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The governor calls for a special session to push back against vaccine mandates.

A third Democrat gets in next year's race for governor.

How close are we to achieving so-called "herd immunity" from COVID-19 and Florida election supervisors are asking those in power to tone down the rhetoric about voting systems, all this and more next on Florida this week.

(upbeat music) - Welcome back.

Governor Ron DeSantis is calling for a special session of the legislature that would fight vaccine mandates by businesses, government and schools.

- We have a federal government that is very much trying to use the heavy hand of government to force a lot of these injections.

And you have a lot of folks that actually believe that, that decision should be theirs - Also the this week Miami state Senator Annet Taddeo officially entered the race for governor.

She would be Florida's first Latina governor and expands the democratic race that currently includes Congressman Charlie Crist and Florida agriculture commissioner, Nikki Fried.

- Well joining us now are Maya Brown, a political consultant, and a Democrat and Aakash Patel, the founder and CEO of elevate Inc, and a Republican.

It's nice to have both of you here.

Thank you for coming Maya let me start with you.

I think the, this the call for a special session by the governor caught a lot of people by surprise.

And the target date is November next month.

What do you make of the call for a special session?

- Look, Rob, thank you so much for having me.

I'm so glad to be back on and be joined by Aakash, but I think we must call out what's going on here.

This is political theater.

We have been dealing with this pandemic for almost two years now and now because we are hearing from the federal government and local leaders that we want more leadership to make sure we get a handle on this pandemic, you know governor Ron DeSantis wants to push back and do this just to rile up his base.

It's not, it's not, what's in the best interest of Floridians.

It's actually a major cost to taxpayers and we should, should've had this leadership a year ago to handle this pandemic.

Aakash, I think the big question is do mandates work because the governor's against them.

Do we need a special session to push back against mandates?

- Well, first of all Rob.

- Thanks for having me.

It's great to see Maya on, on virtually as well.

And, and I think you know, to Maya's point last year, we couldn't do this.

We couldn't convene the session together.

So I think the session is needed.

And I think convening people in person, you get a lot more done.

And to answer your question about mandates, I mean, I think that's what they're going to come and talk about, because if you think about where we are from a year ago to now, it's, it's completely different.

- But I'm wondering do mandates work because in places like Israel, for instance, where the governor's a big fan of Israel, they've had really tough crackdowns on how people can gather.

They've had mandates Oregon, California, they've had mandates and their rates are fairly good.

Their rates of Covid are fairly good.

So, so why push back against mandates?

- I think there's a common solution.

I don't know if mandate's work yet.

I don't think anyone knows.

I think you've seen some of the countries you mentioned try, but you also had some, some extreme cases.

And I think this, this governor for, for instance, is really against the mandates and this is the come time to talk to the legislators about it.

- Maya, what do you think have mandates worked?

- I mean, I think we've seen across the country, different states that have produced mandates.

And I think we see it in the number of deaths that we had in Florida that were unnecessary.

If we had the opportunity to have leadership that made sure that we distributed vaccines, that we put mandates in place.

We wouldn't have seen the outrageous number of deaths, unnecessary deaths that we've seen in Florida.

We've surpassed the state of New York with that.

And that is unacceptable.

I think we also have to be very real about the fact that again, governor DeSantis is only doing this to be partisan and play political games with the lives of Floridians.

It is unfortunate to many of us have family members who have been impacted by this pandemic, and we need real leadership now.

- And I don't think this is, I don't think this is a political theater.

I'm sorry, Maya my respectfully disagree.

I think the governor realizes that these elected officials have to work and they've been, they've not been together and he needs to call it.

He has the power as governor to call session, and there's going to be committee.

Week in December, and that we're getting back right back into regular session January.

He wants this topic to be a priority.

This is the time to do it.

And everyone has an opinion on it.

This is the time to call it again.

- This is the million dollar price tag of a special session worth it.

If they're coming back in January.

- I think this makes it this priority.

I, you don't know with redistricting year with an election year, what the priorities are going to change, because remember the president and the speaker have all their, issues as well.

- Okay, let's go onto another topic.

And that is that in Maya I'll toss this to you, former Senator Annet Taddeo from south Florida has gotten in the governor's race.

How does, and she is running against two other Democrats, Charlie Crist, and Nikki fried.

How does that affect the race, do you think?

- Yeah, thank you so much for that, Rob.

I think it is very as a woman of color.

I, I'm just very excited about her entry into the race.

You know, I think it's interesting though, because it creates a very interesting path to victory for her being the only person of color.

Certainly she has a base that she can roll up for African-American and Hispanic voters.

And I think also in Florida, we, as Democrats have had a hard time connecting with and communicating with Latino and Latino voters here in the state.

And so I think her profile provides an opportunity to mobilize in and persuade those voters back into our big tent party.

And I think that she has a compelling story to do it, right?

Like she immigrated here.

She fled from, you know, her family fled from Columbia.

And then, you know, she is an entrepreneur and a business owner.

She made history as the first Latina in the Senate.

And so I think she has a very interesting profile, but that doesn't discount the, the name ID and the profile of governor Crist, right?

Like he's been around for a long time.

He has a proven track record when it comes to being in the governor's office.

And so I think that it's going to be a very interesting primary.

My only hope is that even with commissioner Fried, that we don't spend a lot of our resources doing an internal primary bloodbath, our focus should be on making sure that we can, can go after Ron DeSantes because he has $50 million over $50 million in the bank.

That's what we need to do and make sure that we get Florida back on track.

- Alright, Aakash, how do you think Senator, former Senator Taddeo or getting into race changes it?

- Well first of all, governor Ron DeSantis will still be our governor.

He will win re-election as a landslide, as I believe.

And I think the resources that, that Maya mentioned a Senator Taddeo who has a name ID in south Florida, she's done well as a Senator, but she doesn't have statewide presence.

If you go to around the state, as she travels, she's going to meet people for the first time, which means she's going to have to raise money with people for the first time.

Whereas commissioner Fried and governor Crist have done this many times and done it well.

And so I think the resources will not be there for her.

She does have the Latina speaking background and the great story that my I mentioned, but I do not think it will even get her in second.

I think she'll be a distant third, but it will raise her profile for future candidacies.

- But Maya, what do you think of that?

I mean, she did run as Charlie Crist running mate a few years ago when Crist was running for governor.

So will she have a hard time connecting statewide beyond her base in south Florida?

- I think a Aakash is right.

Like she is a great thought leader and has a great profile in south Florida.

But I think we've seen time and time again with the example of Andrew Gillum, that folks of color have a very interesting path in Florida primaries in democratic primaries.

So the team, you know, contingant on the team and the way they build out this plan, if she goes around the state, I think that she can give them a run for their money.

But again, I think to a Aakash's point, Charlie Crist is one of the best fundraisers and the best he never forgets a face or a name.

So I think that she, you know, has some trouble that she might be able to, you know, contend with.

- Okay.

Between governor Crist and Senator Taddeo.

it was Charlie Crist who gave her first opportunity to run statewide.

And it'll be very interesting how that plans out.

- [Rob] She, she is a native Spanish speaker.

We haven't seen that in Florida politics and the candidate who leads the ticket.

So what does that do?

Especially in places like Miami Dade, Broward and Palm beach, where there are a lot of Spanish speakers.

- It will, it will definitely help in her profile.

But again, I don't think she will have the base to win a statewide primary nor world should become a governor of Florida.

- Maya, there is some concern.

Some people say are saying that the women's vote is going to be divided and that Charlie crisp is the ultimate winner of this decision by Taddeo to get in.

- Yeah.

I mean, I think that is something we all have to take a look at with the changing voter registration numbers in the state of Florida, right?

Like Democrats for a long time, had a huge lead.

And then also kind of the next steps as a democratic operative and campaign strategist is who can we target in terms of women voters?

Right.

And I think if I'm one of the senior strategists for any three of those candidates for governor, I'm thinking about what message I'm polling to figure out what message is resonating with them.

And then how can I make sure that my profile I'm telling that story to win them over and then mobilize them to go to the polls.

- So Aakash, let's talk about a third topic.

The statewide group representing Florida's supervisors of elections, send out a statement this week, asking those in power and those running for office to tone down the rhetoric and stand up for our democracy.

The association is made up of members of both parties.

The group said during, and after the 2020 presidential election, the integrity of our democracy has been challenged by misinformation and disinformation and threatened by our fellow citizens who have been led astray by these deceptions.

Why do you think they had to send out this letter?

- Well, as you know, Rob, I ran county wide in Hillsborough county in 2018.

And in that race got pretty nasty.

I can only imagine what the 2020 candidates felt that I know Maya worked on a lot of those campaigns.

I think what you're seeing is just a lot of false information, which is confusing voters.

And we have to protect the integrity of the voting system and think, thankfully, these both parties of the supervisor elections are realized these threats are unwarranted and we have to do something to make sure that all candidates have an equal playing field.

- Where's the misinformation coming from.

- It's coming from all these political action committees that are trying to sway their candidate, whatever the, whatever the party is, whatever the race is.

I know that even for our race in 2018, there was outside influences didn't even live here.

That was my county.

- Yeah.

Maya it's true that the SOEs did not mention a political party.

They didn't mention president Trump or Fox news or one American news, but what's your when they say that our democracy has been challenged by misinformation and disinformation, what do you think they're saying?

- I think they're saying all the things that you just said, Rob, right.

Like I think we saw in 2020, especially after, no election day of 2020 until January until the results of the presidential were cast.

And even now I was driving through lake county and I saw signs that said, Trump won, Biden didn't win.

And it's.

And so this was, you know, we're at the end of 2021, and we're still dealing with folks questioning the integrity or the outcome of the election.

And so we have to speak truth to power about that and hold folks accountable who were a part of this misinformation and disinformation campaign.

And we're still seeing that what's coming out of the legislature, right?

We're seeing bills that are attacking and constraining voting rights, and it's making it harder for everyday folks to participate in democracy.

So I appreciate our SOE stepping up and saying that everybody should be held accountable even in our everyday average voters, but we also have to hold our elected officials and thought leaders accountable for how they impact public.

- And you're seeing an uptake in social media.

If you think about the social media generation, they're finding out how they're going to vote, you know, through Facebook and through, through the social media.

So you're seeing a lot of nasty viral videos.

And even now tik-tok, and other entities are getting political with an Uber and all these things we didn't have that four years ago.

- [Rob] That's true.

I mean, would you say that when you ran in 2018, that the election was fair?

It wasn't fair.

Would you say in 2020, the election was fair?

- I think the elections are fair if you monitor them closely, but there's always going to be an outlying agency.

You cannot control.

- So last Sunday in the Tampa bay times, front page story, long hunt for voter fraud, there are still people who are on the par on the Trump Alliance who say that the election was fraudulent.

You're in Florida and they want to recount.

- I don't.

I think, I think what's happened, has happened.

I think what they're talking about is this voter harvesting, where people who are not eligible to vote, and there are certain people collecting votes for the, their, their ill relatives and things like that.

I don't, I don't see that this is so far.

- Okay.

Well, it's great to see both of you, Maya Brown.

Thanks a lot.

Aakash Patel.

Thank you very much.

- Thanks Rob for having us.

- President Joe Biden and lawmakers in Washington, continue to try to pass the infrastructure bill and the so-called budget reconciliation bill.

That bill would vastly expand the safety net for seniors, young parents, children, and college students, plus help reduce global warming, but resistance from both Republicans and a small number of Democrats has made passing the bills increasingly difficult.

- Our next guest writes that Democrats are at a turning point and need to get the bills passed, or they risk losing both Congress and the white house.

Alan Cohen is a journalist and a former democratic candidate for Congress in Florida's 15th district.

He joins us now, Alan Cohn.

Welcome back.

- It's good to be here.

- Alright.So you wrote this op-ed in the Tampa bay times.

You say at a moment when Democrats need to be ruthlessly effective and disciplined, when it comes to messaging, they are neither you go on to say that there won't be any coming back from a second season of Donald Trump.

If you thought he was vengeful against his perceived enemies, last time you haven't seen anything yet, pretty strong words.

Why did you write them?

- Because so strongly about this, I feel strongly about our country and I am concerned about whether our country will continue because on January 6th, we got a taste of what could happen.

And the surest way to prevent that reality from happening is getting things done.

Because most people out there really don't give a hoot about the Republican or the democratic party.

They care about their bills and maybe saving a little bit for retirement and their general perceptions about who they're going to vote for are based upon how they feel.

And do they feel better about their personal circumstances, their, their finances and their country, and the best way for the Democrats to prevail is to get things done.

- So you're saying if they don't pass this reconciliation bill, for instance, so they're going to lose both the, the Congress and they're going to lose the white house.

And, and you're, you blame it on messaging.

Why is messaging, why are the Democrats messages so poor?

- Because there are a lot of things in both the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the reconciliation bill that will have a profound impact on making the lives of Americans better, who we, we all drive on these roads and highways and bridges that are in desperate need of repair.

We do know that, that there are potholes when it comes to people being able to afford their healthcare to, to keep up with, with the economy and to work while their children go to school, all these things are are important, but there is no discipline of messages that is resonating with people saying, this is how, what we're going to do.

And as it, as it gets done, the economy will improve your lives will be better.

And by the way, the other people are absolutely crazy.

- The Republican's message is we can't afford it.

We can't afford to expand the, the national debt by taking on these new programs.

And from the top down the Republicans, that's their message.

Are you saying that the Democrats message in fighting back is weak and ineffective and they don't really have the strong messaging that Republicans had?

Well, - it's funny that Republicans would say that the Republicans who just spent $2 trillion on tax cuts for the wealthiest among us and the corporations, and basically crumbs to the rest of us.

I challenge anybody watching this to tell me how their lives were improved by that tax bill.

That was basically geared for the wealthiest among us.

What Democrats can do is saying that the infrastructure and the reconciliation bill is aimed at you, it's aimed at making your life better.

- Why do you think they don't do that?

I mean, you're here in west central Florida, arguing that they should, why don't they do that?

- Maybe it's, it's, you know, the Democrats pride themselves as a, a big tent party and, and that is good, but in, and what I've learned about party politics from the top on down, there is no quarterback in Washington that is dictating messaging and making sure whether it's from the white house or from Congress, or from the state or local parties that everybody is reading off the same page.

What I'm saying is we got to start doing that, - Are you're stepping up to be that to go to Washington DC and control the Democrats message.

- Well, you know, I I'm satisfied right now in, in taking my experience, both in journalism, investigative, journalism, and politics, and basically saying that, you know, the surest way to prevent, you know, another season of the Donald Trump show is to win elections and to win elections.

You have got to communicate with voters an effective way.

- Republicans, say, the Democrats are over-blowing January 6th, just this week, Greg Stuby the Congressman from Bradenton and, and said that those folks that were arrested at the Capitol, they were simply trespassing.

Republican say that you guys are overplaying January six you're overblowing is important.

- Congressman Stuby.

Did you miss the part where your supporters were beating police with the American flag?

You know, we saw what we saw, what happened is, what happened and it was not patriotic.

And it was really a taste of where those people are in terms of their mindset.

And that's why we, we have to win these elections to prevent that from happening again, because we somehow a very unstable former president deluded into millions into thinking that this lie, that the election was stolen.

It wasn't stolen.

You lost Mr. President.

And, and if, if people could be deluded into thinking that or believing that they could be deluded into doing anything, Alan Cohn, thank you for coming on the program, - Rob, anytime - We are now more than 20 months into the COVID crisis and the latest numbers from the CDC show, - we have the third highest rate of deaths in the nation per 100,000 people.

More than 58,000 people have died here.

So far 58.7% of Florida's total population has been fully vaccinated.

And that puts us at number 22 in the nation last week.

The number of new cases in Florida was fifth highest in the country.

And this week, former us secretary of state Colin Powell died from complications of COVID-19.

He was 84 vaccinated and had a compromised immune system due to multiple myeloma cancer and early stage Parkinson's disease.

- So what should we be thinking now about vaccines?

Joining us now is Dr. Michael Tang and associate professor of molecular medicine and Dean of internal medicine at the USF college of medicine Dr. Tang, welcome back.

- You're having me back.

- So let's.

Start with Colin Powell.

The skeptics came out the night of Colin Powell's death this week and said, vaccines don't work.

What do you say to the skeptics?

- Yeah, so there's, there's a couple of things here.

First off Colin Powell was, he was 84 years old, as he was mentioned, he had multiple myeloma, multiple myeloma, this cancer that he had actually attacks the cells that produce the antibodies that are going to protect you against infection.

So he had kind of the worst type of cancer for this, you know, he was scheduled to get a booster.

So he might've been saved by that booster.

But the fact of the matter is that the vaccines while they're awesome, they are aren't a hundred percent.

We don't have anything.

That's a hundred percent against this virus.

- With, with almost 60% of Floridians vaccinated.

How close are we to achieving herd immunity?

- This is a really hard thing to get through because you know, natural immunity does play a role.

There are some people out there who have gotten Covid who are immune to the virus, but with the Delta variant, which is a lot more transmissible than previous versions were, we're looking at somewhere around 85 to 90% of the people that need to be immune to the virus, before we start seeing really that decreased transmission due to herd immunity.

- I wonder, is there a number of people have, have scientists put a number on the number of people who are naturally immune to COVID.

- It's Well, it's really difficult to tell because you know, some of us, when we get COVID, we can get asymptomatic infection.

So those people can have high levels of virus to get a really good immune response.

And then we know that people who have been symptomatic, not all of them get tested.

So it's really difficult to actually crack.

And now we have people who have gotten symptomatic infection have gone out and got vaccinated.

So that number is going to kind of being molded into the vaccination rate.

- So.

There's an argument against getting vaccinated.

It goes like this, that everyone can be a carrier getting the vaccine, people say does not prevent us from spreading the virus.

So getting the vaccine does not limit the spread of COVID.

And so the vaccine, the vaccine skeptics say, we're not going to get the vaccine because everybody spreads it.

- Yeah.

So, you know, it just because something can happen doesn't mean it does happen.

The CDC has just put out some statistics on their website that show in August, if you were unvaccinated, you were six times more likely to get COVID than a vaccinated person.

So vaccinations do work.

There's some data out recently that vaccinated people spread the virus less, then unvaccinated people.

And so it really is, you know, the, the logical it's kind of a logical fallacy that, oh, because it's possible that it will happen.

I mean, it's like looking at death rates and people with cars, right?

So if you, if you drive without a seatbelt and you get into an accident, there you're more likely to die than if you're in that car, driving with the seatbelt.

In this case, obviously the seatbelt would be the vaccine and running into somebody that getting into an accident would be getting COVID.

- So.

Doctor, a lot of people are wondering about boosters.

If let's say that somebody started off with the Moderna or the Pfizer, should they choose a different brand of vaccine when they get their booster because they think, or does this logic work because that may widen the immunity that you get by getting a different vaccine.

- So the data that were presented to the FDA and the CDC are really just based on, you know, the company's data we're based on giving the same vaccine that you previously had gotten.

But there was a study by the NIH that was looking at mixing and matching these things.

And they actually showed that you get just about the same protection, if you mix and match the MRN vaccines.

So if you had Moderna and you're getting Pfizer, it's about the same as getting the moderna dose.

But one thing that was a little bit striking was that people who had gotten the Johnson and Johnson vaccine and then gotten an MRI and a booster seemed to get a little bit higher antibody level.

- We've only have 20 seconds, but do people who have COVID get infected with COVID have better resistance than people who have the vaccine for COVID.

- So everybody's a little bit different.

So there's a bigger spread for people who had gotten COVID.

They don't, not everybody has the same level of immunity when you give a vaccine is controlled and people generally have a tighter amount of immunity.

And that tends to be high, high levels of immunity.

But even if you've had COVID, if you get vaccinated, you're better protected against COVID than if you didn't get vaccinated.

- Well.

Dr. Michael Tang.

Thanks a lot.

Thanks for coming on Florida this week.

Great to see you again.

- Glad to be back on Rob appreciated.

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