Latest / Rich Valdés: This is America! / Bombshells, Blagojevich, Bureaucracy

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Bombshells, Blagojevich, Bureaucracy · Rich Valdés: This is America!

0:07
Speaker 1: This is America with Rich Valdez, powered by politiweek.com.
0:12
Speaker 2: And Rich Valdez is with us, former Christie administration official.
0:14
Speaker 2: You work for Chris Christie, you've been in politics, a
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Speaker 2: lot of public service stuff.
0:18
Speaker 3: Rich Valdez, communist now with the Washington Times.
0:20
Speaker 1: This is America.
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Speaker 4: Richie V, you're on the air with The Nation.
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Speaker 1: This is America with your host, Rich Valdez.
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Speaker 3: What's up, America? I am Rich Valdez. Valdez with an
0:31
Speaker 3: S at Rich Valdez on all of the social media.
0:34
Speaker 3: Welcome to the Friday night edition of the program. Happy
0:38
Speaker 3: to be here. Blessed and happy to be here. Welcome
0:41
Speaker 3: to the program. And I want to get into a
0:43
Speaker 3: couple of things. Of course, if you want to join me,
0:45
Speaker 3: you know the phone number, 877-VALDEZ-1, 877-VALDEZ-1. Check this out.
0:47
Speaker 3: So Ilhan Omar's name... by birth is not Ilhan Omar.
0:57
Speaker 3: Apparently her name is Ilhan Nur Saeed Elmi. At least
1:03
Speaker 3: this is the name that we're currently working with. Uh,
1:06
Speaker 3: it's the same name as her husband, her first husband,
1:10
Speaker 3: which they say was a religious marriage that was performed
1:13
Speaker 3: in Kenya when she was in a refugee camp fleeing Somalia,
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Speaker 3: where her dad was allegedly a Marxist Leninist, um, military leader. So,
1:26
Speaker 3: her and her husband, they come to the United States,
1:29
Speaker 3: and they both have this name of Noor Saeed Elmi. So,
1:33
Speaker 3: she's Ilhan Noor Saeed Elmi, and he is Ahmed Noor
1:39
Speaker 3: Saeed Elmi. Okay, got it. Now, there's some controversy and
1:45
Speaker 3: some questions about how legit is that? Is this a
1:48
Speaker 3: real thing? Did they just meet at a Kenyan refugee
1:51
Speaker 3: camp filled with Somalians and apply as a family or
1:55
Speaker 3: as a married couple to come to get their respective visas,
2:00
Speaker 3: green cards, and citizenship so that then she could later
2:04
Speaker 3: be a member of Congress and do what she wants
2:06
Speaker 3: pursuing the American dream. To add insult to injury, we
2:11
Speaker 3: don't know the status of what goes on with her
2:13
Speaker 3: dad because, like my dad, her dad has passed away.
2:16
Speaker 3: So the government is asking these questions as part of
2:21
Speaker 3: an investigation where no charges have been filed.
2:24
Speaker 1: Right.
2:24
Speaker 3: This is something the Biden administration started. And I don't
2:27
Speaker 3: know if they ended it, but they didn't do anything
2:29
Speaker 3: with it. The Trump people picked up and this is
2:32
Speaker 3: where they are. Will there be an indictment? Will there
2:36
Speaker 3: be any of that? I don't know. Again, my gut,
2:37
Speaker 3: as you've heard me say many, many times, I don't
2:40
Speaker 3: believe anything will come of this. But it doesn't mean
2:44
Speaker 3: that the truth won't come out. And that if there
2:47
Speaker 3: was some sort of fraud because it was commonplace for
2:49
Speaker 3: Somalians to pretend to know each other or to pretend
2:52
Speaker 3: to be a family in order to gain citizenship as
2:55
Speaker 3: it is today, then understood. And listen, there are cases
3:00
Speaker 3: just today and yesterday that I saw where people, federal
3:03
Speaker 3: officials are prosecuting people for arranging marriages and to the
3:07
Speaker 3: tune of, you know, $ 30, 000 and $ 40, 000 to marry somebody
3:10
Speaker 3: just to give them citizenship. So, Where does that leave
3:15
Speaker 3: us with Ilhan Omar? The answer is I don't know.
3:18
Speaker 3: But I can tell you that the feds typically might
3:23
Speaker 3: apply pressure to see if you'll react. And then they'll
3:27
Speaker 3: ask you some questions to see if you'll lie against
3:30
Speaker 3: things they already know the truth to. But typically, once
3:33
Speaker 3: they have a case, they have a case and they
3:35
Speaker 3: swoop in and they go for the kill. The feds
3:38
Speaker 3: love to keep that 99%, 98% conviction rate that they have.
3:45
Speaker 3: So I'm led to believe that if anybody, and these
3:48
Speaker 3: are people I like, you know, in Todd Blanche, Jeanine Pirro,
3:52
Speaker 3: anybody in the FBI and the Department of Justice that's
3:55
Speaker 3: involved in this, that if they actually had any case,
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Speaker 3: it would have happened. The only maybe is that they're
4:03
Speaker 3: waiting for the actual election to pass just so that
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Speaker 3: they can say they didn't interfere in the election, which
4:10
Speaker 3: is a very common Department of Justice protocol. So I
4:16
Speaker 3: don't know, right? They don't want to make it look
4:19
Speaker 3: like we are weaponizing the government against you. They want
4:22
Speaker 3: to make it look like, look, you had your chance.
4:24
Speaker 3: We let you have your election. Now, here's the reckoning. Now,
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Speaker 3: will it happen? No, I'm not saying she has any
4:30
Speaker 3: protection as a member of Congress. That's not what I'm saying.
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Speaker 3: I'm just saying, I just don't think it's going to happen.
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Speaker 3: Not because she's a member of Congress, just because she's
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Speaker 3: very high profile and it would likely lead to her
4:43
Speaker 3: having more, uh, more gravitas with the claim that she's
4:47
Speaker 3: being hunted politically than otherwise. Now, I could be wrong.
4:51
Speaker 3: I've been wrong before. I'm just giving you my thoughts
4:53
Speaker 3: on this. But I'm curious to know what your thoughts are. 877-VAL-DES-1. Now,
5:00
Speaker 3: if Ilhan Omar would get locked up, she wouldn't be
5:02
Speaker 3: the first politician to get locked up. Of course, they
5:04
Speaker 3: tried to lock up El Trampitos and all this madness,
5:06
Speaker 3: the 45th and 47th president of these United States. Remember that?
5:09
Speaker 3: I remember that. They had 30-some-odd counts. They wanted to
5:13
Speaker 3: give him four consecutive 100-year sentences, so 400 years in jail.
5:18
Speaker 3: I remember that like yesterday. So, and again, he's not
5:22
Speaker 3: the only one that was arrested. I remember a sitting
5:24
Speaker 3: governor getting arrested, Rod Blagojevich. Remember that? They said he
5:28
Speaker 3: was selling Obama's seat. Turned out, after doing eight years
5:31
Speaker 3: in jail, he went to the appellate court and they said, yeah,
5:34
Speaker 3: you know what? Turns out you didn't do anything illegal.
5:37
Speaker 3: And Trump ended up pardoning him. So, He just got
5:41
Speaker 3: a raw deal. But Rod Blagojevich is somebody that I've
5:45
Speaker 3: had on the show before. After I met him, I
5:47
Speaker 3: met him at a Trump rally in Madison Square Garden.
5:52
Speaker 3: And now Ambassador Sergio Gord, back then, he was part
5:58
Speaker 3: of the Trump campaign. And he invited myself and a
6:02
Speaker 3: few others to a suite at the Madison Square Garden
6:06
Speaker 3: Trump rally. It was fantastic. I had a great time.
6:08
Speaker 3: Big shout out to Mr. Ambassador, His Excellency. And I
6:12
Speaker 3: met Governor Blagojevich. And what a nice guy. What a
6:16
Speaker 3: humble guy. What a funny guy. And we clicked. We
6:21
Speaker 3: got along well. And I had him on the radio
6:23
Speaker 3: show when I met him. And I said, when your
6:25
Speaker 3: book comes out, I'm going to have you back on.
6:27
Speaker 3: So I'm happy to say we're going to have Governor
6:29
Speaker 3: Rod Blagojevich joining us momentarily to talk about his book.
6:32
Speaker 3: And the book's not even out yet. So I'm honored
6:35
Speaker 3: and humbled that he chose our program and this audience,
6:37
Speaker 3: you specifically, that's listening to this, He wants to reach
6:40
Speaker 3: you with this story, so pay attention because it's a
6:42
Speaker 3: really interesting message of wherewithal and having perseverance and ultimately transformation.
6:49
Speaker 3: And the book, get this, it's called Framed Eft, as
6:56
Speaker 3: in the past tense of the F word, and Freed.
7:00
Speaker 3: Framed Eft and Freed by Governor Rod Blagojevich. I can't
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Speaker 3: wait to have this conversation again. And if you're as
7:08
Speaker 3: interested in it as me, keep it locked right here
7:10
Speaker 3: because we're coming right back with Governor Rod Blagojevich.
7:13
Speaker 1: This is America.
7:24
Speaker 3: Welcome back, America. As promised, I have a guest for
7:26
Speaker 3: us and just a little background. I was hanging out
7:29
Speaker 3: in Madison Square Garden in one of the suites at
7:31
Speaker 3: President Trump's rally. I bump into so many cool people
7:35
Speaker 3: in there. One of them, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. And
7:38
Speaker 3: my question to him was, hey, didn't Barack Obama do
7:41
Speaker 3: you dirty and get you thrown into jail and do
7:43
Speaker 3: some stuff? And he said, hell effing yeah, he did.
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Speaker 3: So we had a great conversation. I brought him on
7:49
Speaker 3: the radio show and I promised him when the book
7:51
Speaker 3: came out, we would be bringing him on for the book.
7:53
Speaker 3: The book is out. It's called Framed, F'd and Freed.
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Speaker 3: You can say whatever you want. We'll bleep it out.
8:00
Speaker 3: But Governor, welcome to the program.
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Speaker 2: Well, thanks for having me, Rich. It's nice to see
8:03
Speaker 2: you again.
8:04
Speaker 3: Yeah, likewise. So, you know, Governor, last time you told
8:07
Speaker 3: us a little bit about this story. I mean, the
8:08
Speaker 3: whole the whole experience. I want you to remind people
8:12
Speaker 3: what that story was like and what really went into
8:15
Speaker 3: writing this book and honestly, why you picked this name.
8:18
Speaker 3: It's a great name.
8:20
Speaker 2: Well, I picked the name. I was actually joking with
8:22
Speaker 2: the publisher and I said, hey, look, I like to
8:24
Speaker 2: call it framed up and freed because that's the story.
8:27
Speaker 2: I was framed by weaponized, corrupt prosecutors who took legal
8:30
Speaker 2: conversations that Obama started with me and turned them into
8:34
Speaker 2: crimes only against me. So Obama goes to the White
8:36
Speaker 2: House for eight years and I go to the big
8:38
Speaker 2: house for eight years. Would have been 14, but President
8:41
Speaker 2: Trump intervened and pulled me out of there. But the
8:43
Speaker 2: book is a story that starts with one President Obama
8:46
Speaker 2: because he started the whole thing. Ends with another president,
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Speaker 2: President Trump, who ended the whole thing. And in prison
8:51
Speaker 2: for the 2,896 days that I was compelled to be there,
8:54
Speaker 2: one month short of eight years, is a governor, me,
8:57
Speaker 2: in prison with gangster disciples, Crips and Bloods, Sinaloa cartel
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Speaker 2: drug dealers who look up to the drug lord El
9:04
Speaker 2: Chapo like my daughters look up to Taylor Swift. There
9:06
Speaker 2: were men there who committed murder. There were 400 or
9:10
Speaker 2: 450 sex offenders, over 950 guys, 2% white collar, one governor, me.
9:15
Speaker 2: I went from having access to a 50,000 square foot
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Speaker 2: governor's mansion and ended up living for three years in
9:21
Speaker 2: a six foot by eight foot prison cell before I
9:23
Speaker 2: got transferred to an easier place to do the rest
9:26
Speaker 2: of the time that I had to do in that
9:28
Speaker 2: prison cell. And where I lived for the first three
9:30
Speaker 2: years was just like prison in the movies. You know,
9:32
Speaker 2: they have barbed wire fences that you're inside of. They're
9:36
Speaker 2: prison guards with machine guns on the edges of those fences.
9:38
Speaker 2: And if you go near the fence, Rich, they have
9:40
Speaker 2: the discretion to shoot you. I didn't go near the fence.
9:45
Speaker 2: I tell all kinds of stories about what it was
9:47
Speaker 2: like to be a governor in there with those guys.
9:49
Speaker 2: And I met a lot of guys. I think most
9:52
Speaker 2: of them were guilty of the crimes they committed. I
9:54
Speaker 2: think too many of them were over-sentenced. I learned a
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Speaker 2: lot about the criminal justice system, how broken it is,
10:00
Speaker 2: how it's been weaponized and now injecting itself into the
10:03
Speaker 2: political process. They did it to a Democrat governor at
10:06
Speaker 2: the AAA level, got away with it. And some of
10:08
Speaker 2: the same people, Comey, Fitzgerald, Mueller, did it to President
10:11
Speaker 2: Trump later on at the major league level. This is
10:13
Speaker 2: a great threat to our democracy. I would say the
10:16
Speaker 2: greatest constitutional crisis in American history since the Civil War.
10:20
Speaker 2: And then all kinds of prison stories, like my band
10:23
Speaker 2: in prison called G. Rod of the Jailhouse Rockers. I
10:25
Speaker 2: can sing every word of the five verses of Jailhouse Rock.
10:29
Speaker 2: And I never knew the drummer boy from Illinois when
10:31
Speaker 2: Crash Boom Bang that he was actually from Illinois till
10:34
Speaker 2: I really delved into that Elvis song and listened to
10:37
Speaker 2: it more closely.
10:39
Speaker 3: You know, Governor, you know, just to put this in
10:41
Speaker 3: perspective for people listening, you're an amazing storyteller. You were
10:45
Speaker 3: a politician, a very successful politician, became governor and and.
10:50
Speaker 3: And I think people watching this are like, wow, that's
10:51
Speaker 3: a fascinating story. But for me, I get stuck on
10:55
Speaker 3: the reality of you're a white collar guy that was
10:58
Speaker 3: the governor. Like you said, living in the governor's. I
11:01
Speaker 3: know plenty of politicians. They're not cut out for jail.
11:06
Speaker 3: You got sent to jail and maybe your charm and
11:08
Speaker 3: your charisma as a politician got you through. But I
11:11
Speaker 3: know that jail is not an easy or fun place
11:14
Speaker 3: to be.
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Speaker 2: Look, the whole experience, the odyssey, you know, my book
11:19
Speaker 2: is framed after Frieda Governor's odyssey. It was a miserable odyssey.
11:23
Speaker 2: Let's face it. The whole experience was terrible. I mean,
11:26
Speaker 2: and the time in prison was not easy. But, you know,
11:28
Speaker 2: I learned a lot of lessons about that. In the
11:30
Speaker 2: last chapter of the book, the 23rd chapter, I talk
11:32
Speaker 2: about what I learned. But let me just say this
11:34
Speaker 2: to your listeners out there and your viewers. I know
11:38
Speaker 2: my family and I went through hard times, but there
11:41
Speaker 2: are so many people. We have it so much worse
11:43
Speaker 2: than us. So many people have had it worse than us.
11:45
Speaker 2: I can't even imagine the unimaginable what it must be
11:48
Speaker 2: like for a family who lose parents, who lose a
11:52
Speaker 2: child or a police officer who's shot in the line
11:54
Speaker 2: of duty. We just had a fundraiser for one here
11:56
Speaker 2: in Chicago. The police officers paralyzed from the waist down
12:00
Speaker 2: and he has a young family. Families like that have
12:03
Speaker 2: gone through a thousand times worse. greater hardship than my
12:06
Speaker 2: family and I. Having said that, that wasn't easy either.
12:10
Speaker 2: And I like to think that my book can not
12:12
Speaker 2: just tell stories. And a lot of them I think are,
12:14
Speaker 2: I like to think they're funny, you know, like a
12:16
Speaker 2: governor in prison singing before a bunch of gangbangers all
12:19
Speaker 2: tanked up wearing caps and gowns for their GED graduation.
12:23
Speaker 2: And I'm up there singing, you know, Elvis songs. But
12:27
Speaker 2: I like to hope and think that the book can
12:29
Speaker 2: be helpful to people who are facing their difficulties because
12:32
Speaker 2: I share with them, the reader, what would help me
12:35
Speaker 2: And above all, it was my faith in God because
12:37
Speaker 2: I got to tell you, Rich, I consider myself kind
12:39
Speaker 2: of a badass in many ways because I would never
12:41
Speaker 2: give up to those, give in to those corrupt prosecutors.
12:43
Speaker 2: I was calling them crooks. I still do. And I'm
12:45
Speaker 2: still trying to chase them in some way. And if
12:47
Speaker 2: anybody's listening, like President Trump or Todd Blanch, the attorney general,
12:52
Speaker 2: let's take a look at holding these people accountable, not
12:54
Speaker 2: just the ones who do it to me, but have
12:56
Speaker 2: done it to other people because they're going to destroy
12:58
Speaker 2: our freedoms because they're supposed to protect the rule of
13:01
Speaker 2: law and not abuse the rule of law. But the hope, Rich,
13:05
Speaker 2: is this. People can read the book, and they can
13:08
Speaker 2: get something out of it that can help them through
13:10
Speaker 2: their tough times. And for me, faith in God, faith, hope,
13:13
Speaker 2: and love got me home. Gratitude changes attitude, recognizing the
13:17
Speaker 2: things you have in your life, even when almost everything
13:20
Speaker 2: has been taken away from you, because I sure had
13:22
Speaker 2: a lot of that. And then other people who've gone
13:24
Speaker 2: through hard times, who've gotten through it, and then it
13:26
Speaker 2: was a catalyst for a comeback later on in life.
13:29
Speaker 2: And so the book does a lot of stuff, tells
13:32
Speaker 2: all kinds of different stories. And you got Trump in
13:35
Speaker 2: the book. You got Obama in the book. You got Pritzker,
13:37
Speaker 2: our governor here in Illinois, is running for president. He's
13:39
Speaker 2: in the book. Rahm Emanuel, running for president. He's in
13:42
Speaker 2: the book. And so is Socks and Smelly and Stinky
13:45
Speaker 2: and Sharky and Hollywood and G and V and Mr.
13:48
Speaker 2: B and all these characters that I did time with.
13:52
Speaker 3: Unbelievable. Amigos, the book is called Framed, F'd and Freed by...
13:58
Speaker 3: Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, infamously known in the news
14:03
Speaker 3: as Blago when this was going on. Now, Gov, talk
14:05
Speaker 3: to me about when that went down. And we talked
14:07
Speaker 3: about it last time, but I want you to really
14:09
Speaker 3: just give people a sense. You're large and in charge.
14:11
Speaker 3: You were a relatively popular governor. All of a sudden,
14:14
Speaker 3: they're saying that you were trying to sell Obama's seat
14:17
Speaker 3: to the highest bidder, another corrupt Democrat. And it takes
14:22
Speaker 3: off in a direction many didn't think it would because
14:24
Speaker 3: it wasn't Republicans that were trying to put you in jail,
14:26
Speaker 3: was it? It was the Democrats.
14:28
Speaker 2: Well, it was a combination, actually. Prosecutors were appointed by Bush,
14:32
Speaker 2: so they were Republican prosecutors, but they found common cause
14:35
Speaker 2: with the Democratic Party in Illinois that I was fighting with.
14:38
Speaker 2: I was a Democratic governor, first one elected in 26 years,
14:40
Speaker 2: but I wouldn't play ball with the old establishment. It
14:43
Speaker 2: was really the deep state of Illinois is what I
14:45
Speaker 2: took on because I was moving the money around. I
14:47
Speaker 2: had all this power as governor. The Illinois Constitution gives
14:51
Speaker 2: a governor a lot of power, and I was up
14:52
Speaker 2: against powerful entrenched interests that were doing business for 40
14:56
Speaker 2: years a certain way. I discovered all this money that's
14:58
Speaker 2: been hidden from the people. They wanted me as a
15:01
Speaker 2: Democrat to raise taxes on the people. I wouldn't do it.
15:04
Speaker 2: And among the reasons why I wouldn't do it was
15:06
Speaker 2: there was all this other money there that why don't
15:08
Speaker 2: we just use that to give every child health care?
15:10
Speaker 2: Why don't we use that to give working families access
15:13
Speaker 2: to affordable health care and take it away from those
15:15
Speaker 2: insiders who benefit from it? And I did that for
15:18
Speaker 2: six years, fought hard and was able to achieve that.
15:21
Speaker 2: Every child got health care in Illinois. Starting in 2005,
15:24
Speaker 2: not Medicare for all health care, but a combination of
15:26
Speaker 2: private sector health care with the help of the government
15:29
Speaker 2: to help families who couldn't otherwise afford it to get it.
15:32
Speaker 2: And so you make enemies when you do that, Rich.
15:35
Speaker 2: It's about money and you're moving it around. I'm moving
15:37
Speaker 2: around $ 53 billion. It's the kind of power I have.
15:40
Speaker 2: Think about that. And I didn't want more from the people.
15:43
Speaker 2: I wanted less from the people. I was hoping to
15:45
Speaker 2: actually cut some taxes, but then they came and arrested me.
15:48
Speaker 2: And that's how it started. I went to bed on
15:50
Speaker 2: the night of December 8th, 2008. I had made a
15:53
Speaker 2: decision and took a step towards choosing a United States Senator.
15:57
Speaker 2: It was going to be part of a deal that
15:59
Speaker 2: would have provided access to affordable health care to the 1.2
16:02
Speaker 2: million Illinoisans who still didn't have it. A big public
16:05
Speaker 2: works bill that would build highways, schools, hospitals, create thousands
16:11
Speaker 2: of jobs, tens of thousands of jobs, and a written
16:13
Speaker 2: promise by the legislative bosses that No tax increase on
16:17
Speaker 2: the people of Illinois. Then I was going to hold
16:19
Speaker 2: my nose and make the Attorney General of Illinois, who
16:20
Speaker 2: was a political rival of mine. Her father was my
16:23
Speaker 2: biggest political enemy. He was the powerful boss who controlled
16:26
Speaker 2: the Democratic Party. I'd make her senator. And then they
16:29
Speaker 2: arrested me the next morning. They didn't wait for business hours.
16:32
Speaker 2: They came and got me at 6 o'clock in the morning.
16:34
Speaker 2: And with a 24-member SWAT team around my house. Think
16:37
Speaker 2: about this, Rich. This is the United States of America.
16:40
Speaker 2: This isn't the Soviet Union. I'm not in Moscow. And
16:43
Speaker 2: the KGB is not... shouldn't be coming to my house
16:45
Speaker 2: but that's exactly what they did for the sitting governor
16:48
Speaker 2: of the fifth largest state in america and when they
16:51
Speaker 2: got away with doing that they went right after president
16:54
Speaker 2: trump years later.
16:55
Speaker 3: Now let's talk about that because again i'm oblivious to
16:58
Speaker 3: this but when you're the governor i know you get
17:00
Speaker 3: state police bodyguards were you in your private home or
17:03
Speaker 3: were you in the governor's mansion do they call them
17:04
Speaker 3: and say hey guys we're coming to arrest your boss
17:07
Speaker 3: how does that work yeah Right.
17:09
Speaker 2: I'm laughing because it's never been done before, you know,
17:12
Speaker 2: until they started doing some of the same stuff to Trump.
17:14
Speaker 2: It was me first. But no, you're sound asleep. I
17:18
Speaker 2: set the alarm clock for six o'clock in the morning.
17:19
Speaker 2: I'll never forget that fateful morning because I was going
17:22
Speaker 2: to go running that day. I was an athletic, physically
17:24
Speaker 2: fed governor, unlike the current Governor Pritzker, who was like
17:27
Speaker 2: 400 pounds. He's not. He's doing Ozepic, which is good. Yeah, yeah.
17:32
Speaker 3: He looks like he's lost some weight.
17:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's trimmed down. He's in the book, by the way,
17:35
Speaker 2: and I talk about the first time I ever had
17:36
Speaker 2: lunch with him and how I asked him for a
17:38
Speaker 2: campaign contribution, which he gave me, and how he asked
17:41
Speaker 2: me for the other half of my pastrami sandwich, which
17:43
Speaker 2: I gave him. But true story, 1995. But anyway, the
17:50
Speaker 2: phone rings at 6 o'clock in the morning. The alarm
17:51
Speaker 2: clock went off at 6 because I had my running
17:53
Speaker 2: clothes out there. It was cold. I'm going to go run.
17:55
Speaker 2: And I hit the buzz thing and said, ah, five
17:58
Speaker 2: more minutes before I have to roll out of bed
18:00
Speaker 2: and start getting psyched up to go brave the cold
18:03
Speaker 2: and go run in that darkness in the morning, early morning.
18:07
Speaker 2: And then in between that, the phone rang. And that
18:10
Speaker 2: was back when telephones were telephones, not iPhones. And so
18:14
Speaker 2: I went, got out of bed and went to the
18:16
Speaker 2: phone across town. on a dresser across from the bed,
18:20
Speaker 2: and answered the phone. And I was in a sleepy haze.
18:21
Speaker 2: And the guy on the phone says, this is FBI
18:23
Speaker 2: agent so-and-so. We're at your front door, Governor. Come on down.
18:27
Speaker 2: We have a warrant for you to rest. And I said, huh, what?
18:30
Speaker 2: I was trying to wake up still. And the guy
18:31
Speaker 2: said it again. And then I said, come on, Jimmy.
18:37
Speaker 2: Don't F around. It's 6 o'clock in the morning. I
18:40
Speaker 2: thought it was State Senator Jimmy DeLeo, a friend of mine,
18:42
Speaker 2: playing a practical joke on me, the Governor. The guy said,
18:46
Speaker 2: hold on a second. Then he handed the phone to
18:49
Speaker 2: one of my security details because I'm the governor. I
18:51
Speaker 2: have a security detail with me. And he said, no,
18:53
Speaker 2: this is very real. And so I went down, let
18:55
Speaker 2: him in. And I read all about that in detail
18:57
Speaker 2: in the book. But, you know, I had this thought, Rich,
19:00
Speaker 2: because I was the governor and I did have the
19:02
Speaker 2: state police with me. I also was the commander in
19:04
Speaker 2: chief of the National Guard. What would have happened if
19:07
Speaker 2: I called out the militia? And we had a confrontation,
19:11
Speaker 2: you know, the state militia and the federal prosecutors and
19:14
Speaker 2: the SWAT teams, 24 members of them, in front of
19:16
Speaker 2: my house. Now, you know, I had that fleeting thought,
19:19
Speaker 2: but I didn't do that. That would have been a
19:20
Speaker 2: terrible thing to do. Just imagine where the story would
19:23
Speaker 2: have gone had I done that.
19:25
Speaker 3: It's a series of books at that point and a movie.
19:28
Speaker 2: I would say.
19:30
Speaker 3: That's wild. So you go, they don't drag you to
19:32
Speaker 3: the floor or anything. Were the cameras with CNN luckily
19:36
Speaker 3: there to get everything?
19:38
Speaker 2: You know, the media wasn't there yet, but here's what
19:41
Speaker 2: they did. They came in the house. Thank goodness our daughters,
19:44
Speaker 2: they were little then. you know our little Annie was
19:47
Speaker 2: five years old and she was in bed with us
19:48
Speaker 2: that night sometimes she'd crawl into bed with my wife
19:50
Speaker 2: and me so she was in bed they charged up
19:52
Speaker 2: the stairs into my bedroom I was already in the
19:55
Speaker 2: running clothes and then the FBI agent saw the little
20:00
Speaker 2: girl in bed and he got quiet I'll give him
20:03
Speaker 2: credit for that and then I said to him you
20:05
Speaker 2: know please don't wake her up you know I'm cooperating
20:09
Speaker 2: I'll go down, we'll go downstairs, let's get out of here.
20:11
Speaker 2: Because I know they were coming to arrest me. I
20:13
Speaker 2: didn't want my daughters to wake up and see that,
20:15
Speaker 2: you know.
20:15
Speaker 3: Yeah, who brought back?
20:17
Speaker 2: Right. So fortunately, they didn't hear it. And, you know,
20:21
Speaker 2: 20 minutes, 15 minutes after they, you know, rang my doorbell,
20:26
Speaker 2: made the phone call, they let me out of my
20:28
Speaker 2: home with handcuffs behind my back, right?
20:30
Speaker 5: Again, you know.
20:31
Speaker 3: Is this your private home or the governor's mansion?
20:34
Speaker 2: Oh, no, my private home. It was our home in Chicago.
20:38
Speaker 3: Your neighbors that you know are all watching this.
20:43
Speaker 2: Man, that just began years of helicopters around the house
20:46
Speaker 2: and media trucks all over the place. I mean, you know,
20:49
Speaker 2: later that day when I got my eye bond, individual recognizance,
20:52
Speaker 2: the magistrate let me go home, trusting I wouldn't run away, right?
20:55
Speaker 2: Because they could have kept me locked up. I came
20:58
Speaker 2: home to a shit storm. You'd probably want to block
21:00
Speaker 2: that off. to media. I mean, had media trucks all
21:05
Speaker 2: over the place in this regular neighborhood where everyday ordinary
21:07
Speaker 2: people live like me. And even a Japanese television truck
21:11
Speaker 2: was down at the end of the street and Israeli
21:14
Speaker 2: news was here because it was an international story, Rich.
21:16
Speaker 2: You have to remember, this was any old president's Senate seat.
21:19
Speaker 2: This was Barack Obama's Senate seat. At the time, he'd
21:22
Speaker 2: been elevated as this larger-than-life demigod. And, you know, Bernie
21:27
Speaker 2: Madoff was arrested a day or two after that. And
21:30
Speaker 2: at that time, the two of us were portrayed as
21:32
Speaker 2: the two biggest a-holes in the world. Now he might've been,
21:37
Speaker 2: it looks like he very well may have been, but
21:39
Speaker 2: I wasn't. And that's, was the beginning of the story
21:42
Speaker 2: that I write about in the book. And, um, You know,
21:46
Speaker 2: the centerpiece of their case was I was trying to
21:49
Speaker 2: sell Obama's Senate seat. That was a big lie. Winston
21:51
Speaker 2: Churchill said a lie could travel halfway around the world
21:53
Speaker 2: before the truth has a chance to put its pants on.
21:56
Speaker 2: Years into prison, the appellate court ruled I was right.
21:58
Speaker 2: They were wrong. It was never anything illegal about that.
22:02
Speaker 2: We were talking about a political deal. Obama started it.
22:04
Speaker 2: He wanted to make the deal. He sent someone to
22:06
Speaker 2: me to negotiate the deal. And he goes to the
22:09
Speaker 2: White House. I go to the big house. And, you know,
22:12
Speaker 2: I've come a long way in terms of getting the
22:13
Speaker 2: truth out, Rich, but Those pants that Churchill talks about,
22:16
Speaker 2: they're up about my knees right now. I still got
22:19
Speaker 2: to get them all the way up because the whole
22:20
Speaker 2: truth is still yet to be heard.
22:23
Speaker 3: Amazing. Amigos, we're on with Governor Rod Blagojevich. He went
22:27
Speaker 3: to jail for making a deal with Obama. I could
22:30
Speaker 3: have warned him about that. But we're going to talk
22:32
Speaker 3: about what jail was really like. I make jokes, but
22:35
Speaker 3: eight years in the big house is nothing to laugh at.
22:38
Speaker 3: And we're going to talk about what that was like,
22:39
Speaker 3: what the impact was like on your life then, and
22:42
Speaker 3: what it's been on your life since when we return.
22:45
Speaker 3: Don't go anywhere. It's Rich Valdez.
22:47
Speaker 1: This is America. This is America.
23:11
Speaker 3: President Donald J.
23:12
Speaker 2: Trump, Mr.
23:12
Speaker 3: President, welcome to the program, sir.
23:15
Speaker 1: Well, thank you, Rich, and thank you for everything.
23:17
Speaker 2: I know you very well, and I listen, but I
23:20
Speaker 2: have a lot of people that listen, and they love
23:22
Speaker 2: your show, and I appreciate it very much.
23:25
Speaker 3: All right, America, welcome back. Rich Valdez here with Governor
23:27
Speaker 3: Rod Blagojevich. He's the author of Framed, F'd as in
23:31
Speaker 3: the F word, and Freed. That's his new book. It's
23:35
Speaker 3: somewhat of a memoir talking about his story of getting
23:38
Speaker 3: framed by the Democrats in Illinois, Barack Obama et al.,
23:43
Speaker 3: and his story of redemption thereof since then. And Governor,
23:49
Speaker 3: we left off with you telling us about the raid
23:52
Speaker 3: on your home and how they took you into custody.
23:55
Speaker 3: Let's pick up with what it's like now. You're in
23:58
Speaker 3: jail and you're the governor. So just like going to
24:01
Speaker 3: the supermarket, I'm sure– I heckle my governor when he
24:04
Speaker 3: comes by my house in a parade. I'm like, what's
24:06
Speaker 3: up with those taxes? Come on. So I can only
24:08
Speaker 3: imagine what happens when you're in the big house.
24:11
Speaker 2: Well, you know what? It's interesting. That's a great question.
24:13
Speaker 2: And again, this is– I read about this in detail
24:15
Speaker 2: in the book. So you know what? I fought hard
24:19
Speaker 2: and they didn't convict me on their fake charges the
24:21
Speaker 2: first time around. They tried me a second time, used
24:23
Speaker 2: unlawful standards for their convictions. Ultimately, the Supreme Court or
24:26
Speaker 2: the Pelecourt ruled no sale to the Senate seat, a
24:28
Speaker 2: big lie. But they got me on three fundraising requests
24:31
Speaker 2: that were legal. They moved the line and used an
24:33
Speaker 2: unlawful standard to criminalize legal stuff, a lot like what
24:37
Speaker 2: they would do to Trump later on. And I had
24:40
Speaker 2: met Trump. He had had me on his television show,
24:42
Speaker 2: Celebrity Apprentice. This is the strange thing. This whole story
24:44
Speaker 2: really is, I believe, something larger than, you know, free
24:49
Speaker 2: will by individuals. I think God has a plan because
24:53
Speaker 2: my life intersected with Donald Trump's in the weirdest way.
24:56
Speaker 2: He saw me on TV fighting back and he liked
24:57
Speaker 2: my style. And so he has me on his show,
25:00
Speaker 2: Celebrity Punished, a show I never watched because I was
25:02
Speaker 2: busy being governor. Eventually, and he was so kind to
25:04
Speaker 2: me on that show. I read about that in the book,
25:07
Speaker 2: whole chapter on his show. And then, you know, I
25:10
Speaker 2: get fired in a real good way. You got a
25:11
Speaker 2: lot of guts, he says, Rod, but Rod, you're fired.
25:14
Speaker 3: Nobody fired people like Trump. He would make you feel
25:17
Speaker 3: like a rock star when he fired you. He had
25:18
Speaker 3: such eloquence in doing it. I was a big fan
25:21
Speaker 3: of the show.
25:22
Speaker 2: Rich, the New York accent, you know, just like you,
25:24
Speaker 2: you're fired.
25:27
Speaker 3: This is our COVID-19.
25:30
Speaker 2: 2009, Rich, never in my wildest dreams do I think
25:31
Speaker 2: Trump's ever going to be the president eight years later, right?
25:35
Speaker 2: And that I'd be in prison, and he'd be my
25:37
Speaker 2: last line of defense, and he'd actually be the one
25:39
Speaker 2: to pull me out of there. I talk about that
25:41
Speaker 2: a lot in the book, but... When I walked into prison,
25:45
Speaker 2: and I didn't know this until I got home. I
25:47
Speaker 2: wish I'd have known it when I was walking in.
25:49
Speaker 2: But I knew that they were filming me, and I
25:52
Speaker 2: knew that I was on live television. When I'm walking
25:54
Speaker 2: into prison to serve 14 years in prison, I'm laughing.
25:57
Speaker 2: I shouldn't laugh. It was a miserable thing to have
26:00
Speaker 2: to do. But I learned when I got home eight
26:04
Speaker 2: years later that Trump had tweeted. He was watching it himself.
26:07
Speaker 2: And he was saying how wrong this was. You know,
26:09
Speaker 2: God bless him. He's been like, he's had my back
26:11
Speaker 2: the whole way. What a great guy Trump is. I
26:14
Speaker 2: talk about that in the book, too, on a personal level,
26:16
Speaker 2: where there are no cameras, the kind of guy that
26:18
Speaker 2: he is. But anyway, I walk into prison. Here's what happened. Yeah,
26:23
Speaker 2: like you'd see me at a parade. Maybe you're a citizen.
26:25
Speaker 2: You're angry at the governor. You might give me an FU,
26:27
Speaker 2: which I would hear from time to time when I
26:29
Speaker 2: was governor. That was not unusual. But when I walked
26:31
Speaker 2: into that prison with all those gangbangers and bank robbers,
26:34
Speaker 2: a few guys that were murderers and criminals, I was embraced.
26:39
Speaker 2: And I was embraced for two reasons. First, they're watching
26:42
Speaker 2: me come into their world on live television. Most of
26:45
Speaker 2: the other inmates, none of them come in like that.
26:47
Speaker 2: But far more important than that, I had a 14-year sentence.
26:51
Speaker 2: And that told them what, Rich? It told them this
26:54
Speaker 2: guy didn't snitch on anybody. And their mantra in prison
26:57
Speaker 2: is snitches are bitches who get stitches. And in that world,
27:02
Speaker 2: if you don't snitch on anybody and you got a
27:04
Speaker 2: long sentence, as bad as it is to have that,
27:07
Speaker 2: you've got total street cred in that world. And they
27:09
Speaker 2: embrace you. If you got a light sentence, you're immediately
27:13
Speaker 2: suspected of being someone who sold somebody else out to
27:16
Speaker 2: save his own ass. And I didn't have that problem
27:20
Speaker 2: because I didn't do that to anybody. And I did
27:22
Speaker 2: have that 14-year sentence. So when I got there, almost
27:25
Speaker 2: all of them embraced me. And for most of my
27:29
Speaker 2: eight years, almost all of them were really good to me,
27:33
Speaker 2: treated me very well.
27:35
Speaker 3: Let's talk about that. I'm sure there's a lot of
27:36
Speaker 3: funny stories, anecdotes, things you write about in the book.
27:39
Speaker 3: And the two main things I want to take away
27:41
Speaker 3: are something you shared with me personally when we were
27:43
Speaker 3: in the suite at Madison Square Garden was a how
27:47
Speaker 3: insane it was of an experience, but be what it
27:50
Speaker 3: did to you as a person. So let's start with
27:52
Speaker 3: the insanity of it and work our way through.
27:56
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, how insane is this? You know, I
27:58
Speaker 2: was once the governor of Illinois and believe it or not,
28:01
Speaker 2: and I'll.
28:01
Speaker 3: Swear on the while you were the governor.
28:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll swear under oath that I was that, and
28:05
Speaker 2: I'll also swear under oath that there was a short,
28:08
Speaker 2: brief little moment when people were talking about me as
28:11
Speaker 2: a presidential candidate. Okay? Don't laugh, Rich, but they were.
28:14
Speaker 3: You have good hair. You're going a long way.
28:17
Speaker 2: And I was the first Democratic governor elected in Illinois
28:19
Speaker 2: in 2002. I was two years ahead of Obama. I mean,
28:23
Speaker 2: both of us came up in politics together. I've known
28:24
Speaker 2: him since 1995.
28:25
Speaker 1: Sorry.
28:25
Speaker 2: And they were looking for a new face from the Midwest, right? Ultimately,
28:29
Speaker 2: Obama was the one, not me. But before that, it
28:32
Speaker 2: was me. And now suddenly all those years go by
28:35
Speaker 2: and here I am in this prison and it's real prison.
28:38
Speaker 2: I'm the only governor to be put into a higher
28:40
Speaker 2: prison where there were murderers and, you know, gangbangers. And
28:44
Speaker 2: you're in a cell, six foot by eight foot cell.
28:47
Speaker 2: When I had access to a 50,000 square foot governor's mansion,
28:49
Speaker 2: I went into that. And it's just like the, you know,
28:52
Speaker 2: the movie, famous prison movie. What's that movie called? Shawshank Redemption.
28:59
Speaker 2: It looked like that. That's where I spent three years.
29:02
Speaker 2: And before I went to the camp. And so I
29:04
Speaker 2: tell all kinds of stories from that world. So here
29:06
Speaker 2: you've got a governor in a place like that. And,
29:09
Speaker 2: you know, I'm trying to– they send me to the kitchen.
29:10
Speaker 2: I've got to work in the kitchen early in the morning,
29:13
Speaker 2: be there at 6 in the morning. The cops wake
29:15
Speaker 2: you up and you have to go. I tell all
29:17
Speaker 2: kinds of stories about what that was like. And I tell,
29:19
Speaker 2: for example, the story about my prison band, G-Rod and
29:22
Speaker 2: the Jailhouse Rockers.
29:23
Speaker 1: G-Rod.
29:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, here's this guy who was governor, who was once
29:26
Speaker 2: talked about as President of the United States. I'm on
29:28
Speaker 2: stage singing to like 110 gangbangers who I see on
29:33
Speaker 2: the prison yard with their big muscles, all you know
29:36
Speaker 2: all uh swole that's the word swole tough guys right
29:41
Speaker 2: now they're they're in the audience they're wearing caps and
29:43
Speaker 2: gowns and i'm got i have to sing jailhouse rock
29:47
Speaker 2: to them and don't be cruel to them and uh
29:51
Speaker 2: That's all right, mama. And all shook up, right? Which
29:54
Speaker 2: is what I do. And the wardens there, they're all there.
29:57
Speaker 2: So I tell about that. And I tell stories about
29:59
Speaker 2: my job as a teacher of history and how my
30:01
Speaker 2: friend Sox, who was a bank robber from Central California,
30:05
Speaker 2: came up to me one day. He didn't graduate high school.
30:07
Speaker 2: He was one of those guys who got a GED
30:09
Speaker 2: graduation and told me, I'd like to be a guest
30:12
Speaker 2: speaker in your history class. I said, well, what would
30:15
Speaker 2: you talk about, Sox? And he said, Grant, that dude
30:18
Speaker 2: was a badass. I'd like to talk about Grant. I said,
30:21
Speaker 2: General Grant? Yeah, that dude was a badass. And then
30:24
Speaker 2: I said, well, what do you know about him? And
30:25
Speaker 2: he started telling me all this stuff. And I knew
30:27
Speaker 2: Civil War history. And I was amazed at Sox's knowledge.
30:31
Speaker 2: So he became a guest speaker and he did a
30:33
Speaker 2: great job.
30:34
Speaker 3: That's amazing. And what would you say is the funniest
30:37
Speaker 3: thing that you encountered while you were in prison?
30:41
Speaker 2: Man, a lot. You know, there was a lot of
30:43
Speaker 2: funny stuff. And of course, there was some not so
30:45
Speaker 2: funny stuff, some really not so, some heartbreaking, freaky stuff.
30:49
Speaker 2: And I saw men die in there. Boy, I'll tell you,
30:52
Speaker 2: a lot of funny stuff. You know, I write about
30:55
Speaker 2: a lot of that in the book. Well, we had a,
30:58
Speaker 2: you know, look, the food sucked, as you can imagine.
31:01
Speaker 2: And so taxpayers should feel good about the fact that,
31:03
Speaker 2: you know, by giving us good quality food, it was bad.
31:10
Speaker 2: And the cooks were not cooks. They were inmates who
31:14
Speaker 2: worked in the kitchen because they could steal food and
31:17
Speaker 2: they could smuggle it into the housing units and sell
31:21
Speaker 2: it on the black market and prisoners. I hope there's
31:23
Speaker 2: all kinds of stories about that. Well, sometimes during those
31:26
Speaker 2: eight years that I was there, there would be outbreaks
31:29
Speaker 2: of food poisoning. And one particular time, it was real bad.
31:33
Speaker 2: And this guy, I don't want to say his real name,
31:36
Speaker 2: I changed some of the names for these guys to
31:37
Speaker 2: protect the guilty. This one guy was the cook and
31:42
Speaker 2: whatever happened, something happened and the meatloaf that he made
31:47
Speaker 2: poisoned just about everybody who ate it. And I remember
31:50
Speaker 2: being in line and seeing it, and I didn't like
31:52
Speaker 2: the look of it. And I thought discretion was a
31:54
Speaker 2: better part of valor. And I was used to not,
31:57
Speaker 2: you know, going to that hungry in that place. So
31:59
Speaker 2: it wasn't a big deal to miss dinner. So I
32:01
Speaker 2: skipped it. And luckily I avoided that. The long and
32:03
Speaker 2: the short of it was, it was such a terrible
32:05
Speaker 2: outbreak of food poisoning. It was a plague. They shut
32:08
Speaker 2: us in for like three days. We were locked into
32:10
Speaker 2: our cells for three days. You couldn't get out. And
32:13
Speaker 2: they feed us bologna sandwiches, right? They come to our cells.
32:17
Speaker 2: But These guys were so sick, and there was a
32:22
Speaker 2: rumor that went viral that someone had defecated in the
32:28
Speaker 2: big bowl that made the cauldron that made the ground meat.
32:35
Speaker 2: And this guy, Walter Hill, yells out. You could hear
32:40
Speaker 2: the groan when that rumor was starting to take heed,
32:43
Speaker 2: and the guy yells out, Lord have mercy, we just ate.
32:48
Speaker 2: I mean, it wasn't funny when I heard him say
32:50
Speaker 2: it then. It was right. You've eaten it, right. Right? Yeah,
32:55
Speaker 2: so there were a lot of stories like that. You know,
32:57
Speaker 2: you got some Nazi, and he's got a swastika on
33:00
Speaker 2: his arm, and he wants, during Passover, they would provide
33:04
Speaker 2: meals for the Jewish inmates. There were maybe 10 out
33:06
Speaker 2: of the 900 guys there who were Jewish. But suddenly,
33:09
Speaker 2: a lot of guys wanted to be Jewish because you
33:12
Speaker 2: can get grape juice, matzah, and macaroons, which were in
33:15
Speaker 2: big demand.
33:16
Speaker 3: Who doesn't love a good macaroon?
33:18
Speaker 2: Yeah. And so the Nazi goes up. He's in front
33:21
Speaker 2: of me and he says, Jew food.
33:23
Speaker 3: Right.
33:23
Speaker 2: And the guy behind the counter says, what are you
33:24
Speaker 2: talking about? You're not a you're not Jewish. You're a Nazi.
33:27
Speaker 2: You got a swastika on your arm. And the guy said, no, no, no.
33:30
Speaker 2: A chaplain approved me. He was able to convince the
33:32
Speaker 2: chaplain that he approved me to be Jewish. You want
33:35
Speaker 2: the macaroons, right?
33:36
Speaker 3: That's great. What are you going to do now? So
33:40
Speaker 3: the fun, the games, the crazy stuff, watching someone die,
33:43
Speaker 3: all of that stuff is there. How does this change
33:46
Speaker 3: you as a person, right? Because I'm guessing, for me,
33:49
Speaker 3: I would be like, wow, life is great. I talk
33:51
Speaker 3: to people. I have a great time. People like to
33:54
Speaker 3: listen to what I have to say. Life is grand.
33:56
Speaker 3: And then all of a sudden, I'm in jail. And
33:59
Speaker 3: that could be a culture shock that could really mess
34:01
Speaker 3: with your head, mess with your whole being. How did
34:04
Speaker 3: you take that? And what did it do to you
34:06
Speaker 3: as a person?
34:08
Speaker 2: Well, yes, that's a great question. The 23rd chapter of
34:11
Speaker 2: the book, What Did I Learn, talks a lot about that.
34:14
Speaker 2: And Look, I consider myself a pretty tough guy, you know,
34:18
Speaker 2: but I wasn't strong enough to get through that by myself.
34:21
Speaker 2: I needed God. You know, I always had faith, my
34:24
Speaker 2: Christian faith that I was raised in, Serbian Orthodox, Eastern
34:27
Speaker 2: Orthodox Christian faith. But I was so busy in life
34:29
Speaker 2: that I never really spent any time reading the Bible. Rich,
34:32
Speaker 2: you know, I was out there, you know, campaigning all
34:34
Speaker 2: the time, kissing babies, asking, raising campaign money, making promises.
34:39
Speaker 2: I tried to keep most of them, if not all
34:40
Speaker 2: of them. But I.
34:43
Speaker 2: I would try to read the Bible. I'd get stuck
34:44
Speaker 2: in Genesis, so-and-so's beginning, so-and-so. I could never get past that.
34:48
Speaker 2: I'm too busy. I'll read this later, right? Now I'm
34:50
Speaker 2: in prison and I'm desperate. And I write about this
34:52
Speaker 2: in the book, too, the first night and what it
34:54
Speaker 2: was like, the realization, when suddenly after that long, long
34:57
Speaker 2: first day, I talk about all of that. And I
34:59
Speaker 2: think that's maybe among the chapters, among the more interesting
35:03
Speaker 2: ones in the book, I think. And so now it's
35:05
Speaker 2: 10 o'clock at night and I'm in this prison again,
35:08
Speaker 2: like in the movies, like in that movie, Shawshank Redemption.
35:12
Speaker 2: And suddenly, 10 o'clock, the lights shut it down. And
35:15
Speaker 2: it's blackness. You're swallowed up in blackness. Then immediately after that,
35:18
Speaker 2: the iron gates closed. And they crashed. It's a crashing
35:22
Speaker 2: sound that closes. And now you realize, holy shit, I
35:26
Speaker 2: can't get out of this place.
35:27
Speaker 1: I'm really here.
35:29
Speaker 2: That's right. I'm really here. And I've got 14 years
35:32
Speaker 2: of this. And my little girls back home, my Andy
35:34
Speaker 2: Banani at the time was eight. My daughter Andy was 15.
35:37
Speaker 2: My wife, the three of them were all alone in
35:39
Speaker 2: our home. Who's looking out for them? Who's protecting them?
35:41
Speaker 2: Who's going to provide for them? Will I ever get
35:43
Speaker 2: out of here? How am I going to do 14
35:45
Speaker 2: years of this? It really hit me. They don't let
35:48
Speaker 2: you bring anything into prison. I couldn't bring my running shoes,
35:51
Speaker 2: and I wanted to bring them in because I run.
35:54
Speaker 2: They sell you really bad quality ones, and I was
35:57
Speaker 2: running in those all those years. But they let you
35:59
Speaker 2: bring one thing in. It's the Bible. And so I
36:01
Speaker 2: reached for the Bible that my wife gave me. And
36:04
Speaker 2: I wasn't messing around with Genesis and who begot so-and-so
36:07
Speaker 2: or Leviticus or Deuteronomy and Jewish dietary rules. I went
36:10
Speaker 2: right to the Psalms, something that can help me because
36:12
Speaker 2: I was desperate. 23rd Psalm, the Lord is my shepherd,
36:15
Speaker 2: I shall not want. Then I kept reading Psalms. Then
36:17
Speaker 2: I went into Proverbs. Then I went into the prophets, Isaiah,
36:20
Speaker 2: the fiery furnace affliction. It's God's way of testing us. Jeremiah,
36:24
Speaker 2: for I know the plans I have for you, declares
36:26
Speaker 2: the Lord, not for calamity. for your welfare, not for calamity,
36:30
Speaker 2: to give you a future and a hope. And then,
36:31
Speaker 2: of course, the Gospels. And, of course, Jesus and the
36:33
Speaker 2: greatest story of them all. And there he is in
36:35
Speaker 2: the Garden of Gethsemane. He's getting scared because he knows
36:39
Speaker 2: what's coming. And he prays to his father. Father, lift
36:42
Speaker 2: this cup for me. Then realizes your will, Lord, my father,
36:45
Speaker 2: not mine. And he does what he has to do
36:48
Speaker 2: and suffers as he does. All of that for 2,896 days.
36:53
Speaker 2: Every single day, Rich, I reached for the Bible and
36:56
Speaker 2: read the Bible over and over and over again. And
36:58
Speaker 2: that gave me the strength I needed to live in faith, hope,
37:01
Speaker 2: and love. That's St. Paul, first letter to Corinthians, chapter 13.
37:04
Speaker 2: And there's something else. A guy by the name of
37:07
Speaker 2: Viktor Frankl wrote a book called Man's Search for Meaning.
37:09
Speaker 2: He was a Holocaust survivor who lost everything in the Holocaust.
37:12
Speaker 2: His challenges were a million times worse than me and
37:15
Speaker 2: my wife. But he was able to write this book,
37:17
Speaker 2: and he said, even when they've taken everything from you,
37:20
Speaker 2: the last of the human freedoms is our freedom to
37:23
Speaker 2: choose our attitude in any given set of circumstances. And
37:28
Speaker 2: if you can find purpose, if you can find the
37:30
Speaker 2: why to live, you'll figure out the how. And that
37:33
Speaker 2: reminded me what the why was. It wasn't me anymore.
37:37
Speaker 2: It was my little girls. I had to survive. I
37:39
Speaker 2: had to endure. I had to overcome. And I had
37:43
Speaker 2: to do it in a way where I can come
37:45
Speaker 2: out of there better and stronger and smarter. So I
37:48
Speaker 2: can show my daughters, this is how you face adversity.
37:51
Speaker 2: If nothing else, my example will teach my little girls
37:54
Speaker 2: that life can be hard and tough and cruel. But
37:57
Speaker 2: this is how you fight through it. And if nothing else,
38:01
Speaker 2: my enduring all of that in some ways gave me, well,
38:05
Speaker 2: it just gave me inspiration, you know, and I was
38:08
Speaker 2: able sometimes even cheerfully to do my stuff that made me,
38:12
Speaker 2: I think, stronger and wiser because it was an act
38:14
Speaker 2: of love for my kids. Does that make any sense?
38:17
Speaker 3: Absolutely. I mean, it's literally the gospel message in real life. Right.
38:24
Speaker 3: Is holding on to your faith. St. Paul talking about
38:26
Speaker 3: I'm in jail asking the Lord. Same thing. I have
38:29
Speaker 3: this thorn in my side, but your grace is sufficient
38:32
Speaker 3: for me. And really, that's the story. Right. To see
38:35
Speaker 3: someone transform as nobody's perfect. Nobody.
38:39
Speaker 2: Right.
38:40
Speaker 3: And if you can take a guy that was friends
38:42
Speaker 3: with Obama. Right. And you can redeem him. Come on.
38:45
Speaker 3: He could do it for anybody. I'm kidding.
38:48
Speaker 2: So that's a sin. I agree. And you might have
38:53
Speaker 2: some legitimate for me supporting Obama. I was the first
38:55
Speaker 2: governor to endorse him. I regret that. But, you know, Rich,
38:59
Speaker 2: what you're saying is so true. And look, I would
39:02
Speaker 2: have moments. It sounds like maybe BS, but it's I
39:05
Speaker 2: would have moments there. Look, it was all hard. Every
39:09
Speaker 2: one of those two thousand eight hundred ninety six days. But,
39:11
Speaker 2: you know, once I got to the fourth year. That
39:15
Speaker 2: hole in your heart that you walk around with every
39:17
Speaker 2: single day, that yearning for home that you have every
39:21
Speaker 2: single day, the fear and the concern and the worry
39:25
Speaker 2: you have for your kids and your wife every single
39:27
Speaker 2: day never leaves you. and you have to work through
39:30
Speaker 2: all of that But after all those years, that pain
39:33
Speaker 2: is blunted a little bit. You know what I mean?
39:35
Speaker 2: It's not right there in the front. It could get
39:37
Speaker 2: triggered when someone brings something up and you remember something
39:40
Speaker 2: and you think about your family. Then it comes back up.
39:43
Speaker 2: But you walk around almost every day there. You're caught
39:47
Speaker 2: up in your routine. I would have moments when I
39:49
Speaker 2: get done running and you get that runner's high and
39:51
Speaker 2: it might have rained. And where I was in Colorado,
39:54
Speaker 2: I have to say the prison in Colorado, it's a
39:57
Speaker 2: beautiful place. State, Colorado. And the sun comes out 300
40:00
Speaker 2: days a year. And they have a beautiful, pretty blue sky.
40:03
Speaker 2: And sometimes after a run, I'd be all sweaty. I'd
40:06
Speaker 2: feel good. I had a good run. Get that little
40:08
Speaker 2: runner's high. There would be rainbows after the rain. And
40:11
Speaker 2: it was God in my mind. Because I had moments
40:15
Speaker 2: when I'd actually feel joy in prison, believe it or not.
40:18
Speaker 2: And I'd have moments where I'd think, you know, Lord,
40:20
Speaker 2: maybe this was good. Maybe I needed this to know
40:25
Speaker 2: you better and come closer I think, and I still
40:31
Speaker 2: think that. And, you know, I'm back and, and I
40:34
Speaker 2: gotta tell you this, Rich, when they do shit like,
40:36
Speaker 2: when they do things like that to you, right, there's
40:39
Speaker 2: very little that can hurt you after you go through
40:41
Speaker 2: something like that. You know what I'm saying? Very little. And,
40:44
Speaker 2: and so, and so much, so many more things are
40:48
Speaker 2: so much nicer, things that I was, I never even noticed.
40:50
Speaker 2: Even little streetcars in Chicago that are really no, no
40:53
Speaker 2: big deal. To me, they're beautiful now because it's home.
40:55
Speaker 3: Huge deal, right? So I guess in a nutshell, would
40:58
Speaker 3: you say that you're a better person today for having
41:01
Speaker 3: gone through that miscarriage of justice?
41:05
Speaker 2: Definitely. Yeah, I think so. Now, you know, I've been
41:07
Speaker 2: accused of being a narcissist and, you know, too much
41:09
Speaker 2: self-love and no question I could have been more humble.
41:12
Speaker 2: You know, I fought politically and I, you know, I
41:14
Speaker 2: took on the establishment. They were all, they were, I
41:17
Speaker 2: was a younger governor and, you know, I had maybe,
41:20
Speaker 2: you know, I could have been more respectful to some
41:21
Speaker 2: of the senior leaders of my own party, that kind
41:23
Speaker 2: of thing. But, So humility, you know, I was probably lacking.
41:28
Speaker 2: I think I have more of that now. I probably
41:29
Speaker 2: could still use a lot more. But no, I feel...
41:33
Speaker 2: Pardon me, can't we all?
41:34
Speaker 3: Yeah.
41:35
Speaker 2: No, I'm older and I'm wiser. I have to be.
41:37
Speaker 2: How could you not when you go through an experience
41:38
Speaker 2: like that? And you know what the Proverbs say, you know,
41:42
Speaker 2: knowledge leads to wisdom and wisdom pleases the Lord. So
41:46
Speaker 2: I do think I'm less of a... I'm certainly an
41:49
Speaker 2: imperfect person and a sinner for sure, but I think
41:52
Speaker 2: I'm better. And my outlook on life is so much better.
41:54
Speaker 3: Yeah, it sounds it to me, and it's an inspiring
41:57
Speaker 3: story to me, and that's why I wanted to share
41:58
Speaker 3: it with the audience. Familia, the book is called Framed, F,
42:03
Speaker 3: like the F word, and Freed. It's on Amazon by
42:06
Speaker 3: Governor Rod Blagojevich. I would definitely recommend getting a copy
42:11
Speaker 3: for yourself and one to give away, and you can
42:13
Speaker 3: preorder them right now on Amazon. Governor, if people want
42:16
Speaker 3: to follow you or get a signed copy, is there
42:19
Speaker 3: a way to contact you directly? Are you doing something
42:21
Speaker 3: like that? Is there a website? Talk to us.
42:24
Speaker 2: You know what? It's Skyhorse Publishing, but the book can
42:26
Speaker 2: be purchased on Amazon pre-sales. You can buy it today
42:29
Speaker 2: if anybody wants to. Feel no pressure. Hope you do.
42:33
Speaker 2: But it's there. Can I say one more thing about
42:36
Speaker 2: the book, too, and just perspective? One more thing about
42:39
Speaker 2: that profound question you asked me about, do I feel
42:41
Speaker 2: like I'm a better person now? I feel more connected
42:45
Speaker 2: to everyday, ordinary people. Now, my father was an immigrant
42:47
Speaker 2: factory worker. My mother worked for the public transit system.
42:50
Speaker 2: She passed out. I took the fares and passed out
42:53
Speaker 2: the transfers at the subway stations. I grew up in
42:55
Speaker 2: a little five-room apartment. They had no money, my parents.
42:57
Speaker 2: They worked so hard to give me a chance to
42:58
Speaker 2: go to college. So I come from everyday people, right?
43:02
Speaker 2: Then you become the governor and you're now talking to presidents.
43:05
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm in Sylvester Stallone's house. What a great guy,
43:08
Speaker 2: by the way. Schwarzenegger and I were governors together, right?
43:11
Speaker 2: You know, the White House, you call the White House,
43:14
Speaker 2: the president calls you back. Then they bring you way
43:17
Speaker 2: off that mountain and bury you in a valley deep
43:19
Speaker 2: and dark. And you go through something like that.
43:21
Speaker 3: The valley of the shadow of death.
43:24
Speaker 2: Well said, 23rd Psalm. That's right. Well, it reconnected me
43:27
Speaker 2: to my roots in some ways and a better feeling
43:30
Speaker 2: and appreciation for the everyday struggles of people all over
43:34
Speaker 2: the place who are going through hard times. And that's
43:36
Speaker 2: what I hope my book does, Rich. I hope that
43:38
Speaker 2: last chapter where I talk about what helped me, I
43:41
Speaker 2: hope I can help somebody who are going through their
43:43
Speaker 2: hard times, whatever they may be, whether they're worse than
43:45
Speaker 2: what we went through or whether they're not quite as bad. Look,
43:49
Speaker 2: life is filled with ups and downs. Nobody escapes it
43:51
Speaker 2: without adversity. And a lot of the challenge of life
43:54
Speaker 2: is how do you face the adversity and how can
43:56
Speaker 2: you turn it into something positive later on? How can
43:59
Speaker 2: you plant the seeds during that valley period of your
44:02
Speaker 2: life that can later reap a harvest of something good
44:05
Speaker 2: down the road, whether it's success in life or doing
44:08
Speaker 2: some good deed for somebody else? I hope my book
44:10
Speaker 2: can be helpful to people that way. Yeah.
44:13
Speaker 3: Well, like you said, you learn the why and you'll
44:15
Speaker 3: figure out the how. You and Frank were very wise words. Familia,
44:20
Speaker 3: Rod Blagojevich. Check them out online. Go to Amazon. Get
44:22
Speaker 3: a copy of the book. Give one away. The holidays
44:25
Speaker 3: are coming before you know it. Governor, you're a gentleman,
44:27
Speaker 3: a scholar, and a patriot. I want to thank you
44:29
Speaker 3: for being here, and I hope to have you back soon.
44:32
Speaker 2: Thank you, Rich. I appreciate that. No compable y gracias
44:35
Speaker 2: por la... And gracias. Thank you for your support. Appreciate it.
44:40
Speaker 3: You bet. Anytime. More to come straight ahead. Don't go anywhere.
44:44
Speaker 1: This is America.
44:56
Speaker 5: Now, for weeks, you've heard me talking about Noom.com slash ThisIsAmerica. Noom.com
45:03
Speaker 5: slash ThisIsAmerica. That's N-O-O-M.com slash ThisIsAmerica. I use Noom.com slash
45:10
Speaker 5: ThisIsAmerica to keep my thoughts in order, to follow a
45:14
Speaker 5: plan designed by psychologists to help me make sure I
45:17
Speaker 5: stay hydrated, to make sure that I'm tracking my meals,
45:21
Speaker 5: counting the calories, staying focused on my health, Not getting anxious,
45:26
Speaker 5: not overeating. That's important because sometimes this politics, the news,
45:30
Speaker 5: it gets me stressed out. First thing I want to
45:32
Speaker 5: do is grab a cheeseburger. So you can do this.
45:36
Speaker 3: It's an app. You can do it anytime, anywhere.
45:39
Speaker 5: Now is the time for you to take control over
45:41
Speaker 5: your health, mental health, all that. Noom.com slash this is
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Speaker 5: America's where you got to go to check out your trial.
45:49
Speaker 3: It's a personalized trial. So go to Noom.com slash this
45:53
Speaker 3: is America. Noom.com slash this is America.
46:01
Speaker 1: This is America. He's making podcasting great again. This is
46:08
Speaker 1: America with Rich Valdez.
46:19
Speaker 3: All right, Familia, welcome back. Rich Valdez keeping you company
46:22
Speaker 3: here this Friday night. What an interview with Rod Blagojevich.
46:26
Speaker 3: And there's a bunch of things I want to get into,
46:28
Speaker 3: but probably nothing that I'm going to get into in
46:30
Speaker 3: too much depth. But a couple FBI agents were arrested
46:34
Speaker 3: and charged with allegedly lying about Hunter Biden's laptop. I
46:37
Speaker 3: thought that was interesting because it shows you how either
46:42
Speaker 3: how loyal they were to Biden or how. corrupt the
46:47
Speaker 3: organization was prior to Kash Patel getting there and trying
46:50
Speaker 3: to clean it up. And, you know, he's done a
46:53
Speaker 3: lot of things. One of the things that he's done
46:54
Speaker 3: is he said, look, people that were victims of sex trafficking,
46:58
Speaker 3: since we're so focused on ending that, if they want
47:02
Speaker 3: to work in the FBI, we're not going to preclude them.
47:04
Speaker 3: And previously, if you had been a victim of sex trafficking,
47:09
Speaker 3: you were automatically excluded because you may have appeared in
47:13
Speaker 3: a video, that type of thing. Well, lo and behold,
47:18
Speaker 3: this gets called into question by Senator Kennedy in a hearing,
47:22
Speaker 3: and man, was it funny. Let me see if we
47:25
Speaker 3: got that. Do we have that, guys? If you have it,
47:28
Speaker 3: play it.
47:31
Speaker 6: Would you even get into bestiality?
47:36
Speaker 4: We are not into bestiality.
47:41
Speaker 3: That exchange, again.
47:43
Speaker 6: What were the things that changed?
47:45
Speaker 4: Simply that if you were a victim of some of
47:47
Speaker 4: these vicious crimes and you wanted to serve this country,
47:51
Speaker 4: the FBI is now, for the first time ever, considering
47:53
Speaker 4: your application and not disqualifying you.
47:55
Speaker 6: Victim of what? Give me the example.
47:58
Speaker 4: Prostitution, bestiality, crimes like that, traffickers.
48:02
Speaker 6: Tell me what it said before.
48:04
Speaker 4: It automatically disqualified any individual who participated on either side
48:08
Speaker 4: of it. Obviously, we are never going to hire the criminals.
48:12
Speaker 6: This side of what?
48:13
Speaker 3: The bestiality?
48:14
Speaker 2: Yes.
48:15
Speaker 3: Kennedy, even when he's not trying to be funny, he's funny. Clearly,
48:19
Speaker 3: he's trying to find out why this language is even
48:21
Speaker 3: included in this. And Kash Patel is trying to explain
48:24
Speaker 3: that in the past, they were saying anybody who'd ever
48:26
Speaker 3: engaged in prostitution, pornography, child pornography, bestiality, any of these
48:29
Speaker 3: horrible things, you're not allowed to be employed by the FBI.
48:34
Speaker 3: Kash Patel is making the case saying, look, if these
48:37
Speaker 3: people were victims and they were trafficked and they were
48:39
Speaker 3: forced to do this, they shouldn't pay the price for
48:41
Speaker 3: not being able to serve in the FBI. And I
48:44
Speaker 3: agree with that because I think, man, who better than
48:46
Speaker 3: somebody who'd been a victim of this to help you
48:49
Speaker 3: understand it, to understand the inner workings. But Senator Kennedy
48:53
Speaker 3: was just like, I can't believe we're talking about this.
48:55
Speaker 3: It's really funny, but it's not funny. It's very serious.
48:58
Speaker 6: So you disqualified the animal?
49:02
Speaker 4: Well, I don't think we have great canines, but we're
49:05
Speaker 4: not going to disqualify.
49:05
Speaker 6: I understand. If Joe participated in bestiality, not as the animal,
49:12
Speaker 6: but as the human, Don't you think he ought to
49:16
Speaker 6: be qualified?
49:18
Speaker 3: Now, it's funny because Kash Patel said, in the past,
49:22
Speaker 3: even if you were on either side, on both sides,
49:24
Speaker 3: meaning Kash Patel means the person performing the bestiality and
49:29
Speaker 3: the person holding the camera selling this stuff that's taking
49:32
Speaker 3: advantage of you as a traffic victim. Senator Kennedy is
49:35
Speaker 3: understanding this as we are disqualifying the animal And a human.
49:41
Speaker 3: This is such a who's on first, what's on second moment.
49:44
Speaker 3: It really is humorous, even though it's about a very
49:46
Speaker 3: serious topic.
49:47
Speaker 2: Qualified?
49:48
Speaker 4: If he voluntarily did it, sure. But if he was
49:50
Speaker 4: trafficked into it.
49:51
Speaker 6: Okay, how do you involuntarily do it?
49:54
Speaker 4: In a lot of these cases, when human traffickers, who
49:57
Speaker 4: are some of the worst individuals on planet Earth, they
49:59
Speaker 4: don't just traffic you for prostitution. They traffic you for
50:03
Speaker 4: degrading acts of all kinds.
50:04
Speaker 6: These changes didn't start with you, did they? Somebody came
50:08
Speaker 6: to you and recommended?
50:09
Speaker 2: Yeah.
50:09
Speaker 6: Why didn't you just say, what planet did you parachute
50:14
Speaker 6: in from? Why do I want to leave with my
50:18
Speaker 6: chin and get into bestiality?
50:22
Speaker 3: So clearly, he just didn't get it, right? He really
50:25
Speaker 3: thought that this was something we should avoid at all costs.
50:27
Speaker 3: But I think Hash Patel is hitting the nail on
50:29
Speaker 3: the head here, realizing, hey, somebody who's been through this
50:32
Speaker 3: is somebody who can tell that story better than others, right?
50:36
Speaker 3: Look at President Trump. When he talks about the weaponization
50:39
Speaker 3: of government, He's talking about it from firsthand experience, the
50:42
Speaker 3: fact that they took misdemeanor infractions on paperwork that Michael
50:46
Speaker 3: Cohen filled out and whatnot because of the payment that
50:50
Speaker 3: he made to Stormy Daniels, and they turned that nondisclosure
50:53
Speaker 3: agreement into some sort of federal crime. Crazy, right? But
50:58
Speaker 3: there was precedent for that. It was Rod Blagojevich, as
51:01
Speaker 3: you just heard in the conversation we had. So really
51:03
Speaker 3: just eye-opening stuff. When people just can't get on the
51:07
Speaker 3: same page, it's bizarre and it's wild to say the least.
51:11
Speaker 3: So anyway, that's kind of all I wanted to share
51:14
Speaker 3: with you on that part. There's a couple other things
51:15
Speaker 3: that I do want to get into, but there's obviously
51:19
Speaker 3: much to do and little time to do it in.
51:22
Speaker 3: So I'm going to wish you a good weekend. I'm
51:23
Speaker 3: going to say adieu here. That's French for adios. And
51:27
Speaker 3: I will say that you have to stand for something
51:30
Speaker 3: because if you stand for nothing, you'll fall for absolutely anything.
51:34
Speaker 3: And The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is
51:38
Speaker 3: for good people like you to sit there and do
51:40
Speaker 3: absolutely nothing. So it's time for you to stand up
51:43
Speaker 3: and do something and know something. Because we're 11 days
51:47
Speaker 3: away from those midterms. What are you prepared to do?
51:50
Speaker 3: That's my question for you. Hasta la proxima. Take care,
51:53
Speaker 3: good night, and God bless you, America. I'm Rich Valdez,
51:57
Speaker 3: and this is America.
52:00
Speaker 1: This is America.
52:04
Speaker 3: Thank you.
52:38
Speaker 1: Thank you.
58:31
Speaker 6: Thank you.