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- [00:01]
Mike Ryan
Hey folks, it's Mike Ryan. And if you're watching our show, you probably know and your boy has undergone a little bit of a body transformation. And I gotta tell you, Peloton has helped me on my fitness journey. It got the ball rolling for me because I watch my wife on the peloton. She takes all these great classes. She has her favorite instructors. I listen to the music, I'm a big music guy. Gets me fired up. Makes me want to take part in this fitness phenomenon known as Peloton. Peloton offers a variety of challenging classes, from four week strength building classes to running, cycling and everything in between. Peloton will help you achieve your goals and maybe you'll have some fun along the way. I know I have it's backed by thousands of members whose lives have been changed. Be part of that group, telling you I'm better for it. Have it in my office. Sometimes I can put on the baseball game. Sometimes I can put on a soccer match. Some other times I'm totally locked in on an emo playlist. Find your push, find your power with peloton@onepelaton.com Now's a good time to remember where tequila's story truly began. In 1795, Cuervo invented tequila.
- [01:08]
Billy
Cuervo.
- [01:09]
Mike Ryan
What are you doing here?
- [01:10]
Alexandra Glorioso
Cuervo.
- [01:11]
Billy
Anytime someone says Cuervo, I show up.
- [01:13]
Mike Ryan
Well, I do know that to be true. But even during ad reads like Cuervo, I think he could lay out especially for one of our great partners.
- [01:20]
Billy
Sweet, delicious Cuervo.
- [01:21]
Mike Ryan
Since then, Cuervo has stayed true to its roots. The same family, the same land, the same passion.
- [01:26]
Lawrence Mower
Cuervo.
- [01:27]
Mike Ryan
So enjoy the tequila that started it all. Cuervo.
- [01:30]
Alex Andrade
Cuervo.
- [01:31]
Mike Ryan
The tequila that invented tequila Proximo. Cuervo.com, please drink responsibly.
- [01:35]
Alex Andrade
Cuervo.
- [01:37]
Billy
State lawmakers asking tough questions about how $10 million was funneled into a nonprofit called Hope Florida and not into a state bank account. The charity was spearheaded by first lady Casey DeSantis. The money was baked into a $67.
- [01:51]
James Uthmeyer
Million settlement between health giant Centene and.
- [01:54]
Billy
The agency for healthcare. 57 million went back to taxpayers.
- [01:58]
James Uthmeyer
10 million went to Hope Florida, a welfare assistance program to help people become less reliant on taxpayer funded programs.
- [02:05]
Dopey
That cash quickly went out the door to two nonprofits for $5 million grants and promises that the money would be used to further Hope Florida's mission, not politics. But those nonprofits later gave millions to a political committee fighting and defeating last year's recreational weed amendment. Keep Florida Clean, a group chaired by former DeSantis chief of staff turned Attorney General James Uthmeyer.
- [02:37]
Billy
Follow the money. That was the great lesson from Deep Throat in the movie version of all the President's Men. I don't think that happened in, in real life, but it was a great line that the screenwriter came up with. And that has been sort of the mantra of every investigative reporter, particularly in political corruption stories. And no different here. Over the last, like 10 days or so, this story has metastasized into a full blown scandal here in the state of Florida and turned the Republican Party against each other, into this wild kind of internal battle between what appears to be kind of the Trump Republicans versus, really the DeSantis, by themselves, both the governor, Ron DeSantis, and the first lady, Casey DeSantis, who's planning a run for governor in 2026. And this hope Florida foundation has been like her pet project as the Florida first lady. And it's turning into a possible investigation into money laundering and wire fraud. And I just. This is a crazy story. And the Woodward and Bernstein of this story are Miami Herald and Tamp Times reporters who cover the State Capitol in Tallahassee, Florida, Alexandra Glorioso and Lawrence Moore, who are joining us now. And they broke this story about this we'll call the questionable. When I say questionable, I mean possibly illegal $10 million donation to Casey DeSantis Foundation. First up, Alexandra, what is it that you guys first found that kind of led you to ask this question here about like, what was this money? Where did it come from? Was it legal? What, what happened initially?
- [04:26]
James Uthmeyer
So I got a copy of meeting minutes from 10-20-24. And, you know, this is a charity sanctioned by the state in state law. So the meeting minutes are supposed to be public, but they haven't been. So when I saw the meeting minutes, I was really intrigued. And what the meeting minutes said was that there was a $10 million allocation to the foundation due to a long standing dispute between what eventually came out was the state Agency for Health Care Administration and the state's largest Medicaid contractor, Centene, which had been, you know, over billing the state for prescription drugs, essentially. And they were settling over it. And, you know, we didn't know everything when we got those minutes, but we knew that the foundation was getting $10 million. And that was the first donation that we knew about to the foundation because everything has been so secretive.
- [05:30]
Billy
And this was a settlement between the state and this provider of which the money was, I guess, supposed to go to the state but this 10 million was kind of diverted to the first lady's foundation. Generally speaking, does this foundation take in that kind of money? Do they commonly get multi. Multi million dollar donations, like, of this size?
- [05:48]
Alexandra Glorioso
No, this is basically the largest donation they've ever taken in by far. And we just got a copy of their 9 90s. They've never filed their taxes. They're going to approve their taxes on Thursday, and it shows that they're by far. This is by far the largest donation they've ever taken in.
- [06:05]
Billy
So let me ask you about that, because it seems like they haven't been following any laws, like, at all. You just said they haven't filed their taxes. The minutes Alexandra just said were not available for their meetings. Like, what kind of a. What foundation is this that just, like, operates in secret? And this donation at first was a secret, in fact, wasn't it?
- [06:26]
James Uthmeyer
The donation was a secret. We didn't discover exactly what the details were until there was a hearing in the House last week where the chairman of the committee said that he had gotten a copy of the settlement between the Medicaid contractor Centene and the state agency. And we got a copy of the settlement, and it showed that as part of that settlement, Centene would make the donation to the charity. But the company clarified on the record that, you know, they were directed to do this as part of the settlement agreement. So this is Medicaid money. It's highly regulated money. 57% of it belongs to the federal government. Any settlement has to go back to state coffers. So. And. And the state acknowledged that they are. At least the chair said the state acknowledged that they did send the money back to the federal government of the 57 million. So, you know, this $10 million has been in dispute, and the origin of it was a mystery until we, you know, were able to piece it together and report it. I mean, all of this was hidden from the public.
- [07:34]
Billy
And Lawrence, I understand that this $10 million donation, whatever you want to call it, settlement, secret money, didn't stay in the Hope Florida foundation for very long. What did you find out about, you know, as you continued to follow that money?
- [07:49]
Alexandra Glorioso
Well, what we learned is that what we know now is, is that it looks like DeSantis Chief of Staff James Uthmeyer, who's currently the attorney General, told two dark money groups, one run by the Chamber of Commerce. These are 501C4s that don't have to disclose their donors. Uckmeyer called them up and said, hey, why don't you apply for 5 million dollar grants through the foundation. And it seemed like with the understanding that that money would then be passed on to a political committee chaired by Uthmeyer. And that seems to be what happened. They did apply for the money. It was quickly given to them. One of the five million dollar donations wasn't even approved in a board meeting. The the board chair just approved it on his own after getting legal counsel, he said. And so it went to a political committee chaired by Uthmyer. And then from there it looks like the money went to the Republican Party of Florida to fight Amendment 3 and possibly to DeSantis's own political committee. 1.1 million went to his political committee. We don't exactly know, but we know that they gave this committee, gave 1.1 million to DeSantis, his own political committee.
- [08:57]
Billy
Alexandra, I imagine this Hope Florida foundation has a very specific mission. It's supposed to take in funds and use funds for a very specific purpose. I guess we don't know because they haven't reported a damn thing in all of the years since Casey DeSantis founded it. But is there money from Hope Florida supposed to go to these political committees? Is it supposed to go towards political ads to fight, in this case, Amendment 3, which was the recreational marijuana constitutional amendment that got overwhelming support, but did not the 60% sufficient support necessary to pass as a state constitutional amendment? Is that where this money supposed to be going?
- [09:37]
James Uthmeyer
Well, first of all, if this is Medicaid money, and it appears that it is Medicaid money, it seems very unlikely that it can go anywhere other than back to the state for purposes of Medicaid and back to the federal government for purposes of Medicaid. So that's just like out the gate, like this is money that is highly, highly regulated. And then regarding the foundation, I mean, okay, so the foundation is a strange creature called a direct support organization that the legislature passed, I think, in 2023, to allow state agencies, which are chronically underfunded, to fundraise. And it supports the mission of those state agencies. And one of those state agencies is the Department of Children and Families, always strapped for cash. And this organization, the Hope Florida foundation, is supposed to be supporting the Department of Children and Families mission, which it says in its articles of incorporation, something like protecting children, helping children. And so can a political committee that is fighting recreational marijuana say that it's there protecting children and the mission of supporting children? I mean, that's, I guess, for the public and the prosecutors to decide. You know, but what they said in the committee, what you know, Department of Children and Family Secretary Taylor Hatch said in the committee is that she wasn't even aware of the, you know, transfer to the foundation, to these organizations. And because she hadn't been on the job, because she and another agency secretary switched places recently and over this whole thing, I'm sure. And so she. She didn't even know about it. And she said that according to their grant applications, which were only a few pages long, that she took it as they were supporting people in addiction recovery and therefore that met the mission. I mean.
- [11:39]
Billy
Well, Lawrence, let's go back to this. What did you know James Uthmeyer know and when did he know it? He was then DeSantis's chief of staff at the time this went down, and he's now the Attorney General. He's sending these two or behind these two kind of identical letters requesting each $5 million. I have to guess if this Hope Florida foundation has never received a donation as big as $10 million before. They probably also not disseminated grants of as much as $5 million each before. I have to imagine that that was unprecedented as well. So was this, was this shady, Lawrence? Was there something about the way this flow through when that could constitute wire fraud or money laundering? And what happens now?
- [12:25]
Alexandra Glorioso
Well, we don't exactly know the legal ramifications yet, but, you know, something that was noted in the committee on, on Wednesday is that, you know, there's a safe rep who runs a charity and asked, you know, why was there no press release about this? You know, you know, usually when. When people give to charities, there's a big press release. They have letterhead everywhere. You know, the 501C4 that got $5 million, the one that's controlled by the Chamber of Commerce. Mark. Mark Wilson, that grant application says, we will not disclose where the money came from, which also was noted in the committee. And that also seems very strange considering, you know, usually if a charity is giving out money like that, they want their. They want a press release, they want their name on letterhead, they want promotional activities, you know, based on it. They want the. The recipient to say, hey, we got this money from the United Way or something like that. And none of that was done here. And so, yeah, certainly to some lawmakers, that's highly suspicious.
- [13:23]
Billy
And I will say, just minutes before this interview began, breaking news. The executive director of Hope Florida foundation resigned. Eric Dillon, back after just three months on the job, is now, I guess, scapegoats going to scapegoat. Is that who is ultimately responsible for this? This Guy.
- [13:46]
James Uthmeyer
No, I mean, the people who are responsible for Hope Florida are the DeSantis. I mean, this is a vision of Casey DeSantis. She wrote an op ed in the Wall Street Journal about it. And, you know, Eric Dalemback, however, has been very central to their mission, which is to essentially integrate church and state. You know, there's an office of Faith Council that they're trying to enshrine into law. And he has been The Liaison From DeSantis to the Faith community essentially since he assumed office. The fact that he is gone now is pretty significant, I think.
- [14:29]
Alexandra Glorioso
And I'll note that, you know, in the committee last week, the head of, you know, the agency for basically the longtime previous secretary for dcf, which is kind of running the Hope Florida operation, was asked repeatedly who's in charge of Hope Florida? There's nobody in charge. And no, none of the people could answer that anyone was in charge. They, they didn't think anyone was in charge. Meanwhile, this guy has had the title since January. So, no, he's probably not the one who's been orchestrating all this.
- [14:58]
Billy
Before we go, I want to ask this. The issue of DeSantis using, I think, in excess of $15 million, Jason Garcia reported in taxpayer money earmarked for very specific departments in the state government. Four ads last year fighting against Amendment three, the recreational marijuana amendment, fighting against Amendment four to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution. The Republican House and legislature didn't really seem to have an issue with any of that at the time. Anything from your reporting kind of indicate why this is now such a big issue that the governor's own party in power is examining with a fine tooth comb.
- [15:43]
Alexandra Glorioso
Here, let me take that. I mean, I mean, it's, it's basically that, you know, you know, there's really been, you know, a handful of lawmakers. It's the House essentially, that is really raising questions about DeSantis's spending overall. And these are long standing questions that, you know, privately, lawmakers up here have been whispering for years, but have not felt they have the political clout to really dig into it. And, you know, there's been, it's no secret that lawmakers have been extremely frustrated by the how. By the way DeSantis has treated them over the years. And so, yeah, this is the culmination of, you know, basically tensions boiling over and House House Republicans saying, okay, we want to actually do our jobs and dig into this stuff. I mean, they're the ones, the, the legislature, they're the appropriators, they're the ones who are supposed to assign the money and, you know, they're supposed to know where the money's going. Major, major question under DeSantis tenure is like, where's all this money gone?
- [16:43]
Billy
Alexandra, last word. Can you give us a little bit of a sneak preview? Not to spoil anything, but where is this reporting going next? What are the next steps in this? I'm sure more heads are gonna roll.
- [16:55]
James Uthmeyer
Well, we just updated our story yesterday with images of text messages that were given to us late Tuesday evening by Representative Alex Andrade, which he said were delivered on behalf of the executive director for one of the dark money groups as part of his request on Tuesday to all members involved for documents. So that's getting a lot of eyeballs. It shows that then chief of Staff James Uthmeyer actually reached out to the executive director of the dark money group and wanted to talk to to her around the time that she reached out and got the grant. And in and when she applied for the grant, the foundation attorney, Jeff Aaron, was, you know, coordinating with her, telling her to email him the grant and that he would send it on to the board. And then he immediately, as soon as she sent it, asked for her wire instructions. And then they communicated until, you know, that was on a Friday. And they communicated until she got the wired $5 million into her dark money organization's bank account on, you know, Tuesday, October 22nd. And so that's captured in images now and that's in our story. And it's going to go on. There's going to be another hearing, you know, on Thursday. There was a board meeting. There's going to be a board meeting on this coming Thursday, which I think by the time this airs is yesterday. And we just got there at 990. So we're going through them. They're kind of like a who's who of state contractors. So, you know, the documents are coming now. That's the stage of where we are.
- [18:38]
Billy
Well, keep following the money. Alexandra Glorioso, Lawrence Mower find their extraordinary reporting@miamiherald.com and tampabay.com keep up the great work. Thanks so much for being here.
- [18:50]
James Uthmeyer
Thanks for having us, Billy.
- [18:51]
Alexandra Glorioso
Thanks.
- [18:54]
Dopey
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- [20:03]
Lawrence Mower
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- [20:13]
Billy
In and out.
- [20:14]
Lawrence Mower
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- [20:24]
Billy
It's quick.
- [20:25]
Lawrence Mower
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- [21:03]
Alex Andrade
Still have no idea why this was justified. I have very strong beliefs that this was not legal.
- [21:08]
Billy
Lawmakers were shocked over a number of revelations made in a committee hearing today.
- [21:12]
Alex Andrade
What are y'all doing with the $10 million?
- [21:14]
Billy
That is a question for the foundation. They are the ones.
- [21:17]
Alex Andrade
That's a question for Akka. They directed the payment. It looks like a creative way to try and without oversight, send $10 million of taxpayer funds to Hope Florida.
- [21:24]
Billy
The chair of Hope Florida's board tried to answer the many questions directed at him.
- [21:28]
Dopey
The public reporting has made evident that mistakes were made.
- [21:31]
Billy
Hope Florida's chair admitted he was appointed without being told of any goals, that Hope Florida has no staff, that there are no minutes of any meeting documents, and that no board members signed conflict of interest forms.
- [21:43]
Alex Andrade
Is that what I'm hearing right now? Members? I'm sorry, I am a little flabbergasted at this revelation.
- [21:47]
Dopey
Chair Alex Andrade has serious concerns thinking the funneling of funds could rise to the level of money laundering or wire fraud.
- [21:53]
Billy
He said he'll now seek testimony from the foundation's attorney, Jeff Aaron, the heads.
- [21:56]
Dopey
Of the two nonprofits that move the money, and maybe Attorney General James Uthmyer himself.
- [22:00]
Billy
Andrade is demanding receipts of all communications involving Hope Florida to figure out how money from a state Medicaid settlement made it from there into two political action committees.
- [22:10]
Alex Andrade
If they do not provide that information in a timely manner, we may be required to obtain that information with the use of subpoenas.
- [22:25]
Billy
When I think of the Florida House Health Care Budget Subcommittee, and it's not often I don't think of fireworks, I don't think of excitement or drama. But that's exactly what's been happening the past couple of weeks in Tallahassee in the state Capitol, since Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times reporters Alexandra Glorioso and Lawrence Mower broke the story about this $10 million Medicaid settlement that seems to have been diverted to the charity of Casey DeSantis, the first lady of the state of Florida, wife of Governor Ron DeSantis. And now it is under serious investigation by this subcommittee and its chair, Republican Florida Representative Alex Andrade, who is joining us now. So glad you're wearing a different tie than in the clips that we just showed. By the way, very rare that we have not just a Republican lawmaker on the show, but any lawmaker on this show. The Democrats didn't like me much when I was in the party, certainly less so since I left last year. But thanks so much for being here live from a bubble on the Florida House floor. Why this? Why now? I mean, there's been a lot of conversations about the governor's use of public funds, particularly last year, over $15 million. It was reported that he was spending directly from state agencies, money that, that you guys earmarked for very specific uses for taxpayer benefit, that he was Using to run ads, to buy paid advertising. Against Amendment 3, the Florida Constitutional amendment for recreational marijuana. Against amendment for the Florida constitutional amendment to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution. It didn't seem to be a big issue to any of you guys at the time. So why this?
- [24:07]
Alex Andrade
Your point's well taken, but I think the circumstances are a little bit different. Right? It's squishier to say that PSAs with a slant, you know, being purchased by a public agency are demonstrably, you know, criminal or anything like that in this circumstance. What we have is the executive office of the governor, his chief of staff, James Uthmeyer, involving himself in a settlement agreement for $67 million, shaving off 10 million of that, directing it to Casey DeSantis charity, Hope Florida foundation, and immediately getting two dark money groups to go ask for 5 million apiece. And the second they get that money, they send it to his pack. So there's the distinction there of we have this path of Medicaid money ending up in a matter of days in the chief of staff's pac. And so that's the big distinction. I mean, we're now facing the potential for fines from the federal government for misuse of Medicaid money. And we have at this point, information that tends to show that our attorney general committed money laundering and wire fraud.
- [25:14]
Billy
You are an officer of the court, you're an attorney. And so when you use these terms you talk about, I've heard you reference a possible conspiracy to use Medicaid money for campaign activity, you've just said, you know, wire fraud, money laundering, I mean, these are some pretty serious allegations. But. And you do. So, though, from a point of view of someone who understands what that means. What evidence so far, if any, do you have to indicate that those alleged crimes might have occurred here?
- [25:40]
Alex Andrade
Well, when James Uthmeyer involved himself in the settlement with Centene and He directed that $10 million go to a 501C3, and then he immediately, personally, we have text messages and phone call records showing that he personally reached out to these two dark money groups, told them to ask for this money. And the second those two groups got the money wired to them, it ended up in his pack. So he's been. He's involved, involved at every step of the way in this process. And, and that's where you get into this kind of conspiracy. He knew it was Medicaid money when it was part of the settlement. He knew it was a tax deductible donation to a charity when it went to the Charity. And then he knew that the second these two dark money groups would receive the money, they would send it to him and his pack. Shoot, if, if he was acting in a, you know, above board manner, he would have raised red flags and said, hey, literally last week I told you guys to ask for millions of dollars from now you're sending me money? Please tell me it's not the same money. He didn't do that. In fact, he's, he's proud of it. He gave statements today saying essentially the ends justify the means. And you know, he's fighting for kids because he fought against Amendment 3.
- [26:50]
Billy
This is what I call the whisper test. Does it pass the whisper test? And what we do with the whisper test is we whisper something to describe something and we'll say like, for example, like, let me tell you what I'm going to do, Roy. I'm going to raise some money, millions of dollars, and I'm going to donate it to a charity that helps children in underserved communities.
- [27:13]
Mike Ryan
Yeah, why are you whispering?
- [27:14]
Billy
Right, why are we whispering? That doesn't sound the least bit suspicious. But now, Roy, let me tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to divert $10 million in a Medicaid settlement into the charity of the first lady of the state of Florida, and then I'm going to immediately send out $5 million each donations into these political dark committees that we're gonna use for political advertising, one of which is actually run by the then chief of staff of the governor. That sounds like some shady shit. It does not pass the whisper test. It's like, wait a second. No, that's.
- [27:47]
Mike Ryan
That.
- [27:47]
Billy
That sounds like you should be whispering that. That sounds mighty shady and mighty suspicious and mighty illegal and mighty possibly allegedly illegal. So what do we even know, Representative, about this charity? Hope Florida foundation, co founded, if not outright founded by Casey DeSantis, Ron DeSantis, his wife, a presumptive gubernatorial candidate in 2026 here in the state of Florida. What do they do? How much money have they ever raised? $10 million. Sounds like a lot of money to get in one fell swoop to $5 million grants. Sounds like a lot of outgoing money from an organization like this. What do they do? What do we know about them? What did. What is their kind of public facing filings and reputation? And what is this all about?
- [28:31]
Alex Andrade
It's been a black hole. So they've never filed a Form 990 as a charity, meaning they've never reported to the IRS how much money they've raised or how much money they've distributed based on information that we now have, other than this $10 million dark money Medicaid fund transfer, they'd only raised about $2 million in total, and they'd doled out about 500 grand to charities in the form of like 10, 20, and $30,000 grants to charities. Those donations, right, those 20, 30, $40,000 donations, those went through a process at the Florida Department of Children and Families. The state agency had to review those grant applications, had to sign off on them, check them, make sure that they were above board and everything like that. In the instance of the $10 million that went to these two dark money groups, and then both of those dark money groups sending it to James's pack, there was no review by dcf. We found out yesterday that DCF wasn't even told that this $10 million was going into account. Like, it's, it, it's shocking to me that the state's attorney general couldn't even cover his tracks better.
- [29:44]
Billy
Wait, it's like, do you honestly believe that's credible? I mean, this is the problem now is like, the guy can't even crime right? Guy can't even crime straight. I mean, like, you'd hope that the attorney general would be able to cover up his criming a little bit more efficiently. Let me ask you this. I'm looking at some of the, the donors to this organization from what we do know from like its first year, I think I have here, and it looks like they're like all state contractors. Is it a conflict of interest for companies who do business with the state like this? Do they feel pressured to donate to a Casey DeSantis pet project? You've got companies here like Simply Health Care Centene, who was the company that was responsible for that initial $67 million Medicaid settlement, 10 million of which was diverted to this organization. But you've got Medicaid companies who just got, got reprocurement, who got multi billion dollar, multi year contracts with the state of Florida, who seem to be the only people really donating to this charity to begin with.
- [30:43]
Alex Andrade
I would say, like, there's, there's nothing necessarily untoward about contractors wanting to curry favor with the governor's office. Right? Like, it's probably in their best financial interest to try and develop a good relationship with the governor's office however they can. I mean, we have state contractor vendors that make campaign donations to campaign accounts all the time. The issue here is that, yeah, I have heard reports of reports about pressure on People to make donations and pressure on vendors of the state to make contributions to the Florida Foundation. And depending on how that message was conveyed and how much pressure was applied, that would be a problem. But I don't have information right now to say whether or not that happened.
- [31:23]
Billy
Now, the governor, Ron DeSantis, has been forced into responding to this because your investigation has been ongoing. It has been kind of metastasizing, this scandal. I think you're at least your second recent subcommittee meeting about this. You have another one coming up next week. He has been forced to, to respond in a series of press conferences, including one in your district that he seemed to program or schedule as counter programming to your most recent subcommittee meeting at like exactly the same time. So I'm going to play this clip and give you an opportunity to respond to the governor. This is a manufactured hoax. And you have liberal media and liberal Democrats pushing this. And we have some of these leaders in the Florida House who are stabbing their constituents in the back to try to sabotage all the great success that Florida has had. None of these Republican leaders got elected on the platform that they were going to launch baseless attacks against the governor and First Lady. Shame on you in the Florida House and your terrible behavior and leadership. Some people feel threatened by the first lady. Let's just be clear about that. They know this and say, you saw her up here. You know, if you're, if you're looking at, you know, like 20, 26 and, and you've got, you know, some, some.
- [32:31]
Alex Andrade
Horse that you don't want to, you.
- [32:32]
Billy
Don'T want her anywhere near that. You're, you're very worried because she runs circles around their people. Everybody knows that. Those clips are from no less than three separate events over the last ten days or so. And we had to cut those down considerably. The governor had a lot more to say. Oh, that's B.S. now. Totally, totally B.S. so I want to give you an opportunity to respond. Obviously, he's throwing shade, particularly when he goes literally into not your backyard, but your front yard. Talk about this.
- [32:59]
Alex Andrade
Governor Sans has been acting more kind of manic and emotional and erratic as the weeks progress. It's almost tough not to feel sorry for him. I mean, yeah, he did. He scheduled his press conference in my district to start at the exact same time as my committee meeting yesterday. And in fact, I tried to pull up the press conference and have it on mute on the big screens in our committee room. But we have rules about using props in committee. But no, I'm, I'm glad Governor Santa's visited my district. It's always nice when the governor visits. You know, I just wish he didn't try and equate, you know, fighting against fraud, waste, abuse, money laundering, and wire fraud as somehow a liberal tendency. I thought he. He loves that line that he claims he was Doge before Doge was cool. Well, dude, get your own house in order. You. The same agency that transferred this $10 million, directed this $10 million donation that ended up in his chief of staff's PAC just happened to lose $160 million that we discovered a few weeks ago. They just misplaced it. Like, we gave them money a couple years ago. Fine, $160 million worth. They put it in the wrong bank account and they used it for cash flow. So now we as the state have to pay that $160 million fine twice because his own agency keeps screwing it up. At the end of the day. Like, right now, unfortunately for DeSantis, like, he's exposing himself. Like, he's a. He's a great congressman. He's welcome to run for the Florida House of Representatives when he gets done as governor if he thinks he can do this job better. But he's exposing himself as a great, great, great legislator, but a terrible manager.
- [34:31]
Billy
The spokesman for now, Attorney General James Uthmeyer, Jeremy Redfern, tweeted, or whatever we call it now the following in response to this. Not surprised that the leftist media didn't include the comment I gave them last night. Anyway, here's my response to this nonsense. This is an unserious probe being driven by an unserious representative, that's you, who is carrying the water for the very mega marijuana corporation that spent over $150 million in the effort to allow unrestricted public marijuana use and lost. I guess he's talking about your connections, or alleged connections to Trulieve. How do you respond to Mr. Redfern?
- [35:14]
Alex Andrade
I don't know if that even requires a response. I mean, yeah, they're trying to say that I'm, you know, doing the bidding of John Morgan at Morgan and Morgan and doing the bidding of truly even Big Wheat one. And, yeah, I voted for Amendment three, as did the majority of Floridians, as did President Trump. That doesn't mean I cared that much about it. I happen to have issues with the fact that it didn't have Homegrow in it as well. Like, I filed a bill this year for Homegrow. It's kind of like a thumb in the eye to, like, truly kind of mistake on that part of their amendment. But the plaintiff's bar hates me. The plaintiff's lawyers in Florida, at least on the advocacy lobbying side, they've despised me just because of the positions I've taken in the legislature. So when I say, like, I don't know if it requires, like it requires me to respond, it's just, it's such a weird, stupid attack. And if you can't address the argument, like his boss directed $10 million in Medicaid money that ended up in his own pack. If they can't address that, they're going to go attack people. And I guess because they can't address that, they're just attacking people.
- [36:18]
Billy
So what's next from here? I understand that there's an effort now to kind of retroactively clean up this mess. They managed to hire a lawyer that sort of continues this bizarre, incestuous cesspool here of conflicts of. So what's the PAC's lawyer?
- [36:33]
Alex Andrade
Yeah, they hired the PAX lawyer, this charity that shoveled this money into James's pack. They hired the pacs lawyer to fix their charitable documents, their charity compliance documents. We've invited another lawyer at the center of this named Jeff Aaron, who was the attorney for the Hope Florida foundation, to come next week and explain himself. And we invited those two dark money groups to secure Florida's future and save our society from drugs to come next week and explain themselves to the committee. I've also requested a ton of documentation from the state agencies and from these groups. If I don't get them in the next few days, we'll probably send subpoenas next week just to require the documents to be produced.
- [37:15]
Billy
And can you subpoena these folks to actually appear, physically appear and testify before your subcommittee?
- [37:21]
Alex Andrade
Yeah. One fun, unique thing about the Florida legislature is while we are in session, we don't need a judge to enforce a subpoena. We can send our own sergeant in arms to go enforce the subpoena. So we don't need prior judicial authorization. So there's, there's really very little they can do to contest it if we do it while we're in session. So we have about three weeks left of session, maybe two weeks after this one. So yeah, we might, we might do some of that work before we're done.
- [37:49]
Billy
You've said that this investigation perhaps should not just be in this subcommittee. Depending on what you find next, where do you think this should go?
- [37:59]
Alex Andrade
I think that the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Florida should be concerned about the misuse of Medicaid money and the wire fraud and money laundering that's been uncovered. If I'm a federal prosecutor, I'm building a RICO case right now. And James Uthmeyer and the other attorney, Jeff Aaron, are at the center of it.
- [38:16]
Billy
Speaking of the bipartisanship of the need to target waste, fraud and abuse, I don't know that Doge has done any of that, but it certainly appears that you were doing that. I mean, $10 million might seem a blip on the radar screen in the grand scheme of budgets of states the size of Florida, which is, in and of itself, sort of the economy of a small country. And one could certainly argue, as the governor has, that the residents of the state of Florida have bigger problems than this. But if this, in fact, was a crime committed with taxpayer money. You are the chairman of the Florida House Health Care Budget Subcommittee. So all these things that the governor is saying the Florida House should be focusing its attention on, that's not necessarily purview. Not to mention the governor has never been shy about using his bully pulpit to, you know, force his own agenda on the legislature. So if he wants you guys focusing on condo or HOA reform or dealing with lowering property taxes or, you know, insurance premiums or whatever this stuff is, why, you know, why isn't he. Doesn't the buck stop with him? Why isn't he the leading the charge on this sort of thing? What do you think about that? Because I see, again, the governor here, you're playing the politics of diversion, you know, kind of the idea of, you know, saying like, well, you know, why aren't we talking about this when we should be talking about this? And, you know, and that's why it's not a very good impersonation of the guy, you know, so. But what is with this distress? Like, you've got a purview as chairman of your subcommittee. He's trying to say, like, we shouldn't be talking about this, we should be talking about that. What? And of course, the reference he made to his wife. Wife and her political ambitions in 2026 to run for governor, and that this is some kind of, I don't know, like some sort of battle between, I don't know, Trump Republicans and the DeSantis family to derail Takyo's hopes and dreams.
- [40:11]
Alex Andrade
I mean, I haven't really mentioned Casey because I didn't see her personally reaching out to these dark money groups and telling them to ask for 5 million apiece and then telling them to give them to my pack. As far as I'm concerned, the only issue for Casey is that she's held up this Hope Florida foundation as like a campaign plat form. And she hasn't really spent much time making sure they're complying with any of the statutes that they're required to comply with. And she really hasn't spent a lot of time making sure the program is actually doing what it's supposed to do. Like I shared with you before we. We started talking, the executive director for the Hope Florida operational arm resigned today after the committee yesterday. Yeah, I, I anticipate more of these press conferences and, and I've always equated Governor DeSantis accent as like New Jersey mixed with toddler. But, you know, I'll be subjected to more of those. But he went to my district yesterday and I had a bunch of people call me. Not a single person called me in agreement with the governor. They all called me and encouraged me to keep doing what I was doing and get to the bottom of where this money went and how it was used and misappropriated. So, no, I mean, he's, he's still a Republican governor. I share his philosophic, like, philosophical views on how government's supposed to run. We still need to get a balanced budget passed the next few weeks. We need to send that to the governor for his signature. He's inevitably going to veto a ton of stuff out of our budget to be, you know, petty and retributive. And then we'll have to decide if we're going to override all of his vetoes.
- [41:46]
Billy
Last question. Question. As you mentioned, minutes before this interview, Eric Dillonbach, the executive director of the Hope Florida foundation, only since January. He's been on the job just a few months. He just resigned. Scapegoat. Good escape, goat. Does the buck stop with this Dillonback guy or are there more scalps?
- [42:04]
Alex Andrade
Dylan Beck wasn't implicated in any wrongdoing. As far as I'm concerned. The people implicated the most are Attorney General James Uthmeyer and this other attorney, which, by the way, Jeff Aaron is Sanchez's personal attorney. The only two people I've seen who are directly implicated in wrongdoing and wouldn't, wouldn't be associated just by virtue of like part of a RICO conspiracy type thing. The people that actually did wrong were Jeff Aaron and James Uthmeyer. So the only way for DeSantis and Casey DeSantis to like, scapegoat anybody is for James Uthmeyer to resign as the Attorney General or take responsibility for what happened and subject himself to prosecution. So we'll See what happens. I really couldn't tell you. I'm not a prosecution. But I'll tell you, if I was the Northern district attorney, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Florida, I'd be paying attention to this because it's a pretty clear cut case of, like I said, money laundering, wire fraud and Medicaid fraud.
- [42:57]
Billy
Florida State Rep. Alex Andrade, thanks so much. Good luck. I'll be watching. Who knew what riveting television Florida House health care budget subcommittees could be. And there really have been like Law and Order and Perry Mason esque kind of revelations and twists and cross examinations. I mean it's been, it's been great, great television. So thank you for that at the very least.
- [43:19]
Alex Andrade
Well, I'd much rather be focused on like achieved savings rebates and making sure our, you know, he just measures and health care outcomes for Medicaid individuals in Florida are improving. But unfortunately, because of the bad acts of a few bad apples, we're having to focus on, on this.
- [43:35]
Billy
Yeah, but that sounds boring. You know, money laundering and wire fraud or you know, I got $35 billion.
- [43:41]
Alex Andrade
I'm responsible for in the health care budget. I love.
- [43:44]
Billy
Absolutely. I'm, I'm a rather bored, I'm a big MABA guy. Let's make America BO boring again. That's certainly make government boring again. But in the meantime, thank you so much for being here.
- [43:54]
Alex Andrade
Thank you.
- [43:58]
Dopey
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- [45:15]
Billy
Last week we lost Miami City Commissioner Manolo Reyes, who passed away on April 10. He was had a mass and burial this week in Miami. I wanted this is I will say about him, he is one of the few sitting Miami commissioners to ever appear on the Because Miami program. We got a shot of that right there, Dan and I, and with some of my pandemic hair, I'm glad that is done. And Manolo Reyes joining us talking about at the time, the Mel Reese public sports welfare boondoggle. And I will say Manola Reyes and his allyship with Alex is La Portia and Joe Carollo really helped to put Miami into the situation that it's in now. But he knew right from wrong. And when he wanted to take an ideological stand like he did on Mel Reese, on the right side of that issue and on the right side of history, he did. I wished he he had done it more often and I wished he had more time because in recent years he was right more often than not, which was a change of pace, I'll admit, from his first term at the city of Miami. I'm sorry to see him go because at the very least, even when he was wrong, I don't think that he was corrupt and I don't think that he was evil like a man like Joe Carollo is just genuinely corrupt and in it for himself. Manola Reyes was very much by all accounts committed to public service and particularly committed to constituent services, which is what government really should be doing, serving its constituents. And he and his staff really made a commitment to communicate with the media, to communicate with the public and to serve the people of their district. I'm very sad to see him go, particularly because it was a long standing dream of his is to be the mayor of the city of Miami. And after his second bout of cancer and surviving that last year he had the headline at the Miami Herald was after Cancer battle, Miami Commissioner Manola Reyes plans to run for mayor, quote, God willing, end quote. And Manola Reyes did not make it. The mayoral race is in fact this year people are just getting into the race. You'll remember we interviewed former city Commissioner Ken Russell, who is running for mayor. And now, now get this right. On Wednesday, the same day as the mass and burial of the late Manolo Reyes, hours later, the man is barely in the ground. Joe Carollo went out to the redlands not even in the city, to have his mayoral campaign kickoff.
- [47:57]
Mike Ryan
That's.
- [47:58]
Billy
That's really just to stick it to. To not only Manola Reyes and his family, but to stick it to the city of Miami. He's having this event way out in the boonies, 23 miles away from city hall, because I don't think people want to be seen with him. They don't want to be seen giving money to this dirtbag. And he's doing it at a place called El Toro Loco Ranch, out in the resident. El Toro Loco is that food truck right across the street here at Bayfront park, who. It is alleged in the latest corruption lawsuit against Joe Joyo by the former Bayfront Park Management Trust executive director that they were stealing electricity, running a. Running a wire to steal electricity from the taxpayers. And when the executive director of Bayfront park called it out and said, you got to get a generator and pay for your own gas and electricity, these people have been such big supporters of Joe Corolla that Joe was really pissed at this guy. It's part of the reason why he eventually, like, excommunicated and shit canned him. So that's where he is while Manoha Reyes is being memorialized and interned and his family is in mourning. Just for our Miami moment. While Manolo Reyes was effectively sick and dying, he was still showing up for work, sometimes in person at city hall for commission meetings, and sometimes remotely via zoom video, where he seemed, I thought, more engaged and aware and involved than at ever. But Joe Carollo, ever the sociopathic bully, as one of his daughters described him, couldn't help but beat up on this dying man. So just as a little Miami moment to remember that we get the government we deserve, let's get a little taste of Joe Corollo versus Manolo Reyes. The mayor we could have had and the mayor that we may very well have, because Joe Corollo could very well be the. The next mayor of Miami. So happy Passover to everyone. Happy Easter to everyone. I'll be celebrating my favorite holiday on Monday. That's when the Easter candy goes on clearance sale, 50% off Cadbury Creme eggs.
- [50:12]
Mike Ryan
And I'll be celebrating my favorite holiday, which is the Stanley cup playoffs.
- [50:16]
Alex Andrade
Happy forum.
- [50:17]
Billy
Cocaine's. We're making decisions in every darn meeting not based upon what's best for the city. City was best. Mr. Reyes. Listen, listen. To be mayor, it doesn't matter if I want to be mayor or not, of course. And I want to clarify this.
- [50:33]
Alex Andrade
Let me tell you.
- [50:34]
Billy
Let me tell you this.
- [50:37]
James Uthmeyer
Stop it.
- [50:38]
Billy
I. I am all for opening up the part. Inside voice and. Wait, what's going to happen? I said it before. I mean, this gentleman, he tends to attack everybody.
- [50:49]
Dopey
Understand?
- [50:49]
James Uthmeyer
Commissioner Reyes, just.
- [50:50]
Lawrence Mower
You're wrong.
- [50:51]
Billy
Okay, okay.
- [50:51]
James Uthmeyer
Let's not. Let's use our inside voices. Let's use our inside voices.
- [50:55]
Billy
Okay, in point of clarification, point of clarification.
- [50:59]
Dopey
I want to know what we are voting on.
- [51:01]
Billy
We have. He knows who we're voting upon. I don't know, man.
- [51:04]
James Uthmeyer
Okay?
- [51:05]
Billy
He just wants to keep stolen.
- [51:06]
James Uthmeyer
Okay, Commissioner Corollo, please, please, please.
- [51:12]
Billy
Point of clarification for Commissioner Reyes. Yes. And then Commissioner Pardo would like to say something else.
- [51:18]
James Uthmeyer
Okay, but let's not.
- [51:21]
Billy
I understand, I understand.
- [51:23]
James Uthmeyer
We're very passionate, but we don't have.
- [51:25]
Billy
To yell at each other. Please. Okay, okay. You get out. Okay, buddy.
- [51:36]
Alex Andrade
Okay. Gentlemen.
- [51:42]
James Uthmeyer
Please, please.
- [51:45]
Billy
Folks, listen up.
- [51:46]
Lawrence Mower
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- [52:41]
Mike Ryan
Today it's the 50th anniversary of Miller Light, and for many of those 50 years, they've been partnered up with the Dan Lebatard Show. Back to our terrestrial radio days, all throughout national syndication. Pirate face. Where we are now so grateful for that partnership because you guys know we believe it. It's a beer for people who love their beer. And hopefully our audience loves their beer enough to always trust Miller Lite like I do. From game night parties with friends or a special anniversary like 20 years together on air, celebrating important occasions means more moments 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. It's Miller time. Miller Lite is brewed for taste. Simply put, it just just hits different because of those simple ingredients like malted barley for rich balanced toffee note flavors and the iconic golden color. Oh, and that white can do. I love that white can. 96 calories and just 3.2 grams of carbs per 12 ounces. Miller time is always a good time. Miller Lite great taste. 96 calories. Go to millerlight.com dan to find delivery options near you. Or you can pick up Miller Lite pretty much anywhere they sell beer. It's Miller Time. Celebrate Response Miller Brewing Co. Milwaukee, Wisconsin 96 calories and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces.