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- [00:00]
Dan Le Batard
The Hoover Dam wasn't built in a day and the GMC Sierra lineup wasn't built overnight. Like every American achievement, building the Sierra 1500 heavy duty and EV was the result of dedication. A dedication to mastering the art of engineering. That's what this country has done for 250 years and what GMC has done for over 100. We are professional grade. Visit GMC.com to learn more. Assembled in Flint and Hamtranch, Michigan in Fort Wayne, Indiana of US and globally.
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Roy Wood Jr.
Sourced parts, this episode is brought to.
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Dan Le Batard
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Roy Wood Jr.
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Dan Le Batard
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Roy Wood Jr.
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Dan Le Batard
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Roy Wood Jr.
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Dan Le Batard
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- [02:03]
Molly White
Just into daydream mode while you're stuck in Traff?
- [02:06]
Dan Le Batard
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- [02:09]
Molly White
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- [02:19]
Dan Le Batard
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Molly White
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- [02:27]
Dan Le Batard
From the UAE is buying $2 billion worth of a digital coin created by the Trump owned platform World Liberty Financial. The President is list listed as its chief crypto advocate along with his sons. The company called it, quote, the single largest ever investment in a crypto company, but did not respond to questions about how much the Trump family would profit from it. This is corrupt on its face, but it is likely illegal. You probably don't have to scratch very deep to find an instance where the President has received an enormous infusion of cash to his crypto coin from a CEO or foreign oligarch who is then asking for a favor from Donald Trump. The President of the United States should not be running a backdoor bribery scheme, the equivalent of posting your cash app on the White House webpage. It's been almost four years since the launch of Miami Coin. You may remember that we were the first people to tell you that Miami Mayor Francis Suarez was pumping and probably dumping this shitcoin that had no useful application. It was barely even an unregistered security. It was just an absolute meme coin trash. And it seemed abundantly clear from the jump. The thing about crypto, and, as it turns out, a constitutional republic, is that it's like Tinkerbell. We all just have to believe in it. And as long as we keep believing in it, it will continue to exist. Here's the thing. We didn't know what the hell this Miami Coin thing was for. Was it some sort of money laundering scheme? Was it a pump and dump? Was it some way to funnel money to the mayor or city commissioners because the city itself was getting a vig off the trades? And in fact, the city did grow something like over $5 million on a coin that is currently worth Miami coin $.00006121. So not a penny. Not a. I mean, not a tenth of a penny. Thank God the current president, in his infinite wisdom, stopped making the penny. I don't think we still make a point 000061 to 1% of a penny. It's. My point is, as it always is, the Miami of today is the America of tomorrow. And what we now have was abundantly clear scheme and a scam down here in Miami is now in the White House. You heard Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy talking about this being one of the biggest bribery scandals in the history of the American presidency. To tell us more about it, we have Molly White, cryptocurrency critic, technology researcher and software engineer, and author of Citation Needed News. Molly, you've been following this all the way through. I don't even know really where to begin, because there's the Trump mean Coin, then there's this like, World Liberty Financial kind of instrument. As well. Then we just saw this story about a $2 million investment from a foreign nation from Abu Dhabi into the President and his son's private business. We saw a raffle, I guess, sort of this, this weird semi ish legal raffle for to win a dinner or something at the White House with the President. How do you begin to explain this to laypeople, what it is that's going on here?
- [06:22]
Molly White
Well, Trump is really using cryptocurrency to enrich himself at this point. He's discovered no end to the, you know, ways through which he can raise funds for himself personally, you know, not even for his campaign. Using the Meme Coin, using this venture called World Liberty Financial, which he, you know, profits substantially from. His Trump media company, which runs Truth Social, is also getting into cryptocurrency. He's got NFTs. I mean, the list really kind of goes on at this point. And he's begun very directly trading access to himself as the president for cryptocurrency. We've seen that through this new dinner that he's announced where the top holders of the Trump Meme Coin will be invited to a private dinner with the President. I just did some analysis on those holders. The majority of them are not based in the United States, which adds additional concerns over emoluments and, you know, foreign agents registration. And so, you know, this is sort of a new avenue for corruption that Trump is taking full advantage of.
- [07:35]
Dan Le Batard
And you've got these companies, there's a logistics company that is like, going to borrow like $20 million. They don't have it, but I think they're going to borrow $20 million so that they can, quote, unquote, invest in this token and explicitly for the purpose of lobbying or convincing the president to change U.S. mexico trademark policy. Is that correct?
- [07:59]
Molly White
That's correct, yeah. And we've seen the same thing happening from cryptocurrency companies and other crypto entities as well. For example, Justin sun is a crypto billionaire who purchased $75 million worth of Trump's World Liberty Financial Token. And then shortly after the inauguration, the case, the lawsuit against him and his company from the securities and Exchange Commission was dropped, or rather paused pending resolution, likely to be dropped, you know, very directly benefiting son and his companies. And that was a case alleging fraud, no less.
- [08:32]
Dan Le Batard
I've talked extensively about public corruption in this program and the way politicians in South Florida exploit their public office for private profit. I don't think we've seen anything on this scale before where you're talking about figures in multibillion dollars. You're talking about it all happening rather transparently in an effort to effectuate policy and to buy access to the President of the United States. But you're also seeing the president changing policy, changing the country's policy on crypto specifically, in a way that directly enriches himself and his family. Tell us about that.
- [09:21]
Molly White
Right, so Trump has been very active in influencing both legislation that's being proposed as well as the regulations that are currently being enforced or previously were being enforced. You know, his directions to various entities within the government have directly been cited, and, you know, by the sec, for example, when they've dropped a number of cases against cryptocurrency companies, many of them with prejudice, so they cannot be refiled. Further cases that were going to court, you know, ongoing investigations have been dropped. He's launched this stablecoin entity or this stablecoin, you know, via his World Liberty Financial project, as there is stablecoin legislation making its way through Congress that he stands to benefit from. And so he's, you know, very much conflicted in terms of his engagements with the cryptocurrency world because he is writing the rules and creating a favorable business environment while also enriching himself via crypto ventures.
- [10:24]
Dan Le Batard
This is a deregulation of an industry that was barely being regulated to begin with, and in fact, by all objective accounts, is worthy of scrutiny. I hear from crypto true believers all the time that there's really only two legit coins. There's Bitcoin and there's Ethereum, and that everything else is nonsense. And when you're in a sector where even the devout believers are telling you that, oh, 99% of this other stuff is a scam, I'm like, okay, wait, hang on. If your argument is 99%, but this, like, is it doesn't that require a level of. Of scrutiny and regulation that is now being rolled back?
- [11:07]
Molly White
You would certainly think so. You know, and it's. It's pretty incredible to watch the cryptocurrency industry and its lobbyists make this case that during the Biden administration, the regulators were being too harsh to crypto, and that they killing the industry by trying to enforce very standard regulations that are used elsewhere in the financial system. Because, you know, during that time period, we saw the collapse of ftx, we saw the collapse of Celsius, whose CEO is literally being sentenced as we speak for his fraud in that company. You know, we saw the failures of regulations to be applied to this industry, and yet somehow the industry is Claiming that these very limited regulations that are in place were too over the top and that they were killing the industry and that they need to be rolled back. And that's exactly what's been happening. They are getting every wish under the Trump administration.
- [12:03]
Dan Le Batard
One of the things about crypto that's been uniquely disturbing to me is all of the arguments that, that people have made to me about it, by and large have turned out to be untrue. It's a hedge against inflation. It's not. It somehow has a practical application beyond just the, the casino of the unregulated security, that there's somehow you can use it to pay bills and things or whatever. That's very rare in the crypto space. Outside of the, I guess the major two, if you will. The idea that it's somehow untethered from market realities or from the stock market, even these so called stablecoins that they're always a dollar, well, we found that that's not, that's not true either. These stable coins are in fact quite unstable and unpredictable when dealing with the same market forces that every other security or stock or industry is impacted by. And finally, the democratization of banking. Somehow the idea that again, for people who believe that a man who shits on a gold toilet is really looking out for the plumber who services that toilet or the, the common man, the working class of America. The headline this week is 58 crypto wallets have made millions on Trump's meme coin. 764,000 have lost money. So once again, we have a financial system that really only benefits the top 1% or less of holders or hodlers or whatever the hell they call it. So my question, Molly, is, is that, is anybody benefiting from these Trump meme coins? And if so, who?
- [13:50]
Molly White
Well, Trump and his family are very much benefiting from it. I mean, they earn a substantial amount of money through selling the tokens onto the market as well as they continue to make money through trading fees. And so, for example, when this dinner was announced and people began trading the coin more activ because they wanted to secure an invitation to dinner, millions of dollars in trading fees were generated. And most of those go to Trump and Trump affiliates because they're the ones providing liquidity for these tokens. And so it's very lucrative for Trump directly, as you mentioned. There's also the sort of small minority of buyers who are able to buy early enough and at low enough prices and then time the markets to sell high. But as various reports have indicated, that's not the majority of people, these tokens are very volat. It's challenging to time the markets well. And frankly, because of the lack of regulation and oversight of these markets, there's a dramatic amount of market manipulation. And so oftentimes people are trying to speculate on these tokens in rigged environments where they are trading against people who have inside information or who have an advantage because of their relationship with the trading platforms. And so the idea that this is sort of free for all, where you can take your chances and potentially make it big is not even really accurate because the environment that people are working in is stacked against them.
- [15:21]
Dan Le Batard
Having spent the last, I don't know, is it eight years? Certainly feels like 80 years. Hearing about Hunter Biden and all of the nefarious activity that he was alleged to have been involved with all over the country. The laptop trading on his father's name and exploiting his father's office to.
- [15:38]
Roy Wood Jr.
But.
- [15:40]
Dan Le Batard
We now have the Trump sons, in just the last less than two weeks alone, announcing three multibillion dollar deals in three separate foreign countries who have a very serious and vested interest in influencing American policy. And the American President, including, I mean, these are businesses, by the way, that the President runs or the President is involved with is his son's, our representatives on his behalf. But they're not, you know, just private citizens out in the free market. And many of these deals, as we had mentioned, involve this crypto hustle. I want to quantify this a bit. The headline this week, Molly, Trump families net worth has increased by 2.9 billion with a B dollars thanks to crypto investments, new report says. Is that right? The net worth of the Trump family has increased this year by nearly $3 billion thanks to this crypto hustle.
- [16:47]
Molly White
Yeah, I mean, that is entirely believable from what I have seen, you know, he's made hundreds of millions of dollars easily off of the meme coins. He receives 75% of the net protocol revenues from World Liberty Financial, not to mention he holds a 60%, you know, majority stake in the company. His, you know, crypto ventures seem to be growing by the week. There's been rumors of, you know, a, a new crypto coin potentially being launched by the truth social platform, which he also owns a majority state or a major stake in. You know, there's been rumors of a crypto game that he's thinking of launching. That's sort of Monopoly type game where people would use cryptocurrencies to, you know, play this, this mobile game, I believe. And so, yeah, and so he's just.
- [17:34]
Dan Le Batard
Clearly, you know, really, you're really pissing him off because now you're going to get kids to play this game.
- [17:40]
Roy Wood Jr.
Like, what are we doing? What are we doing here?
- [17:42]
Molly White
Yeah. I mean, that's been a serious problem with crypto gaming in the past, is that it really invites, you know, very vulnerable people, including children, to get involved in the type of, you know, gamified gambling. Essentially. It's, you know, they are using real money and often losing real money in these crypto games.
- [18:00]
Dan Le Batard
These kids have got to do something while they're vaping. I mean, they're not going to sit around, you know, smoking and not. And not do something else to. To distract themselves. Last question, Molly. Is this legal or should it be legal?
- [18:16]
Molly White
Well, it is illegal for the president to accept, you know, money for influence.
- [18:22]
Dan Le Batard
That is she's a hater.
- [18:24]
Molly White
Yeah, it's true. I mean, it is plainly illegal. I think the question is whether anything will happen about it because we've seen the regulators backing off. I mean, that Trump himself has helped dismantle the cryptocurrency investigations team at the Department of Justice. He's directed the major frauds unit at the Department of Justice to stop focusing on cryptocurrency and instead focus on things like immigration fraud and various, like procurement fraud, things like that. And then, of course, we've seen, you know, some muted opposition in Congress that, you know, people speaking up against his very blatant grifts, but it has yet to amount to much. You know, there's been some talk of congresspeople stalling the stablecoin bill that is making its way through Congress as we speak. But it's even, you know, yet to be determined if that will be successful. I think largely because the degree of influence the crypto lobby has had over Congress, not to mention just the president. So, you know, yes, I think it is illegal. It's quite plainly illegal. But the question is, will anything happen?
- [19:31]
Dan Le Batard
This is the golden age of grifting here in America. As I said, Florida of today is the America of tomorrow, which means that the Florida and Miami of yesterday is the America of right now. And just everybody knows this. And I'm going to leave on a clip from my friends, the Good Liars. Interviewing outside a Trump rally, a very proud MAGA man in his Make America Great Again hat and also a very proud bitcoin trader wearing a bitcoin shirt as well. And I'll give him the last word. They're only buying bitcoin. Everything else is a scam. Only Buy bitcoin. Everything else is a scam, correct? Yeah, only bitcoin. So Donald Trump launched his meme coin.
- [20:15]
Roy Wood Jr.
Was that a scam?
- [20:18]
Dan Le Batard
I love Trump, but yes, yes, it was a scam. Folks, listen up. If you run anything online these days, a podcast, a merch store, whatever it is, you're basically forced to wear 12 hats. Marketing? Sure. Customer service? Why not? And now you're supposed to be your own IT department. Kinsta is managed WordPress hosting, which means you get blazing fast site speeds, top tier security, and a dashboard that doesn't look like it was built in 2006. And if something goes sideways, real humans, not bots, to help you 24. 7. No scripts, no sorry, I don't understand replies. Kinsta takes the stress out of tech stuff so you can actually focus on your business. Or in our case, more time watching games, arguing nonsense and delivering the hottest take possible. No messing with settings, no panic troubleshooting, just smooth sailing. Tired of being your own website support team? Switch your hosting to Kinsta and get your first month free. And don't worry about the move. They'll handle the whole transition for you. No tech expertise required. Just visit kinsta.com dan to get started. That's K-I-N-S-T-A.com dan. This is as Miami a story as you can possibly get. And it is so Miami that we require a Miami Whisperer, a Miami translator, a Rosetta Stone, someone to crack the Da Vinci Code of this story, because it is so. It's par for the course in Miami, but I'm concerned that people outside of Miami are going to have absolutely no idea where to begin with this. So let's start with the headline. Miami Dade Elections Supervisor Hires no show Miami employee Jenny Nilo. Now, where to begin? Because obviously, who is the Miami Dade Election supervisor? Who is Jenny Nilo? How did we get here? So the first thing I'll say is that the election supervisor used to be a politically appointed position. The county mayor would appoint that person. It was a woman for a long time by the name of Christina White, who was a professional. She's worked for Republican mayors, for Democratic mayors, and has done a, I think, by and large, a pretty good job in a very difficult position in a very tough roughtown. And now, thanks to a constitutional amendment, a state constitutional amendment, we now have to elect officers like a sheriff in Dade county, like a tax collector, property appraiser, and even more importantly, an election supervisor. This is now a partisan political position, which no way, no way model. It shouldn't be. I don't care who wins or who's running. It should not be a partizan political position. You should have to be a professional. You should have to know what you're doing. And in fact, the person who won, Alina Garcia, knows so little about the job that she hired Christina White to stay on because she has no idea what she's doing. And she has turned it into really nothing more than a partisan political position. And where does she come from? Elena Garcia? Who are her political sherpas and godfathers? You're not going to believe this cast of characters and how Jenny Nilo gets involved. And so my translator for all this, when you need to know what's going on and why it's happening and what the sordid, telenovela esque history is with these multigenerational political crime families here in Miami, you go to political cortadito.com you talk to Elaine Devia, aka Ladra. And Elaine has been a journalist in this market for decades. Eighteen of those years she was at the Miami Herald, a part of two Pulitzer prize winning teams, including the team that exposed the most corrupt local election in the history of this country. Well, this country, if you include Miami in this country, the 1997 Miami mayoral election of Xavier Suarez, the father of Francis Suarez versus you know who.
- [24:53]
Roy Wood Jr.
I.
- [24:53]
Dan Le Batard
Mean, it's like NFL 87, dude. It's like, yes. That's why I say in Miami, we don't, we don't recycle our trash. We reelect it. Elaine, thank you so much for being here. Tell me, Alina Garcia, what is her Miami political pedigree so people understand the kind of character we're talking about here.
- [25:14]
Roy Wood Jr.
As you know, but I mean, as you know. But I don't know if your watchers, your viewers know. Alina Garcia began her political career as an assistant to David Rivera when he was in the Florida state House and later became a congressman before he was charged with rigging an election. She's also worked for Jimmy Petronis. She worked with Joe Carollo, who you know very well, our esteemed Miami commissioner. And she also worked with Frank Artilles, who was recently sentenced to probation in an election rigging case as well. So she has experience in elections. She knows all about them, but she knows about rigging them, which is why it's a difficult thing to know that she's our elections supervisor. You're right about Christina White. She is the chief executive officer, which really means that she's running elections still, which, thank God. But Alina Garcia has Turned the elections department sort of into a Republican outpost. She invited the Republican Party to go and take a tour. They were given gift bags. And it just seems like it's a little bit inappropriate. She was also at the investiture ceremony for the interim Hialeah mayor, Jackie Garcia Rose, who took over for Steven Bovo. She's there smiling, taking pictures with, you know, Jackie Garcia Rose with Renee Garcia, who's a Miami date commissioner that's poised to run for Hialeah mayor. There's a Hialeah election this year. There's a Miami election this year. It just seems kind of weird to have our election supervisor, the person who's going to be arbitrating these elections, hobnobbing and rubbing elbows and coming up with the candidates in these elections.
- [27:00]
Dan Le Batard
Not, not a, not a professional, a partisan, not a professional, not an objective, fair person, and apparently doesn't even know how to do the job such that she had to keep Christina White on.
- [27:13]
Roy Wood Jr.
So thank goodness for that.
- [27:15]
Dan Le Batard
Thank goodness for that. I think Christina White is a professional and I think that she's not going to be a part of anything nefarious. But we'll get to that in just a moment. I need to rewind because you listed this cast of characters here, here, starting with David Rivera, who was anybody. So David Rivera was not charged in rigging that election, but was implicated in it by the two people that were charged in it. He was not a coconspirator. He was the mastermind of the entire scheme, this election fraud scheme. David Rivera that sent two of his co conspirators that he recruited into the election fraud conspiracy, sent them to federal prison, but miraculously, somehow not him. I guess sometimes it pays to be Marco Rubio's former bag man. Also Joe Carollo, for crying out loud. I mean, Joe Carollyo. I mean, we know this guy is a kind of famous character on this show. And of course, Frank Artilles, who you mentioned, who was not only arrested and charged, but convicted of election fraud, and Alina Garcia. So this is who she learned how to be an election supervisor from, from some literal fraudsters who famously were implicated and or charged in a litany of, of alleged crimes. Let me ask you this, Elaine, because maybe a lot of people in Miami don't know this either. Alina Garcia was allegedly a boletera. What do you know about that? And more importantly, what the hell is a boletera?
- [29:01]
Roy Wood Jr.
Well, a boletera is someone who collects ballots typically in Hispanic high Republican areas, typically in elderly housing. It was very, very common in throughout the early 2000s and through 2010, 2011, the 2012 elections, both of those were touched by absentee ballot fraud. That's very much documented both in Political Corito and in a piece that I did in collaboration with Univision. So yes, they basically collect the ballots and the fear is, and we do have evidence of boleteras who will change ballots ballots or will throw away ballots that don't coincide with their candidate chosen.
- [29:55]
Dan Le Batard
Candidate or I believe will fill them out in advance their chosen candidates and hand them off to the, to the elderly voter to sign or tell them.
- [30:04]
Roy Wood Jr.
How to, how to fill it out or who to fill out to. So those are things that you know, we did catch people doing. And according to the stories of the people who know her, that's how she started. That's how a lot of our, you know, the people in my generation and her generation started in the political world as bulleteros and bulletin us because it was very common back then.
- [30:27]
Dan Le Batard
So these are bulleteros and bulleted as male and female use. Oh and ah, they are effectively it means absentee ballot broker or absentee ballot bundler. But you can only imagine the kind of nefariousness that these folks can find themselves in. And in fact it has been adjudicated in several cases, not the least of which the 1997 mayoral election in which dead people voted what Carl Hiason referred to as Manny Yip and his buddies down at the cemetery. These were super voters. These were people who voted in every single election since their deaths. Ok? And these were schemes that were cooked up by Bolateros and Bolateras effectively filling out these ballots and being involved in alleged Ford signatures, etc. So you have a former boletera who was trained by some of the most corrupt characters in the city of Miami, including known convicted election fraudsters. Who is now the election supervisor in Miami Dade County. Hashtag because Miami. So who then is Jenny Nilo and how the hell does she get involved in this? So this woman was fired from the city of Miami. Can you imagine what it takes Roy, to get fired from the city of Miami? You know, you'd have to do. You'd have to have a no show job, you'd have to be drinking and driving on the job and while you're on the taxpayer dime run running personal errands. She did all of those things and then some. So Elaine, who is Jenny Nilo? What happened to her at the city of Miami? And donde star now where's Jenny?
- [32:04]
Molly White
Huh?
- [32:04]
Roy Wood Jr.
Hashtag where's Jenny? Jenny Nilo is really funny. She was fired from the community Redevelopment Agency, the Omni Community Redevelopment Agency, after she was found to be, you know, doing personal errands on the job and drinking and driving, stopping for cans of beer. I don't know how she wasn't arrested for drinking and driving because that's what she was doing. But she was right.
- [32:24]
Dan Le Batard
That was what she was doing when she was pulled over by law enforcement, who was surveilling her in a criminal investigation and in fact, saw her criming and saw her drinking and driving. That's why they. They felt obligated to finally basically break their cover and pull her over. But, Roy, she wasn't arrested for drinking and driving. We've talked about her extensively a couple of years ago when this happened. Friend. The friends and family program here in Miami. So she doesn't get arrested, though, but she does get. Get fired. Why?
- [32:55]
Roy Wood Jr.
Well, she got fired because she was using the city car to do private things. And, you know, I think that that's. They didn't even. They didn't even say anything about the drinking in the car, I don't think. But she got hired right away by this. The district, by Alex is a partia for his district office because he was still in office then. He had not yet been arrested and suspended for corruption charges, which are completely different. But anyway, so Jenny Nilo worked at the city up until 2023, I believe, and. Or even. Maybe even last year. And then now she is working at the elections department. She is Alina Garcia's executive secretary, making $45,000 a year. I did get her application, but I haven't been able to get an answer from the elections department whether or not this position was advertised, whether or not there was any. Any other applicants, because it just seems like there might have been maybe some other qualified people in the county that could have taken that job. But, you know, I think it was either a favor or. And this occurred to me later after I wrote the piece, maybe Jenny knows something, you know, because there's. You know, these people go way back. Like you said, there's. There's. They're part of the same political pond. Honda, which produces scum. I'm not saying they're. They're scum, but ponds produce scum, and so they're part of the same pond. And I mean, it just. It just doesn't make any sense.
- [34:24]
Molly White
But.
- [34:24]
Dan Le Batard
But I don't want to say you buried the lead because there's so many leads in this story, but Jenny nilo, back in 2017, was sentenced to 36 months in federal prison for mortgage fraud. This is prior to her being hired for this obviously bogus bullshit position, no show job at the city of Miami, which was clearly a gift from Alex Diaz La Portez, the disgraced ex, because he was removed from office by Governor Ron DeSantis because he was arrested for bribery, money laundering and campaign finance violations, which he. The, the charges were subsequently dropped. I have to, I have to say that because it's true.
- [35:05]
Roy Wood Jr.
But.
- [35:05]
Dan Le Batard
But then she gets fired by the city, then she gets hired by him to basically run his personal errands on the taxpayer time, the taxpayer dime and to allegedly drive drunk in a city of Miami vehicle, which by the way, the liability for taxpayers for this person to drive drunk in a city owned vehicle. But nobody seems to care. She keeps getting these public positions. But Elaine, you talked to Alex Diaz laporte. He was probably drunk texting you, if I had to guess. But he is allegedly or threatening to run for mayor in the city of Miami. This cesspool of a race this year for city mayor. You know Jenny to be part of team dlp, right? What did he say to you about this?
- [35:48]
Roy Wood Jr.
Well, I asked him if he was going to take her to the mayor's office should he win the election. And he said, yeah, she's part of his team. And that was after we. It was before I found out that Jenny was working at the elections department, which kudos to Tess Risky at the Miami Herald because she broke the story I only followed and then. But, but it was after she got hired. Do you understand what I mean? So he already, she was already there and she's on his team. That's kind of it. It certainly raises some concern.
- [36:20]
Dan Le Batard
Well, when you, when you have a person, not only a person with a criminal record like hers and an embarrassing public employment record such as Jenny Nilo, but you have someone who, a very shady politician accused and in fact arrested for at one time, money laundering, bribery and campaign finance crimes, who is telling you that this person is a part of his political team and she is now embedded in the Miami Dade county elections offices, which leads me to this next question. In terms of, you know, certainly our ongoing thesis of the Miami of today is the America of tomorrow. You have a lot of election deniers, a lot of people who think that Donald Trump won the election in 2020. Spoiler alert. Alert. He did not. You want it in 2024, though. Are there some concerns here about the integrity of elections in Miami Dade county when you have such incompetent fraudster. She's a fraudster. She was sentenced for mortgage fraud. You have fraudsters, criminals and incompetents and in fact, political operatives in charge of running, running an elections office in one of the largest, most consequential and diverse counties in the country.
- [37:35]
Roy Wood Jr.
Of course, certainly. But I think more than, than being concerned about Jenny Nilo, which, you know, you're obviously, there's concern about that, but I don't know if in her position she's going to handle ballots. I don't know if she's going to be in the kind of position where she can make policy. Alina Garcia is in the kind of position where she could make policy, where she could make determinations, where she could make voting more difficult. She's for example, and I'm still following up on this. I have not been able to get answers, but from my reporting, she has done some voter outreach, doing some voter registration signups. They have been in what could be considered Republican strongholds. I don't think she's done any in Liberty City or Aventura or Pine Crest. So I need to find out more about that. But, but those are the concerns I have are Elena Garcia is in much more position of power at the elections department and that is going to have much more consequences on us, the voters. So that's, that's my concern.
- [38:36]
Dan Le Batard
Yes, the supervisor of Bola Terrace here in Miami Dade County, Elaine Devia, find her and please do@political cortadito.com should we spell that? Roy? P O L I T. Not that they know how to spell political, but go to Dadito. C O R T A D I T O. So, so very good. What is, what is cortadito?
- [39:01]
Roy Wood Jr.
Roy Coffee is like a, it's like a shot of Cuban coffee with half. And it's half and half Cuban coffee and milk. So it's like a tiny cafe con leche, but darker.
- [39:11]
Dan Le Batard
I've lived here for 40 years. Unpasteurized milk though, right? You have to have unpasteurized.
- [39:16]
Roy Wood Jr.
Yes, it's better with.
- [39:17]
Dan Le Batard
And no fluoride. No fluoride in that water.
- [39:20]
Roy Wood Jr.
Have I have it with 2%? Yeah. No fluoride added.
- [39:23]
Dan Le Batard
I need whole milk. Political, political cordadito.com go there. Read all about it. Thank you so much for being here, Elaine.
- [39:32]
Roy Wood Jr.
Let's do it again. Thanks for having me.
- [39:36]
Dan Le Batard
You know, when you celebrate 50 years of Miller Light, I had to bring in a Miller Light aficionado, Greg Cody. I mean, no one says Miller Lite like Greg Cody. I think when I Think of me and you. I think of us on a. A golf course. Where else are we at? I mean, on a cruise ship. In. In my backyard. At the beach. At the. At the beach is a good one. What do we always do? We hear that. Oh, yeah, yeah. And then what do we do? We toast. Nice little clink. The clink. Whether it's the can or the bottle, there's something about the clink of the Miller Light. Yeah. And it's not just how much we. We love it. It's.
- [40:11]
Roy Wood Jr.
It's the, the whole ritual of it.
- [40:12]
Dan Le Batard
You know, the, the popping the top, the sound of that. Yeah.
- [40:17]
Roy Wood Jr.
It's great.
- [40:17]
Dan Le Batard
Love it. Love it. From game nights to parties with friends or a special anniversary, celebrating important occasions means more with the coolest people in your life. Cheers to 50 years of Miller Lite, the great tasting light beer. For people who Love beer since 1975, now's a perfect time to celebrate legendary stories with friends, family, and a great tasting light beer. It's Miller time. The simple ingredients, that malted barley for rich, balanced toffee note flavors. And that iconic, iconic golden color. Yes, it's. It's one. Everything about it is wonderful. I can't think of anything. You're smiling. Ever since we started doing this ad read, you have just been smiling the entire time. I'm a Miller Light guy. That kind of thing. Miller Lite great taste. 96 calories. Go to millerlight.com dan to find delivery options near you. Or you can pick up some Miller Lite pretty much anywhere they sell beer. It's Miller time. Celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Co. Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 96 calories and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces. The NBA playoffs are here and it's time for all the high stakes drama, the clutch moments, the jaw dropping plays. And if you're looking to make the playoffs Even more exciting, DraftKings sportsbook has you covered as an official sports betting partner of the NBA. Make it a playoff run to remember with DraftKings. Download the DraftKings sportsbook app now and use code DAN. That's code DAN. DAN for new customers to get 200 bucks in bonus bets. When you bet just five bucks bucks only on DraftKings. The crown is yours. Gambling problem. Call 1-800- gambler in New York. Call 877-8-HOPENY or text hopeny 467-369 in Connecticut. Help is available for problem gambling. Call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org Please play responsibly on behalf of Boot Hill Casino and Resort in Kansas. 21 and over. Agent eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario new customers only. Bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see dkng co Audio ROY I studied political science at the University of Miami in a pre law curriculum with a particular focus on constitutional law. And I had some really wonderful professors and it was, it was my favorite courses and my favorite part of my time at the University of Miami and grew to not only through my grandfather who was a non practicing attorney and some of my friends and my professors grew to have a real kind of profound respect for the Constitution. A very imperfect document but designed to bring people together under some common ideas and ideals. And we work together to form a more perfect union which also meant to not a perfect union but a more perfect union meant that this was a works in progress and as imperfect as it was. And we've talked to our friend Elie Mastal about how spectacularly and uniquely imperfect it was by design, but intended to be improved upon. I get really frustrated for example when I see people with t shirts at San say We the People 1776.
- [43:31]
Roy Wood Jr.
Well, especially considering that some of the.
- [43:33]
Dan Le Batard
People who are considered people, you know, slaves, that is uniquely problematic. And also the fact is that the year 1776 Roy was the Declaration of Independence. Also that not the Constitution which was drafted in 1787, ratified in 1788 and mostly in place by 1789, but the words we the people were not written in 1776, they were written a decade later. It's just I'm trying to think of like what that, you know, I mean our education system is terrible, right? It's just it like it annoys me because it's like a kind of a proud ignorance. And incidentally there are some really fabulous and inspiring and poetic turns of phrase in the Declaration of Independence. If you want to talk about the truths that we hold to be self evident that all men are created equal, endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness. Once again not all men slaves more perfect. We could get it more perfect. And in fact for, for centuries, almost, almost 250 years we, we have been working to get it more perfect. I think the point is, is that there are quotes you could pull from the Declaration of Independence for your T shirt that would align with the 1776 date as opposed to kind of proudly wearing your ignorance. It's just like just at least get the history of the country Right. The history that you're undoubtedly celebrating fighting one way or another. But just get it right. Know the history, understand it. We just watched the President in interview with ABC News in the Oval Office try to explain his fondness for the Declaration of Independence by basically saying, I love it because it was a Declaration of Independence which kind of like has those back to school vibes. Remember, like independently Declaration. Tell me about the Great Gatsby. He was great. You know, like Gatsby was great. Rodney Dangerfield, you know, doing his book report, you know, by just repeating the title of the book. But it's concerning for me. I'm not a constitutional scholar, but I'm a. I'm a fan and a student of the Constitution and of this government and this way of life. And when you have a president that says this, don't you need to uphold.
- [46:03]
Roy Wood Jr.
The Constitution of the United States as president?
- [46:05]
Dan Le Batard
I don't know, I have to respond.
- [46:08]
Roy Wood Jr.
By saying, again, I have brilliant lawyers that work for me.
- [46:13]
Dan Le Batard
What his brilliant lawyers may remind him of is that that the presidential oath of office, which is really just one sentence, is this. I, Donald John Trump, do solemnly swear. I, Donald John Trump, do solemnly swear. That I will faithfully execute.
- [46:31]
Roy Wood Jr.
That I will faithfully execute.
- [46:33]
Dan Le Batard
The office of President of the United States.
- [46:36]
Roy Wood Jr.
The office of President of the United States.
- [46:39]
Dan Le Batard
And will to the best of my ability and will touch the best of.
- [46:43]
Roy Wood Jr.
My ability, preserve, protect and defend, preserve.
- [46:47]
Dan Le Batard
Protect and defend The Constitution of the United States. The Constitution of the United States. So help me God. So help me God. He solemnly swore. There's nothing solemn about that man at all. And when he swears, I don't think he means it in that way. No, he swear in all way, you know. So when you have a president who isn't certain if the oath of office, which he has now taken twice, consists of protecting and defending the Constitution and doesn't necessarily know who those laws apply to. These are the Constitution is supposed to protect, not only define what it means, the role of the government. Government, but the role of the government in our lives and to protect us. That's what the Bill of Rights does, protect us from a tyrannical government, which is really what the Second Amendment was for. Not hearing so much from those Second Amendment folks these days, which is interesting. But when you have a president who does, who isn't sure if his job, if his answer to aren't you supposed to protect and defend the Constitution is I don't know. And you have a president who doesn't know, know who the rules are supposed to apply to basically saying you have a president who is above the law and does not have to abide by the Constitution, and then starts to identify people who he unilaterally classifies as quote unquote illegal or not American, and then says the Constitution doesn't apply to you in terms of your protections from the government. I wanted to get a better understanding of this from someone who is in fact a Constitution scholar and was in fact the most conservative justice in the history, perhaps certainly top two, I would argue, most conservative justice in the history of the United States Supreme Court, Antnon Scalia, who's ideologically was just to the right of the Taliban. He was asked about the application of the Constitution, the five freedoms of the First Amendment Amendment, for example, and who does the Constitution apply to? We'll leave you today with this cocaine's to whom does the First Amendment apply? Do undocumented immigrants have the five freedoms? Oh, I think so. I think anybody who's present in the United States has protection protections under the United States Constitution. Americans abroad have that protection. Other people abroad do not. They don't have the protections of our Constitution.