The StoneZONE with Roger Stone


Nikki Fried ｜ 04-17-25


Episode Stats

Misogynist Sentences

4

Hate Speech Sentences

1


Summary

Governor Ron DeSantis and his wife Casey have been accused of embezzling millions of dollars from the state Medicaid program in order to fund political campaigns opposing legalization of cannabis in Florida. Now, the Florida Democratic Party Chairwoman, Nikki Freed, joins me to discuss the scandal.


Transcript

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00:00:30.000 The Stone Zone.
00:00:32.460 Entertaining and informative.
00:00:34.640 On the Red Apple Podcast Network.
00:00:37.540 Welcome back.
00:00:38.740 You are entering yet again the Stone Zone.
00:00:41.620 Joining me now, Nikki Freed.
00:00:43.680 She is the chairwoman of the Florida Democrat Party.
00:00:47.080 A former Florida Agriculture Commissioner.
00:00:49.920 The only Democrat elected statewide in the Sunshine State from 2018 to 2022.
00:00:55.020 She's an attorney, a lifelong advocate for medical cannabis reform, consumer rights, and environmental protection.
00:01:04.400 People find this hard to believe.
00:01:06.140 She's also a longtime friend of mine, despite our energetic political disagreement.
00:01:11.300 And she's here to talk about what I think could be the greatest single corruption scandal in Florida history.
00:01:19.080 That is the scandal surrounding Governor Ron DeSantis, First Lady Casey DeSantis, and our new temporary attorney general, Mr. James Uthmeyer.
00:01:31.320 Nikki, welcome into the Stone Zone.
00:01:34.220 Thanks, Roger, for having me today.
00:01:36.120 Yeah.
00:01:36.400 I think people are going to be surprised by our conversation.
00:01:38.680 Well, we agree on some things, and I think Governor DeSantis tends out to be one of them.
00:01:44.500 So let's try to recap this as best we can for our listeners.
00:01:48.420 It appears to me that Governor DeSantis and his wife, who aspires evidently to be governor,
00:01:55.580 diverted $10 million that should have been spent by Medicaid for health care for the elderly, the poor, and the disabled.
00:02:11.900 And they moved it first to a slush fund, a political slush fund, and from there into two campaigns to oppose a question on the ballot, a constitutional amendment, having to do with the legal status of cannabis.
00:02:29.280 Do I have that about right?
00:02:30.300 Yeah, that's about right.
00:02:32.860 You know, basically what happened, from my understanding, and again, as we're talking, Roger, this is all kind of coming out and subpoenas and questions to the governor's staff,
00:02:43.080 that there was, I guess, a lawsuit that had happened with one of the Medicaid providers.
00:02:46.920 And there was a settlement, a pre-lawsuit settlement that had happened where there was $67 million that was supposed to come back to the Medicaid program, to your point, to go to, you know, children and families that are, you know, really in need and help.
00:03:01.760 And they diverted $10 million of that to Casey's, I think they're calling it the HOPE Foundation, with the lofty goal of taking people off of welfare.
00:03:13.280 But that's not what happened.
00:03:14.640 And they took that money, and that was their slush fund, and they started to play around with it and to eventually get into some dark money PCs that James was overseeing on the direction of the governor.
00:03:25.120 And then that money was used to go after legalization of cannabis.
00:03:29.920 It's really quite extraordinary, I guess, particularly because of the governor's reaction when members of his own party in the state legislature,
00:03:39.740 I'm sure yesterday we had State Representative Andrade on, asking perfectly reasonable questions.
00:03:45.460 He seems to just go completely nuts, like the people of Florida have no right whatsoever to question him.
00:03:51.680 Yeah, like how dare us get to the bottom of the answers of why this nonprofit organization that was formed for Casey has never had a public meeting,
00:04:04.420 that the attorneys that represent this HOPE Foundation and the same attorneys that are representing these PCs, like why did all this happen?
00:04:13.860 And who is in charge of cutting these deals?
00:04:15.820 Those are pretty rational, transparent questions that, you know, I would think the governor should be okay if he has nothing to hide, being able to answer.
00:04:23.620 As far as I can see, based on my own research, the HOPE Florida Foundation, this vehicle headed by Casey DeSantis,
00:04:32.240 hasn't fired the required audits, their tax returns, or any of the legally required ethics disclosures under Florida law.
00:04:41.720 It's almost as if Ron and Casey DeSantis think the law does not apply to them.
00:04:47.700 Yeah, that's right.
00:04:48.480 And even on a nonprofit, they didn't register with the Department of Agriculture, which we have to do, too.
00:04:53.620 If you're a nonprofit organization in Florida, they didn't do any of their IRS tax forms.
00:04:58.060 And this is something else that Representative Andrade was asking questions on.
00:05:01.380 Where are your tax forms?
00:05:02.520 Where is your information?
00:05:04.240 Every question that was being asked of the director, who, again, resigned after this testimony in the Florida House this week,
00:05:11.680 kept saying, well, advice of counsel, advice of counsel, the same attorney that was representing, again, these PCs.
00:05:18.560 But, yeah, it looked like it was a flush fund.
00:05:20.440 And, unfortunately, he's been getting away with this kind of stuff for six years.
00:05:24.160 I've been, you know, bringing to light all of this corruption that Ron and Casey and his executive office has been doing for six years.
00:05:32.600 And it's good to see that the Republican legislature, specifically in the Florida House,
00:05:37.920 is finally understanding that we all need to be, this is not partisan, you know, uncovering corruption
00:05:43.180 and making sure that we're holding our elected officials to some type of standards and no one's above the law.
00:05:48.900 You know, one of the things that I dislike the most about this administration is the way they have gutted the state's sunshine laws.
00:05:55.440 In Florida, it used to be capable of any Florida taxpayer could learn essentially anything about any public meeting
00:06:04.340 or any public process or any expenditure of your tax dollars.
00:06:08.940 Now, unfortunately, it's almost completely opaque.
00:06:12.620 So, for example, you not only can't find out where the governor is going to take the state airplane,
00:06:19.320 they argue that's a security issue perhaps, but you can't even find out where the state airplane has been.
00:06:24.780 I don't see a security issue there.
00:06:26.960 What I see is potentially in the past the use of the state plane for political purposes.
00:06:32.860 And then Mr. Uthmeyer was actually raising money from the executive office of the governor,
00:06:40.280 that's against the law, and using the governor's mansion for political fundraisers for the governor's presidential campaign.
00:06:46.280 That's also against the law.
00:06:49.260 These people really kind of have, and I'm a Republican, but these people have no shame.
00:06:52.660 No shame. And I'll go even further than that, Roger.
00:06:56.460 It's not even just the manifest of where the plane has gone and where it's going, but who's on it.
00:07:02.920 You know, those are even more telling of where, you know, what conversations are happening not in the sunshine.
00:07:09.120 I know that over the course of the last six years, I mean, the taxpayers have spent so much money defending the governor
00:07:15.720 when it comes to not fulfilling public records requests.
00:07:18.740 Everything has been taken out of the sunshine and going even to to those dollars that have been raised for anybody who doesn't remember during this time period
00:07:28.460 when he was between legislative session as well before signing of the budget and signing of any of those bills.
00:07:36.660 James and other key leadership inside the governor's office were making phone calls to state representatives and lobbyists
00:07:45.040 holding over their heads the budget and these bills to get endorsements for his presidential run,
00:07:51.240 get money into the coffers for that presidential run.
00:07:54.240 I, in fact, as chair of the party, filed ethics complaints that year to kind of bring to light some of this.
00:08:01.700 And, of course, the Ethics Commission, which half of it is appointed by DeSantis,
00:08:05.640 you know, just brushed it off because no one wanted to publicly come out and verify that that, in fact, had happened.
00:08:12.120 And we filed three criminal complaints last year, too.
00:08:14.640 We have three criminal complaints pending in three of our counties when James took six of the agencies that they oversee
00:08:21.720 and also funneled money to take down legalization of cannabis.
00:08:26.640 The other thing they got away with that truly shocked me was to raise, I think it was $85 million more than they needed for his re-election as governor,
00:08:37.540 which was in a state PAC, and then transfer that money to a federal PAC.
00:08:44.500 Now, there used to be a line on the Secretary of State's website that said that that was illegal,
00:08:49.700 but that wording suddenly disappeared, like overnight it was gone.
00:08:56.040 The Trump campaign, as I recall, filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission about this illegal action.
00:09:01.540 By the way, a number of individuals who donated to Governor DeSantis against Donald Trump
00:09:07.740 but didn't want to own up to it, they basically laundered their contribution in this way
00:09:12.600 so they could see the president and say to him with a straight face,
00:09:15.680 oh, I didn't give money to Ron DeSantis for president.
00:09:18.180 No, they gave it to Ron DeSantis for governor, and he just transferred the money over.
00:09:22.360 By the way, we would never have gotten away with that.
00:09:25.060 Neither you nor I.
00:09:27.480 Exactly.
00:09:27.840 But he got away with it, I guess because the FEC ties three to three on any question put before it,
00:09:36.260 and therefore you could never get any satisfaction there.
00:09:40.020 I do think it was really something when the governor essentially threw his wife over the side
00:09:46.260 and said in this rambling diatribe in which he attacked everybody, the media, the Democrats, the Republicans,
00:09:53.480 you know, as if no one has the right to question him.
00:09:57.420 But he then basically said, look, it was her thing.
00:10:00.460 You know, I had no ownership of it.
00:10:02.020 I didn't devise it.
00:10:03.300 I didn't set the vision.
00:10:04.800 I didn't execute it.
00:10:05.940 As if it's like, hey, it's not me.
00:10:08.660 Ask my wife.
00:10:09.600 I'm going to go play golf.
00:10:11.780 Yeah.
00:10:12.280 I mean, he does that in everything.
00:10:13.960 You know, whatever happens to the buck stops here, you know, in politics and in business,
00:10:19.300 that at the end of the day, as a leader, regardless of who does what underneath, you take ownership.
00:10:24.220 They're your people.
00:10:25.000 And this is his life.
00:10:26.500 It's the fact that he has never owned up to any of these things and always pushes on to somebody else
00:10:31.620 and blames somebody else for it, takes no responsibility for his actions.
00:10:36.140 And, again, it's good that everybody else is starting to see it unfolding in front of our eyes
00:10:40.580 about the corruption and nepotism that has happened under DeSantis.
00:10:44.940 And it's good to see, finally, that the public is seeing this firsthand.
00:10:49.100 I mean, I think people need to drop back and see the broader question.
00:10:51.860 When I criticize the governor in colorful language on social media, his flying monkeys,
00:11:01.900 this little band of flying monkeys that he has online immediately attacked you.
00:11:07.520 But the facts are the facts.
00:11:09.340 Since Ron DeSantis took office, homeowner insurance premiums have tripled, averaging $6,000 a year in Florida.
00:11:15.660 They're the highest in the nation.
00:11:16.600 His reforms handed insurers $2 billion in taxpayer-funded bailouts while letting them dodge lawsuits,
00:11:24.560 which leaves the average Floridian with zoaring rates and no recourse when the company denies your hurricane claim.
00:11:31.740 He also greenlit utility rate hikes with Florida Power and Light after they gave him $9.5 million directly
00:11:39.860 and through their subsidiaries for his presidential campaign, jacking up our utility bills in Florida by 20% since 2020.
00:11:47.360 It's the highest single increase in Florida history.
00:11:50.900 Of course, his public service commission, stacked with DeSantis lawyers, DeSantoids, we call them, rubber-stamped these increases,
00:11:59.960 hitting working families very hard while he ignores our pain.
00:12:03.520 Meanwhile, try buying or renting a house in Florida.
00:12:07.660 Medium home prices jumped 65% under Ron DeSantis from an average of $254,000 in 2018 to $420,000 in 2024.
00:12:20.120 On the whole issue of housing, his inaction when it comes to affordability,
00:12:24.720 and his very cozy ties with developers prioritize profits over people and their pricing retirees and young people like my own daughter
00:12:33.800 who's trying to find someplace to live right now, completely out of the housing market.
00:12:39.220 So I always find that online, the people who tell me he's the best governor in the country, they never live in Florida.
00:12:46.360 They live someplace else.
00:12:48.760 Yeah, and I mean, I'm hearing it, and I'm going to even go one step further,
00:12:52.060 that the property insurance in some areas in our state has actually increased 405%.
00:12:57.940 You know, people are, especially people that have come down here and retired and even bought out their house
00:13:04.020 or have a small mortgage, they can't afford the property insurance,
00:13:07.520 and it's just going to get worse because they, you know, have had blank checks over to insurance companies.
00:13:12.940 And I always ask this question.
00:13:14.280 It's like, okay, so you pass all these reforms allegedly in the last couple of years to reduce costs.
00:13:19.300 But, you know, Roger, you've been involved in this a lot longer than I have.
00:13:22.560 I have never seen a time when an insurance company or a corporation says, you know what, I made too much money this year.
00:13:28.580 I'm going to cut my rates for next year.
00:13:30.680 That just doesn't happen.
00:13:32.160 And so there was no carrot and stick.
00:13:34.900 There was no, hey, when you finally get back to parity, if, in fact, there were some losses along the way,
00:13:41.260 then at that point we'll start seeing reductions in costs and you have to do this.
00:13:45.100 That didn't happen.
00:13:45.700 And so now the insurance companies continue to get away with it.
00:13:48.260 There's no recourse, as you just said.
00:13:50.840 Our condo market in South Florida is about to completely crumble and put us into a crisis.
00:13:57.800 And we've got a lot of problems.
00:13:59.460 And don't forget the other thing that happened.
00:14:01.160 You know, as somebody who spends a lot of time in Key West, the people of Key West voted to not have those cruise ships,
00:14:08.340 the big cruise ships that are destroying the environment down there
00:14:12.300 and are costing a lot of extra dollars for the local government.
00:14:16.280 And because he got a million-dollar campaign contribution from the guys who are the least of that port,
00:14:21.900 they had a piece of legislation the last couple of years that overrode that local bill.
00:14:27.240 Just a corruption on every single corner to get into bed with the developers and the big-ticket item donors
00:14:34.040 and all at the expense of the people that live here in our state.
00:14:38.940 Yeah.
00:14:39.460 For those who keep telling me what a great conservative, Ron, is,
00:14:42.600 the truth is he raised taxes in the state of Florida by $1.5 billion since 2019,
00:14:49.280 including higher vehicle registrations, online sales tax, really hitting small businesses and families.
00:14:56.140 He says there are no new taxes in his records, but people who live here really feel the pinch while he takes credit for tax cuts.
00:15:04.880 And then, of course, there's his so-called signature issue.
00:15:07.820 He brags about Florida's freedom during the COVID pandemic,
00:15:11.100 but he quietly signed laws shielding these big pharmaceutical outfits from vaccine lawsuits.
00:15:19.120 So his tough talk hit a sellout, once more, to corporate interests, betraying the people who trusted him to fight the system.
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00:15:45.980 If you're just tuning in, this is the Stone Zone.
00:15:48.680 I'm talking to Nikki Freed.
00:15:50.140 She's the chairwoman of the Florida Democrat Party, and we'll be right back.
00:15:55.440 Welcome back.
00:15:56.360 We're in the Stone Zone.
00:15:57.680 We're talking to Nikki Freed.
00:15:59.360 She is the chairwoman of the Florida Democrat Party.
00:16:02.320 She is the last, I think, statewide elected Democrat,
00:16:06.700 serving as Florida Commissioner of Agriculture,
00:16:09.240 the only Democrat elected statewide from 2018 to 2022.
00:16:13.600 She is a tough political operator who fights hard for her party and her point of view.
00:16:20.260 She's also an attorney and a longtime advocate for medicinal cannabis reform.
00:16:27.340 We're very happy to have her on today's show.
00:16:29.600 Let's talk some politics.
00:16:31.240 Nikki, Congressman Byron Donalds of the Naples area has announced his candidacy for governor.
00:16:38.140 He's already been warmly endorsed by the leader of our party, President Donald Trump.
00:16:44.120 I've said for roughly two and a half years that Casey DeSantis would run for governor.
00:16:49.640 People have laughed at me.
00:16:51.000 Those are the same people who laughed at me when I said that Ron DeSantis would challenge the man who made him governor.
00:16:57.040 Remember, he was an indistinguished congressman with a bad suit and an even worse haircut,
00:17:03.740 running at about 8 percent in the polls when he was lifted out of obscurity with the endorsement of Donald Trump,
00:17:11.900 soared to an easy victory in the Republican primary over the agriculture commissioner, Adam Putnam.
00:17:17.880 But then in the last three weeks of that campaign, President Trump had to change his schedule three times to return to Florida
00:17:24.780 to literally drag Ron DeSantis over the finish line by a mere 25,000 votes out of 8 million-plus cast.
00:17:33.140 So my question for you, just looking ahead, what does the Democrat field look like in the next gubernatorial campaign?
00:17:42.220 You know, we certainly are looking through some of the candidates that have kind of popped up.
00:17:48.300 You know, I'm hearing the rumblings that we've got David Jolly,
00:17:52.280 who used to be a member of the Republican Party in Congress and CD13,
00:17:57.820 who has been an independent for the last five to ten years.
00:18:01.220 I'm not sure on the exact timing.
00:18:03.480 Hearing rumblings that he is going to be declaring sometime in the near future.
00:18:08.000 There's other people that are kind of in the mix.
00:18:09.860 But, you know, we are spending a lot of time here as chair of the party making sure that we are getting back to the basics
00:18:16.220 and talking to donors and talking to our voters and making sure that our message's right.
00:18:20.740 You know, I think that one of the things, and I know we've got obviously different party affiliations here,
00:18:25.460 but I think that what we have seen is when you have just complete domination from one party,
00:18:30.460 and it could be Democrat or Republican, government doesn't work.
00:18:33.180 There's no checks and balances.
00:18:34.700 That's always been my motto is to make sure that we get those checks and balances
00:18:38.660 and get, you know, some good leaders on both sides to be able to work together
00:18:42.980 to get some good legislation that affects and impacts everybody.
00:18:47.080 The legislature is asking legitimate questions of a Republican governor.
00:18:50.840 And I applaud the speaker, Danny Perez, as well as Representative Andrade,
00:18:56.460 for asking the tough questions.
00:18:58.100 To the extent that we have checks and balances, there it is.
00:19:03.220 Maybe it's because of the governor's epic abuse of the legislature when he was riding high.
00:19:08.740 I also am of the opinion, some of my Republican friends may not like this,
00:19:12.240 but I still think this is a purple state.
00:19:15.200 I don't, yes, I recognize that DeSantis won big,
00:19:18.840 but that, I think the hurricane had a lot to do with that.
00:19:21.880 Would he have won?
00:19:22.740 I believe he would have won, but I don't think he would have won by the kind of margin that he won.
00:19:26.640 He dominated all free media for the last three weeks of that campaign.
00:19:30.580 Of course, President Trump won in an epic comeback bid,
00:19:34.000 but anyone who thinks that Florida is no longer a competitive state,
00:19:37.560 I happen to think they are incorrect.
00:19:40.280 I think it's a question of the candidates.
00:19:43.740 And who knows what the atmosphere will be, you know, two years from now.
00:19:48.300 I personally am for Byron Donalds.
00:19:50.160 I like him a lot, have a huge amount of confidence in him.
00:19:52.680 I think he'll be a great governor.
00:19:54.180 I want to see a spirited contest.
00:19:56.060 I want to see the Democrats nominate someone a little more, you know, to the center,
00:19:59.920 but, you know, I won't be voting the Democrat primary, so it's not up to me.
00:20:05.460 Anyway, this has been a great exchange.
00:20:07.440 I want to thank my guest, Nikki Freed.
00:20:09.400 She's the chairwoman of the Florida Democrat Party.
00:20:12.320 She's an accomplished attorney, the last statewide elected Democrat in the Florida,
00:20:19.080 and a real fighter for everything she believes in.
00:20:22.640 Thank you so much for joining us today in the Stone Zone, and God bless you and Godspeed.
00:20:27.120 Thanks for listening to the Stone Zone with Roger Stone.
00:20:34.080 You can hear the Stone Zone with Roger Stone weeknights at 8 on 77 WABC.
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00:21:02.000 What the heck is going on here?