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Florida's AG Explains New C-H-I-N-A Prevention Unit · Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: All right, let's get right to it. The second hour
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Monday in the morning show and it's Show and forty.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: He's Jose, I'm Preston and this is Florida's Attorney General,
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  Speaker 1: James Uthmeier. James, how are you, sir?
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: I'm doing well. Thank you for having me.
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  Speaker 1: I am thrilled to have you on the program. It's
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  Speaker 1: first time we've chatted since you have been attorney general.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: You have been busy. Proud to see the work you're
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: doing on behalf of the state, sir.
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  Speaker 2: Well, happy to do it. It's an honor every day.
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  Speaker 2: We're getting a lot of great results. Florida's crime lows
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: are lower than ever and that coincides well with a
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  Speaker 2: record number of arrests and convictions of criminals, especially predators,
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  Speaker 2: over the last year. So we're busy, but Floridians are
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  Speaker 2: getting their money's worth out of us.
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  Speaker 1: You are also focused on a growing problem that is
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  Speaker 1: hitting our nation. We're reading about it all the time,
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  Speaker 1: whether it's the military, whether it's the power grid, communications,
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  Speaker 1: pharmaceutical men eds. You're focused in on what China's doing
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  Speaker 1: impacting Floridians specifically. Tell us about it.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't think people fully understand the work that
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  Speaker 2: China's done to involve itself financially but also technologically, and
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  Speaker 2: a lot of the different devices and businesses that consumers
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  Speaker 2: are using every single day. Lorax a camera company that
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  Speaker 2: sells doorbell ring cameras, baby cameras, nanny cameras. We've discovered
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  Speaker 2: that a lot of the footage that personal imagery is
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  Speaker 2: going over to China, and a lot of it likely
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  Speaker 2: to the Chinese military. So we've been investigating multiple companies,
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  Speaker 2: especially numerous in the healthcare space where devices are measuring
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  Speaker 2: you know, healthcare biometric information, and then that data is
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  Speaker 2: going to China and you can only guess what their
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  Speaker 2: motives for gathering it would be. So we've sent out
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  Speaker 2: numerous subpoenas. We're looking at this and enforcing Florida's consumer
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  Speaker 2: protection laws, and at the end of the day, we're
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  Speaker 2: going to hold wrongdoers accountable if they violate personal data
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  Speaker 2: protections under Florida law.
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  Speaker 1: Let's talk a little bit more in depth, General Luthmeyer
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  Speaker 1: on Lorex, and let's just use the baby monitor thing.
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  Speaker 1: Tell us how that works, how they're getting the information.
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  Speaker 2: Well, you've got servers offshore and data sharing protocols where
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  Speaker 2: that live footage that ultimately is housed by the company
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  Speaker 2: that has direct ties to the CCP, that data goes overseas,
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  Speaker 2: goes onto servers that are on Chinese land, and then
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  Speaker 2: from there, Like I said, we've got strong evidence to
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  Speaker 2: believe some of it even gets shared with the Chinese military.
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  Speaker 2: So I think there's a host of companies that are
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  Speaker 2: engaged in this practice. Some may be nefarious, some may
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  Speaker 2: be looking for cheaper rates for data storage. But at
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  Speaker 2: the end of the day, at the very least, I
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  Speaker 2: think the American people, Floridians need to be put on
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  Speaker 2: notice that their data is in you know, getting into
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  Speaker 2: the hands of our foreign adversary.
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  Speaker 1: So mom and Dad have a camera set up and
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  Speaker 1: unbeknownst to them, by streaming it via Wi Fi through
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  Speaker 1: their home, it ends up being backdoored into China.
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  Speaker 2: That is our very strong belief. Yes, and that's why
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  Speaker 2: we've launched subpoenas and we've not yet received the cooperation
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  Speaker 2: we'd hope to have from a company that is under investigation.
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  Speaker 2: But it's all the more reason. While we're going to
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  Speaker 2: keep fighting doing forced Florida law.
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  Speaker 1: Are they not cooperating? Are they stonewalling. Are they circling attorneys?
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  Speaker 1: What are they doing to fight this?
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  Speaker 2: At this point it seems to be stonewalling. We haven't
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  Speaker 2: gotten into the litigation true adversarial confrontation, but again, if
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  Speaker 2: we don't get information in cooperative fashion, we will certainly
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  Speaker 2: take them on in court, and we believe very strongly
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  Speaker 2: that that behavior violates Florida law.
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  Speaker 1: Joining us on the pro for just a few more
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  Speaker 1: minutes is Florid Attorney General James Uthmeyer. We're talking about
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  Speaker 1: the China Prevention Unit, consumer arm from international nefarious actors
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  Speaker 1: and great acronym. You got to love that. This is
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  Speaker 1: the Morning Show with Preston Scott. We've touched on one
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  Speaker 1: area that Florida's Attorney General, James Uthmeyer and his team
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  Speaker 1: are concerned about. Broaden this a little bit. What are
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  Speaker 1: the expanded areas that Florida can legally look into?
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  Speaker 2: Well, let me start. Florida was the first state to
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  Speaker 2: prohibit the Chinese government strong Chinese interests from purchasing our
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  Speaker 2: farmland and sensitive land near military bases. We kind of
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  Speaker 2: created a blueprint for the country and other states are
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  Speaker 2: now following suit. We successfully defended that law at the
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  Speaker 2: Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. We have prohibited our state
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  Speaker 2: government from purchasing any computer, hardware, technology network systems that
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  Speaker 2: might have Chinese ownership and thus, you know, put us
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  Speaker 2: in a national security risk. But then we've now been
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  Speaker 2: going after a lot of companies we found, especially in
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  Speaker 2: the healthcare space, healthcare monitoring devices. You know, you go
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  Speaker 2: to the doctor hospital, you're hooked up to things that
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  Speaker 2: are measuring your vitals. A lot of those companies have
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  Speaker 2: majority interests or strong stakeholder ties to China, and our
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  Speaker 2: investigation is revealing a lot of this personal data goes
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  Speaker 2: overseas to servers on Chinese land. I don't think Americans
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  Speaker 2: are aware of this. I don't think they would want this.
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  Speaker 2: It's certainly a national security risk.
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  Speaker 1: It occurs to me this might be one of those
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  Speaker 1: rare issues out there anymore general that is bipartisan in
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  Speaker 1: terms of it's supported on both sides of the aisle.
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  Speaker 1: I don't feel as though there are many on the
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  Speaker 1: left side of the aisle that really are interested in
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  Speaker 1: China interfering at the level that they're interfering with our
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  Speaker 1: daily day life.
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  Speaker 2: I think that's right. And the Florida legislature right now
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  Speaker 2: is looking at more proactive legislation to protect US and
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  Speaker 2: our technology, our infrastructure from foreign countries of concern. That
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  Speaker 2: appears to be supported in bipartisan fashion as you've described,
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  Speaker 2: but I think it is something people are still waking
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  Speaker 2: up to those that might oppose us. Here. You still
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  Speaker 2: have some big corporations that get, you know, cheaper rates
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  Speaker 2: when they want to do data storage overseas, including on
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  Speaker 2: Chinese soil, using Chinese networks and devices. But at the
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  Speaker 2: end of the day, you know that we're not going
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  Speaker 2: to care about that. We care about our consumers, protecting them,
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  Speaker 2: making sure they're on notice that their most personal sensitive
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  Speaker 2: data is not going to our enemy.
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  Speaker 1: I know somebody you know well, James, and that's now
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  Speaker 1: Secretary of State Marco Rubio, former obviously US Senator and
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  Speaker 1: Speaker of the House in Florida's legislature. He's detailed the
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  Speaker 1: concern of where China is and the inroads it's making.
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  Speaker 1: So I guess how much federal help are we getting
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  Speaker 1: or are we offering going north upstream on this.
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  Speaker 2: Issue here in Florida. We're getting a lot of help
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  Speaker 2: and we're giving a lot of help. We've got the
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  Speaker 2: most horrific relationship with the federal government, especially in the
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  Speaker 2: counter terrorism national security space, that I've ever seen. And look,
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  Speaker 2: dealing with any federal government can be a challenge with
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  Speaker 2: the layers of bureaucracy you have, but we are working
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  Speaker 2: in complete simpatico. They've certainly got, you know, more technology
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  Speaker 2: and are far more advanced than we're at the state level.
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  Speaker 2: But we're working hard and we realize that, you know,
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  Speaker 2: we've got some tremendous tools that can be supportive to
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  Speaker 2: our larger national security interests as a whole. So I
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  Speaker 2: think Secretary Ruby is doing an outstanding job. It's wonderful
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  Speaker 2: to watch him in his element. It looks like he
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  Speaker 2: was born for it. And I think the you know,
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  Speaker 2: morale and the positive culture has spread throughout you know,
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  Speaker 2: the executive branch that's working on these issues, and you know, again,
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  Speaker 2: we'll be fired up to work with them every day week.
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  Speaker 1: What are the medical devices that are on your radar
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  Speaker 1: that are of greater concern to you?
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  Speaker 2: Well, I've got a list of companies that we've made public.
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  Speaker 2: I don't want to get too far into specific products
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  Speaker 2: because some of that is still confidential, and I don't
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  Speaker 2: want to tip our hand to what we're looking at,
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  Speaker 2: but you know the public will know more very soon,
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  Speaker 2: that's for sure.
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  Speaker 1: I appreciate your time this morning, and you've got an
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  Speaker 1: invitation anytime you want to come on on the program.
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  Speaker 2: Attorney General, we're big fans. Thank you for having me,
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  Speaker 2: and thanks for getting the word out.
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely. He's the Attorney General for the Sunshine State, James Outhmeyer,
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  Speaker 1: and it's the China Prevention Unit. The idea is it's
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  Speaker 1: investigating and litigating against companies who are unlawfully sharing data
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  Speaker 1: with Chaining and other foreign nations, and it puts your
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  Speaker 1: data at risk. And I love that we're getting ahead
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  Speaker 1: of this. We've talked about our concern I don't think
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: Chinese nationals should be allowed to buy land in this country,
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  Speaker 1: period end. I think they ought to be removed from
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  Speaker 1: our schools. If you're a member of the CCP, what
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  Speaker 1: are you doing here? Go back home. We don't need
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  Speaker 1: a bunch of spies parading as college students. But now
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  Speaker 1: you're talking, I mean, think about it. We know they're
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  Speaker 1: trying to get into our military bases. They are in
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  Speaker 1: our power grid with transformers that osensibly have a back
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  Speaker 1: door that allows them to just shut us down communications
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  Speaker 1: duh meds. We saw that during COVID prescription meds coming
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  Speaker 1: from China that puts our national security at risk because
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  Speaker 1: of health issues in med devices now, so I'm grateful
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  Speaker 1: we've got a good relationship with the Attorney General and
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  Speaker 1: grateful that he joined us here this morning. In the
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  Speaker 1: Morning Show with Preston Scott, I stood STI