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He Wants To Be Florida's Next Governor · Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott

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  Speaker 1: Welcome Morning ruminators. Welcome to the Second Hour. If you're
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: just joining us, thank you. We greatly appreciate you sharing
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  Speaker 1: time with us each and every day. It Show five thousand,
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  Speaker 1: four hundred and forty eight of the Morning Show with
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  Speaker 1: Preston Scott. I'm Preston, he is Jose. It is a
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  Speaker 1: delight to be with you, and we are going to
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  Speaker 1: share some time with Paul Renner. Paul served twenty years
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  Speaker 1: as a naval officer, combat deployments and Operation Desert Storm
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  Speaker 1: and in Afghanistan. Began his legal career as a prosecutor
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  Speaker 1: and eventually went into private practice. Served in the state legislature,
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  Speaker 1: eventually becoming the Speaker of the House. Now he wants
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  Speaker 1: to be governor of the state of Florida. Paul, welcome
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  Speaker 1: back to the program.
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  Speaker 2: How are you, Preston. Great to be with you.
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  Speaker 1: Tell me why the decision to go ahead and make
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  Speaker 1: a run for governor.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I'm the father of two young kids, so I
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  Speaker 2: think about the future, what's going to happen in the
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  Speaker 2: next four years, and look, leadership is everything. We've got
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  Speaker 2: a great great men and women in the legislature, but
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  Speaker 2: you've got to have a great leader certainly as governor,
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  Speaker 2: and so you know, whether it's fighting for insurance reform,
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  Speaker 2: where we attacked lawsuit abuse, record tax relief, universal school choice,
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  Speaker 2: tough laws and immigration and election fraud, protecting life, ending DEI,
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  Speaker 2: transgender surgeries on miners, boys and girls, bathrooms. We did
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  Speaker 2: it all in one sixty day session that many consider
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  Speaker 2: the most conservative and consequential in Florida's history. And as
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  Speaker 2: you mentioned in the opening, I've got twenty years in
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  Speaker 2: the military, served in two wars as a prosecutor and
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  Speaker 2: obviously a speaker. And so if you want to find
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  Speaker 2: somebody who can defend what we all love about Florida,
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  Speaker 2: the free State of Florida, but also take on our challenges,
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  Speaker 2: you go to somebody with leadership experience and who's delivered results.
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  Speaker 1: You obviously know as a military guy, especially the lay
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  Speaker 1: of the land. It's what you, guys, do you figure
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  Speaker 1: out what you're facing. You're facing a guy endorsed by
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  Speaker 1: the curring sitting President Donald Trump in Byron Donald's how
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  Speaker 1: do you overcome that?
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  Speaker 2: Well, I think it's three things that people are going
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  Speaker 2: to look at. Who do you trust, Who's got the
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  Speaker 2: leadership experience to serve as governor of the third largest
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  Speaker 2: state in the country, and who's delivered results time and
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  Speaker 2: time again. And I listed some of those, I didn't
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  Speaker 2: list all of them. You know, we also protected kids
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  Speaker 2: on social media from online pornography. And you know, I
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  Speaker 2: can think of three cases where people just said, you
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  Speaker 2: can't do these big, bold reforms. Whether it was cutting
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  Speaker 2: our insurance rates that were out of control, and we
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  Speaker 2: took on litigation abuse. They said, you'll never beat the
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  Speaker 2: special interest and we did it, and we see homeowners
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  Speaker 2: starting to stabilize. Auto insurance is actually down. Nothing is
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  Speaker 2: down in the entire country, but it's down in Florida
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  Speaker 2: because we did that with courage. And same with universal
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  Speaker 2: school choice. Even the advocates said, you'll never get to
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  Speaker 2: a point where every single parent, every single student has
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  Speaker 2: the right to choose the school that best fits their needs.
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  Speaker 2: We did it. Same with social media. You'll never take
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  Speaker 2: on big tech, You'll never get past the First Amendment.
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  Speaker 2: We got a great victory through the Tennessee case at
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  Speaker 2: the Supreme Court where now that protection for kids eight
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  Speaker 2: year olds that are getting on early hardcore pornography online
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  Speaker 2: will be protected. Same with social media, which is still
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  Speaker 2: being litigated people said you're not going to be able
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  Speaker 2: to do it, and we did it.
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  Speaker 1: What didn't get done? Paul? I mean, look, everybody's got
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  Speaker 1: a laundry list of things they want to do. You've
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  Speaker 1: listed a lot of things that were successfully accomplished, but
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  Speaker 1: there are always things that you didn't get to that
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  Speaker 1: the timing wasn't right. What's on the top of that
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  Speaker 1: list of things that didn't get.
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  Speaker 2: Done well, I would say affordability, cost of living, and
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  Speaker 2: we did a lot, you know, I mentioned record tax relief,
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  Speaker 2: what we did on litigation abuse, to try to rein
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  Speaker 2: in insurance costs, as well as helping parents with the
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  Speaker 2: cost of education through the Universal School Scholarship. It's still
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  Speaker 2: not enough. We still need to do more. So we
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  Speaker 2: need to rein in property taxes substantially reduce those taxes.
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  Speaker 2: We need to do something I believe for people that
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  Speaker 2: are on fixed income later in their life they've retired,
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  Speaker 2: they've got a nest egg protecting them from further increases
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  Speaker 2: in property taxes. We need to continue to press forward
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  Speaker 2: on insurance through home hardening programs that really do save
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  Speaker 2: a lot and you can get credits through the state
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  Speaker 2: and through your insurer. By hardening your home with windows
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  Speaker 2: and roof tie downs, and the state will give up
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  Speaker 2: to ten thousand dollars in matching funds for that. I
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  Speaker 2: want to see that program expanded. These kinds of things
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  Speaker 2: will help reduce the cost of living, because people are
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  Speaker 2: really struggling with the cost of living, so we need
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  Speaker 2: to make Florida affordable again. I began that as speaker,
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  Speaker 2: but that work's not yet done. And I know that
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  Speaker 2: I can do it because I've prove and I've done
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  Speaker 2: it on those instances I mentioned.
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  Speaker 1: Back with Paul Renner, candidate for governor here in the
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  Speaker 1: state of Florida. I would imagine we'll have a few
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  Speaker 1: visits over the coming year or so. Paul, you brought
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  Speaker 1: up the revenue issue, and look, I took some pretty
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  Speaker 1: severe sides on this. I felt like your successor was
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  Speaker 1: way too adversarial with the governor's office. I have no
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  Speaker 1: idea why Danny was trying to score political points for
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  Speaker 1: the opposing side. I don't understand any of it. But
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  Speaker 1: let's just weigh in on the substantive issue of property
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  Speaker 1: tax versus lowering the sales tax. Your thoughts on the
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  Speaker 1: tax burden on Floridians.
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  Speaker 2: Well, with a sales tax, if I don't want to
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  Speaker 2: pay it, I just don't. You know, I choose to
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  Speaker 2: buy fewer things with property tax. If I get sick
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  Speaker 2: and lose my job, no matter what happens to me,
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  Speaker 2: I have to pay every dollar of that property tax.
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  Speaker 2: And so you can even pay off your home and
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  Speaker 2: you're still paying property tax. And so it is from
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  Speaker 2: just a moral justice standpoint, it's a tough tax for people.
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  Speaker 2: This is about their home, the place they live. We
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  Speaker 2: all deserve to try to reach the American dream and
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  Speaker 2: have home ownership, and so I think it's really important.
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  Speaker 2: And you know, our property taxes have doubled, have grown
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  Speaker 2: rather faster than the national average buy a factor of two,
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  Speaker 2: so almost fifty percent since twenty nineteen. So there's got
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  Speaker 2: to be substantial relief, whether that is you know where
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  Speaker 2: that goes. We have to hit sixty percent, so as
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  Speaker 2: most people on your show will know, we have to
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  Speaker 2: get in the constitution. That means you need Democrats and
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  Speaker 2: independence on board. The Democrat Party will come out against
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  Speaker 2: any tax relief. The League of Cities will come out
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  Speaker 2: against any tax relief. They're in Tallahassee, they'll oppose it.
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  Speaker 2: They'll say your garbage won't be picked up at least
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  Speaker 2: won't come when you call nine to one one. So
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  Speaker 2: you've got to hit a sweet spot, and I don't
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  Speaker 2: know that. You know. Look, i'd love to eliminate property
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  Speaker 2: taxes altogether, but I do believe we can get to
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  Speaker 2: sixty percent through a substantial reduction, maybe not an elimination,
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  Speaker 2: but I look forward to see what the Governor rolls out,
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  Speaker 2: what the House and Senate come to, and if they
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  Speaker 2: can come to agreement, we've got to get something done.
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  Speaker 2: That's what That's what I would say, and I'll fight
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  Speaker 2: for it.
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  Speaker 1: I'm going to rely on what I know about you
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  Speaker 1: in the few times we've visited over the years, Paul,
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  Speaker 1: to address an issue that I'm going to be real
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  Speaker 1: transparent with you. I've been a Republican since nineteen seventy
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  Speaker 1: eight when I could register to vote. I went independent
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  Speaker 1: for a while because I felt like the party left me.
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  Speaker 1: I joined the party again. But I'm now at a
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  Speaker 1: point where, for the first time in twenty three years
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  Speaker 1: of doing this show, I didn't have a state lawmaker
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  Speaker 1: come on the show this last year because I insisted
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  Speaker 1: that one of the topics we would talk about while
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  Speaker 1: we talked about anything they wanted to discuss were the
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  Speaker 1: loopholes on Everify inside Florida. Florida Republicans won't touch the issue, Paul.
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  Speaker 1: They don't want anything to do with it. And I'll
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  Speaker 1: be real, I'm going to be transparent here. It affected
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  Speaker 1: me personally. I had an illegal immigrant broke into my
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  Speaker 1: daughter's home with a knife, and thankfully my daughter and
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  Speaker 1: her three children were not harmed. But the fact is
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  Speaker 1: it was an illegal immigrant being employed in this state.
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  Speaker 1: And I keep seeing stories over and over. I see
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  Speaker 1: the Attorney General wants to sue or subpoena the company
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  Speaker 1: in California that hired the truck driver in that fatal
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  Speaker 1: crash on the turnpike. Right, what are we going to
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  Speaker 1: do about you Verify?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, we can't have a process. And then we wink
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  Speaker 2: in the other direction and let people in and you know,
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  Speaker 2: these things all come through compromise. But that's not going
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  Speaker 2: far enough. And you know Representive Kay and Michael who
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  Speaker 2: lost her son in a crash with an illegal immigrant,
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  Speaker 2: and so this is a real, real thing and you've
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  Speaker 2: experienced it, and we saw it on the interstate here recently,
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  Speaker 2: we have let the border become a total crisis. And
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  Speaker 2: so I think what the Governor's doing, and I would
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  Speaker 2: follow in that is appropriate to have these detention facilities
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  Speaker 2: set up. You know, people ask, well, isn't it doesn't
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  Speaker 2: it cost too much? What about the cost of free education,
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  Speaker 2: free health care, and all gang violence, the crime that
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  Speaker 2: was committed against your daughter, you know, all of these
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  Speaker 2: things have a huge cost of society. And so we
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  Speaker 2: have to stop the illegal immigration flow at the border.
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  Speaker 2: I think the President's really begun to do that successfully.
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  Speaker 2: And then we have to get these guys out of
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  Speaker 2: the country. Anybody that's got a criminal passion have been
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  Speaker 2: out you know, years, they should never have been let in.
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  Speaker 2: And so we don't have nearly enough enforcement. And obviously
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  Speaker 2: the President's only been in for six months. But I'll
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  Speaker 2: be a great partner on immigration. I'm a former prosecutor.
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  Speaker 2: I believe in the rule of law. You got to
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  Speaker 2: you've got to do it the right way, and we're
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  Speaker 2: not going to let certainly not going to let criminals
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  Speaker 2: stay in our country. And so we've got to, you know,
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  Speaker 2: continue to use our local police support them, so they
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  Speaker 2: can support the effort because there's not enough bodies out
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  Speaker 2: there to deal with the millions and millions of illegals
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  Speaker 2: that are in the country right now.
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  Speaker 1: But Paul, that doesn't close the loopholes that are in
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  Speaker 1: the law. The everify law only applies to businesses with
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  Speaker 1: twenty five or more. Businesses in the big trades, hospitality,
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  Speaker 1: they are they're forming LLCs with less than that, so
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  Speaker 1: they can go with the E they go with the
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  Speaker 1: I nine thing. And then and then the second loophole
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  Speaker 1: is it doesn't the everify as it is in Florida
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  Speaker 1: right now, doesn't require an employer to check anybody that
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  Speaker 1: was hired prior to the implementation of e verify. They've
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  Speaker 1: grandfathered in a bunch of illegal workers. And these are
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  Speaker 1: the people that have been in this country for you know,
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  Speaker 1: the guy who broke into my daughter's home has been
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  Speaker 1: in the country since for eight years, so he would
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  Speaker 1: never be checked. This this is what I'm talking about.
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  Speaker 1: We're not addressing it because of a lot of money is
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  Speaker 1: going to Florida lawmakers from big agriculture and the trades.
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  Speaker 1: And this is where the party is losing. They're losing
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  Speaker 1: credibility because they want they'll talk tough on immigration, but
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  Speaker 1: they won't deal with the employers of it.
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  Speaker 2: I'll close it. I'll tell you right now on your show,
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  Speaker 2: I'll close it. And if you look at my record,
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  Speaker 2: whether it's Enterprise Florida, corporate welfare, a lot of big
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  Speaker 2: donors love that that program. I shout down. I was
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  Speaker 2: Doze before Doze was cool. If you look at donors
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  Speaker 2: supporting the guy that they tried to push on University
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  Speaker 2: of Florida, I opposed it, lost relationships there. I'll always
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  Speaker 2: do things on principle, and so I'm happy to say
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  Speaker 2: on your show, we'll close it. We'll get it where
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  Speaker 2: it needs to be. That I didn't even realize that
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  Speaker 2: was happening, So that's a problem. That's a problem for sure.
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  Speaker 1: Paul, You're welcome back anytime you like in this campaign,
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  Speaker 1: and we'll chat about the issues. And I appreciate your
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  Speaker 1: time and of course always appreciate your service to our country.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you, Preston. Great to be here.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you. Paul Renner with us this morning here on
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  Speaker 1: the Morning Show with Preston Scott