Veronica LIVE with Dr. Joel Rudman - Behind the Curtain on Tally Politics

Dr. Joel Rudman didn’t hold back in his recent interview on VERONICA LIVE. He touched on some fiery topics, from criticizing Tallahassee Republicans for their lack of support for Governor Ron DeSantis to addressing the surprising trend of Florida Democrats switching to the Republican Party. His passion for keeping the Panhandle beaches open to the public was clear, and he didn’t shy away from calling out Representative Alex Andrade and State Senator Don Gaetz as part of the problems he sees in Tallahassee politics. On a more supportive note, he expressed his backing for Attorney General James Uthmeier.
The interview was full of bold opinions and strong stances. Strap your seatbelt on for this eye-opening fast paced interview!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Vernica Live.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
And I am here with my wingman, John Salik, and
we have he's a Veronica Live family member and he
wanted to come on my show. And after I started
researching everything that we needed to chat about, my eyes
are really big right now, and I was like, we
have to have doctor Joel Rudman on immediately because Florida.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
Is We've got some issues.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
So welcome back doctor Joel Rudman to Veronica Live.

Speaker 3 (00:30):
Hey, Veronica, it's always a pleasure to talk to you.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
And John Well and you just to fill everybody in
you are, we're the representative over in the Walton County
County area. You actually won your reelection campaign, and then
when Matt Gates decided to step down to be the
ag our former congressman, you threw your hat in the

(00:56):
ring and then dot dot dot CFO Jimmy Petronas from
Florida through his hat in the ring, along with a
bunch of other people that I didn't care about, and
he ended up winning the sea because he was endorsed
by Trump.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
You came in.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
Second, and now you are back to civilian status, but
you are fighting the fight for Floridian's dock So did
I get the story right?

Speaker 3 (01:20):
Oh yeah, that was a pretty good synopsis. So I
had been in the Florida Legislature for two years, serving
the constituents of District three, which is Santa Rosa County
over in the Navarre area. You are correct though, that
we do have property in South Walton County, and so
I also got involved in the beach ownership fight there

(01:40):
in South Walton. You know, that's an issue that has
really kind of taken hold there. There's actually a bill
in the legislature right now that I originally filed before
I left. So we can talk about South Walton and
we can talk about Santa Rosa County anything you want, right,
it's all on the table.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
There's so much to talk about. But well, since I
just was reading up on your beach legislation, you know,
I worked for a year at a very high end
gallery on thirty eight once a week, taking rich people's money,
and I really enjoyed it. But what used to frustrate
me where people would come to Rosemary Beach and they

(02:17):
pop into the gallery and they go, Hey, we're trying
to get on the beach and we can't because apparently
we have to have an access card or pin from
the Pearl Hotel right there to go on the beach,
and you've been fighting to make the beach available to everyone.
And that used to make me mad, Doc, because you know,
I don't want property owners and beach hotel owners to

(02:41):
commadeer the beach. And if I pop over to that
area to enjoy thirty A, I want to be able
to get on the beach, and they've tied the access
even more so, why are you involved in this fight?
To you aligned with the way I think it should
be a free, free beach for all.

Speaker 3 (03:00):
Well and Veronica. You know, if it weren't for those beaches,
I wouldn't have been in the state legislature. I mean,
I'm a I'm a young man who was born and
raised in southwest Mississippi. And the only reason that you
would drive, you know, from from where I grew up
to the Panhandle, you know, it wasn't. It wasn't to
you know, tour Fort Walton beaches, malls. You know, it

(03:20):
wasn't to go to the peanut Festival or to go
to you know the other things that we have in
the Panhandle. The draw for most people who relocate to
Northwest Florida. It is those beautiful beaches. I mean, I remember,
you know, going there as a child. We've been vacationing
down in thirty eight since the early nineteen eighties, back
in the time where when you went to Walton Counties beaches,

(03:43):
people said, man, you're crazy, You're going way out of
your way. You know, Deston is in the rear view mirror.
Why don't you turn around and go back to Deston.
That's where the action is. And you know, so Walton
County was always the best kept secret, and so I
would say probably the last ten or fifteen years. You know,
Sophie and I, we know other people in the medical community.

(04:05):
We know you know, medical specialists who bought into the
area known as Seaside back when Seaside was nothing. And Veronica,
like you say, back then you could get a lot
for fifteen thousand dollars one five fifteen thousand dollars. Now
you couldn't get a lot there for under a million.
So that shows you how much the area is.

Speaker 1 (04:25):
It's on fire. It's on fire.

Speaker 3 (04:27):
But you know, with the area growing, Varonica, these people
they think they're paying the high prices because they literally
think they owned the sand and that's never been the case.
You know, you're you're roughly my age. You remember the
whole the whole draw Originally the Seaside was that they
built all the houses across the street from the beach,
the idea of being this is a community beach, No

(04:48):
one owns the sand. And unfortunately a lot of developments
along thirty eight they've gotten away from that theory. And
it's a shame, no, it is.

Speaker 1 (04:58):
And I was just there day or Saturday.

Speaker 2 (05:01):
I went to the Perfect Pig and then I went
to La Crema to have chocolate fondu. Then I took
my picture in front of the Pearl And I do
think those beaches, if I make the drive to go
eat five star food, I want to be able to
put my toes in the sand. So do you think
this bill is going to have any traction to win
the beach access again? I mean, it's gotten worse because
Seaside now does you.

Speaker 1 (05:22):
You have to have access, You have to have a.

Speaker 2 (05:25):
Reason to get past the little guard there even at Seaside.

Speaker 3 (05:31):
Well, and I think we can go ahead and make
this episode controversial like you were alluding to earlier, Veronica,
because it was actually right. Well, it was actually, I mean,
people need to know it was there Florida legislature that
created this problem. Back in twenty eighteen. You know, there

(05:52):
was a trespass bill that was filed by future Senate
President Kathleen Passidomo. You know, name's gonna come up alive,
you know, as you talk about anti conservative legislation, Well,
Kathleen back in the day she was a freshman senator
because she filed a bill basically taking the side of

(06:12):
the beachfront owners, the rich people. You know, they filed
a trespassed bill and then they amended it, you know,
in the in the dark of night. And they still
do these tactics, by the way, in the Florida House
and in the Florida Senate. They take a bill that
looks fairly benign at first glance, but the bill they
vote on has been heavily amended. So they took a

(06:33):
property rights bill and added a whole new paragraph basically
saying that for Walton County to enact customary use Walton
County and Walton County alone, Veronica would have to go
out and sue the beachfront owners individually. And we estimate
there's probably about eighteen hundred beachfront owners. So basically, Kathleen

(06:57):
Pasadomo made it nearly impossible under Florida statue for Walton
County to have any meaningful customary use. And what my
language did, a language that I filed for the twenty
twenty five session before I had to resign, my language
basically took Kathleen's Pasadomo, Kathleen Pasadomo's language from twenty eighteen,

(07:20):
and it struck it from the record, it repealed it,
and some of that language made it through. Some of
that language is going to be voted on by the
Florida House probably later this week. So I'm actually proud
to be the first Republican legislator in the Florida legislature
to tell Kathleen Pasadomo that when it comes to customary use, Kathleen,

(07:42):
I'm sorry, Senate President Pasadoma, you were wrong.

Speaker 2 (07:46):
Well, I find it very frustrating because just so you know,
a night at the Pearl can be like seven hundred
dollars a night for me to go get the little
access pass to go put my toes in the sand,
and I go over to for the five star food
all the time. So I'm frustrated John, go ahead, you
had a question.

Speaker 4 (08:05):
Yeah, so this is this a problem that's just local
to you know, Walton County is a statewide I mean,
I seem to recall a few years ago they had
a big controversy over there about about, you know, being
able to walk on people's private beaches, you know, from
the state line. You know that you had the whole
thing with the high water mark and all that stuff

(08:25):
and people walking along the beach and then going on
to quote private property that was above the high water mark.

Speaker 5 (08:31):
Is this all part of that problem?

Speaker 3 (08:34):
So, John, it was really sneaky the way your Florida
legislature did this. So the language was very broad, but
make no mistake, they were targeting Walton County. So, in
other words, they said that if your county didn't already
have customary use provisions in effect before I think the

(08:54):
date was July first, twenty sixteen or something like that,
then your county's ordinances are null and void. Well, guess what, John,
They chose that date on purpose because there was only
one county on the shoreline of Florida that had customary
use ordinances after that date. Guess the county Walton County.

Speaker 2 (09:15):
Well, and let me retract my seven hundred a night.
I just pulled up hotels dot com and it's nine
hundred a night for me to stay at the Pearl.

Speaker 3 (09:26):
That's dynomics, Veronica Bidenomics still in the ft.

Speaker 2 (09:29):
I know because I always want to go stay there.
Do you know they have iPads in the bathroom.

Speaker 1 (09:33):
I just thought you all need to know that.

Speaker 2 (09:35):
I know this because my daughter stayed there for a
party once.

Speaker 3 (09:40):
So wow, iPads in the in the iPads in the restroom.
You know, we always have a joke that that's the
family library. I guess they really do want to make
it the library.

Speaker 2 (09:50):
Well, they do have a fabulous rooftop bar.

Speaker 4 (09:52):
Okay, all right, So where just just to follow up
real quick, So where is Don Gates in all of this?

Speaker 5 (10:00):
I got the speaking.

Speaker 2 (10:01):
Wait about that, because the next subject is hot and
I'm trying to go in order. The next subject is
the governor appointed you to be I guess on the
board of the Pensacola State College Trustees.

Speaker 1 (10:13):
Correct?

Speaker 2 (10:14):
And then can you tell that story because you've made
news with that and that involves Don Gates?

Speaker 5 (10:20):
John?

Speaker 3 (10:21):
Oh wow, yeah, boy, you guys are going for the
going for the jugular and this just when the this
will this will get some views, this will get some
some some life.

Speaker 2 (10:32):
What's going to I know it is light of truth.

Speaker 3 (10:36):
You know, yes, well, and John, to be honest with you,
I think that's why people uh kind of gravitate to
me because they understand they're going to get the straight
scoop from there. It's it's not going to be edited
for for content. It's not gonna be it's not gonna
be the PC version. So so real quick to answer
your question, Don Gates owns the Truman House, which is

(10:58):
you know, from the Truman Show movie and c. So
Don's bee Jack death is owned by Seaside. He doesn't
have to worry about it. He's got guaranteed be Jack dess.
So he was one of the only two no votes
in the Senate, him and Kathleen Pasadomo. So there's the
quick answer. But Ronica, to get back to your question, Yeah,

(11:19):
you know this, this this stuff is all kind of
intermingled because you know, Governor DeSantis, as you guys know,
Governor DeSantis has fought long and hard to root out
DEI and to root out this liberal woke mind virus
from our colleges and universities that when there was some openings,
you know, at the University of West Florida and at

(11:39):
Pennsiccola State College. You know, he went out to pick
some conservative minds. You know, there were several people that
are well thought of. I think there was one guy
from the Heritage Institute Heritage Foundation that was chosen for
uwf's board of trustees. You know, DeSantis knows my track
record of being a strong conservative. You know, he's aware
that Anthony Sabatini called be the second most conservative member

(12:02):
of the Florida House. So they chose me to sit
on the board for Pensacola State College. And as you
alluded to, Uh, Veronica, I did not make the final
cut in the Senate, nor did two or three conservative
trustees for the University of West Florida, which you know,

(12:22):
let's be honest, guys, we are the most conservative part
of the state. So if, if, if Governor Desantus is
now going to have difficulty from the legislature appointing conservative
minds to these boards. Let's let's just say I'm really
really worried about what Florida is going to look like

(12:44):
post DeSantis.

Speaker 4 (12:46):
Well, just just a just a quick one before I
want to clarify something here, and I want to I
think it's really the root of the problem. And I
want to get your view because you know the players
over in Tallahassee what's going on with the governor and
the legisl session. I mean, there is a war going
on between them, particularly the House leadership, and it's not
good for the Republicans. And is it because is the

(13:08):
governor lost as Mojo? Is there something something else going on?

Speaker 5 (13:12):
Do you know about? Well?

Speaker 3 (13:15):
And John, that's really the that's really the million dollar
question right there. As y'all know, back in November, I
had to make a decision whether to run for Matt
Gates's congressional seat or whether to stay in the Florida House.
Because once you run for Congress, you know, we have
a resigned to run law in Florida. So I had
to willingly give up my seat in Tallahassee, which, as

(13:38):
Veronica said, I had just won with seventy nine percent
of the vote. So I was well liked back home.
But you know, the price you would pay for running
for Congress was that you'd have to give the seat up. Well,
the afternoon, the very afternoon I was sworn in, John,
you know, your Florida legislature. They brought all the House
Republicans together for a learning session, and John, let's just

(14:01):
you know, to be polite, let's just say that the
new leadership under Speaker Danny Perez, he and his leadership
class four or five of them. Let's just say that
after that learning session, they made it abundantly clear that
independent thought was not going to be tolerated in the
upcoming Florida session. They made it abundantly clear that the

(14:25):
only reason we won our elections was because of Danny Perez.
They made it abundantly clear that Florida was not going
to have a freedom caucus in their legislature, which you know,
as you know, a lot of states do, as well
as our US Congress. So they made these situations so
unwelcome for a conservative person such as myself that you know,

(14:49):
when people asked me to run for Congress, I didn't
have a second thought about leaving the Florida House. It
actually didn't make the choice more difficult. It actually made
my decison easier for me. The way that the Florida
House was carrying.

Speaker 2 (15:03):
On, Well, I want to get to all of that
but let's go back to the Pensacola State College Director
Board of Directors, because because you had made a statement
that I want you to explain this. You said that
you had a list of legislators who were violating drug laws,

(15:24):
and you hinted that you would reveal them at the hearing,
dependent depending on how the committee behaved. And and and
you've called for people to be drug tested, you know,
and I wore the uniform, I peed in a cup
multiple times, and I I would love that actually of
my legislators, so so so explain all of that to

(15:46):
to to uh stock.

Speaker 3 (15:49):
So actually, Veronica, I I appreciate the opportunity to uh
to clarify that because the the version you just heard,
the version that that that you repeated, that's the Don
Gates version. Okay, Uh, I never I never said I
had a list. I never said I was going to
reveal any name. So, so where that came from? Ever

(16:10):
since the house went roague, ever since this runaway Florida
House started calling Ron DeSantis a rhino and started saying
that he should get no credit for opening up our
state during COVID. Know, they're saying such ridiculous things as
Ron DeSantis never rooted out DEI that's not something he did.

(16:31):
I mean, just really, really, these attacks are beyond the pale.
There there are attacks you would expect from Democrats, not
from a Republican House. So Ever, since the Republican House
went off the reservation and started saying these untruths about
our governor, I've really fought back. I've returned fire. I've
done that on Facebook, I've done it on Twitter, especially

(16:56):
yes and so and so Veronica, Let's be clear to
all the listeners out there, you don't make these remarks
without retaliation. In other words, you know, they'll go on
there and they'll try to smear me. You know, here
in my local community, they try to smear me. You know,
they have these pay to play bloggers that they tell

(17:16):
to write nasty articles about me. So, to make no mistake,
every time I criticized the Florida House, make no mistakes
that that there's a price to pay for that. So
the latest salvo, like you said, people were asking publicly
on Twitter, Hey, where's all this coming from? Why Why

(17:36):
is the Florida House acting like this? Why why are
they not honoring the wishes of the voters. So I
participated in a in a I guess they call them
spaces on X. I took part. I actually gave an
interview that ran over two hours because we were taking
calls from interested in Floridians and people around the country saying,

(17:58):
what's going on there? Can someone explain to me the
players and why they're doing this. So as we're speculating,
right as I'm telling them everything I know, and as
people are saying, well, is it Morgan and Morgan is
the is it the big commercial weed companies that are
doing this? Are they paying for this? Are they out
to get the census? You know, I made the comment,

(18:20):
I said, well, maybe they're not doing it at the
bidding of the weed companies. Maybe they're weed customers. Maybe
you guys should listen to me and demand that your
legislators get drug tested and so veronica. This whole thing
about there being a list, Look, it's common knowledge. You
could subpoena Don Yates and he knows who's doing drugs

(18:41):
in the Florida house is common knowledge. People openly joke
about it. Look look in people's eyes and you can
see what I'm talking about. But anyway, so in a
two and a half hour interview. As we're pulling the
curtain back and we're talking about, you know, who's funding
these attacks on Defansis is it coming from, you know,

(19:03):
corporate marijuana. Is it coming from the trial lawyers? Is
it coming from Susie Wilds, who happens to be up
at the federal You know, people are speculating and speculating.
And I made the comment about drug testing legislators, and
at that point I pulled the plug. I said, woops,
I better be quiet because I have a confirmation hearing
in three days and I bet that and I bet
they're going to rough me up over these comments. And

(19:27):
sure enough, guys, they did, like literally the day of
my confirmation that morning. I was attending a DeSantis event
that Tuesday in Pensacola at Pensacola State College, as luck
would have it, and I, you know, you could probably
pull it up and see. I went off on these
rogue legislators who are attacking governor to Santons. I went

(19:49):
off on Alexandrotti, the guy who actually used the word
criminal and illegal when referring to how the governor and
the first Lady operate. So I went off on ALEXANDROTI
I went off on this runaway house and guy, seriously,
literally My confirmation hearing was an hour after that, So
I knew I was gonna get lit up. I knew

(20:11):
they were coming for me again. It has nothing to
do has nothing to do with drug list, drug list,
It has nothing to do with exposing names. They literally
took a one minute explanation out of a two and
a half hour interview, and they used that as the reason.
They said I was threatening the Senate. Give me a

(20:32):
break if you don't use drugs, How am I threatening you?

Speaker 2 (20:37):
Well, you know it's a sound bite. They're going to
run with it, and we'll get to and Dorotti. There's
there's so much here. And then Gates said that had
you appeared at this hearing for this position, he was
going to ask you to give him the list and
so so talk about what happened because you you flew
off to Espanya, Spain for yeah, and then you get

(21:03):
an email I guess, so.

Speaker 3 (21:06):
Yeah, here's how you know the fix is in?

Speaker 5 (21:09):
Right?

Speaker 3 (21:09):
So y'all, y'all know how this novel, no, it really
is ridiculous. Where they went wrong? Uh, Veronica? And where
they went wrong John's They thought that This was a
way to attack me. They thought that, oh, we'll knock
him down a peg. They don't realize I'm not in

(21:31):
politics anymore. I have a life. I'm sitting here in
downtown Saint Augustine with my wife and my dogs, and
I'm loving it. I've got a medical practice to take
care of. So they thought by smearing my name that
they were hurting me. But so what happens, y'all, y'all
know how Tallahassee works. If the first committee badly for

(21:51):
whatever reason, if they say we don't like this nominee,
you know, you don't expect it to move forward, do you?
I mean, unanimously the Senate said, yeah, we're not gonna
We're not gonna recommend doctor Rumann. So myself and everyone
involved in the process just to saying, okay, well, Rudman's
shot down. He's not gonna be on the board of trustees.
So many many months earlier, I had already booked a

(22:14):
flight to Barcelona because my wife's birthday was that weekend.
It just so happened to be I know, and my wife.
My wife loves tennis, and so for her sacrifice over
the last two years, I took her to the tennis
tournament in Barcelona. We literally yeah, I mean, we got
to see Carlos Alcarez, we got to meet Holgaroon. So

(22:36):
so this was payback for my wife to say, Honey,
I'm sorry, I wasted two years of your life and
you sacrifice to be in a park from me. And then,
like Veronica's saying, John, while I'm in Barcelona, right, I'm
trying to put all this behind me. I knew I
was going to be attacked politically. I knew they were
coming for me. It is good Friday in Barcelona. I'm

(22:57):
sitting outside the Barcelona Cathedral and I get an email
from the Florida Senate. You know, I don't know what
time it was back in Florida. It must have been
late in the afternoon, but I guess. As they're leaving
Tallahassee for the weekend, they send out a notice that
they would like me to appear on the following Tuesday,
after Eastern It's like, guys, I'm out of the country.

(23:18):
So not only would you not expect to be called
to a second committee when you've already been shot down
Ladies and gentlemen, number two, they did it over a
holiday weekend. They informed me on Good Friday. I immediately
emailed them back and said, guys, I can reschedule if
you want, but I can't come in on Tuesday. So
they knew that day I was not coming in. And

(23:41):
that's where I think I'm a little disappointed in Senator
Gates because apparently in my absence they wanted to character
assassinate me. You know again, I figured that was coming.
I figured they were going to say they never got
my email. I figured they were just gonna rip me
to shreds and I wasn't gonna be there to defend myself.
So Monday afternoon, Monday night in Barcelona, I emailed them

(24:06):
a resignation letter. So basically that was me saying, I'm
not gonna let you character assassinate me in my absence.
You're you're you know you're not allowed to do that.
You know, witnesses have right, So if you're gonna try
and do this kangaroo court while I'm out of the country,
I'll just pull the entire reason for you doing this.
So I resigned. But apparently it still wasn't enough to

(24:30):
keep Senator Gates from saying a couple comments and yeah,
he said, he said, I fled the country. Fled the country.
Go see the Barcelona Open. Yeah, good luck find Barcelona
Open tickets three days in advance. Yeah, I'd like to
see how much you pay for those tickets. Second of all,
it was my wife's birthday. And then you know, to
say that, to say that he was looking forward to

(24:52):
being there, I had no idea I was being caught.
Like I said, no one would expect to go to
the second Committee. It's the first one shot you down.
Plus I told them within minutes on Good Friday that
I was not coming. So for him to say I
was looking forward to coming, that's just not true. And
then to mention that I have a list or something. Look,

(25:12):
I know people ask me all the time, do legislators
actually read these ninety page bills? Well, apparently the good
senators didn't listen to the entire two hour conversation I
had on Twitter where I never once mentioned a list
or that I was going to reveal names. I actually
told a joke, right, I said, look, if they rough

(25:34):
me up on Tuesday, we may come back and do
another space because I know all this information, you know,
So they took a joke. They ran off the end
of the world with it, and they tried to discredit
me when I had no way to defend myself, and
I really really resent it. So, yeah, Veronica, it's important
that your listeners know the truth. This is a strategy.

(25:56):
I don't know who's behind it. I can't defensively face
this first except but this, this is a strategy to
discredit DeSantis and anyone who boldly defends Ron DeSantis. And
it's sad.

Speaker 4 (26:10):
Well, just just put quick one after that. It is
is this basically Rhino Republicans? I mean, is it the
remnants of the of the Bushy Republicans? You know, the
Florida Bushy Republicans, which which were a real force and
you know very much, uh you know anti DeSantis and
and anti Trump. You know, they they were they were

(26:33):
you know, Adam Putnam was their man for governor and.

Speaker 5 (26:35):
He got he got got thrashed pretty good. But it
is just.

Speaker 3 (26:42):
So, John, that's the million dollar question. And I think
instead of asking me, I think we need to call
some of these people on your show and ask them
to be honest with the you know, let's hear from
Speaker Perez, Let's hear from Susie Wilde. Let's hear from
John Morgan and Morgan and Morgan Law Firm. Let's hear
why this insanity is going on. Like I said, there's

(27:03):
a lot of players. There's a lot of potential reasons
for the legislature to behave this way. None of them,
you know, if you're a strong conservative, none of the
reasons make any sense to you, right because you and
I we only care about open carry, We care about
repealing red flag laws. We care about lowering property taxes,
we care about getting illegal immigrants out of Florida. So

(27:25):
you know, when you attack Ron DeSantis on those issues,
and you're a conservative man, that's a losing fight. You
are not going to out conservative Ron DeSantis. So people
do speculate, you know, one of the speculations is that,
you know, myself and Governor DeSantis and a lot of
Republicans were against legalizing marijuana in this state, you know,

(27:45):
amendments to start with that. Yeah. So apparently apparently people
are saying that this is John Morgan's payback on punishing
those who basically cost him millions, if not billions of
dollars trying to push that amis He's going to make
Ron defansis pay for arguing against marijuana, and of course

(28:05):
I was another fierce opponent to legalizing marijuana. So is
this payback for Morgan and Morgan? I'm not sure, But
if you look at the legislation that is working its
way through the Florida House, you're seeing a bunch of
pro trial lawyer legislation and Veronica. It's so ridiculous that
the reforms we just passed in twenty twenty two to

(28:27):
reduce homeowners insurance rates. You know, those changes we made
are just now having effect. I know my homeowners rate
came down this year. We got the trial lawyers, we
got the frivolous lawsuits out of the Florida insurance market.
And now this year, this session, the Florida House just
passed the bill this week to undo all those changes

(28:51):
that they just voted yes. So you literally have legislators
who one year voted for it, now this year they're
voting against it. Tell me they're not being whip, tell
me they're not being courted, tell me they're not being
lobbied hard. I personally think Speaker Perez and a few
people at the top, all of whom are trial lawyers.
Hillary Cassell Daniel Perez, and we can get to Cassell

(29:14):
in the minute. She's a Democrat turned Republican, So you're
your radar. I'll to go up right there. But there's
a lot of people at the top that I think
are trying to make this a boon for trial lawyers.
I think they're trying to legalize marijuana.

Speaker 2 (29:28):
Well on that no, they're trying to sear to doc
because I fought the I fought hard with the group
that was fighting it. I know, we chatted about it
and truly spent one hundred and forty five million trying.

Speaker 1 (29:42):
To legalize it.

Speaker 2 (29:43):
It says already in twenty twenty five, they've spent twenty
million now trying to get it back on the ballot
for twenty twenty six. And the CEO one of the
interviews I read on her, she said she thought she
was going to make one point five billion in Florida.

Speaker 1 (29:58):
So, and the funny thing is, we have.

Speaker 2 (30:00):
More little medical cannabis pop ups all over this damn county.
And I know you're it's all over Florida, so people
have access to marijuana. So so you really think these
these Republicans care that much to legalize it because we've
seen the states that have legalized marijuana and they're nightmares
with with people hanging around and then they you know,

(30:21):
progress to the next drug after marijuana that's stronger.

Speaker 3 (30:27):
Well, so, Veronica, that's that's the that's the issue. That's
the concern I have because I have nothing in common
with these so called Republicans. So when people ask me,
why would they betray Ron Desanders, why would they try
to dig an early grave for him? You know, I'm
not sure if it is the marijuana industry, but it

(30:47):
does start to make sense, right. That's that's why I
think you should look at people's finance reports, you should
look at their campaign contributions. Truly has a lot of
money to throw around. You know, Hillary Cassell, she just
became a Republican in late December. She's been a Democrat

(31:07):
in the Florida House. Spoke against a lot of my bills,
spoke against all the hard work that Speaker Renter put
in place, spoke against a lot of the conservative legislation
that we pushed through, including pro life legislation and including
pro family legislation. But you know, come January, right after

(31:28):
she says that she's now seen the light and she's
a Republican. She got her pack, got an infusion of money,
an infusion of cash. I think there was one donation
in her pack that was twenty five thousand dollars from
one of these groups, one of the lawyer groups or
marijuana group, I can't remember. But basically, you take a

(31:49):
down and out Democrat who had little to no money
in their pack, and now their pack is flushed with
campaign cash to the tune of forty three thousand dollars.
Could it be money, Could it be lobbying. Absolutely, but
again I don't even know if it's that. That's why
I encourage some legislator needs to pass a bill, needs

(32:10):
to run a bill and pass a bill urging that
we get our representatives and our senator's drug test and
during session at least three times during session. Because guys,
maybe it's even simpler than that. Maybe you have people
who actually use and this is their way of running interference.
You know, Hey, if it's legal, you can't say I

(32:32):
did anything wrong, you know. I definitely think we need
to know, especially when we're voting on things like marijuana
and street drugs, and you want this to be legal.
Do you want that to be legal. I certainly think
that the voters have a right to know who's already
using and who isn't.

Speaker 2 (32:49):
So when I met you, I was part of the
Republican Liberty Caucus and I was their panhandle like direct her,
and I was so impressed because you don't go with
the flow. And that's why I was very attracted to
your to you in politics, because you fight the fight.

(33:10):
And I learned on my little trip to Tallahassee, you know,
Passi Doma came in and briefed everyone, and everybody said, oh,
it's only what she wants. You can't add things, you know,
for her to to fight for. She's not into the
Second Amendment and all this garbage and and so is.

Speaker 1 (33:30):
It is this how it just is? Doc? Now we've
got Daniel Perez.

Speaker 2 (33:34):
I thought he was going to be a hero for everyone,
and it sounds like he's pushing only his legislative things
that he wants.

Speaker 1 (33:42):
And is this how it is? In Tally? It's what
they want and you just put up and shut up.

Speaker 3 (33:50):
Well, I think there are people that are taking advantage
of that fact, because you're right, Veronica, for you know,
for many years, the Florida House has been a top
down institution that the leadership decides what their priorities are
and what they're not. Unfortunately, you know, this is very
hard for me because you have me basically spilling the

(34:11):
beings on people that I used to know and love.
I mean, you know, I'm gonna be honest with you.
Danny Perez is one of the reasons why I ran
for reelection to my second term and got elected with
seventy nine percent of the vote after after two years
in Tallahassee, I was disgusted at the process. I was

(34:32):
not a fan of how sometimes you know, bills take
six or seven years to get passed. And Danny Perez
is one of the people who sat me down and said, Doc,
we need your voice. I want you to come back here.
Let me call your wife. We're gonna We're gonna get
you to run for reelection. So it's difficult for me
to say harsh words about Danny Perez because, like I said,

(34:53):
he was a colleague. I considered him a friend. It's
difficult for me to say terrible things about former Democrat
Hillary Cassel because I would say, at one point she
was my best friend in the Florida legislature. But then
you see their actions, right, actions speak louder than words.
You know, for someone to run unopposed as a Democrat

(35:14):
in a Democrat district and then one month after you've
been successfully re elected to go back and tell your
voters now, I'm teasing, I think I'm a Republican now
because it'll be easier to pass legislation. That's not fair
to the voters. It's not fair to the rank and
file Republicans who have been Republican for forty plus years

(35:35):
to have this Johnny come lately, come in and all
of a sudden start wielding all this power and authority
just because she changed the letter behind her name. You know,
Leopards don't lose their spot to neither do Democrats. Unfortunately,
to keep an eye on Cassell's legislation and you will
see she's no Republican. But you know Lawrence McClure who

(35:56):
is a true Republican. Lawrence McLure, the Budget chief, the
guy in charge of the House budget. He always used
to say very kind things about me. He would say that,
you know, I love you, doctor Rudman, because number one,
you're general, you're genuine, you know, you know what you get.
And number two, you're a reasonable man, so to have
people be nice to me, to have people be colleagues.

(36:16):
But now that I'm out of the environment, now that
I see some of the bad things they're doing, you know,
colleague or not, I have to call a spade a space.
I have to let the voters know. I have to
let the constituents know. Hey, guys, I don't know what
happened to the Florida legislature, but they are way off
the rails and we've got to get them back on track.

(36:36):
But but Veronica, to your point, is this a widespread revolt, No,
I think it's three or four people. I think again
they're taking advantage of that top down institution. If you
want to change the Florida House, you don't have to
go interview eighty seven Republicans. You could just interview four
or five, make the appropriate deals, you know, make the

(36:56):
appropriate donations, or maybe blackmailer. I mean, I I don't
know what's going on. Uh, maybe promised them in an endorsement. Again.
One of the theories going around is that chief of
Staff in DC at the Trump administration, Susie Wiles. There's
there's a lot of talk a lot of chatter that

(37:17):
Susie Wiles may be behind this because Susie used to
work for Ron DeSantis back in the day, but apparently
she was fired and so so is this an act
that she's trying to personally grind with DeSantis? You know,
you have to think who would have the power to
go to the Florida Speaker of the House and say, no,

(37:39):
mister Speaker, I know you had an agenda, but I'm
going to give you your new agenda, destroy Ron Destantus. I mean,
who else would have something like.

Speaker 2 (37:47):
That because Florida has led She's so busy, so.

Speaker 5 (37:53):
But part of it.

Speaker 4 (37:54):
But DeSantis is a Wayne Duck though, you know that's
that's that's I think that's the real problem.

Speaker 5 (37:59):
Okay.

Speaker 4 (38:00):
He I think he made a mistake when he ran
for president against Trump.

Speaker 5 (38:04):
He spent a lot of political capital. I think it
damaged him severely.

Speaker 2 (38:07):
And he should have taken the Ashley Moody seat. I've
been saying, right.

Speaker 4 (38:11):
I was thinking he should have appointed himself to the
Senate because everything else, that, all the other scenarios play
out badly for him. And I think I think led
Tallahassee is you know, it's a shark.

Speaker 5 (38:24):
It's a shark tank.

Speaker 2 (38:25):
Okay, Well, everybody something I think right and that, and
I think he's lost his mojo, you know, that's what
That's what it's come down to.

Speaker 5 (38:32):
He's lost his mojo. He's a lame duck governor.

Speaker 4 (38:35):
They know he's on the way out Byron Donald's going
to come in next, you know, and be the next hero.
And and you know, so what is what is Ronan
springing to the table?

Speaker 5 (38:43):
Now?

Speaker 4 (38:44):
You know, he's not gonna be He's not gonna be
a president in twenty eight He's not. He's not gonna
have a chance against Jade Vance. I think he's already.
I think he's I think people see him as a spent,
a spent political guy.

Speaker 5 (38:55):
But one thing.

Speaker 4 (38:56):
I'd like to follow up real quick, Joel, was you
made a comment about about, you know, stepping back and
seeing what Tallahassee is really like.

Speaker 5 (39:04):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (39:04):
You know, I had a conversation with former Speaker Benz
one time, and and Speaker Bench used to carry around
a little card. You know, he had his five principles
on that card and he says, you look at that
and remot you know, he'd look at legislation and says,
is it to comply with my five principles? He says,
after he got done being the speaker and he went
back and kind of reflected and saw all the stuff

(39:25):
that he compromised on that didn't meet his five principles,
he was kind of kind of, you know, saddened. I
guess it would be a good good way to put it,
but you know, a sausage factory. But but there's something
going on in Tallahassee and and with the with the parties,
and there's an alignment, misalignment, a change in alignment. I've
always predicted that a third party is going to evolve

(39:47):
out of this stuff, and the bushy Republicans are part
of that.

Speaker 5 (39:51):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (39:51):
You know, we had we had Democrat Senate leader Jason Piso,
you know, declared that Florida Democrat Party dead and he
resigned and became an NPA basically not didn't resign, but
he resigned as leader and became a no party affiliation.
And there's some rumor and of course you had David
Jolly becoming switching from Republican a Democrat, which is kind

(40:11):
of laughable.

Speaker 5 (40:12):
But uh uh, is there an.

Speaker 4 (40:14):
Alignment problem going on here is Morgan and Morgan involved
in this? And that's that's the rumor is John Morgan
is is given his blessing to to Piso, and we
might see Piso as a NPA governor's candidate with Morgan's backing.

Speaker 5 (40:29):
Give any credibility to that.

Speaker 3 (40:32):
Well, and and and John. That's why it's so hard
to figure out motive here, you know, it's almost like
we're the it's almost like we're on the JFK case
and we're trying to figure out who has the means
and who has the money, and who has the motive.
So I think really all we can do at this
point unless someone's willing to unless there's a whistleblower out there,

(40:52):
willing to come forward and say, hey it's all Morgan
and Morgan, or hey it's all Susie Wilds, or hey
it's just a whole bunch of people who were pissed
off that they weren't invited to the governor's Christmas party.
You know, unless someone's willing to come forward and give
us the motive, I think all we can really do
is look at their actions then, you know, like I
was telling Veronica earlier, I'm a private citizen with my

(41:14):
own life. My wife was so looking forward to having
me back in her life. And you know, she said
to me this weekend, as were visiting my son down
in South Florida, she says.

Speaker 5 (41:23):
Hey, nothing's changed with you.

Speaker 3 (41:24):
You're still on Twitter. Your phone's still lighting up every day.
She said, I thought I was getting you back. So
the reason I'm still actively involved, John, is because these
parties that you're talking about in the Runaway Florida House,
these whether you call them rhinos or whether you call
them dishonest Republicans, they are just outright lying about history.

(41:45):
I mean, Daniel Perez on Friday morning gave out a
press release to Fox News, and you guys can pull
it up. I'll be glad to send it to you.
Just go to if you google Daniel Perez, Fox News,
a Friday interview will pull up and it will show
you where Daniel Press says that Ron DeSantis did not
open up Florida to COVID. He says, Georgia led the way.

(42:08):
And y'all know that.

Speaker 4 (42:14):
A mask I was like, Brian Kemp was not a
leader on on on COVID.

Speaker 1 (42:21):
Okay, yeah, And.

Speaker 3 (42:23):
In that in that same sentence, he says that Greg
Abbott leads the way on immigration over again, give me, uh.

Speaker 2 (42:35):
Okay, I have more questions for you, all right. So,
so Alex Androtti represented Alex Androtte, has come out and
he's been literally awful to DeSantis. And and so that's
my question. It's the Hope Florida Foundation. I guess got
ten million dollars of money that came back that was

(42:57):
from we're read sixty seven million over billing for medicine,
I guess. And so Attorney General Othermier before he was
that he was the chief of staff to Ronda Santis
allocated this ten million dollars and this Miami Herald story
is saying that then part of that money ended up

(43:20):
in ether Meyer's political pack fund. So and then Andrade
is leading the way with investigation, which I guess now
it's closed.

Speaker 1 (43:29):
But what is all this mess?

Speaker 2 (43:31):
And then the Hope Florida Foundation is Casey DeSantis and
then there's the rumblings that she's running for governor as well.
So break all that down for us, doc, It's just
it's a mess. And were you were you friends with
Alexandrade before I had him on my show. Once it
was like pulling teeth to get him on the radio

(43:52):
with I don't know if it was the staffer, but
I never had to work so hard to get somebody
to talk media. And you know, I'm not that threatening.
I just want to hear your side of it.

Speaker 3 (44:03):
Well, there are no friends of Alexandrotti. He is probably
the most hated person in Callahassee as far as the
legislature is concerned. He is almost a pariah in Callahassee.
No one likes him, no one hangs out with him,
no one would call him a friend. So Alex was
the perfect person to choose to try and do a

(44:23):
hatchet job on Florida's first lady, right. Because most people
have morals, most people have limits that they won't go past.
Alexandrotti he has no moral limits. He'll do things, He'll
take things down into the gutter that no one else
would be willing to. For those of you that don't
know who I'm talking about, I'm talking about a guy
who was the city attorney for the city of Milton, Florida,

(44:47):
which is a small little mill town in the Panhandle.
Alex was their city attorney and he literally sued his employer.
He sued the mayor of Milton. Apparently they didn't see
eye to eye on a couple topics, so Alex went
on in this bizarre, almost personal vendetta against the mayor.
It costs the mayor her full time job. The mayor

(45:09):
of Milton was also a lawyer who worked for the
city of Pensacola. When Alex started suing her, Pensacola said, hey,
whatever's going on between you two, whether it's some kind
of vendetta or some kind of you know, bizarre triangle
or relations, we can't be a part of this. So
the mayor actually lost her paying job. I mean, he

(45:29):
literally tried to cancel Milton's mayor And of course, thanks
to the recent election in November twenty four the new
Milton City Council, they were voted in specifically to fire
the city attorney. So you guys will be glad to
know Alex Androtti is the former city attorney of Milton,
the disgraced city attorney. So again, perfect stooge, perfect person

(45:53):
to single out and say, Hey, you've got nothing to lose,
how about you go after desantus. If you're successful, you know,
you make a name for yourself. If you get beat
up well, you're already beat up. No one likes you anyway.
So it was the perfect Patsy, the perfect Lee Harvey Oswald,
if you will, because he had nothing to lose. And
I think you see now in the final analysis that

(46:14):
that was all just a hope. It was all smoke
and mirrors for people out there that don't know anything
about this Hope Florida Foundation. It is an incentive of
the First Lady. It's basically a project of the First
Ladies to help unite faith based services with people who
need their services. So, in other words, if you're homeless,

(46:35):
if you're down on your luck, if you can't afford rent,
blah blah blah. Instead of signing up for Medicaid and
signing up for government assistance, the First Lady said, why
don't you sign up with these church based organizations. These
people they donate their time, their efforts, their money all
the time. They just don't know unless you go to church,

(46:56):
you don't know how to contact these people. So Hope
Florida was a way of putting people in contact with
these faith based services, and it's been extremely successful, especially
if you're a conservative like us and you're looking to
get people off of government entitlement programs. So the whole
thing was a hope. They're referencing some some sort of

(47:18):
settlement decision. As you guys know, when lawyers make settlement,
there's often clauses in those settlements that we're not a
party to, Like for example, the big lawsuits against big tobacco.

Speaker 5 (47:29):
RJ.

Speaker 3 (47:29):
Reynolds. Yes, RJ. Reynolds actually have to take actually had
to take a lot of their fortune and spend them
on anti smoking tv ads. These things are not unheard of,
They're not ridiculous. So of course, like you say, if
someone's trying to settle with the state government and the
state's attorneys say, you know what would be nice It

(47:50):
would be nice if as a penalty you would spend
money on promoting the values of faith based organizations, if
you would spend money telling people to get off drugs,
and if you would spend money talking about the sanctity
of life. So to me, there's absolutely no controversy there.

Speaker 4 (48:08):
Okay, I agree, And on the federal level it happens
all the time. You know, where the Justice Department actually
you know, extracts part of a settlement and says, oh,
by the way, go spend you know, fifty million dollars
with this NGO over here to promote you know, safety
or whatever. You know, just said no smoking or whatever.
And that's where the NGOs get their money from. The

(48:28):
one thing I was really curious about in this story, though,
was the money transfers.

Speaker 5 (48:34):
And we were digging a little bit.

Speaker 4 (48:36):
You know, we had a recent election here in Panama
City and there was some some garbage emails going out,
you know, from Tallahasse or you know, so I decided
to dig into into the Tallahasse and her mayor, Republican mayor.

Speaker 2 (48:51):
Was a sorrows person.

Speaker 1 (48:53):
And yeah, you've known this man.

Speaker 2 (48:54):
I've known him for fifteen years. There's nothing Soros, not
even in his pinky toe.

Speaker 4 (48:59):
Yeah, retired orthopedic surgeon. Nicest guy you'll ever meet. And
and you know this this stuff was coming from Tallahassee,
you know. And I dug into the organizations and and
you know, you get into that web of you know,
all the money is reported, of course, and then you
get into the web of all these packs and they're
all sending money to each other, you know, and it's short.

Speaker 2 (49:22):
I doubt where the money came from, right money.

Speaker 3 (49:27):
Yeah, we definitely need We definitely need to have a
campaign finance reform in the state of Florida because those packs.
Like I said, when a Democrat goes from having an
almost bankrupt pack to having a pack with almost fifty
thousand dollars in it in the span of a month
because she switched to Republican, there's definitely some high jinks

(49:47):
going on there. I can tell you in my own case,
you know, running for Congress against the fourth most powerful
person in Florida, I can tell you I resent the
fact that the Republican Party of Florida, as well as
the people in your US Congress. Here my fellow Republicans
were sending out texts and emails during the primary. And

(50:07):
I know this because they are on my phone. They
send them to me saying, hey, we need to help
Jimmy Petronas. You know, no offense to Jimmy, but the
primary's going on. You actually had ten decent Republicans running
for that slot. But the text and emails were going
out during the primary telling Republican voters, hey, we're about
to lose this seat to a liberal unless you donate

(50:29):
to Jimmy Patrona's And I'm thinking get them. Just donate
to me what.

Speaker 2 (50:34):
John and I have fought that fight and talked about
that many many times that we do not want the
r pof choosing our candidate. That is what a freaking'
primary is for. And they did it with you know
which you know, Senator Scott was going to win. They
did it against Keith Gross. I mean, we've seen it
so many times now and and yeah, no, that's not

(50:55):
their job.

Speaker 4 (50:56):
That is not back in the day when I was,
when I was Bay County chairman, and you know they
I guess.

Speaker 5 (51:03):
When who was it?

Speaker 4 (51:07):
A former senator that went into space was running for
governor against uh Rick Scott.

Speaker 5 (51:15):
Yeah, I can't.

Speaker 4 (51:15):
But but anyway, the Florida the Florida Republican Party at
our annual meeting, they wanted, they wanted the party was
was going to endorse him. And I stood up and
said time out here, this is not our job. We're
not here to tell the Republican voters who to pick
for governor.

Speaker 5 (51:29):
That's the job of the primary.

Speaker 3 (51:31):
You know.

Speaker 4 (51:31):
Our job is to get people to participate and and
you know, have a platform for what Republicans stand for.
It's not it's not to choose who the winner is.
And fortunately they you know, they back down on that.
But uh, you know, uh McCollum, that's what it was,
Bill McCollum. And he was and he was the shoe in,
you know, supposedly.

Speaker 1 (51:52):
Scott was running against the as.

Speaker 3 (51:53):
Yeah, but anyway, I was gonna say, John, if you
remember that program about sending justas into space, there's about
two or three dozen in the Florida House we could
send into space and I don't think anybody would miss them.

Speaker 2 (52:09):
So so, I mean, was it frustrating that patronis you know,
who really was a carpetbagger rolled in? I mean, Jimmy's
a great guy. You know, we've supported him over here.
I've interviewed him a bunch, but I felt like it
was your district doctor Rudman. So so I mean that
was I don't know, I'm sure you were frustrated by that.

Speaker 3 (52:32):
So it was it was extremely frustrating, you know, And
and and and fair's fair. I mean Jimmy, Jimmy won.
I mean, it won a fair fight. But again, I
think I think what you guys said earlier, I think
the higher ups need to kind of stay out of this.
I think that's why you saw extremely low turnout in
the generals for these special elections. Right when Jimmy did

(52:54):
run against the Democrat and in a district that is
normally Republican plus thirty, Jimmy one by fifteen. He should
have won by thirty percent. And then the same thing
happened over in Congressional District six with Randy Fine. You know,
I don't think I'm making news by telling you guys
that Randy Fine doesn't have a whole lot of positive press.

(53:17):
You know, his negatives are extremely high. There are people
that like Randy Fine, but then there's a lot of
people that hate Randy Fine. And so when the higher ups,
like you say, when the party folks come down and
tell Congressional District six, this is going to be our candidate,
make no mistake. Well, guess what, by the time that

(53:37):
candidate reaches the general election, there may be a price
to pay for meddling in those primaries because we're trying
to appeal to NPA's We're trying to, you know, appeal
to Republicans who may not even know there's an election
going on. So yeah, I'm afraid if this habit continues
of messing around in local decisions in local politics. I'm afraid,

(53:59):
you know, we may be actually helping the Democrats get
up off the mat here in Florida, which would be
a shame because again it was Governor DeSantis who basically
eradicated the Democrat Party and that you guys, make no mistake.
This is not sour grades, This is not me oh
on a favor to the governor. This is about your
Florida legislature going about policies that are misguided and anti conservative.

(54:26):
Just real quick, let me tell you a couple of
things that stick in my mind. Number one, like I said,
homeowners insurance. We solved the homeowners insurance crisis, and your
bills are going to start coming down. We did that
by getting the trial lawyers out of the issue. We
got frivolous lawsuits out of the issue. And there's a
House bill that just passed this week where we canceled

(54:46):
all that. We said, hey, give the lawyers whatever they want, pay,
be sure lawyer's fees are paid for, be sure the
insurance companies pay for them. So we are going to
lose ground in the insurance market. And unfortunately, unless the
Governor veto's did thing, your homeowners rates are going to
go up because of the Florida House. You also had
Florida's Governor, Ronda Santis say, we've got to while we've

(55:09):
got the supermajority, we've got to strengthen Second Amendment. Right,
y'all know, before I left the Florida House, I filed
a bill to give people open carry and to repeal
the red flag laws. All any other Republican had to
do was take my bill out of the trash ham
or dust it off and put their name on it,
and that bill would have sailed through. But no one

(55:31):
did again. So it's one thing to get in a
fight with the governor, right because every branch of government
is going to have their own opinions. Not we're not
going to agree one hundred percent of the time, but
it's the tone and it's the method that your legislature
is going about this. They are doing things, in my opinion,
simply to spite the governor when he calls for property

(55:53):
tax relief. When he talks about a legislator running an
amendment to the Constitution lowering property taxes, did anyone do it? No, Now,
you would think out of eighty seven, eighty eight, eighty
nine Republicans. You would think that one member, would you know,
be at home on their own thing. Man, this is
a great way to win an election, This is a

(56:14):
great way to endear myself to my constituents. Let me
be the one to file that bill. And so you're
telling me eighty nine Republicans refused to file that bill.
They were under orders from leadership. They were under orders
from the Speaker of the House or his chief of staff,
or perhaps maybe even higher than that, perhaps maybe even
Susie Wilde. They were under orders not to file that bill.

Speaker 2 (56:38):
Well, I don't understand he's America's governor when I've traveled overseas,
like everybody knows who Governor DeSantis is. And you were
just in Tallahassee and you did a rally in tally
Governor Desanti's freedom agenda, and I mean you made news
doing that. You know, how did you faire? I mean,

(57:01):
I've read the hot news story on it.

Speaker 3 (57:04):
Well, and that's where I think, that's where you have
to contact your representatives and your senators, because if your
viewers don't like any of this that I've revealed, if
they're like I did not elect Michelle Salzman to go
to Tallahassee and fight Governor DeSantis. The reason I bring

(57:24):
up Rep. Slisman from Pensacola, her bill that just passed
the House basically gets Governor DeSantis out of your decision making.
When you're talking about naming a board of trustees to
uwf or US or FSU. You guys, remember how liberal
our campuses used to be in the state of Florida.
Y'all remember well, I loved the College of Florida.

Speaker 1 (57:45):
DeSantis.

Speaker 2 (57:46):
You remember he was the first one He pulled the
damn DEI office from University of Florida and move that
two million into scholarships. And I was so happy about that.
He led the way there with DEI before Trump even
showed up.

Speaker 3 (58:00):
And so when my good friend Michelle Salzman is convinced
to run a bill that takes him out of the equation,
you have to look at that for what it is.
It's a slap in the face. It's basically a full
frontal assault on America's governor. And like you say, Veronica,
to people like you and me, it makes absolutely no sense.
But somewhere in the political calculus it must make sense.

(58:23):
Either they are being directed to attack him at all costs,
or someone's donating enough money, whether it's John Morgan or
whether it's True Leave or whoever, someone is making it
worth their while to do this, because, as John said,
Desantas is a lane duck. He's only there for this
session and one more session. And to be honest, the
future right now for Florida is looking pretty scary with

(58:46):
these legislators. And so that's why, you know, if your listeners,
if they don't like any of this that I've revealed today,
if they didn't send Salves when they're to fight the governor,
if they didn't send Androtti to Tallahasse, to call Casey
Desanta's a criminol and to call O our attorney general,
hey should be brought up on corruption charges. If you
did not send Republicans to fight Republicans, well then you

(59:09):
need to call them, email them, you need to call
them on the carpet and say what the heck are
you guys doing, because I think to most voters it
makes absolutely no sense at all. Well, you know, we
were used to attacks. You know I've been attacked every day,
but you expect it from Democrats. You don't expect it
from fellow conservatives. And so you know, whether you call

(59:30):
them rhinos or whether you call them sellouts, or you know,
I call them the runaway house. That's the word I
use for them, guys, because I refuse to call them
a Republican supermajority. I refuse to call them a Republican house.
I mean, if you're welcoming in Democrats who just voted
for Kamala Harris, and if they're not having to change

(59:51):
their mindset, if they're running the same old tired Democrat bills,
well then yeah, at that point, who wouldn't have a supermajority? Right, Basically,
all the democ are going to come running over and
they're going to water down the conservative ideals of our party.
So all you have to do is look at how
this House has conducted itself and you will realize No,

(01:00:11):
just like before we stand with Ron DeSantis. You need
to call Daniel Perez, you need to call Hillary to Sell,
you need to call you know, Lawrence mcclirk, call your
Republican representatives and let them know this is not what
you sent them to Tallahassee to do. They are not
supposed to be doing the Democrats work for them.

Speaker 4 (01:00:31):
So do you think this is related to the rise
of the quote Republicans in South Florida, where you have
a lot of Democrats that.

Speaker 5 (01:00:39):
Are seeing the light as they did up here in
North Florida.

Speaker 4 (01:00:42):
You're you know, decades ago and switched over to they're
really Democrats, but they switched over to Republicans so they
could actually you know, have a voice in elections. But
you know, the Democrat party so dead down there that
that now we've got people that are really Democrats that
are just putting an R neck to their name so
they can win.

Speaker 3 (01:01:04):
No doubt in my mind, I mean, that's definitely the case.
I believe if you guys dig deep enough, I think
Hillary can Sells actually on record on some TV interview
basically saying as much, saying that from my constituents back home,
having a D after my name was getting nothing done.
I had to put a different letter after my name.
So that's the depth of her conversion. And then the

(01:01:24):
other recent Democrat convert Susan Valdez. Let me tell you
about Susan Valdez. And again it's hard for me to
talk about, colleague, but let's be honest here. Susan Valdez
was the head Democrat in Tampa. She ran, okay, not
just to be a state representative. She wanted to be
the Democrat whatever you call share person chairwoman for Hillsborough County, which,

(01:01:48):
of course, as you know, that's Tampa. Susan Valdez lost
that vote, right, so she's the representative. They just didn't
want her to be the voice of the party locally.
And so in a huff, she takes her bak all
and she goes home. And then the very next station
she says, you know what, I've seen the light. I'm
a Republican. And if she had not lost that local,
if she were chairwoman of Hillsboro's Democratic Party, do you

(01:02:12):
think she would have seen the light the following day?

Speaker 1 (01:02:15):
No, no, no, no.

Speaker 3 (01:02:19):
Home yet.

Speaker 2 (01:02:20):
So I need to ask you because this picture that
you posted on your Facebook as a retired Air Force officer,
and it had Nathan Boyles with like he was in
the in a fighter jet, pretending like he was in
the military, and he won your seat. Now that picture
infuriated me. So so is he the right pick for

(01:02:43):
your area? Because you've got some big shoes, some big
doctor Joel Rudman doctor shoes A fill over there because
you were up there in tally kicking ass Well.

Speaker 3 (01:02:54):
I appreciate that, Veronica, but yeah, I I was just
as infuriated as you were when I saw all that.
That is definitely uh Nathan Boyle's typical tactics again, He's
he's underhanded like an Androtti. He's underhanded like some of
these swampy kind of rhino legislators. You know what I
think it is, guys, I think what y'all liked about me,

(01:03:17):
and there's a few legislators left that that are in
the same mold. I think you, guys, you like people
that serve who really don't want or need the job.
In other words, those are the if you if you
want to stay in Tallahassee, those are the people they
can put them.

Speaker 2 (01:03:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:03:39):
If you if you love going to the Governor's club
in Tallahassee, if if you love seeing your name go
up to the leaderboard, well then yeah, those are going
to be the people that the majority leader can knock
on their door and say, hey, we need you to
vote this way against your conscience, because if you don't,
we're gonna primary you. So I think Nathan Boyle's is
actually going to be part of the problem. I think
he's going to be another Droughty. I think he's going

(01:04:01):
to be doing the beck and call of whoever his
masters are. You know, again, it's we need people to
make their voices heard. I can't express that enough. If
if you're infuriated after listening to me pulling back the curtain,
we need you to call your local representative. You know,
there are some goodness and Broniker, you're fortunate enough to

(01:04:22):
be surrounded by some goodlins. You know, Griff Griffiths is
not playing an active role in this. You know, Shane
Abbott is not playing an active role in this. Jason's
chauff over in Port Saint Joe. For the most part.
You know, their hands are clean. They're just trying to
conduct the people's business. But at this point in the game,
at this stage in the game, with Danny Perez doubling
down and drippling down and basically trying to resuscitate the

(01:04:45):
Democratic Party and trying to splinter the Republican Party, it's
no longer good enough to just keep your head down
and mind your own business. We need these leaders like Shane,
like Griff because again these are buddies of mine.

Speaker 5 (01:04:59):
We need them to act.

Speaker 3 (01:05:00):
We speak out and speak up. And I think they
will do it as long as they hear from your listeners.
If your listeners will call them and email them and
let them know. Guys, we're going to clean house. But
we are not necessarily mad at you. You know, if
you will have the courage to stand with us, we
are going to stand with you. Again, We're not mad
at Michelle Salzman. We're mad at whoever gave her that

(01:05:23):
horrible bill to run, because you know she did it
under duress. You know she did right.

Speaker 5 (01:05:29):
Well, who do you well?

Speaker 2 (01:05:32):
I Number one, I want to say, I think your
book's going to be called pulling Back the Curtain by
doctor Rudman. So I already have the books there.

Speaker 4 (01:05:39):
You go, hey, that's appropriate to for doctor, and then
put your gloves on.

Speaker 2 (01:05:49):
But doc, who do you think is going to be?
I mean, is it a done deal? I mean I
love Byron Donald. He's fought really, really hard for Trump.
He was on the national news pretty much every single
night when Trump was running. I think he's a good guy.
You know, is the Casey DeSantis? Is that is that

(01:06:11):
just you know, is that gonna happen? Who do you
think is gonna be? And I've heard Wilson Simpson is
interested in the governor job. Even Matt Gates is interested.

Speaker 1 (01:06:21):
In being governor.

Speaker 2 (01:06:23):
Any any rumblings that you've heard, and and you know.

Speaker 3 (01:06:28):
So, guys, I think I think you're about to get
an exclusive, and I think this would be a good
note to end on today. I gotta uh drive right
back to the Panhandle. I've had a wonderful time here
in Saint Augustine with my wife and we enjoy getting
out and seeing the states. But but yeah, that is
a great question to end on, Veronica, because let me
give your audience an exclusive, so to try and figure

(01:06:52):
out what's going on to our beloved Florida, and to
try and figure out why strong conservators like myself, like
just Stantus, like the appointees at UWS. You know, there
was a lady there who was high up in the
Moms for Liberty Circuit who was an appointee that was
they refused to confirm her. And it's like, guys, these

(01:07:13):
are decent conservatives. So here's your exclusive to try and
get to the bottom of this. Right, So we've got
high ranking Republicans just going off the rails attacking the governor.
I got a text yesterday. I won't tell you from who,
but from someone high up in the Republican Party saying,
doctor Rudman, I want to bring Byron Donalds to your area,

(01:07:36):
and I want you to join us at a fundraiser,
and I want you to say nice things about Byron
donald And so, guys, here's your exclusive. I said, I
do not want to hear from Byron Donalds unless he
publicly goes on the airwaves and let people know he
does not stand for these attacks on decent conservatives like

(01:07:58):
doctor Rudman, like Ron DeSantis, like Casey DeSantis. And I
want Byron Donalds to denounce the Speaker of the House
and to call for him to vacate the chair. We
need a new Speaker of the House. These people have
pledged their allegiance to Byron donald So don't tell me
it can't be done. If Congressman Donald's called Danny Perez

(01:08:21):
today and said, Danny, this is insanity, this is great.
You have humiliated the Republican Party. You have splintered us
at a moment when we should have been celebrating the
election of the greatest president of our lifetime. We have
the greatest governor of our lifetime. You have fractured the
Republican Party into a million pieces. Don't you guys know

(01:08:42):
that one phone call from Byron Donald's would be all
it would take to end this foolishness. So I put
the word out this afternoon. I said, look, I would
be happy. I would be happy to meet Byron, but
here are my conditions. He's got to publicly denounce what's
going on to our governor, right, because if Byron wants
to run on a platform, his platform should be I'm

(01:09:03):
going to continue what Ron DeSantis already did. If I
were running for if I were running for governor, I
would my platform would be I'm gonna be totally different
from de Santans. My platform would be I'll be Desanta's
two point zero. And so Byron should take this track,
but he should also tell his friends in the Florida
House to cut out this nonsense. And guys, listen, starting today,

(01:09:28):
we are going to ask that Danny Perez vacate the share.
He has been useless, he has been an embarrassment to that.
And again this is difficult for me to say. You know,
he's a good person at heart. I know Danny he's
a good person, but whoever advised him to take this tack.
Oh my gosh, there are so many people, Dan, and
for me to speak like this when I mentioned Hillary

(01:09:50):
to sell, when I mentioned Michelle Salzman. Guys, there's so
much collateral damages. He's cost me friendships with these people
because I cannot sit by and say that it's okay
to run these bills. I can't sit by and say
that it's okay for Susan Valdez to now be a
high ranking Republican when she was just a Democrat three
months ago, Susan, I got word that Susan was actually

(01:10:12):
mad at me. She says, why is Rudman attacking me?
And again my attitude is, I'm not attacking you, Susan.
I'm telling the truth because your people are attacking America's governor.

Speaker 2 (01:10:22):
And it thought by bottles, it thought they stick together
through thick and thin. You know, well, doctor Rudman, are
former representative over here in Walton County and the Panhandle.
I want to thank you for joining Barnica Live. And
I just hope, I hope you end up somewhere just

(01:10:43):
not being a doctor in the Trump administration or somewhere
because you were one of the fighters.

Speaker 1 (01:10:48):
One of the warriors.

Speaker 3 (01:10:50):
Well, I appreciate it, but again, you know, uh, I
think you guys want people who love this country, but
you know, they don't love the job. And I think
we need more people like that. I think we already
have some there. We just have to rally them, get
them to band together and stop this current foolishness that's

(01:11:11):
going on in the Florida House. Again, we're all Republicans.
We don't need to sell out to the trial lawyers.
We don't need to. You know, my stock doesn't rise
if the Santa Cis stock goes down. It doesn't work
that way, right. A rising tide lifts all ships. So
we need Republicans that band together because Veronica, like you said,
the Democrats certainly know how to band together.

Speaker 1 (01:11:33):
So true.

Speaker 2 (01:11:34):
Well, thanks for being a conservative warrior. We've been talking
to former Representative doctor Joel Rudman, and thanks for joining
Veronica Live today.

Speaker 3 (01:11:41):
Doc enjoyed it, guys, Thank you