(light music) - [Announcer] This is a production of WEDU PBS, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota.

- [Rob] Right now on WEDU.

Florida sends undocumented immigrants from Texas to Massachusetts as a way to protest President Biden's handling of the situation on the southern border.

Marco Rubio endorses the new effort to have a nationwide ban on abortion.

Far-right groups now have a greater say in the Sarasota County Republican Party.

And how bills favored by Joe Biden are helping Governor DeSantis.

All coming up next on WEDU.

(theatrical music) Welcome back.

Joining us now: Maya Brown is a political consultant and a Democrat; Mike Fasano is a Pasco County tax collector and a Republican; Patrick Manteiga is the editor and publisher of La Gaceta newspaper in Ybor City and a Democrat; And April Schiff is the Hillsborough Republican state committee woman and the co-founder of Strategic Solutions of Florida.

It's great to see all of you.

Thank you for coming on the program.

- [April] It's good to be here.

- [Mile] Thank you.

- Well the state of Florida sent about 50 Venezuelan migrants by airplane to Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts this week with little advanced notice to the local government.

A spokeswoman for Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said his administration had dispatched the migrants as part of his plan to relocate undocumented immigrants to so-called sanctuary states, such as Massachusetts.

The immigrants were removed from Texas and flown at Florida taxpayer expense to the resort community favored by many rich liberals.

A Massachusetts state representative tweeted that the Martha's Vineyard community rallied to help the migrants, quickly putting them up in a local church.

Venezuelans have been fleeing severe economic hardship and political repression in their country for years, but the exodus has intensified this year.

So Patrick, is this the best way the Governor could have protested the crisis on the southern border?

- Well, you know, he couldn't help it as opposed to protest it.

You know, some of our policies are hurting some of these economies in other places, and we're getting this exodus and we've been getting this exodus for a while.

And a lot of these immigrants are attracted to Florida because they have family here.

They have friends here.

So a lot of the Cuban immigrants that are coming up through Mexico and crossing the border, a lot of them are coming right here to Florida because they have family, they have friends here.

And these weren't illegal immigrants here.

They were in a process before they put 'em on the plane.

So, it's really odd that our Governor would do this.

It's also, I don't understand why he would spend Florida money to send somebody from Texas to Massachusetts.

They also say that they really love the Venezuelans, they love the Cubans, they want them to give 'em democracy, but when they get into this country they treat 'em like trash.

So luckily they were treated very nicely, I hear, in Massachusetts and other places that they've been busting them to.

- You know, April that's what I wonder is that, I think the Republican party has made inroads getting more Venezuelan Americans to vote for them.

Yet, in this case, these Venezuelans who are escaping Maduro's government are being penalized for escaping that government, and does this set the Republican party back?

- Oh, absolutely not.

I think what's happening here is we have a border crisis and it's gotten worse since 2020.

It's escalated to the point where there's been, there were 400,000 in 2020, and it's over 2 million already this year that are coming through the border undocumented.

And I think that you have to realize they're not coming in legally.

They are sneaking in, just walking across the border.

And this has been going on, not just in Florida, but in Arizona and Texas.

They have bust close to 10,000 people out of there and into sanctuary cities.

We are not a sanctuary state.

He's sending 'em to sanctuary states where they have a lot better resources and availability to get help, and hopefully to figure out a legal path to citizenship or to at least being legal while they're here.

There's no other country in the world that allows people just to walk into their borders.

Doesn't happen.

- Maya, I wanna ask you about that.

I mean, for years, we've let Cuban refugees into the US and we've embraced them and even given them assistance, financial assistance to stay here.

These folks are escaping a government they don't like, an economic situation they don't like.

What do you think about the way that Ron DeSantis is treating the Venezuelans?

- I tend to agree with Patrick.

I cannot wrap my head around why we got involved in a state's issue that has nothing to do with us, just so that the Governor can take a swipe at the President.

I think it was $12 million that were used of taxpayer dollars to get involved in this situation, where we continue to say that we want to make sure everyone has access to the American dream and access to stable democracy, but this certainly is in contradiction to that.

And one of the things that I am struggling to find, kind of resolve in this is everything that Patrick said about the Republican party appealing to Venezuelan and Cuban voters, but not actually finding and giving them a place to call home to participate in the electoral process.

So what does that look like and how are Republicans going to actually continue to mobilize voters when they did something in contradiction to what they say?

- Mike, the state legislature did pass a $12 million fund to handle refugees, but not all the money is going to this group of refugees.

A Portland company was hired at $600,000 to begin flying people, on behalf of Florida, out of Texas to other states.

- [Mike] Yes.

- Good use of taxpayer money?

- Probably not.

I can understand there is a border crisis, as April said earlier.

It's something that needs to be addressed by the Biden administration.

I think they fell short in what needs to be done.

I also believe though, we need to be, in some way, compassionate to these people as they come across the border.

Let's not put 'em on a plane and ship them somewhere else.

Let's find out what the issues are.

Let's try to assist them.

Certainly when people come to our country, they do need to come here legally and come through the process.

That's what it's all about.

We welcome people to come here, but we welcome them as long as they're here legally.

- Patrick, I wanna go back to this Cuba issue, though.

For years, since the early 1960s, we've been letting Cuban refugees in and giving them assistance.

Is there a comparable situation?

- The wet foot, dry foot policy existed.

It doesn't, but Cubans still have a better pathway.

What's happened is a lot of Cubans are getting to the border and their relatives in Florida and their friends in Florida are sending them money, helping them get to the border.

As soon as they cross over, they petition the government that they have family here and that that family wants them.

And so you're getting a lot of Cubans into Tampa and into Miami that are part of this process.

They get what's called a pardon, where they're in the paperwork process and they're working through it.

And so they become legal to be here.

And there's a huge group.

And I think it's one of the reasons why this- - [Rob] But they did not arrive legally.

They showed up.

- They didn't arrive legally, but once again, they're actually being sponsored by Floridians.

The people that are voting for DeSantis are also sponsoring these people to get across the border by handing them money to do this.

And so, there's this huge pipeline coming here and it's actually affecting Hillsborough County.

We got a lot of these Cuban immigrants in our schools now that we're dealing with 'cause a lot of 'em are very young.

And so I think the reason why he pulled 'em outta Texas was 'cause if he did it here, he would really infuriate a lot of his voters because he'd be taking their brothers, their sisters, their uncles, and cousins by flying them out to Martha Vineyard.

- So April, let me ask you this though.

This problem is not new.

You're right, there are 2 million people crossing the border this year.

This is an all time record.

What should be the policy?

How do we deal with the southern border?

- We have laws in place to protect our borders and to have legal immigration, and those need to be enforced.

They're not being enforced properly.

- And we have laws also to allow people to come over and say they're being abused in their country and they're looking for sponsorship here, and that process is supposed to work and they're supposed to see a judge.

And some of that is happening.

That was not happening- - Some of it, but not all of it.

This is all being abused.

We have just opened the doors and let anybody come in that wants to come in and they're not going through the processes that are in place.

We have laws in place.

The border could be secured and this nation and our state could be kept safe.

It's not safe to do what they're doing the way they're doing it.

- At least it's better than putting 'em in cages like they were under Trump.

- So one of the big questions is, were these people enticed?

Were they lured to get on this airplane, Maya, and flown to Martha's Vineyard?

And we're getting word that a woman had gone around to these people on the streets of San Antonio and urged them to get on the airplane.

Some people are suggesting that there might be human trafficking involved.

If you lie to somebody about where they're going, this may be a violation of the law.

- This certainly is unethical.

I just cannot believe that our Governor has participated in this, and again when he had no reason to.

And I totally hear what the other panelists are saying about us having a border crisis, but help me understand how we have Republican majority in both chambers, in the Governor's Mansion and we can't seem to do what they're asking, right?

If this is such a crisis, what kind of leadership is that demonstrating to folks in Florida that Ron DeSantis is the best choice to continue to lead our state.

- [April] This is a federal issue.

- [Mike] Exactly.

- It's not a state issue.

It's a federal issue and the Democrats are in control of federal government.

Right now they have majority everywhere.

It's a federal issue.

It's not a state issue.

He's trying to protect our state and keep these illegal migrants out of our state.

- By flying 'em out of Texas, he's protecting our state?

(panelist speaking in unison) - Fly 'em out Florida if he wants to, but that would help at least you could say something.

I mean, he's flying 'em out of Texas.

- One of the things that we have to- (Maya and Mike speaking in unison) This is a federal issue.

And although the states do have a responsibility and we need a little more compassion with individual that show up in our state, let's remember this is a federal issue and the federal government should deal with it sooner than later.

- Maya, you wanted to jump in about Ron DeSantis.

- Yeah.

I mean, he is clearly campaigning for 2024 for a bid for the president of the United States.

Again, if the argument is that this is a federal issue, how and why is this Ron DeSantis' problem to deal with what's going on in Texas?

- Ron DeSantis is clearly campaigning to run for re-election for governor in 2022.

And what he's doing is protecting the citizens of the state of Florida and protecting the state of Florida.

- You don't think he's trying to raise his national profile by doing this?

- I think he's focused on the Governor's Mansion at this point completely.

- I wanna ask you about, last question about immigration.

I think the stereotype by some people is that the immigrants come to the country and they go on welfare.

But then the other view is that when immigrants come to the country, they're some of the hardest working people.

They take some of the lowest paying jobs and they fill a need, whether it's housekeeping at a hotel, whether it's farm work or whatever.

And they tend to be very successful because they're motivated.

So what- - I totally agree with you.

They are motivated.

They are very hardworking individuals.

They love this country.

I understand that, but they're here, they need to come here legally.

We welcome them but they need to come here legally.

That's the key and there's a process in doing that.

People have come to this country, what 200 plus years, and they've come through, many of them who are successful here as well, they've come here legally.

- Mike, I gotta say that my ancestors came here - Yeah.

- and they didn't sign any papers.

They just showed up.

- Yes, but were they here legally?

- They came to the border as most, you know, they just think that they're legal.

- Things have changed.

- Things have changed along the way, though.

Things have changed along the way.

- But we are letting people go through.

Currently, there's 20,000 people that are allowed to petition outta Cuba to come to America.

We haven't let that group come in at all because they have to fly to Colombia to talk to the Embassy to get their paperwork processed.

And so we have made it difficult.

So, we have rules and we have laws and we have quotas, but we aren't even allowing those rules and quotas to be met.

So this is a problem that's been through many different administrations.

We're having a real hard time with it.

But at the end of the day, immigration, legal or illegal, has kept this country young, it's helped save social security because it's reduced our age.

- [April] You can't say legal or illegal.

No, that's- - But either way, we've had both for the last - April, last words.

- 18 years.

- Illegal immigration is doing nothing to help this country.

The legal immigrants are welcome.

They do everything to help this country.

Most of the Cubans that have come here have come here legally.

(April and Patrick speaking in unison) - All right.

Republican US Senator Marco Rubio is co-sponsoring a bill that would ban abortions nationwide after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

Rubio is backing South Carolina's Senator Lindsey Graham's abortion ban bill.

It's an indication that Florida's senior senator, who is on the ballot this November, is not worried about Democratic opponent Val Demings attacks on him over the issue.

- I'm Val Demings.

As a police officer, some of the worst cases I've worked were sexual assaults.

It's outrageous to mandate what a woman can and can't do with their body.

Marco Rubio wants to criminalize abortions with no exceptions for victims of rape or incest.

Well I know something about fighting crime, Senator Rubio.

Rape is a crime.

Incest is a crime.

Abortion is not.

I'm Val Demings and I approve this message.

- [Rob] In response, Rubio's re-election campaign launched new television ads this week falsely contending that Deming supports abortion up to birth.

She has said that she supports restrictions on abortion the moment the fetus becomes viable.

- [Sen. Rubio] I'm Marco Rubio and I approved this message.

- [Voiceover] Val Demings, she'd be Florida's most liberal senator ever.

Demings votes with Pelosi, 100%.

She supports amnesty and gave stimulus checks to illegal immigrants, supports taxpayer funded abortion until the moment of birth.

Demings even voted to allow transgender youth sports and teach children radical gender identity without parental consent.

Val Demings, she's not just liberal, she's dangerously radical.

- Maya, you're working on campaigns.

Is the abortion issue firing up women voters here in Florida?

- Absolutely.

Polling demonstrates that protecting reproductive rights is something that people want to make sure is happening on every level of government.

I just worked on a campaign that outed the only Democrat who supported HB 5 down in South Florida.

And most Americans do want this.

We certainly have to figure out what that looks like in terms of government dictating whether it protects folks who, in cases of rape, incest, and human trafficking, for sure.

But I also have an issue with Marco Rubio telling me what I should and should not do with my body, right?

We talk about religious freedom and limited government about everything else, but when it comes to a woman's right to choose.

And I think that we have to be consistent in that, or Republicans should be held accountable for those talking points.

- And Mike, what do you think?

I know that you're a longtime pro-life person.

- I am, and still continue to be.

I will tell you though, I'm a Ronald Reagan when it comes to abortion.

I believe there has to be exceptions, and of course, rape or incest or the life of the mother.

I think though, as a Republican, we used to be asked all the time, where do you stand on abortion?

And I would say, can't do anything till the Supreme Court makes that change.

Well, guess what?

The dog has caught the car.

And now they're put into a position, it's either stand up for your values or run like some are.

I don't believe that it should be pushed right now.

I think Graham and Rubio are moving in the wrong direction.

I think they should be talking about other issues, because this issue that talking about will never come up before the Senate or the House session before the election.

- So this is just the Democrats are making the abortion issue a campaign issue so they can deflect the nation's attention away from the economy because the economy is terrible.

In response to the Supreme Court ruling in Roe V. Wade, the Democrats tried to federalize the abortion issue by introducing legislation that is pretty wide open, and what Graham and Rubio have just introduced is in response to that legislation.

But this is all about the campaigns.

They're just trying to deflect the nation's attention away from the economy because the economy is so bad that it will hurt them in November.

- Patrick, is it deflection?

- Well, I find it interesting somebody saying the Democrats are making abortion election issue.

I mean, the Republicans have made it actually an issue since Roe V. Wade.

You know, every time they made an issue.

And certainly this whole Christian conservative movement that the Republicans benefited from in the 80s, 90s, and into the 2000s has been based on that.

And so, yes, the Democrats now are making an issue of it because we protected a woman's right to choose.

But for years, women stop to move away from voting for Democrats on this issue because they thought it was there.

They thought it was ingrained in our system.

They thought it was part of our laws.

And so now it's a wake up time for America.

And I'm glad that Lindsey Graham has filed this bill.

I think everybody should ask their congressperson and their senator, "Where do you stand on this issue?"

Let's have a clear vote on it.

If women wanna vote for somebody's going to restrict their rights to make decisions with their body, if people who have belief in their God and they feel that a woman's life is more important than a fetus' life, let them make these decisions.

- Okay.

Well, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reports that Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, a Proud Boy and other far-right individuals were sworn in last week as new members of the Sarasota Republican Party's executive committee.

Flynn was convicted of lying to the FBI during the investigation into connections between Trump's 2016 campaign and Russia.

He later was involved in efforts to overturn President Joe Biden's victory in 2020, participating in a meeting at the White House where Trump supporters discussed having the military seized voting machines.

Flynn recently purchased the home in Englewood in southern Sarasota County.

Also sworn in on the Sarasota GOP executive committee were Proud Boy James Hoel and Malchiel Raj Doraisamy, a leader in the far-right group Defend Florida.

Hoel has been active in local education issues and worked to help get three conservative school board members elected last month.

He was photographed with two of the newly elected school board members at their election night party.

A fellow Proud Boy stood in the back, flashing a white power hand sign.

Conservative school board members are trying to distance themselves from the Proud Boys with one member, Bridget Ziegler, calling them a menace and total yahoos.

So April, should anybody be concerned about these people getting on the executive committee in Sarasota?

- You know, the Republican Party of Florida has rules of who can join the executive committees in all 67 counties of the state of Florida, and they're the same for all 67 counties.

There are only two requirements, and the first is that you've been a registered Republican for one year.

And the second is that you live in a precinct where there's an opening that you can represent because these are precinct people.

They each represent an individual precinct as a committee man or a committee woman.

So, what happened in Sarasota, these people all were energized by supporting a slate of three conservative school board members.

And in doing so, they took over the Sarasota School Board.

It is no longer a majority of liberals, but it has become conservative just in last August primary.

And these people are welcome to join the executive committee.

They do have rules in Sarasota and the state of Florida that will prevent people from staying on the executive committee if any crimes are committed.

So we do have some safeguards in place for all of our executive committees.

But these people were energized by the school board and apparently want to continue to be involved and I think you're gonna see more people joining the executive committee again in this month.

- Okay, so we only have time for Maya to answer.

But Maya, with Michael Flynn and some Proud Boy members and far-right members joining the executive committee in Sarasota and the Republican Party, should we be concerned?

- Absolutely.

And just to hear April's comments about those two qualifications being the only thing that allows folks to be in leadership in their party demonstrates who the Republican Party really is, right?

Supporting white nationalism, supporting the indirection.

How do we make sure that we continue to call this out?

And I think also, it's very clear that Florida is becoming more polarized when it comes to our ideology.

And we need to make sure that we are communicating with voters on where these folks stand on the issues.

There is a gentleman who is running for office for the Florida House who's currently sitting in jail because he participated in the January 6th insurrection.

These folks should not hold public office if they continue to believe that overthrowing our democracy is okay.

- Okay.

So Mike is sign, Mike, just 10 seconds.

- First of all, these are not public offices.

These are precinct committee men and women.

I am not a fan of the Proud Boys.

I am not a fan of Flynn, but I'll tell you this.

It's the people that decided to put those individuals into office.

Lastly, if you think Republican local executive committees or Democratic local executive committees have any pull in getting people elected, then you might wanna find out, you're gonna find out that's not true.

- Okay.

Let's go to our next topic.

Governor DeSantis has been traveling the state recently, handing out money.

According to the Tallahassee Democrat, in Jacksonville this week, he gave thousand dollar bonus checks to first responders.

In Fort Pierce, he announced his administration was giving the Treasure Coast city 2.7 million for infrastructure improvements.

What he did not say was that the state received the money through legislation approved largely by Democrats and opposed by Republicans in Congress, including the Biden Administration's $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan.

In the last year, DeSantis has frequently attacked the Biden administration, blaming the federal funding packages for driving higher inflation.

Yet he's also used those same federal funds he criticizes to promote his own agenda in Florida.

And what DeSantis never mentions is that the $109.9 billion state budget he signed in June is prompt up with 3.5 billion from Joe Biden's American Rescue Plan.

Indeed, one of his signature givebacks to Floridians, a roughly 25 cent a gallon gas tax break is paid for entirely with money coming from bill's backed and signed by Joe Biden.

Okay.

So Mike, we're almost out of time.

- Yes.

- In 20 seconds, should DeSantis be thanking Joe Biden for the rescue plan?

- Well, I think they should be thanking Congress because they're the ones that passed it.

President Biden signed it, but the bottom line, this is politics.

It's an election year.

It happens all the time.

Let's remember when a bill was passed, that was gonna help millions of people in all our cities and counties and states, that was voted against by Republicans.

They went home and also they went home, and back home and they said, hey, look what we just got for our county or our city.

Bottom line is they voted against that plan.

- All right.

So it's politics.

All right.

Well, before we go, what other news story should we be paying attention to.

And Maya, let's start with you.

Your other big story of the week.

- Sure.

So State Attorney Andrew Warren heads to court next week to appeal to get his job back as state attorney of the 13th Judicial Circuit.

An appeal kind of what happened between him and Ron DeSantis with Ron DeSantis removing him from office without any particular, specific action done on abortion here in Hillsborough.

- All right.

Mike, your other big story.

- Governor DeSantis just came out wanting to help those who wanna be truck drivers.

You may have seen that.

Remember, anyone that wants to be a truck driver go through the training, get your certificate, come to the Pasco Tax Collector's Office.

You can take the test there and get your CDL.

- That's great.

All right, Patrick, you're other big story.

- This week, several groups came out and opposed the Mayor's pure plan.

That was the Mayor wanted to sell poo water to the city of Tampa, have you drink it.

Toilet to tap was another name for it.

Hopefully this ends it, but they've been pushing this on us for five years.

I think she's gonna come back with it and try and sell it to us again.

But city council didn't like it, all these groups didn't like it, 20 homeowners associations and neighborhood associations didn't like it, and so they ought to find a different way of using this water other than trying to put it in our drinking glasses.

- All right.

April, your other big story.

- Well, tomorrow is Free Museum Day.

So take a break from politics.

Spend the afternoon in a great museum and do it for free.

This is started by the Smithsonian.

You can go online the Smithsonian website and get your vouchers and go to many different museums in the Tampa Bay area.

So go get some culture and get away from politics and rest and relax.

- Great idea.

We have some great museums here in The Bay area.

- We do.

- Well thank you all for a great show.

We wanna remind you of another refugee crisis the US faced in the past.

This Sunday night at 8:00 PM on WEDU is the premier of the new three-part Ken Burn series, "The U.S. and the Holocaust", exploring America's response to one of the greatest humanitarian crises in history.

Thank you for joining us.

Send us your comments at ftw@wedu.org.

You can view this and past shows online at wedu.org or on the PBS app.

And from all of us here at WEDU, have a great weekend.

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