Transcript

Jenna Ellis: U.S. constitution obligates government to protect God's rights

Jenna Ellis in the morning on American Family Radio. I love talking about the things of God because of truth and the biblical worldview. The U.S. constitution obligates our government to preserve and protect the rights that our founders recognize come from God our creator, not our government. I believe that scripture in the Bible is very clear that God is the one that raised up, each of you and God has allowed us to be brought here to this specific moment in time. This is Jenna Ellis in the morning.

Anthony Sabatini: Florida is just a month out from its primary

Jenna Ellis: Good morning. It is Thursday, July 9th. So we are just a little over a month out from the primary in my home state of Florida. And this is one that of course states around the nation will be paying close attention to because Governor Ron DeSantis is term limited and so his replacement, will be elected this November. And the Florida primary is just wild. And we need to talk about this on multiple fronts. But just to set the stage here, there are four main candidates running. There's, there's a lot more. But, but really it boils down to four. So, Byron Donald sus, a current Congressman, is the the Trump endorsed candidate and seems to be, at least if you trust the polls, kind of running away with it. And the polls indicate he's anywhere between 32 to 42% ish, undecided, interestingly, has been consistently still pulling higher than Byron Donald's. I believe that the reason for that is because Governor Ron DeSantis has not yet endorsed in the race. He said a few kind words about a few of the other candidates. He said very openly and publicly that Byron Donalds, does not follow his policy alignment, he doesn't support him. So, yet he has not actually endorsed against the Trump endorsement, which, which is interesting for a variety of reasons. But it leaves Florida conservatives in a little bit of a bind because there are a lot of DeSantis followers and people, like me who moved here or who have been here a really long time and love what DeSantis has done for the free state of Florida that would like to follow his lead. So, that's kind of the setup. And then the other three candidates are, Lieutenant Governor Jay Collins, who is a former state senator and was basically appointed to that position, which under the Florida state constitution, literally has absolutely no job except to be in the wings if something happens to the governor. And it was supposed to be kind of this position where he could run for governor, in a position of an already appointed office. And he has, in my opinion, made an absolute mess of it, there has been a lot of controversy over some of the things that he has done over the course of his campaign and even. Right after his appointment. We'll get to that a little bit later. So just put a bookmark in that one. And then the former House Speaker Paul Rener is also running Florida House speaker. And he is best known for helming the legislative session that saw a lot of Florida's winds. And Governor DeSantis said on my program about him that it was the greatest legislative session in the history of the Republican Party. he is a genuine conservative. He's something, he is ah, someone that a lot of people are looking to as an alternative. And then there is James Fishback who is a businessman, kind of an outsider, ah very young and has gotten a really phenomenal presence on social media, has been somewhat controversial for some of his, his takes and and yet he has gained a lot of popularity. I think he and Paul Renner clearly did the best job in that debate. but now the controversy has come to a head on Fishback's eligibility potentially to actually run for governor. So Lieutenant Governor Jay Collins has now sued James Fishback over his eligibility to run. And a two day hearing on that eligibility is now set to start on July 21st after lawyers for those involved in the case agreed to that date with varying degrees of satisfaction according to Florida Politics. Collins camp wanted it earlier. obviously you need to be able to prepare for this a little bit. And so Fishback's lawyers asked for that July 22 start date which the judge granted. And so basically what's being set up here is whether or not Fishback will actually be on the ballot. So to discuss more about that issue let's welcome in Anthony Sabatini who is the Commissioner of Lake County Florida but also ah, an attorney and he is handling the matter for James Fishback. And just a note for our listeners, we did also invite Jay Collins, lawyer, who actually happens to be a friend of mine, who's out in California and the campaign declined that invitation interestingly as well. And we'll get to that a little bit more. But we're very grateful that Anthony Sabatini is joining us.

The big issue here is intent. Under Florida law, candidates must prove residency

So set this up for us and what are the main issues here on Fischback's potential eligibility to run for governor. And good morning.

Anthony Sabatini: Good morning and thanks for having me on. The big issue really is intent. under Florida law, if you're going to challenge a candidate and say that person is not a resident of your state. It really all circles around the question of intent. If they at some point spent time in a different state or some other place, some other country, was it their intent to stay there permanently? And so documentary evidence, testimony and other forms of evidence will all corroborate that. James Fishback, actually, even though he did move up to D.C. for a temporary job for a period of time, still maintain his permanent ties to Florida. most importantly, a very large, debate organization called Incubate Debate that he ran during, the several years he was working in and around D.C. the debate company he ran and was his passion project was actually only taking place in Florida. It was centered entirely in Florida. So he spent most of his time focused on Florida, visiting Florida, thinking about Florida, the state he grew up in. Of course, he's a fourth generation lifelong Floridian, and just like many young people, went up to the city, did some interesting work. for him it was D.C. me, myself, I'd left Florida for a period of time, but never really left my M. Florida residency. And then of course he came back, bought a house and then years later decided to run for governor. And so what they're doing is trying to focus on this short period in which he was in D.C. working and say, oh, look, he gave up his ties, he gave up his his residency and ties to Florida during that time. And of course that's not true because the Florida, the Florida case law on this subject is basically two pronged. Number one, you have to focus on actual acts that seem to indicate that a person would have left the state. But number two, you have to answer the question, or the court does, of whether that person had the intent to permanently leave the state. And of course this question arises when people go on military deployments, they do work abroad, family emergencies, or even just travel. it happens all the time. But many, many times, especially someone who's very rooted in the state, will still have very, very strong ties to state and never give up their residency. And of course James did not. So that's, that's the case. There'll be a two day final hearing on the subject with four or five witnesses and lots of documents going both ways. The documents they'll show, will claim that, oh, well, you know, he purchased a home in order to do that, he get a mortgage. The mortgage paperwork said things about permanent residency. Therefore, that should be the end of the equation. The court should read those mortgage papers and say, look, he permanently left. But of course, the question, is not that way at all. It's a holistic interpretation of all documents and evidence presented. And in the history of Florida, most of the cases that have, gotten to the appellate level or even the Florida Supreme Court level have actually ended up working for the, defendant or the candidate who they're trying to strike from the ballot. Because judges hear testimony, and honestly, a lot of people's testimony about what state they claim is unrefutable because it's really more of a mental state thing. And, that'll be. It'll be an interesting case. It's, about a week, almost two weeks from now. It's 12 days from now. It's July 21st and 2nd, Tuesday and Wednesday of the week after next.

Jenna Ellis: All right, well, you know, and that helps, clarify, I think, the, that the question isn't that simple. And, you know, I remember from civil procedure class, you know, way back in law school, the two pronged analysis was, was physical presence and intent to remain. And that's. And even that, you know, there are. The intent piece. There are a lot of different elements that come into that. There's a lot of different, evidence. And you know, similarly, I used to be a resident of Colorado before I moved to Florida and intended to change my residency. but I also went to D.C. I worked for the Trump administration. I stayed there about four years, never gave up my Colorado residency. Was, there until I moved to the state of Florida. And so a lot of people do that temporarily. But the question, about. So that makes sense to me, but the question about the mortgage, documents, at least, insofar as the Twitter sphere has been discussing it, is that, at least allegedly on those documents, there was a homestead exemption or some kind of, of. Of. Of writing on that document that said that this was his primary home. And so is that, Is that. Does that pose a difficulty? Because his adversaries are suggesting that either he changed his residency or there was some type of mortgage fraud in these documents.

Anthony Sabatini: Now, if anything, it definitely creates, an ambiguity. The truth of the matter is when you do these banking documents, when you're looking to get a loan for a residence, for a temporary work job, there's a lot of boilerplate language in there. And of course, this isn't a criminal case, it's a civil case. So, you know, at the end of the day, there's some prosecutor in D.C. could they go back you know, four or five, six years, I think. I don't know what the statute of limitations on that is. And say, hey, this guy was a Floridian. He got a mortgage on a house in D.C. while he was working there. knowing that really he was still claiming Florida, you know, is this a criminal infraction? my argument would be no, but potentially, you know, some overzealous prosecutor could, could look at it from that lens. I certainly don't think it, really meant as much as the opposite side is going to claim. I think, the judge will definitely look at James, who at that point was in his mid-20s, looking to, get some work experience in a large city, and gain some connections. Wasn't, making a permanent decision, but was simply filling out paperwork. and then on the voting element, you know, he did register to vote there, but he also maintained his registration to vote in Florida. And then most interestingly, this is very interesting, Washington D.C. actually rejected his, homestead for a large period of time that he was in there. Because even they themselves argue that he was really a floridian from about 2022 on. Now, of course we have the proof and I think we will easily be able to, that he was a Floridian from 2020 on, our late 2019 rather. But, even DC said at least half the time it's no question that he wasn't. so now we're just talking about a very young age, honestly, in his almost early 20s, you know, hop skipping around D.C. looking to try to make. Get an investment property to live in for a period of time, which of course now is a rental. so, no, I think it's an open question, but I think the testimony that people he maintained very close contacts with and spent the great amount of time he did spend in Florida during those seven years will make it, I think, an easier case to win than not.

Jenna Ellis: Yeah.

James Fishback is being sued for voting in D.C. illegally

And on the question of, voting and registering in D.C. obviously you can only vote in one state. But, I'm also. I also remember being in college and having, you know, some of the, campus representatives saying, you know, you can register to vote in a different state where you go to college without, and then go back and then re. Register in your home state. And that doesn't necessarily automatically obviously change your residency, even though you can, you obviously can only vote in one state. but that's interesting that he would want to vote in D.C. do you know, where he ended up voting is? Does his voting record show that he participated in D.C. instead of Florida.

Anthony Sabatini: I have not gotten all the way into those details yet. I just perused through the evidence, what happened here. And of course, I believe, you know, and you were explaining it to your audience before I jumped on. You know, the Collins campaign was basically planning this and coordinating this. So when this lawsuit popped up a week ago, you know, they had a basically 30 page complaint with, you know, 40 or 50 pages of documentary evidence they had. They basically built their case in the dark and then, you know, filed it essentially last minute. So even though it's only been a week, basically, I'm still playing a little bit of catch up, going through the documents. You know, I think in many ways it was meant to be a distraction because of course, many Floridians know James Fishback does roughly five or six political events a day. So of course this has had to make him pause his campaign, almost get offline for a bit just to really go through documents and build a case and go find, people he knew during the seven years to say, hey, look, no, he's a Floridian, so it was a major obstacle to him actually campaigning. And I think that is probably part of the reason it's filed. Yeah.

Jenna Ellis: And that, that to me is an interesting question. I'm talking with Anthony Sabatini, who is, representing James Fishback in this eligibility case. and looking at the timing of this, looking at, the, the lawyers that Jay Collins hired, it's my personal opinion and theory that that potentially, either the Florida GOP or even, potentially the national rnc, may be funding the lawsuit. I would love for, Jay Collins camp to actually come on the show and answer some of those questions because, it does appear that it would be in the best interest of Byron Donald's if Fishback was ultimately kicked off the ballot. And so a lot of Fishback supporters are suggesting that this is nothing more than lawfare. This is similar to what happened, to Trump in my former home state of Colorado, where, you know, there was that whole controversy of whether he should be kicked off the ballot for 2024. Ultimately, he wasn't. The judges made the right decision in that case. totally different question, instead of facts. But ultimately the question, did boil down for some, at least in the court of public opinion, about, simply trying to deny voters the opportunity to vote for who they prefer. Do you think that, that there is any political gamesmanship on that level and have. Do, you have Any answers to the questions of who may potentially be funding this?

Anthony Sabatini: I don't have final answers, but I have very strong, I think, reasonable suspicions. You know, I'm a member of the rnla, the Republican National Lawyers Association. In fact, we have our next meeting a month from now. So I meet a lot of the election lawyers around the country, and they usually only get hired if they're pro hoc teachers, if they're out of state lawyers coming into a state to litigate a case, and if they're connected to the political establishment in some way. I certainly don't think that this was just, an election lawsuit that was just drummed up by an attorney locally one day. We have over 86,000 attorneys in the state of Florida. The Collins campaign could have chosen one of the hundreds of election lawyers like myself. you know, not that I would have taken the case, but election lawyers like myself who practice election law as part of their practice, they chose, lawyers out of, Milwaukee and California. And I think the reason they did that is because those attorneys are tied into the political establishment in a way that they generally work for candidates, that are just closer to the establishment. So there's definitely stuff going on in the background. The financial arrangements are not clear yet, but clearly, they're significant. The attorneys advise the court that they're 100% available to have the airing at any time, which means that they're willing to clear their schedules, their court calendars, any kind of litigation they have existing. to put this first, of course, I think all lawyers want to do that about a case they love. But to me, that shows that they were being compensated to the level where there is nothing else, in front of them right now that's as significant as this. So there's different factors to point to the idea that this was a larger. This was larger than the, Jay Collins campaign just, throwing a lawsuit out there. I think this was a planned attack, and there's a lot more going on in the background than they're willing to say.

Jenna Ellis: Yeah, that's certainly my suspicion as well. And, Anthony Sabatini, in terms of the voters and just fundamental fairness, so Fischback was deemed eligible in terms of accessing the ballot for the deadline, to register, for filing for that office. And so, of course, the Secretary of State is part of this case just because of that. but do you think that ultimately it's fair to the voters to have kind of this late stage? there is a small Window, because I think that at least procedurally then, the Collins camp would have had to wait until that determination of eligibility was made, then file it after. But Even, you know, July 21st, I mean, that's three weeks before the primary. And do, you. And so do you think that that's fundamentally fair to voters? And also, when will we actually get the final ruling, on this? I mean, do you anticipate that to be right after the conclusion of the hearing? you know, the judge makes an automatic determination, or is it still going to take a few days for that ruling?

Anthony Sabattini: Judge says hearing will take place July 25th

Anthony Sabatini: Well, I'll start with the ruling and then talk about fairness. First with the ruling, the judge said the hearing, and then of course, he is asking for proposed orders, which means, you know, for the audience who's not familiar with, legalese, basically, final arguments written in the form of the. From the perspective of the judge, going both ways. So we would final or, do our final briefs three days after the hearing. So I believe that's the 25th. I believe that falls on a Saturday, so that'll roll through a Monday. so we're talking, you know, basically two and a half weeks from now. We should have a final decision. I expect the court to make a decision sometime in the two or three days after, because under the Florida law and the Florida judicial rules of procedure, the court is obligated to expedite a decision, and to expedite everything basically as reasonable as he can. So, so we'll have a final decision in three weeks. That gives a very short window for an appeal either way. So if we win, I think they're, they'll consider an appeal, and we certainly would if we believe the court got it, you know, wrong and ruled against my client. so we would be looking at a very quick, appeal with the first DCA, that's the 4th District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee, which is very well versed in election type issues and political issues, and then going back to the question of fairness, I do think it's totally unfair. I think it's a factor for the court to weigh whether to strike a ballot, strike from the ballot. A candidate who's been running for quite literally a year and a half or something like that, going around the state. The only candidate in Florida history to visit all 67 counties before election Day and, you know, just confusing people. The remedies of the Supervisors of elections and the Secretary of State are very few. They would have to put out notice that he's not qualified. They would have to list that at early voting stations and polling stations. They could include a paper note with, some of the vote by mail ballots to let them know that the candidate that's not there. And of course, they'll be instructed not to count those votes either. But, I think it just causes confusion. Ah, in a year there's already going to be a lot of constitutional amendments and language and many, many ballots. You know, obviously we're a big busy state here in Florida. We have very long ballots. I think it causes confusion and unfairness to make the supervisors do more stuff. And at the end of the day, it's really about choice. If Floridians don't think a guy who is a fourth generation Floridian, lived his whole life here, was born here, went to school here, et cetera, and then moved away for a few years and came back, is a Floridian and they don't want to vote for him. Let, let the voters choose. So, again, this is Lawfare, in my opinion, and we'll see what happens.

Jenna Ellis: All right. Well, Anthony Sabattini, really appreciate your, breakdown of this case. I wish that Jay Collins, lawyer, would have also come on so that we could have asked, you know, the other side of the case as well. But that will be heard at least, July 21st and 22nd. So very, ah, interesting times in the free state of Florida. And we're going to be talking more about some of, the other controversies in the gubernatorial election and just some, you know, really interesting ways that this is being set up when we come right back with more, ah, welcome back to Jenna Ellis in the Morning on American Family Radio.

Florida Governor DeSantis is leaving to become ambassador for conservative causes

Jenna Ellis: Welcome back. Well, besides the eligibility lawsuit, there's a lot of interesting other issues going on in Florida and this matters to the rest of the country. Even if you are not listening from the state of Florida. This matters because obviously Governor DeSantis has been over the last eight years, especially during, Covid, through all of the, you know, DEI ridiculous nonsense to, you know, so many other things, including Florida's, heartbeat bill, a lot of things that he has been on the forefront fighting and championing for the conservative cause that has pushed the other red states in the country by comparison, to show where they need to pick up the slack and, and Florida needs to continue to lead the way on that. In fact, that was part of Governor DeSantis, 20, 24 primary run was saying, you know, look, this is the Florida Blue Book this is the Florida playbook. And other states need to follow, in line and be as, as championing of the conservative cause as Florida. So once Governor DeSantis leaves and everybody here is, that's, I think, the one thing that Republicans are all united on here, even if we all disagree about, who should follow Governor DeSantis, the one thing we all agree on is that we wish that he had a longer term. He, fortunately and unfortunately, I think is, you know, is very principled in terms of term limits. And so he did not lobby the legislature to change that, for the state of Florida to allow him to have, you know, kind of that, that third or perhaps even fourth, gubernatorial, term. So he is leaving, and that creates, you know, really big shoes to fill. And among the four kind of, top candidates that I've mentioned, Byron Donalds, Jay Collins, Paul Renner, James Fishback, there is a whole problem in terms of the cohesiveness of the base because Governor DeSantis has not endorsed, there is a huge segment, I think of, of the Fishback, Renner and Collins camps that are never Byron, because. And I am one of them. Just this is my personal opinion. I'm one of them because even though I've met Byron Donalds, I've been a fan of him previously. I've met his wife, I think she does a good job for AFPI as, the. The Education Chair. She's very involved in all that. She had a big controversy. You can read that in cbs, broke that story about her charter schools here in Florida. so I've known them for a while in D.C. and. And actually probably about 2021 around that area. I was talking to somebody in Florida, and we were talking about, even before I moved here, Governor DeSantis ultimately leaving and saying, you know, who's going to replace him in Florida? And even then, what I was told, and this is, you know, a member of kind of the MAGA establishment was saying, well, everybody is looking at Byron Donald's, because unless, you know, he goes into Trump's Cabinet, he's looking at running. And at the time I was like, oh, that makes sense. But then 2024 happens, and we all remember that primary that was so, just stupid, frankly, between Trump and DeSantis. And at the time, there was a big issue here in Florida that I talked about repeatedly, which was our amendments three and four on our ballot. I was living here, of course, by then, and that was for Legalizing recreational marijuana across the state, like making this a big weed state that would be taken over basically by, you know, these, these big companies that wanted to come in and profit. And also, even more egregiously, Amendment 4 that would have made Florida an abortion tourism state. Governor DeSantis rightly, absolutely opposed both of those. And he went on a tour around the state and informing voters why these were such terrible amendments. Now, you would think that a congressman from Florida like Byron Donalds would also, for the conservative cause, come out very strongly against both of those amendments and would help Governor DeSantis, but for political reasons, because he wanted to stay good with Trump. He didn't oppose Amendment three, just said, let the voters decide, which is such a cop out and a ridiculous position. And, he himself has, has had issues in his history of, being arrested a couple of times on, you know, drug issues, and you can read about that in the news as well. he has a history of being soft on crime. He actually has a history of being a former Democrat. So I don't think that that was particularly in line with his overall political philosophy anyway. But then for Amendment four, he champions himself as, as this strong pro life advocate. When he refused to come out strongly against Amendment 4 until Trump finally said, because of DeSantis and they had a conversation, Trump finally said, oh, yeah, this is, this is way too far. And he came out against Amendment 4. And so Byron put out an ex post like, okay, great, man, that's literally the least that you could do. But he refused to help DeSantis because I think it was obvious of politics. And, and that's not what you want in a conservative champion. You don't want someone who has to look to Trump for their, their ability and his approval for you to go out and do the right thing in your independently, separately elected office. And that's what I think we could expect from a Donald's administration, is that he will look to Trump, especially in the first two years of the administration, and not do anything other than try to from Florida and advance the MAGA cause. And now you may be saying, well, you know, that's fine because we all like Trump and we're happy to go along with the agenda. But recognize how many times DeSantis stood up. And it wasn't opposing Trump. It was simply doing his job as the governor in the free state of Florida and recognizing what was in the best interest of Floridians being principled and being in the conservative movement instead of looking to Trump for what he should do. I mean we wouldn't have had the Free State of Florida and had all of the openings and the different, the different way that DeSantis. DeSantis handled Covid. If he was looking at Trump at that time for what he should do. I mean imagine how Donald's might have handled Covid. It would have been a disaster. He might have been almost like one of the blue states, and shut things down. So this, in my opinion he is the least conservative candidate that is running at least on his principles, on his track record and also being a prior Democrat. Also the polls, if you want to believe them, show that Byron Donald and the Democrat nominee, who is going to be David Jolly, he was running a post and then his opponent dropped out for health and medical reasons. So David Jolly is going to be the Democrat nominee. And polls are currently showing in Florida that in a head to head in the general, there are some that show Byron winning by maybe three to four points, maybe up to seven. And there are other polls that show David Jolly ahead. I mean can you imagine a Democrat following Governor DeSantis? And we, we should be in the free State of Florida. The conservative, whoever the Republican nominee is, should be winning by double digits. And if that doesn't happen, that's a real indication for the Democrats that maybe they can come in and slightly come in and edge Florida. So what's interesting though here is that David Jolly is actually a former Republican. So he served in the U.S. house of Representatives for Florida's 13th congressional district from 2024 to 2017 as a Republican. He's now running as, you know, not even a moderate Democrat. He's sort of framing himself that way. But I think he will be kind of this progressive liberal, which is so fascinating though that you have a former Republican now a Democrat and then a former Democrat now Republican and neither really conservative. Those are really the two options that Floridians who we have over a million more registered Republicans now in this state because of Governor DeSantis. That's who we want on the ballot and those need to be our options. I mean that's utterly preposterous. And this is why though the Florida GOP is so in Trump and maga's pocket that they are refusing to hold a debate and force Byron Donalds to come on the stage with the other three candidates actually answer some of these questions, that of what his conservative record actually is and isn't and give Florida voters an opportunity to see all four candidates. They are basically trying to Simply coordinate Byron Donalds and then go to a general that I'm not convinced he can win. I mean he may. I think the math is there for him just because of how many more registered Republicans are here because of Governor DeSantis. But do we really want that on the ballot for the free state of Florida? I don't. So for everyone in Florida, you still have until August 18th, you still have until July 20th to actually register affiliate as a Republican in the state of Florida so that you can vote in the Aug. 18 primary. I'm backing personally, Paul Renner, but I think that anybody, any of those other three candidates would be better ultimately than Byron Donalds for the reasons that I've described. We don't want to have that set up in the general. And please, for everyone outside the state of Florida, pray for Florida because we need to continue to be that beacon of conservatism in the vein of Governor DeSantis moving forward. And I'm genuinely concerned for this state. We'll be right back with more.

Jenna Ellis: Florida governor's race getting worse by the minute

welcome back to Jenna Ellis in the Morning on American Family Radio.

Jenna Ellis: Welcome back. And so as I was saying in the first segment that we would circle back, do the sake circle back. Remember that? That was so ridiculous. We all still make fun of her for that. to the J. Collins issues, this is where the primary in Florida is getting, you know, just a total disaster. And we've talked about, you know, other. And we'll still continue to talk about other primaries in other states like Graham Platner who by the way put out an 11 minute video yesterday. I mean talk about self centered 11 minute video on why he was dropping. He is actually dropping out of the race which he didn't get to select his replacement there up in Maine. And so now it'll be interesting to see where the Democrat party goes. But you know, all of these issues around the country is just why politics is so messy. And I wish that this were just relegated to the Democrats and their attempts at coronations like with Kamala Harris or you know, their concerns over their candidates conducts like Platner and all of that. But sometimes over on the GOP side, there are you know, messes as well. And in Florida there are several going on including as I've already talked about the attempted coronation of Byron Donald's which thankfully a lot of voters and Florida residents are pushing back on and saying, you know, we at least are entitled to a debate. So Paul Renner, who is running and who is the Former Florida House speaker, as I've mentioned, he is repeating a call for a Fox News or Newsmax or some other, prominent cable news network debate to challenge Byron Donalds. And so he doubled down on his call, to host a governor's debate and to get Congressman, and at least according to the polls, the lead opponent, Byron Donalds on stage and in front of cameras because it, it just makes sense that the voters are entitled to that. Byron Donalds doesn't get to just say, as he has, that just because he's so far ahead in the polls, a debate would only help his opponents. Well, why, if he's that good of a candidate, why can't he stand on the stage and actually address the questions from the audience in some kind of town hall, sort of situation, you know, during debates and answer questions from his fellow candidates? I mean, it's just, it's utterly disrespectful to the voters. And I'm very concerned that because Trump did that in 2024 and you know, listen, he's Donald Trump, he was running as the sort of incumbent, because he had held office obviously as president previously and then, you know, everything that happened in 2020. And so this was kind of his big political comeback. Well, Byron Donald's can't say the same thing. He's not running as any type of incumbent. he is giving up his seat in Congress in order to run, but he needs to be on that debate stage. And in fact, Governor DeSantis even quote, tweeted a, Paul Renner yesterday and said the state GOP has no authority to refuse debates. Having a debate on Fox News or other widely distributed channels would be a big win for the voters. Absolutely. And this is somebody who has a stake in the future of Florida, obviously hasn't endorsed, but wants to debate just out of fundamental fairness to the voters. so the three candidates, Paul Renner, Jay Collins and James Fishback did agree to a debate. And you can watch that on the YouTube channel of Patrick Bet David, who held a debate, just for those three candidates. Byron declined. And in my opinion, Paul Renner absolutely won that debate. I think it's clear in the response, the open response from voters and people who even switched their support from either Collins or Fishback to Renner because he simply is the adult in the room, had really great explanations on the issues, on things that we should actually care about instead of a lot of this other, you know, kind of more salacious but superficial, ultimately drama. And Jay Collins just absolutely fell flat. He couldn't articulate the issues. He actually stood up in favor of you know, a lot of these Big Brother sort of security cameras around the state of Florida, which was very bad. There's a question around whether he's actually for or against, these AI data centers. that's a really big topic that I actually want to get into more detail in, in a later segment, on another show of why data centers are so controversial.

James Fish: Jay Collins should have been clearer on AI when running for governor

Because a lot of us use AI. I mean I use chat GPT for, you know, just a lot of aggregate information. and a lot of people do. obviously there are good uses for it. There are within the margins. There are ah, ways that that, that we shouldn't use chat GPT and I think, you know, and other grok and you know, some of these other, Claude I think is one of them. so we can use this ethically, but I think the technology is here to stay and we need to learn how to work with it but not have it as a replacement. In fact, at a lunch that I was recently at with Governor DeSantis speaking, he mentioned this and said the danger ultimately of AI is that you're taking away human analysis and human creativity and inputting, you know, this this robotic sort of ah, technology. And we get into then questions of transhumanism and we can't take away the creativity and the human aspect and replace that with technology. So there are a lot of moral questions. But in terms of the data centers, so much water, so much energy, that's being used for those. And a lot of Floridians don't want that to come out of our out of our pockets or in our areas. And so in fact, our cfo Blazing Golia, who's been on this show, quite a bit, he responded to a question. I mean look at that. Hey, Byron Donalds, you could respond too. But he responded to a reporter's question on why Florida doesn't want AI. this is cut three. This week the state's Republican cfo, Blazing Golia explained why he believes data centers

Jenna Ellis: don't belong in the Sunshine State. They want our tax dollars, they want our energy, they want our water, then they want our labor to go and build the data center on short term. Also they can create AI to take all of our jobs. I don't get it.

Jenna Ellis: Justin Shecker, West 2 News. Yeah, so I agree with him completely. And so this should have been a very simple response from Jay Collins. But it was total word salad. And you know, some of you who follow me on X and you know, have listened to this show for a while, know that originally when, Jay was appointed, that was what a lot of us were thinking would be. Governor DeSantis is thinking, ultimately to put him in that position so that he could run. But well, before, he announced his run, after interviewing him a couple times, speaking with him regularly, I told him, and this is very public, if you follow my ex, I told him that he shouldn't run and that he would not be in the best position to run for two primary reasons beyond a few other things, but two primary reasons which were, one, that he was just not ready for primetime. when he came on this show and talked about a, property tax, I was confused. I was texting one of my producers going, you know, is this just me or did this not make sense at all? And so I kind of had to follow up and explain over him, what some of the issues were and why Governor DeSantis was pushing, the, the, the relief. The property tax relief bill that ultimately mostly got through the legislature. There have been a few tweaks, but that will be on our ballot, this fall. And when you are a candidate for governor and you can't just directly explain it, the issues in common sense language, like, frankly, Trump can and like DeSantis can and a lot of these other, you know, really good, politicians, if we want to call them that, then you're probably not ready. and I think that Jay Collins really evidenced that in the debate and you can go and watch it for yourself. Arrived to your own conclusion. But, that was really the, the bottom line was that people saw for themselves on that debate stage his weaknesses, especially compared to Paul Renner and Jay Fishback, James Fishback, who are very, ah, very well spoken and they can articulate the issues. Well then beyond that, the other. The second reason that I told Jay Collins was that his wife Layla, unfortunately would be his biggest liability in his campaign. And the reason for that is because she is very public. she's actually on the Board of Education in Florida in her own right. And so, basically has been acting as a comms director, campaign manager and pushing the campaign and speaking for Jay and the campaign in ways that I've seen before because I was a senior advisor back in the day on the 2022 campaign for Doug Mastriano against, then Governor, Josh Shapiro in Pennsylvania. And the same thing was going on in that campaign where his wife was inserting herself so much, not just as the spouse of the candidate, but without any political experience whatsoever. And so, you know, Layla, I think, is looking at first lady Casey DeSantis, who never outshines her husband, but she is also an Emmy award winning TV anchor. Right. So she has a lot of media experience. She's been on this program, very well spoken, but she stays in her lane. And my advice at the time to Jay, you know, for what it's worth, I didn't work for him. I was just supporting him at the time. you know, don't work for any of these candidates. I work for afa. but I told him at the time that his wife needs to be more in the lane of a Melania, who doesn't speak that often is just their supportive, beautiful presence and less like a Casey, because Layla does not have messaging discipline. And that is something that you have to have from a campaign. You just absolutely have to have it. And I've been around enough presidential campaigns, statewide campaigns, governor campaigns, enough to know that you have to have messaging discipline. Well, all of that I told Jay, you know, way back September, October of last year, right, and got a lot of heat for that, frankly, because when ultimately I just said, there's no way that this guy is competent to run, like, started looking for an alternative, I ended up meeting personally with Paul Renner, who I didn't know, until January. And I sat down with him for coffee for about an hour. And, you know, we, we met at a local coffee shop, here in Florida. And I talked to him and was very impressed with him. And the reason I think originally that people weren't looking at Renner in Florida was because of this kind of perception that Jay Collins would be the heir, apparently. Well, that has fallen flat. And Governor DeSantis, I think, has made clear without an actual endorsement that that has fallen flat. And so, so I ended up switching to, to Renner and saying, you know, this is a guy who actually understands policy. He is a lawyer, he's the former Florida speaker of the House. he may not have as much, you know, kind of bombastic energy that James Fishback does on X. but who does, right? I think James Fishback is an excellent messenger, on X. He's built a huge following because of that, but he really has no experience. I mean, he's just. He's the guy who's coming in as, you know, the young 30 something, who's saying, hey, I have all of these ideas, but isn't really grounded in the way that he can actually enforce them. I've had him on this show a few times as well. You know, I've asked along those lines and have thought, okay, he has some really good ideas, but let's, you know, get him some experience first before actually putting him in the governor's mansion. He also has a lot of detriments in terms of this, segment of following that's very, very anti Semitic. So to be clear, I don't agree with all of his rhetoric and there are some positions that he has taken that I think are at least at minimum borderline anti Semitic. And definitely a huge segment of his following is. So I do not support that whatsoever. Regular listeners know I'm very pro Israel from both a theological and foreign policy perspective. so that, that leaves us of course with Renner. But going back to my communication with Jay Collins, over the last two weeks since the debate, I've been totally vindicated on this and in fact, posted openly to Jay Collins. Remember that conversation. While you should have listened to me, and just simply, you know, not, not because it's me, but because I'm experienced enough in campaigns to know that this was the proper advice. And I wasn't the only one person telling him this either. there were numerous people, including some of those own staff, who left either, right before, shortly after his announcement to run for governor, that absolutely agreed, with the same thing. Why? Because I talked to them. So, so Yahoo News now is reporting as well as, you know, many local Florida outlets. With the GOP primary looming, DeSantis Collins ties Frey in Florida. So while on the national camp or while on the campaign trail, not national, Lieutenant Governor Jay Collins has tried to bill himself as the natural successor to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. But the last few days may have strained his relationship with the governor to the breaking point. That's true. I think it actually was strained even back into last September, October, not that long after his appointment.

Jenna Afr: Jay Collins needs to step aside ahead of Florida primary

But this is where the controversy gets interesting and where Layla Collins has been an absolute disaster for her husband because top aids. And going back to Yahoo News, top aides to both DeSantis and State Attorney General James Uthmeyer have hammered Collins in recent days over whether his wife was behind Burner X accounts. These are a non accounts in this, that have trashed Governor DeSantis for failing to endorse Collins in the governor's race. Assertions that the Collins is have mostly, but not actually directly denied, which is another interesting factor. DeSantis has yet to weigh in, but his own senior administration official based in Tallahassee said that Collins, quote, has proved to be a constant source of drama and toxicity. The official said the governor gave Jay a platform and opportunity to succeed, and instead of listening to the advice of the governor, he and his wife chose to engage in months of attacks on DeSantis staff and allies. They've proven to be a constant source of drama and toxicity, which has now culminated in an embarrassing debate performance and the potential end of Jay's political career. I think that's putting it nicely. I think this is the end of Jay's political career and for the good of Florida. I rarely, if ever have said this, in a primary because I believe to let the voters decide, but because of the issues that A Byron Donalds vs. David Jolly setup would pose, I truly believe that Jay Collins needs to step aside and to encourage his base to support Paul Renner so that there's actually a really competitive race between Donalds and Renner, and there isn't all of this kind of wondering and divisiveness. but we'll see what happens. So, you know, it's just so fascinating how many issues go into a primary. And this has been, you know, a lot of insight into the free state of Florida. Again, pray for the state. And our primary is coming up on August 18th, so we will see what happens. And I hope and pray that we have the best successor possible to Governor DeSantis. As always, you can reach me and my team, Jenna afr.net.