The Culture War - Tim Pool - The Culture War #83 Michael Franzese, Was Life Better Under Mafia Rule？ w⧸ Michael Franzese & Shane Cashman

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00:00:57.060 What's up, guys? Before we get started, head over to GetComingHome.com.

00:01:02.300 The new single just dropped. Shout out to Phil Labonte, singer of All That Remains, guest vocals on the song.

00:01:08.740 The song is about coming home to find your home, your city, the things you once knew and loved,

00:01:12.960 in disrepair, decay, homelessness, poverty, etc.

00:01:15.340 Because the people that you entrusted to look after what you cared about dropped the ball.

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00:01:30.080 We're going to talk about what's the state of this country.

00:01:34.740 And, you know, my question was, there's this viral video from a Bronx tale, which I'm sure, Michael, you've seen that movie, right?

00:01:43.100 Many times, yeah.

00:01:44.140 And there's this great scene where, you know, the main guy beats the crap out of some bikers.

00:01:48.340 And it got me thinking about when I see these videos of these roaming bands just smashing department stores, taking whatever they want.

00:01:56.700 I'm like, I don't think that would have happened if the neighborhoods were still run by the mafia.

00:02:00.700 So, Michael, do you want to introduce yourself and just give your background?

00:02:04.700 Sure. Michael Francis.

00:02:06.420 And I think most people know that at one point in time, I was a cop of the regime, a member of the Colombo crime family back in New York.

00:02:13.900 My dad was the underboss of that family for many, many years.

00:02:17.520 And I was part of that life for about 20 years, 20 plus years, and did pretty well.

00:02:24.560 Became a major target of law enforcement, was arrested probably 18, 19 times, indicted seven times, went to trial five times.

00:02:34.500 And I actually did 10 years.

00:02:36.980 Well, got a 10-year prison sentence, did eight years in prison.

00:02:39.980 And then my life kind of turned around.

00:02:41.860 I met a young girl who's now my wife of 39 years and walked away from that life.

00:02:47.040 And, you know, I've been living a little bit differently for the past 20-some-odd years.

00:02:51.120 Man, I got a million and one questions.

00:02:52.640 We'll get to it.

00:02:53.000 We'll get to it.

00:02:53.300 Shane's hanging out.

00:02:53.980 So many questions.

00:02:55.000 I'm very happy to be here.

00:02:56.060 Looking forward to this episode.

00:02:57.200 Shane Cashman, host of Inverted World Live.

00:02:59.200 And let's get to it.

00:03:00.480 So I obviously want to ask you, you know, the story of how it all begins.

00:03:05.160 But just right off the bat, you know, what I was saying, do you think, you know, is it romanticizing this idea that when the mafia is in charge, there's some order?

00:03:15.580 Or is it, you said, you call it a crime family.

00:03:18.360 I watch these videos of roving bands in Chicago, ramming cars into department stores, running and taking whatever they wanted.

00:03:23.800 And I kind of feel like when you see these old stories about when the mafia was much stronger 100 years ago or when you've got strong organized crime, that kind of stuff doesn't happen.

00:03:34.060 But maybe it does in other ways.

00:03:35.600 I don't know.

00:03:35.860 What do you think?

00:03:36.220 You know, Tim, first of all, I slipped, you know, when I say crime family, even though obviously we were involved in criminal activity.

00:03:43.200 But, you know, I hear so many people say crime family.

00:03:46.080 We normally just call it the family.

00:03:47.480 But I guess I've been programmed lately.

00:03:49.480 But, you know, one thing I have to tell you, there was no crime in our neighborhood.

00:03:54.020 Nobody would ever get away with doing anything like that.

00:03:57.040 Never.

00:03:57.980 You know, we took care of our communities.

00:03:59.620 We took care of our neighborhoods.

00:04:01.460 People loved us.

00:04:02.300 I mean, look, if you see clips of John Gotti now, you know, the people in the neighborhood loved him because he took care of the neighborhood.

00:04:08.040 And all of us did the same thing.

00:04:09.660 So that would never happen.

00:04:11.360 There would never be rampant crime like that anywhere, you know, where we were.

00:04:15.940 It's better.

00:04:17.160 I don't know.

00:04:17.720 I'm sorry.

00:04:18.460 You know, the way I think about it is the family, mafia, whatever people want to refer to it as, because I'm sure people use different names for different organizations, whatever it may be.

00:04:28.840 I mean, they know outright if you piss off your neighborhood, your neighborhood is going to turn on you and they're going to work with other people to bring you down.

00:04:36.460 But more importantly, it's your neighbors.

00:04:38.780 It's what you're doing to improve your lives improves the lives of the people around you.

00:04:43.380 And I feel like what we see now with the crime in all these cities is just social disorder, no connections whatsoever.

00:04:49.900 And so the story I always love to bring up is that scene from a Bronx tale where the mob boss hears the ruckus, motorcycles.

00:05:00.880 He walks over and he sees the bikers and they're in the bar and he's like, hey, what's the problem?

00:05:05.260 The bartender says these guys aren't dressed appropriately for the bar.

00:05:08.740 Biker turns around.

00:05:09.560 He's like, look, man, we just want to have one beer and then we'll go.

00:05:12.140 And he says, spoken like a gentleman.

00:05:13.420 Give the man a beer.

00:05:14.120 And I respect that tremendously that these guys don't fit in.

00:05:17.620 They're not from the neighborhood.

00:05:18.280 They're being noisy, but he was nice.

00:05:19.620 He says, OK, we're going to get you a beer.

00:05:21.080 Then the biker shakes the beer up.

00:05:22.440 They all spray the bartender down.

00:05:24.700 My boss says, OK, he's like, now you got to leave.

00:05:28.340 And then the guy turns around and says, F you, turns around.

00:05:31.760 They start laughing.

00:05:32.460 He walks over, pulls the door closed, locks it and says, now you just can't leave.

00:05:36.620 And then the boys come in the back with guns and baseball bats and crowbars and beat the crap out of those guys.

00:05:41.340 Because, you know, I'm not going to, you know, in the real world, I'm not a big fan of going around and just getting into bar fights or anything like that.

00:05:47.480 But the idea of the mob boss, he was being nice.

00:05:52.780 These guys weren't wearing suits.

00:05:53.940 They weren't in college shirts.

00:05:55.840 But he was nice to them.

00:05:57.100 And then they disrespected him.

00:05:58.640 And then this is what you get.

00:06:00.000 And so that idea in my mind, I'm thinking, were we not better off when you get a chance to be a gentleman and they treat you with respect and you can live your life?

00:06:08.220 Well, let me tell you, Chaz Palminteri is a very dear friend of mine.

00:06:11.520 And I've seen that movie so many times.

00:06:13.340 There's so many iconic little, you know, points of wisdom that Chaz put in that.

00:06:18.220 And he, you know, he wasn't part of the life, but he knew the life well.

00:06:21.220 You know, he had a lot of, you know, relationships there.

00:06:23.660 But that's exactly how it would have been handled.

00:06:27.080 You know, it's all about respect.

00:06:28.780 All right, we'll show you respect.

00:06:30.160 Just don't cross the line.

00:06:31.600 And when they did, you know, they paid the price for it.

00:06:34.720 But, you know, again, it's about respect in the neighborhood.

00:06:38.640 You respect your neighborhood.

00:06:39.780 You respect the people around you.

00:06:41.220 You respect your family.

00:06:42.860 And, you know, we've lost that.

00:06:44.240 You know, people say to me all the time, you know, Michael, you guys must have hated the police.

00:06:48.920 And, you know, what do you think about this defunding the police?

00:06:51.900 I said, that's the most ridiculous idea that I've ever heard.

00:06:55.540 I said, you got to have law and order.

00:06:57.740 You know, we didn't disrespect the police.

00:06:59.920 What we used to tell the FBI and the cops, listen, we understand you're on one side, we're on the other.

00:07:05.700 We get it.

00:07:06.240 You have a job to do.

00:07:07.320 Fine.

00:07:08.180 You know, do your job.

00:07:09.360 If you do your job better than we do ours and we go down, we go down.

00:07:12.940 Just don't frame us and don't harass our family.

00:07:15.980 That's what we would tell them.

00:07:17.200 But if you get us fair and square, no problem.

00:07:19.160 We were never disrespectful to them in that way.

00:07:21.160 Did they try that often, framing?

00:07:23.400 Well, listen, my dad was framed on a case.

00:07:25.600 He got a 50-year sentence, did 40 on the 50, and I'll take it to my grave that my dad was innocent in that case.

00:07:32.260 I investigated it thoroughly.

00:07:33.880 So, yeah, does it happen?

00:07:35.420 Absolutely.

00:07:36.600 You know, today I can't even believe how, you know, wide open it is.

00:07:40.160 You know, they don't even care anymore.

00:07:41.440 Back then they used to hide it a little bit, but now it's gotten out of hand.

00:07:45.260 But, you know, it is what it is.

00:07:46.740 When do you think that change happened when it stopped being hidden and they became so blatant with it in terms of the government and police?

00:07:53.580 You know, for me, it seems like it happened in the last, you know, seven, eight, nine years.

00:07:58.020 I mean, you know, I don't recall being at this out in the open.

00:08:02.260 Right.

00:08:03.500 And it's, listen, for me, the most frightening thing you can have in government are two things.

00:08:08.740 Number one, when the party in power starts to weaponize the Department of Justice and their other agencies to go after their political enemies, problem, really problem.

00:08:18.760 And I think we're seeing that.

00:08:19.700 And secondly, when you have the media that's supposed to be non-biased and impartial start covering for that, you know, same party.

00:08:28.340 And I think we're seeing that now both ways.

00:08:30.720 And it's to me, it's very dangerous.

00:08:32.640 Very dangerous.

00:08:33.540 Let me ask you about the family.

00:08:36.060 Right.

00:08:36.300 You said initially you said, you know, people refer to as the crime family.

00:08:39.740 You said maybe you were programmed.

00:08:40.820 It's called the family.

00:08:42.140 What is the average day to day for the family?

00:08:45.740 What do they do?

00:08:46.260 Well, you know, it all depends on who you were in that life.

00:08:52.020 You know, I would separate the guys in that life, the made guys, guys that actually took the oath.

00:08:57.700 There's two categories.

00:08:58.880 You had the racketeers and you had the gangsters.

00:09:01.540 Now, the racketeers, normally, they were the guys that brought the money in.

00:09:04.760 You know, they knew how to use that life to benefit them in business.

00:09:08.580 And they were earning money.

00:09:09.540 In our family, Colombo family at that time, we had 115 made guys, guys that actually took the oath.

00:09:15.820 Out of that 115, maybe 20 of us were earners, the racketeers.

00:09:20.760 The other guys, they were the gangsters.

00:09:22.700 They did a lot of the heavy work.

00:09:24.520 And they just didn't have the ability to earn.

00:09:26.960 So maybe they had a no-show job.

00:09:28.620 Maybe they're doing a little gambling, little numbers, you know, whatever they could do to, you know, to grind out a living.

00:09:33.560 But the gangsters couldn't really be the racketeers because they didn't know how.

00:09:38.660 But the racketeers had to be a gangster also because you're going to get called upon to do certain things.

00:09:43.040 So, you know, it all depends on what your level was in that life.

00:09:46.300 What's heavy work?

00:09:48.200 Well, listen, you know, I get asked this question all the time.

00:09:51.780 And, you know, I'm not going to sugarcoat it.

00:09:53.700 And look, you know, people got killed in that life.

00:09:56.180 There's no question about it.

00:09:57.360 You cross the line.

00:09:58.780 You know, you suffer the consequences.

00:10:01.780 So it could have been that.

00:10:02.880 You know, do you send people out to beat people up?

00:10:05.540 Not really.

00:10:06.480 But it happens.

00:10:07.440 You know, sometimes guys get crazy and they, you know, they do things they shouldn't be doing.

00:10:12.920 But, you know, look, and I want to set the record straight.

00:10:16.700 When we take the oath, we're told that there are certain things that we can't do.

00:10:21.920 You never, ever mess around with another made guy's wife, daughter, sister, mother.

00:10:26.400 That's death.

00:10:27.540 That could be very, very serious.

00:10:29.980 You know, you don't betray the family, obviously.

00:10:32.300 You don't become an informant, obviously.

00:10:34.880 You got to be honest in business.

00:10:36.300 If you're caught stealing and you shouldn't be, that could be, you could suffer serious consequences.

00:10:41.520 But the thing is, we all understand that going in.

00:10:45.440 And you're told straight out.

00:10:46.840 You violate the life and you could pay for it.

00:10:50.340 And it might be your best friend that's called upon to do it because the life comes first.

00:10:54.720 So it's just the way it is.

00:10:57.920 What would you say is the primary purpose of the family?

00:11:01.320 I mean, was it just you guys were, you were in this together to work together to better each other's lives?

00:11:06.500 Or was there a stated goal of we're going to rack it?

00:11:08.640 We're going to be gangsters?

00:11:09.960 Well, listen, we wanted to make money.

00:11:13.020 At the end of the day, it's about money.

00:11:14.800 You know, we had a lot of power and influence.

00:11:16.720 I always say the golden years of Cosa Nostra, mafia in this country, really from the late 40s, early 50s, right through to the mid 80s.

00:11:24.480 That's when we had a lot of power and control.

00:11:26.820 We had a lot of control over the unions.

00:11:28.840 We had we had influence right into the White House.

00:11:32.460 I mean, there's no question about it.

00:11:33.620 We had a lot of power.

00:11:35.540 Not the same now.

00:11:37.060 But, you know, what was the idea?

00:11:40.160 Make money, have influence and live a good life.

00:11:43.340 That was it.

00:11:44.120 And we would cross the line if we had to.

00:11:46.320 It's also worth noting that a lot of people who came over and started the families were leaving Italy because of Mussolini.

00:11:52.880 Absolutely.

00:11:53.280 So in a way, they were escaping fascism.

00:11:56.020 Mussolini did not like the mobsters in Italy.

00:11:59.000 He did not.

00:11:59.720 No, Mussolini was upset because he was slighted.

00:12:03.160 He went into Sicily, thought he was going to get a hero's welcome, and the mob guys just ignored him.

00:12:07.720 Right.

00:12:08.280 He never forgot it.

00:12:09.060 Didn't they steal his hat or something?

00:12:10.300 Yeah.

00:12:11.380 They didn't like him.

00:12:12.480 So he never forgot it.

00:12:13.820 And he declared war on the mafia.

00:12:16.180 Right.

00:12:16.460 And that's when they started coming over here.

00:12:18.240 So racketeering, gangsters.

00:12:21.120 What is the racketeering?

00:12:23.580 What did that look like for the family?

00:12:25.520 The RICO statute was devastating to the families, no question about it.

00:12:30.400 You know, a lot of people like to say it was John Gotti that took the family down because he was flamboyant and he was out there and all of that.

00:12:36.780 John did not take the family down.

00:12:38.240 There were other guys like him.

00:12:39.220 Joe Colombo was a flamboyant guy.

00:12:41.040 There was a lot of guys that maybe not as, you know, outspoken as him, but he didn't bring the family down.

00:12:46.680 It was the racketeering law.

00:12:48.720 You know, I believe till today the law is unconstitutional, but it's there to stay.

00:12:52.740 And they used it very effectively against our families.

00:12:56.620 And it was very hard to defend.

00:13:00.020 And, you know, it took away double jeopardy.

00:13:03.020 There was no double jeopardy before.

00:13:04.520 There was no federal murder before racketeering.

00:13:07.340 But under the RICO statute, murder became a predicate act and people can go down for murder.

00:13:12.420 So it was very devastating.

00:13:14.400 But what were the what was the racket?

00:13:16.360 What was the family doing?

00:13:17.400 Well, first of all, you had to be part of a criminal enterprise and you had to do certain acts in a pattern of racketeering.

00:13:23.980 But you had to first be proved that you were part of a criminal enterprise, which wasn't too difficult, you know.

00:13:30.760 And then anything you could it could be murder.

00:13:33.580 It could be extortion.

00:13:34.580 It could be the numbers, but it could be anything could be part of could be a predicate act of the racketeering statute.

00:13:40.120 So but I just mean what was making money, you know, in the majority for the family?

00:13:46.480 Like what was it gambling?

00:13:47.480 Was it casinos?

00:13:48.280 Gambling was big.

00:13:49.320 Obviously, it was always a mainstay of that life.

00:13:51.660 You know, union labor racketeering was big.

00:13:54.380 We control the unions.

00:13:55.560 You control the.

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00:14:53.220 When you really care about someone, you shout it from the mountaintops.

00:14:59.160 So on behalf of Desjardins Insurance, I'm standing 20,000 feet above sea level to tell our clients that we really care about you.

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00:15:20.460 Did I mention that we care?

00:15:23.220 Unions in this country, back then, you controlled the country in a big way.

00:15:29.000 You know, politically, what do politicians want?

00:15:32.060 They want money and they want votes.

00:15:34.500 Well, you control the Teamsters.

00:15:36.340 You got two and a half million people, you know, plus their families.

00:15:39.420 So you got a couple of million people.

00:15:40.800 That's a couple of million votes.

00:15:42.380 And then we had huge pension funds so we can support and donate these politicians.

00:15:47.240 So we didn't have to chase them.

00:15:49.640 They warmed up to us.

00:15:50.940 I'm just trying to figure out why the government went after the mafia.

00:15:57.440 Was it really bad stuff?

00:15:58.680 Was it drugs?

00:15:59.540 Were innocent people dying?

00:16:01.540 Taxes.

00:16:02.380 Was it taxes?

00:16:03.440 Let me tell you why I believe it until today.

00:16:06.360 We weren't big drug dealers.

00:16:07.960 We were told straight out if we dealt with drugs.

00:16:10.040 During my era, if we dealt with drugs, we'd die.

00:16:13.140 And I know guys that got killed because they were dealing with drugs.

00:16:15.580 We were not the big drug dealers.

00:16:17.840 But you mean like the family would say it's a violation for doing or selling drugs?

00:16:21.960 Yeah.

00:16:22.340 Drugs were off limits.

00:16:23.920 I mean, John Gotti, the reason he was in trouble with Castellano was because his crew was dealing drugs.

00:16:28.880 And so Castellano was going after him for that.

00:16:31.000 But so we weren't big drug.

00:16:32.700 We weren't even in the same league as the cartels.

00:16:35.980 So you can't put us in that league.

00:16:37.420 But, you know, why did they come after us?

00:16:41.760 Because we made headlines for them.

00:16:45.220 That was it.

00:16:46.260 And you know what?

00:16:47.300 We didn't shoot back at them.

00:16:48.940 We had a code.

00:16:49.640 You don't go after, you know, in Italy, they went after everybody.

00:16:53.440 Judges, politicians, cops, everything.

00:16:55.920 In America, that was hands off.

00:16:58.360 So we were easy.

00:16:59.220 You come after us.

00:17:00.240 You know, you want to lock us up.

00:17:01.480 We put our hands up, put the handcuffs on.

00:17:03.220 We get in the car and we go and we fight you in court.

00:17:05.140 But we made the big headlines.

00:17:07.900 And so it was very, you know, it was career building to come after us.

00:17:12.240 Were we the worst guys in town?

00:17:13.760 Absolutely not.

00:17:15.220 And I'll say that, you know, people may say, oh, come on, Michael.

00:17:18.100 You know, you know, you're putting a good face on the mafia.

00:17:21.380 Well, in some ways I am.

00:17:23.140 Yeah.

00:17:24.340 I, you know, look, I got to learn a lot, you know, and I'm sure if we had a prosecutor here who worked in his case, is he going to say all these really evil and awful things?

00:17:32.660 I just can't get over watching videos of people ransacking businesses.

00:17:36.940 And then I hear these stories about all the protection racket, right?

00:17:40.460 Mobster walks in, two guys show up.

00:17:42.680 They say, you're going to pay us for protection or else.

00:17:45.000 And it always came off when I was a kid that it was a trick.

00:17:48.660 You weren't really getting protection.

00:17:50.040 It was protection from the guys who were coming in.

00:17:51.740 Exactly.

00:17:52.540 Yeah, but now I look at things and I'm like, if a couple of mobsters came in your place and said you're going to pay us protection money or else, and they paid it, and then a day later, a roving band of youths started smashing everything up, the mob is going to come in and actually protect who's paying the bills.

00:18:09.500 100%.

00:18:09.980 Because otherwise they ain't getting the bills paid.

00:18:12.120 100%.

00:18:12.520 It would have stopped immediately.

00:18:14.640 I kind of want that back.

00:18:16.020 And let me ask you this, Tim, why isn't the FBI going after these Venezuelan groups right now?

00:18:21.440 Exactly.

00:18:22.200 They don't make headlines.

00:18:23.500 There's nothing colorful about it.

00:18:25.020 There's nothing big.

00:18:26.400 They're denying that it's happening.

00:18:28.120 Exactly.

00:18:28.720 And they could destroy them the same way they destroyed us if they wanted to.

00:18:32.820 If they put the resources against them the way they did with us, they'd clean it up immediately.

00:18:37.440 They don't want to do it.

00:18:38.460 I think we're still under mob rule.

00:18:39.980 They just don't have an oath to anything other than themselves and their own greed and power and lust for destruction.

00:18:46.020 I wrote a book, Mafia Democracy, because I see exactly what they're doing.

00:18:50.240 It's all about money and power and staying in power.

00:18:52.900 That's it.

00:18:53.360 They don't want to give it up.

00:18:54.180 Maybe you can break down how Pelosi is a mob type figure for us.

00:18:59.400 Well, listen, Pelosi's father was mobbed up in Boston.

00:19:02.080 No question about it.

00:19:03.120 100%.

00:19:03.720 There's no, you know, I mean, the evidence is strong there.

00:19:06.900 That's how he stayed in office, became the mayor the whole bit.

00:19:09.560 I mean, you know, it was his connections.

00:19:12.820 So Pelosi was around Nancy at that time, and she learned from that.

00:19:15.820 She grew up in it.

00:19:16.640 She lived that part of it.

00:19:17.960 And you can see it in her mannerisms and the way she acts.

00:19:20.820 And look, Nancy Pelosi has made hundreds of millions of dollars by insider trading, something that you or I, we go to jail for and everybody else.

00:19:30.800 She squashed bills that Congress tried to put forth to stop insider trading among Congress and the family.

00:19:37.460 She's the one that squashed it because she made hundreds of millions of dollars.

00:19:40.680 She made her husband wealthy.

00:19:41.900 And, of course, you know, in 2020 or 2022, their trades beat the S&P by 15%, making them the most brilliant traders, stock traders in the country, maybe in the world.

00:19:56.580 Wow.

00:19:57.300 Now, is that luck?

00:19:58.400 Of course not.

00:19:58.980 I doubt it.

00:19:59.360 You know, they got one trick they do, too.

00:20:01.340 So a lot of people think they've got insider access, classified information.

00:20:05.040 They know it's coming, so they make those trades.

00:20:06.700 They do something else.

00:20:07.560 They will introduce a bill that they know will fail.

00:20:12.280 But it'll go in the press, new bill to ban this product.

00:20:17.000 And they've already put the shorts on it.

00:20:18.860 The bill hits the news, stock tanks, they get their gains from the shorts.

00:20:24.520 Then they say, ah, bill was killed.

00:20:26.240 Prices go back up.

00:20:27.720 Michael's got a great example in your book in Mafia Democracy about how all these politicians were saying in the news,

00:20:32.780 they've gotten to be fined during COVID and lockdowns.

00:20:34.740 Meanwhile, they're doing insider trading, making all this money because they see what's coming down the pike.

00:20:40.500 100%.

00:20:40.940 You know what gets me?

00:20:42.740 You take a Pelosi.

00:20:44.400 You know, the woman is 80-something years old.

00:20:46.960 She's made hundreds of millions of dollars.

00:20:49.580 Don't you want to go home and be with your husband and your kids and your grandkids?

00:20:54.040 No.

00:20:55.000 She wants to stay in power until she's gone, until it's over for her.

00:20:58.960 They can't give it up.

00:21:00.820 I mean, that's so many of them.

00:21:02.440 I mean, all these people.

00:21:04.140 Joe Biden.

00:21:04.380 Absolutely.

00:21:05.200 I mean, you remember Feinstein.

00:21:06.420 They had to put it in a wheelchair.

00:21:07.840 She wouldn't give it up, you know?

00:21:09.840 Was it like that in the family?

00:21:11.820 Did you have people who are really old and just didn't want to back down?

00:21:14.580 No.

00:21:15.280 No.

00:21:15.620 I mean, guys knew the time was up.

00:21:17.280 They left.

00:21:18.240 Costello retired, right?

00:21:19.460 Costello retired.

00:21:20.680 After almost getting shot, which.

00:21:22.960 Yes.

00:21:24.640 Kind of like a Trump situation, right?

00:21:26.620 It was great.

00:21:27.040 He raised his head.

00:21:27.920 He was blessed big time because he was coming out of an elevator.

00:21:31.700 Right.

00:21:32.560 It went blank.

00:21:33.520 It's crazy.

00:21:34.380 And he went down.

00:21:35.200 So Chin thought he was dead.

00:21:36.780 Right.

00:21:37.260 But he survived.

00:21:38.580 Wow.

00:21:38.980 Yeah.

00:21:39.640 It's kind of funny that, you know, the stories are always just so negative.

00:21:42.980 Oh, the mafia these days were so bad.

00:21:44.480 And now we're talking about how awful the current government is and how corrupt and evil and

00:21:48.160 busted the DOJ is.

00:21:49.840 And it's like, man, can we go back to when it was bad?

00:21:52.020 Because this is really the old mafia to take care of the new mafia and return the RICO

00:21:56.020 charges against the politicians.

00:21:58.160 How can we make it?

00:21:59.420 Let me tell you, because this is a pet peeve of mine.

00:22:02.420 Joe Biden, probably the worst president ever, certainly in my lifetime, no question about

00:22:07.580 it.

00:22:07.880 But I will tell you this, the information that they have against him with respect to his

00:22:13.160 influence peddling as vice president through his son and his brother, okay, between the

00:22:18.040 suspicious bank accounts, the $27 million plus that went into 18 or 21 shell companies.

00:22:25.920 These shell companies did nothing, okay, but exist to collect money.

00:22:30.260 There was no brick and mortar.

00:22:31.620 They had no service.

00:22:32.580 Nothing.

00:22:33.180 They did nothing.

00:22:34.320 How do I know this?

00:22:35.260 I had 18 shell companies when I was defrauding the government out of tax on every gallon of

00:22:40.020 gasoline, all we did was use those companies to set up a bank account to collect the money.

00:22:44.580 They did nothing else.

00:22:46.040 They had that.

00:22:46.760 They have all that information on the laptop that they said was false, and then they used

00:22:50.600 it as evidence against his son in trial.

00:22:52.640 The same justice department that said it was phony at one time used it to prosecute his son.

00:22:57.840 They've got whistleblowers.

00:22:59.440 They've got text messages.

00:23:00.880 They've got emails.

00:23:03.060 This is a racketeering indictment, 1,000%.

00:23:06.260 I know that statute.

00:23:07.580 Now, whether he's innocent or guilty, prove it at trial, but he should have been indicted

00:23:11.980 100%.

00:23:13.280 And I believe until this moment that Hunter Biden took a plea because all this stuff would

00:23:18.780 have came out at that trial and it would have buried Joe Biden.

00:23:21.880 Wow.

00:23:22.260 So he takes a plea.

00:23:23.720 Joe Biden is a pathological liar.

00:23:25.940 He's going to either commute a sentence or he's going to pardon him.

00:23:30.280 There's no doubt about it.

00:23:31.240 That's the fix.

00:23:32.000 It's in already.

00:23:33.200 And these people get away with this stuff.

00:23:35.220 He's treasonous.

00:23:36.580 He sold out America.

00:23:38.320 Do you think Biden's always been that way?

00:23:39.900 Yes.

00:23:40.400 He's always been like a plagiarist liar, right?

00:23:42.880 He's pathological.

00:23:44.040 The guy makes up stories out of there.

00:23:45.640 There's something mentally wrong with him.

00:23:47.140 Yeah.

00:23:47.480 I agree.

00:23:48.360 His 80s presidential campaign where he, what did he do?

00:23:50.500 He plagiarized an Irish politician's speech?

00:23:52.580 Yeah.

00:23:52.840 I mean, there's many times he plagiarized other people's speeches.

00:23:54.980 He's been doing it his whole career.

00:23:55.760 Yeah.

00:23:56.180 Yeah.

00:23:56.340 It's wild.

00:23:56.760 His whole career.

00:23:57.860 And look, who sums it up?

00:24:00.340 Barack Obama.

00:24:01.120 Never underestimate Joe's ability to F things up.

00:24:04.600 He said it.

00:24:05.940 He said it.

00:24:07.300 Yeah.

00:24:07.480 Well, I mean, it must be wild.

00:24:08.620 Like, it's funny that this all comes back to politics.

00:24:11.380 But it sounds to me like the real issue may be a loss of competition between crime families.

00:24:17.360 That when you've got the mobsters at the height of their power and the government, it's effectively two mobs going at each other, playing this game, cat and mouse.

00:24:26.000 Now there's just one unchecked can do whatever it wants.

00:24:29.160 Yeah.

00:24:29.340 And it, you know, when I look at these people, I describe them as we're on the Titanic.

00:24:34.480 We hit the iceberg.

00:24:35.740 They saw it happen.

00:24:36.800 And instead of announcing it to the ship, they're running around, taking as many valuables as they can and rushing for the lifeboats.

00:24:42.060 Yeah.

00:24:42.260 So all this crime running rampant through our cities, the human waste, the homelessness, the poverty, everything that's causing this decay.

00:24:47.980 And they say it's not happening.

00:24:50.620 Everybody shut your eyes.

00:24:51.320 Go back to bed.

00:24:52.540 Meanwhile, those of us who are paying attention, we're watching Joe Biden run off with the silverware.

00:24:57.820 And they're telling us, no, it's fine.

00:24:59.340 Nothing's going on.

00:25:00.160 And no one's going to stop him either because the DOJ, it works for him.

00:25:04.940 He's not the boss, but he's one of them.

00:25:08.060 So that's just it.

00:25:08.620 We sit back and we watch them do all these things.

00:25:11.520 I don't know.

00:25:12.400 I don't know where we go from there.

00:25:13.880 And, you know, Tim, I have to say this, you know, people sometimes, oh, you're getting into too many political issues.

00:25:20.340 This is not politics.

00:25:22.380 When you have people coming over the border that are swarming into your neighborhood and creating havoc and crime on taxpayer dollars, okay,

00:25:30.100 when you have inflation the way it is, when you have all of this stuff going on, these are issues that are affecting our life.

00:25:37.000 Unfortunately, it's politics that control these issues.

00:25:40.340 But I try to make people aware of the issues.

00:25:42.980 And you can't let this happen again for another four years.

00:25:45.980 You know, I say this, too.

00:25:47.240 You can't trust these people.

00:25:48.920 They've lied to us about Biden.

00:25:50.580 They lie to us continuously every single day.

00:25:52.940 They don't even care.

00:25:53.820 They lie on video.

00:25:55.120 It doesn't even matter anymore.

00:25:57.180 If you have a friend or, you know, a companion, a partner, he lies to you once.

00:26:02.140 All right.

00:26:02.600 You know, stuff happens.

00:26:03.860 First, second time, you start to get a little unnerved about it.

00:26:06.960 Third, fourth, fifth time, hey, I'm done.

00:26:09.020 It's over.

00:26:10.380 So when these people are lying to you consistently, how could you trust them for another three or four years after the destruction that they've caused and the dishonesty that they bring forward?

00:26:20.440 And, you know, that's my whole thing.

00:26:21.800 I do not think, I know we're getting into politics here.

00:26:25.000 I don't think America is going to survive another four years of this administration.

00:26:29.140 I think we all agree.

00:26:30.240 How do you think the mafia or the families that you knew from the 70s, 80s would have dealt with the collapsing border crisis now?

00:26:37.060 Because fentanyl is coming over.

00:26:38.840 You know, well, you said you weren't, your family wasn't dealing with drugs, but others were.

00:26:42.520 You know, would they have kept, would they have, like, used that and be happy about the border failing because they could get access to the drugs easier?

00:26:49.140 They would be hurting their neighborhoods, right?

00:26:51.500 We wouldn't have any crime in our neighborhood.

00:26:53.460 Absolutely not.

00:26:54.200 If we had to shoot people, we would have done it.

00:26:55.980 Nobody's going to come into our neighborhood and cry.

00:26:57.560 Look, you know, I grew up, we never locked our doors.

00:27:00.680 We never shut our windows.

00:27:02.000 If my sisters would come home 12, 1 o'clock at night, if they were walking alone, guys would walk beside them and bring them home, you know?

00:27:09.080 There was no crime in our neighborhoods, and we would not allow it.

00:27:12.340 And if we had to go to war with those committing it, they'd know that, you know, here's the border.

00:27:17.560 Don't come here.

00:27:18.560 Right.

00:27:19.140 You know, look, what's going on today is just, I never thought I'd ever witness this in my lifetime.

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00:28:22.300 When you really care about someone, you shout it from the mountaintops.

00:28:27.940 So on behalf of Desjardins Insurance, I'm standing 20,000 feet above sea level to tell our clients that we really care about you.

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00:28:49.140 Did I mention that we care?

00:28:52.300 I mean it.

00:28:54.060 And they made us to be demons and devils.

00:28:57.180 And listen, I go out to Vegas, people say, Michael, can you guys come back and run this town for us again?

00:29:04.100 I'm not kidding.

00:29:05.320 And it was so much better when we ran it.

00:29:07.600 Yeah.

00:29:07.880 You know?

00:29:08.280 Yeah, I watched Casino.

00:29:10.360 And I love Vegas.

00:29:12.320 It's not, I'm not going to go there.

00:29:13.740 I go there.

00:29:14.280 I think I've been there like three times in the past decade or whatever.

00:29:16.960 But watching that movie, they sure do make you love what Vegas used to be.

00:29:21.400 Absolutely.

00:29:22.060 Yeah.

00:29:22.560 Oh, it was so, I started going there in the late 70s.

00:29:25.100 Don't cheat.

00:29:25.480 It was so wide open.

00:29:26.760 It was just great.

00:29:27.840 When they bring the guys in the back who are cheating and they deal with it, you know,

00:29:34.160 I'm not going to pretend like these are good things.

00:29:37.800 But there's something about where we are today with a lack of any kind of accountability or

00:29:43.960 justice for criminals, where you watch a movie like that and you're like, the cheaters got

00:29:47.900 caught, they messed them up a little bit and threw them out and said, don't come back or

00:29:50.640 else.

00:29:50.960 And it's like, you know, it's sad to say, because again, I'm not saying that we should have a

00:29:57.800 system like that, but some accountability, it feels like would be better than what's

00:30:01.960 going on now.

00:30:02.600 And that's kind of terrifying.

00:30:03.420 You watch these videos of these people going, there was a, during the riots, small family

00:30:08.800 shop gets ransacked by just a roving band and no accountability, no arrest, nothing happens.

00:30:13.520 You hear these stories now in, uh, in Jersey, for instance, when I lived there, someone tried

00:30:19.060 to break in.

00:30:19.560 The cops told me, uh, well, a lawyer told me this, if, uh, if you defended yourself with

00:30:24.600 a firearm, you'd be in prison.

00:30:26.140 Someone can break in your house with the intent to kill you and you can't do anything to protect

00:30:29.780 yourself.

00:30:30.540 And then you look back at these old movies, which I'm sure kind of gloss over the, the

00:30:35.280 nastier elements.

00:30:36.780 Sure.

00:30:37.500 But at least the idea of your neighborhood's going to be safe.

00:30:40.320 You can leave your door unlocked.

00:30:41.480 And, you know, as long as you're not being disrespectful or, or causing problems, then

00:30:46.720 you were, you were good.

00:30:48.520 It's, it's kind of terrifying to say it again.

00:30:52.200 That's better than what we're seeing now in these cities.

00:30:54.280 I go to, I go to DC.

00:30:55.620 I see tents everywhere.

00:30:56.420 I see homeless people.

00:30:57.140 I see drug addiction.

00:30:58.120 I went to California, some, some morbidly obese homeless woman pulled her pants off in

00:31:01.800 the middle of the street and just started relieving herself in front of everybody.

00:31:04.520 Nobody does anything about it.

00:31:06.340 San Francisco has got the poop department.

00:31:07.960 Not, not a joke.

00:31:08.680 It's a, it's a poo department that goes around to clean up the human waste all over the streets.

00:31:12.400 And then you're like, was mafia really that bad?

00:31:15.840 It's like the, the government made the mafia to be out, to be like these demeaning, demonic

00:31:20.420 figures that you were saying, just to become it.

00:31:22.580 Right?

00:31:22.960 Like, you know, you think in the fifties, they had the, uh, those hearings with Costello

00:31:26.120 and stuff and they're getting headlines then saying these are the, the, this dark, you

00:31:31.420 know, these dark figures lurking in the shadows.

00:31:33.420 But then they become that and they let, and they let everything collapse around them.

00:31:38.100 Let me, let me ask you real quick.

00:31:39.740 If, uh, is New York City a good example of where there was strong, you know, mafia presence,

00:31:44.820 obviously.

00:31:45.300 It was the strongest presence in this country.

00:31:47.780 It was there, was there a fear among the people living in these areas that they could

00:31:50.900 be shot randomly?

00:31:52.120 You'd be walking down the street.

00:31:53.800 Absolutely.

00:31:54.240 Gangster might just shoot you for no reason.

00:31:55.580 Not at all.

00:31:56.140 That's Chicago today.

00:31:57.280 That's Chicago.

00:31:58.000 When I was growing up, we get off the store.

00:32:00.280 I got a couple of stories, but one is, uh, me and my brother were driving on two 90 for

00:32:04.100 those that don't know, it's East to West.

00:32:05.280 It goes into the city and we exit, we are exiting at independence to go to the North

00:32:08.880 side car driving past for no reason, aims a gun and just shoots at our car.

00:32:12.280 And we're just like, why, why did that happen?

00:32:15.220 And, uh, fights would break out.

00:32:16.640 People would have guns.

00:32:17.800 And so, you know, you say, you say would never happen.

00:32:21.420 I'm curious, were there ever any instances?

00:32:23.720 I mean, was the, was the mafia roughing up innocent people and causing problems for innocent

00:32:28.040 people or were they left out of it as long as it's like they're taking care of their

00:32:31.460 business with other, you know, other groups or what?

00:32:34.720 Tim, I honestly can say that I only know of the 20 years that I spent in that life.

00:32:40.080 I only know personally of one time when an innocent person got shot.

00:32:43.720 It was an accident and got shot.

00:32:46.400 Um, no, I mean, we, we roughed up our own.

00:32:52.320 That's it.

00:32:53.080 You know, and people, we heard the expression, we only killed our own.

00:32:56.440 Now, well, to a great degree, that's true.

00:32:59.080 We didn't go after shooting people in stores and doing all that.

00:33:01.980 And you know what?

00:33:02.320 And that stuff did happen in the twenties and the thirties.

00:33:05.280 That was kind of the wild west before there really was an organization.

00:33:09.260 The days of Al Capone, there were a bunch of gangs around.

00:33:12.020 It wasn't really organized.

00:33:13.580 Yeah.

00:33:13.760 Until Luciano organized everything.

00:33:15.660 But, you know, what's happening in Chicago now.

00:33:18.500 Oh my God.

00:33:19.400 And, and listen, this happened during Obama's administration, Trump and now Biden.

00:33:24.840 And, and I don't know why they're not cleaning it up.

00:33:26.760 They can.

00:33:27.560 Trust me when I tell you, they can.

00:33:29.260 It has to be.

00:33:29.760 It's on purpose.

00:33:30.440 Yeah.

00:33:30.760 They can clean it up.

00:33:32.200 The same way they came after us, they can go after them.

00:33:34.760 No question about it.

00:33:36.320 This, uh, this trend day or agua stuff is pretty crazy.

00:33:38.900 Oh God.

00:33:40.000 Yeah.

00:33:40.200 You got the stories out of, out of Colorado where they, uh, they take over the apartment

00:33:43.900 complex.

00:33:44.560 The media says it's not happening.

00:33:45.460 You're lying.

00:33:46.000 And then I'm seeing these progressives be like, wait a minute.

00:33:48.600 I Google searched this.

00:33:49.540 Here's a story from a year ago talking about it.

00:33:51.240 Why are they denying it now?

00:33:52.940 It's almost like they want these criminal gangs to come and start taking over.

00:33:58.320 You have to say that they do.

00:34:01.320 Why would they allow it to happen?

00:34:03.000 How can they maintain power much longer if they've got everyone living under fear constantly?

00:34:07.020 Maybe that's how, but if at some point are, maybe not, these people are going to realize

00:34:11.800 it's because of these people.

00:34:13.860 Yeah.

00:34:14.000 You defend yourself.

00:34:14.900 You go to prison.

00:34:15.700 Yep.

00:34:16.100 These gangs run around.

00:34:17.020 This is like what Solzhenitsyn was saying.

00:34:18.620 Yeah.

00:34:19.040 That, you know, there was the, uh, the famous passage in the Gulag archipelago where, uh,

00:34:23.860 red soldier is in a fight.

00:34:26.620 Guy pulls out a knife.

00:34:27.580 They're fighting.

00:34:28.240 He takes the knife and he stabs the guy.

00:34:29.700 Yep.

00:34:29.960 Gets arrested.

00:34:30.440 And they said, why did you kill him?

00:34:31.740 He was trying to kill me.

00:34:32.540 They said, why didn't you run away?

00:34:34.020 Yeah.

00:34:34.500 Well, a guy's trying to kill you.

00:34:35.660 I mean, I don't know.

00:34:36.660 There's, there's no excuse.

00:34:37.800 I mean, a reasonable person knows that you can try to run, but you might not be able

00:34:41.080 to.

00:34:41.280 And this person might take your life.

00:34:42.300 You got to defend yourself.

00:34:43.780 And the way they treat it is nope.

00:34:45.500 And so now we're dealing with, I love this.

00:34:48.540 The FBI crime report comes out and they say, uh, crime is down.

00:34:52.260 And what they're actually saying is reported crime is down because majority of the large

00:34:57.740 city police agencies have stopped sending us their data.

00:34:59.940 Right.

00:35:00.120 We've redefined crime.

00:35:01.820 Exactly.

00:35:02.440 Yeah.

00:35:02.580 And then the news tells everybody it's down.

00:35:06.000 It's, it's the dishonesty and the hypocrisy that's just so hard to take.

00:35:10.320 I feel like the cities are going to have a breaking point though, where people are going

00:35:13.140 to realize we have to change the way we vote.

00:35:15.620 Perhaps like what, I don't know what's going on with Eric Adams yet, but it seemed like he

00:35:18.940 was upset about immigration the way it was hurting his city.

00:35:20.900 And the second he starts to say things that they don't like, the people on his side don't

00:35:24.460 like, all of a sudden how, you know, everything's happening to him.

00:35:27.660 All of a sudden he's indicted.

00:35:28.760 All of a sudden they investigate stuff that happened many, many years ago.

00:35:31.780 Right.

00:35:31.960 Bring it up on him because he said, rightfully so, why are we paying for this?

00:35:37.020 You're allowing it to happen at the border.

00:35:38.700 Why isn't the federal government paying for it?

00:35:40.820 And they didn't want to.

00:35:41.560 Right.

00:35:41.800 He went to the white house a couple of times.

00:35:43.980 I said, no, you're on your own.

00:35:45.740 You know, these people are backstabbing.

00:35:49.060 They're the worst people.

00:35:51.640 And you're hearing that from an ex-mob guy.

00:35:54.740 I'm telling you, these are the worst people I've ever seen.

00:35:58.060 You know, I got to tell you another thing.

00:36:00.060 I went to trial five times.

00:36:01.980 I was never even five minutes late for a trial.

00:36:04.460 Never missed.

00:36:05.360 I stood in front of five juries that could have put me away forever.

00:36:08.720 Right.

00:36:08.960 Never missed.

00:36:09.820 I get indicted on a white collar crime.

00:36:11.940 It was a racketeering case, defrauding the government.

00:36:14.000 I get no bail.

00:36:15.740 No bail.

00:36:17.620 This guy's been on, five times he stood in front of a jury that could have put him away

00:36:22.040 forever.

00:36:22.800 This is a white collar crime, basically, defrauding the government out of tax on gasoline.

00:36:27.980 And because why?

00:36:29.520 Because I beat them so many times.

00:36:31.100 I figured, you know, lock him up.

00:36:32.800 It's harder to defend yourself and prepare a defense.

00:36:35.400 And now you go rob a store.

00:36:37.380 You go hit somebody over the head.

00:36:38.600 You shoot a cop and you're out the next day.

00:36:40.700 Crazy.

00:36:41.540 It's crazy.

00:36:42.440 Was that Giuliani prosecuting you?

00:36:43.840 Huh?

00:36:44.040 Was Giuliani prosecuting you?

00:36:45.120 Giuliani prosecuted you, yeah.

00:36:46.580 Who ended up writing his introduction for his book.

00:36:48.420 No, really?

00:36:49.460 Wow.

00:36:49.780 He wrote the foreword to my book.

00:36:50.940 So you've probably hung out with Giuliani since then and talked to him about this stuff?

00:36:54.380 We haven't been hanging out, but we did get together on a radio show and we did speak

00:36:58.960 afterwards.

00:36:59.640 And yeah, he was pretty nice.

00:37:01.280 I got to ask him about this.

00:37:02.940 You know, he went after you.

00:37:04.200 He went after the mob.

00:37:06.060 Look at the state of New York right now and look at what the machine is doing to him.

00:37:09.860 I have to wonder what his opinion would be on how things ended up.

00:37:12.600 Well, I got to tell you something.

00:37:13.400 People have asked me about that.

00:37:14.680 Michael, you should be, you know, it should be sweet to see Giuliani go through the same

00:37:18.120 thing.

00:37:18.400 I said, why?

00:37:19.620 I said, Giuliani did his job back then.

00:37:21.800 Okay.

00:37:22.180 He was a federal prosecutor.

00:37:23.820 His job was to go out and get the mob.

00:37:25.880 And he did it.

00:37:26.520 He used the racketeering law very effectively.

00:37:29.460 Isn't he responsible for it?

00:37:31.020 Yeah.

00:37:31.320 Well, he was the guy that really, it was on the books for 10 years before he used it

00:37:35.120 and he figured it out and he used it effectively.

00:37:37.980 And then boom, he put a lot of guys away.

00:37:40.040 Right.

00:37:40.740 So, you know, fortunately I beat him because he told, yeah, he told me and my lawyer,

00:37:45.780 asked him about this.

00:37:47.420 In the day of my arraignment, I got a million dollar bail, I think it was.

00:37:52.080 He said, Francis, if I convict you on this case, you're getting double what your father

00:37:55.860 got.

00:37:56.100 My father got 50 and that's the kind of time they were giving us guys back then.

00:37:59.880 50, a hundred years, like nothing.

00:38:01.420 Right.

00:38:02.080 I said, Hey, Rudy, bring it on.

00:38:03.820 I beat you guys four times.

00:38:05.360 Let's go for round five.

00:38:07.100 And it was a dumb thing to say at the time.

00:38:09.680 You don't want to give them any more reason to come after you.

00:38:13.380 Fortunately, I was acquitted in that case.

00:38:15.100 But yeah, you know, he, when we went on this radio show, he says, Mike, I've been looking

00:38:20.740 at you for the last 30 years and I think your, your transformation is genuine.

00:38:25.760 So he actually gave me a compliment, but I'll tell you this.

00:38:28.540 He was a darn good mayor.

00:38:30.420 He was a good prosecutor with the doing to him now because he aligned himself as Trump

00:38:36.800 is, is, it's just terrible.

00:38:39.560 I, I terrible what they're doing.

00:38:41.180 I probably just romanticize it, but, uh, I want to believe there used to be honor to

00:38:46.340 some degree, you know, that like you mentioned, uh, certain things were off limits.

00:38:51.340 There was certain respect.

00:38:52.540 Like you said, the cops come, you put your hands up, you don't fight.

00:38:55.280 You, you, you, you, you, you play it out in the system.

00:38:57.520 You know, everyone knows the rules and you're going to play this game.

00:38:59.680 You told Rudy, come at me, you win.

00:39:01.540 And it's all through the process.

00:39:02.880 Everybody understands there's no, there's no honor at all today.

00:39:05.760 None, you know, and, and, and again, maybe I'm just romanticizing because maybe there

00:39:09.360 never was.

00:39:10.000 And we just, we just highlight these moments and we wish it was like that, but now it's

00:39:14.060 just, come on.

00:39:15.420 I mean, first of all, I mean, you got to look what they did to Trump the first time in 200

00:39:20.840 plus years that they go after a former president, the way they did with such vindictiveness and

00:39:26.980 such garbage, garbage.

00:39:29.420 I mean, what they're prosecuting for is garbage.

00:39:31.480 And then obviously what two impeachments of, you know, baloney, you know, Mueller investigation

00:39:38.200 with this stupid, you know what they did to me with this Russian thing.

00:39:41.360 Listen to this.

00:39:43.080 During the Mueller investigation, when I was back, back in the day, myself and my Russian

00:39:48.340 partner, I was in partners with the Russian, we were doing gas business together, right?

00:39:52.160 Well, we put up $6 million to buy condos in Trump towers back then, right?

00:39:57.100 And we gave them cash.

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00:40:55.280 When you really care about someone, you shout it from the mountaintops.

00:41:01.240 So on behalf of Desjardins Insurance, I'm standing 20,000 feet above sea level

00:41:05.420 to tell our clients that we really care about you.

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00:41:13.780 Weird, I don't remember saying that part.

00:41:16.500 Visit Desjardins.com slash care and get insurance that's really big on care.

00:41:22.100 Did I mention that we care?

00:41:25.280 Nothing wrong with that, right?

00:41:28.740 Well, do you know that during the Mueller investigation, the FBI came to me and they

00:41:32.680 were asking me about that incident that happened in the early 80s?

00:41:36.740 And I said, wait a second.

00:41:38.340 Wait a second.

00:41:38.920 Because my partner, his brother-in-law or something was a KGB agent.

00:41:44.100 I said, are you guys trying to make a Russian connection?

00:41:46.820 Because me and my partner, who was Russian, bought, you know, condos at Trump Towers.

00:41:52.840 And are you stretching to that?

00:41:54.460 I said, I'll tell you what.

00:41:55.560 Bring me in front of the Mueller investigation.

00:41:57.720 I want to testify.

00:41:59.400 I want to testify.

00:42:00.820 You guys are really reaching.

00:42:02.640 And I never heard from them again as he ended up.

00:42:04.800 But that's how far they went.

00:42:06.280 How desperate they are.

00:42:07.480 Yeah, how desperate.

00:42:08.480 You've had more modern, obviously, interactions with FBI and federal prosecutors.

00:42:13.240 How would you compare the guys today to the guys, you know, in the 80s and 90s?

00:42:18.240 Well, look, you know, it starts at the top.

00:42:20.580 I think there was a different culture back then.

00:42:23.100 You know, look, again, we respected the agents.

00:42:26.060 We just told them, don't frame us.

00:42:27.500 Do your job.

00:42:28.440 I don't want to say we liked them.

00:42:30.180 You know, obviously, they were out to get us.

00:42:32.380 But we didn't have this hatred vendetta against them.

00:42:36.020 But today, I don't know, man.

00:42:38.580 They just operate on a different plane.

00:42:40.600 But I think, look, I'm friends with a lot.

00:42:42.960 I'm friends with Joe Pistone, Donnie Brasco.

00:42:45.480 Great guy.

00:42:46.440 You know, people, oh, Michael, how could you be friends with him?

00:42:49.100 Once again, he did his job better than we did ours.

00:42:51.960 He was undercover for six years, and we didn't know it.

00:42:54.720 When I say we, you know, we're all one.

00:42:56.640 We didn't know it.

00:42:57.380 You know, so he did a great job.

00:42:58.700 You know, so we became friends.

00:43:00.520 You're a good guy.

00:43:01.340 And there's a lot of agents that I know now that are sick of what they're seeing right

00:43:05.400 now in the FBI.

00:43:06.620 They're ashamed of it.

00:43:07.500 They're retired, but they're ashamed of it.

00:43:09.780 And this starts at the top, and it trickles down.

00:43:13.020 I mean, it's like anything else.

00:43:14.660 How do you, how does this start for you?

00:43:16.820 How do you become, how do you join this family, you know?

00:43:19.060 You personally, but just in general.

00:43:20.980 Well, somebody's got to propose you.

00:43:23.380 You know, somebody within that life has to propose you.

00:43:25.860 You can't just go up to the guy and say, yeah, I'd like to join, you know.

00:43:28.600 Membership.

00:43:29.140 Yeah.

00:43:29.720 In my case, it was my dad.

00:43:31.220 He proposed me for membership.

00:43:32.680 And then you come in as a recruit, and you're told straight out, you know, this is the life

00:43:37.780 that comes before anything.

00:43:39.540 You know, they told me, if your mother is sick and dying, you're at her deathbed.

00:43:43.560 We call you to service.

00:43:44.580 You leave your mother.

00:43:45.260 You come and serve us.

00:43:46.600 From now on, we're number one before anything and everything.

00:43:49.740 And when and if we feel you deserve this privilege or honor to become a member, we'll let you

00:43:53.840 know.

00:43:54.420 You know, when I got made in 75, for 20 years prior to that, they had an expression that

00:44:00.640 the books were closed.

00:44:01.600 They weren't bringing in any new guys.

00:44:03.620 The only time, and this was among all five families in New York.

00:44:06.580 The only time they can bring in a new guy is if somebody died in the family and they

00:44:10.300 replaced him.

00:44:11.680 In the mid-80s, I mean, in the mid-70s, they opened the books, and they started recruiting

00:44:16.420 new guys.

00:44:17.240 So when I got made, there was guys waiting 20 years to become made members, you know?

00:44:22.200 What does that mean, made?

00:44:23.520 It means you take the oath, and you officially become a member of that life.

00:44:27.260 You start out as a soldier.

00:44:29.180 And then if you work your way up, you do.

00:44:30.980 If not, you remain a soldier.

00:44:33.020 But that's your official title.

00:44:35.120 And then you're, you know, you're officially part of the family.

00:44:38.340 And so for me, I was a recruit for about two and a half years.

00:44:43.160 I had to prove myself worthy.

00:44:44.620 And then 75, I got made.

00:44:46.520 Are they sending you out on certain jobs to see what you will, like, what you'll do?

00:44:50.260 Obviously, you got to do it.

00:44:51.240 And then when the time comes, that's that.

00:44:53.780 Got to do what you're told.

00:44:54.700 Yeah.

00:44:55.100 What were those jobs like, like when you're first starting out?

00:44:58.180 Look, let's get it out in the open.

00:45:00.060 You know, everybody says in order to become a member of that life, you got to kill somebody,

00:45:03.540 you know?

00:45:03.880 And all I can say is this.

00:45:06.100 There was a lot of guys that were being made at that point.

00:45:09.660 And you just don't go around killing everybody.

00:45:12.600 You can't find somebody to kill and say, OK, I killed somebody.

00:45:15.080 Can I now, you know, get made?

00:45:17.240 But you have to be ready to do that if you're told to do it.

00:45:20.580 And, you know, here's another thing.

00:45:23.640 When you take the oath to become a made member, it's an oath of omerta.

00:45:27.860 It's not an oath.

00:45:29.260 Omerta means silence.

00:45:30.660 You're not even supposed to admit that the life exists.

00:45:33.860 You don't take an oath to lie, cheat, kill, murder.

00:45:37.420 That's not the oath.

00:45:38.740 Now, obviously, those things happen as part of that life.

00:45:41.360 But the oath is to be silent, never talk about the life, never admit that it even exists.

00:45:47.940 And that's it.

00:45:49.140 So and I want to get that clear because people think you take the oath.

00:45:52.520 OK, now I'm taking an oath to kill somebody.

00:45:54.480 No, you're not taking an oath to be quiet, basically.

00:45:58.200 But look, things happen in that life.

00:46:00.660 There definitely is murder.

00:46:01.700 I mean, I wonder how many people are in the East River or underneath buildings.

00:46:04.840 Bachelor's Grove.

00:46:05.440 In Manhattan.

00:46:06.160 Well, you don't have to wonder anymore.

00:46:08.580 There's been so many informants that, you know, talk about it.

00:46:12.380 So there's the Midlothian Turnpike in South Florida, Chicago, South Suburbs.

00:46:17.320 They call Bachelor's Grove.

00:46:19.180 And this is what we're told.

00:46:21.100 I mean, I haven't researched anything.

00:46:22.560 You could probably check this out.

00:46:23.380 This is where Al Capone dumped all his bodies.

00:46:25.100 There's a bog down there.

00:46:26.540 And now it's considered one of the most haunted locations in the world.

00:46:30.140 Oh, wow.

00:46:30.680 And weirdos go down there for satanic rituals and other creepy.

00:46:34.240 Of course they do.

00:46:35.500 I mean, I'm familiar.

00:46:36.420 I've heard about it.

00:46:37.400 Yeah.

00:46:38.180 I haven't visited.

00:46:38.560 Yeah, there's, you know, when the Long Island serial killer was happening and they found

00:46:42.120 his graveyard, supposedly, the theory was that it could have also been a mafia dumping

00:46:45.280 ground on Kilgo Beach.

00:46:48.440 Yeah.

00:46:48.780 Yeah.

00:46:49.180 There's a lot of people out there.

00:46:50.660 But this was recent, wasn't it?

00:46:52.420 That's over the past 30 years.

00:46:54.020 Wow.

00:46:54.380 That the bodies were found.

00:46:55.960 So you're saying it may not be a serial killer?

00:46:57.840 I think it was.

00:46:59.060 But I think he could have been sharing that dump spot with other people.

00:47:02.960 Like I said, basically, you don't have to guess anymore.

00:47:05.320 There's been so many informants that have said things over the years.

00:47:08.440 Nothing is really secret anymore.

00:47:10.260 Were you worried about surveillance in the 70s at all?

00:47:14.060 Constantly.

00:47:14.700 Yeah.

00:47:14.940 I, you know, I became a major target.

00:47:17.040 My dad was a major target.

00:47:18.500 He came right on me the minute I got involved.

00:47:21.000 And I had so many undercover investigations on me.

00:47:24.420 Like wiretapping?

00:47:25.340 Like, what are you thinking about back then?

00:47:27.460 You worry about everybody.

00:47:28.280 Yeah.

00:47:28.540 You know?

00:47:28.940 Yeah.

00:47:29.460 And my father, you know, he gave me a lot of good.

00:47:31.720 He was my mentor.

00:47:32.780 My dad was a good student of the life.

00:47:35.040 He knew it well.

00:47:36.380 And he used to tell me, you know, he used to pick up a phone and he'd say, you see this?

00:47:40.020 This is a cop.

00:47:41.100 Don't ever talk on the phone.

00:47:42.180 It's a cop, you know?

00:47:43.740 Watch everybody.

00:47:44.700 Be very careful, you know?

00:47:45.960 So he drummed it into my head early on.

00:47:48.560 I was a good listener.

00:47:49.440 I paid attention.

00:47:50.340 Because you want to survive in that life and prosper, you got to know what you're doing.

00:47:55.540 It's a tough life to navigate.

00:47:56.900 There's no question.

00:47:57.900 You said there's a lot of informants.

00:47:59.580 Is this basically the life itself, the style, is breaking down?

00:48:05.080 Everyone's just spilling the beans and walking away?

00:48:07.700 I'll tell you again.

00:48:09.480 I'll give you a story.

00:48:10.540 Chaz Palminteri again in the movie The Bronx Tale.

00:48:14.220 Remember when he was talking to Colodio?

00:48:16.140 And Colodio says to him, Chaz, Sonny, is it better to be loved or to be feared?

00:48:21.440 Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:48:22.320 Remember?

00:48:22.740 And Sonny says, in my line of words, better to be feared.

00:48:25.760 All right?

00:48:26.080 So I talked to Chaz afterwards.

00:48:28.180 I said, Chaz, remember that line?

00:48:29.680 What do you think about that now?

00:48:31.000 I said, oh, Michael, you know, in your life, it's definitely better to be feared.

00:48:34.640 I said, you're wrong, Chaz.

00:48:35.840 He said, what do you mean?

00:48:36.820 I said, let me tell you why.

00:48:38.480 He said, yes, fear kept people in line.

00:48:40.820 There's no question about it.

00:48:42.520 But what happened in my life is that when the RICO statute came in, and they were going

00:48:48.500 to guys that were in trouble, and they'd tell them straight out, listen, you cooperate

00:48:52.860 with us, or you're going to get 50 or 100 years, there's no more parole.

00:48:57.200 You're doing 85%.

00:48:58.560 You know, we're going to lock you up someplace.

00:49:00.740 You're going away.

00:49:01.820 And that's it.

00:49:03.480 Or you can cooperate with us.

00:49:05.100 We'll put you in the witness protection program.

00:49:07.080 We'll give you some money.

00:49:07.960 We'll change your identity.

00:49:09.380 And don't worry about it.

00:49:10.360 The guy you testify against is going away forever.

00:49:13.240 Well, what happened, the fear of the life was transferred to the fear of the government.

00:49:17.500 And that's why so many guys flipped.

00:49:19.720 Don't let anybody tell you any different.

00:49:21.260 When these guys, most of them say, oh, you know what?

00:49:23.560 The mob did me wrong, and that's why I flipped.

00:49:27.100 Let me tell you something.

00:49:27.680 We all know.

00:49:28.580 I mean, nobody's a saint in that life.

00:49:30.780 You know, you get involved in the street, you know, things are not going to go right

00:49:34.040 all the time.

00:49:35.040 Guys don't want to go to jail.

00:49:36.860 But when you love somebody, you're not going to hurt them.

00:49:40.760 You're not going to hurt them.

00:49:41.680 That love is stronger than any fear.

00:49:44.080 And that's what destroyed the life.

00:49:45.720 There's no question about it.

00:49:46.980 Wow.

00:49:47.580 I mean, I just think about it simply.

00:49:48.900 Obviously, a person, if somebody loves you, they'll step in front of, you know, they'll

00:49:52.960 take a bullet for you.

00:49:54.120 But if they're scared of you, they're running.

00:49:55.940 Exactly.

00:49:56.400 They're going to run, or they're going to seek protection somewhere else.

00:50:00.560 And that's what happened.

00:50:02.280 And look, I don't like the use of informants for the government.

00:50:06.180 I don't think it's good, you know?

00:50:09.280 I really don't.

00:50:10.200 But, you know, they give guys break, guys can murder five guys.

00:50:13.680 And because, you know, this guy has a bigger name, they'll give the guy that killed five

00:50:18.500 guys a pass, and they'll want to get the guy with the bigger name.

00:50:22.680 Why?

00:50:23.280 Bigger headlines mean something more.

00:50:27.040 So, I mean, the families, they still exist, don't they?

00:50:31.320 They exist, yeah.

00:50:32.480 It's not going away in my lifetime.

00:50:34.520 But it's not what it was before.

00:50:36.340 Yeah, I mean, what do they do now?

00:50:38.080 Well, I really don't know.

00:50:40.220 I mean, I'm not too up on it.

00:50:42.980 But, you know, listen.

00:50:43.880 I'm imagining it's probably a bit more mundane.

00:50:45.680 I mean, look, they're pretty resourceful, you know?

00:50:48.860 So, they'll figure things out.

00:50:50.600 I mean, listen, gambling, you still got bookmakers on the street, you know, and stuff like that.

00:50:55.920 They're still running numbers.

00:50:58.200 But I don't know of any major scams that are going on right now that are really making money.

00:51:03.820 You know what I never really understood is in all these movies, when there's this, like,

00:51:08.080 and they do this in every show, there's always some guy with a gambling debt to the mafia,

00:51:11.200 and they beat the crap out of him, and they're like, you've got three days.

00:51:14.080 It's like, why did they lend money to a guy they knew couldn't pay it back?

00:51:17.300 You've got to make money, right?

00:51:18.660 Yes.

00:51:19.040 First of all, the only time somebody's going to really get beat up is if they're just thumbing their nose in your face,

00:51:26.720 and they're saying, screw you.

00:51:28.380 Because why are you going to beat somebody up?

00:51:29.700 You want to get paid.

00:51:30.660 Right.

00:51:30.940 So you give the guy a break.

00:51:32.240 You know going in, you know, that you're going to have a little issue.

00:51:34.980 Look, I had more money on the street than you can imagine, you know, back then,

00:51:38.320 because I was making a lot of money.

00:51:39.940 And, you know, I knew at times guys couldn't pay.

00:51:42.580 You're not going to beat them up or put them in a hospital, because give them a break.

00:51:45.700 Let them continue paying you.

00:51:48.200 You know, the only time, like I said, that happened, and it's rare, you know, it's rare,

00:51:52.640 is if somebody just was way out of hand and thumbing their nose in your face and just acting like a jackass,

00:51:57.820 then maybe he's going to get hurt.

00:51:59.500 But other than that, it didn't happen a lot.

00:52:01.460 Yeah, it makes no sense.

00:52:03.060 That's why I'm like, I don't understand.

00:52:04.800 You know, they give money to a guy who can't pay it back, then they beat him up so he can't pay it back.

00:52:08.440 Yeah.

00:52:08.840 If you want money, you know, and that's what we're seeing now, this is kind of funny, as a total aside.

00:52:12.680 But that's what law enforcement makes you believe, that we're out there, you know, breaking legs,

00:52:17.320 and we're hurting everybody that owes us money.

00:52:19.100 It wasn't true.

00:52:20.560 Were the terms of the loans that were given, like, really awful?

00:52:23.600 Because it's another trope.

00:52:24.380 It's like, you know, 20%, some ridiculous amount that's almost impossible to pay back.

00:52:28.440 Normally between, I'll tell you what was common, 1% to 5% a week.

00:52:34.620 But you're not going to charge, yeah, you're not going to charge a guy five points that you knew he couldn't pay.

00:52:38.920 If somebody came to me at the time, and they were in business, and they were making money,

00:52:43.040 and they needed money, they couldn't go to a bank, and I would kind of evaluate the situation,

00:52:47.320 okay, you can pay me 3% a week.

00:52:49.580 If not, I might give it out at one point.

00:52:51.320 That's 52% a year.

00:52:52.680 What's wrong with that, you know?

00:52:54.680 Wow.

00:52:55.640 It all depended on the situation.

00:52:58.140 Yeah.

00:52:58.840 I mean, why do you think it is that all the movies, all the shows only ever show this as a bunch of,

00:53:07.360 you know, malintent, malicious, callous?

00:53:11.600 They go and they hurt people.

00:53:13.100 To be fair, like, we talk about a Bronx tale.

00:53:14.940 It's not always that way.

00:53:16.120 But it's always, you know, beating up a working family.

00:53:19.500 Like, there's a guy who's got a gambling debt, and they come and they, you know, harass his family and things like this.

00:53:25.280 I think, you know, law enforcement and the media has made that life out to be just that way.

00:53:31.320 And so it's expressed in Hollywood, you know, in movies and TV series.

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00:54:36.560 When you really care about someone, you shout it from the mountaintops.

00:54:40.980 So on behalf of Desjardins Insurance, I'm standing 20,000 feet above sea level

00:54:45.240 to tell our clients that we really care about you.

00:54:48.140 We care about you.

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00:54:53.600 Weird.

00:54:54.140 I don't remember saying that part.

00:54:56.340 Visit Desjardins.com slash care.

00:54:58.580 And get insurance that's really big on care.

00:55:01.340 Care.

00:55:01.940 Care.

00:55:02.340 Did I mention that we care?

00:55:03.400 Care.

00:55:03.500 But it's not like that all the time.

00:55:08.140 It does happen.

00:55:08.960 I'm not saying we were angels out there.

00:55:11.680 Don't get me wrong.

00:55:12.980 But a lot of the things are just, you know, embellished to a degree where it's, to me,

00:55:16.980 I look at it and it's silly.

00:55:18.160 Who was the last, like, unhinged gangster?

00:55:20.640 It was like a Gallo character?

00:55:22.040 No.

00:55:22.200 Roy DeMeo.

00:55:23.480 Okay.

00:55:23.840 When was that?

00:55:24.000 Roy DeMeo.

00:55:24.540 You know who that was.

00:55:25.340 I know the name.

00:55:26.040 I remember when that was.

00:55:26.680 Roy DeMeo.

00:55:27.160 You look him up afterwards.

00:55:28.360 He was allegedly killed over 200 people.

00:55:31.680 He had a place called the Gemini Lounge.

00:55:33.660 Okay.

00:55:34.120 And Roy DeMeo was a serial killer.

00:55:39.500 Wow.

00:55:39.820 But Roy would have been a serial killer even if he wasn't in a mafia.

00:55:43.200 Either way.

00:55:43.460 The mafia didn't make him that.

00:55:44.960 Right.

00:55:45.160 He just had more advantages because he was part of L.A.

00:55:48.320 And eventually he got killed.

00:55:49.800 So I was going to say, how did they handle that type of figure?

00:55:52.200 It seems like he got away with a lot of murder, though, until at some point, what is he, step

00:55:55.640 on someone's toes and they're like, this is it?

00:55:57.320 You know what?

00:55:58.200 Guys like that don't last.

00:55:59.860 Yeah.

00:56:00.100 Because sooner or later they're going to get, and somebody's going to say, well, we need

00:56:03.700 this guy for.

00:56:04.540 You know, he's a loose cannon.

00:56:05.640 Let's just get rid of him.

00:56:06.680 Right.

00:56:06.980 And that happens.

00:56:07.660 It happens a couple of times.

00:56:09.440 That's what happened to Joe Gallo, eventually?

00:56:12.160 Yeah.

00:56:12.620 Joe Gallo.

00:56:14.060 Yes.

00:56:14.420 But I think there's a lot of wrong impressions about Joe Gallo.

00:56:19.500 Like everybody, Joe Gallo killed Colombo or shot Colombo.

00:56:22.100 Right.

00:56:22.400 Right.

00:56:22.560 It was him.

00:56:23.200 I don't believe that.

00:56:24.500 You don't believe he shot him or?

00:56:25.860 I don't believe he was behind that.

00:56:27.680 Oh, wow.

00:56:28.100 I believe it was the FBI.

00:56:29.860 Oh, wow.

00:56:30.380 And they framed him?

00:56:31.320 Yeah.

00:56:32.260 Wow.

00:56:32.920 No, no.

00:56:33.280 They didn't frame Gallo.

00:56:34.080 Gallo got killed afterwards.

00:56:35.520 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:56:35.960 Yeah.

00:56:36.160 But they made it seem like this might have come from Gallo.

00:56:38.740 But I believe, they've never proved who shot Joey that day.

00:56:42.660 Wow.

00:56:42.880 I believe it was the FBI.

00:56:44.420 They hated Colombo.

00:56:45.240 It was like four people, right, that showed up and shot him, supposedly?

00:56:49.000 Gallo?

00:56:49.520 Yeah.

00:56:49.820 Yeah.

00:56:50.260 In Humberto's.

00:56:51.200 Right.

00:56:51.560 On his birthday.

00:56:52.480 Mm-hmm.

00:56:53.040 Yeah, that's a crazy story.

00:56:54.380 Crazy Joe Gallo.

00:56:55.940 What would happen if, you know, because you mentioned that some of these guys are flamboyant

00:57:00.020 or eccentric.

00:57:01.000 This guy's crazy.

00:57:01.860 Was it, I don't want to use the word common, but I mean, would other guys just get together

00:57:08.100 and be like, the boss has got to go?

00:57:11.320 Well, listen, you know, Gotti was in trouble because he didn't have a sanctioned hit on Castellano.

00:57:18.980 Normally, if you're going to take out a boss, you know, you've got to discuss it with members

00:57:24.260 of the commission at least, or you've got to get some kind of sanction on it.

00:57:28.160 He didn't.

00:57:29.440 And, you know, the chin, Giganti was very powerful.

00:57:32.020 He was the head of the Genovese family at that time.

00:57:34.660 He had an attempt on Gotti because he did that.

00:57:41.680 You know, look, it all depends in a situation like that.

00:57:45.220 I mean, look, Joe Colombo, people were upset with him because he was on the news and all

00:57:49.400 of that.

00:57:50.440 But I don't think it got to a point where anybody was looking to kill him.

00:57:53.620 Right.

00:57:53.760 No, I don't believe that.

00:57:54.620 They say that Carlo Gambino was behind it.

00:57:56.620 I don't believe any of that.

00:57:57.640 There's no evidence to prove that.

00:57:59.240 And I never heard that on the street, really.

00:58:01.080 You hear rumors.

00:58:01.980 Right.

00:58:02.200 But, you know, look, you're going to kill a boss.

00:58:05.920 You better be prepared.

00:58:07.180 I forget who it was.

00:58:08.220 Maybe it was during Dewey when he was investigating everybody.

00:58:11.640 And someone hired a hitman to take him out.

00:58:14.820 Dewey?

00:58:15.480 Yeah, right.

00:58:16.120 And then they said, don't do that.

00:58:18.040 And then they hired the same hitman to then take out the guy who planned taking out Dewey.

00:58:21.560 Yes, correct.

00:58:22.360 I forget who that was.

00:58:23.360 Correct.

00:58:23.720 No.

00:58:24.480 It just seems like word spreads.

00:58:26.380 And once people hear it, they're like, that's a bad idea.

00:58:28.920 Don't do that.

00:58:29.740 Because it's going to be worse for us.

00:58:30.800 Because we did, you know, the idea, if you start taking out politicians and cops, you're

00:58:35.320 going to have more heat on you than ever.

00:58:36.980 So you fight them in court.

00:58:39.040 I'm curious your thoughts on Chicago gangs.

00:58:42.120 And not just Chicago gangs, but you got East Coast, West Coast gangs as well.

00:58:45.040 But it's funny because we don't call them gangsters.

00:58:48.420 We call them gangbangers.

00:58:49.740 But there is some similarity.

00:58:51.960 Is it just that these gangs in the cities are, I don't know what the right word would

00:58:56.620 be, less organized than the families were?

00:59:00.260 Or, you know, what's your view on that?

00:59:01.760 Well, look, we had a very definite structure and we had rules that you had to abide by and

00:59:08.420 we had discipline and we had respect, you know, among one another.

00:59:11.980 And I know, you know, law enforcement would laugh at that, but they know, look, we survived

00:59:17.540 and prospered, Cosa Nostra did in America, for over 100 years under some very difficult

00:59:22.920 conditions.

00:59:24.140 And like I said, we had connections right into the White House.

00:59:27.040 So in order to survive and prosper like that for that length of time, you have to have

00:59:33.000 structure and discipline and authority.

00:59:35.600 And you got to have respect of the life.

00:59:39.020 So nobody can deny that.

00:59:40.800 And if they did, they're just kidding themselves because that's a fact.

00:59:44.120 These gangbangers don't have that.

00:59:46.200 You know, they don't have that structure.

00:59:47.600 I don't believe they have that loyalty among one another.

00:59:50.940 You know, these Venezuelan gangs that are coming in, I don't know.

00:59:54.200 You know, this is something that's kind of foreign to me.

00:59:57.120 These, you know, they have no value for human life.

01:00:01.220 And I guess it's culturally because where they came from, they grew up in a tough way.

01:00:05.740 So the only way they knew how to earn was to rob and steal.

01:00:09.020 And, you know, it's part of their life.

01:00:11.020 But they shouldn't be here in the United States.

01:00:12.840 It seems like they're more day to day, right?

01:00:14.720 We're just trying to survive.

01:00:15.580 Whereas families back then, they had longevity in mind.

01:00:20.100 Absolutely.

01:00:20.500 We want this to keep going on.

01:00:22.160 Absolutely.

01:00:22.560 What I always heard when I was young in Chicago is most of the gangs, they're, I don't know, tangentially organized.

01:00:32.460 They're moderately organized to some degree.

01:00:34.500 They've got rules.

01:00:36.020 You know, they would always say when you're in the gangs, they're usually selling drugs.

01:00:41.380 And that's a principled way to make money.

01:00:42.860 But you're not allowed to do them.

01:00:43.800 And if the gang catches you doing drugs, you're stealing product.

01:00:47.260 You're stealing product and you're putting them in legal jeopardy.

01:00:51.080 But it wasn't very sophisticated.

01:00:52.740 However, what I'd often hear from people is that the Latin kings were much more like the crime families.

01:00:58.900 That they were older guys with families that ran the show.

01:01:02.820 And, you know, because me and my friends would always be concerned.

01:01:06.220 And the way it usually happens on the south side is somebody would pull up in a car next to you and say, what you is.

01:01:13.800 And it's like they're trying to figure out what gang you're in.

01:01:15.920 I remember my friends were walking on the street and a car pulled up and they were like, what you is.

01:01:18.740 And they were like, what?

01:01:19.700 It's like, what you is.

01:01:20.520 And the kid was like, skateboarders.

01:01:23.260 And they started laughing and they were like, man, they drove off.

01:01:26.000 But they thought these kids were in a gang because that's what happens.

01:01:28.620 So we knew the gangs were, some of them, there was one gang that would just smoke pot all day.

01:01:35.780 And they'd sit around and everybody was cool with them.

01:01:38.560 It was a gang.

01:01:39.260 If you want to get in the gang, they V you.

01:01:41.020 They beat the crap out of you.

01:01:41.960 And then you're in the gang.

01:01:42.700 And then what are you doing?

01:01:43.520 You're in the gang.

01:01:44.020 They sold pot.

01:01:45.140 And then they smoked it.

01:01:46.200 And everyone was like, nobody cares about those guys.

01:01:47.740 The cops didn't even care about those guys.

01:01:49.220 But then there was another faction related to that gang.

01:01:52.580 They weren't necessarily the same gang.

01:01:54.480 It's kind of weird.

01:01:55.060 I don't know.

01:01:55.700 And those guys would rob you blind.

01:01:57.260 They'd act nice.

01:01:58.620 Then they'd find out where you live, come in and take everything you got.

01:02:02.360 And so when my friends were always talking about it, the one thing they always pointed

01:02:05.420 out was the Latin Kings will treat with respect.

01:02:08.740 There's a 35-year-old guy who's a high-ranking dude in the gang.

01:02:12.020 He's got a family.

01:02:12.720 He doesn't want any trouble.

01:02:13.920 He doesn't want young kids coming around with guns and doing dumb things in his community.

01:02:17.300 And it was much, much more organized like the crime families were.

01:02:20.600 I don't know if you ever had any experience with them or...

01:02:23.420 Yeah, I did have some experience with the Latin Kings.

01:02:26.300 And I agree with you on that.

01:02:27.620 They were more organized than...

01:02:29.460 You know, they were adults.

01:02:30.500 Let's put it that way in crime.

01:02:32.180 You know, these gangbangers, 90% of their income comes from drugs, as far as I saw, you

01:02:37.560 know, from drugs.

01:02:38.860 And they weren't sophisticated in their criminal activities.

01:02:43.480 You know, they rob, they do what they do.

01:02:45.660 And they're big in the drug business.

01:02:47.400 You know, we, again, we were not.

01:02:50.000 And we had, we had a level of sophistication about us.

01:02:53.180 We got around politicians.

01:02:54.740 We controlled the unions.

01:02:56.380 We were into contracting.

01:02:57.920 You know, we did a lot of things that were, you know, just different level than most of

01:03:02.420 these street gangs.

01:03:03.960 You infiltrated institutions.

01:03:05.760 Absolutely.

01:03:06.180 How do you make it to the White House?

01:03:07.240 Is that just because you get a politician starting out real young and they, and they happen to

01:03:11.180 ascend or are they helped to get up there?

01:03:13.080 Look, without mentioning his name, you know, I had, you know, I had 18 licenses to collect

01:03:19.020 tax on every gallon of gasoline.

01:03:20.560 I couldn't get the license.

01:03:21.780 I had a political connection.

01:03:23.340 And at the time, my connection was the most powerful Democrat in all of New York.

01:03:30.800 And, you know, he had relationships in the White House, you know, and I was paying him.

01:03:36.260 Can I guess a name?

01:03:37.020 No, I'm just kidding.

01:03:38.620 Probably could.

01:03:39.760 Is there a bridge named after him?

01:03:41.140 Huh?

01:03:41.400 Is there a bridge named after him?

01:03:42.700 No.

01:03:43.020 Okay.

01:03:43.440 So when you went to prison, that was over the gasoline thing?

01:03:47.560 Yeah.

01:03:48.140 What exactly was that?

01:03:49.200 Are you allowed to talk about it?

01:03:50.360 Yeah.

01:03:50.720 I mean, you know, basically we figured out, we had a scheme to defraud the government

01:03:55.960 out of tax on every gallon of gasoline.

01:03:58.400 And I ran that for about between seven and eight years.

01:04:01.280 I had the Russian mob guys with my partners.

01:04:03.840 And basically at the time, the tax on gasoline, state and local was about 25 to 30 cents.

01:04:10.940 And the feds were nine cents.

01:04:12.480 So we had about 40 cents a gallon.

01:04:15.000 And at the height of my operation, we're selling a half a billion gallons of gas a month.

01:04:18.920 And we're taking down 20, 30, 40 cents a gallon, whatever, you know, whatever we wanted

01:04:22.880 to, whatever deal we wanted to make.

01:04:25.560 So one point in time, we're taking in eight to 10 million a week, you know, in real money.

01:04:30.880 Where does that money go?

01:04:32.660 Well, we had expenses, you know, but I can't say that to him.

01:04:35.560 No, but as an aside, I mean, you know, with a profit like that general question, I mean,

01:04:42.800 well, are you allowed to say like how much you got personally?

01:04:46.420 Yeah.

01:04:47.060 Listen, it was basically my, I'll tell you what happened.

01:04:50.460 When I realized what I had, and I can get into the whole backstory, but when I realized

01:04:54.680 what I had, and that this was going to be a real deal, I went to my boss at the time,

01:04:59.740 Carmine Persico, he's dead now.

01:05:01.620 And I said, Junior, we called him Junior.

01:05:03.420 I said, Junior, look, I'm going to show you more money than you've ever seen before.

01:05:07.960 And he looked at me, he said, we don't do drugs.

01:05:09.420 I said, Junior, come on, you know, I hate drugs, nothing to do with drugs.

01:05:13.060 He said, what is it?

01:05:13.920 I said, it's gas.

01:05:15.320 He said, gas.

01:05:16.300 I said, yes, it's a tax scheme.

01:05:18.300 We're going to defraud the government out of taxing every gallon of gasoline.

01:05:21.420 I said, but here's what's going to happen.

01:05:23.000 He said, what?

01:05:24.140 I said, everybody's going to want to get involved in this.

01:05:26.840 Across the board, all five families, when they see the amount of money, is it going to

01:05:30.840 be that much?

01:05:31.540 I said, trust me, when they see the amount of money, everybody's going to want a piece.

01:05:35.900 When that happens, we're going to blow it.

01:05:38.200 So what do you want me to do?

01:05:39.340 I says, every time I have an argument, I got to win.

01:05:42.760 I said, I'm going to be right.

01:05:44.100 I got to win.

01:05:45.140 Play no politics, nothing like that.

01:05:47.500 I said, just make me win.

01:05:49.020 I'll be right every time.

01:05:50.420 I said, and I'll show you more money than you've ever seen before.

01:05:53.300 So I'll never forget.

01:05:54.220 He sat back.

01:05:54.820 He said, show me.

01:05:57.800 OK?

01:05:58.580 I was bringing him, at 1.2 million dollars a week.

01:06:01.600 That buys a lot of loyalty.

01:06:03.360 I never lost an argument.

01:06:06.300 And I'm telling you, everybody, Gotti and people came at me.

01:06:09.860 I'll tell you a funny story.

01:06:10.920 I've said it before.

01:06:13.340 You know, word gets out when you're doing that, right?

01:06:16.120 And I had a pretty big crew.

01:06:17.840 So Fat Tony was the boss of the Genovese family.

01:06:20.740 And do you know who Fat Tony was?

01:06:22.040 I heard the name, yeah.

01:06:22.580 OK.

01:06:23.000 Right out of, you know who he is, Tim?

01:06:24.480 No, right out of Central Casting.

01:06:26.300 He was about 5'6", you know, a little bit chubby, wore a fedora, smoked a cigar, and had the gravelly voice, right?

01:06:33.960 Just like that.

01:06:34.680 Typical mob guy.

01:06:35.520 So he had a club in Harlem.

01:06:38.200 So he calls me.

01:06:39.460 He sends for me, rather, to come and see him.

01:06:41.620 So I go put it on record.

01:06:42.900 Whenever you go see the boss of another family, you've got to put it on record with your guy that you're going in, right?

01:06:47.660 And I was a captain at the time.

01:06:49.300 So I'll never forget.

01:06:50.200 It was a summer day.

01:06:51.000 It was in August, I think.

01:06:52.320 So I go see him in Harlem.

01:06:55.340 And he's sitting outside his social club with three or four guys.

01:06:58.300 And he's sitting there.

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01:07:36.660 BetMGM.com for T's and C's.

01:07:38.560 19 plus to wager.

01:07:39.700 Ontario only.

01:07:40.580 Please play responsibly.

01:07:41.840 If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you,

01:07:44.960 please contact Connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor.

01:07:52.000 Free of charge.

01:07:53.000 BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario.

01:07:56.200 When you really care about someone, you shout it from the mountaintops.

01:08:01.820 So on behalf of Desjardins Insurance, I'm standing 20,000 feet above sea level to tell our clients that we really care about you.

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01:08:14.680 Weird.

01:08:15.080 I don't remember saying that part.

01:08:17.420 Visit Desjardins.com slash care and get insurance that's really big on care.

01:08:23.280 Did I mention that we care?

01:08:27.020 Hands on his belly.

01:08:28.060 He's got the cigar and the fedora.

01:08:29.800 He comes up to me.

01:08:30.580 He says, you know, we do all the niceties.

01:08:33.280 He says, Mike, let me ask you a question.

01:08:34.580 I said, what, Tony?

01:08:35.380 He said, you're doing good, huh?

01:08:38.320 I said, yeah, Tony, I'm OK.

01:08:39.920 He says, you're making money?

01:08:41.080 I said, Tony, no complaints.

01:08:42.540 He says, what do you got, gas or something?

01:08:43.980 I said, yeah, you know, we figured out a scheme.

01:08:46.100 We're doing OK.

01:08:47.280 You're robbing the government?

01:08:48.420 I said, absolutely.

01:08:49.440 He said, that's good.

01:08:50.420 That's good.

01:08:51.400 So then he says to me, he says, I need a favor from you.

01:08:54.600 I said, Tony, anything you want.

01:08:55.960 You're the boss.

01:08:56.500 What can I do for you?

01:08:57.340 He says, just like this.

01:08:58.860 I got these five Mama Lukes around me.

01:09:00.900 They can't earn three cents.

01:09:02.640 He says, you give them a job?

01:09:05.120 I said, yeah, Tony, I can give them a job.

01:09:06.640 He said, what will they do?

01:09:07.900 I said, well, I had about 300 gas stations I either operated or leased at the time, right?

01:09:12.720 I said, Tony, how about I give them a job?

01:09:14.580 You know, they'll run a gas station for me.

01:09:16.700 It's easier to collect the money and they'll watch the guys.

01:09:19.740 I said, but Tony, don't let them rob me.

01:09:21.420 You know, these guys, if they rob you, I'll cut off their hands.

01:09:24.220 They're just like that, right?

01:09:25.580 I said, no, you don't have to do that.

01:09:27.160 He said, don't worry about it.

01:09:28.940 So I said, you got it, Tony.

01:09:30.520 He says, how much are they going to earn?

01:09:33.360 So now I'm thinking, I don't want to insult the boss, but I'm thinking for a minute.

01:09:36.300 I said, Tony, how about I give him $1,500 a week?

01:09:38.980 And this is back in the 80s, $1,500 a week each.

01:09:42.440 He looks at me, he almost dropped a cigar.

01:09:44.260 He goes, $1,500?

01:09:45.860 Give them $500.

01:09:47.020 Give me the $1,000.

01:09:49.280 I said, Tony, you got it.

01:09:50.500 Oh, man, that's amazing.

01:09:51.440 In front of them.

01:09:52.140 Yes.

01:09:52.820 Right in front of them.

01:09:53.940 Yeah.

01:09:54.240 Wow.

01:09:54.780 So I'm saying, you make a lot of friends when you're doing that.

01:09:57.700 And you spread the money around.

01:09:58.860 You make people earn.

01:09:59.800 You know, that's part of that life.

01:10:01.600 So, I mean, was this just that you owned 300 gas stations and you didn't pay your taxes?

01:10:05.720 We owned or operated, we owned or released them, you know, whatever.

01:10:08.860 If we could, but we owned all the, you know, Grand Central Parkway, all those parkway stations.

01:10:14.500 Really?

01:10:14.780 Oh, wow, really?

01:10:15.460 And you're just scooping up all the tax.

01:10:17.360 All the tax, yeah.

01:10:18.120 But are you literally just not paying taxes?

01:10:21.540 You're not paying the tax, yeah.

01:10:22.940 I had 18 companies.

01:10:24.560 They were shell companies.

01:10:26.480 And it was a daisy chain.

01:10:28.060 You could get, the way we worked it, you could get about 10 months out of the government before

01:10:33.160 they come down on you and come down on you.

01:10:35.640 All we had was an office that this thing was operating on.

01:10:38.240 So they come down at 10 months.

01:10:39.580 They raid it.

01:10:40.080 We close it down.

01:10:41.180 We jump onto the next license in a different part of town.

01:10:44.060 How soon after you started this does it take for them to kind of start catching on?

01:10:47.980 10 months.

01:10:48.700 Is it 10 months for you?

01:10:49.760 Okay.

01:10:49.940 And then how do they catch you eventually?

01:10:52.440 Well, they don't.

01:10:53.220 You know, they never caught us.

01:10:54.600 The only way they got us is my partner became an informant.

01:10:58.760 Ah, that's it.

01:10:59.640 That's it.

01:11:00.020 It's always there.

01:11:01.020 Were you on trial for that stuff?

01:11:03.160 I didn't go.

01:11:03.680 I took a plea on that.

01:11:04.580 Okay.

01:11:04.740 That's the one I took the plea on.

01:11:05.840 Wow.

01:11:06.300 Wow.

01:11:06.560 So how does it, you basically have a shell company.

01:11:09.660 It's running gas stations.

01:11:10.840 It doesn't pay taxes.

01:11:11.780 And they come to this company and say, you're not paying your taxes.

01:11:14.000 And you're like, okay, well then the company's out of business.

01:11:15.620 Is that it?

01:11:16.240 Yeah.

01:11:16.780 I mean, you're simplifying it, but we had to give reports.

01:11:20.200 So every month we, I had accountants working and every month they would send in the report

01:11:24.480 and would not pay any money.

01:11:25.880 And it would be a whole process.

01:11:27.580 And then finally after 10 months, they're mad, they're upset, and they come and raid your office.

01:11:31.240 The office is closed, the license is gone, and we're on to the next license in another part of town.

01:11:36.740 How much would you have made if you paid the taxes?

01:11:38.940 I mean, gas stations make money, right?

01:11:40.900 Yeah, but here's the deal.

01:11:43.140 Let's say we had, and you know how it is in Long Island.

01:11:45.720 You can have a big intersection where you have four gas stations, one on each corner, right?

01:11:50.480 Yeah.

01:11:50.620 So I'd scoop up one gas station.

01:11:52.940 I'd go to the other three.

01:11:54.180 I'd call them all in.

01:11:55.060 I said, come here.

01:11:55.560 I want to talk to all you guys.

01:11:56.760 I said, listen, here's the deal.

01:11:58.660 Whatever you sell your gas for, I'm going to be two cents under you.

01:12:01.860 If you try to go two cents under me, I'll go five cents under that.

01:12:04.920 You go five, I'll go ten.

01:12:06.360 I said, until I put you out of business, I'll keep going.

01:12:09.120 So that's the deal.

01:12:10.820 Now, they kind of knew what I was doing, but they didn't know.

01:12:13.860 So before long, they're all buying gas from me anyway, you know?

01:12:17.760 And I would go to them, and I'd say, you're a mobile station.

01:12:20.860 How many loads you're buying from mobile?

01:12:22.640 Oh, I buy six.

01:12:23.640 Okay.

01:12:24.300 Buy four from them.

01:12:25.300 Buy two from me.

01:12:26.400 Because for me, I'm going to save you 10 cents a gallon.

01:12:28.960 That's a lot of money for, you know, 10 cents a gallon, cheaper.

01:12:31.780 All I do is I give them a bill of sale, all taxes included.

01:12:34.540 That's all they cared about.

01:12:36.240 So this ended up actually, these other gas stations were benefiting.

01:12:42.940 Oh, absolutely.

01:12:44.080 Let me tell you something.

01:12:45.180 We were stealing the tax money, but we were cutting prices at the pump.

01:12:48.740 So we were giving some of the money back.

01:12:51.400 You would love us right now.

01:12:52.620 They called us the Robin Hoods.

01:12:54.740 We were giving money back to the people because we were digging into the tax money.

01:12:59.820 So we would drop the prices at the pump.

01:13:02.540 Because we didn't care.

01:13:03.420 If we made 10 cents a gallon, 20 cents a gallon, what was the difference?

01:13:06.100 How long after the gas shortages in the city was this?

01:13:09.920 Oh, well, this was, when we were doing this, it was the, I started this in like 78.

01:13:16.700 So Carter.

01:13:17.260 Right up to 85.

01:13:18.300 Yeah.

01:13:18.600 Wow.

01:13:19.260 Because the gas shortages, the lines in like the Bronx and Brooklyn, and you had different

01:13:22.520 plate numbers.

01:13:23.060 You can go get your gas.

01:13:23.880 There was a shootout sometimes waiting for this.

01:13:25.160 You know how it got, I bought a terminal off of British Petroleum.

01:13:28.460 We had, it was, I think it was 3 million gallons it would hold.

01:13:31.240 But we were buying barges from all the major oil companies.

01:13:35.760 Now, when the feds had an inkling, they were trying to figure out what we were doing.

01:13:39.860 Well, they went to all the majors and they said, you know, these guys are mob guys and

01:13:43.720 they're buying gas from you and you're going to your gas station.

01:13:46.300 And they would say, oh, we're upset with them and we're going to watch for it.

01:13:49.760 They didn't care because we were buying the gas off of them and selling it back to their

01:13:52.960 stations.

01:13:53.360 They didn't care.

01:13:54.540 We were increasing their business.

01:13:56.940 Yeah.

01:13:57.460 Incredible.

01:13:58.220 One day I had a Mazda dealership that I owned, a Mazda and a Chevrolet dealership.

01:14:02.240 So I'm in my office and two FBI agents come over and they say, Franzis, we got to talk

01:14:07.440 to you.

01:14:07.700 So I said, okay, we go outside.

01:14:09.420 And they said, listen, this was after about five years we're in the business.

01:14:12.920 We know what you're doing.

01:14:14.300 We just can't figure it out.

01:14:16.460 Okay.

01:14:17.040 Tell us what you're doing.

01:14:18.360 We'll give you a pass.

01:14:19.860 Yeah.

01:14:20.140 They're going to give me a pass, right?

01:14:21.380 Yeah.

01:14:21.580 I was born in the morning.

01:14:22.620 I yesterday.

01:14:24.240 I said, guys, I go to the gas station.

01:14:26.220 I put gas for my car.

01:14:26.980 I don't know what you're talking about.

01:14:28.020 I said, you want to buy a car?

01:14:28.980 I'll give you a good price on a car.

01:14:30.840 You don't want to tell us?

01:14:32.180 I said, I don't know what you're talking about.

01:14:33.820 They curse me out and everything.

01:14:35.400 We're going to put you away forever.

01:14:36.960 And all this guy said, yeah, okay.

01:14:38.400 Come back later.

01:14:39.220 You'll feel better.

01:14:39.800 Did you just say, I'm running a bunch of gas stations.

01:14:42.560 It's a legitimate business.

01:14:43.360 We make a lot of money.

01:14:44.260 I never even admitted to the gas station.

01:14:45.680 Too much.

01:14:46.420 Oh, not even that you owned it?

01:14:48.560 I have nothing to do with it.

01:14:49.620 I don't know what you're talking about.

01:14:51.680 Yeah.

01:14:52.000 How about getting involved with the unions in the city?

01:14:54.380 It's such a big deal.

01:14:55.080 The unions today still seem like they're kind of mob-ish in the way they make people vote in certain ways.

01:15:00.160 Yeah.

01:15:00.760 Not like before when we had control over the unions, you know.

01:15:04.380 Look, we started the unions way back then.

01:15:06.280 I mean, you know, with our help, I should say, we started the unions.

01:15:09.640 But huge moneymaker.

01:15:12.360 I mean, I had a job in Glen Oaks.

01:15:16.540 They were apartment to condominium conversions.

01:15:20.300 It was 3,500 of them.

01:15:21.920 It was the biggest job in the city, in the country at that time.

01:15:26.040 So my friend was a contractor there, and he called me up, and I made a deal with Jerry Guterman to keep the union out.

01:15:31.880 I said, under two conditions, because we'll keep the union out, we'll save you some money.

01:15:38.640 I said, but I've got to be a general contractor, and all the subs will come in through me.

01:15:43.060 So I became the contractor.

01:15:44.460 We kept the union out.

01:15:45.480 I went to every single trade.

01:15:47.280 I said, look, we'll put one of your people in so that it is a union job and only one person at a time.

01:15:52.580 And then we paid them, you know, for that, and we kept the union out.

01:15:55.480 And Guterman made a lot more money than they would have with the union.

01:15:58.520 I was making money as the GC.

01:16:00.580 I mean, that's how we worked.

01:16:01.460 And so everybody was happy at the end of the day.

01:16:03.820 They make it seem like we were—everybody was happy.

01:16:06.380 Right.

01:16:06.900 People—Donald Trump, come on, he was with the mob, and he was paying off the mob.

01:16:10.680 I said, yeah, so was, you know, Jerry Guterman, and so was Hemsley and everybody else.

01:16:15.400 If you wanted to build something in New York, you had to deal with us, period.

01:16:19.100 Because you were running concrete, right?

01:16:20.800 Everything, yeah.

01:16:21.500 Everything.

01:16:21.780 Concrete big.

01:16:22.300 Yeah.

01:16:22.540 Concrete was among the families.

01:16:24.740 They all had a piece of that, but everything.

01:16:27.580 You built the city in a big way.

01:16:30.140 Absolutely.

01:16:30.460 Absolutely.

01:16:31.040 And it's built, right?

01:16:32.460 The buildings look beautiful.

01:16:33.300 Sure, it's built.

01:16:34.180 These days.

01:16:34.980 They're not falling down, so we did a good job.

01:16:37.760 Things are getting kind of bad these days, though.

01:16:39.540 The buildings are still standing, but it's kind of sad how it's being mismanaged.

01:16:42.560 I think the unions are going to start turning against the Democrats, honestly.

01:16:47.520 Well, they did.

01:16:47.900 Teamsters.

01:16:48.440 Well, the Teamsters did, yeah.

01:16:49.380 Well, the Teamsters did, yeah.

01:16:49.580 I'm thinking, like, I know people in the hotel and trades union, and they've pretty much voted a certain way for a long time.

01:16:54.660 But they're giving hotels up to immigrants now, to the illegal aliens coming in.

01:16:58.380 And I know I have family who's—we used to work in that hotel, and we're not working there anymore.

01:17:02.220 Look, the only union that—the real union that they have locked up is the teachers' union.

01:17:07.160 Yeah, for sure.

01:17:08.000 Because they don't care about the kids.

01:17:09.600 For sure.

01:17:10.220 They're sacrificing our kids, and it's terrible.

01:17:15.580 Terrible.

01:17:16.060 That's wild.

01:17:16.980 Real quick, just because the gas station story is so fascinating to me.

01:17:20.720 What was the reason it ended?

01:17:22.380 You had a guy turn informant, and they came after you?

01:17:25.200 My partner was—he was 6'5".

01:17:27.760 He weighed 450 pounds.

01:17:30.020 Yeah.

01:17:30.960 But he was—

01:17:31.740 I hope that was muscle.

01:17:32.720 No, it wasn't—

01:17:33.600 You know what?

01:17:34.400 He wasn't a sloppy fat.

01:17:36.120 He was big.

01:17:37.320 You know, he was a big guy.

01:17:38.400 And we're partners for seven years.

01:17:41.120 We never had an ill word between us.

01:17:42.900 His kids used to call me Uncle Mike.

01:17:44.820 My kids called him, you know, Uncle Larry.

01:17:48.000 But he got in trouble on an unrelated case, a tax case.

01:17:51.960 He's halfway through the trial.

01:17:53.340 He and I, we had a jet plane.

01:17:55.120 We had a helicopter.

01:17:55.940 We had homes in Boca Raton next to each other, right?

01:17:59.080 Oh, yeah.

01:17:59.100 Oh, well.

01:17:59.800 So he gets in trouble on this case.

01:18:03.720 He's in trial, and he says,

01:18:06.820 I'm not staying.

01:18:08.400 I can't go to jail.

01:18:09.560 Look at how big I am.

01:18:10.700 I says, no, Larry.

01:18:12.080 I says, maybe they'll give you two years if you get convicted.

01:18:14.360 I says, if you run, they're going to catch you sometime.

01:18:16.780 They're going to add on another five.

01:18:18.240 I said, finish the trial.

01:18:19.660 Can't do it.

01:18:20.560 We had a compound in Panama.

01:18:22.960 You know, we had down there.

01:18:23.980 The reason we had it there is, allegedly, there was no—what do you call it?

01:18:28.780 Deportation.

01:18:29.300 Extradition.

01:18:29.620 Yeah, extradition, rather, between Panama and the United States.

01:18:32.520 So we had this compound down there.

01:18:34.900 And so he says, I'm going to live down there.

01:18:37.080 He says, I can still run part of the operation from there.

01:18:39.680 I said, you're crazy.

01:18:40.440 But he went, right?

01:18:41.920 Well, this is what this maniac does.

01:18:44.040 His daughter is getting married in Austria,

01:18:46.300 and he starts sending out invitations from Panama.

01:18:49.980 Oh, no.

01:18:50.880 So now, there's no extradition, right?

01:18:53.160 But the feds don't care about that.

01:18:54.700 What do they do?

01:18:55.700 They make some kind of deal with Noriega,

01:18:57.940 and they go down there and they kidnap him in the middle of the night.

01:19:00.740 Damn.

01:19:01.780 And they bring him to Florida.

01:19:03.760 And the FBI agent told me this afterwards.

01:19:05.740 He said, Michael, he's 400—he took one look at that little cot,

01:19:09.380 and he says, I'll tell you anything you want to know about Michael.

01:19:12.640 And he became the informant.

01:19:13.980 He blew the whistle on the whole operation.

01:19:16.260 So that's when I took a plea for that.

01:19:18.160 But, you know.

01:19:19.640 So is that guy in jail, or did he make a deal?

01:19:22.160 No.

01:19:22.480 Listen to what happens, right?

01:19:24.520 He just loved the game of doing this.

01:19:27.360 I mean, the guy was insane.

01:19:28.440 He was very smart.

01:19:29.200 Don't get me wrong.

01:19:30.440 But he testifies—he didn't testify.

01:19:33.220 He makes the deal against me.

01:19:36.860 They release him.

01:19:38.100 They give him back $2.5 million of stolen gas tax money.

01:19:41.240 That was part of the deal.

01:19:42.680 And I told the feds at the time, I said, listen,

01:19:45.100 he'll never be out of the gas business.

01:19:47.020 He knows it too well.

01:19:48.060 There's too much money in it, right?

01:19:49.960 So he leaves New York.

01:19:51.220 He goes to Texas.

01:19:53.560 And he starts an operation down there.

01:19:55.920 He has his whole family working for him.

01:19:58.340 Well, after about two years, the feds go down and they indict him there.

01:20:02.420 He immediately tells them, there's some things I didn't tell you about, Michael.

01:20:05.540 I was already doing my time.

01:20:07.260 They didn't care.

01:20:08.180 And what happens?

01:20:09.400 His son and his daughter testified against him.

01:20:12.100 Wow.

01:20:12.420 Yeah.

01:20:12.720 He got convicted and he gave him 20 years.

01:20:14.960 Wow.

01:20:15.380 He ended up doing 17 on the 20.

01:20:17.200 He did more time than me.

01:20:18.120 I did eight.

01:20:18.680 He did 17 years.

01:20:20.860 And he got out and two years later, he passed away.

01:20:23.120 Wow.

01:20:23.520 Damn.

01:20:24.200 What's it like being in prison when you come from a family?

01:20:28.080 Like, are there people inside that help?

01:20:29.760 I never had a problem in prison.

01:20:31.300 You know, my father, again, very smart guy.

01:20:34.240 He says to me, son, when you go to prison, he says, remember these three words.

01:20:38.260 They're going to help you get by with no trouble.

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01:22:08.800 Please, thank you, excuse me.

01:22:11.720 He said, because Mike, everybody in prison who never got respect on the street,

01:22:15.440 they want all the respect in there.

01:22:16.880 So they want to prove something, right?

01:22:19.240 You know, you bunk into somebody, excuse me, you know,

01:22:22.200 somebody you want to break in line with your friends in front on the chow line,

01:22:25.720 please, do you mind if I go, no, it's okay.

01:22:28.080 You know, if somebody hands you something, thank you.

01:22:30.160 Never had a problem, you know, but I saw a lot of stuff go on in there.

01:22:35.040 That's Chicago growing up.

01:22:36.540 Yeah.

01:22:37.480 Respect.

01:22:38.440 Respect.

01:22:39.120 And, you know, because I know people who grew up in nicer parts of the city

01:22:42.620 or grew up in different places, and they got a bone to pick

01:22:45.440 because you don't dare disrespect me.

01:22:47.740 How dare you?

01:22:48.680 And I'm like, you bring that attitude to Chicago, and you'll find a bullet.

01:22:51.660 But if there's somebody, you don't even know if they're in a gang or not.

01:22:56.160 If you're at a bar and someone's getting aggressive with you,

01:22:59.320 I'm so sorry about that, man.

01:23:00.540 Can I buy you a drink?

01:23:01.520 Exactly.

01:23:01.960 You're good.

01:23:02.460 The fight you avoid is the fight you win.

01:23:04.160 But there's just too many stories where two guys, you know,

01:23:08.040 one guy's aggressive, he gets at it, he says,

01:23:09.780 you don't know who you're effing with, he shows a gun,

01:23:12.520 someone else pulls a gun, and then there's a couple of that guys,

01:23:14.520 and it's just for what?

01:23:15.340 Yeah.

01:23:15.820 For what?

01:23:16.140 I knew people, the one who always really bothered me was the road rage

01:23:19.620 from people who don't understand the city.

01:23:21.660 Yep.

01:23:22.180 And they're driving on the highway or whatever,

01:23:24.140 and someone cuts them off, and they start screaming and flicking them off,

01:23:26.840 and then that car slams their brakes on,

01:23:28.160 and the guy steps out of the car and he's got a gun,

01:23:30.020 and it's a gangbanger, and it's just like, dude, it's not worth it, man.

01:23:32.780 No.

01:23:33.120 You got cut off.

01:23:33.820 Carry on with your day.

01:23:34.900 Go feed your family.

01:23:36.100 Get your job.

01:23:37.460 And, you know, so that I understand.

01:23:39.760 But what you're saying, people on the street, they want respect.

01:23:41.560 They don't get other places.

01:23:42.660 They don't get it in there.

01:23:43.280 And I saw some, you know, stupid.

01:23:45.480 I mean, there's a lot of stupidity in there with guys.

01:23:47.860 But, you know, I did almost three years in solitary, they had me.

01:23:52.660 Oh, crap.

01:23:53.960 29 months and seven days, to be exact.

01:23:56.340 Feds were pretty upset with me.

01:23:57.540 They tried to get me to cooperate when I walked away,

01:24:00.060 and, you know, they got even with me in a lot of ways.

01:24:03.880 Sorry, where were you?

01:24:04.800 What prison?

01:24:05.720 Well, they had me on diesel therapy for a while.

01:24:08.460 They had me shipped all over the country.

01:24:09.820 But I did most of my time in Terminal Island and Lompoc.

01:24:13.400 Okay.

01:24:13.920 Wow.

01:24:14.220 Both out west in California.

01:24:15.840 Wow.

01:24:16.040 Terminal Island was the best prison to be in.

01:24:18.440 It was a medium security, but it was right on the water, you know,

01:24:21.820 in sunny California.

01:24:23.140 It was great.

01:24:24.120 You know, you guys see what happened.

01:24:25.080 We were right on the water, right?

01:24:26.940 So a lot of times we were out there, and girls used to come by in a boat,

01:24:32.740 and they used to pull their tops down.

01:24:35.460 And you'd see a wave of people running to the fence, right?

01:24:39.180 Even the cops would laugh at it, you know, and they'd be on that fence,

01:24:42.180 and these girls would call.

01:24:43.360 Almost every weekend it would happen.

01:24:45.400 It was a great place to do time.

01:24:47.680 It was pretty good.

01:24:49.540 That's what you should be asking for if you can, huh?

01:24:50.980 You hear stories about Lucky Luciano.

01:24:52.560 You know, he had a pretty sweet deal.

01:24:54.220 Was he Dannemora?

01:24:55.720 It seems like they let him have his own kitchen and stuff.

01:24:59.600 You know, in a state place, you couldn't do that in the fence.

01:25:03.020 In a state, they were looser back then.

01:25:05.260 Right, right.

01:25:05.700 It wasn't like Goodfellas.

01:25:06.880 You didn't have that kind of a luxury there.

01:25:09.980 But you had it better in certain state places.

01:25:12.700 Look, we knew how to conduct ourselves in there, you know?

01:25:15.800 I mean, look, we ate a little better.

01:25:17.480 We'd take care of the guards.

01:25:18.580 We had Italian guys in the kitchen, and they'd take care of us, you know?

01:25:22.360 But basically, prison is prison.

01:25:25.740 Yeah.

01:25:26.320 You don't want to go there.

01:25:27.460 No.

01:25:27.960 No, you don't want to go there.

01:25:29.200 Especially now in the cities, like New York City's prisons.

01:25:31.680 It just seems so corrupt.

01:25:33.980 Like, whatever they have Didion is, you know, that prison is not, does not have a good history.

01:25:38.640 Let me tell you something.

01:25:39.380 I was in, this is a funny story.

01:25:41.900 When they locked me up, they had me in, I was in MDC in New York, and then they'd taken me across country to my designated spot, which was Terminal Island.

01:25:51.160 So on the way, they brought me to Lewisburg, right?

01:25:54.360 Penitentiary, level six.

01:25:55.900 And at the time, all the blacks in D.C. had rioted, and they burnt their prison down.

01:26:01.240 So they were dispersing the blacks all over the system.

01:26:03.760 So they didn't have a place to put them, so they opened up the basement in, what did I say, in Pennsylvania, and it was condemned.

01:26:12.540 They weren't allowed to open it, but they opened it up for this, right?

01:26:15.200 So now the feds are mad at me.

01:26:16.800 They bring me there to Lewisburg, and they bring me to the basement.

01:26:20.120 And it's 250 black guys and me, right?

01:26:24.320 Now, I'm a young guy.

01:26:25.140 I'm 30-something years old at that time.

01:26:27.240 And as I'm walking down, they got me shackled, and I'm walking through the tier down there.

01:26:31.740 And these black guys are going, oh, Whitey, we're going to get you.

01:26:34.740 And I'm saying, man, I'm going to have a tough time here.

01:26:37.120 I hope these guys figure out who I am.

01:26:39.080 That's what I'm saying to myself.

01:26:40.860 No sooner than I say that, it was like God was shining down on me.

01:26:44.580 They had televisions on the tier, right?

01:26:46.960 So as I'm walking down, all of a sudden, newsflash, Michael Francis, captain in the Colombo family, stole $10 million.

01:26:54.500 You know, and they're looking at the TV, and they're looking at me, and all of a sudden, they start cheering.

01:26:58.760 Oh, that's amazing.

01:27:00.140 I said, God, thank you.

01:27:02.260 That's amazing.

01:27:03.140 Yeah, and then I had it made down there for a while.

01:27:06.060 How long were you there?

01:27:06.780 I was there three months they kept me there before they moved me out, yeah.

01:27:10.160 Are they driving you across the country when they're doing this?

01:27:12.540 No, you get in a bus, plane, you know, whatever.

01:27:14.960 You get in some plane that the marshal's confiscated off of some drug dealers that, you know, you're almost praying it goes down.

01:27:20.980 But, you know, that day, too, I'll never forget, one of the cops calls me over to COE.

01:27:26.820 He says, come into the bathroom for a minute.

01:27:28.340 I says, why?

01:27:29.280 He says, come in there, Mike.

01:27:30.320 So I go in the bathroom.

01:27:31.580 He says, look out the window.

01:27:32.660 So the window's got bars on it, right?

01:27:34.640 So coming down from the top is a pillowcase with, you know, tied from a sheet, right?

01:27:40.680 So I go and I pull it in, and I open it up, and there's cigarettes and everything there.

01:27:45.520 And in the note, it says, love Jimmy.

01:27:47.660 It was Jimmy Burke, because all the guys were upstairs.

01:27:50.160 They got locked up there, right?

01:27:52.020 So he had sent it down.

01:27:53.300 He said, anything you need down there, let us know.

01:27:55.800 So now they had, when I was in prison, I cared about two things, visits and phone calls.

01:28:01.620 That's it, because I wanted to try to keep my family together, right?

01:28:04.740 So they only had two phones on that tier for 250 guys, and they were on every other day.

01:28:11.320 So, you know, the phones are a hot spot.

01:28:12.960 You never get to the phone.

01:28:14.020 It's very hard.

01:28:14.860 So you've got to have a connection.

01:28:15.720 So I grabbed one of the black guys, and I said, listen, who's your leader here?

01:28:19.780 Who's your main guy, you know?

01:28:21.060 So he points him out.

01:28:22.160 I says, call him over here.

01:28:23.080 So he comes over, I'm in the bathroom, and I lay everything out.

01:28:26.160 I said, look, I don't smoke.

01:28:27.620 You got cigarettes.

01:28:28.640 You got soups.

01:28:29.560 You got this.

01:28:30.200 Anything you guys need, you got.

01:28:32.320 Just let me know.

01:28:33.220 I got friends upstairs.

01:28:34.900 He said, okay, what do you want?

01:28:35.900 I said, that one phone on the wall, that belongs to me.

01:28:38.880 He said, you got it.

01:28:40.080 That's how I made the deal for the phone, right?

01:28:41.980 And I was able to call my wife a few times a day, every other day.

01:28:46.200 But, you know, you got to maneuver like that to get some kind of conveniences.

01:28:51.020 Are they making a movie about all this stuff?

01:28:52.860 Yes.

01:28:53.440 I'm like, I want to see it.

01:28:54.360 Yeah.

01:28:54.760 I want to watch it.

01:28:55.500 Yeah, for real.

01:28:56.040 We'll have a script by Thanksgiving, and I think it'll go into production early next year.

01:29:00.540 That's awesome.

01:29:00.780 We need a good mafia movie, man.

01:29:02.060 Yeah, they're the best.

01:29:02.840 It's always so good.

01:29:03.760 I love those movies.

01:29:04.720 Yeah.

01:29:05.080 Hey, got to love them.

01:29:07.420 Yeah.

01:29:07.780 Man, it's funny to hear these stories and then just think about how crappy everything

01:29:13.400 is today.

01:29:14.000 You know what I mean?

01:29:14.400 I mean, it's the only thing I can point to, because it's what we're experiencing every

01:29:17.060 day.

01:29:17.220 It's what we talk about.

01:29:18.560 And then it's almost like, you said they called you Robin Hood.

01:29:22.580 Yeah.

01:29:22.880 It seemed more gentlemanly.

01:29:24.820 You know, now it's just chaos and destruction.

01:29:28.120 These younger criminals, the people coming across the border, it's kind of wild because

01:29:33.680 I suppose when I talk about, you know, the neighborhoods being safe under the mafia, it's this idea

01:29:39.100 that there was still some respect for life and an understanding that I don't want my family

01:29:44.340 put at risk, so I'm going to try and minimize these.

01:29:46.740 It's almost like how in, you know, European countries have this idea of war crimes.

01:29:51.380 If we go to war, okay, fine, but you can't do this because that crosses the line.

01:29:54.640 I don't want you gassing my people.

01:29:56.060 I won't gassing your people, but now we're entering this territory of all that matters

01:30:01.860 is winning.

01:30:03.060 And so the gangs now in Chicago and other places, they literally don't care.

01:30:07.720 They'll hand a gun to a 13-year-old and say, go do what needs to be done because you're

01:30:11.660 going to, you know, the kid will go to juvie for five years.

01:30:14.700 Yeah.

01:30:14.920 Or he gets out.

01:30:15.560 He's got to be released at 25.

01:30:17.360 Right.

01:30:18.040 He gets indoctrinated while he's in there, and now he's a full-fledged member.

01:30:21.480 He comes out.

01:30:22.580 I mean, I had some experiences with it.

01:30:24.440 But, you know, I have to say something.

01:30:27.540 You know, my YouTube platform is pretty big, and I built it on telling mob stories and

01:30:32.740 crime stories, and I'm starting to get away from that.

01:30:35.380 There's only so many stories you can tell.

01:30:36.960 I'm not going to make things up.

01:30:38.600 And so I've been getting into a little bit more of the politics, and I got a big platform

01:30:42.200 on Rumble now where you can speak freely.

01:30:44.780 But, you know, one of the things that's really bugging me, and I try to make people understand,

01:30:50.000 you know, to me, the sin of omission is as serious as the sin of commission.

01:30:54.260 Maybe even more serious.

01:30:55.640 When you know something's wrong, and you have a platform, okay, to where you can try to make

01:31:00.580 it right, or at least educate people, and you don't do it, that's wrong.

01:31:04.280 So what I'm saying is, you know, with Biden, one of the worst things, and maybe this is

01:31:09.720 part of my upbringing, part of my life.

01:31:12.540 When you're in a position of trust, and you violate that trust in such a way that it's

01:31:18.520 dangerous, and it's hurting people in a bad way.

01:31:21.800 And I'm talking specifically about the border, and the soft on crime policies, when people

01:31:26.620 are getting murdered, and cities are getting destroyed, and neighborhoods are getting destroyed,

01:31:31.540 and you're the president of the United States, these people put their trust in you, they

01:31:35.660 nominated you, they voted for you, and you're destroying them.

01:31:39.880 There's nothing worse to me than that.

01:31:42.540 I mean, I think this is, and again, people say, oh, Michael, you're a Trump lover.

01:31:46.060 I don't love Trump.

01:31:47.380 I love my wife, I love my kids, I love my God, I love people, but I don't love Trump.

01:31:51.940 But you got to be honest, the guy gave us four good years as president, his policies

01:31:56.020 were good.

01:31:56.900 That's all I care about.

01:31:58.520 You know, it could be Trump, could be anybody else, if you're doing the right thing for

01:32:01.120 the country.

01:32:01.840 But this guy, and this administration, to throw people to the dogs the way they're

01:32:08.280 doing, it's just, we wouldn't do that on the street.

01:32:11.240 I don't think Biden's...

01:32:11.860 We would not do, I'm telling you, we wouldn't do that on the street.

01:32:14.580 Because they have no loyalty to America, to their neighborhoods, and to their citizens.

01:32:18.580 Trump does.

01:32:19.060 People are getting killed.

01:32:20.240 You know, another thing.

01:32:22.740 I mean, 13 military people died in Afghanistan because of his blunders, and he didn't even

01:32:28.600 respect the families of these people.

01:32:31.800 Yep.

01:32:32.440 This is a bad guy.

01:32:33.920 Oh, yeah.

01:32:34.660 Lies about his own son's death.

01:32:36.220 He's a bad guy.

01:32:36.880 Lies about everything.

01:32:37.720 I got a question.

01:32:38.400 I mean, you mentioned loving God.

01:32:41.140 Were the families religious?

01:32:42.880 Listen, on Ash Wednesday, you know, growing up Catholic, you see more guys with ashes

01:32:48.120 on their head than you can believe.

01:32:50.300 You know, everybody was Catholic.

01:32:52.820 You know, look, are they good Catholics?

01:32:55.100 If you're out there committing crimes, I don't know.

01:32:57.820 But look, you know, here's another thing I say, and people are, oh, Michael, everything

01:33:01.840 that's illegal is not always immoral.

01:33:06.540 You know what I mean?

01:33:07.660 You could have a law.

01:33:08.980 A lot of things are legal.

01:33:09.560 Yeah, you could have a law that you're not supposed to violate.

01:33:12.780 It doesn't mean that it's immoral because you can have an unjust government putting unjust

01:33:16.620 laws on you.

01:33:17.640 If you break that law, it doesn't mean you're committing a sin.

01:33:20.260 It doesn't mean it's immoral.

01:33:22.040 You know, now I'm not saying we didn't, you know, break the law and do immoral things

01:33:25.680 because we did.

01:33:26.520 There's no question.

01:33:27.260 I'm not trying to clean that up.

01:33:28.980 But there was, look, I know a lot of good guys in that life.

01:33:32.280 And it's the age old question.

01:33:33.780 Why do good people do bad things?

01:33:35.740 Well, sometimes they think they're doing the right thing when they're not.

01:33:40.400 So everybody wasn't a bad guy and a demon.

01:33:43.200 I brought up Roy DeMeo.

01:33:44.480 That's a different story.

01:33:45.500 That guy was insane.

01:33:47.240 But there's a lot of guys that I thought were good guys, good people.

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01:34:50.440 When you really care about someone, you shout it from the mountaintops.

01:34:55.460 So on behalf of Desjardins Insurance, I'm standing 20,000 feet above sea level

01:34:59.660 to tell our clients that we really care about you.

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01:35:10.760 Visit Desjardins.com slash care and get insurance that's really big on care.

01:35:15.740 Care.

01:35:16.380 Did I mention that we care?

01:35:17.880 Care.

01:35:18.440 Care.

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01:35:18.880 Care.

01:35:18.920 Care.

01:35:19.880 I guess that's what I was curious about.

01:35:23.140 There's like two things I was thinking.

01:35:25.640 I wonder if a loss of religion as this country starts becoming more secular and of the people

01:35:32.640 who do claim to be Christian, they're not really practicing.

01:35:36.720 And I wonder if that was a component of why there was at least some degree of honor relative

01:35:42.360 to what we see now.

01:35:43.400 The gangs that come in, they'll kill anybody.

01:35:45.140 They don't care.

01:35:46.000 The government, politicians, they'll insider trade.

01:35:49.200 They'll strip the value.

01:35:50.200 They'll pull the copper from the walls of the country while the city's burned down.

01:35:53.800 I wonder if it's just there's no fear of God.

01:35:57.020 Tim, you nailed it 100 percent because they're trying to get God out of our institutions,

01:36:01.960 out of our kids' psyche in their head, out of our schools.

01:36:06.020 I mean, it's, you know, look, I have seven kids.

01:36:10.240 I have seven grandchildren, right?

01:36:12.000 I have to say this.

01:36:13.160 I saw something just today on the plane coming in that just got me sick.

01:36:18.000 Senator John Kennedy.

01:36:19.280 I love that guy.

01:36:20.080 He's from Louisiana.

01:36:20.920 Good old boy, right?

01:36:21.920 Straight shooter.

01:36:22.760 Just a great guy.

01:36:23.780 But he was talking to a woman.

01:36:26.380 I think she was from Planned Parenthood.

01:36:28.740 And he was describing in detail, with charts, everything, what an aborted baby, what happened

01:36:36.560 to that baby at the age of 23 weeks, 23 weeks old.

01:36:39.580 And as he's describing it, I couldn't even watch it as they're tearing this baby apart.

01:36:45.880 And they're saying to the woman, the baby's feeling pain, right?

01:36:49.380 As they're pulling his legs apart and pulling his legs.

01:36:51.380 How could you watch this?

01:36:53.380 And these people get up there and say, you know, I mean, abortion is OK because it's a

01:36:58.700 woman's body to do what she pleases with it.

01:37:01.000 Well, it's not the woman's body anymore.

01:37:03.120 You know, and I say, I have seven kids, seven grandchildren.

01:37:05.420 My daughters and my daughter-in-laws, they were never, their body was never in trouble.

01:37:13.000 Now, I would say this, if there was a case where, you know, God forbid, it's the mother

01:37:18.140 or the baby, OK, you know, you're going to pick the mother.

01:37:20.800 99% of the time, we get that.

01:37:22.920 We understand that.

01:37:23.800 There's a situation, rape, OK, we get it.

01:37:26.900 There are certain instances where we get it.

01:37:29.600 But to try to say, you know, it's a woman's health issue, it's not a woman's health issue.

01:37:33.980 And if Christians would vote their morality, there would never be a progressive president.

01:37:40.860 Never.

01:37:42.200 But Christians don't vote.

01:37:43.440 They don't get out there and vote.

01:37:44.780 They don't.

01:37:45.220 No, they don't.

01:37:46.280 We got out here in Charlestown, West Virginia.

01:37:50.060 Charlestown and not Charlestown.

01:37:51.840 Big mistake people make.

01:37:53.540 And, you know, they had this procession of like 2,000 Christians, Catholics.

01:37:58.080 It was a Latin mass.

01:37:58.960 Catholics marching through the streets and in protest of a lot of what we're seeing.

01:38:03.020 Yet the city council is all progressive or it's dominated by progressives.

01:38:08.300 And so I met a city councilman who is, you know, I'd say I wouldn't call him far right

01:38:13.140 or anything like that.

01:38:13.420 He's a conservative guy, you know, moderate.

01:38:15.540 And I asked him, how is that possible?

01:38:17.940 That you've got a Latin mass in West Virginia of all places, second most Trump-loving country,

01:38:23.160 Trump-supporting state in the country.

01:38:25.120 And he said they don't vote.

01:38:27.320 Exactly.

01:38:27.760 They go to church and they think that church is all they need to do.

01:38:32.820 They're not showing up.

01:38:33.960 And for these progressives, the ballot box is their church.

01:38:37.760 Yep.

01:38:37.920 When they show up to vote, they're tithing, they're worshiping.

01:38:41.120 And when the Catholics and the Christians go to church, they think that's it.

01:38:44.000 And then they cast aside the rest.

01:38:45.640 And that's exactly my point.

01:38:47.600 The sin of omission, as serious as the sin of commission, because if Christians, Catholics

01:38:52.600 would vote scripturally, we'd never have a progressive president or a progressive administration

01:38:58.020 because they couldn't.

01:38:59.640 Well, that's the, you know, the argument made by many liberals, leftists, you know, secular

01:39:03.060 individuals is that Christians want to moralize.

01:39:07.020 They're voting for religion and government.

01:39:08.840 They shouldn't do that.

01:39:10.220 Meanwhile, they're doing exactly that.

01:39:11.780 Their, their ideologies have been described as non-theistic religions or in a much more

01:39:18.120 derogatory way, cults.

01:39:19.360 That's what I like to say.

01:39:20.200 They're a death cult.

01:39:20.900 Yeah.

01:39:21.140 And, and they, and they go and vote based on these ideological beliefs.

01:39:25.900 Exactly.

01:39:26.600 And then criticize anybody who does, uh, who does otherwise.

01:39:30.000 There was this, uh, post that someone made from, uh, Daniel Radcliffe had a comment where

01:39:35.440 he said, you know, he's Harry Potter.

01:39:36.420 He said that, uh, he was an atheist and he has no problem with religions, just people

01:39:40.400 shouldn't be voting based on religion.

01:39:42.520 And he's a militant atheist who thinks that should be stopped.

01:39:44.780 And he's basically saying my worldview is absolute and no one else should be able to

01:39:48.600 influence government based on their worldview.

01:39:50.160 That's all he's really saying.

01:39:51.360 I think these people genuinely don't understand religion and morality.

01:39:55.560 They, they genuinely think they are morally superior for not having a religious view because

01:40:00.440 they're smarter and better than everybody.

01:40:01.600 They want to divorce everyone from God and they want to destroy the family and they

01:40:05.900 want the government to be the family.

01:40:07.760 And that's what, that's what they are doing all the time.

01:40:09.960 You're exactly right.

01:40:10.660 Both.

01:40:11.040 What you both said is exactly right.

01:40:13.440 And look at the havoc that's being caused.

01:40:15.540 Yeah.

01:40:15.740 Total chaos.

01:40:16.340 Christians are at fault for that.

01:40:17.940 You know, Catholics at fault for that because they don't go out and vote and vote the way they're

01:40:22.040 supposed to.

01:40:22.500 I thought Joe Biden's a Catholic.

01:40:24.740 Joe Biden.

01:40:26.700 What?

01:40:27.860 That guy is, you know what?

01:40:30.600 I, I never wanted to say this because this country is so divided right now.

01:40:35.460 It's horrible.

01:40:36.060 It really is terrible.

01:40:37.400 But I think people with knowledge now, if they can vote for Harris in this administration,

01:40:44.160 I think I'm going to be really upset with them, you know?

01:40:48.080 And, you know, I think it was Megyn Kelly that said, all right, you know, you people go

01:40:51.240 out and vote, but if you put this person in office, you're causing me to suffer, you know?

01:40:57.480 And I, I, I don't ever want to resent somebody because of their political views, but I think

01:41:03.740 I'm going to be angry at this point.

01:41:05.680 Yeah.

01:41:05.800 I understand the anger now because they actually are going after children.

01:41:09.440 Yeah.

01:41:09.800 They're just, they're mutilating innocents.

01:41:11.800 They don't, they don't care about the country.

01:41:13.280 They're loyal to foreign, you know, people in other countries like Biden and China.

01:41:18.020 It's nuts.

01:41:19.140 Massachusetts now, they're trying to pass the bill.

01:41:21.680 It's in front of their legislature where a mother on a birth certificate is no longer

01:41:27.660 called mother.

01:41:28.640 Yeah.

01:41:29.200 She's the birth person.

01:41:30.580 Yeah.

01:41:31.120 And the father is the other person.

01:41:33.520 Right.

01:41:33.680 Well, there, there was a, I saw a story the other day that said a, a thruple of three gay

01:41:38.400 men had a baby through surrogacy and they put all their names on the birth certificate.

01:41:42.260 I haven't fact checked this.

01:41:44.060 So, but you know, these days, things that are caricatures are so easily believable.

01:41:48.060 It's insane.

01:41:49.380 I have to wonder, I have to wonder what the, uh, the families in like the eighties would

01:41:53.620 be thinking if you showed them a newspaper from today.

01:41:56.320 Oh God.

01:41:57.020 Yeah.

01:41:57.460 That's a time travel mobster movie where they had to come from the seventies to 2024.

01:42:03.700 I'm telling you, when you got to hold up, we should make that short film.

01:42:06.560 That'd be funny.

01:42:06.920 You got to hold up the mob as the moral standard in this country.

01:42:10.200 And actually we can do that.

01:42:12.940 But that's basically the, the, the, the premise here that I was bringing up.

01:42:16.460 Somebody, somebody shared that, that, that clip from the Bronx town and went viral several

01:42:21.040 times over the past year because people keep saying that scene where they beat the crap

01:42:26.720 out of the bikers is better than what we have now.

01:42:30.260 Not that we want any violence, but right now it's, it's, it's absolutely insane where you've

01:42:36.600 got, as I mentioned, the homelessness, the poverty, the drug abuse camps all over these

01:42:40.720 cities and no accountability.

01:42:42.120 And now we're looking at, in Seattle, after the police got defunded, they're saying they

01:42:47.640 will not respond to emergency alarms anymore.

01:42:50.460 They don't have the resources.

01:42:51.980 So if an alarm goes off at a building, they just say, well, you know, good luck.

01:42:56.780 I wonder if something like this reemerges then if a family type mafia type thing can reemerge.

01:43:02.380 I don't see it happening from the legal aliens coming by because I think they're probably

01:43:06.320 loyal to stuff going on wherever they came from and to their day-to-day survival here.

01:43:10.940 Well, this, this, you know, I don't know, maybe, maybe, uh, Michael would know better

01:43:15.080 with, with the Trendy Aragua coming in and with, you know, the Summer of Love riots we

01:43:20.260 saw, these are, these, there, there was one video where some Antifa far left guys were

01:43:24.880 trying to riot in a small town and a bunch of the men got up and just stood firm and

01:43:29.420 started pushing them out as they were screaming and they were like, get out.

01:43:33.160 Is it possible that with Trendy Aragua, you're going to get a bunch of local guys coming

01:43:38.380 together and just being like, maybe they're union working guys being like,

01:43:40.940 like, we got it.

01:43:41.680 We got to come together.

01:43:42.400 We can't let Trendy Aragua come in.

01:43:44.180 And that turns into a family.

01:43:46.320 Well, I read that some of the gangs in Chicago were now pulling together to say, we got to

01:43:51.180 go after these guys.

01:43:52.100 So we're not going to let this happen.

01:43:54.100 You know, I look, I wouldn't doubt it.

01:43:56.520 Yeah.

01:43:56.940 It's like it's natural.

01:43:58.280 That's a natural progression of what's going on.

01:44:00.840 This is the, the Trendy Aragua, Chicago story is, I think it's one of the more interesting

01:44:06.260 and very worrying stories.

01:44:08.220 I remember a long time ago, I was at a police, the police station when I was a teenager and

01:44:12.560 they have maps of gang territory.

01:44:13.900 The cops know who they're going and they have to know the rules about what these gangs do.

01:44:19.380 Some gangs might shoot on site.

01:44:20.880 I mean, no respect.

01:44:22.060 They don't care.

01:44:22.880 They give a, they give a 13 year old kid a gun and they say, don't let cops come in.

01:44:26.300 And they know that that kid, they tell him like, don't worry.

01:44:28.680 You'll get out when you're 18.

01:44:29.800 Yeah.

01:44:30.280 So now what we're hearing is rumors.

01:44:33.040 I don't know.

01:44:33.640 I don't know to what extent it's actually starting to develop, but one story of one of the local

01:44:37.240 gangs, they were outside of some building and they said the Venezuelans have come in

01:44:42.160 here and they're selling drugs on our turf.

01:44:43.740 You can't do that.

01:44:44.860 The other gangs know better if, you know, I'm not going to start naming which gangs or

01:44:48.600 anything because I know all of them, but you know, gang one says, don't worry, gang

01:44:51.760 number two, they know not to cross this street because this is where we do business and

01:44:56.240 we have an agreement because we don't want to go to war.

01:44:57.960 So we don't go over there.

01:44:59.540 Sometimes you get a young guy is going to be like, I'm going to take this turf and they

01:45:03.260 can't do anything about it.

01:45:04.300 But you know, that I think, I feel like that's more rare, at least when I was growing up,

01:45:08.740 but the Venezuelans don't care about any of that.

01:45:09.980 They don't care about treaties.

01:45:10.780 They don't care about agreements.

01:45:11.940 And so now gang one goes to gang two and says, if we don't stop these Venezuelan cartels

01:45:19.160 and drug dealers coming in our turf, they're coming for yours next.

01:45:22.140 So work with us.

01:45:23.240 If you see them, let's not let them.

01:45:25.600 The scary thing is what that turns into.

01:45:27.280 Yeah.

01:45:27.680 You see this video out of Aurora where they come and knock on the door and they're banging

01:45:31.600 on it and then they start drilling through the door or whatever and they go inside.

01:45:34.480 If that were Chicago, they'd knock on that door, they'd pull out a drill, whatever, and

01:45:39.320 then bullets would come flying right through that door.

01:45:42.440 And that's it.

01:45:43.760 You know what?

01:45:44.100 It's going to come to that.

01:45:45.220 I think it really is.

01:45:46.400 If they don't get hold of this, it's going to come to that.

01:45:49.480 It's like an evolved version of what you're saying with working with the Russian guy, right?

01:45:53.440 It's for money's sake, right?

01:45:54.820 Yeah.

01:45:55.080 At some point, there's going to be a defensive version of that.

01:45:58.220 Did you have to deal with the Irish mafia at all in any way or compete against them?

01:46:02.820 We dealt with the Westies.

01:46:03.900 I was just going to say the Westies.

01:46:05.200 Yeah.

01:46:05.240 I knew Jimmy Coonan really well.

01:46:06.800 Oh, yeah.

01:46:07.160 And they were a good bunch of guys.

01:46:09.400 You know, we got along with them.

01:46:10.560 And that was probably the only group that we dealt with at the time.

01:46:15.020 That was it.

01:46:16.200 And we didn't go to war with them.

01:46:18.340 You know, we dealt with them.

01:46:19.740 You were mentioning that Fat Tony, when he called for that meeting, that was a different

01:46:23.320 crime family.

01:46:24.120 Yeah.

01:46:24.460 Or I should say, a different family.

01:46:25.620 Yeah.

01:46:26.060 But you guys worked with each other and...

01:46:27.780 Yeah.

01:46:28.720 Yeah, that's great.

01:46:29.280 We didn't go to war.

01:46:29.780 You know, people think we went to war with each other.

01:46:31.800 That ended in the 30s and the 40s.

01:46:33.940 Right.

01:46:34.100 Whenever there was a war in the family, and unfortunately, at Columbo's, we were a warring

01:46:37.540 family.

01:46:37.940 We had three wars in my lifetime.

01:46:40.080 But there's a civil war, and it's usually over power.

01:46:44.020 Who's going to be the boss or whatever.

01:46:45.400 But it's an internal war.

01:46:47.020 It's never a war among the families.

01:46:49.080 We don't go to war.

01:46:49.800 We settle things.

01:46:50.860 When you say there's a war within the family, is that people within making their own...

01:46:55.040 It's always a power.

01:46:55.740 ...group and then being like, we're going to take this guy out?

01:46:57.760 Well, it's who's going to be the boss.

01:46:59.980 Right.

01:47:00.160 It's always over the top spot.

01:47:01.960 Right.

01:47:02.160 Was there ever a circumstance where one of your guys, on his own, for whatever, goes

01:47:08.740 into another family's territory or businesses and causes problems?

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01:48:36.460 Did I mention that we care?

01:48:40.760 Happened all the time.

01:48:42.400 I mean, but like, what's the remedy then?

01:48:44.560 Does like, you know, Fat Tony say, hey, look, your guy came in here.

01:48:47.340 What are we going to do about this?

01:48:48.700 Like, how is that handled?

01:48:49.340 Sit down and discuss it.

01:48:51.500 And, you know, hopefully you can resolve it without anybody getting hurt, you know, depending

01:48:55.340 upon what the situation was.

01:48:57.260 But, you know, I had to sit down almost every other day, you know, over some of my guys doing

01:49:03.580 something or somebody wanting a piece of business.

01:49:06.660 Yeah.

01:49:07.100 When you're a captain, you're constantly doing that kind of business, you know, and I had

01:49:11.320 a couple of crazy guys around me.

01:49:12.900 Wow.

01:49:13.140 I was talking to Michael Malice about private security.

01:49:17.080 He's an anarchist.

01:49:17.940 So he views police as a private institution better than a governmental one.

01:49:23.040 I don't completely agree.

01:49:24.440 And I said, how would it work?

01:49:25.520 I mean, look, I live in I live in this town.

01:49:27.740 I pay my private police department.

01:49:30.040 They keep me safe.

01:49:31.380 And if someone comes to rob me, they'll come and they'll arrest them.

01:49:34.540 Let's say there's two cities.

01:49:35.960 They each have their own private police force.

01:49:38.140 One guy comes to my house and robs me.

01:49:40.180 It's chased by my private cops to this other city where he runs in his house and then calls

01:49:45.880 his cops and says, these other cops are lying.

01:49:48.200 They're coming to get me.

01:49:48.880 Come defend me.

01:49:50.000 And he said, it'd be like the mafia.

01:49:50.900 That's how things would be run.

01:49:53.800 And it was better then.

01:49:55.260 And, you know, I don't completely agree, but that did entertain the idea that crimes could

01:50:00.220 be resolved better.

01:50:01.740 But I'm curious, you know, if something like that were to happen, how did the families

01:50:05.480 resolve that issue?

01:50:07.140 Well, again, you know, they would sit down, they'd make a decision.

01:50:09.800 You know, if the guy at fault was really at fault and he had to be eliminated, it would

01:50:16.280 happen.

01:50:16.880 Wow.

01:50:17.120 Yeah.

01:50:17.420 I mean, there's no, they, it would be a joint decision at that point.

01:50:21.640 But I'd imagine there are a lot of circumstances where, you know, if one of your guys was

01:50:26.520 accused and it's looking like, I think he might be innocent.

01:50:32.220 However, they're demanding something that if we don't give them, it could make things

01:50:36.200 worse.

01:50:36.620 It could be.

01:50:37.040 I mean, you defend your guy as best you could.

01:50:39.160 But look, there's politics played at times too, you know, that's why when I sat down

01:50:43.200 with you and I said, please, no politics, you know, because I know, you know, they do

01:50:47.100 favors for one another and you, you get the short end of the stick, you know, it's like

01:50:51.020 anything else.

01:50:51.580 Same thing in government, you know, any organization.

01:50:54.120 But no, we tried to resolve things amicably, you know, as best we could.

01:50:58.500 Look, it's to nobody's advantage to be killing each other in the streets.

01:51:02.340 We all knew that.

01:51:03.760 You know, people think, oh, we went to war.

01:51:05.300 We want to fight.

01:51:06.000 No.

01:51:06.440 I mean, it was a last resort.

01:51:08.160 Always a last resort.

01:51:09.440 Speaking of killing in the streets, what do you think about the mob ties and the JFK

01:51:13.320 assassination?

01:51:16.240 My whole life, all I ever heard, and I have no reason to disbelieve it because it was from

01:51:22.060 the right people, without a doubt, that it was a mob hit.

01:51:26.200 Really?

01:51:26.540 No question.

01:51:27.120 And look, Jack Ruby, come out of Chicago.

01:51:30.500 You know, he was around the Capone guys back then.

01:51:35.960 All of a sudden, he goes into a police station out of nowhere and he kills Lee Harvey Oswald.

01:51:40.460 Come on.

01:51:41.100 Little suspect.

01:51:41.560 It was a setup.

01:51:42.740 The CIA knew about it.

01:51:44.680 I mean, what's his name?

01:51:45.880 Ocardo said it.

01:51:46.840 You know, we killed the wrong Kennedy.

01:51:48.360 He had it on tape.

01:51:49.860 I mean, look, Joe Kennedy made a deal.

01:51:53.180 We were supposed to have access to the White House if we delivered Illinois.

01:51:56.520 We delivered it.

01:51:57.160 When I say we, you know, family there.

01:51:58.780 They delivered Illinois.

01:52:00.340 And what happened?

01:52:01.160 Bobby Kennedy went just the opposite.

01:52:03.580 You know, as U.S. attorney, he started prosecuting.

01:52:05.400 He went after fans.

01:52:06.000 Yeah, he went after it.

01:52:07.020 After Hoover did nothing for so long.

01:52:08.500 Well, remember, J. Edgar Hoover would never even admit that the mafia existed.

01:52:12.920 Well, they had a little stuff on it.

01:52:13.760 Why did that happen?

01:52:15.200 J. Edgar Hoover used to go to the Stork Club, which Frank Costello had a piece of.

01:52:19.240 Right.

01:52:19.360 And what's his name?

01:52:21.260 Yeah, I forget his name.

01:52:22.580 Whatever.

01:52:23.100 The owner.

01:52:23.720 He had that place wired and bugged.

01:52:25.880 Yeah.

01:52:26.600 And he was trying to catch celebrities in acts so he can have something on them.

01:52:30.200 But he happened to catch Hoover in a bathroom with his boyfriend.

01:52:33.300 That's right.

01:52:33.700 And they had it on him.

01:52:34.780 True story.

01:52:36.300 And Hoover would never mention that the mafia.

01:52:38.040 The only time Hoover had to mention it was after Appalachia.

01:52:42.140 Right.

01:52:42.360 And he had to because.

01:52:43.260 That's like 30 years later, right?

01:52:44.620 Yeah, it was later.

01:52:45.620 And he had to say, OK, it does exist.

01:52:47.800 He wouldn't prosecute.

01:52:48.800 He wouldn't do anything.

01:52:49.880 But Bobby Kennedy took the opposite.

01:52:52.200 He said, no, we're going after these guys.

01:52:53.440 The mob.

01:52:53.900 Do you think the mob then did Bobby too?

01:52:55.780 No.

01:52:56.420 Really?

01:52:56.920 No.

01:52:57.240 And when you say the mob did JFK, does that mean the CIA worked with the mob?

01:53:01.300 Yes.

01:53:01.840 Yes.

01:53:02.620 Wow.

01:53:04.020 Was that, you know, it wasn't the first time.

01:53:06.320 Yeah.

01:53:07.300 I mean, they came to us to try to kill Castro.

01:53:11.440 How?

01:53:12.000 100%.

01:53:12.320 How public was, you know, all of this stuff went, you know, from the 50s to the 80s?

01:53:18.580 Was it very common in the press?

01:53:20.180 Everybody knew the mob was out there.

01:53:21.840 They're doing stuff.

01:53:22.600 They're in the news every day.

01:53:24.220 You mentioned walking to the prison.

01:53:25.620 You're on the TV.

01:53:26.980 There wasn't, I'll be honest with you, you know, New York Times, Daily News, New York

01:53:32.680 Post.

01:53:33.680 During my era in that life, there wasn't a day or two that went by without a mob story.

01:53:38.940 About somebody.

01:53:40.180 Usually two or three of them.

01:53:42.340 Now, I read the New York Post every morning.

01:53:44.940 Maybe every six months you might read something.

01:53:47.440 Right.

01:53:47.740 And then you read, what do you read?

01:53:48.920 These guys got busted for the same old thing.

01:53:51.800 Gambling.

01:53:52.160 It's the same nonsense, silly things that they, you know.

01:53:56.840 Yeah.

01:53:57.200 You know, I just don't hear about it anymore.

01:53:59.060 But I wonder if that's it.

01:54:00.440 You know, with the obsession over Donald Trump starting in 2015, CNN turned into the Trump

01:54:06.120 news network.

01:54:06.940 I remember, I used to watch CNN every day.

01:54:10.320 This is six, seven years ago.

01:54:12.220 I had a projector screen on my wall playing CNN, 10 feet wide, and I would just leave

01:54:17.300 it running.

01:54:17.680 So for breaking news.

01:54:19.140 And then one day I'm watching it and I see online that there's riots going on in Iran.

01:54:23.080 And I'm like, what's happening in Iran?

01:54:24.600 And I look at the T, I look at the screen and they're having a round table talking about

01:54:27.800 Trump.

01:54:28.260 And I was like, I don't, I don't know.

01:54:29.760 I got to change channel.

01:54:31.280 Fox News, Iranian protests.

01:54:33.220 And I'm just like, they became obsessed talking about Trump.

01:54:36.340 I'm wondering if now the media stops writing about the families and their, and their dealings

01:54:41.980 and what's going on because they're not getting the traffic and the attention they used to

01:54:45.960 get.

01:54:46.700 Maybe the story was just, the American public was thirsty for news about what the families

01:54:51.260 were doing.

01:54:51.660 They made movies about it, endless movies.

01:54:53.900 To a degree.

01:54:54.800 But I'll tell you what, back in my day, we had, among the families, we had a lot of

01:54:58.000 all five families.

01:54:59.140 We had about 750 made guys, guys that actually took the oath.

01:55:02.960 We had a lot of associates, but guys that actually took the oath.

01:55:06.200 Back then, the FBI had 1200, 12 to 1400 agents assigned to the five families.

01:55:13.960 There was two agents to every one guy, made guy.

01:55:17.760 Now there's less than a hundred agents.

01:55:20.560 That's all five families.

01:55:21.940 What I'm saying is either it's a prime time for resurgence because the public doesn't care

01:55:26.840 and the feds don't care, or they've already have an, they have operation going, but they're

01:55:31.340 keeping it under the radar.

01:55:32.640 They are keeping it under the radar.

01:55:33.800 They're not going away.

01:55:34.920 That, that much I can tell you, but they're just, the feds are just not on them anymore.

01:55:40.100 They feel that they did the job to a great degree.

01:55:42.520 They got to go after the J6ers.

01:55:43.660 Yeah, but they're not.

01:55:45.740 But again, oh, let me tell you, you don't want to get me started on that.

01:55:49.420 Yeah, we do.

01:55:50.400 They go after the J6ers much harder than the mob guys?

01:55:53.140 You know what?

01:55:53.720 You know what gets me upset?

01:55:56.240 Who the heck are these people that they made such a big deal out of?

01:55:59.720 First of all, I think that whole thing was a setup.

01:56:01.980 I mean, come on.

01:56:02.780 Trump asked Pelosi, have the National Guard there.

01:56:04.860 She refused.

01:56:05.860 He asked the mayor, you know, get more police.

01:56:08.660 They refused.

01:56:09.840 You know, they're walking people into there.

01:56:11.620 For sure.

01:56:11.900 And they made such a big deal out of it.

01:56:13.540 And I'm saying, well, who the heck are you people?

01:56:16.020 Our cities were burning down.

01:56:18.020 Yeah, well, they funded those.

01:56:19.080 Yeah, after Floyd.

01:56:20.060 Burning down, businesses closed, riots, people getting killed in the streets.

01:56:23.960 It was a summer of what?

01:56:25.360 What'd they call it?

01:56:26.020 Love.

01:56:26.580 Yeah, summer of love.

01:56:28.100 Mostly peaceful.

01:56:28.860 Yeah, so now we got to worry about you.

01:56:30.500 Not one of you got hurt.

01:56:31.500 You're hiding under the desk.

01:56:32.460 You got a police force around you.

01:56:33.900 Nothing happened.

01:56:35.040 But, you know, it was an assault on democracy.

01:56:37.680 When normal people are getting killed, businesses are getting closed, thousands are getting burned down.

01:56:42.300 But you're special.

01:56:44.160 Come on, you know.

01:56:46.160 You know, it's funny.

01:56:47.220 It just sounds like a gang.

01:56:49.060 Yeah.

01:56:49.220 When, you know, it's funny you tell the story about your gas stations.

01:56:53.340 The problem was that you were taking money from them.

01:56:56.420 Right?

01:56:56.760 Exactly.

01:56:57.080 They don't care if the people are robbing each other.

01:57:00.080 But don't go after their paychecks.

01:57:01.720 Exactly.

01:57:02.340 That's when they get mad.

01:57:03.400 Exactly.

01:57:03.940 That's why they didn't care about the summer of love.

01:57:06.440 Rioters threw firebombs at the White House, torched a guard post, had fire to St. John's Church.

01:57:10.560 The president was forced into an emergency bunker.

01:57:13.380 But they don't like Trump, so that was fine.

01:57:14.900 They didn't care.

01:57:15.520 They don't care about it.

01:57:16.160 They don't talk about it.

01:57:16.880 There's no commission about it.

01:57:18.020 They didn't want it to end.

01:57:19.440 Yeah, right.

01:57:19.940 No.

01:57:20.200 They were donating.

01:57:20.860 Kamala was, she put out that link to donate to help get these people out of jail.

01:57:24.240 Yep.

01:57:24.520 Maxine orders to get in their faces.

01:57:26.460 You know, they all, they loved it.

01:57:27.920 Did you ever think in your wildest imagination that we would see something like that?

01:57:32.860 No.

01:57:33.520 No.

01:57:33.840 You know, and Jack Posobiec has a really great post.

01:57:36.560 I want to pull this one up.

01:57:37.500 It's, it's, it's, it's heavy political, but I think this one, this one matters.

01:57:40.680 Let me.

01:57:41.300 What surprised me is like knowing history, you know what happens and it's bound to repeat

01:57:44.960 itself, but it was just shock of people I knew overnight being brainwashed into being

01:57:50.800 bloodthirsty for your neighbor or for your loved one and banishing your family if they

01:57:55.740 had wrong thing, you know, or seeing people donate money to arsonists or marching down to

01:57:59.720 the city and doing violence themselves.

01:58:01.020 This is a great post from Jack Posobiec.

01:58:03.120 He says, I really have to tell the Zoomers politics is not usually like this.

01:58:06.920 Presidential elections are not usually like this.

01:58:08.840 Usually they're kind of boring.

01:58:10.440 Multiple assassination attempts, sitting presidents dropping out nuclear war threats, one party

01:58:15.060 trying to lock up the other candidate.

01:58:16.300 There's never been anything like this.

01:58:19.020 Yeah.

01:58:19.780 A hundred percent.

01:58:20.920 I mean, it's, it's like, uh, you know, a fictionalized novel that you'd read 20 years

01:58:26.400 ago, that this could happen and you'd laugh it off.

01:58:28.680 It would never happen.

01:58:29.800 How old are you?

01:58:31.420 73.

01:58:32.140 73.

01:58:32.900 Wow.

01:58:33.280 I did not expect you to be 73.

01:58:34.820 I thought you were younger than that.

01:58:36.060 But you've been around for a lot of presidential elections and you, you agree with Jack?

01:58:40.500 It's usually pretty boring.

01:58:42.780 Yeah.

01:58:43.200 I mean, you know, well, first of all, it was great because one day, okay, you went out

01:58:48.020 and vote by the next morning, you know who the president is.

01:58:50.100 Or by later that night.

01:58:51.280 Do you think the elections were rigged before though, at some point?

01:58:54.120 I absolutely do.

01:58:54.520 Presidential ones?

01:58:56.140 Before what?

01:58:56.940 Before the 2020 one.

01:59:00.180 I have no evidence to, to, to say that that happened.

01:59:03.720 I wouldn't, I didn't even think of it.

01:59:05.220 Really?

01:59:05.800 Yeah.

01:59:06.240 Because knowing you could fix games, you know, knowing World Series have been fixed.

01:59:09.900 It's like, it seems nothing is safe.

01:59:12.320 Yeah.

01:59:12.820 I, I, I have no evidence of that.

01:59:14.520 Never heard anything on the street about that until, you know, the last election in 2020.

01:59:19.800 But, you know, do I believe that that election was rigged?

01:59:24.980 A hundred percent.

01:59:26.280 It's a lot of weird stuff going on.

01:59:27.740 A hundred percent.

01:59:28.060 Yeah.

01:59:28.280 I mean, come on.

01:59:29.560 You know, look, COVID was the best thing that ever happened to progressives.

01:59:33.840 But, you know, again, too, I wish people would just wake up, you know, these people have

01:59:39.420 lied to, I mean, they caused people to die during COVID.

01:59:42.900 Oh yeah.

01:59:43.620 Oh, I think.

01:59:44.580 These are murder, these are murderers.

01:59:47.440 They are murderers.

01:59:48.880 What Cuomo did with the nursing homes.

01:59:51.720 Yeah.

01:59:52.120 I'll never forget it.

01:59:52.660 And now he, he's entertaining a run for New York City mayor with what's going on with

01:59:55.980 Eric Adams.

01:59:56.600 I know.

01:59:57.040 And people are actually suggesting he'll probably win.

01:59:59.500 They deserve him.

02:00:01.280 He's a genocidal maniac, in my opinion.

02:00:03.220 But it wasn't just him.

02:00:04.140 It was other Democrat governors.

02:00:05.020 I think Whitmer did it as well.

02:00:06.460 Yeah.

02:00:06.640 I think it was also what Wolf in, where was he?

02:00:09.040 Was he PA?

02:00:09.720 PA.

02:00:10.180 Yeah.

02:00:10.340 There's three or four governors that did the same thing.

02:00:12.540 New Jersey.

02:00:13.060 I think, I think Newsom maybe did the same thing.

02:00:14.860 But you know, look, you get guys like Fauci, who misled us, who lied to us, who had something

02:00:21.620 to do with the whole China at the Wuhan lab.

02:00:24.140 Right.

02:00:24.380 These guys walk away scot-free and they got blood on their hands.

02:00:27.480 I mean, they killed, they caused innocent people to die.

02:00:31.420 Hundreds of thousands, maybe more than that.

02:00:33.740 And scot-free.

02:00:34.800 Isn't it, isn't it kind of funny when you're getting your morals from a former mafia guy

02:00:39.040 over your government officials, you know?

02:00:41.080 Absolutely.

02:00:41.600 Listen, if it's shocking to me.

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02:02:08.580 Hey, who's seen a lot.

02:02:14.140 I mean, think about it.

02:02:15.720 But, you know, for me, again, it's all a violation of trust to such a degree that you

02:02:21.540 cause people to die.

02:02:23.780 And you're a public official.

02:02:27.700 And I don't know why.

02:02:29.000 I just cannot.

02:02:30.460 I can't.

02:02:31.860 You wanted your neighborhoods to be nice.

02:02:33.680 You wanted to go to your restaurant, bring your family out, not worry about it.

02:02:37.320 I mean, there's parts of the New York City I just won't go to anymore because they're lost.

02:02:41.440 I know.

02:02:41.720 They're insane.

02:02:42.040 And listen, Chicago.

02:02:43.020 I love that city.

02:02:44.460 Yeah.

02:02:44.700 Chicago is a great town.

02:02:46.160 I always looked at it as a miniature in New York.

02:02:48.220 Easier to get around with.

02:02:49.720 Great food.

02:02:50.540 Good people.

02:02:51.400 Great.

02:02:52.220 And look at it now.

02:02:53.720 Yeah, man.

02:02:54.320 And to see the Mag Mile, Water Tower, Gold Coast areas, what they're turning into, that's

02:02:59.320 kind of, it's kind of, it's kind of, it's crazy.

02:03:01.800 The downtown storefronts just closed.

02:03:05.280 And I was there a couple of years ago and I couldn't believe how many businesses had shut

02:03:08.160 down.

02:03:08.640 It's not just about the crime.

02:03:10.020 It's the economy.

02:03:11.280 I think, you know, it's one thing when you look at the local level, defund the police,

02:03:14.680 the political climate around policing, the cops can't do anything.

02:03:17.380 Not to mention, I mean, Chicago, Chicago cops are corrupt.

02:03:20.120 Not all of them, but Chicago's got corrupt cops.

02:03:22.080 And I think now what we're looking at is, I guess, the inverse of when things break

02:03:27.540 down the other direction and now it's just gang crime and theft and robberies.

02:03:31.060 Now there's no town at all.

02:03:32.700 Look, you know what's going to happen is I go back home and I'm shocked to see what the

02:03:38.080 city's turned into.

02:03:39.080 But the people who never left, it's just the same, right?

02:03:42.420 So the younger people are like, what do you mean?

02:03:43.860 It's always been like this.

02:03:45.060 Older people are like, no, there used to be a hot dog stand over there.

02:03:47.600 There used to be a barbershop over there, an ice cream shop right there.

02:03:50.160 I think a lot of that is what breeds nihilism.

02:03:52.080 And the younger people who are doing this petty, violent crime, day-to-day stuff, because

02:03:55.820 they have no meaning in their lives.

02:03:57.340 It's going back to having no God and stuff like that.

02:03:59.560 You know, people used to say, well, you guys corrupted the cops.

02:04:02.440 Yeah, okay.

02:04:03.000 So we had a card game and they would come and we'd pay them off and look the other way

02:04:07.180 while guys are sitting down playing cards.

02:04:09.060 They're not shooting each other.

02:04:10.360 They're not robbing people in the street.

02:04:11.860 They're not selling drugs.

02:04:12.980 They're playing cards.

02:04:14.360 Okay.

02:04:14.700 Sorry the government isn't getting their cut out of it.

02:04:17.180 Okay.

02:04:17.520 So the cops, they would look the other way.

02:04:19.120 We'd pay them.

02:04:19.580 They'd go away.

02:04:20.700 I mean, we're corrupting the cops.

02:04:22.240 That's corrupting the cops.

02:04:23.520 I mean, come on.

02:04:23.980 What else did we do with them?

02:04:25.540 Really, that was it.

02:04:26.340 They weren't hiding bodies for us or anything like that.

02:04:28.680 In the 70s and 80s, the city also wasn't the best of places too.

02:04:31.840 There were a lot of crazy, it was kind of sand was happening.

02:04:36.180 Absolutely.

02:04:36.540 The city went bankrupt in the 70s.

02:04:39.300 And I think the president at that point said, no, I'm not bailing you out.

02:04:42.580 I'm not bailing out.

02:04:43.360 Yeah.

02:04:43.560 So, I mean, you were dealing with a lot of crazy stuff happening around you.

02:04:47.400 Did you find yourselves having to defend yourself against some of the dystopian things happening

02:04:52.740 in the 70s and 80s or were you just kind of staying out of it?

02:04:54.840 Yeah.

02:04:55.880 It didn't trouble us.

02:04:57.540 Really?

02:04:58.100 Yeah.

02:04:59.100 No, we didn't have any of those issues.

02:05:01.900 Right.

02:05:02.080 We're doing our own thing and just don't bother us and don't mess with our neighborhoods

02:05:06.700 or anything like that or stay away from our stuff and we're all right.

02:05:10.100 Right.

02:05:10.840 But listen, if they would have engaged, look, understand this too.

02:05:14.820 I mean, this is kind of ironic, but most of my guys, they all fought in a war.

02:05:20.220 Right.

02:05:20.700 Either the Korean War, World War II, a lot of guys, they were patriotic.

02:05:24.180 Hey, we'll steal money from the government.

02:05:27.280 Don't you mess with my country though.

02:05:28.820 Right.

02:05:28.900 You know, a lot of the guys had that view.

02:05:30.760 Sure.

02:05:31.020 Believe it or not, you know, but.

02:05:33.660 Oh man, I'm looking back at my old neighborhood and there's a vegan sandwich shop where the

02:05:36.940 people used to be.

02:05:38.200 We're lost.

02:05:39.640 That's it.

02:05:40.260 It was like refund the mafia.

02:05:42.000 Vegan food now.

02:05:43.280 Oh, geez.

02:05:44.220 God.

02:05:44.700 Refund the mafia.

02:05:46.480 Let me, let me, let me ask you this.

02:05:48.500 Okay.

02:05:49.280 Do you think that America can survive four years of Harris and whoever's really pulling

02:05:56.040 a string.

02:05:56.080 Barely survived four years of her now.

02:05:57.940 Exactly.

02:05:58.640 Yeah.

02:05:58.840 Do you think another four years that we can survive this?

02:06:02.880 Well, you know, I'll say this.

02:06:04.260 I think, I think this country will exist.

02:06:08.060 It's a question of, will we like what it's become?

02:06:11.280 You know, there's always going to be people here, even if the apocalypse were to happen

02:06:14.620 in the sun were to, you know, solar flare out the, all the technology, whatever, the American

02:06:19.260 people will figure it out.

02:06:20.380 But a lot of people are going to be in really, really bad spots.

02:06:23.460 I think we got a lot of people in this country who don't know how to survive, don't know what

02:06:28.520 it means to work hard.

02:06:29.420 There was a report out the other day, a survey found that Gen Z, Gen Z college graduate employees

02:06:34.820 are getting fired at an extremely high rate, extremely quickly.

02:06:39.080 And companies are reporting that when they bring in these, you know, 23, 24 year olds,

02:06:43.440 they make excuses.

02:06:44.700 They don't dress properly.

02:06:45.800 They talk weird.

02:06:46.740 They're insulting, condescending, lazy.

02:06:48.460 They call in sick all the time.

02:06:49.420 They're quiet, quitting.

02:06:50.500 And I fear for this next generation of, of where we're already at, because this is a problem

02:06:55.280 of 20 years ago that these things have been bubbling up.

02:06:57.900 And I wonder if, and this is, this is kind of worrying.

02:07:01.120 The real issue is that 20 years ago when the problems emerged, most people didn't realize

02:07:06.620 that the roots of this nation, the next generation were being poisoned.

02:07:10.740 And now 20 years later, this generation set to take over has got some serious problems.

02:07:16.520 There are good and honest, intelligent Gen Z people.

02:07:19.700 I never, I'm not, I'm never saying that every generation is bad or whatever, but there are

02:07:23.960 a lot of, you know, there's, there's a greater degree as you get younger and younger, people

02:07:28.540 who don't understand work ethic, sacrifice.

02:07:31.800 And I think that even, even if we get Trump and he starts to turn things around, we are

02:07:36.920 going to be in some, some turbulence for a little bit.

02:07:39.120 But to be fair, I think the, the, the preferable alternative would be Trump.

02:07:42.900 Obviously, I don't know that, you know, should, should Harris actually,

02:07:46.520 win.

02:07:47.640 I think that the tailspin that we're in turns into a crashing at sea and the survivors got

02:07:52.300 to figure out how to stay afloat.

02:07:53.660 I think Donald Trump pulls us out of the nosedive.

02:07:56.300 We get real close, things get shaky and things get rough, but we, we make it through.

02:08:01.740 Here's hoping, I guess.

02:08:03.360 Yeah.

02:08:03.740 I hope people find God more.

02:08:06.020 You know, I think how, how bad it's been.

02:08:07.980 I see a lot of people going to church now who I didn't expect going to church.

02:08:12.520 I'm one of them.

02:08:13.000 You know, I didn't, well, I can tell you, I believe there is a Jesus revolution.

02:08:17.560 Oh, for sure.

02:08:18.100 Yeah.

02:08:18.480 Among, I'm seeing it among college age kids.

02:08:21.640 Yep.

02:08:22.640 That's what we need.

02:08:23.740 I mean, there's no question about it.

02:08:25.280 And the more they try to push God out of our institutions and out of our daily life and,

02:08:30.480 and, and, and alienate our children from God, the worst this country is going to get, you

02:08:35.460 know?

02:08:35.740 And, and, um, listen, I'm, I'm praying.

02:08:39.340 I really am, but I don't think we survive.

02:08:41.880 You know, one thing being on a rumble platform, it's a different platform than YouTube and that

02:08:47.800 people are very angry.

02:08:49.160 I mean, I get messages like this and they just go on and on and on.

02:08:54.020 They're very angry with what's going on now.

02:08:56.020 I think if Trump loses, this anger is going to spill over because there's a lot of people

02:09:01.100 that just can't take what's going on here anymore.

02:09:03.540 And I, you know, I'm only hoping that they're really paying attention.

02:09:07.420 And again, you know, is it personal with Harris?

02:09:10.220 I mean, just go away.

02:09:12.320 Just go away.

02:09:13.840 Go back to, well, California.

02:09:15.980 I live there.

02:09:16.320 Yeah.

02:09:16.540 You want her back?

02:09:17.360 Huh?

02:09:17.920 You want her back there?

02:09:19.080 I'd rather have her in California.

02:09:20.640 I can deal with that rather than make the United States, California.

02:09:24.280 Yeah.

02:09:24.420 Yeah.

02:09:24.580 For sure.

02:09:25.040 You know what I mean?

02:09:25.260 And destroy it even further.

02:09:26.700 For sure.

02:09:27.040 You know, the Pelosi's just go away.

02:09:28.780 You did your damage.

02:09:29.700 You got Newsom too.

02:09:30.700 You made your money.

02:09:31.600 Go away.

02:09:32.420 Newsom, go away.

02:09:33.320 You know, just people just go away.

02:09:34.580 Don't wish them any harm.

02:09:35.800 Right.

02:09:36.080 Just go away and let us get back to some normalcy here, you know?

02:09:40.660 But I'm telling you, I don't, I don't know how we're going to survive, you know, the

02:09:44.300 influx at the border.

02:09:45.280 And remember, something we're not talking about, with $36 trillion in debt, how do you

02:09:51.020 get out from under $36 trillion?

02:09:53.140 The answer is you don't.

02:09:55.060 Something has got to give.

02:09:56.920 You know, this is why they're opening the border.

02:10:01.080 They've got TPS, temporary protected status, and they're trying to expedite work permits.

02:10:05.640 Their answer to this is just flood the country with as many workers as possible.

02:10:09.520 We don't even care where they're from or what they do.

02:10:12.900 Give them work permits, and then we'll tax them.

02:10:14.980 That's how they're trying to make up for the debts.

02:10:17.600 It's not going to work.

02:10:18.660 Not going to work.

02:10:19.180 You can't do it.

02:10:20.080 It's ridiculous.

02:10:20.780 It is a bandit and a bullet wound.

02:10:23.600 And it's not only that.

02:10:24.680 They'll outspend any revenue that comes in.

02:10:27.760 That's just their way.

02:10:28.940 It doesn't matter.

02:10:30.520 Man.

02:10:31.080 Well, what's your prediction then?

02:10:32.500 Are you optimistic?

02:10:33.160 You know, gosh, if I was a betting man, I wouldn't bet.

02:10:38.940 But I want to have some confidence in the American people and say they're really seeing through all of this.

02:10:45.940 And that, you know, it's not popular to be a Trump supporter.

02:10:50.320 But hopefully when they go in the booth, if it's legit, and I always say if it's legit, because these people are so underhanded, so sneaky, so shaky, you know.

02:10:58.520 And they can get these voting machines, and who knows what they can do with them.

02:11:01.840 You know, so who knows?

02:11:04.660 But I think if this election is legit, that Trump will win.

02:11:09.620 I agree.

02:11:10.240 I agree as well.

02:11:12.620 He did something yesterday, you know, in preparation for Harris going to the border for the second time, right, in four years.

02:11:20.660 And she was going to make her whole play that it was Donald Trump's fault and all that lie that she's going to.

02:11:25.840 He gave an excellent speech in New York yesterday.

02:11:28.920 He just stayed on the issues.

02:11:30.380 Nice.

02:11:30.700 And he kept saying, Kamala, why didn't you do it for the past three and a half years?

02:11:35.060 He kept pounding that home, pounding that home.

02:11:37.360 And if enough people are listening to this, and they have any kind of sense, they're going to say, well, yeah, why didn't she?

02:11:42.920 You think he can win New York?

02:11:44.660 No.

02:11:45.680 It's impossible.

02:11:46.340 I don't think he can win New York, but I love what I'm seeing, the crowds that he's bringing in.

02:11:50.920 People forget New York has a lot of red areas.

02:11:53.160 I know.

02:11:53.640 The city does just ruin it for everybody.

02:11:55.060 The city ruins it.

02:11:55.940 But they've had Republican mayors.

02:11:57.420 I mean, how about Juliana?

02:11:58.660 I know.

02:11:59.120 Well, Cuomo will be a Republican.

02:12:00.480 He wins New York.

02:12:02.540 He wins New York.

02:12:03.460 He wins the election.

02:12:04.300 There's no question.

02:12:05.460 Oh, yeah.

02:12:06.040 100%.

02:12:06.400 Well, he's surprisingly close in Jersey against Joe Biden.

02:12:09.840 Yeah.

02:12:10.160 Harris improved a little bit, but this is why they had to, you know, I mean, it's pretty wild to think.

02:12:16.000 Let's just, once again, I shout it to Jack Posobiec.

02:12:19.000 Two assassination attempts, technically three with the Iranian plot.

02:12:21.900 Yep.

02:12:22.400 Multiple, five teams.

02:12:23.840 Yeah.

02:12:24.260 According to the DNI, even Donald Trump has now acknowledged this, targeting him.

02:12:28.980 The sitting president has dropped out abruptly only three months before the election was to take place.

02:12:35.440 This is a wild time.

02:12:37.500 And so I just remind everybody, may you live in interesting times is meant to be a curse.

02:12:43.600 Absolutely.

02:12:44.780 It was just last summer that the Mexican government had alien corpses in their honor.

02:12:49.420 It was cake the whole time.

02:12:50.820 It was cake.

02:12:51.400 That's true.

02:12:52.020 It was cake.

02:12:52.980 This has been absolutely fun.

02:12:55.280 It's been a blast, Michael.

02:12:55.980 Is there anything you want to shout out or final thoughts as we wrap up?

02:12:59.300 No.

02:12:59.660 You know, one thing I do want to talk about, you know, I get so many requests, I would say.

02:13:06.420 You know, people are really struggling, really struggling.

02:13:09.600 And I get requests for mentorship and, you know, advice all the time and a lot of personal things that people are going through right now.

02:13:18.420 So recently I just started a platform and we got an influx of membership.

02:13:26.160 We only launched it a week ago.

02:13:28.120 And in that platform, it's michaelfrancis.com.

02:13:31.540 It's on my website.

02:13:32.960 We are offering a family and a community for people where like-minded people can get together, get some help, have some fellowship.

02:13:40.520 And you'd be surprised how people need this today.

02:13:45.540 They're looking for it.

02:13:46.720 They don't have it.

02:13:47.380 They don't have communities like they had before.

02:13:49.820 Families.

02:13:50.020 They have nobody.

02:13:50.820 So, you know, I just want to mention that, that that's something that we started and that I'm totally committed to try to get this country unified again and try to get people thinking the right way.

02:14:00.640 I'm doing a Bible study twice a month.

02:14:02.780 Awesome.

02:14:03.060 You know, it's amazing, Tim.

02:14:04.440 I just announced this.

02:14:05.800 I said, look, you know, God put it in my heart.

02:14:08.220 First Wednesday and last Wednesday of every month, I'm going to do a Bible study.

02:14:12.120 I said, free, just jump on.

02:14:14.080 It's michaelfrancis.com slash Bible study.

02:14:17.640 And we got a flow of people.

02:14:19.640 It was unbelievable.

02:14:21.000 And I said, listen, you don't have to be a Christian.

02:14:23.820 You know, I'm not a Bible thumper.

02:14:25.160 I don't hit you over the head with the Bible.

02:14:26.620 I'm not trying to turn you into a Christian.

02:14:28.240 But there's a lot of scriptural foundation that can help you with the issues that you're going through today.

02:14:34.380 And people responded immediately.

02:14:36.860 I'm getting so many requests.

02:14:38.000 We couldn't believe how many people jumped on.

02:14:40.680 So, you know, we're out there to try to do that.

02:14:43.240 You know, I believe this.

02:14:44.720 To those of us who have been given much, much is expected in return.

02:14:49.460 And for me to be sitting here and to be alive and to be free is a big deal.

02:14:54.280 And I believe God had a different plan and a purpose for my life.

02:14:57.100 So, you want to give back.

02:14:58.780 And, you know, it's really been a great, you know, thing in my life to be able to do that.

02:15:05.560 And we're going to continue it.

02:15:06.720 And hopefully we get a bunch of people that will benefit from it.

02:15:09.880 Where can people find you?

02:15:11.560 Well, I'm all over.

02:15:12.680 I mean, most people know me.

02:15:14.320 But this site is michaelfrancis.com.

02:15:16.720 And just go on my website and you can jump in and join the family.

02:15:20.460 And there'll be a lot of benefits to this.

02:15:22.600 And I'm YouTube, Rumble.

02:15:24.740 I'm all over the place.

02:15:25.640 Right on.

02:15:26.120 Thanks for hanging out.

02:15:26.680 Man, it was a real pleasure.

02:15:28.200 It was awesome.

02:15:28.620 Yeah, you guys were great.

02:15:29.680 Thank you.

02:15:30.340 I love you.

02:15:31.140 Down to earth, real.

02:15:32.600 That's what we need today.

02:15:33.980 Yeah, that was a great, great talk.

02:15:35.800 I'm Shane Cashman.

02:15:36.600 You can find me online also everywhere.

02:15:38.500 And the show is Inverted World Live every Sunday at 6 o'clock.

02:15:41.360 Right on.

02:15:41.720 We are back tonight at 8 p.m.

02:15:43.280 For YouTube.com slash TimCastIRL.

02:15:46.840 And make sure you check out the new single.

02:15:48.960 We just put it out with Phil Labonte on guest vocals.

02:15:51.500 All that remains.

02:15:52.940 Getcominghome.com.

02:15:53.980 It's also on YouTube.

02:15:54.740 You search YouTube music, TimCast music.

02:15:57.360 Thanks for hanging out.

02:15:58.040 We'll see you all tonight.

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The Culture War - Tim Pool - September 27, 2024

The Culture War #83 Michael Franzese, Was Life Better Under Mafia Rule？ w⧸ Michael Franzese & Shane Cashman

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