July 18, 2025 • 29 mins
(July 18, 2025)
Jeffrey Epstein’s friends sent him letters for his 50th birthday album. ICE is gaining access to Medicaid records, adding peril for immigrants. Couple caught on camera at Coldplay concert goes viral. Has TikTok sleuthing gone too far? Are diamonds even a luxury anymore? DeBeers reckons with price plunge.
Jeffrey Epstein’s friends sent him letters for his 50th birthday album. ICE is gaining access to Medicaid records, adding peril for immigrants. Couple caught on camera at Coldplay concert goes viral. Has TikTok sleuthing gone too far? Are diamonds even a luxury anymore? DeBeers reckons with price plunge.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
KFI AM six forty Bill Handle here on a Friday morning,
July eighteen. As we continue with the show, Neil not
here today, it will be back, not next week, the
following week, all right. One of the stories that is
in the news a lot has to do with the
(00:27):
Epstein files and the president for the first time that
I can remember, is getting incredible grief from MAGA supporters,
his own people, and it has to do with a
transparency of quote. These Epstein files names associated with Jeffrey Epstein,
and it certainly looks like nobody but nobody, but nobody
(00:49):
wants to be associated with the Jeffrey Epstein.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
But here is the issue.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
He was a player in New York in a big way,
private island homes in West Palm Beach and in New
York and Manhattan, private jet and he used to party,
and people who like to party would party with Jeffrey Epstein,
(01:13):
Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, among others. Billionaire's people in the
news because he was just a fun guy.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Well after.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
His first conviction of the child, I think it was
what he was exactly charged with. I think it was
a sexual escapade with a minor, and then he got
a sweetheart deal where hely did a year in prison
anybody else would have done ten. Then he, as everybody knows,
got popped again and he was looking at life imprisonment
(01:47):
without parole basically, or many many decades for what he did,
and he committed suicide in prison. So now these Epstein
files that theoretically the government and has. Now when Trump
was ready for office and the MAGA supporters were screaming
(02:09):
at the government, particularly the Joe Biden government, the Obama government,
you're hiding Epstein files. You're hiding those names and connections
and evidence. Well, okay, now Trump's in office and the
same thing the government is hiding them. Well, no, they
don't actually exist this time around. Pam Bondi, who is
(02:30):
the Attorney General, said nope, they don't exist.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Well do they exist? Who knows. But here's the question.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Let's say, and we have some information that's out there
about some of these major players who have been associated
with Jeffrey Epstein, including Donald Trump. As I said, everybody
who's to party, So Jeff Epstein's Jeffrey Epstein's fiftieth birthday party,
His fiftieth birthday. A group of his friends got together,
(02:59):
or Lla Maxwell got together and asked for notes and
letters and photos to put into this photo album that
was produced by a bookbinder, and it was to be
presented and was presented to Jeffrey Epstein leatherbound album assembled
before this first arrest in two thousand and six.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
And there is a letter group of letters from.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Donald Trump, and it is one of them which has
his name, several lines of typewritten text framed by the
outline of a naked woman hand drawn with a heavy marker,
the signature Donald squiggly below the waist, mimicking pubic hair,
and the letter concludes, happy birthday. May every day be
(03:47):
another wonderful secret. Now we don't even know if Donald
Trump wrote that. He denies it, saying that's not me
at all. This is a fake thing. It's a fake
Wallstreet Journal story. Wall Street Journal broke the story. I
never wrote a picture in my life. I don't draw
a picture of women. It's not my language, it's not
my words. And it turned out that well, this document,
(04:12):
and it looks like Alan Dershowitz wrote this out and
imaginary conversation between Trump and Epstein written in the third person,
and here it is voiceover. There must be more to
life than having everything. The note begins, Donald, Yes, there is,
but I don't tell you what it is, Jeffrey, nor
(04:33):
will I since I also know what it is. And
Trump comes back in this letter, we have certain things
in common, Jeffrey, he says. Jeff says, yes, we do,
come to think of it. Donald writes, enigmas never age.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Have you noticed that? Yes, Jeffrey says, as.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
A matter of fact, it was clear to me the
last time I saw you. And Donald writes a paul
A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy birthday, and may
every day be another wonderful secret. So the President denies
that he wrote this at all, and it was a
compilation of letters and anecdotes and pictures. But I tell you,
even if he did write it, okay, basically to me,
(05:14):
it's just, you know, one guy who likes women writing
to another guy who likes women, and they tend to party. Wow,
is it a secret that Donald Trump was a womanizer?
Did anybody not know that? And we know, Jeffrey Epstein,
(05:35):
it couldn't all be fourteen year olds and every one
of the people that were with and had any connection.
Jeffrey Epstein said, as soon as his first arrest or conviction,
we all bailed. We had nothing to do with him whatsoever,
and there doesn't seem to be any evidence contrary to that.
So this part, okay, the big deal, my opinion, big deal.
(06:00):
Now the political part of the Epstein file itself, the
names connected with Epstein that the government either has or
doesn't have. See the problem is Pam Bondi said she
does have it, and now I really don't have it.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
It was on my desk.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
I said it was a file, but it really wasn't.
It was a very generic file. The president is being
asked to release it. He says, no special prosecutor to
investigate it. Then, under pressure, he says, Pam BONDI will
make the decision.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Give me a break.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
You don't think a phone called the Pam Bondi says,
don't release it or release it would not happen.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
What is going to happen, We don't know.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
But I think this is the worst political situation President
Trump has been in with his own people, and then
he has come back. One thing about Donald Trump. When
you speak against Donald Trump, it doesn't matter who where
you are, where you are on the political spectrum, he
goes after you. So the people that are asking for
(07:00):
the release are stupid. I don't need your support anyway.
You just don't get on the road. You just don't
get on the wrong side. So we'll see what's happening.
I don't think much is going to be made of this.
I may be wrong, but I don't think much is
going to be made of this. Now another topic on
illegal immigration, right, another segment on that. What a shocker,
And so this one is kind of interesting. The Trump
(07:22):
administration is moving ahead with a plan to hand over
personal data of millions of Medicaid recipients to immigration officials
who are tracking down illegal migrants and of course deporting them. Now,
this is private information that Medicaid has, includes home addresses,
(07:44):
social security numbers, ethnicities of seventy nine million Medicaid enrollees,
and will allow the folks at ICE much greater allowed
to locate them because now they have a lot more
information because Medicaid collect collects of information, and Medicaid is
not any kind of an enforcement authority.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
It's just there to give you.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Money to help you with your medical issues. And so
this plan has not been identified publicly yet.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Is the latest step by the.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Trump administration to gather information about people living in the US.
Why Well, because the administration has made a pledge to
crack down on illegal immigration, arrest three thousand undocumented immigrants
a day, that was the pledge.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Is getting there the actual numbers.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
We're getting all kinds of different numbers, and of course
legal challenges will start immediately. And the critics have sounded
the alarm ever since. The Trump administration directed the medicaid
people to send the DHS Department of Homeland Security personal
information on Medicaid and rolies, including non US citizens who
(08:57):
are registered in state funded programs California, NOI, Washington, Washington,
d C. Because Medicaid in those states our state is
operated by the state, but it's otherwise and paid for
by the state because the Feds won't pay for it.
Otherwise ineligible for federal Medicaid, we have our own medicaids
(09:20):
called medical and it's the state is given money as
long as the state does not bill the Feds for
any costs that any medical costs.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
Now Here is the big.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Story here or the big issue which I don't understand
all right, lawsuit by Senator Padilla and no senatorship and
Attorney General Padia, State of California, a statement they made.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
We are deeply troubled by.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
This administration and tends to use individuals private health information
for the unrelated purpose of possible enforcement actions targeting lawful
non citizens people here legally who are not US citizens,
and mixed status families, which means non citizens people who
are illegal here involved in families married to someone who
(10:14):
is legal.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Or having a brother who is, or having children who
are so.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin wouldn't answer
any questions about this when asked, but did do the
normal political pablem that every administration does, and this one
is president. We get this a lot from the press Secretary.
President Trump consistently promised to protect Medicaid for eligible beneficiary beneficiaries.
(10:43):
To keep that promise after Joe Biden, of course, flooded
our country with tens of millions of illegal aliens, and
the government is exploring an initiative to ensure illegal aliens
are not receiving Medicaid benefits that are meant for law
abiding citizens, so unlawful immigrants not permitted to enroll a
Medicaid and the ones. The information that is out there
(11:09):
that is held by the states, the.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Government wants, the government wants.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Now this is the other side of it, which I
just don't understand this position. Elizabeth Lard, the director of
Equity for Something All the Center for Democracy and Technology,
said that the sharing of this data would further erode
people's trust in government. By turning over some of our
most sensitive health care data to ICE, Health and Human
(11:38):
Services has fundamentally betrayed the trust of almost eighty million people,
and went on to say this jaw dropping development proves
the administration's claim of using this information to prevent fraud
is a trojan horse that instead will primarily advance their
goal of deporting millions of people.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
That all may be true, but let me ask you
a question.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
If you have an illegal migrant getting some kind of
federal aid, how many.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Of them know that there is a firewall.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Between Medicaid and the Department of Homeland Security, And therefore,
once they find out that information is shared, they will
be more frightened will not apply for And that was,
by the way, the point of all this, Because the
Trump administration doesn't want illegal migrants to apply for medicaid.
(12:31):
But the point is, do illegal migrants or people who
advocate for them and all the ones that are illegal
in this country, do they believe that the government does
not share information agency to agency And now they're stunned
that somehow the government is beginning to share. Where is
(12:52):
their understanding? I mean, are they that sophisticated that they know?
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Of course not? Of course not so.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
So you can argue against the Trump administration whether you
believe in this or don't believe in this, which I
find kind of interesting that there are these firewalls with
all these agencies. The IRS has a very strong firewall
with the law enforcement agencies. They just don't share information.
Why is that, Well, because collecting money on behalf of
(13:22):
the government is the most important thing the IRS does,
and if it can get its taxes and part of
it is not.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Sharing information with other agencies, we're going to do that.
All we want is our money.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
So in this case, you've got to Medicaid people now
being asked, actually being forced.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
To share information with DAHS. Surprise, surprise. I'm surprised. I
hadn't before.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
I didn't know that firewall even existed. Now this is
a fun one. We try to get some fun stuff
on Friday, and this one is terrific because we have
a personal story here at KFI. First of all, the
story itself, which has become a national story. There was
a couple at a Cold Plate concert and they were
(14:07):
caught when I don't even know what they were doing,
becoming intimate, hugging, kissing, whatever the hell they were doing.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
They were standing up in one of the boxes and
she was standing in front of him and he had
his arms around her.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Well, well, all right, so kissing, yeah, cute.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
But in the meantime, so that's videoed and then it
goes viral, someone throws it on TikTok, and then the
entire issue of privacy comes up as a result of that,
because now you cannot go in a in any public
space without being videoed. Everybody has a camera, everybody, and
whoever has a camera puts up the video and posts it,
(14:45):
and then it's the question of does it go viral
or not, and it can be embarrassing. Case in point,
back in nineteen ninety one, one of the KFI employees
here that we all know and love, she was at
an Angel's game completely plastered. I mean, let's just say
(15:11):
there was some drinking involved. And there they were forty
thousand fans at Angel Stadium and.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
What does Michelle do?
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Flashes forty thousand people in the stands.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
Oh, yes, our Michelle.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Flashes, lifts up the top and shows the world her
winnebagos and now we have now can you imagine she
did not hit the jumbo screen? Unfortunately, I wish it had.
I don't think they even do that. Oh, she still
does not go to Angel games because she was banned
(15:51):
for life for doing that. And can you imagine if
someone had video that would that would be her legacy.
She would go to her death with that as her legacy.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
But just talking about it on the radio, no big deal.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Oh it's just fun.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Yeah, I mean she can flash all she wants on radio,
It doesn't matter. But this visual, I mean, our lovely Michelle.
You would think would but Michelle in those days would
know to have it. Was known to have a drink
or two, and yeah, yeah it was pretty impressive. But
the point is, lucky for her, it was nineteen forty one.
(16:36):
The point of nineteen ninety one. The point is that today,
I mean, what you do a Google Earth. Right, So
the cameras come around and they're driving around, and all
of a sudden the Google or so's your house or
shows cars out there. And what if it's your car
(16:56):
and you're having an affair with someone and there's your
car parked in front of the wrong apartment building or
the wrong house, and all of a sudden the spouse
sees that goes, wait a minute, you shouldn't do that.
And that's there forever it is tough. You gotta be
so careful that you can't do what you used to do.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
You can't.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
You know, those of us who enjoyed ourselves in public
restrooms for many years, we just can't do that anymore.
It's a different day. And oh, don't give me that look, Anne,
that was a joke. Okay, Oh, she's giving me the
look of complete thing restrooms exactly. O God, I was
(17:37):
singing George Michael songs. Okay, okay, okay. So with that
being said, this is uh and the mindset is yet
you have to think of anything you do in public, anything.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
Is fodder to go up on the Internet. Now.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
I've talked many times about the right to privacy, and
I get these questions on hand along the wall all
the time, Bill, I'm out there and people are videoing
me and or I someone my next door neighbor has
a video in front of his house, and every time
I pass, I'm on video. And I'm always saying, hey,
there is no right to privacy, my friend. Right to
privacy is in your house. Once you hit that street,
(18:21):
once you hit that sidewalk, out in public, you are
open to anybody videoing you. So let me go one
step further and say, not only are you now open
to videoing you? Anything you do in public now goes
up on the it goes up online, goes up as
(18:41):
posted on the various platforms. Now, can you imagine, all right,
you're married and you take the girlfriend to a concert
and there comes the video. Whoa You ever been in
a restaurant? This is what I always do all the time.
You ever been in a restaurant with a gall or
the guy with the camera comes around to snap pictures,
(19:04):
you know, at reasonably high end restaurants, you know, it's
just can I snap a picture?
Speaker 1 (19:09):
And then they sell you the photo.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
And I always say, let's say I'm with Lindsey typically
and they'll come around and say, hey, can I snap
a picture between you and your wife? I say, my
wife isn't here. This is my girlfriend and I'd rather
not have my wife. No, I'm having dinner with her.
You don't go public with anything because it all goes
(19:32):
up online. Just be very cognizan cognizant of that. By
the way, would Michelle do that today? I have to
ask Michelle that let's go back to nineteen ninety one.
Would Michelle flash once more? God, I wish that there
was a photo of that. I would have given anything.
(19:53):
I would give anything to have Michelle and have her
autograph it and have a hand it out at KF events.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
Doesn't get better than that.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Now, a great story I want to share with you,
and this has always been a story that I have
enjoyed a little bit of handle history.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
And that has to do with the Beers. Diamonds. The Beers.
And that's not.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
Someone talking about what they're going to drink during the
Super Bowl. We're talking about the company, the Beers, which
is London based, and what they do is distribute diamonds,
and like eighty ninety percent of the world market and
the diamond industry, diamond sales is one hundred percent manufactured.
(20:37):
There are plenty of diamonds out there, but the beers
keeps the supply going out very very limited, and therefore
they're rare and expensive, and I mean insanely expensive. Diamonds
have dropped in value fifty percent in the last few years,
(20:58):
which is really thrilling because I've bought two a couple
of them, one for my ex and one for my
current And of course, real diamonds, good grade, very expensive.
Now here's the problem. God, I wish I'd lied, just
straight out lied and bought a man made lab grown
(21:24):
diamond for a fraction of the price.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
It can be done now.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
It used to be lab diamonds were manufactured industrially and
they were only used for things like abrasive disc that
sandpaper kind of thing, high end abrasives for machinery and industry.
Now they are completely main stream and challenging the perception
(21:49):
of diamonds as a luxury accessory. Walmart sold its first
lab grown diamond in twenty twenty two. Now the stones
make up half of the diamond jewelry sales Walmart has,
I mean it has exploded. De Beer's chief executive Al Cook.
This is what I love wants to save a generation
(22:10):
of lovers and newlyweds from what he calls a huge
con when it comes to buying diamonds. I guess if
you buy an artificial diamond, you've been conned. One of
the things about de Beers as a company that sells
all over the world and has a huge, huge percentage
of the entire industry is the control they have had
(22:35):
to just a few years ago has been extraordinary. They
created the concept of rarity. They came up with slogans
that are tremendous. You know, the idea of giving a
diamond as an engagement ring or a wedding ring.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
De Beers came up with that. That's their idea.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Now, someone sat around the table said, hey, how about this.
We make sure only newlyweds that we're going to really
push this. Diamonds are forever a phrase that's been around
for well, I don't know how many decades, and they
have done a brilliant, brilliant job of marketing these stones.
And what ended up happening is they were so rare
(23:17):
and then Russia got into it and diamonds went down
in value for a period of time because the blood
diamonds because of the diamond miners, etc.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
And it was such a thing.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
And when you think of an engagement ring, and we
think of what's the first thing you think of when
someone gets to engage and there's money? The size of
the rock, right, the size of the rock. And now
SI still matters.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
That's a joke. No, that's actually true. SiZ still matters.
That always does.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
But in this case, we're talking diamonds and they are
so much cheaper and Kono, we were talking about lab
diamonds versus real diamonds, and you actually said some negative
things about lab diamonds.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
A little bit.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
Yeah. I my wife has a lab grown she has
like the lab grown sapphire and then it's surrounded by
lab grown diamonds. But her wedding band is real diamonds.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
And so why why did you go real diamonds when
the other diamonds were lab grown and you could have saved.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
A pile of money.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
Well, we have a jeweler that I wanted to go
down to the I want to do the experience the
diamond district, go in there, champagne, the whole thing. So
pain Yeah, it's a nice jeweler.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
Oh yeah, yeah, So the market has to be pretty terrific. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
So but okay, those diamonds you can. Even to this day,
it seems like the lab grown diamonds get cloudy or
we have to clean more often than the natural.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Yeah, you were saying that yesterday. I don't understand that.
Oh a quick story I want to share before bail
out of here, and that I that is I was
in istan Bul and they have the bizarre it's been
around since the thirteen hundreds, and these little shops that
they have, these ten by ten little shops which instantly,
(25:06):
if you want to buy one, not that you can,
is one point eight two point five million dollars because
they do that much business. And it's a ten by
ten along the main avenue. So I went in there
and bought a bunch of stuff. I collected Judaica, you know,
missous is and that sort of thing, antique stuff. And
so the guy who was running it, who was very interesting,
(25:29):
guy Jacob is his name, actually spoke perfect English. I go,
you speak perfect English?
Speaker 1 (25:35):
How'd you learn that?
Speaker 2 (25:36):
He goes, I did my master's degree in business at UCLA. Okay,
you speak good business. So a Jewish guy living in
istan Bul, very small percentage of people do. And he
could trace his lineage directly back to the Inquisition fourteen
ninety two, when the Jews were expelled from Spain in
(25:58):
by Ferdinand and Isabella, and so a lot of people
went to istan Bull. So there he became a diamond
or his family became this Judaica merchant.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
They owned three of them.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
The first one, the first one they had opened up
when Abraham Lincoln was President of the United States.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Goes to show you how many people.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
And how long these things last, these franchises or these stores. Anyway,
he after I bought some stuff, he then takes out
a tray of diamond rings and these were pre revolutionary
Russian drinks, because a lot of Russian the royalty, the
(26:36):
hierarchy had to leave Russia during the revolution, and they
took their jewelry and a lot of it ended up
when they had to sell it ended up in istan Bul.
So he brings out these diamonds and they were minor
miner's cut, which is a different cut, so they're not
as valuable. And he says, look at this. Would you
be interested? And I said, yeah, yeah, I would. Are
(26:58):
these real diamonds? And he said, of course, they're real.
I said, okay, you have a diamond tester. You know,
a hardness tester that you can test stones. It's a
little handheld device. And he goes, you don't need one
of those, and I said, that's great, you've just lost
a sale. So I goes, oh, I just happened to
have one. So he reaches under the counter and hands
(27:18):
me this diamond tester and I go ahead and test
the diamond and it shows a hardness of ten, which
is the hardest the natural made substance you can get.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
And so I said, can I borrow this for a
moment and he said yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
I said, why, because I'm going to go outside and
test someone's diamond. He goes, why do you have to do that, because, frankly,
I don't know if I can trust you, Jacob. So
I went outside and I saw some woman who has
a huge rock.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
She looked American and go hi, are you American?
Speaker 2 (27:47):
She goes and I said yes, or she said yes,
and I said, can I test your diamond?
Speaker 1 (27:51):
Do you mind?
Speaker 2 (27:52):
She goes okay, So this huge rock, I test the
diamond and it chows a ten. And the diamond I
tested inside showed a ten. So it turned out to
be real.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
And then Jacob says to me, Bill, why would I
ever lie to you. I'm Jewish, you're Jewish.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
We are together, I said, Jacob, let me give you
a reality check here. The chances of a Muslim ripping
me off with a diamond is about ninety percent, a
Jew about one hundred percent. If you don't think I
was gonna test these diamonds, you are crazy. And I
(28:35):
ended up testing it and it turned out to be
a real diamond, and I bought.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
This little ring, So there you go. Diamonds for real.
Thought I'd just throw that story in, just to throw
that story in.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
Okay, we're done, KF I am sixty.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
You've been listening to The Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
Catch My Show Monday through Friday, six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
KFI AM six forty Bill Handle here on a Friday morning,
July eighteen. As we continue with the show, Neil not
here today, it will be back, not next week, the
following week, all right. One of the stories that is
in the news a lot has to do with the
(00:27):
Epstein files and the president for the first time that
I can remember, is getting incredible grief from MAGA supporters,
his own people, and it has to do with a
transparency of quote. These Epstein files names associated with Jeffrey Epstein,
and it certainly looks like nobody but nobody, but nobody
(00:49):
wants to be associated with the Jeffrey Epstein.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
But here is the issue.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
He was a player in New York in a big way,
private island homes in West Palm Beach and in New
York and Manhattan, private jet and he used to party,
and people who like to party would party with Jeffrey Epstein,
(01:13):
Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, among others. Billionaire's people in the
news because he was just a fun guy.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Well after.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
His first conviction of the child, I think it was
what he was exactly charged with. I think it was
a sexual escapade with a minor, and then he got
a sweetheart deal where hely did a year in prison
anybody else would have done ten. Then he, as everybody knows,
got popped again and he was looking at life imprisonment
(01:47):
without parole basically, or many many decades for what he did,
and he committed suicide in prison. So now these Epstein
files that theoretically the government and has. Now when Trump
was ready for office and the MAGA supporters were screaming
(02:09):
at the government, particularly the Joe Biden government, the Obama government,
you're hiding Epstein files. You're hiding those names and connections
and evidence. Well, okay, now Trump's in office and the
same thing the government is hiding them. Well, no, they
don't actually exist this time around. Pam Bondi, who is
(02:30):
the Attorney General, said nope, they don't exist.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Well do they exist? Who knows. But here's the question.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Let's say, and we have some information that's out there
about some of these major players who have been associated
with Jeffrey Epstein, including Donald Trump. As I said, everybody
who's to party, So Jeff Epstein's Jeffrey Epstein's fiftieth birthday party,
His fiftieth birthday. A group of his friends got together,
(02:59):
or Lla Maxwell got together and asked for notes and
letters and photos to put into this photo album that
was produced by a bookbinder, and it was to be
presented and was presented to Jeffrey Epstein leatherbound album assembled
before this first arrest in two thousand and six.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
And there is a letter group of letters from.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Donald Trump, and it is one of them which has
his name, several lines of typewritten text framed by the
outline of a naked woman hand drawn with a heavy marker,
the signature Donald squiggly below the waist, mimicking pubic hair,
and the letter concludes, happy birthday. May every day be
(03:47):
another wonderful secret. Now we don't even know if Donald
Trump wrote that. He denies it, saying that's not me
at all. This is a fake thing. It's a fake
Wallstreet Journal story. Wall Street Journal broke the story. I
never wrote a picture in my life. I don't draw
a picture of women. It's not my language, it's not
my words. And it turned out that well, this document,
(04:12):
and it looks like Alan Dershowitz wrote this out and
imaginary conversation between Trump and Epstein written in the third person,
and here it is voiceover. There must be more to
life than having everything. The note begins, Donald, Yes, there is,
but I don't tell you what it is, Jeffrey, nor
(04:33):
will I since I also know what it is. And
Trump comes back in this letter, we have certain things
in common, Jeffrey, he says. Jeff says, yes, we do,
come to think of it. Donald writes, enigmas never age.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Have you noticed that? Yes, Jeffrey says, as.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
A matter of fact, it was clear to me the
last time I saw you. And Donald writes a paul
A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy birthday, and may
every day be another wonderful secret. So the President denies
that he wrote this at all, and it was a
compilation of letters and anecdotes and pictures. But I tell you,
even if he did write it, okay, basically to me,
(05:14):
it's just, you know, one guy who likes women writing
to another guy who likes women, and they tend to party. Wow,
is it a secret that Donald Trump was a womanizer?
Did anybody not know that? And we know, Jeffrey Epstein,
(05:35):
it couldn't all be fourteen year olds and every one
of the people that were with and had any connection.
Jeffrey Epstein said, as soon as his first arrest or conviction,
we all bailed. We had nothing to do with him whatsoever,
and there doesn't seem to be any evidence contrary to that.
So this part, okay, the big deal, my opinion, big deal.
(06:00):
Now the political part of the Epstein file itself, the
names connected with Epstein that the government either has or
doesn't have. See the problem is Pam Bondi said she
does have it, and now I really don't have it.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
It was on my desk.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
I said it was a file, but it really wasn't.
It was a very generic file. The president is being
asked to release it. He says, no special prosecutor to
investigate it. Then, under pressure, he says, Pam BONDI will
make the decision.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Give me a break.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
You don't think a phone called the Pam Bondi says,
don't release it or release it would not happen.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
What is going to happen, We don't know.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
But I think this is the worst political situation President
Trump has been in with his own people, and then
he has come back. One thing about Donald Trump. When
you speak against Donald Trump, it doesn't matter who where
you are, where you are on the political spectrum, he
goes after you. So the people that are asking for
(07:00):
the release are stupid. I don't need your support anyway.
You just don't get on the road. You just don't
get on the wrong side. So we'll see what's happening.
I don't think much is going to be made of this.
I may be wrong, but I don't think much is
going to be made of this. Now another topic on
illegal immigration, right, another segment on that. What a shocker,
And so this one is kind of interesting. The Trump
(07:22):
administration is moving ahead with a plan to hand over
personal data of millions of Medicaid recipients to immigration officials
who are tracking down illegal migrants and of course deporting them. Now,
this is private information that Medicaid has, includes home addresses,
(07:44):
social security numbers, ethnicities of seventy nine million Medicaid enrollees,
and will allow the folks at ICE much greater allowed
to locate them because now they have a lot more
information because Medicaid collect collects of information, and Medicaid is
not any kind of an enforcement authority.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
It's just there to give you.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Money to help you with your medical issues. And so
this plan has not been identified publicly yet.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Is the latest step by the.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Trump administration to gather information about people living in the US.
Why Well, because the administration has made a pledge to
crack down on illegal immigration, arrest three thousand undocumented immigrants
a day, that was the pledge.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Is getting there the actual numbers.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
We're getting all kinds of different numbers, and of course
legal challenges will start immediately. And the critics have sounded
the alarm ever since. The Trump administration directed the medicaid
people to send the DHS Department of Homeland Security personal
information on Medicaid and rolies, including non US citizens who
(08:57):
are registered in state funded programs California, NOI, Washington, Washington,
d C. Because Medicaid in those states our state is
operated by the state, but it's otherwise and paid for
by the state because the Feds won't pay for it.
Otherwise ineligible for federal Medicaid, we have our own medicaids
(09:20):
called medical and it's the state is given money as
long as the state does not bill the Feds for
any costs that any medical costs.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
Now Here is the big.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Story here or the big issue which I don't understand
all right, lawsuit by Senator Padilla and no senatorship and
Attorney General Padia, State of California, a statement they made.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
We are deeply troubled by.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
This administration and tends to use individuals private health information
for the unrelated purpose of possible enforcement actions targeting lawful
non citizens people here legally who are not US citizens,
and mixed status families, which means non citizens people who
are illegal here involved in families married to someone who
(10:14):
is legal.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Or having a brother who is, or having children who
are so.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin wouldn't answer
any questions about this when asked, but did do the
normal political pablem that every administration does, and this one
is president. We get this a lot from the press Secretary.
President Trump consistently promised to protect Medicaid for eligible beneficiary beneficiaries.
(10:43):
To keep that promise after Joe Biden, of course, flooded
our country with tens of millions of illegal aliens, and
the government is exploring an initiative to ensure illegal aliens
are not receiving Medicaid benefits that are meant for law
abiding citizens, so unlawful immigrants not permitted to enroll a
Medicaid and the ones. The information that is out there
(11:09):
that is held by the states, the.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Government wants, the government wants.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Now this is the other side of it, which I
just don't understand this position. Elizabeth Lard, the director of
Equity for Something All the Center for Democracy and Technology,
said that the sharing of this data would further erode
people's trust in government. By turning over some of our
most sensitive health care data to ICE, Health and Human
(11:38):
Services has fundamentally betrayed the trust of almost eighty million people,
and went on to say this jaw dropping development proves
the administration's claim of using this information to prevent fraud
is a trojan horse that instead will primarily advance their
goal of deporting millions of people.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
That all may be true, but let me ask you
a question.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
If you have an illegal migrant getting some kind of
federal aid, how many.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Of them know that there is a firewall.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Between Medicaid and the Department of Homeland Security, And therefore,
once they find out that information is shared, they will
be more frightened will not apply for And that was,
by the way, the point of all this, Because the
Trump administration doesn't want illegal migrants to apply for medicaid.
(12:31):
But the point is, do illegal migrants or people who
advocate for them and all the ones that are illegal
in this country, do they believe that the government does
not share information agency to agency And now they're stunned
that somehow the government is beginning to share. Where is
(12:52):
their understanding? I mean, are they that sophisticated that they know?
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Of course not? Of course not so.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
So you can argue against the Trump administration whether you
believe in this or don't believe in this, which I
find kind of interesting that there are these firewalls with
all these agencies. The IRS has a very strong firewall
with the law enforcement agencies. They just don't share information.
Why is that, Well, because collecting money on behalf of
(13:22):
the government is the most important thing the IRS does,
and if it can get its taxes and part of
it is not.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Sharing information with other agencies, we're going to do that.
All we want is our money.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
So in this case, you've got to Medicaid people now
being asked, actually being forced.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
To share information with DAHS. Surprise, surprise. I'm surprised. I
hadn't before.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
I didn't know that firewall even existed. Now this is
a fun one. We try to get some fun stuff
on Friday, and this one is terrific because we have
a personal story here at KFI. First of all, the
story itself, which has become a national story. There was
a couple at a Cold Plate concert and they were
(14:07):
caught when I don't even know what they were doing,
becoming intimate, hugging, kissing, whatever the hell they were doing.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
They were standing up in one of the boxes and
she was standing in front of him and he had
his arms around her.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Well, well, all right, so kissing, yeah, cute.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
But in the meantime, so that's videoed and then it
goes viral, someone throws it on TikTok, and then the
entire issue of privacy comes up as a result of that,
because now you cannot go in a in any public
space without being videoed. Everybody has a camera, everybody, and
whoever has a camera puts up the video and posts it,
(14:45):
and then it's the question of does it go viral
or not, and it can be embarrassing. Case in point,
back in nineteen ninety one, one of the KFI employees
here that we all know and love, she was at
an Angel's game completely plastered. I mean, let's just say
(15:11):
there was some drinking involved. And there they were forty
thousand fans at Angel Stadium and.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
What does Michelle do?
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Flashes forty thousand people in the stands.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
Oh, yes, our Michelle.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Flashes, lifts up the top and shows the world her
winnebagos and now we have now can you imagine she
did not hit the jumbo screen? Unfortunately, I wish it had.
I don't think they even do that. Oh, she still
does not go to Angel games because she was banned
(15:51):
for life for doing that. And can you imagine if
someone had video that would that would be her legacy.
She would go to her death with that as her legacy.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
But just talking about it on the radio, no big deal.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Oh it's just fun.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Yeah, I mean she can flash all she wants on radio,
It doesn't matter. But this visual, I mean, our lovely Michelle.
You would think would but Michelle in those days would
know to have it. Was known to have a drink
or two, and yeah, yeah it was pretty impressive. But
the point is, lucky for her, it was nineteen forty one.
(16:36):
The point of nineteen ninety one. The point is that today,
I mean, what you do a Google Earth. Right, So
the cameras come around and they're driving around, and all
of a sudden the Google or so's your house or
shows cars out there. And what if it's your car
(16:56):
and you're having an affair with someone and there's your
car parked in front of the wrong apartment building or
the wrong house, and all of a sudden the spouse
sees that goes, wait a minute, you shouldn't do that.
And that's there forever it is tough. You gotta be
so careful that you can't do what you used to do.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
You can't.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
You know, those of us who enjoyed ourselves in public
restrooms for many years, we just can't do that anymore.
It's a different day. And oh, don't give me that look, Anne,
that was a joke. Okay, Oh, she's giving me the
look of complete thing restrooms exactly. O God, I was
(17:37):
singing George Michael songs. Okay, okay, okay. So with that
being said, this is uh and the mindset is yet
you have to think of anything you do in public, anything.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
Is fodder to go up on the Internet. Now.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
I've talked many times about the right to privacy, and
I get these questions on hand along the wall all
the time, Bill, I'm out there and people are videoing
me and or I someone my next door neighbor has
a video in front of his house, and every time
I pass, I'm on video. And I'm always saying, hey,
there is no right to privacy, my friend. Right to
privacy is in your house. Once you hit that street,
(18:21):
once you hit that sidewalk, out in public, you are
open to anybody videoing you. So let me go one
step further and say, not only are you now open
to videoing you? Anything you do in public now goes
up on the it goes up online, goes up as
(18:41):
posted on the various platforms. Now, can you imagine, all right,
you're married and you take the girlfriend to a concert
and there comes the video. Whoa You ever been in
a restaurant? This is what I always do all the time.
You ever been in a restaurant with a gall or
the guy with the camera comes around to snap pictures,
(19:04):
you know, at reasonably high end restaurants, you know, it's
just can I snap a picture?
Speaker 1 (19:09):
And then they sell you the photo.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
And I always say, let's say I'm with Lindsey typically
and they'll come around and say, hey, can I snap
a picture between you and your wife? I say, my
wife isn't here. This is my girlfriend and I'd rather
not have my wife. No, I'm having dinner with her.
You don't go public with anything because it all goes
(19:32):
up online. Just be very cognizan cognizant of that. By
the way, would Michelle do that today? I have to
ask Michelle that let's go back to nineteen ninety one.
Would Michelle flash once more? God, I wish that there
was a photo of that. I would have given anything.
(19:53):
I would give anything to have Michelle and have her
autograph it and have a hand it out at KF events.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
Doesn't get better than that.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Now, a great story I want to share with you,
and this has always been a story that I have
enjoyed a little bit of handle history.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
And that has to do with the Beers. Diamonds. The Beers.
And that's not.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
Someone talking about what they're going to drink during the
Super Bowl. We're talking about the company, the Beers, which
is London based, and what they do is distribute diamonds,
and like eighty ninety percent of the world market and
the diamond industry, diamond sales is one hundred percent manufactured.
(20:37):
There are plenty of diamonds out there, but the beers
keeps the supply going out very very limited, and therefore
they're rare and expensive, and I mean insanely expensive. Diamonds
have dropped in value fifty percent in the last few years,
(20:58):
which is really thrilling because I've bought two a couple
of them, one for my ex and one for my
current And of course, real diamonds, good grade, very expensive.
Now here's the problem. God, I wish I'd lied, just
straight out lied and bought a man made lab grown
(21:24):
diamond for a fraction of the price.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
It can be done now.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
It used to be lab diamonds were manufactured industrially and
they were only used for things like abrasive disc that
sandpaper kind of thing, high end abrasives for machinery and industry.
Now they are completely main stream and challenging the perception
(21:49):
of diamonds as a luxury accessory. Walmart sold its first
lab grown diamond in twenty twenty two. Now the stones
make up half of the diamond jewelry sales Walmart has,
I mean it has exploded. De Beer's chief executive Al Cook.
This is what I love wants to save a generation
(22:10):
of lovers and newlyweds from what he calls a huge
con when it comes to buying diamonds. I guess if
you buy an artificial diamond, you've been conned. One of
the things about de Beers as a company that sells
all over the world and has a huge, huge percentage
of the entire industry is the control they have had
(22:35):
to just a few years ago has been extraordinary. They
created the concept of rarity. They came up with slogans
that are tremendous. You know, the idea of giving a
diamond as an engagement ring or a wedding ring.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
De Beers came up with that. That's their idea.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Now, someone sat around the table said, hey, how about this.
We make sure only newlyweds that we're going to really
push this. Diamonds are forever a phrase that's been around
for well, I don't know how many decades, and they
have done a brilliant, brilliant job of marketing these stones.
And what ended up happening is they were so rare
(23:17):
and then Russia got into it and diamonds went down
in value for a period of time because the blood
diamonds because of the diamond miners, etc.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
And it was such a thing.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
And when you think of an engagement ring, and we
think of what's the first thing you think of when
someone gets to engage and there's money? The size of
the rock, right, the size of the rock. And now
SI still matters.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
That's a joke. No, that's actually true. SiZ still matters.
That always does.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
But in this case, we're talking diamonds and they are
so much cheaper and Kono, we were talking about lab
diamonds versus real diamonds, and you actually said some negative
things about lab diamonds.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
A little bit.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
Yeah. I my wife has a lab grown she has
like the lab grown sapphire and then it's surrounded by
lab grown diamonds. But her wedding band is real diamonds.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
And so why why did you go real diamonds when
the other diamonds were lab grown and you could have saved.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
A pile of money.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
Well, we have a jeweler that I wanted to go
down to the I want to do the experience the
diamond district, go in there, champagne, the whole thing. So
pain Yeah, it's a nice jeweler.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
Oh yeah, yeah, So the market has to be pretty terrific. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
So but okay, those diamonds you can. Even to this day,
it seems like the lab grown diamonds get cloudy or
we have to clean more often than the natural.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Yeah, you were saying that yesterday. I don't understand that.
Oh a quick story I want to share before bail
out of here, and that I that is I was
in istan Bul and they have the bizarre it's been
around since the thirteen hundreds, and these little shops that
they have, these ten by ten little shops which instantly,
(25:06):
if you want to buy one, not that you can,
is one point eight two point five million dollars because
they do that much business. And it's a ten by
ten along the main avenue. So I went in there
and bought a bunch of stuff. I collected Judaica, you know,
missous is and that sort of thing, antique stuff. And
so the guy who was running it, who was very interesting,
(25:29):
guy Jacob is his name, actually spoke perfect English. I go,
you speak perfect English?
Speaker 1 (25:35):
How'd you learn that?
Speaker 2 (25:36):
He goes, I did my master's degree in business at UCLA. Okay,
you speak good business. So a Jewish guy living in
istan Bul, very small percentage of people do. And he
could trace his lineage directly back to the Inquisition fourteen
ninety two, when the Jews were expelled from Spain in
(25:58):
by Ferdinand and Isabella, and so a lot of people
went to istan Bull. So there he became a diamond
or his family became this Judaica merchant.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
They owned three of them.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
The first one, the first one they had opened up
when Abraham Lincoln was President of the United States.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Goes to show you how many people.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
And how long these things last, these franchises or these stores. Anyway,
he after I bought some stuff, he then takes out
a tray of diamond rings and these were pre revolutionary
Russian drinks, because a lot of Russian the royalty, the
(26:36):
hierarchy had to leave Russia during the revolution, and they
took their jewelry and a lot of it ended up
when they had to sell it ended up in istan Bul.
So he brings out these diamonds and they were minor
miner's cut, which is a different cut, so they're not
as valuable. And he says, look at this. Would you
be interested? And I said, yeah, yeah, I would. Are
(26:58):
these real diamonds? And he said, of course, they're real.
I said, okay, you have a diamond tester. You know,
a hardness tester that you can test stones. It's a
little handheld device. And he goes, you don't need one
of those, and I said, that's great, you've just lost
a sale. So I goes, oh, I just happened to
have one. So he reaches under the counter and hands
(27:18):
me this diamond tester and I go ahead and test
the diamond and it shows a hardness of ten, which
is the hardest the natural made substance you can get.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
And so I said, can I borrow this for a
moment and he said yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
I said, why, because I'm going to go outside and
test someone's diamond. He goes, why do you have to do that, because, frankly,
I don't know if I can trust you, Jacob. So
I went outside and I saw some woman who has
a huge rock.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
She looked American and go hi, are you American?
Speaker 2 (27:47):
She goes and I said yes, or she said yes,
and I said, can I test your diamond?
Speaker 1 (27:51):
Do you mind?
Speaker 2 (27:52):
She goes okay, So this huge rock, I test the
diamond and it chows a ten. And the diamond I
tested inside showed a ten. So it turned out to
be real.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
And then Jacob says to me, Bill, why would I
ever lie to you. I'm Jewish, you're Jewish.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
We are together, I said, Jacob, let me give you
a reality check here. The chances of a Muslim ripping
me off with a diamond is about ninety percent, a
Jew about one hundred percent. If you don't think I
was gonna test these diamonds, you are crazy. And I
(28:35):
ended up testing it and it turned out to be
a real diamond, and I bought.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
This little ring, So there you go. Diamonds for real.
Thought I'd just throw that story in, just to throw
that story in.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
Okay, we're done, KF I am sixty.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
You've been listening to The Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
Catch My Show Monday through Friday, six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
The Bill Handel Show News
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