Latest / Rich Valdés: This is America! / Press, Puerto Rico, Plastic Surgery Perils

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Press, Puerto Rico, Plastic Surgery Perils · 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
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: lot of public service stuff.
• 0:17
  Speaker 3: Rich Valdez, columnist now with the Washington Times.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: This is America.
• 0:21
  Speaker 3: Richie V, you're on the air with The Nation.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: This is America with your host, Rich Valdez.
• 0:28
  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: You're a liberty-loving Latino amigo 17 blocks away from Madison
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: Square Garden right here in New York City. Times Square,
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: to be exact. Blessed and honored to be with you guys,
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: my wonderful audience, for the Tuesday night edition of This
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: is America. And, of course, I'm always thrilled to have
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: you on the show. So if you want to join
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: the conversation, you know what to do. Give me a call, 877-VALDES1, 877-825-3371.
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: And share your thoughts. We're going to air your thoughts
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: during Open Phone Across America. Open Phone America, one of
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: my favorite segments. Something I revived on the Larry King throwback.
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: And I've kept it ever since. And listen to this, familia.
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: It's Tuesday night. The headlights keep rolling in. We're going
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: to push deeper and deeper as we get into the
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: final stretch before the midterms. And President Trump is out
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: there on the campaign trail, left and right. He's in
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: a different place every time I look on the TV.
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: The guy's like the Energizer Bunny. And he's trying to
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: keep the momentum going super strong while there's still a
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: few politicians, you know, looking over their shoulders, starting to
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: get a little nervous looking at the polls. I say,
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: take heart. Don't be too nervous. It isn't as bad
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: as people think it is. Right? It's not. The end
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: of the world. They do this often, right? We've seen
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: a lot of elections where they say, no, no, this
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: is it. We're losing. It's over. But we're going to
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: get into that because campaigning is an art and some
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: people know how to do it better than others. Joining
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: me in the next segment is Bianca Rodriguez, former deputy
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: communications director for the Trump 2024 campaign. She was also
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: press secretary at the United States Department of Health. And
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: she's going to pull back the curtain on what this
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: high-pressure job is really like, you know, crafting the message
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: under fire, dealing with the media circus, and pushing the
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: administration's agenda day after day. Bianca is also going to
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: weigh in on the politicians who are suddenly turning their
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: backs because they're staring down tough elections. So they figure
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: distancing themselves from El Trumpito, Donaldus Magnus, the 45th and
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: 47th president of these United States, El Presidente, Donald J. Trump,
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: is probably the safest thing that they could do. And listen,
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: it's politics. That's a reality. But loyalty is easy when
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: everything is smooth and character shows up when the heat
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: is on. And I'm not saying they lack character. I'm
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: just saying sometimes you've really got to stick your guns
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: and educate your voters on why this has to happen,
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: not why it shouldn't be happening. But I'm not in
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: their shoes. But we're going to give you every side
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: of those issues as well. And she's going to give
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: us her thoughts on a lot of things. What's up
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: with this current vacancy in the White House press briefing room?
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: Another opportunity that is available, maybe for her, maybe for
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: someone else, maybe for me, right? You know me, I'm
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: always angling for that cushy job in the administration. I
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: would love one. Even not a cushy job. It would
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: be a nice thing to do to serve. I mean,
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: all of this would have to go on hold, but
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: how often do you get a chance like that, right?
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: Then afterwards, after we finish our conversation with Bianca, I
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: want to talk about some crazy stuff. BBL gone wild, right?
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: You know BBL, Brazilian butt lift. Not my big brother Lou,
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: but this time I'm talking about the Brazilian butt lift.
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: That's that surgery where they liposuction fat out of your
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: gut and your back and other areas and add it
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: to your buttocks so you can have a rounder, plumper,
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: fuller butt. Well, sadly, NBC6 in South Florida is reporting
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: on the death of somebody who went in for a
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: Brazilian butt lift. Tragic story. Families were demanding answers. And
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: that's not the first time this high-risk procedure has taken
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: somebody's life. So we're going to talk about the risks,
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: this particular clinic, why so many people are still chasing
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: this particular look when they know that there's a chance
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: they could die and people are actually dying. How about that?
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: We'll definitely get into that. And then in our final segment,
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: by the way, did I mention that Puff Daddy, Sean
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: Diddy Combs, he was moved out of the jail he
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: was in Because he was living, guess what, too lavishly.
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: There's been reports all over TMZ and other places that
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: he had all these special perks, contraband, cell phones, all
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: sorts of VIP treatment behind bars. So now they've transferred
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: him out of there. And we're going to get into that.
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: Plus an update on the shooter in Bend, Oregon. That
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: shooting that happened on Friday. That was a whole thing.
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: The guy was taken out by a good guy with
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: a gun. A father and a community member that stepped up.
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: stopped the nightmare from happening at the elementary school, at
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: least from happening any further, and once again proved that
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: the right to self-defense, true indeed, saves lives. And seconds
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: absolutely count in situations like that. So kudos to him.
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: He's a real American hero. And we'll be doing all
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: that discussion in a little bit. Plus, we have Open
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: Phone America. There's calls for that. We're going to be
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: getting to those after our discussion with Bianca in our
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: final segment. And just a couple of other things I
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: wanted to mention because there's really just so many moving parts, right?
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: We still have the Iran thing that's going on. Tomorrow
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: we've got Speaker Newt Gingrich joining us on the show.
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: Make sure you tune in for that. We're going to
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: talk about the golden age of America. Anyway, that's tomorrow,
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: so make sure you tune in for that. But straight ahead,
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: we've got Bianca Rodriguez joining us. Don't go anywhere. I'm
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: Rich Valdez.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: This is America. This is America. He's brown, he's bald,
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: and he's breaking it down.
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: Oh, he's so handsome. What's his name?
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: Rich Valdez. All right, familia, welcome back. Rich Valdez keeping
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: you company tonight. And our special guest right now, Bianca Rodriguez. Now,
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: she's done a lot of really interesting things. I saw
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: her on the campaign. She was rocking and rolling for
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: the team Trump in the last election, but she has
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: a background in comms. She worked in the press shop
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: and I want to really get it from her. We're
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: going to talk about a number of things that are
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: pertinent to today's affairs. One of the things I stole
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: from Larry King Bianca was a question he used to
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: ask people and he'd say, how's a nice girl like
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: you from Puerto Rico end up in a job like this?
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: So talk to us. How'd that happen?
• 6:55
  Speaker 4: Well, listen, I had been actually wanting to work for
• 6:58
  Speaker 4: President Trump for a long time, even living in Puerto Rico.
• 7:01
  Speaker 4: That's something that I had You know, I always thought, like,
• 7:03
  Speaker 4: how am I going to get involved? Let's just say
• 7:05
  Speaker 4: I did a little bit of a stint at Univision
• 7:08
  Speaker 4: for almost three years.
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: This was back in, I started in 2021.
• 7:12
  Speaker 4: And really, I think that that set the stone, I mean,
• 7:16
  Speaker 4: the tone for me to be able to get involved
• 7:18
  Speaker 4: later on in more political campaigns because I was debating
• 7:23
  Speaker 4: almost every single day, I would say, at this point.
• 7:26
  Speaker 4: crazy liberals. And I call them crazy because they really,
• 7:29
  Speaker 4: truly were. I mean, we are talking about two Hispanic individuals.
• 7:33
  Speaker 4: One of them was a dreamer. The other person, she
• 7:36
  Speaker 4: was from the Dominican Republic. And you can imagine what
• 7:40
  Speaker 4: those conversations were like. And so we talked about everything
• 7:43
  Speaker 4: you can think of foreign affairs. We were talking about
• 7:46
  Speaker 4: Latin America and, you know, the midterms that were the
• 7:49
  Speaker 4: 2022 midterms, the presidential election. And I really do think
• 7:53
  Speaker 4: that that's what kind of just allowed me to practice,
• 7:57
  Speaker 4: to get myself on camera, to get the campaign, to
• 8:00
  Speaker 4: kind of take a notice and see that we actually
• 8:03
  Speaker 4: do have Hispanics in the community that are Republican and
• 8:07
  Speaker 4: that are staunchly conservative and that we're not afraid to
• 8:10
  Speaker 4: express those beliefs publicly.
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: So they brought me on. I worked with them.
• 8:14
  Speaker 4: I did like kind of like the last, the most
• 8:16
  Speaker 4: intense last months heading into the elections. Um, and I
• 8:20
  Speaker 4: did a little bit more of, of media hits with them.
• 8:23
  Speaker 4: And then after that, I was able to join the administration, um,
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: within the department of health as, as press secretary.
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: Outstanding. Now, if we back up a little bit, tell us,
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: you know, you're born in Puerto Rico and you live
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: there and you wanted to get into news. You wanted
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: to be a reporter or you wanted to be a
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: political spokesperson.
• 8:45
  Speaker 4: I think, uh, It's funny because I went to school
• 8:48
  Speaker 4: for political science thinking that I was going to follow
• 8:50
  Speaker 4: the traditional route, that I was even going to stay
• 8:52
  Speaker 4: in Puerto Rico, maybe seek some sort.
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: Of office eventually.
• 8:55
  Speaker 4: I have no interest in doing that anymore. I think
• 8:59
  Speaker 4: that when... Because for many reasons, which I'm sure we'll
• 9:03
  Speaker 4: get into later. Yeah. But, you know, I started to
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: just get more involved in in like the spokesperson capacity
• 9:10
  Speaker 4: of things. And I realized that I really liked being
• 9:13
  Speaker 4: able to just speak my mind and not have necessarily
• 9:16
  Speaker 4: a filter for it. Because I feel like people like
• 9:21
  Speaker 4: I had a lot of people coming up to me
• 9:22
  Speaker 4: and telling me things behind the scenes like they wouldn't.
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: Like I was getting bullied online.
• 9:27
  Speaker 4: It got that bad because Puerto Rico, I feel like
• 9:30
  Speaker 4: they treat things differently in general, but on social media,
• 9:32
  Speaker 4: especially they have like this little bubble on X. And
• 9:36
  Speaker 4: if you are not a socialist and you're not cool
• 9:39
  Speaker 4: like that, when you're in school, you're not in. So
• 9:42
  Speaker 4: like they did everything to basically assassinate my character. Like
• 9:45
  Speaker 4: I tried running for, I don't know how to translate
• 9:50
  Speaker 4: it like verbatim, but I tried running basically for what
• 9:52
  Speaker 4: was like the university's council right like the council president.
• 9:58
  Speaker 4: And that's when things really started going downhill. Like I
• 10:00
  Speaker 4: was getting death threats. I was getting people saying that
• 10:02
  Speaker 4: if they found me out and about in the hangaeo,
• 10:06
  Speaker 4: that they were going to throw a drink at me.
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: They were going to pop my tires.
• 10:09
  Speaker 4: And you would think like pretty... And you know, I
• 10:11
  Speaker 4: don't blame people that when they hear those things, they say,
• 10:14
  Speaker 4: I'm going to take a step back. I don't really
• 10:15
  Speaker 4: want to do this anymore.
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: But it takes.
• 10:18
  Speaker 4: Balls of steel, as you know, especially for a woman
• 10:21
  Speaker 4: to be like, you know what?
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: Screw these people. I'm going to keep speaking my mind
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: out because other people want to hear it.
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: This is a fascinating topic. You're not the only one
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: that goes through that, right? I think a lot of
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: people do. But for Trump, right? Because I would say
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: there's been the same tregato forever from Puerto Rico that
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: were conservatives. And I think during the era of Trump, right,
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: the last 10 years, you've seen more and more say, no, no, no,
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: me too, me too. And I thought that was great
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: that so many people were emboldened, even with the Tony Hinchcliffe,
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: Puerto Rico garbage joke at the Madison Square Garden. I
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: think that also brought about an opportunity for people that
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: were conservatives, that were Trump supporters to say, I don't
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: even know that guy. That guy's a pendejo. I didn't
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: even hear the joke. And I was there and I
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: didn't hear the joke. He said it when it was
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: very empty, that room. But my point is, I think that,
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: you know, there's you're you're in a time where others,
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: like you said, they would say, I don't want this smoke.
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: I'm not going to do this. But now it's cool
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: again to fight back. And I think that's such a
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: cool thing. And to have young people, young women that
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: are involved in something like this, it's fantastic to me.
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: So what kept you in the game? Why didn't you say, ah,
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: forget about it. I don't want to do that. I
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: could go work for American Express and do corporate communications.
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: Why would I want to do this?
• 11:38
  Speaker 4: Well, because I really I genuinely had a lot of
• 11:40
  Speaker 4: people DMing me and writing me separately and saying things like,
• 11:44
  Speaker 4: I would have never seen this from your point of
• 11:46
  Speaker 4: view if you wouldn't have spoken up about it. Or
• 11:49
  Speaker 4: I secretly do identify more with the Republican Party, but
• 11:52
  Speaker 4: I'm afraid of getting canceled.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: Right. Right.
• 11:55
  Speaker 4: And there was a time that I would ask them,
• 11:58
  Speaker 4: I'd be like, do you mind if I just take
• 11:59
  Speaker 4: a screenshot and I post this? I had this in
• 12:01
  Speaker 4: an old account that I already deleted long ago. But
• 12:04
  Speaker 4: I would post them and people would would go crazy
• 12:06
  Speaker 4: because they'd be like, oh, you're you're making that up.
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: That's Photoshop. There's no way.
• 12:10
  Speaker 4: And I think it's important to do things like that,
• 12:12
  Speaker 4: not necessarily like specifically having to post other people's profiles.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 12:17
  Speaker 4: And like saying and bragging about, look, you know, this
• 12:20
  Speaker 4: is these are individuals that do identify with with conservatism.
• 12:23
  Speaker 4: But I think it's just the aspect of like that's
• 12:26
  Speaker 4: when I realized that I had such a unique voice
• 12:28
  Speaker 4: and such a niche talent, I guess we could say.
• 12:32
  Speaker 4: Because like you're saying, I could not see anybody else
• 12:36
  Speaker 4: on the island actually speaking up and speaking out. The
• 12:38
  Speaker 4: ones that were claiming to be Republicans were the typical rhinos,
• 12:42
  Speaker 4: the typical traditional people that would go to the RNC conventions.
• 12:45
  Speaker 4: They'd come back, they'd take their pictures, and they'd brag
• 12:49
  Speaker 4: about being in those circles, but not do anything.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 12:52
  Speaker 4: I was involved with college Republicans. Like I had founded
• 12:55
  Speaker 4: my own chapter. That's kind of how everything really started really.
• 12:58
  Speaker 4: Cause at the university of Puerto Rico, they, as you know,
• 13:01
  Speaker 4: they don't have any Republican groups at all. This was
• 13:03
  Speaker 4: like the first of its kind. And I looking back now,
• 13:07
  Speaker 4: I'm a little sad. It was college Republicans and that's
• 13:09
  Speaker 4: turning point, but you know, it is what it is
• 13:13
  Speaker 4: because I think you have to start somewhere, but, um,
• 13:17
  Speaker 4: I really did it like for the love of wanting
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: to make a change.
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: In Puerto Rico.
• 13:22
  Speaker 4: And then, you know, things started evolving. We had the
• 13:25
  Speaker 4: hurricane happen and I was, I was, I had to
• 13:28
  Speaker 4: make a decision of whether to continue my, my degree
• 13:30
  Speaker 4: there or drop out or maybe pray that there would
• 13:34
  Speaker 4: be another third option, which would be maybe going to
• 13:37
  Speaker 4: another school stateside and a miracle completely happened.
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: And that's, that's what happened.
• 13:42
  Speaker 4: I had a professor that vouched for me with some
• 13:45
  Speaker 4: people at ASU at Arizona state university. And, um, I just,
• 13:49
  Speaker 4: you know, I had never been to Arizona before, but
• 13:51
  Speaker 4: I packed my bags and I said, God, just lead
• 13:54
  Speaker 4: the way. And I think looking back now, I could
• 13:57
  Speaker 4: see how much God played a role in my life
• 14:01
  Speaker 4: because I would have never imagined getting all the other
• 14:03
  Speaker 4: opportunities that came about it. Like that's when everything kind
• 14:06
  Speaker 4: of broke for me. I worked for Turning Point there.
• 14:09
  Speaker 4: So that's kind of where everything started.
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: So you mentioned two things. One thing is there's no
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: beach in Arizona. So that must have been tough. And
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: number two. is the change that you wanted to bring
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: about in Puerto Rico. And there's many that are needed.
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: But I think one of the biggest debates that we
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: see oftentimes is about statehood. Should Puerto Rico be a state?
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: Should it maintain its status as a commonwealth or should
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: it become independent? And I have often, maybe erroneously, but
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: I stand by it. I group the independence movement in
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: Puerto Rico with the radical extreme left of the United States.
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: because many of them, the leaders, they came right out
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: of Cuba in the 1940s and 50s with their communist
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: nonsense going straight to there. And then when everybody left
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: Puerto Rico in the 1950s, my parents included, and came
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: to Brooklyn and the Bronx, they started it there. And
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: I mean, in the Bronx today, they still celebrate Lolita
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: Lebron Day because she went to Congress and shot a congressman.
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: It's bizarre to me that this is celebrated, but these
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: are the same Puerto Ricans, just like we have Americans, right,
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: that are running around with the Palestinian flag. So talk
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: to me about your position on that and what type
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: of change you wanted to see in Puerto Rico.
• 15:22
  Speaker 4: I'm in favor completely of statehood. I think it's been
• 15:25
  Speaker 4: necessary for so many decades, like you're mentioning. I've noticed
• 15:28
  Speaker 4: that there's been a trend, an uptick with conservatives thinking
• 15:31
  Speaker 4: that independence is better for us. But that's really just
• 15:35
  Speaker 4: for lack of a better just context. It's really ignorance
• 15:39
  Speaker 4: because That's what the left wants you to believe, right?
• 15:42
  Speaker 4: Like that's actually for me, it's what I tried to
• 15:44
  Speaker 4: tell them. Like you fighting for independence, you're playing into
• 15:48
  Speaker 4: their game, you're playing into their strategy because this is
• 15:50
  Speaker 4: what they've been wanting this whole time. And we see
• 15:53
  Speaker 4: what happens when, like we've seen it happen with other
• 15:56
  Speaker 4: Caribbean islands when they became independent. You know, back in 1898,
• 16:00
  Speaker 4: it used to be that Cuba was supposed to be
• 16:04
  Speaker 4: almost under, well, it was for a time, it was
• 16:06
  Speaker 4: under the U.S.
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: Control.
• 16:08
  Speaker 4: But imagine how much different, how different that island would
• 16:12
  Speaker 4: be today had they stayed with the United States. And
• 16:17
  Speaker 4: maybe it's a hot take. I mean, I'm not totally
• 16:20
  Speaker 4: against imperialism. I think we need to demonstrate to the
• 16:25
  Speaker 4: rest of the world our adversaries that are right now
• 16:27
  Speaker 4: in China and Russia. They don't care about us. They're
• 16:30
  Speaker 4: actually trying to do the same thing that we've already accomplished.
• 16:33
  Speaker 4: over a century ago, right? So they're trying to play
• 16:36
  Speaker 4: catch up. Um, and you know, it's, it's dangerous. I
• 16:38
  Speaker 4: don't think we should, we should necessarily take a step back,
• 16:42
  Speaker 4: but that's one of the reasons why, you know, of many,
• 16:45
  Speaker 4: we should not become independent. It's just, it's, it's a
• 16:48
  Speaker 4: given that they're going to try to come if they're
• 16:50
  Speaker 4: not already to our island and to try to get
• 16:53
  Speaker 4: those local leaders, which are already so embedded with corruption
• 16:57
  Speaker 4: and and do the worst that they can.
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: And Puerto Rico is.
• 17:00
  Speaker 4: Such a strategic ally, geographically speaking and economically speaking. I mean,
• 17:07
  Speaker 4: there's just no reason for this country to let us go,
• 17:10
  Speaker 4: if that makes sense.
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it makes all the sense in the world.
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: And I could go on about this for days. It's
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: a debate that I've had for a long time and
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: very few, like you said, there's been attraction amongst the,
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: I always say AOC takes the position that Puerto Rico
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: should be independent of the United States. She wants it
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: to be the next Cuba. And Mitch McConnell and his
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: friends think the same thing, right? Or leave it alone.
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: And when AOC and Mitch McConnell are both against statehood,
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: I'm in the statehood camp because that's just how it works.
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: But the governor, Jennifer Gonzalez-Colomb, she just signed a joint
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: resolution a couple of days ago, 391 and 66 for
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: the House and the Senate in Puerto Rico, formally submitting
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: Puerto Rico to be submitted as a state. Now, Mitch
• 17:57
  Speaker 3: McConnell's basically out. I don't know that he is, but
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: he's got a lot of friends and he's gained a
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: lot of traction with this idea because he's a shipping guy, right?
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: Elaine Chao, his wife, who was transportation secretary, her family
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: owns a big Chinese shipping company. A lot of this
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: has been tied into the shipping companies and the Jones
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: Act and the monopoly that they have on Hawaii and
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: on Puerto Rico. So, And that's just one of many aspects. Right.
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: I had a conversation recently with some administration people about
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: agriculture and why I can't get an aguacate, a Puerto
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: Rican avocado in New York and more BS.
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: But they were on my side. They were like, wow,
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: we didn't know that. You know, and it's a constant
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: education campaign of letting people know this status quo doesn't
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: have to be the status quo. But all that being said,
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: talk to me about your take on on the governor's
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: joint resolution.
• 18:48
  Speaker 4: I think she's trying to send a statement and trying
• 18:50
  Speaker 4: to make it clear that she's maybe not as rhino
• 18:54
  Speaker 4: as a lot of people in the right have tried
• 18:56
  Speaker 4: to paint her out to be. I mean, I think
• 18:59
  Speaker 4: that's a whole wholly separate conversation. But I think that
• 19:02
  Speaker 4: she needs to she needed to have done this because
• 19:05
  Speaker 4: for so many years we've been trying to have referendums
• 19:08
  Speaker 4: on the island and plebiscites.
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: And so the controversy was that they were never binding.
• 19:14
  Speaker 4: And a lot of people, a lot of independents or
• 19:16
  Speaker 4: people that promote independence were trying to use that to
• 19:19
  Speaker 4: their advantage to say, oh, it's really not a majority.
• 19:22
  Speaker 4: And we completely are. I mean, there might be a
• 19:24
  Speaker 4: lot of people that, again, they don't want to be vocal.
• 19:26
  Speaker 4: They don't want to get super involved in politics or
• 19:29
  Speaker 4: they don't want to go out and vote. And this
• 19:30
  Speaker 4: is why we need to go vote, because we have
• 19:32
  Speaker 4: to make our voices heard. But all in all, this
• 19:34
  Speaker 4: is a way for her to let President Trump and
• 19:37
  Speaker 4: the administration know that statehood is a conservative thing. issue.
• 19:42
  Speaker 4: Statehood is necessary and that this is what a lot
• 19:46
  Speaker 4: of us support and that this is like making it
• 19:48
  Speaker 4: official basically for them. to finally lay eyes on the
• 19:52
  Speaker 4: situation and maybe add some pressure on Congress also to
• 19:56
  Speaker 4: take some action. I mean, I think that there needs
• 19:58
  Speaker 4: to be kind of like a dual situation here where
• 20:00
  Speaker 4: they're presenting this not only to the administration but also
• 20:03
  Speaker 4: to continue lobbying heavily with congress members because i i
• 20:06
  Speaker 4: know i think you know this too i think president
• 20:08
  Speaker 4: trump is in agreement that we don't we don't want
• 20:10
  Speaker 4: to lose puerto rico no matter what right like the
• 20:13
  Speaker 4: rhetoric that they've been pushing out or what he's been
• 20:15
  Speaker 4: saying a lot of this fear is coming because of
• 20:18
  Speaker 4: those same congress members that are telling him no no
• 20:21
  Speaker 4: no because if that happens then dc is going to
• 20:23
  Speaker 4: become a state we don't want dc because it's too
• 20:25
  Speaker 4: liberal but The reality is, again, we have a Republican
• 20:29
  Speaker 4: governor in Puerto Rico. The majority of people are socially conservative.
• 20:34
  Speaker 4: They're not into the whole transgender BS and all the
• 20:38
  Speaker 4: other stuff that all of these socialists, these openly socialists
• 20:41
  Speaker 4: on the island are always promoting. And they're very extreme
• 20:44
  Speaker 4: about it. I would say they're even more extreme than
• 20:47
  Speaker 4: Abdul Syed and all the other socialists that we have
• 20:50
  Speaker 4: in New York.
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: I mean, I don't know. I think like they.
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: Also have a huge spokesman in Bad Bunny.
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: And I like Bunny.
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: But I like Bad Bunny.
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: Yes, I do. But I'll tell you, you know, when
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: when he makes these songs and he's one of their
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: biggest cheerleaders, people see that and they go, oh, Puerto
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: Rico is a lost cause. But you're 100 percent right.
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: This is where they double down.
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, a thousand percent. And I mean, again, we can
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: talk about culture, too. I think like.
• 21:17
  Speaker 4: They've been they've been taking control. of our culture for
• 21:22
  Speaker 4: so long that it's really hard also for us to
• 21:24
  Speaker 4: try to detach from that. But little by little, we're
• 21:27
  Speaker 4: reclaiming it. But all that being said, I think that
• 21:32
  Speaker 4: this is a strong step forward. I haven't, to my understanding,
• 21:35
  Speaker 4: I have yet to see any other governor in the
• 21:37
  Speaker 4: past do something like this. So no matter what happens
• 21:42
  Speaker 4: from it during her term, during President Trump's term, it's
• 21:45
  Speaker 4: sending a clear message that at least somebody's trying to
• 21:48
  Speaker 4: get something done for the island. And it happens to
• 21:52
  Speaker 4: be a Republican and it's not it's not Democrats.
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: They don't care. They want to see you screwed.
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: You know, last week I was on the radio and
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: I made a comment that somebody wrote something online. Afterwards,
• 22:03
  Speaker 3: I looked at the comments and somebody said, oh, looks
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: like the Puerto Ricans don't want to pay into the
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: federal tax system. And I put the facts say otherwise,
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: because every time Puerto Ricans have been given an opportunity
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: to vote, statehood has won by the majority each and
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: every time. And he tried to prove me wrong because
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: I said it was a 70% majority when they did
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: it in 2024. But I was wrong. It was a
• 22:26
  Speaker 3: 96% majority when they had that, I think it was
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: 2024 plebiscite that they had. And before that, they were
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: majorities as well, north of 50%. And it's just fascinating
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: to think how people really just don't understand it and
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: don't understand the strategic importance of it. So I'm glad
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: you brought that up. And I'm going to take a
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: quick pause right here. Amigos, we're coming right back with
• 22:49
  Speaker 3: Bianca Rodriguez. She was in President Trump's press shop, and
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: maybe she'll be in President Trump's press shop again with
• 22:56
  Speaker 3: an opening that opened up with Katie Zachariah. Keep it
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: locked right here. It's Rich Valdez.
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: This is America. This is America.
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: President Donald J. Trump, Mr. President, welcome to the program, sir.
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: Well, thank you, Rich, and thank you for everything.
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: I know you very well, and I listen, but I
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: have a lot of people that listen, and they love
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: your show, and I appreciate it very much. All right, America,
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: welcome back. Rich Valdez, I'm here with Bianca Rodriguez. Now, Bianca,
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: what was your exact title with the Trump campaign, so
• 23:37
  Speaker 3: I don't mess it up?
• 23:38
  Speaker 4: I was the Deputy Director of Communications for Hispanic Outreach, basically,
• 23:43
  Speaker 4: so for our people.
• 23:45
  Speaker 3: Excellent. So, For Spanish language media, deputy comms director, this
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: is a big role, big national campaign, biggest one we've
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: seen in a long time, won by a landslide, won
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: all seven swing states. And to me, this is a
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: great opportunity for you to put things on the map
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: and to have influence amongst your peers. So let's talk
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: about this thing that happened, right? You having done this
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: work before. having to go out there. I do a
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: lot of public speaking and it comes naturally for me,
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: thank God. I always say I'm glad I'm good at
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: something because I realize most people are not good at that,
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: get nervous and all of that. And even I've been
• 24:22
  Speaker 3: nervous in the past. But I saw this video of
• 24:25
  Speaker 3: the 14-minute press conference, Katie Zachariah, who I think is
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: fantastic and I love her. I think she's terrific. She
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: seemed a little nervous. I think anybody would be. She
• 24:33
  Speaker 3: also said she got the call on a Wednesday and
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: she took the job on a Monday. So meaning there
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: wasn't a lot of time for her to even get
• 24:39
  Speaker 3: all this prep done. But all that being said, she
• 24:41
  Speaker 3: got roasted. She got roasted by Hannity. She got roasted
• 24:44
  Speaker 3: in the media. She's been roasted in the memes, which
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: I think is probably unfair. But talk to me about
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: your view as somebody who's been a comms person, who's
• 24:51
  Speaker 3: been a spokesperson. What did you think of how that unfolded?
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: I think it's so sad.
• 24:56
  Speaker 4: I think that she definitely should have been given more
• 24:58
  Speaker 4: time to prepare because it doesn't matter how experienced you are.
• 25:02
  Speaker 4: You need time to prepare. You can't just be thrown
• 25:04
  Speaker 4: to the wolves from one day to the next, especially
• 25:06
  Speaker 4: after accepting the job. Like you need to be told like,
• 25:09
  Speaker 4: this is where we're at, given a really detailed briefing
• 25:12
  Speaker 4: of all the issues that are already making the waves
• 25:15
  Speaker 4: in the news. And I think it's unfortunate that that
• 25:18
  Speaker 4: wasn't provided for her for whatever reason. I think there's
• 25:21
  Speaker 4: plenty of theories out there that are very interesting. But
• 25:25
  Speaker 4: I think it's important for you not just to have
• 25:29
  Speaker 4: the on-air experience, like behind TV, maybe having like the
• 25:33
  Speaker 4: commentating experience. Yes, it's important, but it's more important also
• 25:37
  Speaker 4: to have the other side of the coin type of experience,
• 25:39
  Speaker 4: like what you're saying, the spokesperson, working in a comm shop,
• 25:43
  Speaker 4: knowing how to try to predict like crisis before it
• 25:48
  Speaker 4: happens and trying to get ahead of it. Always thinking
• 25:51
  Speaker 4: about what could be a way to strategically paint the
• 25:56
  Speaker 4: an issue or deliver a message or convey it to
• 25:59
  Speaker 4: certain reporters or, you know, like there's a whole apparatus
• 26:02
  Speaker 4: behind it, basically. And I'm so glad that I got
• 26:04
  Speaker 4: that opportunity because I was able to really dig deeper
• 26:07
  Speaker 4: into that type of work, the behind the scenes work,
• 26:10
  Speaker 4: the strategic communications work on the campaign, but also in
• 26:13
  Speaker 4: the administration.
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: And right now I'm still continuing to do a little
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: bit of both.
• 26:18
  Speaker 4: I think it's rare to find people that do both
• 26:20
  Speaker 4: things and that happen to be good at both things.
• 26:23
  Speaker 4: But for a successful press secretary, you have to be,
• 26:26
  Speaker 4: you have to do both. Like we saw that with Caroline,
• 26:29
  Speaker 4: Caroline Levitt. I mean, she had the experience. She started
• 26:32
  Speaker 4: up first with Kaylee McEnany. Like she was kind of,
• 26:36
  Speaker 4: we could say her mentor, she was shadowing after her.
• 26:39
  Speaker 4: And then she also tried running for office. And then
• 26:43
  Speaker 4: she was on the campaign as an actual spokesperson. So
• 26:45
  Speaker 4: all those things definitely helped to shape somebody to prepare
• 26:49
  Speaker 4: for all the attacks, all the like, complicated questions that
• 26:54
  Speaker 4: our reporter would definitely throw at you because we have
• 26:57
  Speaker 4: to remember the media is never going to be on
• 26:59
  Speaker 4: our side. Yeah, it's it's never going to be like
• 27:02
  Speaker 4: it doesn't even matter if it's conservative media. I think
• 27:04
  Speaker 4: we saw that it was demonstrated with the Hannity interview.
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: And that's okay.
• 27:07
  Speaker 4: I mean, I'm the type of person that's always said
• 27:09
  Speaker 4: I don't like it when it seems like it's too
• 27:12
  Speaker 4: softball because what it shows to the other side is
• 27:15
  Speaker 4: that you're not capable of holding your own no matter
• 27:17
  Speaker 4: where you go. And you have to be that way. So,
• 27:20
  Speaker 4: and that, that's why I'm glad I had my experience too.
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: I've interviewed a lot of people and, and what you
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: just said, uh, is actually something I had president Trump
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: on this show. And he told me, he said, you know, if,
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: if you ask questions that are too tough, the guest
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: isn't coming back. If you ask questions that are too soft,
• 27:38
  Speaker 3: the audience won't respect you and they won't come back.
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: So you have to, it's a fine balance trying to
• 27:43
  Speaker 3: find the right questions to make it work. Now, speaking
• 27:45
  Speaker 3: of that, I've, I've had the opportunity to interview, uh,
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: Kaylee McEnany and, um, And of course, um, uh, Caroline Levitt. Um,
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: I never got a chance to interview Sarah Huckabee, but
• 27:56
  Speaker 3: all three of them to me were remarkable press secretaries.
• 27:59
  Speaker 3: They were all, um, solid and ready to go. And
• 28:02
  Speaker 3: I think Katie Zachariah was cut from the same cloth. Uh,
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: I don't know why one leaving in August and then
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: her getting a job three days before she, she actually
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: steps foot on, on the podium. Um, I don't know
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: what happened in between if they didn't fill it fast,
• 28:16
  Speaker 3: if they had other people on a short list and
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: it didn't work out. I don't know. But, um, I
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: think that it just it seemed like a bad way
• 28:24
  Speaker 3: to execute this, not necessarily a testament of her ability,
• 28:28
  Speaker 3: if that makes sense.
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I completely agree.
• 28:31
  Speaker 4: I think what frustrated me the most is that we
• 28:33
  Speaker 4: all know that the midterms are right around the corner.
• 28:36
  Speaker 4: So and I remember also President Trump saying, like, he's
• 28:39
  Speaker 4: not in a hurry to fill the position.
• 28:41
  Speaker 3: Why do it now?
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: We waited all this long.
• 28:42
  Speaker 5: Right.
• 28:43
  Speaker 4: Like, why couldn't we at least figure this out after after?
• 28:46
  Speaker 4: Because now this what this has really served is additional fodder.
• 28:50
  Speaker 4: for Democrats to go and say, oh, why would we
• 28:54
  Speaker 4: trust right now Republicans when they can't even get their
• 28:59
  Speaker 4: shit together to pick a good press secretary?
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: And I feel bad. I mean, I agree with you.
• 29:04
  Speaker 4: I've only met Katie briefly once when she was down
• 29:07
  Speaker 4: here in Miami doing a podcast with one of the
• 29:12
  Speaker 4: Patrick Bed David type of podcasts. And I was following
• 29:16
  Speaker 4: right after her and I remember thinking, she's so nice.
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: But Unfortunately, the.
• 29:22
  Speaker 4: Reality is nice doesn't really get you very far when
• 29:26
  Speaker 4: you're trying to be a spokesperson and you're trying to
• 29:28
  Speaker 4: get in communications.
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: You can't be just nice.
• 29:30
  Speaker 4: You have to be ready to buy bullets and to
• 29:34
  Speaker 4: push back when needed.
• 29:35
  Speaker 3: Now, on the radio, I was joking and I said, Mr. President,
• 29:38
  Speaker 3: because he's told me he listens to my show and
• 29:40
  Speaker 3: I love that compliment. I said, if you're listening, I'm
• 29:42
  Speaker 3: available for this job. What's going on? And I've seen
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: people all over Twitter, one of which was you. And
• 29:48
  Speaker 3: I would vote for you, too, if you get picked
• 29:51
  Speaker 3: for this job. Talk to us about is this a
• 29:53
  Speaker 3: job that you would seriously take? Obviously, it's an honor
• 29:55
  Speaker 3: to do, you know, to hold such a position. But
• 29:57
  Speaker 3: you have a brand new baby, and I'm just curious
• 30:00
  Speaker 3: to know, would you really do it? If asked to serve,
• 30:03
  Speaker 3: would you go? And are you ready to rock and
• 30:04
  Speaker 3: roll today, if the president's listening?
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: I've talked with my husband about this.
• 30:08
  Speaker 4: We have a game plan already set, ready to go.
• 30:13
  Speaker 4: We're ready to go back. If he wants me to
• 30:15
  Speaker 4: be the press secretary... we are ready to leave next week.
• 30:20
  Speaker 4: I think it's an honor. It doesn't matter what situation
• 30:23
  Speaker 4: you find yourself in. Everybody's already demonstrated it. It doesn't
• 30:27
  Speaker 4: matter if you're a mom. It doesn't matter if you
• 30:29
  Speaker 4: have a family. Once you know that you're ready to
• 30:31
  Speaker 4: do something and that you have a talent for something,
• 30:33
  Speaker 4: you have to go pursue it no matter what because
• 30:35
  Speaker 4: your family is going to have your back. And I
• 30:38
  Speaker 4: think that's really important. If you don't have a family
• 30:39
  Speaker 4: that's supportive or you don't have a husband that's willing
• 30:42
  Speaker 4: to support you on that, then You know, it doesn't
• 30:45
  Speaker 4: mean that it's a lack of your own talents. I
• 30:47
  Speaker 4: think it sucks because you should have a supportive family.
• 30:50
  Speaker 4: But in that case, then you really have to reassess.
• 30:53
  Speaker 4: You also have to be realistic, right?
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: But no, but we are ready.
• 30:56
  Speaker 4: I am excited to do anything and everything for this president.
• 31:00
  Speaker 4: I mean, if they wanted somebody to go in, even
• 31:02
  Speaker 4: if just for the next two weeks, like.
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: I'm telling you, I got you.
• 31:05
  Speaker 3: I'm filling in.
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 31:06
  Speaker 3: I got you.
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: And I think you would be great, too. I think
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: we'd make a really good team.
• 31:09
  Speaker 3: All right. I'll take it. I'll be the deputy. Now,
• 31:12
  Speaker 3: before we go to Washington, I want to talk about
• 31:14
  Speaker 3: the midterms, because to me, that's the biggest thing on
• 31:16
  Speaker 3: the plate right now. And we've got the media doing
• 31:18
  Speaker 3: what the media does.
• 31:19
  Speaker 5: Right.
• 31:19
  Speaker 3: And I don't know that in our lifetime we're going
• 31:22
  Speaker 3: to see the media succumb to our narrative.
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: But.
• 31:25
  Speaker 3: That's part of the fun of the fight, right, is
• 31:27
  Speaker 3: making sure we fight back against theirs. And with that
• 31:30
  Speaker 3: being said, I see every day, I mean, even the
• 31:33
  Speaker 3: newscasters and conservative media, they're, oh, the polls are saying
• 31:37
  Speaker 3: this and this and this. Now, I've done this long
• 31:39
  Speaker 3: enough to tell you I've seen polls always. They told
• 31:42
  Speaker 3: me Trump was going to lose. He won. They've been
• 31:45
  Speaker 3: telling me things that are not true for a very
• 31:47
  Speaker 3: long time. So I look at it and I say,
• 31:49
  Speaker 3: everything's possible. Now, Abdul El-Sayed is running in Michigan. Michigan
• 31:54
  Speaker 3: is not a red bastion of America, right? He's replacing
• 31:58
  Speaker 3: another Democrat. It makes sense that Democrats are going to
• 32:01
  Speaker 3: hold on to their seats. It makes sense that Republicans
• 32:03
  Speaker 3: might hold on to their seats, which if they did,
• 32:05
  Speaker 3: we maintain a majority. To me, this is the strongest
• 32:08
  Speaker 3: talking point out there is all we got to do
• 32:11
  Speaker 3: is hold the line. Forget about Tallarico winning Texas. which
• 32:15
  Speaker 3: to me sounds like a long shot, despite what Kelshi
• 32:17
  Speaker 3: is saying. But all that being said, why aren't we
• 32:20
  Speaker 3: taking a more proactive approach in messaging? And that's not
• 32:23
  Speaker 3: the press secretary. This is the RNC and everything else
• 32:26
  Speaker 3: that's out there.
• 32:28
  Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, I think it's a little bit unfortunate
• 32:30
  Speaker 4: because what they could have done from the get-go is
• 32:32
  Speaker 4: have control of that messaging, like you're saying, and be
• 32:35
  Speaker 4: aggressive from the get-go. They needed to They have record
• 32:38
  Speaker 4: number fundraising because we won the election. I mean, they
• 32:40
  Speaker 4: have enough money to be able to invest and maybe
• 32:42
  Speaker 4: bring some people on, even if just for two, three
• 32:44
  Speaker 4: months at a time and go to all these battleground states.
• 32:48
  Speaker 4: Because I think what worked for us in 2024, we
• 32:51
  Speaker 4: had to basically replicate the same thing this time around.
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: We already saw, right?
• 32:56
  Speaker 4: Like we are capable of building a coalition, not just
• 32:59
  Speaker 4: with the Hispanic community and with the African-American community, but
• 33:02
  Speaker 4: also with more of like the Maha oriented people. And
• 33:05
  Speaker 4: we're all in different specific states. And you cannot forget
• 33:09
  Speaker 4: about them. You can't forget about the people that helped
• 33:11
  Speaker 4: get you elected because what happens is they get frustrated.
• 33:15
  Speaker 4: They also, the Democrats, what they do is they pounce
• 33:18
  Speaker 4: and they use that as the same talking point over
• 33:20
  Speaker 4: and over again of the, oh, the, you know, The
• 33:23
  Speaker 4: communities feel abandoned. They feel forgotten because you only use
• 33:26
  Speaker 4: them for elections.
• 33:28
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 33:28
  Speaker 4: So we had such a great opportunity to say, no,
• 33:31
  Speaker 4: this time around, actually, we care about our people.
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: And I know that they do. We know that Republicans
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: care more than the Democrats do because otherwise they wouldn't
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: be pushing these radical socialist candidates the way that they
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: have been. For sure. I don't think, again, it's not
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: a policy problem because they're doing what they have to do.
• 33:48
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's the other part of it.
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: It's a messaging problem.
• 33:50
  Speaker 3: Not to be rude, but you're right. It's not a
• 33:52
  Speaker 3: policy problem. The policy is all there, right? We have
• 33:54
  Speaker 3: the big, beautiful bill and all these things that were
• 33:56
  Speaker 3: these major things that the president has accomplished in Congress.
• 34:00
  Speaker 3: And there's out the window. It's like yesterday's news and
• 34:02
  Speaker 3: they need to be beating that drum. But something you
• 34:04
  Speaker 3: talked about, communities that feel used and abused and one
• 34:07
  Speaker 3: and done. This is something I think we're seeing in Florida, right?
• 34:10
  Speaker 3: Florida is a very red state and Miami was always
• 34:12
  Speaker 3: the blue part. And now all of a sudden you've
• 34:14
  Speaker 3: got Congress. And this is not a critique. I think
• 34:16
  Speaker 3: this is just a political observation. The Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar, right?
• 34:22
  Speaker 3: She's taking heat because of ICE, because of this, because
• 34:25
  Speaker 3: the community is saying that's no good. I'll put fault
• 34:28
  Speaker 3: on both sides of the coin. My brothers were cops
• 34:30
  Speaker 3: for a very long time. I've known a lot of cops.
• 34:33
  Speaker 3: I served as a volunteer cop for a couple of years.
• 34:35
  Speaker 3: I never wore a mask in my life. In fact,
• 34:37
  Speaker 3: you wear a badge with your name next to it.
• 34:39
  Speaker 3: That's kind of how it works. So my critique is
• 34:42
  Speaker 3: I understand these people doxing and whatever, but that is
• 34:44
  Speaker 3: part of the job that's always been there. My brother
• 34:47
  Speaker 3: had bad guys. He locked up, come and get him
• 34:50
  Speaker 3: and kidnapped him and he killed them.
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: That's insane.
• 34:52
  Speaker 3: And that's real. And he was given an award. He
• 34:54
  Speaker 3: thank God he came out alive and he was given
• 34:56
  Speaker 3: an award by the mayor. But my point is that
• 34:58
  Speaker 3: is part of the risk that you wear when you
• 34:59
  Speaker 3: put a blue shirt on, because that's just how it works.
• 35:02
  Speaker 3: So I'm not saying ICE needs to lose the mask,
• 35:04
  Speaker 3: but I'm just saying if people say they don't like
• 35:06
  Speaker 3: masked people, Don't give them more ammo. And I think
• 35:10
  Speaker 3: we did. That's one part of it. But the other
• 35:12
  Speaker 3: part of it is her. She decided, and again, not
• 35:14
  Speaker 3: a critique, more of a question. If the community, any
• 35:19
  Speaker 3: community can turn on you and be like, it could
• 35:21
  Speaker 3: be the conservative people saying, oh, I don't like the
• 35:24
  Speaker 3: idea of the big, beautiful bill. It's spending too much money.
• 35:27
  Speaker 3: You're being a tax and spend liberal. You've got to
• 35:29
  Speaker 3: be able to get out in front of these things
• 35:31
  Speaker 3: like Trump did. Trump is the playbook. He's showed everybody
• 35:35
  Speaker 3: what you need to do. And he's out there doing
• 35:36
  Speaker 3: his part. He's in a different state filling up arenas
• 35:39
  Speaker 3: every single day. The part I don't get is how
• 35:42
  Speaker 3: we don't replicate that model. Why she now has to
• 35:47
  Speaker 3: run away from Trump in order to win if she's
• 35:49
  Speaker 3: even going to win. I don't know her political fate.
• 35:53
  Speaker 3: And I'm not mad at her for running away because
• 35:55
  Speaker 3: I've seen that happen in politics a million times.
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 35:57
  Speaker 3: He's going to say, hey, I'm going this way and
• 35:59
  Speaker 3: you're going to go that way. And hopefully we'll meet
• 36:00
  Speaker 3: on the other side and we both win. But it
• 36:03
  Speaker 3: just it strikes me as an unnecessary maneuver. It's what
• 36:09
  Speaker 3: the Democrats do.
• 36:10
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: It's very Obama.
• 36:12
  Speaker 3: Whereas we could just be like, no, no, no. I
• 36:16
  Speaker 3: like Trump. I don't like the ice masks. I like
• 36:18
  Speaker 3: this and I don't like that. I think we need
• 36:20
  Speaker 3: we need to have some independence that I think we're
• 36:24
  Speaker 3: just starting to see now. And I don't know if
• 36:25
  Speaker 3: it's enough too soon.
• 36:28
  Speaker 4: So what I think the problem is, is what you're
• 36:30
  Speaker 4: saying is that we're seeing a lot of the status
• 36:32
  Speaker 4: quo coming back or trying to creep back in.
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: And that's the problem.
• 36:36
  Speaker 4: The people voted for Trump for a reason, because everybody
• 36:38
  Speaker 4: wants to see something different. And what he did, basically
• 36:42
  Speaker 4: on his own, not involving the greater, like you're saying,
• 36:45
  Speaker 4: like Congress member apparatus or the traditional apparatus, is that
• 36:49
  Speaker 4: he proved that he can stand on his own, but
• 36:51
  Speaker 4: that he's also standing with the people. And so as
• 36:54
  Speaker 4: long as you're pursuing exactly what the people voted you for,
• 36:56
  Speaker 4: you shouldn't.
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: Have a problem.
• 36:58
  Speaker 4: And I think a lot of the issues that these
• 37:00
  Speaker 4: Congress members are facing, especially Maria Elvira, which I also...
• 37:04
  Speaker 4: I have a lot of appreciation for her. I think,
• 37:07
  Speaker 4: you know, we can't have a Democrat there, right? So
• 37:11
  Speaker 4: we need to support her.
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: But the problem is that she's too fearful of the
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: fact that there are people within her district that are undocumented.
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: But we have to remember... They don't vote.
• 37:21
  Speaker 3: I mean, they're not supposed to vote.
• 37:23
  Speaker 4: They're not supposed to vote. But look at what happened
• 37:25
  Speaker 4: in California. And so it's a problem, right? But again,
• 37:28
  Speaker 4: we need people to really be vocal and not be.
• 37:32
  Speaker 2: Ay, Dios mío. I think of it in Spanish and
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: I like to.
• 37:36
  Speaker 4: Try to translate it, you know, de que no estén
• 37:39
  Speaker 4: comiendo mierda. You know, they need to really get to
• 37:43
  Speaker 4: the bottom of what they're trying to do and really
• 37:45
  Speaker 4: say things how they are. Like, we don't want illegal
• 37:47
  Speaker 4: people voting in our elections. We don't even want undocumented
• 37:50
  Speaker 4: people in our country.
• 37:51
  Speaker 3: It's not an anti-Latino thing.
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 37:54
  Speaker 4: And it's not, right, there you go. It's also been
• 37:56
  Speaker 4: seen like, no, because you're Latino, you have to stand
• 37:58
  Speaker 4: for them.
• 37:59
  Speaker 3: That's the same rhetoric from Puerto Rico.
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: Right. No, no.
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: We want law and order like we're Americans. We are Americans.
• 38:07
  Speaker 4: And I that's another topic that I'm hoping we can
• 38:09
  Speaker 4: talk about maybe at another time.
• 38:11
  Speaker 2: The balkanization with identity politics.
• 38:13
  Speaker 4: It's like always like, but you're Puerto Rican and like
• 38:16
  Speaker 4: you're Salvadorian and this and that. And it's like we
• 38:19
  Speaker 4: might have different backgrounds, but at the end of the day,
• 38:21
  Speaker 4: we're all Americans in America and we want to make
• 38:24
  Speaker 4: this country better. Right. So and there are issues that
• 38:27
  Speaker 4: we care about that are affecting us right now. whether
• 38:31
  Speaker 4: that's in the economy, whether that's with crime, whatever the
• 38:34
  Speaker 4: case is, but those are American issues, right? And if
• 38:38
  Speaker 4: Congress members that are trying to defend their seats are
• 38:41
  Speaker 4: not talking about what they've done, and they're also not
• 38:44
  Speaker 4: fighting enough in Congress to get more things done, then
• 38:47
  Speaker 4: it speaks more to a problem that they have than
• 38:49
  Speaker 4: it is a problem from the people that are there
• 38:52
  Speaker 4: to vote for them, if that makes sense. I think
• 38:55
  Speaker 4: Elliot Rodriguez, who is her contender right now, the ones
• 38:59
  Speaker 4: that's competing for her seat.
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: If you read him on paper, he sounds amazing, right?
• 39:04
  Speaker 4: He's trying to sell himself as a moderate because even
• 39:06
  Speaker 4: he knows that you can't run as a socialist in Miami.
• 39:10
  Speaker 4: Thank God, at least not yet. But the policies that
• 39:13
  Speaker 4: he's pushing for are very much socialist. That's where the Democrat.
• 39:17
  Speaker 2: Party is right now.
• 39:18
  Speaker 4: And so we need to really Everybody needs to get together,
• 39:20
  Speaker 4: especially them, and actually get on TV and and do
• 39:24
  Speaker 4: the podcast and do and get the get the message
• 39:26
  Speaker 4: out do the social media videos and not be pouncing
• 39:30
  Speaker 4: on trump because when you do that you're giving extra
• 39:33
  Speaker 4: fodder unnecessarily to the democrats you have to stand on
• 39:36
  Speaker 4: your own because she voted she voted for a lot
• 39:39
  Speaker 4: of these measures and of course she supports a lot
• 39:41
  Speaker 4: of these measures but she's afraid to say it she
• 39:43
  Speaker 4: needs to stop being afraid and she needs to stand
• 39:45
  Speaker 4: for what where the republican party is headed today which
• 39:48
  Speaker 4: is anti-illegal immigration, period.
• 39:51
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Listen, I agree with you 100%. And I think
• 39:54
  Speaker 3: there's a whole other PR campaign that's constantly happening against ICE.
• 39:59
  Speaker 3: I've seen crazy things. I saw a little kid with
• 40:01
  Speaker 3: a backpack pushed up against a police car and they said,
• 40:05
  Speaker 3: now they're locking up little kids. That was the caption
• 40:07
  Speaker 3: on social media. I did a little research. This was
• 40:10
  Speaker 3: a woman that had dwarfism. She wasn't a little kid.
• 40:13
  Speaker 3: She was a woman and she wasn't even Hispanic. She
• 40:15
  Speaker 3: was white and she was like Polish or something. She
• 40:17
  Speaker 3: was arrested by the county police. It wasn't ICE. The
• 40:20
  Speaker 3: whole thing was fake, but they made it look like
• 40:22
  Speaker 3: ICE was doing this. I saw another one of a
• 40:24
  Speaker 3: kid getting a diploma. He ran up to the stage,
• 40:26
  Speaker 3: not walked. He ran up to the stage and the
• 40:28
  Speaker 3: cops tackled him. He was in his cap and gown
• 40:32
  Speaker 3: and the cops tackled him. And they said ICE is
• 40:34
  Speaker 3: now tackling kids trying to just graduate. That was another lie.
• 40:38
  Speaker 3: The kid was black. He was an American. He said
• 40:40
  Speaker 3: he was going to punch the principal in the face
• 40:42
  Speaker 3: and walked up there to punch the principal. So that's
• 40:45
  Speaker 3: why they tackled him. But again, that was falsely captioned.
• 40:48
  Speaker 3: And people send this to my closest friends and they go,
• 40:50
  Speaker 3: this is what you support, bro. So I have to
• 40:53
  Speaker 3: spend a half hour, 40 minutes researching this because I'm like,
• 40:55
  Speaker 3: come on. But if I have to do it, the
• 40:58
  Speaker 3: congresswoman has to do it and everybody has to do it.
• 41:00
  Speaker 3: And you got to get out there and give them fire.
• 41:02
  Speaker 3: At least that's what I believe, because otherwise they win
• 41:04
  Speaker 3: the war.
• 41:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. You said it perfectly. You have to give
• 41:08
  Speaker 2: them fire. And you know what? I would do what
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: you just said. Get all those clips and then I
• 41:12
  Speaker 2: would recirculate them and do something over them.
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 41:16
  Speaker 4: Make an ad and say, this is fake news. This
• 41:18
  Speaker 4: is really what's happening. This is really what's happening. And
• 41:20
  Speaker 4: then you would switch that and say, This is actually
• 41:24
  Speaker 4: what illegal migrants are doing, right? And you would show
• 41:26
  Speaker 4: all the pictures of... I think ICE is doing a
• 41:28
  Speaker 4: really good job at it, actually, with their social media.
• 41:30
  Speaker 4: I know Mike Avak, who just got promoted to being
• 41:35
  Speaker 4: the chief of staff there, and he's going to be
• 41:37
  Speaker 4: running their.
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: their comms operations, but he's kind of already been doing
• 41:40
  Speaker 2: it behind the scenes. It's kind of funny. He's the
• 41:42
  Speaker 2: mastermind behind all the memes and things.
• 41:45
  Speaker 3: They've done a really good job lately.
• 41:46
  Speaker 2: They've done a really good job. I'm so proud of them.
• 41:49
  Speaker 2: And this is, this is your, this is Gen Z. Okay.
• 41:51
  Speaker 2: This means that Gen Z.
• 41:53
  Speaker 3: That's the new language of America.
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 41:57
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 41:57
  Speaker 2: And listen, and I think it has to go hand
• 42:00
  Speaker 2: in hand with policy.
• 42:00
  Speaker 4: I'm not saying that we're going to replace policy with
• 42:03
  Speaker 4: memes because I understand the criticism with that, but it's,
• 42:07
  Speaker 4: It's a delicate balance that you have to play.
• 42:08
  Speaker 2: And I think it's necessary because this is how Trump won. Again,
• 42:13
  Speaker 2: we can't play up the playbook too much.
• 42:15
  Speaker 4: If you drift away from the playbook, then we're not
• 42:18
  Speaker 4: going to have a solid Republican candidate again for a
• 42:21
  Speaker 4: long time.
• 42:21
  Speaker 3: I agree. And, you know, it's not new. We might
• 42:24
  Speaker 3: call them memes today. And when I got into this,
• 42:27
  Speaker 3: when I was your age in my 20s, It was
• 42:29
  Speaker 3: political cartoons in a thing called a newspaper.
• 42:32
  Speaker 5: Right.
• 42:33
  Speaker 3: And they would put those on the news and say, oh,
• 42:35
  Speaker 3: look at what the comic strip is saying today about
• 42:37
  Speaker 3: people today. Now it's a meme on Instagram. But it's
• 42:40
  Speaker 3: the same thing. You're ridiculing people and you're simplifying a message.
• 42:44
  Speaker 3: And that's what the name of the game is. Bianca,
• 42:46
  Speaker 3: let everybody know who's listening and says, man, this chick
• 42:48
  Speaker 3: is terrific. We want to see her in the White
• 42:50
  Speaker 3: House press briefing room. How do they find you? How
• 42:53
  Speaker 3: do they support you? Where do they go?
• 42:54
  Speaker 2: I'm on Instagram.
• 42:55
  Speaker 4: You can just find me, Bianca and Rodriguez. On X,
• 42:58
  Speaker 4: it's RodsBianca. But you could search my name and you'll
• 43:01
  Speaker 4: find me. I'm on X, Instagram. I got to get
• 43:04
  Speaker 4: back on TikTok. But those are kind of my two
• 43:05
  Speaker 4: main platforms as of right now.
• 43:07
  Speaker 3: Outstanding. All right, folks, check her out, Bianca Rodriguez. She's
• 43:11
  Speaker 3: the former deputy spokesperson for the Trump campaign for Hispanic media.
• 43:15
  Speaker 3: I'm Rich Valdez. I'm coming right back.
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: This is America. This is America. Para Inglés, o Primal
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: Número 2.
• 43:31
  Speaker 3: Para Rich Valdez.
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: Y esto es América Ahora.
• 43:39
  Speaker 3: All right, family, welcome back. Rich Valdez keeping you company
• 43:43
  Speaker 3: this evening. And I want to get into a couple
• 43:45
  Speaker 3: of things. Obviously, we're going to go from campaign loyalty
• 43:47
  Speaker 3: to cosmetic surgery risks, that BBL craziness in South Florida,
• 43:53
  Speaker 3: prison perks, real world heroes. There's a lot still to
• 43:57
  Speaker 3: unpack this evening. And there is so much more coming
• 44:01
  Speaker 3: straight ahead. Just keep it locked right here as we
• 44:03
  Speaker 3: continue our conversation. But first, I want to remind you
• 44:06
  Speaker 3: about some of our friends that are out there making
• 44:10
  Speaker 3: things happen, right? First of all, we got Endless Vitality.
• 44:13
  Speaker 3: Endless Vitality is a company that was started by my
• 44:17
  Speaker 3: buddy Jim Nance. And Jim Nance, I interviewed him about
• 44:21
  Speaker 3: a year ago, and it's when I learned about his story.
• 44:24
  Speaker 3: This is a guy that he had a stroke working
• 44:29
  Speaker 3: as a banker and turned his life around in his
• 44:34
  Speaker 3: rehab process using peptides, all sorts of different peptides, and
• 44:38
  Speaker 3: he liked it so much and became so healthy doing
• 44:41
  Speaker 3: it that he decided to get out of the banking
• 44:44
  Speaker 3: business and get into the peptide business. As you guys know,
• 44:48
  Speaker 3: the peptides are amino acids, right? Different strings of amino
• 44:52
  Speaker 3: acids put together. That's what a peptide is. So these
• 44:55
  Speaker 3: are naturally recurring amino acids that exist in our bodies.
• 45:01
  Speaker 3: They put them together and packaged them so that you
• 45:03
  Speaker 3: could take more. Kind of like taking a vitamin, if
• 45:05
  Speaker 3: you will, right? We have certain vitamins in our bodies
• 45:07
  Speaker 3: and when we run low, we take them. This is
• 45:09
  Speaker 3: very similar. And when you take these peptides, all sorts
• 45:13
  Speaker 3: of different things happen. And I haven't taken many of them.
• 45:15
  Speaker 3: I have taken some. But the stuff that he talked
• 45:19
  Speaker 3: about in that interview, and I recently shared a clip
• 45:22
  Speaker 3: on my Instagram, and I'll share another clip because there's
• 45:24
  Speaker 3: really a bunch of standout moments, even though it's an
• 45:27
  Speaker 3: older video from a year ago. It's always, I guess,
• 45:31
  Speaker 3: a timeless classic, and it's prescient in many ways because
• 45:34
  Speaker 3: people need to regenerate their bodies. People need to... to heal.
• 45:40
  Speaker 3: And sometimes as you get older or because of inflammation
• 45:42
  Speaker 3: or because of insulin resistance or other health ailments or
• 45:46
  Speaker 3: a poor diet, you're not able to heal the way
• 45:49
  Speaker 3: you'd like to heal. So if you want to learn
• 45:52
  Speaker 3: more about that stuff, go check out my buddy Jim
• 45:54
  Speaker 3: Nance at Endless Vitality. They give you the runaround. You
• 45:57
  Speaker 3: got to tell them, hey, I heard Rich Valdez talking
• 45:59
  Speaker 3: about you. Once you drop my name, I'm pretty sure
• 46:02
  Speaker 3: they'll treat you like VIP familia. The Valdez VIP familia. Anyway,
• 46:06
  Speaker 3: check them out at Endless Vitality. I believe the website
• 46:09
  Speaker 3: is endlessvitality.com if you want to learn more about them.
• 46:13
  Speaker 3: And follow them on Instagram as well. But I bring
• 46:17
  Speaker 3: all of that up because tomorrow we're going to talk
• 46:20
  Speaker 3: with Speaker Newt Gingrich. And we're going to talk about
• 46:22
  Speaker 3: a bunch of things. And in his new book, which
• 46:24
  Speaker 3: is about the golden age of America, he talks about
• 46:29
  Speaker 3: how the 20-year-olds of today are going to live to 115.
• 46:33
  Speaker 3: And while that's, I guess, on track to be accurate,
• 46:37
  Speaker 3: it seems like, wow, right? It sounds crazy that people
• 46:41
  Speaker 3: are living longer and doing more. So I'm looking forward
• 46:44
  Speaker 3: to that conversation and discussing the midterm elections, what's going
• 46:49
  Speaker 3: on with Mike Collins in Georgia. We're going to talk
• 46:54
  Speaker 3: about the medical breakthroughs that I mentioned, space travel, Americans
• 46:58
  Speaker 3: becoming frequenters of different planets. And what does that look
• 47:03
  Speaker 3: like for the job market? Does AI replace everybody? Or
• 47:07
  Speaker 3: is this like other jobs that once existed and now
• 47:11
  Speaker 3: don't and people adapt and adjust? I'm curious about all
• 47:15
  Speaker 3: of it. So make sure you keep it locked right
• 47:16
  Speaker 3: here and subscribe to this program to get the notifications
• 47:21
  Speaker 3: so that you don't miss anything. And again, that's tomorrow.
• 47:25
  Speaker 3: And I'm going to pause right here. We're going to
• 47:26
  Speaker 3: come right back and I'll give you my final thoughts
• 47:29
  Speaker 3: in our final segment. Don't go anywhere.
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: This is America. This is America. He's making podcasting great again.
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: This is America with Rich Valdez.
• 48:01
  Speaker 3: All right, familia, welcome back. Rich Valdez, I am with you.
• 48:04
  Speaker 3: And we got a few interesting things going on, right?
• 48:09
  Speaker 3: There's a story out of Florida. NBC6 in Florida had
• 48:13
  Speaker 3: a crazy story about a woman that wanted to have
• 48:16
  Speaker 3: a Brazilian butt lift. And all sorts of things went
• 48:20
  Speaker 3: wrong with that. I want to get that clip played
• 48:23
  Speaker 3: for you. Guys, can we get that clip played? Let's
• 48:26
  Speaker 3: cue that up. Check this out.
• 48:28
  Speaker 5: The family of Jennifer Arias is still coming to terms
• 48:30
  Speaker 5: with how the beloved sister, daughter, and mother lost her life.
• 48:34
  Speaker 5: They say the 29-year-old traveled to Miami from New York
• 48:37
  Speaker 5: to undergo liposuction and a Brazilian butt lift, known as
• 48:40
  Speaker 5: a BBL, at New Life Plastic Surgery on August 13th.
• 48:44
  Speaker 5: Jennifer's mother, Monica Arias, says she argued with her daughter
• 48:47
  Speaker 5: about getting surgery. Worried something could go wrong, potentially leaving
• 48:55
  Speaker 5: Jennifer's 7-year-old daughter Janela without her mom. Erika shared these
• 49:00
  Speaker 5: text messages from her sister at 4.18 a.m. Hours later,
• 49:04
  Speaker 5: she says she got a phone call. The family says
• 49:06
  Speaker 5: they rushed to the airport when Erika got a call
• 49:09
  Speaker 5: from the doctor she says was scheduled to perform her
• 49:12
  Speaker 5: sister's surgery. Julio Clavijo Alvarez is a Miami plastic surgeon
• 49:16
  Speaker 5: who promotes his work on YouTube. and is also listed
• 49:19
  Speaker 5: on New Life's website. The family says Jennifer was taken
• 49:22
  Speaker 5: to a hospital. By the time they got there, she
• 49:25
  Speaker 5: was gone. According to the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner's Office, Jennifer
• 49:28
  Speaker 5: Arias died from a fat embolism in both lungs due
• 49:32
  Speaker 5: to her surgeries. and classified her death as an accident.
• 49:35
  Speaker 5: NBC6 Investigates reviewed civil lawsuits, state and county records. We
• 49:40
  Speaker 5: found Jennifer is at least the sixth patient to die
• 49:43
  Speaker 5: after surgery at New Life since 2018. In 2022, NBC6
• 49:47
  Speaker 5: Investigates spoke to the mother of Naimi Susetz. The 41-year-old
• 49:51
  Speaker 5: died from a blood clot in her lungs, according to
• 49:53
  Speaker 5: the medical examiner, after getting liposuction and a tummy tuck
• 49:57
  Speaker 5: at New Life. Her doctor, Julio Clavijo Alvarez. We reached
• 50:01
  Speaker 5: out to New Life, the doctor, and their attorneys about
• 50:04
  Speaker 5: Jennifer's case and our findings. So far, they have not
• 50:07
  Speaker 5: responded to our questions. In court filings related to two
• 50:11
  Speaker 5: patients' deaths, New Life has denied responsibility, arguing in part
• 50:15
  Speaker 5: that the doctors involved were independent contractors.
• 50:19
  Speaker 3: Independent contractors. Now, I guess that can be true if
• 50:23
  Speaker 3: New Life is not itself a clinic, if it's an
• 50:27
  Speaker 3: ambulatory surgical center where doctors are in effect, you know,
• 50:32
  Speaker 3: it's like renting office space, right? I'm renting an operating
• 50:34
  Speaker 3: room and I'm doing my thing here. And of course,
• 50:37
  Speaker 3: then New Life has nothing to do with it. It's
• 50:39
  Speaker 3: the actual doctor. And as you heard in this case,
• 50:41
  Speaker 3: this Dr. J.C. Alvarez, he seems to be the one
• 50:46
  Speaker 3: that's got six deaths to his name. I've never been
• 50:50
  Speaker 3: a surgeon before, so I don't know if six is
• 50:52
  Speaker 3: a good number or a bad one, but it sounds
• 50:54
  Speaker 3: terrible to me. I know if I had to go
• 50:57
  Speaker 3: to surgery, the first thing I'm asking is, have you
• 50:59
  Speaker 3: done this before? Did they make it? How are they doing?
• 51:02
  Speaker 3: You know, I know a lot of people don't ask questions,
• 51:03
  Speaker 3: but I learned to ask those questions very early in life.
• 51:07
  Speaker 3: When my big girl, who's 25 now, when she was
• 51:10
  Speaker 3: a baby, she was four months old, I went to
• 51:12
  Speaker 3: a wedding with her mom, who was back then still
• 51:15
  Speaker 3: my wife, and it was in Connecticut and left the
• 51:18
  Speaker 3: baby with family. They brought the baby to church. She
• 51:22
  Speaker 3: had just learned that day how to sit up in
• 51:25
  Speaker 3: the infant carrier, like, you know, doing a sit up.
• 51:29
  Speaker 3: And I guess they didn't think she could do a
• 51:30
  Speaker 3: sit up because, you know, she was only four months
• 51:32
  Speaker 3: old and she was able to roll out of the
• 51:35
  Speaker 3: infant carrier and hit her face on the pew, the
• 51:39
  Speaker 3: church pew. And it caused major damage to her little
• 51:44
  Speaker 3: four month old face. Her nose was split one nostril.
• 51:47
  Speaker 3: like by her right cheek and one nostril by her
• 51:49
  Speaker 3: left cheek, and her nose was literally ripped in half
• 51:52
  Speaker 3: down her face. It was brutal. Fearful years later, I
• 51:56
  Speaker 3: learned from the family member that was taking care of her,
• 52:01
  Speaker 3: rode in the ambulance with her, that she, in fact,
• 52:06
  Speaker 3: stopped responding in the ambulance, and I didn't know that
• 52:09
  Speaker 3: until later. Thank God she's alive and well today. You
• 52:13
  Speaker 3: can't tell. You know, she's a beautiful girl. And no
• 52:17
  Speaker 3: head trauma, nothing like that. But it was incredibly traumatic
• 52:22
  Speaker 3: as a child and, you know, to me as a
• 52:24
  Speaker 3: dad and to her mom. And I remember the nurses
• 52:29
  Speaker 3: were like, oh, but she's so little. We're going to
• 52:31
  Speaker 3: have to call this one doctor. I think his name
• 52:33
  Speaker 3: was Jonathan Lasky. I might have the first name wrong,
• 52:36
  Speaker 3: but his last name was definitely Lasky. Plastic surgeon. This
• 52:40
  Speaker 3: was at a hospital in Hoboken, then named St. Mary
• 52:45
  Speaker 3: Hospital in Hoboken, New Jersey. And I remember seeing this
• 52:49
  Speaker 3: guy come in, and he looked like he had just
• 52:51
  Speaker 3: come from, you know, the Codeca, right, from a nightclub.
• 52:59
  Speaker 3: And I was like, are you the doctor? And he
• 53:01
  Speaker 3: was like, yeah, with an attitude. And I was like,
• 53:05
  Speaker 3: you're going to work on my kid? And he was like,
• 53:07
  Speaker 3: I don't have to. I can go back home. I
• 53:09
  Speaker 3: was doing just fine where I was. And it was
• 53:11
  Speaker 3: super early on a Sunday, so I'm presuming he went
• 53:13
  Speaker 3: out the night before. Maybe he was coming home late,
• 53:16
  Speaker 3: you know, one of those nights where you end up
• 53:18
  Speaker 3: at the pancake house, you know, at 6 in the morning,
• 53:21
  Speaker 3: leave there at 8 in the morning, make it home
• 53:23
  Speaker 3: by 9, and then, oh, the beeper goes off. His
• 53:25
  Speaker 3: pager's saying, hey, we have an emergency. But he was
• 53:27
  Speaker 3: the only plastics surgeon that was available that had experience
• 53:32
  Speaker 3: with pediatric patients. So I was judging the book by
• 53:36
  Speaker 3: its cover because he looked like a young guy that
• 53:38
  Speaker 3: was out and about on the town. And I'm thinking, man,
• 53:42
  Speaker 3: this guy might have, you know, who knows? He might
• 53:43
  Speaker 3: have thrown a few back. And is he actually able?
• 53:46
  Speaker 3: You know, I don't know how the Hippocratic oath works
• 53:49
  Speaker 3: of doing no harm. And he would have showed up
• 53:51
  Speaker 3: if he couldn't come, even though he was on call.
• 53:52
  Speaker 3: Maybe he wasn't on call. All I know is he
• 53:55
  Speaker 3: was the guy they wanted. So I looked him in
• 53:57
  Speaker 3: his face while I was shaking his hand. And I said, hey,
• 54:00
  Speaker 3: can you do this? And he said, relax, Dad. Let's
• 54:04
  Speaker 3: take care of your daughter. And that's what I needed
• 54:06
  Speaker 3: to hear. I think it's, you know, people.
• 54:10
  Speaker 3: Overestimate doctors sometimes. And at times I think doctors overestimate
• 54:15
  Speaker 3: how important good bedside manner is. And he had a
• 54:18
  Speaker 3: great one. You know, when you're able to allay the
• 54:20
  Speaker 3: fears of somebody who's got their four-month-old infant laying on
• 54:25
  Speaker 3: a stretcher, nearly passed out from a head trauma and
• 54:30
  Speaker 3: a nose that's been ripped apart on a tiny baby,
• 54:35
  Speaker 3: you know, have a little compassion, which he did. He
• 54:37
  Speaker 3: gave me the confidence I needed. And it was a
• 54:40
  Speaker 3: tremendous ordeal. I mean, I'm not going to get into
• 54:42
  Speaker 3: all of that now, but my point was, when you're
• 54:46
  Speaker 3: the guy, you're the guy. And I didn't stop and
• 54:48
  Speaker 3: ask him if he'd lost six patients, but I'm pretty
• 54:52
  Speaker 3: sure he hadn't, right? Because he was very confident and
• 54:55
  Speaker 3: he seemed to be doing his thing. Again, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe,
• 54:58
  Speaker 3: you know, that's how you get confident, you know, going, yep,
• 55:01
  Speaker 3: I lost the last six, but this seventh, oh, here
• 55:03
  Speaker 3: we go. And I'm not making light of anybody's tragic loss.
• 55:06
  Speaker 3: I'm just trying to wrap my head around this, how
• 55:09
  Speaker 3: this is able to happen. You know, I would hope
• 55:11
  Speaker 3: that that's not the odds that most of us are
• 55:15
  Speaker 3: dealing with when people go for a surgery for whatever,
• 55:17
  Speaker 3: that their doctor, their surgeon isn't like Dr. Alvarez. And again,
• 55:22
  Speaker 3: I'm not trying to throw shade on Dr.
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: Alvarez.
• 55:24
  Speaker 3: I'm just repeating the NBC News report that says there's
• 55:27
  Speaker 3: six women that have died on his operating room table.
• 55:30
  Speaker 3: I've got a buddy, shout out to my buddy Murray.
• 55:34
  Speaker 3: We call him Jonathan from St. Joseph's Hospital in Patterson,
• 55:38
  Speaker 3: New Jersey. And he is a board-certified surgical technologist, and
• 55:43
  Speaker 3: now he's like director of supply chain. But he came
• 55:46
  Speaker 3: in through the OR and has scrubbed in on many surgeries.
• 55:53
  Speaker 3: And I should have asked him when I saw him earlier.
• 55:56
  Speaker 3: I saw him today, actually. We had lunch. But I
• 56:00
  Speaker 3: should ask him, is it normal that most of these
• 56:02
  Speaker 3: doctors have four or five bodies in the rearview mirror?
• 56:06
  Speaker 3: or six in this doctor's case. I want to say
• 56:08
  Speaker 3: it's probably not. I'm sure it's a thing that happens,
• 56:10
  Speaker 3: and not necessarily their fault either, right? I think if
• 56:13
  Speaker 3: you're doing a high-stakes surgery, you're like, hey, look, this
• 56:15
  Speaker 3: is a Hail Mary. This is our best shot at
• 56:17
  Speaker 3: providing them a decent quality of life, and they die
• 56:20
  Speaker 3: on the table. That's one thing. It's another thing when
• 56:24
  Speaker 3: you're having an elective surgery to add fat into your butt,
• 56:28
  Speaker 3: and that fat makes it to your lungs. And if
• 56:31
  Speaker 3: the excuse is going to be, and I'm just using
• 56:33
  Speaker 3: the word excuse again, not to throw shade on him
• 56:35
  Speaker 3: per se, but more to throw shade on this process,
• 56:39
  Speaker 3: to say, hey, look, when you sign these papers saying
• 56:41
  Speaker 3: that some of the butt fat might travel to your
• 56:45
  Speaker 3: lung and kill you and just sign here saying that
• 56:47
  Speaker 3: you know that, if that's part of what's going on,
• 56:50
  Speaker 3: then maybe, I don't know, maybe we need to make
• 56:52
  Speaker 3: that a little bit more clear or maybe we need
• 56:55
  Speaker 3: to reevaluate that somehow and make sure people really are
• 56:59
  Speaker 3: paying attention.
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 57:02
  Speaker 3: I'm curious to see the outcome of this. I don't
• 57:04
  Speaker 3: think Dr. Miami has six bodies to his name, but
• 57:06
  Speaker 3: I'm going to do the research and you can help me.
• 57:08
  Speaker 3: If you go on your chat GPT or whatever it
• 57:11
  Speaker 3: is you use to do your research and find out
• 57:13
  Speaker 3: that the guy who had the show on the cable channel, Dr. Miami,
• 57:17
  Speaker 3: that this guy has multiple deaths on his record as well,
• 57:22
  Speaker 3: then I think maybe that's a new conversation we have
• 57:24
  Speaker 3: to have because I'd be curious to know what these
• 57:28
  Speaker 3: stats look like. So anyway, That's just something I wanted
• 57:31
  Speaker 3: to bring up. I guess I'll leave the Diddy stuff
• 57:33
  Speaker 3: for another day because I want to get into that. But,
• 57:38
  Speaker 3: you know, we took so much time on this. But
• 57:40
  Speaker 3: give me a call if you have any thoughts and
• 57:42
  Speaker 3: you want to jump in on the next episode. The
• 57:45
  Speaker 3: phone number 877-VALDEZ1, 877-VALDEZ1. Always a lot more fun when
• 57:50
  Speaker 3: I hear from you guys. Shout out to all of
• 57:52
  Speaker 3: our friends out there who are chiming in on the
• 57:55
  Speaker 3: social media. I appreciate you and I appreciate you sharing
• 57:58
  Speaker 3: the show as well. Many of you have shared the show,
• 58:00
  Speaker 3: and that's why we've charted so well this year in
• 58:03
  Speaker 3: multiple markets, by the way. Very, very thrilled to have
• 58:07
  Speaker 3: broken into different Latin American markets in their top 100,
• 58:11
  Speaker 3: charting in the top 200 here in the United States,
• 58:14
  Speaker 3: and continuing to bring in just, I think, some of
• 58:17
  Speaker 3: the best, most knowledgeable guests for the different topics we're covering.
• 58:21
  Speaker 3: So let me know what you think. 877-VALDES1 is the
• 58:23
  Speaker 3: phone number, 877-VALDES1. And of course.
• 58:30
  Speaker 3: Part of what I want you to do this research
• 58:31
  Speaker 3: for is so that you can know something. Because if
• 58:33
  Speaker 3: you stand for nothing, you'll fall for anything. And the
• 58:37
  Speaker 3: only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good
• 58:40
  Speaker 3: people like you to sit there and do nothing. So
• 58:42
  Speaker 3: make sure you do something. Hasta la proxima. Take care.
• 58:45
  Speaker 3: Good night. And God bless you, America. I'm Rich Valdez.
• 58:49
  Speaker 3: And this is America.
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: This is America. Thank you. Thank you.
• 59:30
  Speaker 4: Thank you.