November 20, 2025 • 28 mins
Join Jim and Greg for three stories of congressional chaos on the Thursday 3 Martini Lunch, as they break down the indictment of a Florida Democrat, the allegations facing a Florida Republican, and a shocking case of a House staffer accused of staging a hate crime
First, they examine the federal indictment of Florida Democrat Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, who is accused of pocketing $5 million in federal Covid-19 disaster assistance and allegedly funneling some of the money into her congressional campaign. The congresswoman gets the presumption of innocence but this evidence looks pretty clear.
Next, they detail the serious accusations leveled against Florida GOP Rep. Cory Mills, including alleged mistreatment and threats toward women, improper involvement in federal contracting, and even claims of stolen valor tied to his Army service. Mills denies all of the allegations and says he can prove he's not guilty. Fellow Republican Rep. Nancy Mace is leading the charge against Mills and wants him censured.
Finally, Jim and Greg dig into the disturbing case of a staffer for New Jersey Republican Rep. Jeff Van Drew. Prosecutors say she falsely reported being the victim of a hate crime by people who hate President Trump and her boss. Evidence shows she even paid to have someone significantly scar her body in order to make the scam more believable.
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First, they examine the federal indictment of Florida Democrat Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, who is accused of pocketing $5 million in federal Covid-19 disaster assistance and allegedly funneling some of the money into her congressional campaign. The congresswoman gets the presumption of innocence but this evidence looks pretty clear.
Next, they detail the serious accusations leveled against Florida GOP Rep. Cory Mills, including alleged mistreatment and threats toward women, improper involvement in federal contracting, and even claims of stolen valor tied to his Army service. Mills denies all of the allegations and says he can prove he's not guilty. Fellow Republican Rep. Nancy Mace is leading the charge against Mills and wants him censured.
Finally, Jim and Greg dig into the disturbing case of a staffer for New Jersey Republican Rep. Jeff Van Drew. Prosecutors say she falsely reported being the victim of a hate crime by people who hate President Trump and her boss. Evidence shows she even paid to have someone significantly scar her body in order to make the scam more believable.
Please visit our great sponsors:
Cancel unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with Rocket Money at https://RocketMoney.com/MARTINI
Give your liver the support it deserves with Dose Daily. Save 35% on your first month when you subscribe at https://DoseDaily.co/3ML or enter code 3ML at checkout.
Before you check out for the holidays, do one smart thing for your future with Noble Gold. Open a qualified account and receive TEN 1-oz commemorative Silver Holiday Coins. Visit https://NobleGoldInvestments.com/3ML
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to the three Martini Lunch.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Grab a stool next to Greg Corumbus of Radio America
and Jim Garrity of National Review.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Free Martini's coming up.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Hey, really glad you're with us for the Thursday edition
of the three mar teeny Lunch. And today we're going
to be pretty much all crazy and all centers on
different people connected to the US Congress. And you're thinking,
wait a minute. You talk about insane people in Congress
every single day, including Jasmin Crockett yesterday. This is a
little different. We've got a Democrat indicted, We've got a
(00:33):
Republican accused of some really nasty stuff and potentially losing
seats on committees if his accusers get their way, and
then a truly disturbing story about a congressional staffer, Jim
So things keep devolving, unfortunately in the nation's capital.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
No Chewy, no Jasmin Crockett. I mean it's it is
a bumper crop of crazy, silly, and in some cases
just genuinely disturbing stories coming out of the House of Representatives.
There are four hundred and thirty five of them, and
they're hard to keep track of. Sometimes they can end
up in a Memory Care Institute without anybody noticing. But
you know, the Congress does to do a heck of
(01:12):
a lot already these days. I am starting to think
of that Trump phrase, we shut all this, this whole
thing down until we figure out what's going on, Like
there's something really wrong going on in.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
The house right now, and we will get into all
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(02:51):
m L. All right, Jim, on to our first congressional
crazy Martini today. Hey, and this one centers on Democratic
Florida Congresswoman Sheila Cheerfulless McCormick. She's been indicted on charges
accusing her of stealing five million dollars in federal disaster
(03:12):
funds and using some of the money to aid her
twenty twenty one campaign. According to the Justice Department Scherefulless,
McCormick is accused of stealing Federal Emergency Management Agency over
payments that her family health care company had received through
a federally funded COVID nineteen vaccination staffing contract. A portion
of the money was then funneled to support her campaign
(03:33):
through candidate contributions.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
Quote.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Using disaster relief funds for self enrichment is a particularly selfish,
cynical crime, Attorney General pant Bondi said in a statement, quote,
no one is above the law, least of all powerful
people who rob tax payers for personal gain. We will
follow the facts in this case and deliver justice. She
was first elected to Congress in twenty twenty two after
the death of al C.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Hastings.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
This is a district in Broward and Palm Beach and
so Jim. Bad enough that you're breaking campaign finance laws
and shirking things like that, But when you're stealing taxpayer
dollars meant for emergency purposes and then you know, somehow
getting them funneled back into your campaign coffers, this sounds
like a pretty legitimate indictment.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
This just in George Santo said, Wow, what a crook.
I thought I hadn't realized she's in the same district
as Alsie Hastings Greg So maybe she's just trying to
continue the district's proud tradition of corruption. For those who
don't recognize that, Alicie Hestings is like one of the
few federal judges ever removed from the bench for impeached
(04:39):
for bribery and perjury by the US Officer Representatives back
in nineteen eighty eight, convicted by the Senate in his
impeachment trial in October nineteen eighty nine, and then he
was elected to the House of Representatives in nineteen ninety two.
So well, that district showed them, you know, oh, you
don't like our federal judge, Well we're gonna put him
in Congress. Now he's your problem House of Representatives. But yeah,
(05:02):
so now we've got a case where it's not just
like misusing funds that are designed to help people who
are suffering from a natural disaster from FEMA, not just
keeping it for themselves then turning around and using it
for the for the congressional campaign. Now, look, everyone is
entitled to a presumption of innocence, innocent until proven guilty.
This congresswoman will have her day in court, but come on,
(05:25):
I mean, what's the alternate explanation for all this? Oh,
this was all innocent misunders. Oh that money. Oh I
had two places. I had this big pot for people
who needed the money, and the pot from my own
congressional campaign. I accidentally put the no. No, that's not
how any of this worked. So we will see what happens.
But I am it's depressing that. I suspect a lot
(05:51):
of these members of Congress believe no one's watching them,
and they act like that.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
I think that's exactly right.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
And from what I've read, if she's convicted on everything
she's charged with, it would be fifty three years in prison.
Don't know if that will end up happening. Don't know
if she'll be convicted at all. I'm sure when she
does react to this, so far, her office has had
no comment. There'll be some sort of accusation that the
Trump Justice Department is getting people, so I'm sure that's
coming at some point. But the facts in this case
(06:17):
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(07:48):
to our second Congressional crazy Martini now, and this centers
around Florida Republican Congressman Corey Mills, and longtime listeners might
know we've talked about Corey Mills before because Corey Mils
has had a knack as far as we know, of
getting into dangerous places and helping people get out. He
went into Afghanistan, or at least was helping to coordinate
(08:09):
inside Afghanistan. Some of these people, these veterans, are a
little bit coy about whether they were actually there or not,
but nonetheless helping people get out during the withdrawal debacle
during the first year of the Biden administration. And I
believe he was also in Israel or helping to coordinate
evacuations of Floridians from Israel. Right after the October seventh
terrorist attacks in twenty twenty three. So we've had some
good things to say about Corey Mills, but if his
(08:32):
accusers are to be believed here, he's also got a
lot of bad things on his record. CBS News here.
The House blocked an effort to formally censure Republican Congressman
Corey Mills of Florida and strip him of his committee
assignments over allegations related to federal contracting violations, stolen valor,
and assault. Republican Congressman Nancy Mace of South Carolina introduced
(08:53):
the censer resolution on Wednesday, citing troubling allegations against the congressmen.
She introduced the resolution as privilege, meaning GOP leadership had
two legislative days to hold a floor vote on the measure.
Mills successfully maneuvered to effectively kill the resolution by referring
it to the House Ethics Committee. This is Mills quote.
All the accusations and false things that are being said
(09:13):
will be proven to be absolutely false in many ways,
and I have the evidence and the receipts. The vote
came hours after the Ethics Committe announced it is investigating
Mills for alleged campaign finance violations, sexual misconduct, and other
potential wrongdoing. Mace called the investigation meaning going to the
Ethics Committee instead of holding the Center vote quote a
(09:34):
naked attempt to kill my. Mills has faced a number
of controversies this year, including allegations that he threatened to
release nude photos of a former girlfriend, which prompted a
judge to grant a protective order in October. The Centre
resolution also cites reports that Mills was investigated for potential
domestic violence back in February. He has denied any wrongdoing
and has not been charged with a crime. Meanwhile, the
(09:56):
financial allegations revolve around a report by a Congressional whty
in August twenty twenty four that found Mills may have
misrepresented information on his campaign finance disclosure forms and may
have quote entered into, held, or enjoyed contracts with federal
agencies while he was a member of Congress, in violation
of House rules, standards of conduct, and federal law. And
(10:18):
then there's also a question of stolen valor whether he
really earned a bronze star, and so on and so forth,
and so Jim. Some of this stuff, especially as it
relates to his relationships with women has been documented, It's
been reported on before Nancy Mace ever got involved here.
I will say that I'm not going to believe anything
if it's only coming from Nancy Mace. We're gonna need
some independent verification on this stuff because she's kind of
(10:39):
out there. But if this stuff is true, or even
a portion of it is true, really bad news.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Yeah, look, you don't want to see this by a
guy who you know has done other good things in
the course of his congressional career and military career. And yeah,
there's no getting around it. Nancy Mace is a less
than ideal accuser. Recently had apparently his very public melt
down in an airport be rating staff and invoked Tim Scott,
and Tim Scott's like, well, well, don't bring me into this.
(11:07):
I've had nothing but good experience with the people at
Charleston Airport and apparently just kept going on and on
about it. Nancy Mace also wants to run for governor,
and we discussed that in a previous one. The thing
that kind of is just makes you after a while,
you get enough accusations and you start wondering, well, if
there's smoke, there's fire. The ex girlfriend got that protective
(11:27):
order from a circuit court judge in Columbia County, Florida,
said no contact with the ex girlfriend, can't go within
five hundred feet of her residence, can't mention her on
social media. Now it is impossible she's making all this
stuff up, I suppose, but judges generally don't hand out
protective orders on a whim. Generally, there's got to be
some sort of evidence of that. We don't know what
(11:48):
evidence was shown in that. And Mills has called the
allegations false. But as these accusations start to pile up,
it becomes harder and harder to believe that Congressman Mills
never did anything wrong, and these are all false accusations.
These are all people who are out to get them.
I've seen quite a few lawmakers get who get into
this kind of trouble, who keep insisting that they did
nothing wrong and that they just have lots of enemies,
(12:10):
and their enemies keep making up, you know, claims about them.
And when those claims keep sounding similar, well, yeah, maybe
it's a vast conspiracy. People of the vast right wing conspiracy,
as Hillary Clinton insisted about the Lewinsky scandal, or maybe
this person is not such a good person and maybe
that they indeed are, you know, doing things they should
not be doing. So the other thing, which is an
(12:31):
interesting point about this is the referring it to the
Ethics Committee. Look, you'd think the House Ethics Committee would
be a tool to promote ethics right there in the name, right,
and unfortunately a lot of times things get referred to
the committee and then it's like goes to the dark
side of the moon. It's it's tossed to the phantom
zone from Superman or something.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
Just go of.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
You don't hear about it for months and months, sometimes
a year, sometimes more than a year, and it just
turns into by the time the House Ethics Committee actually does, like, yes,
you want to have a very thorough investigation, you want
to turn over every rock, you want to give the
member of Congress a chance to do it. But it
kind of turns into a way because once the investigation
is on, everybody could say, well it's under investigation, I
can't say anything about it, and it's a way of
(13:09):
getting it out of the headlines and getting it everybody
disappear because look, it's been referred to the House Ethics Committee,
and it's you know, we will see what shakes out
in this, but this is deeply troubling to hear. And
like I said, if this was the first time somebody
made an accusation against Congressman Mills, you and I probably
not be talking about it. But the fact that this
is now part of a pattern really disturbing. He'll have
(13:30):
his day for the Ethics Committee and help. Hopefully the
Ethics Committee gets back to us within a year. Is
that is that really too much to ask?
Speaker 2 (13:38):
I think it could be even sooner if they want to.
I mean, he says he's got all the receipts. So
Pop goes down, go through him, Nancy Mace, I assume
has whatever appened, and she has, and so you know,
go through that, go to the legal documents from these
cases with the women and figure out what's up and so,
and then come to a conclusion and a recommendation for
the full House. So one of the things that's come up,
because you know, this was a censure effort, Republicans tried
(14:00):
to center Stacey plaskittt the other day we're talking about that.
That's where the whole Jasmine Crockett someone named Jeffrey Epstein
donated a Republican story came from and so multiple center
efforts in the same week. Don byer far left democrat
from the Arlington area might even be your congressman. I'm
not sure if his district goes here.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
You are not, but he keeps trying to sell me
a car. Okay for those who are aren'ting the area.
He owns a chain of car dealerships. That's what. Yeah,
I much prefer the Democratic congressman who owns Total Wine
because at least, you know, he sells beer and wine.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
And so he's saying, you know what, if we're going
to do center votes, there should be a higher threshold.
He wants a sixty percent vote to be centured in
the House. Jim, I don't hate that idea. I don't
love the idea that potentially frivolous center efforts could be
passed just along a party line vote. At the same time,
I don't want a party line vote to stop a
(14:50):
legitimate center So.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
What do you think about raising the threshold?
Speaker 1 (14:53):
You know, Greg, what's going on with center resolutions is
really a good way to illustrate the phenomenon of inflation
that when it's rare, and the House almost never does it,
and somebody gets a central Oh my goodness, did you
hear the House centered of that?
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Now?
Speaker 1 (15:06):
But if everybody starts bringing in centure resolutions against every
other member, that irks them, and they're taking up a
whole bunch of these votes every week, all of a sudden,
it's not a big deal anymore. The centrire resolution gets devalued.
The more there is of something, the you know, the
less valuable it is. The rarer it is, the more
likely it is to be considered valuable. Which is an
(15:26):
interesting question. If diamonds were pooped out by horses, would
we feel the same way about them. If horse poop
were as rare as diamonds, would we feel that Maybe
there are some exceptions to this that general philosophy. But
when you're running the printing presses or I guess now
the Federal Reserve just presses a button and presco change. Oh,
there's tons of new money in the economy. The value
of your dollar gets goes down and the value of
(15:49):
all your goods goes up because it takes more of
those dollars to afford them. It's the same thing with
center resolutions. It's not a crazy idea. I think the
idea there is to say, like, look, if you're going
to center somebody, it should be something so bad that
you know more than a few of the people in
your own party are willing to denounce you for it.
The problem is, Greg, is we just found that, like
(16:10):
almost ever, you know, like four percent of Virginia Democrats
think Jay Jones is not worth voting for just because
he wants to murder children. And that seems you know,
it sounds like a really small amount, so reaching that
sixty percent might put all cens your resolutions out of business.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Yeah, I don't know how you would move along once
people are that dug in. So it's a tough situation.
But you're right, you don't want to hand them out
like candy either, so just because you got the votes
to do it. So interesting question and probably the most
sensible thing we've ever heard from Don Bayer, who's usually
a lock for whatever the left position is on this.
But you're talking about inflation, Jim, and so when inflation
(16:47):
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L all right, Jim onto our final crazy martini. And
as I said in the email today, this one's so crazy,
it's actually sad and disturbing. This is not about a
member of Congress. It's about a congressional staffer. And this
(18:21):
is from the New Jersey Globe. A twenty six year
old Ocean City, New Jersey woman who claims she was
brutally assaulted because she worked for Republican Congressman Jeff Van
Drew instead orchestrated the entire incident, paying a scarification artist
to wound her and staging the scene with zip ties
and the words quote unquote Trump horror written on her
stomach end quote Van Drew is a racist unquote on
(18:45):
her back. This is according to federal prosecutors. Now. The
woman's name is Natalie Green, She's a Rutgers law student,
and she allegedly concocted the hoax back in July with
an accomplice making a late night nine to one to
one call to report that she had been ambushed by
three men on a nature trail in Egg Harbor Township.
Police officers found Green bound with black zip ties, her
shirt pulled over her head, and the political slurs scrawled
(19:07):
across her torso. She told police that her supposed attackers
had a gun and threatened to shoot her and struck
her in the head. The prosecutors say nearly every detail
of that was fabricated. They say Green allegedly drove to
Pennsylvania and paid a body modification artist five hundred dollars
to carve significant wounds in her face, neck, and upper body,
(19:29):
using a pattern that she had provided in advance. Investigators
later found matching zip ties and her Maserati SUV. Cell
phone records showed that two days before the purported attacker,
co conspirator searched online for quote zip ties near me,
a discovery authority cited as further proof the incident was staged,
and then their stories didn't match when they interviewed them
multiple times. She's now charged with one kund of conspiracy
(19:53):
to convey false statements and hoaxes, and one count of
making false statements to federal law enforcement. According to ac
US attorney Alna Haba, that name should be somewhat familiar.
She was released on a two hundred thousand dollars unsecured bond.
The Van Drew office is saying they're saddened by the news.
She hoped that she gets the care she needs. And
I think they mean mental help here, Jim, because if
(20:14):
you look at these pictures, the scarring is significant, and
why you would put yourself through that in an attempt
to gain attention is really disturbing.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
So what do you make of all this?
Speaker 1 (20:24):
You know, I saw someone saying that, oh, you know,
the Republicans now have their version of Jesse Smollett, and
I think it's a apt comparison. I feel like I
didn't hear anything about this at the time, and I'm
kind of glad that I did not. I think this
clearly was an attempt to demonize Trump opponents for doing
something that they never did. Now, there's plenty of reasons
(20:45):
criticize Trump opponents, but this is not one of them. Alas,
we live in a world in which there are hate crimes,
and we live in a world in which people will
fake hate crimes in order to get attention in order
to get sympathy, in order to paint their opponents as
just the worse. There's a website fakehetecrimes dot org database
of hate crime hoaxes, and I believe it's still updated.
(21:06):
I saw something I'm there from twenty twenty five, so
updated up until recently, and just kind of demonstrates that
this is not a terribly rare phenomenon. Usually it's somebody like,
you know, drawing a swastika on their own dorm room
door or something like that, or other, you know, phenomenon
which are not involving something like this. In addition to
(21:26):
the Jesse Smollett comparison which came to mind, I boy,
the first thing I thought of was Morton Downey Junior,
not to be mistaken for Robert Downey Junior, who was
iron Man and awesome. Martin Downey Junr. Was described as
Jerry Springer with less class. And I know there's a
bunch of listeners like, how do you do that? But yes,
if you grew up in the New York at New
Jersey area in the late eighties, this guy was had
(21:48):
a talk show who basically made Alex Jones look kind
of laid back and calm and just you know, was
like screaming. It was kind of the beginning of loudmouth
in your face talk show. It was very popular for
a while. He had a role, a key role in
the cinematic classic Predator Too, playing shockingly a loudmouthed television journalist. Yeah, typecasting,
(22:12):
but it was good at it, but because he's basically
playing himself. But anyway, so ratings start to go down
in you know, the late eighties and America. The audience
seems to get sick of him and fall nineteen eighty nine,
he's trying to save his show from cancelation. So apparently
he decides to make this publicity stunt. He stabergers out
of the airport bathroom in San Francisco International Airport did
(22:35):
not run into Larry Craig as far as we know,
and he basically comes out and says that he was
attacked by neo Nazis, because you don't how many neo
Nazis fly through San Francisco, Craig, it's a very busy
hub for the international neo Nazi community. And he says
that they shaved his head and carved a swastika into
his face and he shows it's now here's the thing.
(22:57):
The swastika was backwards. So the irony is is that
the swastika from India, the one if it's facing clockwise,
it's actually one of the good ones. It means good, happy,
you know, good fortune and all that stuff. The back
one symbolizes night and kind of darkness. The Nazis took
the good one, rotated it, you know, forty five degrees.
You notice the Nazis it's always kind of on the diagonal.
(23:19):
The good ones that I saw over in India were
always horizontal and vertical. But anyway, that's what the Nazis.
But his is backwards. So what does that tell you? Well,
either they got attacked by dyslexic Nazis or he carved
it himself in the mirror without realizing the mirror flips
your your the image there Eventually he you know, police
(23:39):
could find no corroborating evidence. You know, there's no sign
of head shaving, Neo Nazis rampaging through the airport or
something like that pretty much came to But it came
to the conclusion that Morton Downey Junior has had done
this to himself. Like I can kind of laugh about
that because of the sadness and the silliness and the
stupid I think he did with a marker. He did
not use it with a knife, as five of them
(24:00):
looking back at this article. Show gets canceled a couple
months later. Morton Downey died quite a few years ago.
But this is really sad for this young woman. And
this is just exceptionally depressing that, Like, there are a
lot of ways you can do extraordinary things with your life,
you know, being a victim of hate crime, really, that's
not how you want to be famous. That's not what
you want to be known for. That's not what you
want to you know, you want to do great things
(24:21):
with your life. This is not that. And the idea
that you feel the need to do this for attention,
for sympathy, to feel special because you want to say that,
you know, people who don't like Trump are terrible, like
we do that on this show pretty regularly. There are
a lot of ways you can do that. It does
not require knives, it does not require self mutilation. And
(24:41):
you know we've been we're constantly taught in our faith,
live not by lies, right, tell the truth. The truth
is enough. Yes, the other side is gonna lie. And
you know, every day I wake up and I deal
with Russian disinformation efforts and all that kind of stuff.
I was talking to Ukraine and Audience of the Day
and I was like, you know, look, you got to well,
everything in the world seems like it's stacked against you.
(25:02):
The only thing you got going for you is the truth.
But you know what, the truth is enough, and so
you don't need to fake things to show that the
other side is bad. Just show how the other side
is bad.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
That's enough.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
And also, please don't do that to yourself. There's something
I think clearly self hating about this. There's clearly something
self it is self harm. But there also is something
just just very nihilistic about it. So again, like everybody else,
we hope this woman gets the help she needs. Deeply
disturbing story. And I just you know, I probably has
nothing to do with working in the Congressman's office, but
I just kind of wonder, like, does politics warp your brain?
(25:34):
Does it give you know, you know, I mentioned faith,
I go, it gives you a god figure, it gives
you a double figure, unless you believe you're involved in
this grand crusade. Believe me. When you reach the point
where you're mutilating yourself, this is not you know, please
see someone. If you're listening to this podcast, I hope
you're not in this state, but if you are in
this state, please reach out. Hey, you know what better
help would be a good idea for that.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Yeah, And it may have contributed because one of her
jobs she was a part time staffer. I don't think
she was in d C. And one of her jobs
was to go through constituent mail. And she has told
investigators that you know, all these vile messages coming, and
so obviously if there's anything that's a threat or anything,
you pass that on to authorities. And I can see
how that could could weigh on you after a while.
But doing this is obviously signs that that you've lost
(26:17):
the plot mentally, and you obviously need some help. And
I don't know if we've talked about this story, Jim,
but back in September, a staffer for Texas Congressman Tony
Gonzalez died after self immolation. You may be right that
just being in that environment, in the constant and intensifying
political battle, it's just too much for some people, and
(26:39):
you need to do something else.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Yeah, it's okay to tap out. It's okay to say
I can't deal with this anymore and find other things
to do with your life. The role of politics isn't
gonna go anywhere. You know, We'll be fine. You take
care of yourself. This is not where something's setting yourself
on fire for This is not so where something was,
you know, carving into your own skin over you know, well,
everything will be fine, and you know tomorrow's another day exactly.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
And you know, being in the political world is certainly
important and discussing these issues like we do every day.
But you and I both know people who had been
in politics gave it up, left Washington and they're really happy.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
I have Facebook friends with them, Greg and I. Whenever
I see that their lives are so happy. A lot
of them, you know, become very active in church or
volunteer work. They're raising families. They look so happy, and
I'm like, oh my goodness, you know, some feel so
good for them, And Greg, what am I doing with
my life? What am I doing here? And it's like
there's like ten there's like three percent of me that's
(27:34):
like quitter. But that's okay, that's all right. I'm glad
they're happy. It's very good for their kids, very good
for the family.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
No, I definitely understand it some days. Anyway, Jim, have
a good Thursday. We'll do it again tomorrow. See tomorrow, Greg,
Jim Garritty, National Review. I'm Greg Corumbus of Radio America.
Thanks so much for being with us, and we certainly
hope you subscribe to the podcast. If you don't already,
tell your friends about us as well. Thanks also for
your five star ratings and your kind reviews. Please keep
those coming. Get us on your home devices. All you
have to say is play Three Martini Lunch podcast. Follow
(28:02):
us both on x He's at Jim Garrity, I'm at
Greg Corumbus, and don't forget we're now on Facebook and Instagram.
Have a great Thursday. Join us again Friday for the
next Three Martini Lunch
Welcome to the three Martini Lunch.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Grab a stool next to Greg Corumbus of Radio America
and Jim Garrity of National Review.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Free Martini's coming up.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Hey, really glad you're with us for the Thursday edition
of the three mar teeny Lunch. And today we're going
to be pretty much all crazy and all centers on
different people connected to the US Congress. And you're thinking,
wait a minute. You talk about insane people in Congress
every single day, including Jasmin Crockett yesterday. This is a
little different. We've got a Democrat indicted, We've got a
(00:33):
Republican accused of some really nasty stuff and potentially losing
seats on committees if his accusers get their way, and
then a truly disturbing story about a congressional staffer, Jim
So things keep devolving, unfortunately in the nation's capital.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
No Chewy, no Jasmin Crockett. I mean it's it is
a bumper crop of crazy, silly, and in some cases
just genuinely disturbing stories coming out of the House of Representatives.
There are four hundred and thirty five of them, and
they're hard to keep track of. Sometimes they can end
up in a Memory Care Institute without anybody noticing. But
you know, the Congress does to do a heck of
(01:12):
a lot already these days. I am starting to think
of that Trump phrase, we shut all this, this whole
thing down until we figure out what's going on, Like
there's something really wrong going on in.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
The house right now, and we will get into all
of it.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
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m L. All right, Jim, on to our first congressional
crazy Martini today. Hey, and this one centers on Democratic
Florida Congresswoman Sheila Cheerfulless McCormick. She's been indicted on charges
accusing her of stealing five million dollars in federal disaster
(03:12):
funds and using some of the money to aid her
twenty twenty one campaign. According to the Justice Department Scherefulless,
McCormick is accused of stealing Federal Emergency Management Agency over
payments that her family health care company had received through
a federally funded COVID nineteen vaccination staffing contract. A portion
of the money was then funneled to support her campaign
(03:33):
through candidate contributions.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
Quote.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Using disaster relief funds for self enrichment is a particularly selfish,
cynical crime, Attorney General pant Bondi said in a statement, quote,
no one is above the law, least of all powerful
people who rob tax payers for personal gain. We will
follow the facts in this case and deliver justice. She
was first elected to Congress in twenty twenty two after
the death of al C.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Hastings.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
This is a district in Broward and Palm Beach and
so Jim. Bad enough that you're breaking campaign finance laws
and shirking things like that, But when you're stealing taxpayer
dollars meant for emergency purposes and then you know, somehow
getting them funneled back into your campaign coffers, this sounds
like a pretty legitimate indictment.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
This just in George Santo said, Wow, what a crook.
I thought I hadn't realized she's in the same district
as Alsie Hastings Greg So maybe she's just trying to
continue the district's proud tradition of corruption. For those who
don't recognize that, Alicie Hestings is like one of the
few federal judges ever removed from the bench for impeached
(04:39):
for bribery and perjury by the US Officer Representatives back
in nineteen eighty eight, convicted by the Senate in his
impeachment trial in October nineteen eighty nine, and then he
was elected to the House of Representatives in nineteen ninety two.
So well, that district showed them, you know, oh, you
don't like our federal judge, Well we're gonna put him
in Congress. Now he's your problem House of Representatives. But yeah,
(05:02):
so now we've got a case where it's not just
like misusing funds that are designed to help people who
are suffering from a natural disaster from FEMA, not just
keeping it for themselves then turning around and using it
for the for the congressional campaign. Now, look, everyone is
entitled to a presumption of innocence, innocent until proven guilty.
This congresswoman will have her day in court, but come on,
(05:25):
I mean, what's the alternate explanation for all this? Oh,
this was all innocent misunders. Oh that money. Oh I
had two places. I had this big pot for people
who needed the money, and the pot from my own
congressional campaign. I accidentally put the no. No, that's not
how any of this worked. So we will see what happens.
But I am it's depressing that. I suspect a lot
(05:51):
of these members of Congress believe no one's watching them,
and they act like that.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
I think that's exactly right.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
And from what I've read, if she's convicted on everything
she's charged with, it would be fifty three years in prison.
Don't know if that will end up happening. Don't know
if she'll be convicted at all. I'm sure when she
does react to this, so far, her office has had
no comment. There'll be some sort of accusation that the
Trump Justice Department is getting people, so I'm sure that's
coming at some point. But the facts in this case
(06:17):
seem pretty cut and dried, assuming those facts are correct.
So while she's trying to figure out what's next, and
the prosecutors are too let's talk about what's next for
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(07:48):
to our second Congressional crazy Martini now, and this centers
around Florida Republican Congressman Corey Mills, and longtime listeners might
know we've talked about Corey Mills before because Corey Mils
has had a knack as far as we know, of
getting into dangerous places and helping people get out. He
went into Afghanistan, or at least was helping to coordinate
(08:09):
inside Afghanistan. Some of these people, these veterans, are a
little bit coy about whether they were actually there or not,
but nonetheless helping people get out during the withdrawal debacle
during the first year of the Biden administration. And I
believe he was also in Israel or helping to coordinate
evacuations of Floridians from Israel. Right after the October seventh
terrorist attacks in twenty twenty three. So we've had some
good things to say about Corey Mills, but if his
(08:32):
accusers are to be believed here, he's also got a
lot of bad things on his record. CBS News here.
The House blocked an effort to formally censure Republican Congressman
Corey Mills of Florida and strip him of his committee
assignments over allegations related to federal contracting violations, stolen valor,
and assault. Republican Congressman Nancy Mace of South Carolina introduced
(08:53):
the censer resolution on Wednesday, citing troubling allegations against the congressmen.
She introduced the resolution as privilege, meaning GOP leadership had
two legislative days to hold a floor vote on the measure.
Mills successfully maneuvered to effectively kill the resolution by referring
it to the House Ethics Committee. This is Mills quote.
All the accusations and false things that are being said
(09:13):
will be proven to be absolutely false in many ways,
and I have the evidence and the receipts. The vote
came hours after the Ethics Committe announced it is investigating
Mills for alleged campaign finance violations, sexual misconduct, and other
potential wrongdoing. Mace called the investigation meaning going to the
Ethics Committee instead of holding the Center vote quote a
(09:34):
naked attempt to kill my. Mills has faced a number
of controversies this year, including allegations that he threatened to
release nude photos of a former girlfriend, which prompted a
judge to grant a protective order in October. The Centre
resolution also cites reports that Mills was investigated for potential
domestic violence back in February. He has denied any wrongdoing
and has not been charged with a crime. Meanwhile, the
(09:56):
financial allegations revolve around a report by a Congressional whty
in August twenty twenty four that found Mills may have
misrepresented information on his campaign finance disclosure forms and may
have quote entered into, held, or enjoyed contracts with federal
agencies while he was a member of Congress, in violation
of House rules, standards of conduct, and federal law. And
(10:18):
then there's also a question of stolen valor whether he
really earned a bronze star, and so on and so forth,
and so Jim. Some of this stuff, especially as it
relates to his relationships with women has been documented, It's
been reported on before Nancy Mace ever got involved here.
I will say that I'm not going to believe anything
if it's only coming from Nancy Mace. We're gonna need
some independent verification on this stuff because she's kind of
(10:39):
out there. But if this stuff is true, or even
a portion of it is true, really bad news.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Yeah, look, you don't want to see this by a
guy who you know has done other good things in
the course of his congressional career and military career. And yeah,
there's no getting around it. Nancy Mace is a less
than ideal accuser. Recently had apparently his very public melt
down in an airport be rating staff and invoked Tim Scott,
and Tim Scott's like, well, well, don't bring me into this.
(11:07):
I've had nothing but good experience with the people at
Charleston Airport and apparently just kept going on and on
about it. Nancy Mace also wants to run for governor,
and we discussed that in a previous one. The thing
that kind of is just makes you after a while,
you get enough accusations and you start wondering, well, if
there's smoke, there's fire. The ex girlfriend got that protective
(11:27):
order from a circuit court judge in Columbia County, Florida,
said no contact with the ex girlfriend, can't go within
five hundred feet of her residence, can't mention her on
social media. Now it is impossible she's making all this
stuff up, I suppose, but judges generally don't hand out
protective orders on a whim. Generally, there's got to be
some sort of evidence of that. We don't know what
(11:48):
evidence was shown in that. And Mills has called the
allegations false. But as these accusations start to pile up,
it becomes harder and harder to believe that Congressman Mills
never did anything wrong, and these are all false accusations.
These are all people who are out to get them.
I've seen quite a few lawmakers get who get into
this kind of trouble, who keep insisting that they did
nothing wrong and that they just have lots of enemies,
(12:10):
and their enemies keep making up, you know, claims about them.
And when those claims keep sounding similar, well, yeah, maybe
it's a vast conspiracy. People of the vast right wing conspiracy,
as Hillary Clinton insisted about the Lewinsky scandal, or maybe
this person is not such a good person and maybe
that they indeed are, you know, doing things they should
not be doing. So the other thing, which is an
(12:31):
interesting point about this is the referring it to the
Ethics Committee. Look, you'd think the House Ethics Committee would
be a tool to promote ethics right there in the name, right,
and unfortunately a lot of times things get referred to
the committee and then it's like goes to the dark
side of the moon. It's it's tossed to the phantom
zone from Superman or something.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
Just go of.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
You don't hear about it for months and months, sometimes
a year, sometimes more than a year, and it just
turns into by the time the House Ethics Committee actually does, like, yes,
you want to have a very thorough investigation, you want
to turn over every rock, you want to give the
member of Congress a chance to do it. But it
kind of turns into a way because once the investigation
is on, everybody could say, well it's under investigation, I
can't say anything about it, and it's a way of
(13:09):
getting it out of the headlines and getting it everybody
disappear because look, it's been referred to the House Ethics Committee,
and it's you know, we will see what shakes out
in this, but this is deeply troubling to hear. And
like I said, if this was the first time somebody
made an accusation against Congressman Mills, you and I probably
not be talking about it. But the fact that this
is now part of a pattern really disturbing. He'll have
(13:30):
his day for the Ethics Committee and help. Hopefully the
Ethics Committee gets back to us within a year. Is
that is that really too much to ask?
Speaker 2 (13:38):
I think it could be even sooner if they want to.
I mean, he says he's got all the receipts. So
Pop goes down, go through him, Nancy Mace, I assume
has whatever appened, and she has, and so you know,
go through that, go to the legal documents from these
cases with the women and figure out what's up and so,
and then come to a conclusion and a recommendation for
the full House. So one of the things that's come up,
because you know, this was a censure effort, Republicans tried
(14:00):
to center Stacey plaskittt the other day we're talking about that.
That's where the whole Jasmine Crockett someone named Jeffrey Epstein
donated a Republican story came from and so multiple center
efforts in the same week. Don byer far left democrat
from the Arlington area might even be your congressman. I'm
not sure if his district goes here.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
You are not, but he keeps trying to sell me
a car. Okay for those who are aren'ting the area.
He owns a chain of car dealerships. That's what. Yeah,
I much prefer the Democratic congressman who owns Total Wine
because at least, you know, he sells beer and wine.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
And so he's saying, you know what, if we're going
to do center votes, there should be a higher threshold.
He wants a sixty percent vote to be centured in
the House. Jim, I don't hate that idea. I don't
love the idea that potentially frivolous center efforts could be
passed just along a party line vote. At the same time,
I don't want a party line vote to stop a
(14:50):
legitimate center So.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
What do you think about raising the threshold?
Speaker 1 (14:53):
You know, Greg, what's going on with center resolutions is
really a good way to illustrate the phenomenon of inflation
that when it's rare, and the House almost never does it,
and somebody gets a central Oh my goodness, did you
hear the House centered of that?
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Now?
Speaker 1 (15:06):
But if everybody starts bringing in centure resolutions against every
other member, that irks them, and they're taking up a
whole bunch of these votes every week, all of a sudden,
it's not a big deal anymore. The centrire resolution gets devalued.
The more there is of something, the you know, the
less valuable it is. The rarer it is, the more
likely it is to be considered valuable. Which is an
(15:26):
interesting question. If diamonds were pooped out by horses, would
we feel the same way about them. If horse poop
were as rare as diamonds, would we feel that Maybe
there are some exceptions to this that general philosophy. But
when you're running the printing presses or I guess now
the Federal Reserve just presses a button and presco change. Oh,
there's tons of new money in the economy. The value
of your dollar gets goes down and the value of
(15:49):
all your goods goes up because it takes more of
those dollars to afford them. It's the same thing with
center resolutions. It's not a crazy idea. I think the
idea there is to say, like, look, if you're going
to center somebody, it should be something so bad that
you know more than a few of the people in
your own party are willing to denounce you for it.
The problem is, Greg, is we just found that, like
(16:10):
almost ever, you know, like four percent of Virginia Democrats
think Jay Jones is not worth voting for just because
he wants to murder children. And that seems you know,
it sounds like a really small amount, so reaching that
sixty percent might put all cens your resolutions out of business.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Yeah, I don't know how you would move along once
people are that dug in. So it's a tough situation.
But you're right, you don't want to hand them out
like candy either, so just because you got the votes
to do it. So interesting question and probably the most
sensible thing we've ever heard from Don Bayer, who's usually
a lock for whatever the left position is on this.
But you're talking about inflation, Jim, and so when inflation
(16:47):
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L all right, Jim onto our final crazy martini. And
as I said in the email today, this one's so crazy,
it's actually sad and disturbing. This is not about a
member of Congress. It's about a congressional staffer. And this
(18:21):
is from the New Jersey Globe. A twenty six year
old Ocean City, New Jersey woman who claims she was
brutally assaulted because she worked for Republican Congressman Jeff Van
Drew instead orchestrated the entire incident, paying a scarification artist
to wound her and staging the scene with zip ties
and the words quote unquote Trump horror written on her
stomach end quote Van Drew is a racist unquote on
(18:45):
her back. This is according to federal prosecutors. Now. The
woman's name is Natalie Green, She's a Rutgers law student,
and she allegedly concocted the hoax back in July with
an accomplice making a late night nine to one to
one call to report that she had been ambushed by
three men on a nature trail in Egg Harbor Township.
Police officers found Green bound with black zip ties, her
shirt pulled over her head, and the political slurs scrawled
(19:07):
across her torso. She told police that her supposed attackers
had a gun and threatened to shoot her and struck
her in the head. The prosecutors say nearly every detail
of that was fabricated. They say Green allegedly drove to
Pennsylvania and paid a body modification artist five hundred dollars
to carve significant wounds in her face, neck, and upper body,
(19:29):
using a pattern that she had provided in advance. Investigators
later found matching zip ties and her Maserati SUV. Cell
phone records showed that two days before the purported attacker,
co conspirator searched online for quote zip ties near me,
a discovery authority cited as further proof the incident was staged,
and then their stories didn't match when they interviewed them
multiple times. She's now charged with one kund of conspiracy
(19:53):
to convey false statements and hoaxes, and one count of
making false statements to federal law enforcement. According to ac
US attorney Alna Haba, that name should be somewhat familiar.
She was released on a two hundred thousand dollars unsecured bond.
The Van Drew office is saying they're saddened by the news.
She hoped that she gets the care she needs. And
I think they mean mental help here, Jim, because if
(20:14):
you look at these pictures, the scarring is significant, and
why you would put yourself through that in an attempt
to gain attention is really disturbing.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
So what do you make of all this?
Speaker 1 (20:24):
You know, I saw someone saying that, oh, you know,
the Republicans now have their version of Jesse Smollett, and
I think it's a apt comparison. I feel like I
didn't hear anything about this at the time, and I'm
kind of glad that I did not. I think this
clearly was an attempt to demonize Trump opponents for doing
something that they never did. Now, there's plenty of reasons
(20:45):
criticize Trump opponents, but this is not one of them. Alas,
we live in a world in which there are hate crimes,
and we live in a world in which people will
fake hate crimes in order to get attention in order
to get sympathy, in order to paint their opponents as
just the worse. There's a website fakehetecrimes dot org database
of hate crime hoaxes, and I believe it's still updated.
(21:06):
I saw something I'm there from twenty twenty five, so
updated up until recently, and just kind of demonstrates that
this is not a terribly rare phenomenon. Usually it's somebody like,
you know, drawing a swastika on their own dorm room
door or something like that, or other, you know, phenomenon
which are not involving something like this. In addition to
(21:26):
the Jesse Smollett comparison which came to mind, I boy,
the first thing I thought of was Morton Downey Junior,
not to be mistaken for Robert Downey Junior, who was
iron Man and awesome. Martin Downey Junr. Was described as
Jerry Springer with less class. And I know there's a
bunch of listeners like, how do you do that? But yes,
if you grew up in the New York at New
Jersey area in the late eighties, this guy was had
(21:48):
a talk show who basically made Alex Jones look kind
of laid back and calm and just you know, was
like screaming. It was kind of the beginning of loudmouth
in your face talk show. It was very popular for
a while. He had a role, a key role in
the cinematic classic Predator Too, playing shockingly a loudmouthed television journalist. Yeah, typecasting,
(22:12):
but it was good at it, but because he's basically
playing himself. But anyway, so ratings start to go down
in you know, the late eighties and America. The audience
seems to get sick of him and fall nineteen eighty nine,
he's trying to save his show from cancelation. So apparently
he decides to make this publicity stunt. He stabergers out
of the airport bathroom in San Francisco International Airport did
(22:35):
not run into Larry Craig as far as we know,
and he basically comes out and says that he was
attacked by neo Nazis, because you don't how many neo
Nazis fly through San Francisco, Craig, it's a very busy
hub for the international neo Nazi community. And he says
that they shaved his head and carved a swastika into
his face and he shows it's now here's the thing.
(22:57):
The swastika was backwards. So the irony is is that
the swastika from India, the one if it's facing clockwise,
it's actually one of the good ones. It means good, happy,
you know, good fortune and all that stuff. The back
one symbolizes night and kind of darkness. The Nazis took
the good one, rotated it, you know, forty five degrees.
You notice the Nazis it's always kind of on the diagonal.
(23:19):
The good ones that I saw over in India were
always horizontal and vertical. But anyway, that's what the Nazis.
But his is backwards. So what does that tell you? Well,
either they got attacked by dyslexic Nazis or he carved
it himself in the mirror without realizing the mirror flips
your your the image there Eventually he you know, police
(23:39):
could find no corroborating evidence. You know, there's no sign
of head shaving, Neo Nazis rampaging through the airport or
something like that pretty much came to But it came
to the conclusion that Morton Downey Junior has had done
this to himself. Like I can kind of laugh about
that because of the sadness and the silliness and the
stupid I think he did with a marker. He did
not use it with a knife, as five of them
(24:00):
looking back at this article. Show gets canceled a couple
months later. Morton Downey died quite a few years ago.
But this is really sad for this young woman. And
this is just exceptionally depressing that, Like, there are a
lot of ways you can do extraordinary things with your life,
you know, being a victim of hate crime, really, that's
not how you want to be famous. That's not what
you want to be known for. That's not what you
want to you know, you want to do great things
(24:21):
with your life. This is not that. And the idea
that you feel the need to do this for attention,
for sympathy, to feel special because you want to say that,
you know, people who don't like Trump are terrible, like
we do that on this show pretty regularly. There are
a lot of ways you can do that. It does
not require knives, it does not require self mutilation. And
(24:41):
you know we've been we're constantly taught in our faith,
live not by lies, right, tell the truth. The truth
is enough. Yes, the other side is gonna lie. And
you know, every day I wake up and I deal
with Russian disinformation efforts and all that kind of stuff.
I was talking to Ukraine and Audience of the Day
and I was like, you know, look, you got to well,
everything in the world seems like it's stacked against you.
(25:02):
The only thing you got going for you is the truth.
But you know what, the truth is enough, and so
you don't need to fake things to show that the
other side is bad. Just show how the other side
is bad.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
That's enough.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
And also, please don't do that to yourself. There's something
I think clearly self hating about this. There's clearly something
self it is self harm. But there also is something
just just very nihilistic about it. So again, like everybody else,
we hope this woman gets the help she needs. Deeply
disturbing story. And I just you know, I probably has
nothing to do with working in the Congressman's office, but
I just kind of wonder, like, does politics warp your brain?
(25:34):
Does it give you know, you know, I mentioned faith,
I go, it gives you a god figure, it gives
you a double figure, unless you believe you're involved in
this grand crusade. Believe me. When you reach the point
where you're mutilating yourself, this is not you know, please
see someone. If you're listening to this podcast, I hope
you're not in this state, but if you are in
this state, please reach out. Hey, you know what better
help would be a good idea for that.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Yeah, And it may have contributed because one of her
jobs she was a part time staffer. I don't think
she was in d C. And one of her jobs
was to go through constituent mail. And she has told
investigators that you know, all these vile messages coming, and
so obviously if there's anything that's a threat or anything,
you pass that on to authorities. And I can see
how that could could weigh on you after a while.
But doing this is obviously signs that that you've lost
(26:17):
the plot mentally, and you obviously need some help. And
I don't know if we've talked about this story, Jim,
but back in September, a staffer for Texas Congressman Tony
Gonzalez died after self immolation. You may be right that
just being in that environment, in the constant and intensifying
political battle, it's just too much for some people, and
(26:39):
you need to do something else.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Yeah, it's okay to tap out. It's okay to say
I can't deal with this anymore and find other things
to do with your life. The role of politics isn't
gonna go anywhere. You know, We'll be fine. You take
care of yourself. This is not where something's setting yourself
on fire for This is not so where something was,
you know, carving into your own skin over you know, well,
everything will be fine, and you know tomorrow's another day exactly.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
And you know, being in the political world is certainly
important and discussing these issues like we do every day.
But you and I both know people who had been
in politics gave it up, left Washington and they're really happy.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
I have Facebook friends with them, Greg and I. Whenever
I see that their lives are so happy. A lot
of them, you know, become very active in church or
volunteer work. They're raising families. They look so happy, and
I'm like, oh my goodness, you know, some feel so
good for them, And Greg, what am I doing with
my life? What am I doing here? And it's like
there's like ten there's like three percent of me that's
(27:34):
like quitter. But that's okay, that's all right. I'm glad
they're happy. It's very good for their kids, very good
for the family.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
No, I definitely understand it some days. Anyway, Jim, have
a good Thursday. We'll do it again tomorrow. See tomorrow, Greg,
Jim Garritty, National Review. I'm Greg Corumbus of Radio America.
Thanks so much for being with us, and we certainly
hope you subscribe to the podcast. If you don't already,
tell your friends about us as well. Thanks also for
your five star ratings and your kind reviews. Please keep
those coming. Get us on your home devices. All you
have to say is play Three Martini Lunch podcast. Follow
(28:02):
us both on x He's at Jim Garrity, I'm at
Greg Corumbus, and don't forget we're now on Facebook and Instagram.
Have a great Thursday. Join us again Friday for the
next Three Martini Lunch
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