The StoneZONE - Roger Stone - The Stone Zone | 04-16-25
Aired: 2025-04-17
Duration: 39:46


=== Letitia James Mortgage Controversy (09:01) ===

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[00:00:32]  The Stone Zone.
[00:00:33]  Entertaining and informative.
[00:00:35]  On the Red Apple Podcast Network.
[00:00:38]  Welcome.
[00:00:39]  You are entering the Stone Zone.
[00:00:41]  Well, New York Attorney General Letitia James has now officially been referred to the U.S. Department of Justice for mortgage fraud.
[00:00:50]  That's right.
[00:00:50]  Tish James, who said most famously, no one is above the law, may be prosecuted herself.
[00:00:58]  Federal Home Loan Financing Agency Director Bill Pulte sent a criminal referral to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi accusing James of mortgage fraud this past Tuesday.
[00:01:11]  Pultey said that James falsified records to meet certain lending requirements and receive favorable loan terms.
[00:01:19]  Pulte cited a property in Virginia that James claimed as her principal residence and a property in York, which she claimed as a four-unit investment structure instead of the required five, which she said that she could, which could mean that she was able to get different and more favorable loans.
[00:01:41]  Now, there's a number of problems here.
[00:01:44]  First of all, just weeks before President Donald Trump's so-called valuation trial, James signed a power of attorney in her application for a mortgage on a Virginia home, which she said would become her principal residence.
[00:02:03]  Well, if it became her principal residence within the specified 60 days cited in the document that James signed, she would be constitutionally ineligible to be the Attorney General of the state of New York.
[00:02:19]  In fact, I checked state law.
[00:02:22]  In the instance that someone holding statewide office changes their state of residence, the office is automatically vacated.
[00:02:31]  On the other hand, if she did not move to Virginia, as stated, well, then she has committed essentially perjury on this sworn form.
[00:02:42]  Another document shows that a property purchased by James with her father had her actually utilizing her father's balance sheet and his finances to justify the mortgage, but she's listed in the application for the mortgage and in the mortgage with her father as husband and wife.
[00:03:06]  That was in 1983 and 2000, but she is listed correctly on the title as father and daughter.
[00:03:15]  Now, while this was a long time ago, it raises serious concerns about the validity of Ms. James' representations on mortgage applications, said FHFA Director Pulte in his letter.
[00:03:28]  It's ironic that James is likely to go to jail in part for falsifying business records, the very crime that she falsely accused President Donald Trump of committing.
[00:03:41]  It's also interesting, two other areas.
[00:03:46]  I believe that Attorney General Tisha James has covered up the sexual assault of three different women by her chief of staff.
[00:03:55]  There is one existing lawsuit in that regard.
[00:03:59]  It was filed in 2022.
[00:04:02]  Very recently, an appeals court very quietly let the suit go forward despite a motion for dismissal by Letitia James, but dropped James from the suit.
[00:04:14]  I think that was, as they say, wrongly decided.
[00:04:18]  I believe it will be appealed.
[00:04:20]  There are at least two other women that I have interviewed who claim likewise that they also were sexually assaulted by the Attorney General's chief of staff.
[00:04:31]  They have not yet filed lawsuits.
[00:04:33]  I believe both of them to be credible.
[00:04:36]  Then, on top of that, you have the burgeoning scandal of the fundraising by Letitia James.
[00:04:44]  Letitia James, as a candidate for Attorney General, managed to raise millions of dollars using a Democrat payment processing company called Act Blue.
[00:05:01]  Act Blue very conveniently allows people to give by credit card while at the same time turning off the feature in which you check the address of the credit card holder against the card to make sure that it is legitimate.
[00:05:20]  Based on just a cursory sample of her donors, you have a pattern of people who are not of particular means giving dozens of small and medium-sized contributions to Letitia James.
[00:05:37]  When you go and knock on those people's doors and show them a spreadsheet of their donations that they allegedly made, well, at this point, seven out of ten interviewed say they never made any such contributions.
[00:05:49]  In fact, they're unfamiliar with Letitia James or her race.
[00:05:54]  Now, so far, the Attorney General has had no comment on any of this.
[00:06:00]  This morning, when a New York Post reporter attempted to approach her, she was either on the cell phone or was she pretending to be on the cell phone.
[00:06:09]  I kind of like the comment of George Washington University professor, law professor Jonathan Turley yesterday, who says that any response from James regarding these allegations other than that the documents cited are forgeries is hard to imagine.
[00:06:30]  How can the woman who says no one is above the law respond to these various allegations, which, as we now believe, were fully investigated by the Federal Home Finance Administration?
[00:06:45]  Letitia James is typical of the corrupt politician in a one-party state who believes that she herself will never be questioned.
[00:06:55]  I frankly think we haven't heard the end of this as there will be new revelations about the Attorney General.
[00:07:03]  Once again, she's right when she says no one is above the law.
[00:07:08]  That would include her.
[00:07:10]  Just to be clear, I have been following this issue quite simply because I read a blog called whitecollarfraud.com.
[00:07:20]  Whitecollarfraud.com is published by a man named Sam Antar.
[00:07:25]  He has an interesting history himself.
[00:07:27]  He was once the CFO of a big Northeastern electronics firm that many will be familiar with called Crazy Eddie.
[00:07:35]  By his own admission, he, Sam Antar, was involved in one of the largest security frauds in American history.
[00:07:43]  He went to trial, was convicted, served his time, paid his debt to society.
[00:07:48]  But when he came out, he took his considerable forensic and research skills and he has used it to cover up corrupt, to probably uncover corruption by politicians, institutions, and others.
[00:08:04]  It is his website, whitecollarfraud.com, that I learned about the serial mortgage fraud by Letitia James.
[00:08:15]  It's amazing to me that nobody at the New York Post or the New York Times or the New York Daily News or the Chicago Tribune or the LA Times or the Associated Press or Bloomberg News.
[00:08:26]  It's right there under your nose, but nobody sought to write any of this, to report it, even though Sam Antar on his website links to all of the actual documents.
[00:08:38]  So these are not allegations.
[00:08:40]  These are not fabrications.
[00:08:42]  These are cold, hard facts.
[00:08:45]  But until a letter from the head of the Federal Home Finance Agency to the U.S. Attorney General leaked late yesterday, no place could you find this in the mainstream press.
[00:09:00]  Amazing.

=== DeSantis's Distracting Drama (15:15) ===

[00:09:01]  We've been reporting it here in the Stone Zone for several weeks.
[00:09:05]  And we will continue reporting on it as this story develops.
[00:09:08]  In the meantime, there is a burgeoning scandal way south of New York in the state of Florida, where the Tampa Bay Times, the Miami Herald, and Politico have revealed that the administration of Governor Ron DeSantis orchestrated a $10 million, shall we say, payment last year to a charity founded by the governor's wife, actually taking that money away from Medicaid.
[00:09:35]  Funds that were meant to pay for health care for the poor, the elderly, and those who are disabled were diverted to a dark money fund controlled by Governor Ron DeSantis and his wife.
[00:09:51]  We're going to come back and talk about that, and we're going to interview the chairman of the House Committee in Florida who is investigating that breaking scandal.
[00:10:02]  So if you're interested in politics and you want the stone cold truth, you're in the right place.
[00:10:07]  This is the Stone Zone on the Red Apple Audio Networks.
[00:10:11]  To get all the breaking news and all the dirty details of both of these epic scandals, don't touch that dial.
[00:10:19]  The Stone Zone on the Red Apple Podcast Network.
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[00:11:28]  And you're back in the Stone Zone.
[00:11:30]  Now we're looking in the Sunshine State for a burgeoning scandal that threatens not only the governorship of Governor Ron DeSantis, but the putative candidacy of his wife, Casey DeSantis, who the governor has made very clear in recent days intends to run for governor of the Sunshine State herself.
[00:11:51]  In a nutshell, the DeSantis administration pressured a major state contractor to make a $10 million donation to the Hope Florida Foundation.
[00:12:01]  This extremely controversial charity that is spearheaded by First Lady Casey DeSantis.
[00:12:07]  It was part of a settlement negotiated with the Centene Corporation after the state's largest Medicaid contractor overbilled the state by at least $67 billion.
[00:12:18]  Days later, Hope Florida transferred that $10 million to a pair of dark money nonprofits.
[00:12:25]  The state-backed charity gave $5 million each to Save Our Society from Drugs, an anti-marijuana group founded by a Republican mega donor, and Secure Florida's Future, a political vehicle controlled by executives at the Florida Chamber of Commerce, the big business lobbying group.
[00:12:44]  And then days after that, Save Our Society from Drugs and Secure Florida's Future gave a combined $8.5 million to Keep Florida Clean, a political committee chaired by Ron DeSantis' then chief of staff, who now most inconveniently he most recently appointed Attorney General of the state of Florida.
[00:13:05]  This was a fund created to oppose Amendment 3, the amendment on last year's ballot that would have allowed Floridians to use marijuana recreationally rather than solely for medicinal reasons.
[00:13:20]  That amendment was defeated.
[00:13:22]  So this was a daisy chain that may have transferred $10 million of public money, money meant to pay for health insurance for the poor, the elderly, and people who are disabled, into funding of an anti-marijuana political campaign.
[00:13:40]  Governor DeSantis, of course, has repeatedly insisted that he did nothing wrong, while at the same time lashing out with an increasingly vitriolic rhetoric at everyone from the Republican Speaker of the state house to the newspaper reporters digging into this story.
[00:13:55]  Listen to Governor DeSantis.
[00:13:57]  These smears against Hope Florida, anybody who's making those smears is not serving you well.
[00:14:05]  That is not something that makes sense when very few examples of government actually succeeding in helping to lift people up.
[00:14:15]  The governor also, we'll go to our last cut here, seems to be blaming his wife Casey for all of this.
[00:14:21]  Listen to this.
[00:14:23]  I really had no ownership of this.
[00:14:25]  I didn't devise it.
[00:14:27]  She devised it.
[00:14:29]  She set the vision.
[00:14:30]  She executed the vision.
[00:14:32]  Wow.
[00:14:33]  Incredible.
[00:14:35]  At least one prominent Republican lawmaker, Representative Alex Andrate, a Pensacola Republican, has been presiding over hearings into Hope Florida.
[00:14:47]  He told both the Miami Herald and the Tampa Times that the transaction chain, quote, looks like criminal fraud by some of those involved.
[00:14:56]  Clearly, this all looks very bad, but it's not an isolated incident.
[00:15:01]  In fact, it's part of a larger pattern of potential abuses that Ron DeSantis has committed beginning last fall when he chose to turn the power of state government against two citizen-led constitutional amendments which appeared on the November ballot.
[00:15:17]  Those would be amendments three and four.
[00:15:20]  It is amazing that the governor seeks to distract from his own culpability here, but more importantly, from the actions of his now attorney general.
[00:15:33]  Again, the governor is furious that Republicans in the state legislature are asking serious questions about a charity closely aligned with his own wife, who he's made pretty clear he intends to succeed him as governor.
[00:15:46]  Haven't heard of anything like that since Lurlene Wallace succeeded her husband, George Wallace, as the governor of Alabama when Governor Wallace was term limited.
[00:15:57]  Yesterday, DeSantis attacked State Representative Alex Andrade for daring to hold a hearing on the charity in question, Hope Florida, and its movement of money into political advertisements.
[00:16:11]  Speaking in front of Hope Florida, the governor, as you heard, said anybody who asks questions is not serving you well.
[00:16:20]  This scandal is essentially trying to cover up $10 million that Centene, a Medicaid-managed care provider, was supposed to pay to the state of Florida.
[00:16:31]  Instead, again, Centene was directed by the state to send $10 million to the First Lady's pet project.
[00:16:37]  It's called Hope Florida.
[00:16:39]  We know this because Centene told OAN's Matt Gates that they were directed by the Agency for Healthcare Administration to do so.
[00:16:48]  So where did all that money go?
[00:16:51]  Now, many are horrified that it wound up in the possession of a political committee controlled by James Uthmeier, the former chief of staff to Governor Santis, who has since been appointed Florida Attorney General.
[00:17:06]  The money, as I say, was then used for political ads when its intended purpose was to help poor people get health care.
[00:17:13]  The volunteer president of Hope Florida, gentleman Joshua Hay, stated in a hearing to Representative Andrade that he had no idea how the money was going to use and he had no idea how the money was used.
[00:17:28]  Hay works for a corporation that receives millions in Florida state contracts.
[00:17:33]  Turns out that then DeSantis Chief of Staff Uthmeyer directed Hope Florida to give that $5 million to these various dark political committees.
[00:17:44]  Joining us next is the chairman of the Health House Care Budget Subcommittee that is investigating this scandal.
[00:17:53]  We'll be joined by Alex Andrade and we'll get the answers directly from him.
[00:17:59]  So if you're looking for the inside skinny on this burgeoning scandal right here in the Sunshine State and whether it threatens the political future of not just First Lady Casey DeSantis, but also Governor Ron DeSantis, who still sees himself, strangely enough, as a 2028 presidential candidate, despite the fact that he did not willingly campaign for President Donald Trump, and you want to hear more, well, whatever you do, don't touch that dial.
[00:18:26]  You'll be right back in the Stone Zone, and we will bring you the Stone Cold Truth.
[00:18:31]  The Stone Zone on the Red Apple Podcast Network.
[00:18:37]  The Stone Zone.
[00:18:39]  Entertaining and informative.
[00:18:41]  On the Red Apple Podcast Network.
[00:18:44]  And we're back in the Stone Zone.
[00:18:46]  Joining us now is the chairman of the House Health Care Budget Subcommittee in Florida.
[00:18:52]  State Representative Alex Andrade has served in the legislature for seven years.
[00:18:58]  He is an accomplished and respected attorney in his hometown of Pensacola.
[00:19:03]  He passed the bill to ban forced vaccinations in Florida.
[00:19:07]  He passed the bill banning DEI and higher education in Florida.
[00:19:12]  He also passed the bill removing all of Disney's carve-outs and sweetheart deals.
[00:19:19]  Alex, welcome to the Stone Zone.
[00:19:22]  Good afternoon.
[00:19:22]  Thanks for having me, Roger.
[00:19:24]  I watched you yesterday on Matt Gates' show on OAN.
[00:19:28]  I thought it was an excellent presentation.
[00:19:31]  I learned a lot more about this burgeoning scandal.
[00:19:35]  I found it interesting that while you were conducting a very effective public hearing that I think informed the public about what's going on here, the governor was in your home district attacking you and insisting that there's nothing to see here.
[00:19:50]  Your reaction.
[00:19:53]  Well, you know, I'm always glad when the governor visits my hometown.
[00:19:56]  I'm proud to represent it in the Florida House.
[00:19:59]  Unfortunately, it wasn't Governor DeSantis' best press conference.
[00:20:03]  He came off a little manic.
[00:20:05]  He came off very emotional.
[00:20:07]  And it's all in response to simple questions we're asking about how much he knew, how much Attorney General James Uthmeyer knew when James Uthmeyer steered $10 million of Medicaid money into his own pack.
[00:20:22]  Yeah, I mean, is there any doubt in your mind that former DeSantis chief of staff and now Attorney General of the State of Florida illegally transferred these funds from Hope Florida into a political vehicle that he controlled called Keep Florida Clean?
[00:20:39]  There's no doubt in my mind that he did that.
[00:20:42]  I believe, I believe, again, I'm not a prosecutor, but I believe that he committed money laundering and wire fraud and potentially Medicaid fraud by steering this Medicaid money, $10 million of it, into his own pack.
[00:20:56]  So what should the money received by Hope Florida, what was it supposed to be used for?
[00:21:01]  Or what would have been an appropriate use for it?
[00:21:04]  Or should they never have had it at all?
[00:21:07]  They should never have had it at all.
[00:21:08]  This is Medicaid money.
[00:21:10]  It should have gone back to the state for proper accounting so that we can avoid future fines from the federal government and CMS.
[00:21:17]  Unfortunately, the Governor DeSantis administration is somewhat incompetent in the management of our funds.
[00:21:23]  It's resulted in almost a billion dollars in fines in recent years.
[00:21:27]  And this is just another example of his incompetence as a manager.
[00:21:34]  As I understand it, the Hope Florida operation hasn't filed a number of required disclosures and has not met a number of additional legal requirements.
[00:21:47]  Can you run us through that?
[00:21:49]  Yes, sir.
[00:21:50]  So the Hope Florida Foundation, they're a 501c3 charity.
[00:21:53]  So they're supposed to file reports with the IRS called 990s showing their income and expenses.
[00:21:59]  And they're supposed to provide documents about conflicts of interest with board members, their policies on how they award grants.
[00:22:07]  They're supposed to keep minutes of their meetings.
[00:22:09]  They're supposed to comply with Florida sunshine laws related to their meetings, and they haven't done any of that.
[00:22:15]  They haven't even reported their financial assets to the state.
[00:22:19]  And they're technically an arm of the state.
[00:22:22]  They're a DSO, a direct support organization for a Florida agency called the Department of Children and Families.
[00:22:31]  The whole thing is really kind of shocking.
[00:22:34]  During a speech yesterday, DeSantis was adamant that his wife, who's responsible for Hope Florida, said he had no owner ship of it, didn't devise it.
[00:22:42]  She set the vision.
[00:22:43]  Do you think the governor is throwing his wife under the bus?
[00:22:47]  It sure sounded like it.
[00:22:50]  You know, I don't think he likes, you know, being implicated in a money laundering and a wire fraud scheme.
[00:23:00]  But unfortunately, his chief of staff absolutely is.
[00:23:05]  So, no, I'm sure that he's embarrassed.
[00:23:08]  But at the same time, if you know Governor DeSantis, he does not believe the rules apply to him.
[00:23:12]  And this circumstance is no different.
[00:23:16]  He's mad that anyone's questioning this money laundering and wire fraud.
[00:23:21]  And he believes the rules don't apply to him.
[00:23:23]  And unfortunately for him, he's learning the hard way that that's not the case.
[00:23:28]  Yeah, it looks to me like the Hope Florida Foundation dodged legally required audits, financial plans, and ethics close.
[00:23:35]  When you and your colleagues simply asked for records, the First Lady and her husband's team have just stonewalled them.
[00:23:42]  State law says that settlement funds should go to a state trust or a general fund for lawmakers to allocate.
[00:23:48]  Instead, the governor and his team diverted a huge chunk of this money to Casey's nonprofit.
[00:23:56]  As I say again, the Hope Florida Foundation hasn't filed required audits, tax returns, or the ethics disclosures.
[00:24:03]  I think this is all about setting up a platform for Casey DeSantis' putative run for governor to keep the DeSantises in power as some kind of a dynasty.

=== Setting Up DeSantis Dynasty (10:27) ===

[00:24:16]  I really think it's interesting that while Governor and Mrs. DeSantis were flying to Washington to meet President Trump to try to persuade him to be neutral in the upcoming contest for governor, President Donald Trump issued a warm and strong endorsement of Naples area congressman Byron Donalds.
[00:24:38]  If anybody doesn't see everything that's playing out here within the backdrop of this upcoming gubernatorial campaign, I'm not sure they really understand, do they?
[00:24:49]  No, sir.
[00:24:50]  I don't.
[00:24:50]  And in full disclosure, I haven't endorsed Byron Donalds yet.
[00:24:55]  I think that there might be other good candidates.
[00:24:57]  I haven't, you know, it's still almost two years out.
[00:25:00]  I can tell you definitively that Floridians don't like dynasties and they don't support the idea of Casey DeSantis running for governor, especially as we're seeing all these revelations about the mismanagement, misuse, and misappropriation of funds.
[00:25:16]  You know, I live in Florida and I find that when I'm critical on social media, because on X I'm at Roger J. Stone Jr., Roger Josephine J.R., pretty outspoken.
[00:25:27]  People tell me that Governor DeSantis is the best governor in the country.
[00:25:31]  He's one of the most conservative governors in the country.
[00:25:35]  In all honesty, I then look and I find out that these people don't live in Florida.
[00:25:39]  Since Governor DeSantis took office, Homer and Show home owner insurance premiums have tripled, averaging $6,000 a year, the highest in the nation.
[00:25:48]  His reforms handed insurers $2 billion in taxpayer-funded bailouts while letting the big insurance companies dodge lawsuits.
[00:25:57]  I think this leaves Floridians with soaring rates and no recourse when companies deny their claims.
[00:26:03]  And then under Governor DeSantis, he essentially, because the Public Service Commission is stacked with his loyalists, rubber stamped the largest single utility rate hike in Florida history, that by Florida Power and Light, increasing our bills by 20%.
[00:26:23]  Meanwhile, medium home prices have jumped 65% under Governor DeSantis from $254,000 in 2018 to $420,000 in 2024.
[00:26:35]  His inaction on affordability and his very cozy ties with developers seem to me to prioritize profits over people, and they're pricing out retirees and young Floridians.
[00:26:47]  My daughter is looking for some place to live and she's finding the prices.
[00:26:52]  It's impossible to buy, but it's virtually also impossible to rent.
[00:26:58]  And then lastly, I'm particularly unhappy about the way that the governor has gutted our sunshine laws.
[00:27:05]  Florida used to be a state where any taxpayer could, upon filing, find out what any government entity or agency was doing.
[00:27:15]  Today, it is most opaque.
[00:27:17]  They won't even tell us not where the governor's airplane has been, is going to go, but they won't even tell us where it has been, saying that that's a security issue.
[00:27:26]  I kind of doubt that.
[00:27:28]  I'm not sure that those who don't live in Florida can fully understand what's going on here.
[00:27:36]  No, I agree.
[00:27:37]  And again, the whole refusal to comply with the public records laws or the fronts on laws here in Florida, just another instance of Governor DeSantis thinking the rules don't apply to him and that he gets some kind of special privilege not to follow the same rules regular Floridians have to follow.
[00:27:55]  You know, he bragged about Florida's freedom from COVID, but then he quietly signed a law which shielded Big Pharma from vaccination lawsuits.
[00:28:03]  So all of his tough talk, in my view, hit a sellout to corporate interest, betraying the folks who trusted him to fight the system.
[00:28:12]  Additionally, I'd say that he signed off on $1.5 billion in new taxes and fees since 2019, including higher vehicle registrations and online sales taxes, hitting small businesses and families.
[00:28:25]  He calls it no new taxes, but Floridians feel a pinch while he takes credit for cuts.
[00:28:32]  His administration also pushed $1.3 billion, the purchase of $1.4 million of conservation acres through the Florida Forever program.
[00:28:42]  But key parcels went to developers who had close ties to the governor or were his donors.
[00:28:47]  It's a bait and switch that I think has betrayed taxpayers and paves over Florida's future.
[00:28:55]  I know that you're not a prosecutor, but you are a respected attorney.
[00:29:00]  With the current Attorney General of Florida, James Uthmeyer, being a chief suspect in this case, do you think the U.S. federal attorney should prosecute Uthmeier or the governor and his wife?
[00:29:13]  I absolutely believe the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Florida should be investigating this as wire fraud and money laundering.
[00:29:20]  I don't know if they will.
[00:29:22]  That's a question that they have to answer.
[00:29:24]  But from my perspective, based on the information that's public, the information that I'm aware of, I believe that there's no excuse if the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District does not investigate this as Medicaid fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering.
[00:29:38]  I guess time will tell.
[00:29:40]  What are the future in terms of, do you expect to have additional hearings?
[00:29:44]  I mean, where does this go next?
[00:29:46]  Yes, sir.
[00:29:47]  No, I plan to have another hearing on Monday where the two dark money groups that funneled this $10 million to James Uthmeyer's PAC have been invited to come and explain themselves.
[00:29:59]  And I've also invited Governor DeSantis' personal attorney, Jeff Aaron, to come and explain himself and his role in this wire fraud and money laundering scheme.
[00:30:08]  Do you think that you have the authority to bring both the governor and his wife and the attorney general in front of your committee?
[00:30:19]  You might have the technical ability.
[00:30:21]  I'm not sure if we'll do that.
[00:30:23]  That would be, again, I'm a subcommittee chairman of a budget committee here in Florida.
[00:30:30]  I don't know necessarily if that's the right venue.
[00:30:35]  At some point, it's got to escalate beyond a subcommittee.
[00:30:40]  And I think if it does escalate beyond a subcommittee, then yes, those individuals should be invited to come explain themselves.
[00:30:47]  I think it would be only appropriate.
[00:30:49]  It would make for some very epic television.
[00:30:55]  It is amazing yesterday the way that the governor tried to push this again off on his wife.
[00:31:01]  Do you, now just get into politics, just straight politics, because that's what we do here in the Star Zone.
[00:31:06]  Do you think at the end of the day that Casey DeSantis will, in fact, run for governor?
[00:31:11]  I don't know.
[00:31:13]  That's up to her to decide.
[00:31:15]  I don't believe that she'll be able to run on a platform bragging about Hope Florida, given all the revelations we've discovered in the past few weeks.
[00:31:23]  That is certainly true.
[00:31:25]  I am of the opinion that those who believe that Florida is now a reliably red state may be mistaken.
[00:31:36]  It is certainly true that Governor DeSantis carried it by almost 20 points in his last reelection, but I also think that the hurricane was a major factor in that, that it allowed him to dominate all free media for the closing weeks of that campaign.
[00:31:51]  His opponent, former Governor Charlie Christ, you may remember him.
[00:31:56]  He was a Republican, then an Independent, then a Democrat.
[00:32:00]  Reminds me of that old joke: a Republican, a Democrat, and an independent walked into a bar, and the bartender said, Hi, Charlie.
[00:32:07]  Anyway, he was counting very heavily on free media coverage since he couldn't raise nearly as much as the DeSantis juggernaut, and he got no coverage.
[00:32:18]  So I think, yes, Governor DeSantis would have won in the off-year election, but not by 20 points.
[00:32:25]  And of course, Donald Trump is a phenomenon unto himself.
[00:32:29]  Nobody else could do what he has done.
[00:32:33]  And he scored very heavily in the Sunshine State, seemingly different than any other Republican.
[00:32:40]  Spent not, for example, a penny on Spanish language radio, which I think has been utilized very, very effectively by Republican candidates here in the Sunshine State.
[00:32:50]  But the Trump campaign did not spend money on that, yet he won very solidly.
[00:32:56]  In fact, Democrat state chairwoman Nikki Freed is going to be in the Stone Zone tomorrow to talk about this issue, the Hope issue, and others.
[00:33:06]  She and others of my friends in the other party still believe this is a purple state, that it can go either way.
[00:33:14]  You have any thoughts on that?
[00:33:17]  Well, I would push back a little bit.
[00:33:21]  You know, Governor DeSantis was very popular coming out of COVID just because, as a state, as a large state, we were better than most other large states.
[00:33:31]  I don't think Governor DeSantis was perfect on COVID.
[00:33:33]  I recall having to push him, beg, and plead for him to open up certain things like vacation rentals back in my home area and Panhandle.
[00:33:42]  You know, so there's been some whitewashing, some astro turfing of his record on COVID.
[00:33:47]  He certainly wasn't perfect, but he enjoyed a lot of popularity from that.
[00:33:53]  The problem for him at this point is you can only get so much bandwidth out of one instance from four or five years ago.
[00:34:01]  And he's been beating that dead horse for years and disregarding kind of a record of failure as a manager of the state.
[00:34:11]  I mean, as the governor, he's the chief executive officer.
[00:34:14]  He's supposed to be managing the executive branch of the state, and he's just terrible at it.
[00:34:19]  All right, we're going to have to leave it there.
[00:34:22]  I want to thank my guest, State Representative Alex Andrade of the 7th, pardon me, the 2nd District of Florida.
[00:34:30]  Thank you very much for joining us today in the Stone Zone.
[00:34:33]  God bless you, my friend, and keep up the good work.
[00:34:37]  Thank you, sir.
[00:34:38]  The Stone Zone on the Red Apple Podcast Network.

=== Biden's Blunders (03:28) ===

[00:34:44]  The Stone Zone.
[00:34:46]  Entertaining and informative on the Red Apple Podcast Network.
[00:34:51]  And you're back in the Stone Zone.
[00:34:53]  President Donald Trump yesterday signed an order aimed at stopping illegal immigrants from obtaining benefits under the Social Security Act and expanding fraud investigations.
[00:35:04]  This move bolsters Elon Musk's Doge-related efforts to eliminate Social Security fraud.
[00:35:12]  ICE is now also using social security records to aid the president's push to deport illegal immigrants.
[00:35:19]  Meanwhile, Border Czar Tom Holman said yesterday that criminal charges are coming for sanctuary state and city leaders that facilitate the illegal entry and harboring of illegal aliens.
[00:35:33]  This is a message that was echoed by the new California U.S. Attorney Bill Asali.
[00:35:40]  Trump has also signed an order authorizing the military to take control of public lands along our southern border, an area known as the Roosevelt Reservation, named for President Teddy Roosevelt.
[00:35:56]  This secures a portion of the southern border.
[00:35:59]  This strip of land is a 60-foot-wide swath that stretches from California all the way to New Mexico.
[00:36:06]  It was set up in 1905 as a way to secure our southern border.
[00:36:13]  Meanwhile, I had hoped we would never have to hear from again, but Sleepy Joe was back in the news.
[00:36:19]  Former President Joe Biden blundering his way through a speech again yesterday, referring to black kids as colored kids Tuesday during his first public speech since leaving office.
[00:36:32]  Biden was aimlessly telling a story about his childhood move from Scranton, Pennsylvania to Wilmington, Delaware, which he noted that before his family relocated, he'd never hardly seen any black people.
[00:36:45]  I was only going in the fourth grade, he said, and I remember seeing kids go by.
[00:36:51]  At the time, we called them colored kids on a bus go by, and they never turned right to go to Claymont High School.
[00:36:59]  Biden refused to refer to President Trump by name during his roughly 30-minute speech.
[00:37:05]  When he wrapped up his remarks, a wide-eyed Biden stood at the podium and looked at both ends of the stage before identifying the stairs and pointing at them.
[00:37:14]  And then somebody gave him the signal and he finally made his exit.
[00:37:19]  Notably, in his speech, the former president noted the enormous damage Donald Trump has done to the country in less than 100 days, the damage he's done.
[00:37:30]  In truth, Donald Trump is embarking on a new golden age for America, an unprecedented age of peace, prosperity, security, justice, and law and order.
[00:37:41]  All we have to do, folks, is stay the course.
[00:37:44]  Don't be a panikin.
[00:37:46]  Stay to the plan of lowering the level playing field when it comes to trade by using tariffs as a cudgel to force other countries to fair trade with us, continuing and renewing the Trump tax cuts that are across the board by next January, and enacting spending and regulatory reforms.
[00:38:09]  America's greatest days lie ahead.

=== Follow WABC Social (01:33) ===

[00:38:13]  Thanks for joining us today and the Stone Zone until we meet again.
[00:38:16]  God bless you and Godspeed.
[00:38:19]  Thanks for listening to the Stone Zone with Roger Stone.
[00:38:22]  You can hear the Stone Zone with Roger Stone weeknights at 8 on 77 WABC.
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[00:38:49]  So you never have to wonder what the heck is going on here.
[00:38:52]  Rural Americans deserve access to the best our nation has to offer, especially when it comes to health care.
[00:38:59]  Across every state and every community, America's rural hospitals are the first line of defense, protecting our families, neighbors, and loved ones.
[00:39:07]  No matter where you live, hospital care doesn't clock out.
[00:39:09]  They're there 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
[00:39:14]  Each year, America's over 5,000 hospitals care for millions of patients, providing 24-7 emergency care, delivering babies, cancer treatments, and other life-saving care that patients rely on.
[00:39:26]  Behind every one of those patients are doctors, nurses, and caregivers working tirelessly to keep people healthy and safe.
[00:39:33]  Hospitals are our community's lifelines.
[00:39:35]  They employ our neighbors and keep our families health.
[00:39:39]  But now, some in Congress are threatening access to care.
[00:39:42]  Tell Congress, protect patient care to keep America strong.