What A Day - The Sunshine State Strategy

Episode Date: January 28, 2026

U.S. Secretary of State and National Security Adviser Marco Rubio is expected to publicly testify Wednesday about what exactly the U.S. has planned for Venezuela. But the next potential target of the Trump administration’s imperialist adventuring might be even closer to home. Ending Cuba’s communist regime — which has controlled the island since 1959 — is the dream of thousands of Cuban-Americans. And now, thanks in part to Rubio, it’s a serious goal of the White House. So, to talk more about South Florida’s influence on American politics at home and abroad, we spoke with Patricia Mazzei. She is the Miami bureau chief for The New York Times. And in headlines, U.S. population growth slowed significantly between the summers of 2024 and 2025, Democratic efforts to redistrict in Virginia are stunted by a state court, and TikTok agrees to settle a landmark social media addiction lawsuit just before trial. Show Notes: Check out Patricia's piece – https://tinyurl.com/2cxz46rbCall Congress – 202-224-3121Subscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/3kk4nyz8What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcastFollow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday

It's Wednesday, January 28th. I'm Jane Koston, and this is what a day. The show relieved to hear that a member of law enforcement is facing consequences for actions that may have violated an individual's civil rights. Sure, the individual was a raccoon, and the member of law enforcement was a New York City police officer who shot the raccoon at Rockaway Beach last week, but still, I'm looking forward to learning from Megan Kelly that actually the raccoon was a liberal, so it's fine. On today's show, President Donald Trump and some Republicans take aim at the Second Amendment. And a teenager sues social media companies for using cheap, calculated techniques to hold her attention. Does she have a shot? Stay tuned to find out. But let's start with Trump's foreign policy in the Caribbean. The families of two Trinidadian men filed a lawsuit against the United States government on Tuesday.

The suit accuses the U.S. of wrongful death and an extrajudicial killing linked to the Trump administration strikes on alleged drugboats. It says the two men, natives of Trinidad and Tobago, had been fishing in the waters off the coast of Venezuela and were returning home when their boat was hit by a missile on October 14th. The strike killed everyone on board. The suit says that the men had nothing to do with drug cartels or, quote, illegal drugs, guns, or small arms. The men's families say they were just fishermen trying to get home. But let's talk about the big picture here. The boat strikes that are killing people we know nothing about, the capture of former Venezuelan President Nicholas Maj and his wife, the oil tankers, the U.S. keeps seizing. All of it is part and parcel of President

Trump's desire to control the entire Western Hemisphere. He calls it the Don Roe doctrine, but I'm not calling it that and he can't make me. Two men in particular are executing this policy, Secretary of War slash Little Boy Pete Higsef, and Secretary of State slash National Security Advisor Marco Rubio. And hopefully today we'll get some answers on what exactly they think they're doing, because Rubio is expected to publicly testify about what the U.S. has planned for Venezuela, after, you know, capturing its later in the middle of the night. And the next potential target for Trump's imperialist adventuring might be even closer to home. Here's the president at a Mar-a-Lago press conference earlier this month.

Well, Cuba's an interesting case. Cuba is, you know, not doing very well right now. That system has not been a very good one for Cuba. The people there have suffered for many, many years. And I think Cuba is going to be something we'll end up talking about because Cuba is a failing nation right now, very badly failing nation. It's not unusual for Trump or any Republican president to be talking so fondly about the fate of Cuba and its people. Ending the country's communist regime, which has controlled the island since 1959, is a dream of thousands of Cuban Americans in Miami. And now, thanks in part to Rubio, it's a serious goal of the White House. So to talk more about South Florida's influence on American politics at home and abroad, I spoke with Patricia Masei. She is the Miami Bureau Chief for the New York Times.

Patricia, welcome to what a day. Thanks for having me. South Florida has two very prominent politicians in the White House right now. Obviously, President Donald Trump and Secretary of State and National Security Advisor, Marco Rubio. Can you tell me a little bit about the politics of that region of the country? You know, it's a little bit different than anywhere else. We know that. We're aware. But Cuban-American politics have sort of dominated the greater Miami area ever since, not right after the 1959 Cuban revolution, but I would say a concerted effort began in the late 80s to make the Cuba cause important to Congress, to the White House. And in order to do so, there was just an organized effort to get Cuban Americans elected into office. And so people like Marco Rubio are the product of decades of that organizing. And Cuban Americans tend to lean Republican, which is unusual compared to Hispanics in the rest of the country. What are the specifics behind why Cuban Americans might lean

Republican? Because that is different from how other Latino immigrants tend to vote. I mean, obviously, Latino immigrants are not a monolith. But it is interesting that, Cuban Americans in Little Havana in Florida are known for being a heavily Republican voting block. Why? A lot of people don't realize that they started out as Democrats in the early 80s. And there was not a whole lot of openings for Cubans to run for office as Democrats. And so when people like Jet Bush was then the son of a vice president, right, and lived in Florida and was married to a Mexican-American woman, tried to win Cuban Americans over to the Republican. side, one of the arguments was, hey, we could actually run for office as a Republicans.

Like, there is room. You guys are actually Reaganites, right? Like, Reagan appealed to a lot of Cuban Americans because of his talk about freedom and his real hard edge against Cuba. And so that was a very successful recruiting effort into first getting people to vote Republican, vote for Reagan and then Bush won, et cetera, and then getting them to register as Republicans, and then getting them to run as Republicans. And so in Florida, Republicans have never given up on not just Cubans, but more and more Hispanics, being Republicans. They've never fallen into the trap of thinking that they're not persuadable because they were so successful with Cubans that they're like,

oh, there's a lot of Hispanics who are naturally Republican. We just have to show them what that is. We have to educate them. We have to bring them into the fold. It seems to me also that a key element here is anti-communism, which I can imagine for folks who had escaped from Cuba after 1959 would be incredibly effective of saying the Republican Party stands up to socialism and communism. I've experienced the brunt of communism in Cuba. Obviously, this is a clear relationship. How did that specific political mindset lead to the U.S.

into doing what might have seemed kind of insane, going into Venezuela and capturing Nicholas Maduro and his wife, with a clear relationship with Cuba? You're totally right. I mean, that was why, Reagan was so effective at winning over Cuban Americans. He had a strong anti-communist message. He came to Miami and everyone remembers because people wouldn't say Reagan. They would say Reagan, you know, Reagan, Reagan, Reagan, and it was the anti-communist revolution. And so, yes, in South Florida, the Maduro seizure was seen as really a reflection of what Cuban Americans have wanted to do in Cuba for decades. They haven't been able to do it through the embargo and other sanctions, but they have been able to get rid of a Cuba ally. It's really the

peak moment of South Florida's political influence because you have Marco Rubia Secretary of State, you have Cuban American members of Congress, you have Floridians in the White House who understand this political bloc and who see all of these governments linked. Cuba fed Venezuela, Venezuela, Fed Cuba, Cuba fed Nicaragua, Nicaragua fed Cuba. And they see the ideology of Latin America, you know, really all stemming from the 1959 Cuban Revolution. As you've kind of alluded to, Secretary of State Marco Rubio specifically is the son of Cuban immigrants in Miami. How has his background shaped him as a politician and now the U.S. Secretary of State, National Security Advisor, and some other stuff I can't remember.

You might remember when he ran for president in 2016. It was sort of at the core of his personal story. You know, my mother was a housekeeper. My father tended bar. They worked in a hotel, and they lived in the U.S. to give us a better life. And though his parents, as it came out during that campaign, had not come after the revolution, but before it, because there were a lot of Cubans who came to the U.S. even before 1959, they were, like many other immigrants who were just seeking, like, a better life for their children. And he, of course, is a product of that particular family story, but you can't separate that from the broader Cuban history. There were waves of Cuban migrants that came to South Florida, including with the Mariel Boliv in the early 1980s.

And I might fudge my history a little bit here, but basically Fidel Castro allowed a lot of Cubans to come by boat to Florida. In what his critics will tell you was in some ways the emptying of some of his prisons and some mental hospitals. And just of the people who didn't want around who were in part in prison because they were unhappy in Cuba, right? And unhappy with the system there. He just decided to do like this one time like, okay, guys, just go. And it was the biggest inflow of population that Miami had seen in a long time. Families, you know, are all intertwined with these waves of migration, personally affected not only by Mariel, but later in the 90s after the Berlin Wall fell and Cuba went into a terrible crisis because the USSR was no longer there to prop it up. People might remember the Cuban rafters, the Elian Gonzalez crisis in the early 2000. So, That stuff is the bread and butter of Miami politics. You just can't separate one from the other. As an elder millennial, I remember Elian Gonzalez and the photographs and the idea of, like, you know, you have to return this child of Cuba and it was the whole thing.

But what have been Cuban immigrants' experiences with the U.S. immigration enforcement? I'm sure many people listening might have heard of wet foot, dry foot. Did they often face the same challenges as immigrants from other Caribbean countries? No, this has separated Cubans and some. experts will tell you fed into some of their politics, too, right? They can sort of afford to be Republicans because they've never had to be part of a broader immigrant rights movement. They, because they were anti-communist exiles, were treated by the U.S. government as like welcome refugees. In 1966, Congress passed the Cuban Adjustment Act. This is a law that is only for

Cubans and that basically says that if a Cuban enters U.S. soil and is in the U.S. for a year and a day, they can apply for a green card for residency, which later allows you to apply for citizenship. This doesn't exist for any other immigrant group. The law still stands today. You mentioned wet foot, dry foot. This is a policy that if you reached dry land, if you were dry foot, you could stay in the U.S. if they caught you at sea. They would turn you around to Cuba.

President Obama ended that right before he left office. In 2017, that did not end the Cuban Adjustment Act. So Cubans who crossed the border could get paroled into the United States and later apply for the Human Adjustment Act. I will say that that has been changing. They have been getting a different type of parole that judges have no longer been allowing them to apply for residency. And it's actually held up in court now because it has resulted in a lot of Cubans who

thought they were going to be able to be here and get a green card, suddenly finding themselves vulnerable to deportation. Yeah. When did that treatment start to change? And how has the Cuban-American community in Florida responded? It started to change sometime during the large wave of. Mexican border Cuban crossings that came after COVID, right, where there was these big ways of migration. So at the tail end of the first Trump administration, the beginning of the Biden administration,

there was just all these people at the border. They didn't know what to do. And it was a policy shift that sort of came unexplained and many immigration lawyers are still trying to understand. I think it's taken a while for people in South Florida to realize the effects of this. Because by some estimates, you know, 300 to 500,000 Cubans have come to the U.S. in the past five or six years, which is more than Mariel, right? But because they didn't come out at once and they were at the border and people didn't see them in boats, it wasn't sort of as acknowledged. And only now that President Trump is really cracking down on immigration are these people who are on conditional parole with work permits, social security numbers, driver's licenses

getting deported in big numbers. And so I think it has hit very slowly and it has not been, like, those crises that we discussed in the past, where, like, people took to the streets and protests. It's just sort of simmered and is now starting to boil over where people are just finding out, like, oh my God, my pharmacist's son got deported. I mean, it's just much harder to avoid than it has been over the past few years. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that after the success of capturing Maduro in Venezuela, the Trump administration is pushing for regime change in Cuba by the end of the year. Now, that to me seems wild, given how surprisingly durable the Cuban regime has been,

even after the fall of the Soviet Union, even after so many moments where people have been like, this is it for Cuba. It hasn't been, even after Fidel. You know, saying you want this by the end of 2026, is that a surprise to you, given what you know about Marco Rubio's politics and given what you know about how this White House views Cuba? Well, it's funny. When I read that story, I was thinking about since Madreau's seizure, the Cuban Americans in Congress, have had several news conferences here in Miami where they have said precisely that. They haven't maybe said by the end of the year. They have said by the end of the Trump administration, they no longer expect the Cuban government to be there. They've said that about the Nicaraguan government to a lesser extent. So is it surprising? No, because this is what these folks have worked on. And it's interesting language to hear in politics. But they're like, it's intergenerational trauma. We carry it from our parents and our grandparents. Like you don't understand how passionate we are about this. But by the same token, I think they know about. better than anybody, that to your point, Cubans are sort of raised in Cuba to be able to survive on nothing, you know, and to be able to deal through crisis after crisis. So it's not as direct

as history has taught us. I mean, it poses different questions of foreign policy and national security that I think they have to really think through. But is it the big sort of target that everybody in South Florida knows they're going to try to go after? It sure is. Patricia, thank you so much for joining me. Oh, my pleasure. Thanks for having me. That was my conversation with Patricia Mize, Miami Bureau Chief for The New York Times. We'll get to more of the news in the moment, but if you like the show, make sure you subscribe and leave a five-star review on Spotify. And watch us on YouTube. More to come after some ads.

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Mr. President, why did you decide to shake up your leadership team in Minnesota and send Tom... I do that all the time. I shake up teams. Everybody here, these are a lot of owners of farms and places, and you shake up your team if they can't do the crops fast enough. Trump used this metaphor at an Iowa Diner Tuesday to explain his ice shakeup in Minnesota. Unaware, I suppose, that the deportation operation he's defending threatens many of the very farm workers who actually pick the crops. Here's the latest. Border Patrol commander and noted terrible person, Gregory, Bovino is set to depart Minneapolis, along with some of his officers, following intense backlash

over the public shooting of Alex Pretti. In his place, Trump will send border czar Tom Homan to oversee operations in the city. Homan, an alleged bribery-prone human battering ram, met with Minnesota Democratic Governor Tim Wals on Tuesday. Wals said that he and Homan committed to a, quote, ongoing dialogue and described the talk as productive. But what of the third horsemen of the apocalypse, Secretary of Homeland Security, Christy Noem? sources told CBS News she's facing internal scrutiny within the Trump administration, but is still expected to keep her job, because merit or something. On Tuesday, President Trump said Nome would not step down,

despite mounting criticism and political pressure of possible impeachment from Democrats. Whatever happens to Nome, Tim Walls offered her some sage advice on Tuesday. I don't know what to tell you, but I think she probably should go back to South Dakota, not have any dogs and just kind of ride things out. South Dakota's dog population agrees. Democratic efforts to redistrict in Virginia have been stunted by a state court. Since October of last year, Virginia Dems had been working on a proposed constitutional amendment that would clear the way for mid-decade redistricting in hopes of gaining up to four seats.

The Virginia legislature passed the proposed amendment earlier this month in an effort to put it before voters. Tazewell County Circuit Court judge, Jack Hurley Jr., got in the way of that on Tuesday. Hurley ruled that Democrats didn't follow proper procedures to approve the amendment. But Democrats are not going to take the fight lying down. Virginia House Speaker Don Scott said they would appeal the ruling. Scott said, in a joint statement with other state Democratic leaders, quote, Nothing that happened today will dissuade us from continuing to move forward and put this matter directly to the voters. Because that's how democracies are supposed to work.

Population growth in the U.S. slowed significantly between July 2024 and July 2025, with an increase of only 1.8 million people or 0.5%. That's according to new estimates released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau. It was the country's slowest population growth since the early period of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Census Bureau attributed much of that slowdown to a historic decline in net international migration. I wonder why that happened. And the data projects an even further decline in net international migration in 2026 if, quote, current trends continue.

The Bureau says the decline in migration from 2024 to 2026 was caused by both a decrease in immigration and an increase in emigration, people moving out of the United States during that time. Again, I wonder why that happened. TikTok agreed to settle a landmark social media addiction lawsuit just before the trial kicked off. The reported settlement comes right in the nick of time as jury selection was set to start in California this week. TikTok was one of three companies, along with Meta's Instagram and Google's YouTube, basing claims that their platforms deliberately addict and harm children. Snapchat's parent company was also named in the suit, but settled the case last week for an undisclosed sum.

Now Meta and Google are the only defendants. This case is the first in a series of trials involving social media companies. ABC's Elizabeth Shulsey says his case is, quote, monumental. This lawsuit was brought by a then 19-year-old who goes by the initials KGM. She claims that the tech companies borrowed techniques used by slot machines in the cigarette industry to hook users. She says features like endless scrolling and notifications got her addicted to social media,

eventually leading to depression, anxiety, and body image issues. Now high-profile executives, including META CEO Mark Zuckerberg, are expected to take a stand in this trial. Both META and Google dispute the claims. And that's the news. One more thing. Gun rights, the Second Amendment. For decades, we've heard that they are essential to a free republic and a free people.

Hell, I actually believe that. Really? I've shot guns at ranges, and I've said over and over again that gun rights are essential, especially for people standing in the path of oppression. But over the past few days, a swath of the American right revealed that actually they were full of shit the entire time on the whole right to bear arms thing. As we've mentioned, ICU nurse Alex Pretty was shot and killed. by Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis on Saturday.

Pruddy was a legal gun owner in a state with both concealed carry and open carry laws. Those gun laws, by the way, were established in the early 2000s under Republican governor, Tim Pawlenty. And you know what you can also do in the state of Minnesota? Bring a licensed firearm to a protest. That's something the allegedly pro-second Amendment Trump administration supported. But on Sunday, that all went out the window. Here's FBI director, Cash Patel, speaking to Fox News host, Maria

Bartaromo. As Christy said, you cannot bring a firearm loaded with multiple magazines to any sort of protests that you want. It's that simple. You don't have that right to. And then Treasury Secretary Scott Besant on ABCs this week. I am sorry that this gentleman is dead, but he did bring a nine millimeter semi-automatic weapon with two cartridges to what was supposed to be a peaceful protest. It keeps going. Here's host Joey Jones on Fox News Tuesday, arguing that the Second Amendment is a right, except when it isn't. Number one, the Second Amendment is a right. I'm not a Second Amendment absolutist. You have the right to carry a weapon to defend yourself, not the privilege. It is a right. Those rights come with restrictions. I think you would understand

that more than anyone at this table. One of those restrictions is you have to have your ID and your permit on you. We don't know. Current reports are he didn't have either one of those on, at which point he's not carrying legally. Fun fact, the penalty for not having your ID on you if you're carrying is $25 in the state of Minnesota. That $25 is refunded to you when you present your ID. And hey, when exactly did those Border Patrol agents ask Alex Prattie for his ID? But most importantly, there's Trump. Here's speaking outside the White House on Wednesday about how very sad it is that Pruddy, a legal gun owner, had a gun. He can't have guns. You can't walk in with guns. And here's Trump again, speaking to Fox News

host Will Kane on Wednesday. I don't like the fact that he was carrying a gun that was fully loaded and he had two magazines with them, and it's pretty unusual. As gun owners and gun rights advocates online have made clear, it is not very unusual for legal gun owners to carry loaded guns or to carry extra magazines. In response to some of Trump's comments, the gun rights group, Gun Owners of America tweeted, quote, peaceful protests while armed isn't radical.

It's American. The First and Second Amendments protect those rights and they always have. As CNN's Anderson Cooper detailed with this video on his show on Tuesday, Trump has sure talked a lot over the last few years about how much he loves gun rights. I'm going to save your Second Amendment. The Second Amendment is under siege. Believe me. To ensure Americans have the means to protect themselves in this age of terror. I will be always defending the Second Amendment.

We are going to be so strong with our Second Amendment. We're not letting our Second Amendment go. If the left gains power, they will demolish the suburbs, confiscate your guns, and appoint justices who will wipe away your Second Amendment and other constitutional freedoms. But it feels more accurate that he and a big swath of the MAGA right support gun rights. For them. Not you. For Kyle Rittenhouse, who shot three people and killed two at a protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin in 2020. Not Alex Pready. For anti-COVID lockdown protesters, not Black Lives Matter.

protesters. As of Saturday morning, the Second Amendment apparently doesn't apply to liberals. We're having a real bad time when former South Carolina Republican representative and current Fox news host, Trey Gowdy, is making sense. You remember Kyle Rittenhouse and how he was made a hero on the right? I am sure there are people on the conservative side who are saying, wait a minute. You mean you can't take a firearm to a protest? Because you were just celebrating the guy for doing it a couple of years. years ago. But Rittenhouse was a conservative, so it's different. Before we go, with Oscar nominations sending shockwaves through the film world, Crooked's pop culture expert, Louis Vertell,

weighs in. This week on Keep It, he shares his takes on the wins, losses, and delightful chaos in between. Dylan O'Brien also joins to talk about his upcoming film with Rachel McAdams, send help. Tune in to Keep It every Wednesday, wherever you get your podcasts, or watch on YouTube. That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review. Celebrate 80-year-old Neil Young's continued willingness to stand on business and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading, and not just about how the Canadian musician has removed his music from Amazon and is giving away a year's free subscription to all of his music to the people of Greenland as a, quote,

gesture of kindness and respect, like me, what a day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com slash subscribe. I'm Jane Koston, and this is not at all surprising if you know anything about Neil Young. What a day is a production of Crooked Media. It's recorded and mixed by Desmond Taylor. Our associate producers are Emily Four and Chris Alport. Our producer is Caitlin Blummer. Our video editor is Joseph Tutra.

Our video producer is Johanna Case. We had a production help today from Ethan Oberman, Greg Walters, and Matt Burke. Our senior producer is Erica Morrison, and our senior vice president of News and Politics is Adrian Hill. Our theme music is by Kyle Murdoch and Jordan Cantor. We had helped today from the Associated Press. Our production staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East.