December 22, 2025 • 21 mins
Former Vice Mayor Christopher Smitherman discusses the corruption surrounding local elections in Cincinnati, focusing on the lack of transparency from city officials regarding settlement talks and the implications for taxpayers. He also highlights the issue of Medicaid fraud in Minnesota, criticizing the political response and calling for accountability in government spending.
takeaways
- We were all lied to in Cincinnati regarding local elections.
- The public deserves transparency from city officials.
- Corruption in local government impacts taxpayer trust.
- Media outlets failed to investigate crucial election-related information.
- Settlement talks were hidden from the public before the election.
- Elections have consequences, and voters must be informed.
- Medicaid fraud is a significant issue affecting low-income Americans.
- Political accountability is necessary for government integrity.
- Corruption often goes unchallenged due to political interests.
- Identity politics can distract from discussions about corruption.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Seven twenty in fifty five KCD talk station on a
Monday that means former vice mayor of the city. Since
Saint Christopher's Spiman provides us with an opportunity or gives
we give them an opportunity to ventist Sleen, we call
it the Smith Van on the heels of my father
and the Monday morning Spleen event. Welcome back, Christopher. Great
to hear from you, and a very very happy or
Merry Christmas to you and your family, my friend.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Oh, Merry Christmas to you, Brian Thomas and your whole family,
and Marry Christmas to your very loyal listening audience. You know,
I am appreciative that they tune in to your show
like I do, and they give me an opportunity, you know,
on Monday mornings to express things to them. So Merry
Christmas to all of them, and I thank you for
(00:44):
the opportunity to share my thoughts. Brian. The first thing
that's on my mind is an autopsy of the local
election that we just went through, and I'm going to
hone in on one specific part of it, and I
want to read iterate this to the public. We were
all lied to in Cincinnati as we went into the
(01:06):
local election. This is not about Christopher Smitherman. This is
not about Corey Bowman. This is not about Liz Keating
or Steve Gooden, as some examples. This is about a
corrupt government at City Hall. I mean everything that I'm
saying now. The public deserved to know that we were
(01:33):
in settlement talks for eight point one million dollars to
give to protesters downtown. There is no way that the
city manager, the mayor, the entire city solicitor's office, whomever
you want to talk about, and the media should have known.
(01:53):
They should have been digging, They should have been asking questions.
They should have been trying to say, what should we
know going into this election? This administration hid that from
the public. Do I believe that it would have changed
the outcome of the election. No, But we deserved to
have that information because Brian Thomas, as a person, a
(02:16):
media personality, would have done a deep dive into that
would have educated voters prior to voting that City Hall
was about to settle eight point one million or total
of maybe ten million because the lawyers are getting two million,
and that the city was going to have to issue
judgment bonds by the way in order to pay that debt,
(02:37):
because they weren't going to pay the debt. We are
paying the debt. We forget. We act like Mayor pure
vall is going into his pocket with his repolled cars,
taking the money and paying out the ten million. He's
not the people that are in the city who are
paying that income tax. We are the ones paying this bill.
(02:59):
We des to know that information prior to the election.
There is no media outlet in this town that has
put that in black and white for us to see.
I'm not focused on the A point one. I'm focused
on the corruption. I'm focused on they hid that from us.
(03:19):
And this is what's wrong with our local government's public
that we don't do a deep dive and we don't
look back and we don't think why didn't they tell
us that prior to the election. It was right after
the election. Oh, we've got this settlement. We're not going
to trial, we're not gonna fight this, We're gonna surrender
and we're just gonna give out ten million dollars of
(03:39):
your money, pay the lawyers two million, and then send
out eight point one million dollars to everybody else. And
we're gonna issue judgment bonds in order to do that.
While we're in settlement talks with Chief Washington, while we're
in settlement talks with Chief cg meaning we know there's
gonna be other settlements that were coming. We were aware
of those things. We were absolutely unaware of this. And
(04:01):
this is big because it absolutely impacts our police department.
It impacts our budget, It impacts our trust of them,
meaning we were to weigh in and said, no, we
don't want you to settle that case. We want this
to go to trial. What are our options as the taxpayers.
The taxpayers were never brought in where there were any
public hearings, any discussions for us other than them voting
(04:25):
on the settlement. But we didn't have an opportunity to
weigh in. Those who are paying the bill had no
opportunity to weigh in and say we want to go
to trial. I'd rather pay fifty million dollars and say
we had our day in court. They give them a
point one million. Is that fair, Brian Thomas?
Speaker 1 (04:42):
It's fair that you hold that opinion, Christopher. I understand
where it's coming from all day long, and you know
to the extent they were able to reveal what was
going on in settlement negotiations.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
It could have been governed by the attorney clan privilege
or but the reality that the lawsuit was filed and
where we were in the lawsuit and what the subject
matter of the lawsuit was should have been a topic
of regular conversation. So we're at least all aware. And
this settlement didn't come out of right field, which it
seems to have come out of right field.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
Christopher.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
That right field that you described is the corruption that
their lives, their lives, the corruption you and I understand
it didn't come from right field. And if we had
a paper of record that was willing to do their
job to ask the tough questions that the way they
used to do thirty or forty years ago, we would
(05:35):
have had this information. And right now there's no opinion
that's going in the paper saying this was wrong. The
way it was handled was wrong. We were in the
middle of an election and this government should have provided
this information to the public. Where is that article? It
doesn't exist. Does everybody seems to be working together, Brian
(05:57):
Thomas to undermine the people. And this is what is
so frustrating and why I wanted to start my my
spleen bit this morning say I'm not focused on the
eight million, eight point one million. I've already talked about that.
I'm this morning talking about the corruption of the eight
point one million and that's all tied into the Irish
Roly contract that just happened to happen right after the election.
(06:21):
Let's just drop down another six hundred and fifty plus
thousand dollars to her. By the way, right after the election.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Yeah, two days later you call corruption? Hold on corruption. Well,
I know he has more on his mind. We're out
of time.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
In the segment seven twenty seven, we mentioned very quickly
my friends are calling electric for residential electric needs. It's
calling electric and I don't know, but I have a
really strong cuency.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Deep Talk Station.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Seven thirty one fifty five Ker City Talk Station Bryan
Thomas with a former vice mayor of the city since
Saint Christopher's smitheman and.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
Heyby Mack Christopher.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
You know.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
One of the interesting things I talked to Andre Ewing.
Brother Drey was on the program last Friday, and I
asked him specifical about i IRIS, who's been has very
influential and he said, and I'm boiling down his comments too,
And I asked him directly along the lines of well,
if Iris Rawley had been against a FTAB per vol
for whatever reason, if he rubbed her the wrong way
(07:15):
or didn't agree to extend this contract for another however
many years, the six hundred and fifty thousand dollars contract
we learned about after the election, would it have changed
the election? I specifically said, would Corey Bowman have won?
And he said yes. Now, he's one man with one opinion,
But that suggests that Iris Roley wields a tremendous amount
(07:36):
of power among those who show up to vote in
the city of Cincinnati.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Yeah, don't. I don't think. I don't agree there, But
that's okay. I really have high respect for Andre. He's
in his service to our city. But what I will say,
and I think that both of us, Andrea and I
would agree that she actively campaigned for him. So you
(08:02):
have a contractor that's getting lots of money, and she's
actively following Corey Bowman around, screaming at him, shouting at
him during the debates or any event that he might
go to. She's showing up and clowning. She was an
(08:23):
arm of his campaign. The public doesn't understand that if
you're a city employee, you're not supposed to do that.
But what they've done is they they're slicing this thing. Well,
she's not an employee, she's a ten ninety nine er.
She's a contractor. So therefore, as she takes our money,
she can engage directly in politics. She had a nepotism
(08:48):
by giving fifty eight dollars an hour to family members
and hooking up friends down there. And by the way,
we had a whole discussion publicly about invoices that were submitted,
lack of true transparency on our ROI helping young people.
A lot of us believe that that money could be
(09:08):
spent very differently with better outcomes. But why after the
election do you give her the contract? It was a
reward public. You did your job, soldier, you went out
there and campaigned for me I want, and now you
get your money. That's what we call corruption. We should
(09:30):
have had all of this information. And by the way,
the city manager isn't asking any more questions about what
she's doing, how she's submitting her invoices, who's getting paid what,
Knowing that family members are getting paid, friends and family
are getting paid, no questions at all. Public. But guess what,
(09:50):
elections have consequences. We knew that going into the election,
and many in the city just didn't care. They were
just so for Oh, I'm not going to vote for
Corey Bowman. I'm going to vote for this guy right here.
And then we find out after the election that his
cars are being repolled. That you and I know as
(10:10):
just financially literate people, that when your cars are being repolled,
that they're calling you, writing you, reaching out to you.
Your payment isn't made. He asks like, oh, this just
fell out of the sky. They just came and refold
my car in front of the city hall public. That
is absolutely untrue. This is a guy that doesn't even
know how to manage his own checkbook, and he's now
(10:34):
taught now in charge of managing a billion dollar budget, which,
by the way, we have a massive deficit that this
city's going to have to resolve because COVID dollars are gone.
There's no more offsets, so they're going to actually have
to roll up their sleeves and actually do some work
down there. But at the end of the day, this
election was let me pay everybody off. Here's your eight
(10:56):
point one million, two million dollars to the lawyers. And
by the way, the lead lawyer is Irish Rowley's total
best friend, meaning al Gerhardstein and Irish Rowley are tied
at the hip. They're all this is the guy that
brought the collaborative agreement to the City of Cincinnati. He
(11:16):
wrote it. So Iris and him are on the same team, right,
This is all the same thing. I would not be
surprised that she wasn't even at the table for the negotiates,
because they will bring Iris into the room. If you
talk to the president and the FOP president, they bring
her into meetings that there's no way in hell she
should be in the room discussing anything. But my point is,
(11:40):
at the end of the day, it boils down to
one feed corruption and the second thing it boils down
to is there what is the ROI the violence and
skill happening throughout the winter. The violence will continue in
the summer, and all of these people will continue to
get paid.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
And that's the what results do we get from our
money question? That no seems to be asking or following
up on. Christopher Smithman hold on will come back just
a moment here. I want to mention de talk station
here at fifty five Karrose Detalk station, Christopher smithment on
(12:17):
the phone doing an admirable job pointing out the fraud
corruption going on in downtown Cincinnati. Christopher, what else is
on your mind today?
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Look what is happening in Minnesota with the corruption. We
have to keep our eye on that. There were thirteen
people charged this week for medicaid fraud. Now, what is
medicaid right? Medicaid is that safety net service that provides free,
(12:46):
low cost health coverage for millions of people Americans who
are in the category of low incomes. Why wouldn't the
Democrats be I'm really angry to hear that someone from
other countries were taking advantage of Americans who deserve and
(13:13):
need the safety net services in the tune of eight
billion dollars of corruption coming out of one state. So
you know they're not serious because they're trying to explain
this away. Put it on the back pages, no real articles,
no deep dives. Thirteen people's were thirteen people were charged
(13:35):
for medicaid fraud. Fifth week. Oh there going to be more?
Speaker 1 (13:39):
Oh yeah, that's that's on top of the ones who
already charged. I mean, it's we're entering into the billions
of dollars stolen in fraud, waste, and abuse.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Right, not one billion, not one billion that they started with, right,
you and I know this thing might hit eight, nine,
ten billion dollars. That this is a deep hole, showing
that the gu governors should have known or did know,
that congressional members should have known or did know they
(14:09):
were at campaigned events getting money from these people who
were defrauding our government, taking money from the poor, from medicaid,
the people that Democrats say they care so much about,
and then took the money and sent it to their country, right,
took lavish trips, traveled all around the world first class,
(14:35):
spending our precious federal dollars for the poor. That is
what is so crazy about this public That you have
Democrats that are turning because they're more interested in gaining
power in the midterm elections. They're more concerned about that
than they are in exposing this fraud. So what they're
(14:58):
trying to do is act like the federal government. Trump
is on some rage, he's trying to undermine something. All
he's doing is showing us here's a here's a state
that is that is absolutely a deep state that is
engaging in fraud against the poorest people in our country,
(15:19):
our Americans who do who need this medicaid, these medicaid
dollars that they've been taking, siphoning that money off for
their own personal gain in order to help political candidates,
and sending the money to Somalia. And by the way,
Somalia is on that list consistently ranked as one of
the most corrupt countries in the on the globe. So
(15:42):
we already know, meaning people who are the world knows
that Somalia's government doesn't have it together. And now all
of a sudden we're seeing eight billion dollars of fraud,
medicaid fraud. We've got to keep saying medicaid fraud. That
that tells you that they were from the poor. The
thing that the Democrats say they care so much about.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Bryant Well, and you can focus on, yes, the program
is designed to help the poorest out there, and yes,
the Democrats typically hold the mantra of the party in
favor of helping the poor. But this is an insult
to every tax payer, taxpayers out there. Because I'm glad
part of my taxpayers dollars go to Medicaid program because
I want to help those in life's margins. Well, you
(16:26):
know what, they don't care about monitoring the program so
much so that you know they're they're they're wasting billions
and billions of the dollars that you earn going to
work every day and not doing anything about it. They
can't admit that this is a good thing, the Democrats,
because it exposes a weakness in the program. It's built
to not find fraud, wasted abuse, or if it's run
by an administration that doesn't care to look into it,
(16:47):
they just ignore it, and the fraud wasted abuse continues
and probably increases because word gets out that there aren't
going to be any repercussions. Look new sheriffs in town.
Donald Trump, he gets doge going. They start looking out
into the world and all these problems the PPP loans,
the COVID relief money, everything else. They discover fraud, fraud, fraud, fraud,
and every American taxpayer should be pissed off. If I
(17:10):
may be so bold to use that phrase. They can't
acknowledge it, they can't admit it, they can't concede it's
a victory for the American taxpayer that we found all
this and you know what, they're not even done yet
finding all this, Christopher, they're.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Not And the reality of it is, you and I
understand you're on the right nerve here, Brian Thomas, because
these programs they're taking money from us, and they're saying
they're helping the poor, and what you and I are
finding out they're not that they're taking our money and
they're siphoning that money off of their own personal gain.
(17:46):
That is so frustrating. Because our federal tax rates are
so high, they keep taking more and more money. They
keep saying they got to tax the heck out of
us because there's not enough money. We need more money
for safety and that services. And what the president and
the administration is saying is no, we don't. All we
have to do is identify where the corruption is. They're
(18:07):
splenting of money. People are taking the money and using
it for their personal gain. Let's get that out of
the system and then see if we can lower taxes
because we actually don't need as much. This just has
me so angry because we have so many single moms
out there, we have so many people who have disabilities,
We have veterans out there who are depending on Medicaid
(18:31):
as a safety net service for them. This hits everybody
out here who needs safety net services. Democrats out here
who do not understand where you and I are talking about.
We are finding out that a governor and administration knew
all about this most likely or should have known that
eight or nine billion dollars was being taken out of
(18:53):
Medicaid in order to help that state and those the
poor people there. Many they were not getting the services
they should have gotten because the money, the money was
being stolen.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
Get the nail on the head on that one, Christopher,
just one of a multitude, you know. I started out
this morning having a go at the federal government itself.
Joni Ernst asking for why the United States Postal Service
can't account for twenty one thousand buildings. USPS doesn't even
know what they're using them for, pivoting over the Pentagon,
failed its audit for the eighth consecutive year. They can't
pass an audit. They don't have the records to show
(19:25):
where the money's going. See this exists in every area
of government. I want accountability from the folks within government.
Trump administration Biden administration doesn't matter. I want accountability for
all these programs. I want some follow up. I want
some people like inspectors general minding the shop and looking
to see. First off, one is the program doing what
it's supposed to do, actually helping those on life's margins? Too,
(19:47):
is the program being abused by fraud? And the answer,
at least in Minnesota was yes on that one. Wait
for it for the Pentagon. Maybe that someday they'll pass
an audit, we'll find out what they did.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Give me one more minute. This will get your blood
boiling real quick, because this is why this Okay, this
is what happens. They then go to race and they
want to make you a racist and everybody a racist
for talking about what's happening with Somalia. So you're a
Somalian you now you say you're talking about the fraud.
Now all of a sudden, you're a racist because you're
you're identifying the fraud. I want the public to know,
(20:19):
you've got to not allow them to get it to
the identity politics and get us away from the subject
matter of the corruption.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
That stipid argument to do that. It's just stupid. They
do it because people are doing it.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Because people cower in the in the in the face
of the accusation when it's not supported by any evidence whatsoever.
I don't care if it's the Remulakians coming from the
planet of Remulac it started stealing, it doesn't matter. It's
the people who stole it. They stole what defines my
and your anger. People stealing money, anyone an American money.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
It doesn't matter what country they came from, It doesn't
doesn't matter what part of the world they live in.
But this is what they're doing right now. They're going
to Democrats are going to continue to try to do it.
They're trying to call anybody that calls attention to this
a racist or an uncle Tom or someone who is
not connected. And I say, stay on this bone, follow
this story, and let's make sure we get Minnesota all
(21:18):
cleaned up here and this eight billion and nine billion dollars.
We follow the money all the way to Congress and
figure out who was involved, put them in handcuffs, and
hold them accountable.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
You got my vote, they are you got my vote. Christopher.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Thank you so much. I appreciate you. Brian Thomas Mery,
Christmas to you, brother
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Merry Christmas to you and your family at all.
Seven twenty in fifty five KCD talk station on a
Monday that means former vice mayor of the city. Since
Saint Christopher's Spiman provides us with an opportunity or gives
we give them an opportunity to ventist Sleen, we call
it the Smith Van on the heels of my father
and the Monday morning Spleen event. Welcome back, Christopher. Great
to hear from you, and a very very happy or
Merry Christmas to you and your family, my friend.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Oh, Merry Christmas to you, Brian Thomas and your whole family,
and Marry Christmas to your very loyal listening audience. You know,
I am appreciative that they tune in to your show
like I do, and they give me an opportunity, you know,
on Monday mornings to express things to them. So Merry
Christmas to all of them, and I thank you for
(00:44):
the opportunity to share my thoughts. Brian. The first thing
that's on my mind is an autopsy of the local
election that we just went through, and I'm going to
hone in on one specific part of it, and I
want to read iterate this to the public. We were
all lied to in Cincinnati as we went into the
(01:06):
local election. This is not about Christopher Smitherman. This is
not about Corey Bowman. This is not about Liz Keating
or Steve Gooden, as some examples. This is about a
corrupt government at City Hall. I mean everything that I'm
saying now. The public deserved to know that we were
(01:33):
in settlement talks for eight point one million dollars to
give to protesters downtown. There is no way that the
city manager, the mayor, the entire city solicitor's office, whomever
you want to talk about, and the media should have known.
(01:53):
They should have been digging, They should have been asking questions.
They should have been trying to say, what should we
know going into this election? This administration hid that from
the public. Do I believe that it would have changed
the outcome of the election. No, But we deserved to
have that information because Brian Thomas, as a person, a
(02:16):
media personality, would have done a deep dive into that
would have educated voters prior to voting that City Hall
was about to settle eight point one million or total
of maybe ten million because the lawyers are getting two million,
and that the city was going to have to issue
judgment bonds by the way in order to pay that debt,
(02:37):
because they weren't going to pay the debt. We are
paying the debt. We forget. We act like Mayor pure
vall is going into his pocket with his repolled cars,
taking the money and paying out the ten million. He's
not the people that are in the city who are
paying that income tax. We are the ones paying this bill.
(02:59):
We des to know that information prior to the election.
There is no media outlet in this town that has
put that in black and white for us to see.
I'm not focused on the A point one. I'm focused
on the corruption. I'm focused on they hid that from us.
(03:19):
And this is what's wrong with our local government's public
that we don't do a deep dive and we don't
look back and we don't think why didn't they tell
us that prior to the election. It was right after
the election. Oh, we've got this settlement. We're not going
to trial, we're not gonna fight this, We're gonna surrender
and we're just gonna give out ten million dollars of
(03:39):
your money, pay the lawyers two million, and then send
out eight point one million dollars to everybody else. And
we're gonna issue judgment bonds in order to do that.
While we're in settlement talks with Chief Washington, while we're
in settlement talks with Chief cg meaning we know there's
gonna be other settlements that were coming. We were aware
of those things. We were absolutely unaware of this. And
(04:01):
this is big because it absolutely impacts our police department.
It impacts our budget, It impacts our trust of them,
meaning we were to weigh in and said, no, we
don't want you to settle that case. We want this
to go to trial. What are our options as the taxpayers.
The taxpayers were never brought in where there were any
public hearings, any discussions for us other than them voting
(04:25):
on the settlement. But we didn't have an opportunity to
weigh in. Those who are paying the bill had no
opportunity to weigh in and say we want to go
to trial. I'd rather pay fifty million dollars and say
we had our day in court. They give them a
point one million. Is that fair, Brian Thomas?
Speaker 1 (04:42):
It's fair that you hold that opinion, Christopher. I understand
where it's coming from all day long, and you know
to the extent they were able to reveal what was
going on in settlement negotiations.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
It could have been governed by the attorney clan privilege
or but the reality that the lawsuit was filed and
where we were in the lawsuit and what the subject
matter of the lawsuit was should have been a topic
of regular conversation. So we're at least all aware. And
this settlement didn't come out of right field, which it
seems to have come out of right field.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
Christopher.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
That right field that you described is the corruption that
their lives, their lives, the corruption you and I understand
it didn't come from right field. And if we had
a paper of record that was willing to do their
job to ask the tough questions that the way they
used to do thirty or forty years ago, we would
(05:35):
have had this information. And right now there's no opinion
that's going in the paper saying this was wrong. The
way it was handled was wrong. We were in the
middle of an election and this government should have provided
this information to the public. Where is that article? It
doesn't exist. Does everybody seems to be working together, Brian
(05:57):
Thomas to undermine the people. And this is what is
so frustrating and why I wanted to start my my
spleen bit this morning say I'm not focused on the
eight million, eight point one million. I've already talked about that.
I'm this morning talking about the corruption of the eight
point one million and that's all tied into the Irish
Roly contract that just happened to happen right after the election.
(06:21):
Let's just drop down another six hundred and fifty plus
thousand dollars to her. By the way, right after the election.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Yeah, two days later you call corruption? Hold on corruption. Well,
I know he has more on his mind. We're out
of time.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
In the segment seven twenty seven, we mentioned very quickly
my friends are calling electric for residential electric needs. It's
calling electric and I don't know, but I have a
really strong cuency.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Deep Talk Station.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Seven thirty one fifty five Ker City Talk Station Bryan
Thomas with a former vice mayor of the city since
Saint Christopher's smitheman and.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
Heyby Mack Christopher.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
You know.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
One of the interesting things I talked to Andre Ewing.
Brother Drey was on the program last Friday, and I
asked him specifical about i IRIS, who's been has very
influential and he said, and I'm boiling down his comments too,
And I asked him directly along the lines of well,
if Iris Rawley had been against a FTAB per vol
for whatever reason, if he rubbed her the wrong way
(07:15):
or didn't agree to extend this contract for another however
many years, the six hundred and fifty thousand dollars contract
we learned about after the election, would it have changed
the election? I specifically said, would Corey Bowman have won?
And he said yes. Now, he's one man with one opinion,
But that suggests that Iris Roley wields a tremendous amount
(07:36):
of power among those who show up to vote in
the city of Cincinnati.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Yeah, don't. I don't think. I don't agree there, But
that's okay. I really have high respect for Andre. He's
in his service to our city. But what I will say,
and I think that both of us, Andrea and I
would agree that she actively campaigned for him. So you
(08:02):
have a contractor that's getting lots of money, and she's
actively following Corey Bowman around, screaming at him, shouting at
him during the debates or any event that he might
go to. She's showing up and clowning. She was an
(08:23):
arm of his campaign. The public doesn't understand that if
you're a city employee, you're not supposed to do that.
But what they've done is they they're slicing this thing. Well,
she's not an employee, she's a ten ninety nine er.
She's a contractor. So therefore, as she takes our money,
she can engage directly in politics. She had a nepotism
(08:48):
by giving fifty eight dollars an hour to family members
and hooking up friends down there. And by the way,
we had a whole discussion publicly about invoices that were submitted,
lack of true transparency on our ROI helping young people.
A lot of us believe that that money could be
(09:08):
spent very differently with better outcomes. But why after the
election do you give her the contract? It was a
reward public. You did your job, soldier, you went out
there and campaigned for me I want, and now you
get your money. That's what we call corruption. We should
(09:30):
have had all of this information. And by the way,
the city manager isn't asking any more questions about what
she's doing, how she's submitting her invoices, who's getting paid what,
Knowing that family members are getting paid, friends and family
are getting paid, no questions at all. Public. But guess what,
(09:50):
elections have consequences. We knew that going into the election,
and many in the city just didn't care. They were
just so for Oh, I'm not going to vote for
Corey Bowman. I'm going to vote for this guy right here.
And then we find out after the election that his
cars are being repolled. That you and I know as
(10:10):
just financially literate people, that when your cars are being repolled,
that they're calling you, writing you, reaching out to you.
Your payment isn't made. He asks like, oh, this just
fell out of the sky. They just came and refold
my car in front of the city hall public. That
is absolutely untrue. This is a guy that doesn't even
know how to manage his own checkbook, and he's now
(10:34):
taught now in charge of managing a billion dollar budget, which,
by the way, we have a massive deficit that this
city's going to have to resolve because COVID dollars are gone.
There's no more offsets, so they're going to actually have
to roll up their sleeves and actually do some work
down there. But at the end of the day, this
election was let me pay everybody off. Here's your eight
(10:56):
point one million, two million dollars to the lawyers. And
by the way, the lead lawyer is Irish Rowley's total
best friend, meaning al Gerhardstein and Irish Rowley are tied
at the hip. They're all this is the guy that
brought the collaborative agreement to the City of Cincinnati. He
(11:16):
wrote it. So Iris and him are on the same team, right,
This is all the same thing. I would not be
surprised that she wasn't even at the table for the negotiates,
because they will bring Iris into the room. If you
talk to the president and the FOP president, they bring
her into meetings that there's no way in hell she
should be in the room discussing anything. But my point is,
(11:40):
at the end of the day, it boils down to
one feed corruption and the second thing it boils down
to is there what is the ROI the violence and
skill happening throughout the winter. The violence will continue in
the summer, and all of these people will continue to
get paid.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
And that's the what results do we get from our
money question? That no seems to be asking or following
up on. Christopher Smithman hold on will come back just
a moment here. I want to mention de talk station
here at fifty five Karrose Detalk station, Christopher smithment on
(12:17):
the phone doing an admirable job pointing out the fraud
corruption going on in downtown Cincinnati. Christopher, what else is
on your mind today?
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Look what is happening in Minnesota with the corruption. We
have to keep our eye on that. There were thirteen
people charged this week for medicaid fraud. Now, what is
medicaid right? Medicaid is that safety net service that provides free,
(12:46):
low cost health coverage for millions of people Americans who
are in the category of low incomes. Why wouldn't the
Democrats be I'm really angry to hear that someone from
other countries were taking advantage of Americans who deserve and
(13:13):
need the safety net services in the tune of eight
billion dollars of corruption coming out of one state. So
you know they're not serious because they're trying to explain
this away. Put it on the back pages, no real articles,
no deep dives. Thirteen people's were thirteen people were charged
(13:35):
for medicaid fraud. Fifth week. Oh there going to be more?
Speaker 1 (13:39):
Oh yeah, that's that's on top of the ones who
already charged. I mean, it's we're entering into the billions
of dollars stolen in fraud, waste, and abuse.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Right, not one billion, not one billion that they started with, right,
you and I know this thing might hit eight, nine,
ten billion dollars. That this is a deep hole, showing
that the gu governors should have known or did know,
that congressional members should have known or did know they
(14:09):
were at campaigned events getting money from these people who
were defrauding our government, taking money from the poor, from medicaid,
the people that Democrats say they care so much about,
and then took the money and sent it to their country, right,
took lavish trips, traveled all around the world first class,
(14:35):
spending our precious federal dollars for the poor. That is
what is so crazy about this public That you have
Democrats that are turning because they're more interested in gaining
power in the midterm elections. They're more concerned about that
than they are in exposing this fraud. So what they're
(14:58):
trying to do is act like the federal government. Trump
is on some rage, he's trying to undermine something. All
he's doing is showing us here's a here's a state
that is that is absolutely a deep state that is
engaging in fraud against the poorest people in our country,
(15:19):
our Americans who do who need this medicaid, these medicaid
dollars that they've been taking, siphoning that money off for
their own personal gain in order to help political candidates,
and sending the money to Somalia. And by the way,
Somalia is on that list consistently ranked as one of
the most corrupt countries in the on the globe. So
(15:42):
we already know, meaning people who are the world knows
that Somalia's government doesn't have it together. And now all
of a sudden we're seeing eight billion dollars of fraud,
medicaid fraud. We've got to keep saying medicaid fraud. That
that tells you that they were from the poor. The
thing that the Democrats say they care so much about.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Bryant Well, and you can focus on, yes, the program
is designed to help the poorest out there, and yes,
the Democrats typically hold the mantra of the party in
favor of helping the poor. But this is an insult
to every tax payer, taxpayers out there. Because I'm glad
part of my taxpayers dollars go to Medicaid program because
I want to help those in life's margins. Well, you
(16:26):
know what, they don't care about monitoring the program so
much so that you know they're they're they're wasting billions
and billions of the dollars that you earn going to
work every day and not doing anything about it. They
can't admit that this is a good thing, the Democrats,
because it exposes a weakness in the program. It's built
to not find fraud, wasted abuse, or if it's run
by an administration that doesn't care to look into it,
(16:47):
they just ignore it, and the fraud wasted abuse continues
and probably increases because word gets out that there aren't
going to be any repercussions. Look new sheriffs in town.
Donald Trump, he gets doge going. They start looking out
into the world and all these problems the PPP loans,
the COVID relief money, everything else. They discover fraud, fraud, fraud, fraud,
and every American taxpayer should be pissed off. If I
(17:10):
may be so bold to use that phrase. They can't
acknowledge it, they can't admit it, they can't concede it's
a victory for the American taxpayer that we found all
this and you know what, they're not even done yet
finding all this, Christopher, they're.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Not And the reality of it is, you and I
understand you're on the right nerve here, Brian Thomas, because
these programs they're taking money from us, and they're saying
they're helping the poor, and what you and I are
finding out they're not that they're taking our money and
they're siphoning that money off of their own personal gain.
(17:46):
That is so frustrating. Because our federal tax rates are
so high, they keep taking more and more money. They
keep saying they got to tax the heck out of
us because there's not enough money. We need more money
for safety and that services. And what the president and
the administration is saying is no, we don't. All we
have to do is identify where the corruption is. They're
(18:07):
splenting of money. People are taking the money and using
it for their personal gain. Let's get that out of
the system and then see if we can lower taxes
because we actually don't need as much. This just has
me so angry because we have so many single moms
out there, we have so many people who have disabilities,
We have veterans out there who are depending on Medicaid
(18:31):
as a safety net service for them. This hits everybody
out here who needs safety net services. Democrats out here
who do not understand where you and I are talking about.
We are finding out that a governor and administration knew
all about this most likely or should have known that
eight or nine billion dollars was being taken out of
(18:53):
Medicaid in order to help that state and those the
poor people there. Many they were not getting the services
they should have gotten because the money, the money was
being stolen.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
Get the nail on the head on that one, Christopher,
just one of a multitude, you know. I started out
this morning having a go at the federal government itself.
Joni Ernst asking for why the United States Postal Service
can't account for twenty one thousand buildings. USPS doesn't even
know what they're using them for, pivoting over the Pentagon,
failed its audit for the eighth consecutive year. They can't
pass an audit. They don't have the records to show
(19:25):
where the money's going. See this exists in every area
of government. I want accountability from the folks within government.
Trump administration Biden administration doesn't matter. I want accountability for
all these programs. I want some follow up. I want
some people like inspectors general minding the shop and looking
to see. First off, one is the program doing what
it's supposed to do, actually helping those on life's margins? Too,
(19:47):
is the program being abused by fraud? And the answer,
at least in Minnesota was yes on that one. Wait
for it for the Pentagon. Maybe that someday they'll pass
an audit, we'll find out what they did.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Give me one more minute. This will get your blood
boiling real quick, because this is why this Okay, this
is what happens. They then go to race and they
want to make you a racist and everybody a racist
for talking about what's happening with Somalia. So you're a
Somalian you now you say you're talking about the fraud.
Now all of a sudden, you're a racist because you're
you're identifying the fraud. I want the public to know,
(20:19):
you've got to not allow them to get it to
the identity politics and get us away from the subject
matter of the corruption.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
That stipid argument to do that. It's just stupid. They
do it because people are doing it.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Because people cower in the in the in the face
of the accusation when it's not supported by any evidence whatsoever.
I don't care if it's the Remulakians coming from the
planet of Remulac it started stealing, it doesn't matter. It's
the people who stole it. They stole what defines my
and your anger. People stealing money, anyone an American money.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
It doesn't matter what country they came from, It doesn't
doesn't matter what part of the world they live in.
But this is what they're doing right now. They're going
to Democrats are going to continue to try to do it.
They're trying to call anybody that calls attention to this
a racist or an uncle Tom or someone who is
not connected. And I say, stay on this bone, follow
this story, and let's make sure we get Minnesota all
(21:18):
cleaned up here and this eight billion and nine billion dollars.
We follow the money all the way to Congress and
figure out who was involved, put them in handcuffs, and
hold them accountable.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
You got my vote, they are you got my vote. Christopher.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Thank you so much. I appreciate you. Brian Thomas Mery,
Christmas to you, brother
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Merry Christmas to you and your family at all.
Brian Thomas News
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Bobby Bones Show
Listen to 'The Bobby Bones Show' by downloading the daily full replay.