Transcript

Dan Le Batard 9/2/22 🔥 #BecauseMiami: The U is Near

From The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 59 min · 10,680 words · 64 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "Dan Le Batard 9/2/22 🔥 #BecauseMiami: The U is Near", an episode of The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz published September 4, 2022 (59 min, about 10,680 words). It mentions 8 people, works and ideas, including John Ruiz, Amendment 4, Hard Rock Stadium, Norman Bremen, Broward County.

What this episode is about

The discussion centers around the evolving relationship between hosts Dan and Billy, particularly regarding their varying degrees of involvement with the University of Miami football program. While Mike Ryan is portrayed as an active supporter and "power broker" for the team, Dan and Billy reflect on their past contributions and the ongoing debate about how they can further support the program as the college football season approaches.

Key takeaways

  • Who knew Delta 9 gummies could be both a relaxant and a bonding agent on the golf course?
  • Miami Hurricanes' fans unite: documentaries + funding = hope for reliving past glories, but at what cost?
  • In the world of sports, everyone claims to help—some through funding, others through pizza-fueled enthusiasm.
  • Gummies may relax you, but passionate conversations about college football get your adrenaline pumping to the max!
  • Is a 'big check' the secret ingredient to revitalizing college sports, or just a recurring plot twist?

Who speaks in this episode?

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 5:00: Amazon
  2. – 10:00: John Ruiz, Hard Rock Stadium
  3. – 15:00: Hard Rock Stadium, John Ruiz, Freedom Park
  4. – 25:00: Norman Bremen
  5. – 30:00: Norman Bremen
  6. – 40:00: Broward County
  7. – 45:00: Amendment 4, Broward County

Notable quotes from "Dan Le Batard 9/2/22 🔥 #BecauseMiami: The U is Near"

  • Help more and Dan I've read in the trade papers that you're the co-founder of a successful Media Company you just sold the documentary to Amazon in the trades huh yeah man just…
    about Amazon · at
  • Because Miami segment I will ask you how much just know that whatever you give you're not getting any of the credit for it all goes to John Ruiz hey you're gonna have to be okay with that Arrangement because I can assure.
    about John Ruiz · at
  • The Orange Bowl it was a dangerous [ __ ] a dumb it was a dangerous [ __ ] and right now the University of Miami plays in what I call it's a great facility the premier Athletic…
    about Hard Rock Stadium · at
  • It Miami is operating from a place not the chance no no Miami is let me Explain how and this actually ties into what we saw a little bit if I can theorize what we saw with Freedom Park a little bit is Miami has zero leverage when it comes.
    about Freedom Park · at
  • Had a real job since he babysat his brother-in-law's cocaine Stash House in 1985. his sugar daddy Miami car oligarch and former Philadelphia Eagles owner Norman Bremen financed…
    about Norman Bremen · at
  • Rarely has that but in this go around it's Governor DeSantis I guess two weeks ago held a big press conference in Broward County there was 15 20 Law Enforcement Officers he was…
    about Broward County · at
  • Were allowed to vote in 2018 Florida voters passed what was known as Amendment 4 to allow felons in the State of Florida who were not involved in murder or sex crimes to allow…
    about Amendment 4 · at
  • Any sort of scrutiny and as you referenced earlier Ron DeSantis did after the 2020 election which was known as one of the most smoothly run elections certainly here in the…
    about COVID-19 pandemic · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

  • John Ruiz — Person · Referenced booster / NIL financier · 2 mentions · first at
    Discussed as the dominant University of Miami NIL/booster figure; framed as an attention-seeking but materially impactful donor whose money and stadium ideas create controversy and leverage narratives.
  • Norman Bremen — Person · Referenced political benefactor / donor figure · 2 mentions · first at
    Cited by Billy as a wealthy Miami-area benefactor who allegedly financed Rubio’s political ascent, used to argue Rubio’s 'bootstraps' narrative is misleading.

Companies & orgs

  • Amazon — Company · Business focus · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned in the context of selling documentaries.

Concepts & topics

  • Amendment 4 — Concept · Key argument · 1 mention · first at
    Central to discussions about voter rights and felon disenfranchisement.

Places & events

  • Hard Rock Stadium — Place · Setting · 3 mentions · first at
    Key venue for University of Miami football games and discussions about sports facilities.
  • Broward County — Place · Setting · 2 mentions · first at
    Discussed in the context of political events and voter fraud.
  • Freedom Park — Place · Setting · 1 mention · first at
    Discussed in the context of potential sports facilities and political leverage.
  • COVID-19 pandemic — Event · Referenced event · 2 mentions
    Mentioned in passing in the context of broader discussions.

Full transcript with timestamps

thank you foreign I've said it before and I'll say it again I love a good gummy whether I'm on the golf course or winding down after a long day of carrying the show on my back all I need is one good gummy to help me totally relax and now thanks to my good friends at cbdmd getting Delta 9 THC gummy shipped directly to your doors not only possible it's easy and affordable how about that every CBD MD Delta 9 gummies packed with 10 milligrams of THC per gummy and let me tell you buddy they work cbdmd also has Delta 9 micro dose capsules that feature one milligram of THC so it's easy to enjoy them whenever wherever and listen I know it's easy to get confused with all the different Deltas out there but Delta 9 THC is the same good old-fashioned THC we've all known and loved for years to learn more about Delta 9 and everything else cbdmd has to offer just has to cbdmd.com Dan once again that's cbdmd.com Dan for

information education and the best damn gummies you've ever had must be 21 years or older to purchase Delta none Billy as we head into the college football season I really don't know what to make of your relationship with Mike Ryan around the University of Miami football stuff he is a homer he is a he is now like a golden cane and an information Source he's a legitimate power broker he's a Michael golden game he's a power broker at the University of Miami and he's been calling us out for a while saying that you and I who have trafficked off of University of Miami Glory haven't actually helped the football program any while Mike has recently spent a good deal of time helping the football program now you would argue that your documentaries help the football program but he's talking about Hands-On helping of the football program which you are not doing right now okay you could help more you could always

help more and Dan I've read in the trade papers that you're the co-founder of a successful Media Company you just sold the documentary to Amazon in the trades huh yeah man just one just one to Amazon I was hoping to sell more than one to Amazon that's quite disappointing actually I came away disappointed while everyone's uh tooting your horn first of all I think we're all homers I think we all ultimately want the same thing which is the Miami Hurricanes to relive some kind of former glory and win again but I think we all help in our own ways I think that Dan is right I think the documentaries were probably of some help Through The Years in fundraising and recruiting during a time when the team was notoriously losing certainly yeah I didn't mean to rhyme there we don't need to toot your horn here we know what your credentials are what I'm saying is and you talk about the Miami Hurricanes all

the damn time on this show enthusiasm I'm just gonna come out and ask it how much are you willing to give right now oh well I'm willing in terms of thousands that's the collection please I'm willing to do nil here's the thing Mike I'm here for this okay thank you because listen to this if we're going to throw money behind something important honestly Billy comes in here I'll ask you Billy's been doing this love of game Billy's been doing this for free we pay him in pizza because uh Billy really cares about making sure Florida gets protected and the Democracy gets uh protected also he just likes a microphone and oh my God does he love a microphone he likes it so much yeah he likes it so very much but your relationship with him confuses me because I don't know if you're on the same side strained it's strange damn we both love the University of Miami one goes out of his way to kind of discredit

them at every turn discredit people that are really trying to give and help the program Dan and then there's Billy um who thinks that the way of helping is just openly brawling on social media with some folks that are actually genuinely helping openly brawling I just stated dude I came on I stated facts I stated I stated a good man that's helping a lot I didn't even talk about your uncle all I said was I'm not doing this this way with you where people don't know what we're talking about yeah you guys are speaking in code no no I'm just asked you how many thousands you were going to give and you didn't answer I I'm gonna I'm gonna make Meadowlark movies Meadowlark media will commit yeah yeah we need big chunks of money this is what I'm telling you I'm gonna commit to nil deals but this is what I'm saying to you when I say I want to support yes I'm going to commit right now metal Work Media to nil

deals and this is what I'm gonna do I'm gonna do it because the way I have been funding this segment through metal Arc media that doesn't just pay Billy and pizza is listen to this this is the way I've paid for it to fund surveying for Ron McGill to run for office when Ron McGill has told us that every turn he doesn't want to run for office money well no money not well spent not I mean he won't do it his wife has told us he won't do it not money well spent in the pursuit of throwing money into the air what are you doing let me tell you what'll make you far more happy I'd rather give it to a player on the team all right in the ACC Championship Game Your Presence at Charlotte is needed but more importantly your money is needed and I ALS I appreciate you but that's simply not going to cut it I'm just gonna need a very big big check I'm talking about something that'll hurt a little bit I can make sure it's tax deductible though

if that helps does Dan go west of the causeway unless he's going to the airport then ultimately in his heart of hearts is a sports fan and I know that this program connects with him in ways that nothing else does and he wants to see Mario crystal ball be successful he wants to recapture those Glory Days and Dan I am offering you an opportunity to take an active role in it okay well for sure I will agree to most of those things except I will have to take it under advisement how big that check needs no it needs to be big okay well that's it's too General right now it's too General I understand I will not be pressured by you at the end of the because Miami segment I will ask you how much just know that whatever you give you're not getting any of the credit for it it all goes to John Ruiz hey you're gonna have to be okay with that Arrangement because I can assure you whatever check you're riding his is

a lot bigger all right we gotta take care of Papa well I will not do this going forward because I've not understood Billy's reticence on this throughout Billy has been quiet on Ruiz Ruiz is an attention seeker Ruiz is people they're reaching out they want as many forums as possible ESPN is giving them for him he wants to buy his way into the game Big booster man on money that may or may not be real is real kind of real it's definitely real okay uh the real money that's subject it was subject to all sorts of scrutiny and it went public guys I don't have a time at a time when things being real in currency seems less real than it's ever been I don't know why you keep doing this his money is certainly real that he's donating but Billy has sat out Billy Billy every once in a while will lobber roll grenades at him on Twitter but he's been suspiciously quiet you've been suspiciously quiet on this while calling

him Mike's Uncle because his name is Ruiz which honestly he's close to racism last week I didn't give my opinion I simply reported what I was hearing from the highest levels at the University which is that the university while they are grateful for the enthusiasm and generosity around the football program is not interested in a half billion dollar or more football stadium particularly a Tropical Park they are happy at Hard Rock they are happy to direct their focus and fundraising into the athletic department itself under on-campus facilities into paying these coaches that thank God they finally committed to paying some real coaches some real money I can tell you Dan from being out at a close practice at a closed practice oh we know

I'm a narcissist wait you hold on a second that the staff is about three times larger now in her Mario crystal ball than it was under Manny those people got to get paid they need money to pay those people so I simply stated those facts and I got excoriated by Kane's whole Twitter for it no don't do that wait a minute what they all said was when did the athletic director ever say that he wasn't interested in a football stadium off campus or at Tropical Park I said when did he ever say he was they pointed to some very diplomatic and political quote that he gave fresh off the plane at the Opa-locka Airport guy didn't even know where he was he had been a Miami in for 12 seconds and they said would you want a football stadium near campus and he said well I've always been lucky enough to play at schools that had their own stadium either on campus or adjacent to campus and if there's an opportunity

we'll follow it to its logical conclusion that's not how we were interested that's a very diplomatic answer it's a great answer by radovich I agree but what other choice did he have was what I'm saying it was a very it's a very political job job that he has and he gave a very political answer having been in Miami all of 12 seconds and then finally Tuesday after practice the Press said we've seen these renderings there's this whole plot to take over Tropical Park one of the largest and most popular parks in Miami-Dade County what are your thoughts and he basically just said what I said on this podcast last week am I wrong no you're not wrong you're absolutely right and I may surprise you with my my take on this number one I also don't want to dissuade people thinking big I I find it refreshing that there are renderings out there is it look at me Louie sure is it at all realistic right now not not from where I

can see it but I don't want to squelch that type of creativity and that type of ambition I really don't I think we we could use more of it we could use more ridiculous ideas that we can practically dismiss out of pocket that's fine personally I love my game day experience and I think what a lot of Keynes fans are are guilty of doing whether they know it or not is they think that Miami was good because of the Orange Bowl hey they think Miami was good because of that atmosphere and those teams were good because they had a hand in it oh the teams were good because the players were really really good and those really good teams made that atmosphere I love the Orange Bowl it was a dangerous [ __ ] a dumb it was a dangerous [ __ ] and right now the University of Miami plays in what I call it's a great facility the premier Athletic Complex on the planet there's no uh we've gone into an ad nauseam there's no other complex

it can do what this one does and I can tell you from working at ESPN from having close friends I worked at college game day that worked the very biggest games over the last 20 years they told me the second loudest atmosphere they have ever heard in their entire careers was Miami Notre Dame yeah at Hard Rock stadium and I'm telling you right now if this football program gets the resources it needs and the coaches get supported the way that they get supported and they get these players over the course of time that stadium is going to be talked about like the orange that atmosphere well that's the investment that atmosphere is going to be the one of the best atmospheres in all of sports and it costs the university very little they're very happy there over 40 percent of their season ticket holders come from Broward and Palm Beach County so it is somewhat centrally located for the fan base and I

think the ad put it best when he said you know not only do we have 10 or 11 years left on the contract but we play what six or seven days out of the year now and our focus is on those 358 days a year that our student athletes are on campus are in those facilities that they need to improve and Billy I think you know there's better than anybody like the fact that it may not actually be a real thing them going to Tropical it can still help because there's the chance of it Miami is operating from a place not the chance no no no no Miami is let me Explain how and this actually ties into what we saw a little bit if I can theorize what we saw with Freedom Park a little bit is Miami has zero leverage when it comes to their lease at Hard Rock stadium they have nowhere realistically to go so it can only help the University of Miami there's not an actual chance you can support a pipe dream Mike look oh I

think Freedom part Freedom Park is actually the more realistic of the library I want to stop Billy on a couple of things why did you do the Keynes hole thing Kane's whole Twitter these people are dying to be relevant as a sports business passed down from their Abuelos and their their boppies from a different time like this why are you thinking it's exception to that yeah we're Cane's holes they're terrible I didn't even say that oh man we're garbage uh what I am noticing and what I want to point out to the audience because Mike is now credentialed on The Insider front he does he's he's connected inside the organization he advocates for the organization he's trying to do it differently he's an agent for Change and he's gotten in the middle of it with his money with his mouth with his reporting and everything else he wants to believe in the idea that we can dismiss his stupidity the idea of a spaceship saw

sir stadium that John Ruiz is going to build that floats over Miami and some magical mystical future Tropical Park that becomes leverage for I agree with that better than what Mike is calling could have used some luxury boxes though I was going in there science fiction it doesn't matter but it looks gorgeous what Mike is calling a facility for the ages that Mike is right if you put Alabama in there holy [ __ ] what a sound it would make like of course if you put the winning in there and they're making the hundreds of millions of dollars of investment that that now requires and it's with this man's money and Mike is asking you Billy as cynical documentarian to support the program that means supporting those that are actually got their hand in the dirt and are actively helping I look there's been a lot of bad rhetoric when it comes to Uncle Johnny and I don't like it because he has put his money where his mouth is

he's actually changing the lives of kids and it's not like other places where you don't know this ambiguous thing where Jimbo Fisher comes out and says we don't even really do an IL then where are you getting the dough dude really I don't want to fight this guy because he's the new Renegade future keep Dirty Money trying to buy a program and trying to do it within the auspices of their silly Justice uh that doesn't mean anything you guys know better than anybody we are a historical outlier we have a suit and body of 17 000 kids we don't have this huge alumni base to be talked about against the likes of Ohio State and held to that standard is actually ridiculous when you see the numbers we don't have the resources and you have one person out there that is giving in a way that is really honestly just absolutely overshadowing everybody else no one is giving to the point to help the football program specifically

like John it's almost like the point of his money is to buy into the big booster game that's what it feels like that's what boosters do I know but he loves the program but he loves a program yes Mighty like seeing his name out there and being associated with it yes of course like that's that's part of that's not a bad thing yeah it's not what others do it makes other people that do give I don't trust him with it I don't trust him with it to represent the things look man I do not trust any Juan come lately who says and now I'm from Columbus his name is John every Juanito come lately no no you can't do that from Columbus I'm I'm demanding an apology how dare you I I said quite clearly and I'll repeat it his generosity and his enthusiasm I think is outstanding I think it helps the program that people get excited about it look at us I think the problem is the problem is you're great let's focus there this week let's focus this

is Billy there is no Stadium this weekend doesn't want a war with the County Commission they don't want a war Billy was right I don't want a war with the neighbors they don't want a stadium there and to Dan's point I don't want a stadium there the dance point on the Eve for 12 years I've been saying the University of Miami does not prioritize football they do not put their money where their mouth is they use it if you were right last year they did a 180 degree turn thank God they did the right thing finally and they made a commitment and right there your uncle was there with his published assist at that press conference announcing a state that was going to bulldoze a school and build a football stadium but that was Mario's moment that was Mario's moment that was the University of Miami's moment that was the program's moment here we are again on the evil football season Mario's moment his debut at his

alma mater as the head football coach his dream job the moment belongs to the University of Miami and again people are trying to steal their Thunder and I don't think that's beneficial I'm just gonna hold up a number to this window and you just nod it when you can give it to me okay wow that's a big number that's a big number damn yours is double that what is this the firm what is going on here that's a big number mine is double that again the money may not be tax deductible the money that we have spent Billy unfailed zookeeper campaigns um will not be something I will tolerate anymore we have to spend our money better than this this is an exciting week for the University I agree Miami uh it's an exciting season but there are other things that I want to get to with Billy no that are Miami related no Billy we have we're gonna have to figure out a way to contribute to Mike's cause here it but it's not going to be able to go

in ruiz's pocket I don't know how we're going to figure that part that's going to ruiz's pocket it goes into the pocket of those that are actually on the front line lines helping this football program if I have a finder's fee cool like I'm sorry wait you get a v well you get it you had a commission the number that I actually needs a lot lower let's talk a little bit Billy because I've been wanting to talk to you for a while about uh Marco Rubio and for for whatever the reason is for many many months now we have not gotten to it because one of the reasons I value this segment with you is because you have all of the history and all of the details that many people misremember or don't care to remember at all and you've been watching this guy Slither and snivel his way through the political system in Miami and you have where some of the bodies are buried so what can you tell us about Marco Rubio's latest fun on social

media and elsewhere well it's been a pretty impressive story arc local kid wound up in government in the in a very obscure little city called West Miami located in West Miami finds his way to becoming the speaker of the Florida House of Representatives I think possibly its youngest speaker in history I'm not certain of that and is now the senior senator from the great state of Florida it's a pretty extraordinary and meteoric Rise I think the problem is it starts with and proceeds with and grows with a lie everything about him is a lie is hypocrisy is something disingenuous and I posted a can you can you give us facts though as opposed to yes you can call somebody a liar but can you just give us the facts that make a liar to be a truth well let's start from the beginning there and then I'll get into this this funny tweet which is that his story has always been in order to relate to and connect with the extraordinary stories

of the Cuban American Exile community in Miami has been my family escaped the tyranny of Fidel Castro on the day or the eve of the Revolution like Godfather Part Two they fled the country for the freedom of Miami that's a lie his family departed Cuba 1956. they may have been fleeing tyranny but they were Fleer years early they're fleeing the right-wing tyranny of the dictator Batista not the left-wing tyranny of the dictator Fidel Castro so the headline of his bio was escaping Castro they did not Escape Castro that is a lie he had to actually delete and amend His official Senate bio on his public website as a result of this lie but this was a lie he told for quite some time in order to sell into the the passions And the emotions that that carries in order to get elected and advance in politics as he has but the foundation is a lie and I think the other really important thing to remember when people are turning away

from the swamp and are rejecting the Deep State and don't want seasoned entrenched corrupt life long politicians feeding at the public trough Marco Rubio came out in a very Stern interview on Fox News [ __ ] all over President Biden's student loan debt relief program which I think is is such a fabulous idea and I argued last week didn't go far enough to help enough people enough but he came out and he said Rubio's argument was do my plan I got elected in the Senate I had over a hundred thousand dollars in student loans I'm not really sure where that's from he went to like a commuter College he went to Santa Fe Community College and then he I guess he gets from law school at the University of Miami that's the only place he could have probably got so you don't know if that's a lie you don't think it's an educational lie no but by the way students also need loans to live I don't think he could

afford what I'm asking you to do because people get tired of you just throwing lies out there and you put much of the history behind it but please what you're calling a lie explain to people why it's alive I'm not saying it's a lie what I'm saying is what he said was I had a hundred thousand dollars in student loans I have no reason to doubt that but when he said what I did was I got elected to Senate and I got a book deal and I used my Advance on that book deal the way I did write a book as a and I so pull yourself up by the book straps oh no oh there's got to be a cart for that the sound you want me to get on you won't even do it was it a loser game show sound or would it be the Hakeem Nick sound if he's asking for a cart for that that's Neil Rogers right there you think that somebody's gonna go and pull a cart out of a wall for the radio terminology has changed since then Billy he's a cart he

just used a cart but he's got a stretch over look he's stretching he's going to the computer but what do you want me to get for pulling you up by the book straps you want me to get a laugh for the loser game show sound Roy's the producer right right okay okay I thought okay so I think it's a lot a lot of work for the cart he had to go on the cart machine yeah

you were saying I retweeted that Rubio interview pull yourself up by your book straps and uh I wrote Rubio hasn't had a real job since he babysat his brother-in-law's cocaine Stash House in 1985. his sugar daddy Miami car oligarch and former Philadelphia Eagles owner Norman Bremen financed his entire political life and even bought him a teaching job at FIU so that went viral I guess a lot of people don't know this history of Marco Rubio which starts of course with the big lie that his family fled uh Fidel Castro's Cuba as opposed to Batista's Cuba you mentioned that it's a different Big Lots it's a pretty giant lie though the starting point on this okay so you've made your point in Miami it's a pretty big the starting point on this is that it from the beginning through the ancestral roots of not just his campaign but his family life the whole thing's a mask we got it what's the next lie the Rubio family

spent a summer this is what people seem to be intrigued by the Rubio family spent the summer living in Marco Rubio's brother-in-law's cocaine Stash House which was a central Hub or a main Hub in a 75 million dollar cocaine trafficking operation the extra room in which they stored kilos of cocaine would cut down those kilos and shove them into cigarette boxes in order to smuggle them around the country many many people of my ethnicity and their parents and their grandparents were doing that in 80s Miami in some form very common almost impossible for a family not to know when they have a family member in the cocaine industry they don't have a job but there's a sudden burst of wealth they start spreading that wealth around the family there's property and real estate Miami's built on it absolutely and so by the way ain't no shame in that game it's part of our history but Rubio is denied knowing

anything about it while they lived in a cocaine Stash House for part of a summer in West Kendall in 1985. again no shame in it but just saying in a neighborhood that was filled with stash houses filled with the

the drug dealer somewhere in the family because in many of our families I will find unawelo I can't believe it really you had a cocaine brick hidden there didn't know that but that's not true of just Cuban Americans or Colombian Americans if you were in Miami at that time your business was directly or indirectly helped or flourished or buttressed by the cooking industry there's absolutely no doubt Marco Rubio went back to that house every single week and washed their seven dogs for ten dollars a pot that's seventy dollars a week he was making in 1985 for washing dogs and he spent it that season to buy eight home game tickets to the Miami Dolphins he got to go to all so even the Miami Dolphins were benefiting in that way from the trickle-down economics of the cocaine business well a lot of dolphins were benefiting in a lot of ways from the from the cocaine business but that's just another way and this was a massive

cocaine trafficking operation again there's no shame in it but this denial I can't say there's no shame in it because it's gone viral at least in part because you want to lash him with the shame of the hypocrisy of being a conservative who comes from this and pretends not to come from that and a conservative who has railed against light sentencing for criminals especially drug traffickers when his own brother-in-law served about 10 or 11 years of a 35-year sentence and then Marco Rubio wrote him a letter of recommendation to become a real estate developer again none of this is a problem unless you're out there saying the rules are for everybody but me and my what are the facts behind some of the other lies though because you know the entire history of this I don't believe the people listening to this Billy understand the reason I've been wanting to talk to you about Marco Rubio for a long time is you have your

culprits around here that you bash and for some reason this guy here has escaped your attention for a while and I want everyone listening to this to understand what his factual history is try not to soak it in calling him a liar just tell me where the facts aren't consistent but it's not just the lies it is the hypocrisy and it is the idea that this is a guy who is somehow pulled himself up by his bootstraps that everybody should use him as a model for what to do because we don't all have sugar daddies like Norman Bremen who wouldn't spend the money on on Reggie White but tell people about former Eagles owner Norman Bremen who is a very successful human being in South Florida one of our richest men for a very long time that person has done what with his power while in Miami I mean he has spent upwards of 10 million dollars supporting Marco Rubio both politically and personally whether it's gifting money to

FIU to hire Marco Rubio as a professor whether it's hiring Marco Rubio's wife to work at a charity whether it's supporting his political committee supporting his campaigns Marco Rubio simply doesn't get to the Senate and get a book deal to pay off his student loans without a sugar daddy in Norway has used him this way why well he also got over 10 million dollars in PPP loans a program that Marco Rubio a socialism program mind you that Marco Rubio has taken great credit and in fact did Advocate and Lobby president Trump for but what I'm saying is it always comes back to the oligarchs in some way or another and PPP is just the latest example of that I think the more important point is that we don't all get to live off of benefactors and get to set ourselves up for success and the idea that people shouldn't get a ten thousand or twenty thousand dollar forgiveness on a portion of what might

be a six-figure student loan obligation with onerous interest and they should instead do as Marco Rubio does this is an insane a hypocrisy and double standard we also have a guy who's BFF and whose roommate when they were in the House of Representatives in DC his roommate who he actually co-owned a house that wound up in foreclosure in Tallahassee see when both of them were in Florida state government this is a guy who in David Rivera who is a career Criminal Who became a politician which is a very common thing that we have here in Miami we have so many of those yeah it's not like absolute power corrupts absolutely it's that criminals go where what's my best bet here how can I best navigate the world well if I'm elected I can do all kinds of crazy illegal [ __ ] and get away with it and David Rivera is the living breathing embodiment of this he was notoriously known as Marco Rubio's Bag Man when they co-owned this

house and were roommates together in Tallahassee uh he is a guy who was one of the ogs on the crime that we'll talk about more today which is the ghost candidate schemes that the Republicans use to siphon votes away they illegally Finance ghost candidates to siphon votes away from Democrats in elections we will talk to Matt Dixon from Politico about that later in the show so this guy committed an outrageous crime for which both of his co-conspirators who he recruited into this scam both of them went to prison for this crime but Catherine Fernandez Rundle the lead prosecutor the state attorney people might call her a district attorney but it's in Florida it's known as a state attorney she had a 54 page indictment a report from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement hanging this guy for these crimes and she let the statute of limitations run out and then our U.S attorney down here in the southern

district of Florida let the statute of limitations run out you better believe that David Rivera's connections to Marco Rubio had something to do with that David Rivera is now the subject of an intense federal investigation because it turns out he may have laundered 55-0 million dollars for the Socialist regime in Venezuela he got paid 50 million dollars I don't know to Lobby to do some work the reason why I don't know is he never did any work for it but all of the money wound up in some criminal billionaires Yacht company over here over there so people are going well wait if you didn't wasn't paid to do any actual work and all this money filtered through Venezuela into all of these other people and Enterprises what was that for now there's a major federal investigation but the man still has walked between the raindrops has not been indicted and this is Marco Rubio's best friend who is allegedly laundering

money for Maduro and the Socialist regime of Venezuela so once again people who rail against socialism people who rail against dictators and authoritarianism in every other country in the world except for our own are benefiting from the largest of these criminal regimes like the Narco kleptocracy in Venezuela this is Marco Rubio with all that said do we have an update on poll numbers with foul dimmings versus margarumio that seat is up for grabs right now I believe the latest poll uh has Marco Rubio up by about three points Marco Rubio is polling at 49 and Val demings the retired sheriff in Central Florida and Arch County she is polling at 46 so well within the margin of error there anything else we need to know before about Rubio before Matt Dixon joins us in a couple of minutes and before people start voting on some of this stuff just the facts please I think the other his other big lie was that when he ran for

president in the Republican primary in 2016. he said he was resigning from the Senate and that he was going to run for president and when he lost that primary to Donald Trump he said I will be a private citizen come January meaning when the new Congress and Senate was sworn in and instead he said on second thought I am going to run for re-election in my senate seat there was a string of videos and tweets of him saying if I'm not president I will be a private citizen and the guy just absolutely lied about it and even worse what he did was he used the pulse tragedy which was the Orlando lgbtqia club that was the victim of a mass shooter murdered dozens of people while the police waited outside and Marco Rubio said he was in so it moved by this tragedy that he was going to try to do something about it and what has he done about it he has done absolutely nothing he has not helped to ban the weapons of war that

people can walk into a store in Florida and buy in some states you can buy them from a vending machine regardless of your criminal background that's crazy it's great and he has done nothing about a vending machine and all we have seen I've never seen a vending machine with guns in it go to Texas baby but I will tell you that perhaps that was hyperbolic Dan but what I will tell you is that he has done nothing about it we have seen a proliferation of mass shootings in this country the last time Marco Rubio in fact even it bothered to have a town hall meeting with his constituents and the reason why he hasn't had one again is because he was embarrassed on National Television by the brave students who survived the Parkland Massacre okay Marjory Stoneman Douglas he was literally humiliated on television by high school students and said I will never face my constituents again because I am a liar and I am an

embarrassment and I'm doing nothing to help anybody other than his plan which I don't know how this plays in Florida is to destroy dismantle and privatize Social Security and Medicare so in a democracy the people get the government they deserve and if they re-elect these Republicans they are not going to have freedom they are going to have no books they're going to have no abortion they're going to have no health care they're going to have no social security they're going to have no Section 8 housing in Hialeah they're not going to have Obamacare anymore they're not going to have the right to peacefully protest they might not even have the right to vote anymore if the Republicans have anything to do with it I don't see how that's the free state of Florida but good luck Matt Dixon joins us next Stu gotzier I've said it before and I'll say it again I love a good gummy whether I'm on the golf course or winding down

after a long day of carrying the show on my back all I need is one good gummy to help me totally relax and now thanks to my good friends at cbdmd getting Delta 9 THC gummies shipped directly to your doors not only possible it's easy and affordable how about that every CBD MD Delta 9 gummies packed with 10 milligrams of THC per gummy and let me tell you buddy they work cbdmd also has Delta 9 micro dose capsules that feature one milligram of THC so it's easy to enjoy them whenever wherever and listen I know it's easy to get confused with all the different Deltas out there but Delta 9 THC is the same good old-fashioned THC we've all known and loved for years to learn more about Delta 9 and everything else cbdmd has to offer just head to cbdm d.com slash Dan once again that's cbdmd.com Dan for information education and the best damn gummies you've ever had must be 21 years or older to purchase Delta none

represented by DraftKings sports book and official sports betting partner of the NFL download the DraftKings Sportsbook app now and use code Dan for a special offer when you sign up that's codan only at DraftKings Sportsbook if you've been listening to us for a while you know that I care about journalism you know that Billy cares about journalism you know that journalism is an advocacy really that is in pursuit of and in protection of the truth against a whole lot of people who don't seem to care about it right now as politics run amok with total rampant corruption baked into the bread of how our systems are built Matt Dixon is a legitimate journalist and I tell you this because I think a lot of people don't make the distinction on he's not here to argue on behalf of a side he is not here to be red or blue he is somebody who reports things with great diligence and with vetting he breaks a number of different

stories and has over the years and he's been a bureau chief for the Florida Times Union he's still fighting the good fight in newspapers so he's doing so before Politico now he's the Florida bureau chief without his introduction Matt and thank you I appreciate your work and the work that Billy cares about here what DeSantis is doing with voting and where he's targeting people and how overt some of this stuff is as an attack on democracy and fairness can you just take us through factually what is happening here and we'll figure out why it's offensive well it will shock you to note that there's political scandal in Florida yet again I mean it's a it's a state that rarely has that but in this go around it's Governor DeSantis I guess two weeks ago held a big press conference in Broward County there was 15 20 Law Enforcement Officers he was going to make a splashy announcement related to voting what he did is he announced that

this brand new office he created to to investigate elections had found 20 felons who had ineligibly voted and these these folks was a third degree felony up to five thousand dollar fines five years in prison the Florida Department of Law Enforcement which is Florida's you know top top law enforcement agency arrested these folks in their homes and it was a sort of big splashy announcement and proof that there has been voter fraud in Florida and sort of backed up a lot of the talking points that that Republicans and some others have had about voting fraud being kind of rampant and as it turns out if you kind of peel the peel the layers of the onion back these folks did vote ineligibly there's that's not being disputed by anyone but there's a couple things that happened before that and so they would register that these these felons would register at voter registration drives or however they did

it and the registration is supposed to get flagged at the Department of State the Florida Department of State which oversees elections and that's supposed to get flagged and they're supposed to say hey this person's a felon they shouldn't be voting and these 20 cases they slip through the cracks so their local County elections officials sent on these voter cards saying hey you are cleared to vote this is a government sanctioned card that says you are eligible to vote so they went out and voted voting ineligibly without question but the gray area comes in because they were told by you know officials they're supposed to be able to trust that they were allowed to vote in 2018 Florida voters passed what was known as Amendment 4 to allow felons in the State of Florida who were not involved in murder or sex crimes to allow to be reinstated and regain the right to vote Florida I think had more disenfranchised

voters as a result of felony convictions in any state over nearly 65 percent of Florida voters passed this state Constitutional Amendment and it's been kind of a mess ever since the State of Florida made it almost impossible for felons to know whether or not they're eligible to know whether or not they have any fines how much those fines are and how even to pay for them 11 million people then voted in Florida in the 2020 election and there's been little spotty fraud cases here and there most prominently in The Villages down here in Dade County but they made 20 arrests one of these people a SWAT team showed up at 6 a.m with a chopper an armed you know armed police officers guy was in his underwear I would know all we know is a one so far that that gentleman's got a an attorney free of charge like she's not a public defender they actually found him a real attorney so he's the one who brought that story to us there's

still a lot Unknown about the circumstances around so one for sure you're 100 right but we don't know the circumstances or some of the color around the 19 other arrests but we do know that many of them registered to vote were approved by their County elections officials who went and ran these names through the state and then were given a voter registration card and in good faith not with any malicious intent to defraud or Vote or commit voter fraud went out and voted right yeah I mean a lot of these people these are not voter fraud masterminds uh the court documents and affidavits that that they gave as part of their interviews with the authorities most of them said they weren't high school graduates there was one woman who actually needed help during the interview because she told the authorities she really wasn't able to read or write these interviews happened in early August and then a lot

of the people who who were the subject of this were arrested a few weeks later so the idea that their criminal masterminds are trying to Cobble together some some sweeping voter fraud scheme just you know doesn't withstand any sort of scrutiny and as you referenced earlier Ron DeSantis did after the 2020 election which was known as one of the most smoothly run elections certainly here in the State of Florida nonetheless started this elections Integrity unit this elections police squad the first of its kind in the country and funded them over a million dollars in budget and then has this Sensational press conference about these 20 arrests and then they blamed the local elections officials the County elections officials said that they failed to do their due diligence and discover the eligibility or ineligibility of these one-time felons well I I think it's a sort of a mechanism to give his administration

some space from this um so when when asked about it and they really don't answer many questions we often don't get answers but the one statement they sent I believe it was last Thursday was this very lengthy statement about how local election supervisors at the county level these are County these are actually elected officials at the county level were allowing this to happen or encouraging felons to vote or just you know screwing up and essentially not doing their job and verifying and we've talked about I don't know five or six local supervisors including uh the supervisor up in Leon County which is in the northern part of the state who runs the the Statewide Association that represents local elect officials and they've all said that that's kind of bogus um they don't have access to the sort of law enforcement databases and the things that the state have and use to verify this stuff so local elections officials

just it's not their responsibility to the Deep dive vetting on these registrations it is that the census Administration or you know whatever Governor is in control it is the responsibility of the state and then in fact Peter antonacci who is he and what message did he send to these local elections officials Pizza a longtime government hand served a lot of high profile roles for Republican Governors he was actually the Broward County super provider of election when some of these felons registered and it turns out that the governor hasn't placed any blame on Pete because Pete now was appointed to run his Statewide elections investigation office hang on hang on hang on I'm sorry I just want to clarify what you just said so there was an elections supervisor in Broward that was removed is that right yep Who removed the Broward election supervisor it was right at the intersection of Rick Scott

and Rhonda Santos I think I think maybe honestly my timeline it's been a few years wait a minute no no please I'm gonna I'm gonna reprimand Billy here Matt for putting you really in a terrible self-involved positions you've seen him on Twitter yesterday Billy oh boy has questions that he has the answers to and you did not articulate them correctly so Billy you tell us what instead of using your guest instead of using your guest to do your bidding for you just tell us what the answer to your question is so that we don't do this dance where you're just using him to spouse what you believe very specifically to not doing your research before coming on like I was told explicitly do no research for you come on first of all you never ask a question you don't already know the answer manipulating him all right listen listen no no I need I need to explain this to people because they take Billy wrong

Billy is a Carnival Barker and he doesn't actually have to abide or live by the rules of Journalism though he attempts to and often does so well but Matt Dixon is a legitimate credible journalist he doesn't make he's wearing Kingdom he's a serious man he doesn't make these cocaine documentaries and I would like him because I introduced him as being fact-based as I keep getting killed for putting you on this platform because you lean so far left that you're leaning right right that you are a fire hose of rage and it sounds the same note all the time Matt you tell us I don't want to hear from Billy here you tell us what's happening with the Santas here why it is wrong and appalling without getting into the thicket of the details why people should understand that this is details don't matter this is not American this is not what anybody else doesn't answer that this is not anybody's idea of the Constitution

he's not gonna answer that question what kind of questions that hey I'll answer the questions I want to answer really come on man um I mean the reason that that I think people should care about it is because it was kind of a dog and pony show I mean there was this huge splashy press conference with law enforcement and what the distance Administration has been saying is two things they've been saying that opponents of this want uh murderers and and felony sex offenders to vote which is a total straw man nobody there are organizations who do things felons should vote but they're not main players in this conversation so that's a total straw man and in another one they've talked about is the local election officials which we've talked about so sort of the two arguments they've put forward reluctantly just don't hold water and meanwhile there are you know 20 former felons who did their time they

did terrible crimes no one's arguing that but they did the time the justice system gave them and now they're re-entering the criminal justice system with very little resources for you know reasons that we're certainly not malicious and and generally the lack of intent as best we can tell the bottom line is the state told these people they could vote they didn't know whether they could vote or not they registered to vote they were told by their County officials who consulted with State officials who said here is your voter registration card they went out and voted and then they got rounded up and arrested for doing what they thought in good faith they had the right to do the governor then has a press conference saying look we found all these criminals and let me ask you this there was at least three people arrested in The Villages a republican stronghold hang on for people who voted twice

deliberately and maliciously in an effort to stuff The Ballot Box did DeSantis have a press conference there and a notable difference there is that yeah as you mentioned they voted twice they double voted which clearly indicates intent that 20 people there's no evidence that there was any intent with the people who were just arrested in the hot with the high profile round of arrest right but did DeSantis have a press conference in The Villages about these criminals no no okay but Billy your larger point is that all of this when you start getting into the thicket of the minutia of how contaminated corrupt and evil all of this is this all feels like the hoarding of people by state militia that are sort of trampling without caring about government rights human beings because they are felons all the stuff that's happening in politics right now doesn't feel very free like this is ultimately the place that your rage comes from is

there is it not well when you say you were the free state of Florida and it's always no Freedom isn't no can I consult with my doctor and have a medical procedure no the government says no can I peacefully protest on the street no can I vote no when the answer is always no you can't do these things then that's not Freedom Matt let me ask you we've had now multiple cases where what they call ghost candidates or Shadow candidates have been on the ballot in effort to siphon votes away where money was inappropriately has inappropriately changed hands to finance these candidates fpnl has been behind a lot of this dark money here has DeSantis had a press conference about that has he threatened fpnl when the manner in which he threatened Disney for example I mean at two points there also there hasn't been a press conference anything high profile and they really didn't comment on it um when asked about it

there's they've been asked about it a bunch of times uh since the the last elections the 2020 election cycle when that stuff you're referencing happened and there isn't really a definitive DeSantis position on on ghost candidates or anything sort of coherent from the administration responding to to that sort of stuff a lot of it is is still the subject of legal challenges which is what they'll you know what a lot of people in power will generally rely on when they don't want to comment on something uh let the process play out but there really hasn't been a comment high profile or otherwise but so are these 20 criminal cases these are pending this is pending litigation that the governor essentially put his thumb on the scale that's why I framed it as people in power who don't want to talk about something that's you know it's it's a very very subjective use of ongoing investigation and we had

incidents down here in Miami-Dade County which I'm sure have repeated themselves around the state where you had operatives who went into um buildings apartment buildings where elderly people lived where lifelong Democrats were duped into changing their voter registration their party affiliation from Democrat to Republican um they were deliberately fooled by folks so that when they go to vote in a primary for example most recently in August they find that they're now their party affiliation has been changed out from under them after decades did Ron DeSantis have a press conference about that fraud and investigating that you're doing the same thing again wait a minute this is unfucking believable this guy like honestly no can you stop this please I am not having this person on just so that you can like this is a legitimate journalist and you're sitting here yes it is I'm asking for factual I'm asking

for answers you're in here like it's a trial and you're a lead attorney leading the witness this is the strangest deposition I've ever been a part of let me backtrack for a second because I really do this is so this is frustrating it's really frustrating Matt you are uh like you are some somebody who you the bid rigging and collusion in the Department of Transportation the budget item that saved the tobacco industry hundreds of millions of dollars you are doing researched investigative hard work to just show people hey do you realize how wrong this is and you're losing nobody cares like you're sitting here fighting this fight of just like can you believe this shitty thing is happening and you present it to people and you win Awards and nobody cares it's increasing less that nobody cares rather than the outrage is the point so there's there's a a cohort of politicians in in politics now where getting at getting out even if

it's a very legitimate and factual sort of negative story about you isn't something you push back or fight anymore you turn it into a fundraising email and you you sort of just blast the source of the information so it's even morphing Beyond nobody pays attention to well heck we uh we we we like negative stories we can raise a lot of small dollar political contributions off this and sort of turn up the outrage meter it's it's an era of politics where outrage is the point sometimes well but if Billy's coming on here every week and we're yelling and screaming and this can't be right and never mind your political official affiliation this just can't be right like nobody would nobody was reasonable and sound mind would think this is right that we're weaponizing everything to such extremes that hey felons we invite you to vote and when you vote we're going to round you up and tell you you haven't voted

like no but nobody would say that's right whose political party does that support the idea of doing that to people who have already served the time for their crimes and then just not allowing them the American human decency of being able to vote I guess I would I would say that the governor and his followers are certainly supportive of the move so I don't know how you characterize that as traditional or otherwise but there is definitely a a large percentage of of the governor supporters who are are in favor of the move is is sort of Law and Order and rooting out voter fraud and that's the the message that we're hearing from them and this is precisely my point not Matt's point is that exploiting law enforcement to in a partisan fashion is by definition dictatorial it's authoritarian the United Nations just had a committee for crying out loud the committee on elimination of racial discrimination who released a report

saying that Florida's quote unquote anti-riot law infringes on the right to protest the United Nations is now saying that DeSantis is in Florida's laws are designed to discriminate against people of color and to violate but it works and it's working for DeSantis the things that he is doing people are scared he might get to raise failed by abortion but one doesn't want to talk about that as Matt said the they don't like to whatever they don't want to talk about they just don't talk about and this adage of there's no such thing as bad publicity didn't used to apply to politics but now most certainly does because they get their outrage cycle even if all these laws ultimately get found unconstitutional by the courts even if ultimately all 20 of these cases of these poor folks get dropped he still had his press conference with his 20 scalps on the wall and he still gets the fundraise look I discovered the election

fraud or the voter fraud but the bottom line is the only voter fraud he cares about is when it's people who he perceives to be voting Democratic when it's Republican voters voting twice intentionally committing voter fraud in The Villages he doesn't care or he wants to put that under the rug when it's people fraudulently changing the voter registration of Democrats to Republican he doesn't say anything when it's Shadow candidates and it's a corporation in the State of Florida who has a legal Monopoly that very much the legislature and the governor could screw with like they screwed with Disney because they didn't like their political speech they don't say anything as long as FP L is funding ghost candidates that interfere with Democrats and not with Republicans I believe an equal application of the law I believe that nobody is above the law but I also believe that politicians should not exploit the law for partisan

purposes Matt I'm sorry that you had to endure all of that I had you on as a guest he's rude he just wanted to talk and pretend like you were here to I mean just unbelie unfucking believable the narcissism of this dude and the self I'm sorry he did all of that to you but thank you for your credentials and your time of course thanks for having me guys our thanks to Matt Dixon we're going to have to have him on again so he can express his own thoughts as opposed to being puppeteered by this bozo over here who will not allow anybody the free space to do a show that isn't fire hose spitting in every direction thank you Billy cocaines foreign foreign

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "Dan Le Batard 9/2/22 🔥 #BecauseMiami: The U is Near"?

Dan Le Batard (Host), Billy Corben (Guest), Mike Ryan (Guest), Matt Dixon (Guest).

What is "Dan Le Batard 9/2/22 🔥 #BecauseMiami: The U is Near" about?

The discussion centers around the evolving relationship between hosts Dan and Billy, particularly regarding their varying degrees of involvement with the University of Miami football program. While Mike Ryan is portrayed as an active supporter and "power broker" for the team, Dan and Billy reflect on their past contributions and the ongoing debate about how they can further support the program…

What is mentioned in this The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz episode?

8 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including John Ruiz, Amendment 4, Hard Rock Stadium, Norman Bremen, Broward County, Freedom Park. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Dan Le Batard 9/2/22 🔥 #BecauseMiami: The U is Near"?

The episode runs 59 min; the transcript is about 10,680 words in 64 timestamped sections.

More from The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated January 24, 2026.