#BecauseMiami: Mayoral Clown Car

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All right, we have some breaking news just into our newsroom.

Miami City Commissioner Joy Corollo has entered the race for mayor of Miami.

Now, he has served as the city's mayor twice before already, the last time being in 2001.

It's a crowded field of people vying to be mayor of Miami.

13 candidates have qualified.

The Miami mayoral election will take place November 4th.

The current mayor, Francis Fuarez, is term limited.

He's a wife leader, wife leader.

Yeah, Mexico

You know, the clown car is complete.

We've got 13, lucky 13 candidates for mayor of Miami in an election that is really underway like in a matter of weeks.

Vote-by-mail ballots go out in like October 7th or October 8th.

And the election, of course, is first Tuesday in November.

And Miami will have a new mayor on the upside.

Francis Juarez is term-limited out after 16 years consecutively in office, eight as city commissioner, eight as a mayor.

Just absolutely put Miami into the ground economically with respect to, I don't know, everybody who lives in Miami, except for if you're a client of Francis Juarez, because he has over two dozen outside hustles and gigs.

But at the risk of burying the lead, I don't think we did.

This is on your little Twitter account, little Billy.

Joe Carollo is running for mayor again.

Oh, God.

I mean, Joe Corollo, who was the youngest city commissioner in the history of Miami in 1979,

is now going to be mayor.

The last time he was mayor, it was havoc.

I mean, the riots in the street, city leaders getting fired for out of political retaliation, him, of course, getting arrested for domestic violence because

now it might be happening all over again it's like the joker running for mayor of gotham city and he is not alone in this town where we do not recycle our trash we re-elect it also

running for office is francis suarez's father

yes

who was also the mayor twice before in the city of miami these dynastic multi-generational political crime families, we have here, Xavier Suarez.

Xavier Suarez became the city's first Cuban-born mayor in 1985.

Miami's first Cuban-born mayor.

The first Cuban-born mayor of Miami.

The first Cuban-American mayor.

The city's first Cuban-born mayor.

The first Cuban-born mayor of Miami.

The first Cuban-born mayor of Miami.

Now, 40 years later, he's running again.

I don't know if you heard, but he was the first Cuban-born mayor in the city of Miami.

Should I play it again?

Should I play it again?

No, no, I don't get it.

So So here's the crazy thing about it.

He was the first Cuban-born mayor in Miami in 1985.

But 13 years later, the last thing he did as mayor of Miami in 1998 was get removed from office for voter fraud.

A Florida appeals court has ruled that 5,000 fraudulent absentee ballots cast in the November 4th mayoral election for Mayor Xavier Suarez should not be counted, swinging the election in Joe Corrollo's favor and returning Corollo to office.

We've proved what everyone in Miami knew that lease elections were one with massive absentee battle fraud.

Yes, that's right.

The 1997 Miami mayoral election was Carollo versus Suarez, or Suarez versus Corollo.

Suarez won, but then in 1998, after a lot of litigation, Joe Carollo was installed into office as mayor by a judge because of excessive absentee voter fraud, which included Manny Yip and his buddies down at the cemetery, as Carl Hyason called them, a bunch of dead people, super voters, but dead, voting in Miami.

A lot of Trump's sort of mythology and demagoguery about election fraud stem out of the 1997 mayoral election, one of the most corrupt and fraudulent in the history of the United States of America, or Miami, for that matter.

Only in the Banana Republic, baby.

Only in Miami.

And it's all just a little bit of history repeating.

And what's even crazier, Roy, is that

before Joe Corollo was the District 3 commissioner for eight years, his younger brother, Frank Corollo, was the District 3 Commissioner for the eight years immediately prior.

And guess, now that Joe Corollo is term limited out as commissioner and is running for mayor, guess who's running for commissioner?

Frank Carollo.

Frank Corollo.

So, I mean, I was just guessing there.

I just, my God, I love this show.

And this is going to prove to be the craziest season ever.

You know who else is running for mayor?

Who's that, Bill?

We had her on the show last week, Eileen Higgins, and this this is what she had to say.

You were quoted as having said that you would not meet with the Sierra Club as long as they employed Ken Russell, the former Miami City Commissioner, and one of your opponents for mayor.

I did not say that.

Now, I did not say that.

Are you joking?

Might you have said it in jest?

I don't think so.

I don't think so.

Matter of fact, I think Ken's put out a video saying that that was not true.

Steve Leidner is the conservation chair for the Miami Sierra Club.

He is joining us now.

Steve, Eileen Higgins says you're a liar.

What do you say?

Well, I say that I stand by what I heard her say, which is that she would not meet with me or anyone from Sierra Club as long as Ken was in our employee.

So that's what she, do you remember where she told you and when she told you that?

It was at

a quarterly meeting

of the Miami Climate Alliance.

It was at the Dade Public Library, downtown Public Library at their meeting site.

So you know exactly when and exactly where this happened.

And she's saying it didn't happen.

She doesn't remember if she said it in jest.

Might she have said it in jest?

I didn't take it that way.

And I want to

recant my answer.

It actually was at the Miami-Dade, one of their meeting rooms.

I forget what building.

I think building two.

It wasn't at Miami-Dade Public Library.

But no, I didn't think she said it in jest.

Okay, let's assume, let's give her the benefit of the doubt, though.

Let's say she did say it in jest.

Did she meet with the Sierra Club?

No, she did not say it in jest.

She was serious.

No, she never did meet with me.

I wanted this to discuss her vote in favor of incineration, which she has been a consistent proponent of Dade County moving forward, building an incinerator.

So I want to talk about that in just a moment.

But first, Roy, you remember at the end of that clip, Eileen Higgins, candidate for city of Miami mayor, and now it turns out possible liar.

She might have sat right here in this studio and lied to my face, but I've got the kind of face you can lie to, so I can appreciate that.

But at the end there, you notice what she said.

She said that Ken Russell put out a video saying

that this didn't happen.

So I didn't know what video she was talking about, but here's that video.

No, Commissioner Eileen Higgins did not get me fired from Sierra Club.

What she did was not very cool or terribly ethical, but it does not rise to the level of Joe Carrollo corruption.

But let me go into this

false accusation that she got me fired.

I was a contractor.

I have a small consulting company.

I was working on political strategy with Sierra Club to help get cities in Miami Dead County as well as Miami Dead County away from building the garbage incinerator.

And we were successful with many things, but the county commission, including Commissioner Higgins, voted to build the incinerator.

And when the Sierra Club principals talked to Commissioner Higgins about this, she said, I would be glad to sit down with you and talk about the incinerator once Ken Russell is no longer involved.

She did not use the words, get rid of Ken Russell.

So when Sierra Club brought this to me.

I resigned immediately, told them I didn't want to cause them any drama or difficulty in their efforts.

They didn't accept my resignation, but my contract was organically ending at the end of July, just a few weeks later.

So we finished out the contract.

It did not renew.

It's not to say that it would have renewed but for Commissioner Higgins, but her pressure was not appropriate.

I don't think anyone should limit access to their office based on political opposition, et cetera, things like that.

Ken Russell is joining us as well.

He is a candidate for City of Miami Mayor, running against Joe Carollo, Xavier Suarez, Eileen Higgins, and the rest of the clown car.

Oh, I didn't mention Alex Diaz-Laportia.

Remember him?

Got arrested a couple years ago and was removed from office for money laundering and bribery, charges that were later somehow dropped.

He's running as well.

How many mug shots do we have in this race, man?

But Ken Russell, former city commissioner as well, and former, as it turns out, Sierra Club lobbyist, that video doesn't quite say or deny or disprove what it it is that I think Eileen Higgins was trying to mislead me to believe, no?

No, she misled you that she didn't get me fired.

What she didn't say is that she tried.

So she wasn't successful, is what she should have said.

The video said.

What you're saying is she didn't get me fired, but she did in fact say what she said, or you did, in fact, understand or believe that she effectively threatened the Sierra Club to say that as long as...

By the way, same thing Joe Carollo did to a lot of the tenants of the ball and chain owners, the property owners Bill Fuller and Martin Panilla on a Cayocho, saying like, hey, as long as you're tenants of these guys, we're not going to help you or we're going to try to shut you down.

I mean, that was the same thing Eileen Higgins was saying, was saying like, yeah, as long as you employ Ken Russell, you're not going to get a meeting or access to me.

You still believe that happened.

I know that it happened because I believe Stephen.

And what I further believe is that Sierra Club ethically never considered firing me.

I offered to resign.

But what's more important is that they realized she is not ever going to come around on this issue because of her compromised position and the money she's received from FPL.

They are a massive bidder on this incinerator.

And she's never going to come.

She was on her show saying she is not open to listening to the other side.

So my employment with Sierra Club, and I still help them, you know, completely off book and just happy to be available as a resource because this issue is so important for Miami-Dade County, you know, how our garbage is handled and to build the country's largest garbage incinerator that would be a massive producer of carbon emissions and put it potentially in the air.

It's so many bad things.

What's most important is her vote is what's important, not how she treated me.

That's all rough and tumble in politics and we can handle that.

So Steve, let's talk about this because this is a multi-billion dollar deal.

of great consequence economically, environmentally.

As Ken Russell just said, we're talking about building an incinerator to burn billions of tons of trash, possibly in ecologically sacred areas.

Also, show of hands, everybody out there, how many of you know a trans athlete?

None of you do.

It affects none of your lives.

Let me ask you this.

How many of you have trash?

Throw out trash, go to a trash chute to throw your trash out, into a dumpster, drag your trash can out to the curb, you know, twice a week, three times a week, to have your trash picked up.

This is an issue that affects 100% of us.

So while it may not sound sexy, let's be clear, there are billions of dollars of your tax money at stake.

There is the future of our planet, our clean water supply here in South Florida as we continue to grow by leaps and bounds, I would say, in an unsustainable way.

And of course, if there is no place, what happens if the garbage truck stops showing up, Roy?

What happens if...

Mass hysteria.

Mass hysteria, cats cats and dogs living together?

So, this is an issue that affects 100% of the people.

Things you want your local government to do: provide public safety, have the lights go red and green, pick up our trash, just the basics here.

So, Steve, talk to me about this issue, how all this scandal has come up, which is this idea of incineration.

And Eileen Higgins has insisted, I'm sure you saw her interview, that that is the most environmentally sound option for what to do with the, again, billions of tons of trash we generate in Miami-Dade County.

Yes, correct.

Ever since the Durrell incinerator burnt down in 2003, 23, February 2023,

the county has been trying to figure out how they're moving forward.

They now plan to build the largest incinerator in the country, 4,000 tons per day.

It will produce

that much CO2 being spewed into the atmosphere, exacerbating our already extreme heat events and sea level rise and strength of hurricanes, everything that climate is

raining down on us.

Incineration is the worst option for climate.

Some of our commissioners think that landfilling is the better option, and that's not scientifically correct.

Landfills do emit methane.

Methane is a climate problem.

Methane can be mitigated.

There are ways to handle waste.

So we take out the organic debris.

Even if we didn't take out the organics from a landfill, landfilling is a better option than incineration.

So Ken, I imagine you agree that environmentally, which the better option is, but also talk to me about the money.

Let's follow the money here.

What is going on?

Who is paying who or donating to who, what, in order to get this pushed through?

Why is Eileen Higgins taking this position that appears to be antithetical to what environmentalists and scientists believe is the better option.

So the money is what creates what's called greenwashing.

And that's where corporations don't use the green of money, but the green of environmentalism to wash over the bad things that they do.

And using their money, however, they're able to influence politicians to repeat

those greenwashing lies to make it sound environmental.

And this idea that...

burning garbage will create energy so it's renewable.

It's one of the worst ways to create energy, least efficient and dirtiest ways to create energy.

And it's not efficient.

It's not financially efficient.

But the money that's flowing, this is a multi-billion dollar contract to span over 40 years to build this incinerator instead of going to newer and better technologies that are out there employed by other major cities like Austin.

Name names.

Follow the money.

Who is donating to Eileen Higgins that you believe is persuading her in this?

Sure.

Eileen Higgins has received substantial contributions during this garbage decision process from the company that writes the reports for whether or not this is environmental, as well as FPL themselves, who are the number one bidder on building the incinerator.

And why does FPL want an incinerator?

Because they're able to then turn a little turbine, make some electricity, and call it renewable.

So what is it, Steve, that people need to know about this?

Because this doesn't seem to be a battle that the Sierra Club, the environmentalists are winning here.

Is there overwhelming science on this?

Is the jury still out?

What should be happening here in Miami-Dade that's not happening?

The jury is not out.

As I said, incineration is the worst pathway forward.

There are a number of options called zero waste solutions that the county is in the process of adopting that can deal with our solid waste issues to a substantial degree.

Composting alone reduces 50 to 70 percent, diverse 50 to 70 percent of our waste from our landfill.

So there are many options.

We could do more effective recycling.

We could do a,

help me, Ken here.

Ken's the expert on construction and demolition debris, a mandate to divert that debris.

Substantial amounts of that goes into our landfill.

So there are many options that the county could pursue and actually the county is has hired a zero waste contractor to advise them but the county is only planning on letting about a million tons per year come under the auspices of zero waste.

They're planning on diverting another million to the incinerator.

That doesn't include the amount of waste that the municipalities generate.

This is unincorporated day.

So yeah, our commission is hell bent on pushing this issue forward and building this incinerator.

Billy,

we're not alone either.

60 organizations and environmental leaders signed a letter urging the county not to do this and to seek the alternatives.

The only one to listen, actually, was Danielle Levin Cava, who reversed her position on incineration and came around to what we were offering.

And other major municipalities like Austin already do this.

They burn the same amount of garbage as we, I'm sorry, they handle the same amount of garbage we do without burning.

And it is possible.

If it wasn't for reverse positions, Danielle Levin Cava wouldn't have any at all.

Now, how about that?

Roy?

Steve,

of course, we're worried about the methane when it comes to these landfills, but are we also worried about anything seeping into the groundwater?

Good point.

Yes.

Incinerator

produced a substantial amount of ash.

That's, I mean, what doesn't go up the flue as CO2 ends up as ash, and that ash has to go into a landfill.

And that ash is highly toxic, highly concentrated, and our landfills leak into our aquifer.

So

filling our landfill with incinerator ash is another very dangerous path forward.

Ken Russell, I'm going to give you the last word.

I know you listened to that interview last week, so you're good enough to join us today live from your car.

I'm guessing you're canvassing and campaigning for mayor.

Was there anything else in just the last 60 seconds here you feel that you heard from Eileen Higgins that needs to be the record needs to be corrected or you felt was disingenuous or in the cases we've been talking today, a flat-out lie?

Sure.

No, she conflated composting and incineration as complete separate things.

They are one and the the same in terms of they use the same fuels.

But that's the science.

What really matters to you here and to the voters is the beginning of your segment that they have a choice between the mayors of yesterday or the potential mayors of tomorrow.

And if they're considering between myself or Eileen Higgins, for example, they need to recognize these differences on ethical choices, on who's funding their campaigns, and of course, how they are on the environment.

So I'm putting my fourth as the ethical champion of the environment, of housing, of all these issues that we care about.

And I'm going to keep chugging along in this race, regardless of whatever political games get flayed.

We're in it for the next month and we're going to see.

And it bears mentioning that one of Eileen Higgins County Commission colleagues, Keone McGee, on or about the same meeting in which they voted for an incinerator, had suggested in a roundabout sort of way that now that the property, the Dade Collier landing strip, has been activated for other uses, in this case, the state's alligator Alcatraz immigrant concentration camp, that perhaps they could put the incinerator there.

Because what concentration camp is complete without the ovens?

So, what could possibly, possibly go wrong here?

Ken Russell, running for Miami Mayor, Steve Leidner, conservation chair for Miami Sierra Club.

Thanks so much for joining us.

Thank you, Billy.

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Florida's Department of Emergency Management is suing Trinity Healthcare Services because the state accidentally overpaid invoices to the tune of more than $5.7 million.

And when they asked the company to return those tax dollars, they claim they got no response.

The overpayments occurred in the spring of 2021, while Sherfilis McCormick was the CEO of Trinity, her family's company.

She left the job soon afterwards to run for Congress and eventually won the seat formerly held by C.

Hastings.

But the Office of Congressional Ethics has been investigating her campaign finances and she reported to them she got a $6 million raise from Trinity in 2021.

And just days after Trinity was overpaid by $5 million, Sherfelis McCormick personally loaned her congressional campaign committee $2 million.

And she reported making more large loans after that.

I wanted to ask you about the investigation into your families, but this is also part of her congressional duties.

Congresswoman, you know, you're under investigation for the congressional ethics for violation of campaign finances.

finances.

Hey, Roy!

You know this takes place in

your congressional district.

This is your congresswoman, Sheila Scherfalis-McCormick.

Yes, I voted for her.

Oh, Roy!

Oh,

how could I know?

That she's a Medicare huckster?

It's always Medicare.

So I want to tell you something crazy.

You want to know something crazy?

What's that, Billy?

So she's running for re-election this year.

I will not be voting for her.

And she's running against a young man named Elijah Manley, who is a very young man.

How old are you, Elijah?

26.

26.

He's 26 years old.

He is a public middle school teacher in Broward.

If I understand it, the congresswoman is suing you for defamation, libel, slander, all kinds of shit.

You're running against her in Florida's 20th congressional district, which includes Roy's house.

And first of all, what is this thing that happened here with this money?

How did she get $5.7 million in public money that she wasn't supposed to get?

So, definitely in very nefarious ways, allegedly.

2021.

He's very careful now, Roy.

You notice?

Allegedly.

Very careful.

You need to earn my vote.

I need to earn your vote.

That's right.

But in 2021, during the COVID pandemic,

the Florida Department of Emergency Management was giving out contracts to many health care agencies, including small ones, to provide vaccines to various communities in Florida, including the black community here in Broward County.

One of those companies, Trinity Health Care Services, which was being ran by then CEO Sheila Shurfus-McCormick, submitted an invoice for $57,000 to receive

funding for providing vaccines to the community.

The state accidentally misplaced a decimal and paid her out, I think, $5.7 million.

Wait a second.

So this was a clerical error.

She was supposed to get $57,000 and they sent her $5.7 million.

This is office space.

Honest mistake.

I mean, never happens to me, but they send this lady $5.7 million.

She's the CEO.

She knows it's a mistake because presumably she invoiced and signed off on $57,000.

So she gets this money, public money, our money, taxpayer money, and she realizes the mistake and she returns it immediately to the state of Florida and the federal government, correct?

Nope.

She keeps it.

She pays herself out millions of dollars and then she mysteriously drops millions of dollars into her congressional campaign in the special election.

A special election, she won by five votes.

Mind you, she ran for office twice before against El C.

Hastings.

and reported her income being, I think, around $60,000 a year and her financial disclosures and never raised more than maybe $50,000 to $100,000.

And so it was weird.

Everybody, including the newspapers, were asking, she just ran a few months ago and she was broke.

Where did this money come from?

I mean, suddenly you have millions of dollars that come out of nowhere, but people have a right to know where this money is coming from.

And so she got sued.

She got sued by the state of Florida and

just never returned the money.

And now he's

won by five votes, and I was one of them.

You were one of them.

Roy.

So, okay.

There's a woman who is making approximately, according to, as you said, her disclosures, about 60 grand-ish a year.

All of a sudden, she raises her salary to $5 million

and then loans that $5 million to her congressional campaign to effectively buy.

By the way, that was a million dollars a vote she spent.

Did you get that million, Roy?

I did not.

Okay.

So then, though, Elijah, then

the honorable congresswoman pays the money back, right?

The $5.7 million that she knows she got mistakenly.

She then pays that money back that she loaned to her campaign back to the state and the feds, right?

Nope, it disappeared, never to be seen again.

And she gets 19 years to pay it back.

I'm sorry.

Whoa, whoa, whoa.

19 years.

Whoa, whoa, whoa.

So the state sued her, you said.

That's right.

And they settled that she got this in one fell swoop and within like days or weeks was moving this money around to buy a congressional seat.

And yet she has how many years to pay it back?

19.

Interest free.

19 years to pay it back interest free.

And now

she's suing you from what I can tell because it's suddenly illegal, Roy, to criticize public officials or tell the truth.

about them.

This is crazy.

I read the lawsuit.

I read her complaint.

One of the things she says is that, well, she says you're deliberately spreading malicious and false statements about her, resulting in reputational harm and public discredit, as if she needs your help to do that.

This woman is a ghoul and a criminal.

That's my opinion, allegedly.

And this is what

this is what she claims.

Here I am.

Here I am.

Come find me, anti-slap.

You will be paying my attorney's fees.

You'll be transferring some money to my account.

I'll tell you that right now.

This is what she claims you've said defamatory.

That's defamatory.

In a campaign video, you said, you can't fight corruption with more corruption or with representatives who are themselves under investigation for serious ethical violations.

What about that is untrue?

It sounds completely true to me.

She is corrupt.

She engaged in shameless, unmitigated, overt corruption.

And she is under

investigation.

Is she not?

House Ethics Committee investigation is still ongoing.

They just found probable cause back in July to continue their investigation that there was wrongdoing in that probable cause statement.

They said it was likely she committed these violations.

FEC investigation for massive campaign finance fraud.

I mean, in the millions and hundreds of thousands apiece.

And there have been two criminal referrals, one to the U.S.

Department of Justice and to the Florida Attorney General's office, which we'll hear what happens with that soon.

But this is all stuff that's been publicly reported on.

So everything I've been saying about this case is stuff the media has been reporting on.

Sun Sentinel, Miami Herald, CNN, The Washington Post, Political,

other outlets, CBS 12.

So I don't know why she's suing me for it.

I don't know why she's suing you for it either.

She further claimed that you defamed her when you said in the same Instagram campaign video, quote,

took $5.7 million from taxpayers and shows bad judgment on her part, followed by regular people don't get away with these types of crimes and she was busy taking your money to chase power.

What about that is untrue or defamatory or malicious or false i'll tell you what it sounds to me like there's a a politician who's afraid that her career is coming to an end and instead of taking responsibility and accountability for her actions um she's lashing out on the community and on her on anyone that talks about it and so instead of saying you know I'm taking responsibility.

I made a mistake.

I did something.

And maybe it wasn't a mistake.

It doesn't look to be a mistake.

How can you mistakenly take millions of dollars?

If I wake up tomorrow and there's three million dollars in my account from the government, the first thing I'm thinking is, well, I know I didn't earn this money.

I don't know why I have this money.

I'm going to call the government and say, hey, you sent me $3 million.

I don't want to go to jail.

Take this money back.

So you can't really mistakenly take

well.

Maybe that's your mistake, right?

Last two things.

First thing, this is not the first time she has tried this, in my opinion, unethical tactic against an opponent.

And I believe in abuse of our court system as well.

She's tried this against a primary opponent about four years ago.

The person she beat by five votes, Adel Honis.

She sued him for a million dollars for pointing out the same as that thing.

That case pretty much got all but thrown out.

I believe this one will be thrown out as well because it is a clear slab loss.

We have the First Amendment right to free speech and it is a combined upon her to prove that what I was saying was false.

I can't prove that it's false.

I can't prove that she didn't take the money i mean she has to prove that she that she didn't take the 5.7 million and the state agrees with me i'm i'm just reporting what the state has said in their lawsuit and what the house ethics committee is saying her own colleagues democrats and republicans on the house ethics committee have said this is what she did elijamanley.com i'm going to give you the last word 30 seconds to convince your constituent roy to vote for you no i'm voting for him i got

that's it yeah that's it that's it yeah

am i gonna vote for her i think you I don't know.

She's got the money, man.

$1 million a vote she spent for your vote last time.

Yeah, well, she's got $300,000 per year for the next 19 years to pay back.

So let me give him 30 seconds to convince everybody else to vote for him.

Well, thank you, Roy.

And honestly, this isn't even about partisanship.

This is about accountability in government.

You should be able to trust your elected officials not to abuse power, not to bully their own constituents with lawsuits, but also not to take your hard-earned money to chase power.

That's not something I'm going to do.

We should be focused on the cost of living, on affordability, on tackling the affordability crisis, these high rents, climate change.

These are the things we need to be focusing on.

But instead, we have people in Washington who is focused on...

enriching themselves.

That's not the type of person I am.

That's not the background I come from.

I come from a background of childhood homelessness, and I want to go to Washington to make sure that the people in our district, in our community, some of the poorest people in the country, are actually taken care of.

And so I hope to earn your support.

I promise I won't be taking millions of taxpayer dollars to abuse my position or sue any of my

constituents.

You know what they say, Roy?

We either need less corruption or I need more of an opportunity to participate in it.

That's what I'm, I need some decimal points and clerical errors moving around for me, ElijahManley.com.

Good luck to you, sir.

Awesome.

Thank you so much.

I want to talk about home security for a minute.

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That's reactive.

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The U is back, baby!

Yay.

You sound really, really excited about it, right?

I am number two team of the nation, man.

Did you do any

tailgating?

No.

Are you serious?

No.

I love

the house.

When it comes to Gators, I love to eat them, then beat them.

In that order.

Yeah.

I love Gator.

Have you ever had Gator?

Yes.

Not fried, though, because they always fry Gator.

No, I never had baked Gator.

No.

Are you like sauteed or grilled?

No.

Seriously?

It's always been fried.

I would like to have more Gator.

If you're going to bring some in, that would be great.

I'll bring some in.

You got to season it right.

You got to cook it right.

Everybody always fries it.

But to me, if you're going to fry it, you might as well be eating like tilapia or chicken fingers.

I guess that's going to be like citrus forward.

Yes.

Citrus for.

Wow.

That's exactly.

I can cook a little bit.

Maybe you should cook it.

You should grill up some Gator.

I wonder how that would taste.

You get it frozen at Wild Fork, which is not ideal, but you can get it at least, which is great, because otherwise it's pretty hard to come by.

Unless you want to go hunting.

No, I'm good.

But get some of that Badilla, like orange pepper.

Lime pepper or lemon pepper.

Yeah, some Everglade seasoning.

Yeah, Everglade.

Get that right.

Oh, I love that.

The citrus and the spice all at the same time.

The tart and the spicy.

Spice and the tart.

Yeah, I'm hungry, man.

Let's go for some Gator.

God damn it.

Speaking of which, speaking of slippery, slimy swamp creatures from South Florida, Eileen Higgins was on the show as we were talking about.

Cool thing to say.

So we call it Segway, Roy.

That's

a seamless transition is what that is.

Well, another thing she said, because people have been blowing up my phone about this interview last week and pissed off.

Someone called me, a very politically active, concerned citizen, Miami resident who will vote in this election for Miami mayor.

And their hand was shaking while they were talking to me on the phone, said their blood was boiling listening to this interview.

When I asked Eileen Higgins about the city's attempt to illegally cancel the election and gift themselves an extra year in office, and the fact that she stood down and said nothing and was silent when Emilio Gonzalez, the former city manager, now a Miami mayoral candidate, sued the city successfully and won to get the election reinstated and re-enfranchise the candidates and the voters, I said, why didn't you say anything?

And then all of a sudden, Emilio Gonzalez wins the lawsuit, and you're sending out fundraising emails saying, victory for democracy, but yet you didn't say anything.

And furthermore, I argued, you would have benefited from a one-year delay.

So it didn't, I wasn't entirely surprised to see you sit it out.

I don't know.

You'd have an extra year in office at the county, you'd have an extra year to fundraise, you'd have higher Democratic turnout in an even-year election than in an odd year.

Really, I would not have benefited in any way.

The reason I'm running for mayor is the city needs fixing now.

It does not need fixing next year.

So, this furious concerned citizen heard that on the podcast last week and called me shaking to say that they spoke to Eileen Higgins last June at the Goombay Festival in Coconut Grove in Miami, in the historic West Grove.

And Eileen Higgins told them, quote, I don't care if they push the elections to next year.

It's going to be better for me because I can easily win next year.

I'm just surprised he was at the Goombay Festival.

We all went to the Goombay Festival.

It's fantastic.

It's a lot of fun.

Great music, great dancing, great food.

I recommend going.

Were you at the Goombay Festival?

I was not.

Okay.

Oh, I wish I was.

You were busy up in

that.

Yes, we don't have the Goombay Festival.

In Miramar?

There's no Miramar?

No.

Maybe we should bring it.

Well, Little Bahamas, you know, in the West Grove, is the oldest neighborhood in Miami.

It's even older than the incorporation of the city because it's where the people lived who built

the city of Miami.

Eileen Higgins was there telling people, apparently, that I don't care if they push the election year because of exactly what I said to her

on the show, which is that I don't blame you for sitting it out.

You benefit from a year delay.

You and your political puppeteer and campaign consultant Christian Olvert, this corrupt ghoul can run around shaking down businesses and and vendors and contractors with the city and the county and lobbyists.

It's just, and then she denies she lied to my face over and over and over again.

And it's incredible to me.

And by the way, these people calling me to fact check her are all Democrats.

This is not, this is a non-partisan race.

So this is not like there are people on the opposite end of the ideological spectrum who are calling her out.

These are technically her people who are just sick and tired of the lies and corruption in this town.

Do we need to pivot from Francis Suarez and Joe Corroillo corruption to Eileen Higgins and Christian Olvert corruption?

That really is the question.

And I will give Eileen Higgins and Christian Olvert an opportunity again to return to the show.

We can go back.

What are you laughing at?

I mean, yeah.

What are you laughing at?

Everything that you just said in this segment.

Yeah, that's really going to convince her to come back to you.

Not only did she lie to me, but more importantly, she lied to our audience.

No one's listening.

So it offends my tender, tender sensibilities, my gamey Gator sensibilities.

It really does.

More importantly, from Ms.

Miami on TikTok, she is an almost former Miami-Dade County employee.

Remember, we've been talking a lot about the $400-plus million dollar budget deficit, which they finally shored up and passed a budget this past week with all kinds of crazy, you know, pork and corruption in it, or LeShon, as we call it here in Miami.

I'm hungry, man.

I have no, this is a very, it's like a Score Sacy movie.

It's like all food.

You're just like, I'm starving.

We got to go.

Pork and Gator.

We got to go eat.

This woman is losing her job along with probably hundreds of other county employees.

And she's a little pissed off when she discovers that the county is also going to be funding FIFA World Cup for over $60 million.

This is our Miami moment, cocaines.

I will be losing my job after September 30th.

I'm not going to lie to y'all, I had a certain respect for our mayor here in Miami-Dade County until this happened.

They go to tell us that we will be impacted

by budget cuts.

Then I turn around and I do more research all to find out that my county

is funding the World Cup next year.

I got cut from my job

so a motherfucker could play soccer.

Hey everyone, it's Mike Ryan.

One thing about me that everybody knows, I absolutely love Miller Light.

You know what else I love?

You.

That's right, you.

Listening on your way to work right now, wondering whether or not today is the day to tell your boss what you really think of the new reports he needs filled out every week?

I absolutely love you.

That's why I'm thrilled to tell you that we are again partnering with Miller Light to give you a chance to play along with weekend observations.

Starting September 22nd, you'll be able to go to draftkings.com and guess what will happen during weekend observations on the show Monday, September 29th.

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Who's the first person to interrupt?

How many people will talk about the youth's chances to win a national title?

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