent over $1.6 million in taxpayer money to his then future wife's overpriced Hylia office furniture company. Dude, all of these contracts, so his wife's name is Michelle Prateri Norega.

The name of the company is Prateri office furniture, work spaces, there's different entities. But these were all no bid deals, despite city code requiring that purchases above $25,000 be open to bidding. But they would spend 50,000 be open to bidding, but they would spend $50,000. I saw one invoice for over $600,000 at the Miami parking authority. Artner Yaga is writing checks with taxpayer money with his left hand and handing it to his right hand. I mean, this is just like classic, classic, unethical,

possibly criminal conduct because there may be price gouging involved as well. The prices they spend $25,000 for delivery and installation of a 17-foot conference table for City Hall that you can buy online for between $1,600 and $3,000. I mean, it's just unbelievable. And all of this is gone right through the city manager's office. It's his assistant that is signing off on all of these expenses to her boss's wife.

If I had the, I love this town cart. I love this town. And five former city managers who came before Noriega for five different mayoral administrations have called for his investigation or immediate resignation because Miami. And because Miami, Roy, I know you were here and you felt the gamma radiation coming off of Bayside from the aliens. Speaking of Ghostbusters. Who came to town to go shopping at Bayside?

I mean, the aliens landed Miami. You know where they're going to go right away. They're town to go shopping at Bayside. I mean, the aliens land in Miami, you know where they're gonna go right away. They're gonna go right to Bayside. There's a live look on the, on the, on the video monitor right now of Bayside where the aliens landed last week. Now, here's the thing about this story, Roy. It went so viral. It went so crazy that the Miami police have been forced to take to social media, to respond to these stories about the Miami aliens. And let me tell you right now, Roy, this is extra suspicious because they deny that there were ever any aliens in Miami and you know as well as I do,

that if there were aliens, this is exactly what the Miami police would say. Damn right. Cocaine's. All right guys, so just to address a few clips that are going viral in social media right now, first our response to that big incident in Bayside Marketplace,

what happened was there was about 50 or more juveniles that were shooting fireworks at people, there was also some looting going on. So officers that were on that scene, were having a little bit of trouble containing it, so they called what is called the citywide three which every officer in the city responded. That's why you saw so much police presence for for that call to contain that crowd. Now there is now video going viral of eight

to ten foot aliens walking around Bayside is actually just a person walking with a shadow. So I can confirm to you all here today right now that there are no aliens in Miami in Bayside Marketplace at the moment. with a shadow. So I can confirm to you all here today right now that there are no aliens in Miami in Bayside Marketplace at the moment.