The MeidasTouch Podcast - Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz on Trump Florida Nightmare

Episode Date: July 19, 2025

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on Trump continuing to unleash havoc and chaos in Florida and Meiselas speaks with Florida Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz about what she witnessed when she went to Alligator Alcatraz and what she is witnessing in Florida in general now. Visit https://meidasplus.com for more! Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af MissTrial: https://meidasnews.com/tag/miss-trial The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Coalition of the Sane: https://meidasnews.com/tag/coalition-of-the-sane Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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building the Alligator Alcatraz concentration camp. We're hearing more horror stories about what is going on in that concentration camp called Alligator Alcatraz. Let me show you how one of the individuals who's there describes it here, play this clip. Soy Leance Lafura. Leance Izquierdo on the phone, describing what it's like inside

the so-called Alligator Alcatraz. Says he's been at the detention facility out in the Everglades since Friday. Aqui no agua pa uno bañarse. No water to bathe, he says. It's been four days since he showered 400 people he believes are inside the facility. Only gets fed once a day, he says. And some of the food had warms. The tension center lights are on 24 7 the mosquitoes he says are the size of the size of elephants then I'll play this one for you to a man planning on self

deporting now finds himself in the concentration camp you hear this horrific story from from his family members and I want you to watch this clip also because then you have the Republican Congress members in this clip. They try to act like everything's great. This is a beautiful facility. What's going on? This is like a beautiful hotel almost here, play this clip.

A South Florida man preparing to self-deport now finds himself detained at Alligator Alcatraz in the Afroglades. NBC 6's Steve Litz spoke to his daughter, who says simply driving without a license is what landed him there. Fernando Artese with plans to self-deport but was arrested last month for driving on a suspended license. Now he's at the detention facility in the Everglades. Carla is his daughter.

By the end of the year Max leave the country and go out through California and then go to Mexico and then go to Argentina because my parents are originally from Argentina. Governor Ron DeSantis' claim there is zero impact from the so-called alligator Alcatraz on the Florida Everglades is ruled false according to our news partners at PolitiFact. Experts they report speak of collateral damage from greater traffic also habitat degradation for endangered species as well as risk of wastewater spills. In all this time Diaz-Balart has stayed silent. Mario bro! Meantime a new campaign is underway targeting veteran South Florida congressman Mario Diaz-Balart in the form of this video and this billboard

unveiled today with his picture the words reading you betrayed us. Operations are in full swing at the detention facility hundreds of people are being held their beds are inside cages over the weekend protesters went out and voiced their concern over the facility others went out in support lawmakers from both sides Democrats and Republicans toward the facility coming away with very different takes on conditions inside. It looked amazing. It smelled amazing. And the conditions, you know, they have an outdoor facility for for the detainees for recreation, air conditions.

And there really wasn't any issue whatsoever. Let's bring in Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz from Florida. That's what the Republican delegation said. You were there. And I've heard the conditions here are horrific. The Republicans left and said this was beautiful, like this is an incredible place to be. They'd want to go there, apparently, and bring their families there. You were there. What do you what do you make of what of that and your trip in general? Well, thank you for having me. The contrast between what Republicans described

and what I know I saw directly with my colleagues, Maxwell Frost, Darren Soto, and Jared Moskowitz, are directly attributable to their fierce loyalty to the MAGA extremists and to Donald Trump and doing anything possible to worship at his altar. I mean, anyone who could have left that, by the way, completely scrubbed, sanitized,

and pre-planned, quote unquote, tour, because they wouldn't follow federal law that I actually passed a few years ago that requires when ICE is detaining individuals at a facility or if there is detainees in a facility on behalf of ICE, members of Congress must have unfettered access, unannounced, and be able to see anything anywhere and they wouldn't show us multiple places, not the medical facility, not the, they wouldn't let us inside the cages

where the detainees were housed. They just kept us at threshold. But listen, there are humans being caged in the middle of the Everglades. It is an hour and a half into the deep part of the Everglades. All the an hour and a half into the deep part of the Everglades. All the infrastructure has to be trucked in. This is a hell hole. I brought a manual handheld thermostat to check the temperature. Even at the threshold of what was supposedly an

air conditioned tent, it was 83 degrees. And in the medical area where the intake was happening, this wasn't the medical unit that we weren't allowed to see, it was 85 degrees. I saw grasshoppers that were hopping all over the grounds, the size of which I've never seen in my life. There were, it was infested with bugs so that when we went to see a caged tent that didn't have detainees in it yet,

there were mosquitoes all over the mattresses. So, I mean, unless these guys on the Republican side like to go to sleep with mosquitoes on their mattresses, then they have a different definition of what luxury is like than I do. Let's talk about the costs. You know, I mean, this is on tribal land. I mean, the literal expenditures that are taking place,

the fact that we're in hurricane season and Trump's trying to eliminate FEMA and what's going to, there's like one road that goes to this too. Like it just seems like a hell hole. It seems like a hell hole and a death trap. Absolutely. I mean, you can't make this up when you have,

we just went through a massive debate on the big ugly bill that Trump signed into law, where Republicans just kept stressing how they're only fighting waste, fraud, and abuse. Well, I mean, if this isn't a monument to waste, fraud, and abuse, I don't know what is, it's costing $450 million annually to house these detainees out in the middle of the Everglades because there's no infrastructure out there whatsoever.

They have to truck every single thing in that is twice the amount per detainee than the cost nationally. They are not only infringing on sacred tribal lands where there was no consultation, and now the Miccosukee tribe has joined the lawsuit that has been filed against this facility in the state. It is the middle of hurricane season and these are flimsy structures.

These would be blown away in a hurricane. And by the way, there was flooding that was evident while we were there because it rains. There's significant rainstorms every single day out in the Everglades in the summer. This is a monument to waste, fraud, and abuse. Abuse because our understanding is that DeSantis's cronies are profiting from this,

the contracts that have been let to his donors and his buddies. I mean, don't forget his wife was directly involved in Medicaid fraud, allowing her charity to launder $10 million in funds to be used to fund the political opposition campaign against the constitutional amendment. The culture of corruption runs deep here. You know, and this was right. This was the FEMA money that was that was allocated for FEMA. That's now being used for this detention center and basically stolen for it.

I want to talk about how we got here, you know, also because, you know, there was this you saw in South Florida, Donald Trump would go in there with people like Congresswoman Salazar and Diaz-Ballard and others, and they would say, look, we're only going after the criminals. That's it. This is about the bad guys. And to the Cuban population, to the Venezuelan population, to the Haitian population, don't worry. Your temporary protected status

that Biden recognized, we got your back. We got to make the street safe. Like this was right after the election. Here's what Congresswoman Salazar had to say when she was asked about this. This was right after the election, let's play. 200,000 undocumented in your community. Is that what you're saying?

I am sure that we're not, that the Trump administration is not going to be targeting those people who have been here for more than five years that have American kids, that don't have criminal records, that have been working in the economy and paying taxes. I am sure that they're going to hone in on the criminals who arrived less than four years ago. Because I wrote the Dignity Act,

and I am the first one who understands that you have to give some type of dignity to those who have been here for more than five years, people who have roots in the country, not people who are coming to commit crimes. If I can just clarify from you, have you received those kinds of details from anyone in a potential Trump administration?

Because so far what we've heard is a proposal for mass deportations. We have about 30 seconds left. Have you gotten those assurances? Mass deportation to those who are committing crimes who have been here for less than five years. You understand that you have millions of undocumented who are contributing with the economy and are helping our country. But here's the thing too, like she'll say that congresswoman, but then they'll have, here's the part that I don't get, then they'll have no shame.

So then they go out, the same people who made that promise, they then go out and I'll show you the clip from this week, you know, you have all the congress members, all right, we're in support of the Dignity Act right now. It's like y'all just threw your people under the bus. Here's what they just did now. After Trump revoked temporary protected stratas, ruining people's life, throwing them in concentration camps,

now here's the latest. Here's what they just did. Prometive Republican lawmaker from South Florida is spearheading a new push for immigration reform. Local Sense Ross Ketchke is live on Capitol Hill. And Ross, you heard directly from Congresswoman Maria Salazar about her new bill. That is correct. The bill is called the Dignity Act and Congresswoman Salazar is directly calling on President Donald Trump to embrace what she says are long overdue reforms to

the immigration process. Sir, I believe that you could be for immigration what Lincoln was for slavery and Reagan was for communism. Florida Congresswoman Maria Salazar sending a message directly to President Donald Trump as the Miami Republican leads the charge on a new push for immigration reform. If we get this wrong,

future generations will pay the price in shame. But if we get- She got it wrong. The future generations will pay. It's the damage. Like I'm glad that there's some bipartisan support for that, I get it. But like you threw him under the bus. Like, I'm glad that there's some bipartisan support for that. I get it. But like, you threw him under the bus.

She did it. Look, Trump lied, and people are going to die. There are people that will end up dying in this facility. Whether they die potentially as a result of this facility being smack in the middle of an oncoming storm and they're not able to get people out that one road in and out quickly enough or they're going to die because he's sending them back to countries where they came here to just make a better way

of life for themselves and their families, have American children like you said, have small businesses, had their TPS or their humanitarian parole revoked, and they'll get sent back to countries like Haiti and Venezuela, Nicaragua, where we know the brutality and oppression and danger and violence still exists. And so for them to suggest that the conditions have improved enough

to send people back is outrageous. And those lives are going to be on Trump's head. And I work closely with Congresswoman Salazar on, you know, several different kinds of issues. But, you know, she's just allowed herself to be willfully ignorant here. I mean, the hypocrisy is occurring in plain sight. And, you know, the Dignity Act is certainly,

it would be a step in the right direction, but there are, when I woke up on Sunday morning after touring, going on that sham tour, to the article by the Miami Herald that showed hundreds of detainees in the Everglades Detention Center out there, have no criminal record whatsoever, did nothing. And they told us on Saturday, every single person in that facility

is in the final stages of deportation and had criminal records, various degrees of criminal records. So they are not telling the truth. And anyone that thinks otherwise is just willfully looking the other way. And you know what? There are consequences for that. Right. And then it just gets extra malicious where, you know, the gaslighting and the lie. You saw it with your eyes. I mean, you see that people, I mean, I heard what you said.

You go there drinking where they're pooping in the same location, and there's 35 of them all there together, and it stinks, and it's putrid, and there are mosquitoes this eye and then the Republicans leave it and they go this isn't Nothing to see here and I Gotta I gotta you I gotta ask you You know Epstein lived in in southern Florida right down the block from Donald Trump. We know stories where Virginia Joufray,

underage girl, 17 years old, was working at the spa at Mar-a-Lago. That's where Ghislaine Maxwell found her, brought her to Epstein, and she was sex trafficked. That's what went down at Mar-a-Lago. Trump said that Epstein's a great guy who likes women on the younger side. If 10% of all of the Epstein files

have been released thus far and 90% haven't, Trump's like the main person on the younger side. If 10% of all of the Epstein files have been released thus far and 90% haven't, Trump's like the main person on the call logs on the flight. Like he's all over him. He's in the depositions. It's just fact that it's out there. Now he's out there. He made another post on Wednesday morning saying that Epstein's a hoax. He says everything's a hoax about it. And I'll read you his his direct quote. This is a new scam by the Democrats. We will forever call this the Jeffrey Epstein hoax. And my past supporters have bought into this bullshit hook, line and sinker.

This is from the lunatic left. It is a hoax. The Epstein hoax. This is serious stuff. I mean, first off, the Magas were this one saying they wanted a release. This was like one of their main issues. But this is serious stuff right here that he's covering up. What's your reaction to everything that's going on? What Donald Trump is doing is what he always does. When the, when it's clear that there's a direct line to him, he completely goes back to shrouding in secrecy, completely opaque, no transparency whatsoever. And yeah, of course, no wonder he doesn't want the files released.

I mean, he was a close buddy, a good friend of Epstein. And, you know, I think it's clear what happened is that there is something that implicates him in those files that he doesn't want seen. But you're right, Ben. I mean, it is Republican MAGA supporters that have been pressing most recently for the release of these files.

They need to be released because there are young girls who were abused and there were accomplices of Jeffrey Epstein's that would be exposed if these files were released. But I mean, that's why I'm introducing legislation, because at the end of the day, this is a travesty that should never have happened. I'm introducing the Courtney Wild Act, which I've introduced before,

that would make sure that under the Victims' Bill of Rights, when a shady deal like this, Rights, when a shady deal like this, it would prevent a shady deal like this from not being shared with the victims so that they could speak out in court. Because this was moved into state court and Epstein was only charged with a misdemeanor, as a result, they weren't required to notify the victims like they would be if he

was prosecuted in federal court. And the Courtney Wilde Act that I'm introducing would change that so that victims would be able to speak out in opposition to shady deals like this that, you know, let a pedophile and a sex trafficker and someone who organized rape off with a slap on the wrist. Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, thanks for joining us. First time on the Midas Touch Network? Was this your first time?

Yeah, it is. First time. Thank you so much for having me. All right, you got to come back. All right, everybody, hit subscribe. Let's get to six million subscribers. The truth is more important than ever. Check out our new Truth Over Lies collection at store.mitustouch.com.

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