Demon Twink Off with NYC Councilman Erik Bottcher

This is Exactly Right. People who didn't do what John of God wanted them to do, they usually disappeared. John of God was once Brazil's most famous spiritual healer. But in this limited series podcast, we uncover the darker truth behind his global empire of faith and fear. From Exactly Right and Adonde Media, this is Too Faced, John of God. Listen on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode discusses sensitive topics. If you or someone you know is a victim, please reach out to the RAIN Network. That's R-A-I-N-N. And you can find them online. You can call them. You can reach out to them. This is Brief Recess. I'm Michael Foote. I'm Melissa Malbrand. Today we're going to be talking about our new swear jar. We're going to be talking about Haitian cigarettes called... Cami fo. We're going to cover the tragic gun violence dominating the headlines today. We also have an interview with New York City Council member Eric Botcher. We'll also review with Congressman Robert Garcia, who you saw in the headlines on Friday, talking about the Epstein files. And I'm going to answer all of your burning questions from my DMs. Yeah, it feels like a weird day for a suit. Maybe. I did separates instead. I do. I don't know. Sometimes when I do like suit separates, I feel like... I'm kind of like not giving up my all. Like you've given up. This is the fifth... That's what I feel. I've been meaning to talk to you about it. When you wear separates, it feels like... Everyone's talking about the group chat is full. It feels to me like you just don't give a shit about how you feel about... Michael's... Michael, I think Michael has stopped caring. Michael's in separates today. It's time for the holidays. This is Cybert. We're going to talk about the craziest things happening in the headlines, all the weird things going on in today's world. Wait, what are you doing for Christmas? I don't know. I don't know. You don't know? It's really soon. I know. Do you need an invite? No. Are you going to be... Okay. No, I don't need an invite. I don't want an invite. Did you and Andre like do... You do a big Christmas tree every year. We did do our tree. I'm dying for a fake tree. Really? I love a real tree. I know. Why? Because you just don't want to sweep up the needles. I don't want to sweep up the needles. Okay. I prefer a solid white light. Andre likes blinking colored light. Okay. If you have a fake tree, the new ones come with remote controls. Babe, I'm looking at you. They come with remote controls and you can change the color. It could be bright white. It could be blinking light. It could be all types of stuff. Press one in the comments if you want, Melissa, to get a fake tree. She seems really excited about it. Please, please, please. That's two of your a fresh tree girly like me. I love the smell of a fresh tree. I like a fresh tree. Yeah. But like a fake tree has more options. Do you have... Is your three like a cat climbing on your fucking tree? No. If I was missing it like I'd be like, I'm not going to scale that. I think that maybe you should not talk about people or animals that are missing limbs. No, I think that's okay. I think that's no. I'm just saying like knowing myself. Knowing yourself. If there were some sort of even just like injury. Like when I broke my foot, I wasn't like, let me climb this Christmas tree. Michael broke both his feet during the pandemic. He broke one foot and then he got a little bit better and then promptly broke the other foot. To the point where I didn't think it was, he was still telling me the truth. To the point where I told her about the second, the second foot breaking. Michael foot told me about the second foot. Melissa laughed in my face about this injury. She went, she didn't even say, I hope you're okay. Are you all right? No. What happened? Nothing. Just laughed right at my fucking face. I did. Oh. Okay. So my mom and I were talking and I said to my mom, mama, you are you watching the podcast? Are you listening to the podcast? And she said, I'm honestly nervous about whether or not she is. So she says that she is. And then she said to me, Misa, F-U-C-K. Misa. Joshesh. Misa. S-H-I-T. And I was like, yeah. Yeah. And then she's spelling them. She's spelling them. But I got a really good story for you, but I'll take circle back around to that in a second. We're on our fourth digression from the original. And then I was also speaking to my aunt who was like, you know, you use a lot of bad words. And I was like, yeah. And she said, but especially the lawyer. Good. Okay. Good. Okay. I'm happy to take the bullet because I do swear a lot. And she feels like she said to me, I can tell that he's a smart guy. He wants to law school. I'm not. She said, she really genuinely feels like there are more words in your vocabulary and she's concerned. She wants you to know. So I had an English teacher in high school who was like, stop swearing so much because you're just not using your vocabulary anymore. Correct. You are relying on these swear words. And I said, oh shit. You're an asshole. I said, you bitch. Go fuck yourself. Get fucked. That's Swedish for fucked. So throw it up on the screen. Yeah. Everyone in Sweden. So my aunt feels like she feels that you can do better. Okay. Okay. No, no. I'll take the note. I'll take the note. My mom always says whenever my mom is like slightly disappointed in something that I have done, she tells me that she and my dad wasted their money on me. So the ROI is not what it should be. I love how your parents are nickel and diming. Oh yeah. My mother always said that she was like, I'm going to send you an invoice when you graduate high school for all the food and the lodging. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, my mom just, my mom just really just says she's just like, we lost our money. This whole episode, I'm going to try not to swear. That is my N. What are the stakes? Let's give me stakes. So, okay. See, you can't even think of the thing. I know I'm going to break it. I'm like, how much can I afford? No matter what, right? I think we pick a charity. Okay. Okay. And if you... Oh, if I swear, I have to vend my money to that charity. To that charity. And if you... Don't, you have to do it. Oh no, I don't want to be in there. No, no, no, no, no. This is on you. Okay, okay, okay. I'm okay with me. I'm not changing my vocabulary. We'll think of something. CJ, do we have any charities that we... Oh, we were thinking of talking about them on the show today. Hands off NYC. It's like training people... Amazing. ...on what to do in their communities if like ICE comes to their communities. I love that. Okay. So, I am pledging on air... On a hot mic that I will donate to this organization. No matter what, but I will donate more if... What are the terms? So, if you... If I do swear. Yeah. Okay. I have to get all the swears out of my system before we go to... Before I have to stop swearing. I don't know. For the episode. Can I just... Like what? Why? Are you trying to tell me? Are you trying to tell... That I'm gonna come and ready with a bunch of swears. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Are you trying to tell me that you have to swear? And listen, you're talking to somebody who drops the F-bomb a lot. You do, yeah. I do. I think I learned it from you. Oh, fuck off. No, we should get... We should get a jar. Okay, let's do it. Let's get a jar. Like, start putting coins in. A swear jar, yeah. But yeah, do you think that you can't tell a story without... I can. I can. I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna do it. And make it entertaining and fun. I'm strong enough to be your man. Are you strong enough to live without me? I'm gonna feel like hell tonight. Strong enough. Because I'm still crying. Let's take a break. Let's take a break. I wanted to talk to you about the Christmas tree. The Moth tree. I wanted to talk to you about the Christmas tree, the mom and pop store where you got your Christmas tree because I think I'm getting played by the Christmas tree people in New York City. I did not. We ended up not going to the mom and pop Christmas tree. The Christmas tree places are running game in this city. I don't want to be the person who's like, oh, anti-proletariat, but I'm like... No, no, no. We didn't go because I found out that the guy, it's like a guy or like some family. Yeah. They're hardcore Trump supporters. And I found out because I found the guy's social media. Of course, yeah. And because I couldn't remember where he was. So I started looking, looking, looking, and then I looked and then I was just like... I can't do it. I can't do it. I can't do it. I can't do it. Give the money to the corporation. Get your tree at Costco, yeah. I did. And so we got a tree at a big box hardware store where the person who helped us was a veteran. Oh, okay. Okay. That's great. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so I think that's consumerism that is ethical. Like there is no such thing as like consuming ethically, right? Like we're still a part of some like system that is broken. So I do feel like there is like, if you like down enough, I'm not saying that like you shouldn't at least strive to be ethical and like support people that uphold your values. But I mean, not to like, not to like bum you out. I'm not saying that it's like... I'm already bummed out. I hate it here. I got to... I hope my husband doesn't watch this episode. I got to the Christmas tree stand because I want a really tall tree. I want one that's scratching the ceiling as we bring it in. I got to the stand before him. I paid off the person to give me... You're a dirty filthy liar. I'm disgusting. You are lying liar. You are lying. I'm a disgusting B word because... I... Don't you get he's trying, Betsy? Just don't make me stop using I statements because I'm a fucking... Oh, frickin... Shit. Damn. Oh, fuck. Sorry. Oh, darn. I'm a white male podcaster. I have to use I statements. You are so weak. You're so weak. I bribed this person and gave him some money and was like, don't show me a tree under eight feet. And if my husband asks for shorter ones, you have to lie and say they're shorter. And it worked. I have an eight and a half foot Christmas tree. Throw up a photo. Is your tree standing up straight? It's standing up straight if you look at it from certain angles. Same. Our tree is never... It's like me when I'm in sweatpants and like a sweatshirt. It's like if you look at me from a certain angle, I'm also looking straight. No, you're not. But then you turn to the side and you see my limp wrist and my shoes and I'm wearing a loewe loafer. What does Jack do with the tree? He kind of naps near it. He sort of... He drinks the water out of the stand. No, that can't be good. He loves it and he's survived 10 Christmases drinking Christmas tree stand water. So I think it's... It might be what's keeping him alive. He's 13 and he is young and sprite and spring chicken trying to take me all over my neighborhood. So he's still jumping up on the bed. No hip dysplasia for Jack? No, I guess not. We give him like a little mobility bite and he takes that every day. But I've gotten to a place where I kind of have to start taking the mobility bites to myself. Wait till you get to perimenopause. Anyway, I'm really excited about today's episode. We have Eric Botcher in the building. It's going to be exciting. Yeah, hiding in the green room, terrified of me and whatever I'm going to ask. He'll be okay. Excited to meet you, like all our guests. This is your algorithm is showing. We should talk a little bit about what's going on in the news. Of course. So Congressman Garcia actually over the weekend on Friday released a bunch of deeply disturbing photos from the Epstein files. We tried to get him on, but he's traveling today. But we have some clips CJ, can you throw them up? We received, this was just yesterday, 95,000 photographs from the Epstein estate. We were able to put out so far probably about 75 to 80 photos throughout the day today, many of which you've seen. A lot of the public has now seen, which is incredibly important for transparency. And our intention is to put out as many of the photos as possible while protecting, of course, the survivors. You know what I hate? It's so disturbing. It is. But here's what I really, really hate truly. How many people need to come forward to say, this happened to me with these people and this man repeatedly before they're just believed and something is done? I really resent this idea that in order for people who have been victimized by a plethora of rich, wealthy white men is that you need to see it in order to believe it. How many people need to come forward to say, this happened to me. This is what happened. It's almost like there's this desire to see the salaciousness, to see, do you know what I mean? It really, really, I'm grateful that the congressman has done this. I am resentful that he had to do it. And the entire situation is disgusting, right? Absolutely. And even now that the photos are online and we're seeing the photos everywhere. People are still going to have stuff to say. People are always out to get rich people. Right. And they're trying to take down the billionaires of the world. They're powerful. People have it out for them. Meg and Kelly, who was like, well, 15 is 15 just as bad as five. Yes. Below 18 is... It's illegal. It is statutory rape. Statutory rape. So going into, I'll do a quick legal rundown, there are different kinds of crimes. Statutory crimes, no matter what, if you break the statute, it's a crime. We don't care about mental statements, Rhea. We all, that matters is that if you can prove an act was committed, it is a crime, period. That's what statutory, when we say statutory rape, we've heard it sort of like throughout our lives. That's what that means. It is every other crime aside from statutory crimes, you have to prove their mental state. You have to prove they had the intent to commit the crime. As statutory crimes, it is a law and it's so reprehensible that if we can show the act of you breaking that law, we don't fucking care what you were thinking. So I'm glad they released these photos. They are... So am I, but... Watch out for them if you are easily triggered. I am someone who, I had a client a couple of weeks ago send me photos of people who had been beheaded. So I have a pretty thick skin. I rarely get nausea. And I was thinking about these photos long after I saw them. Yeah, that's the thing, right? Once you see them, you can't unring that bell. It stays with you. It stays with you. It stays with you. So... People who didn't do what John of God wanted them to do, they usually disappeared. John of God was once Brazil's most famous spiritual healer. But in this limited series podcast, we uncover the darker truth behind his global empire of faith and fear. From exactly right and a Donde Media, this is Too Faced, John of God. Listen on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Today's been kind of a doozy. Today's a bad day. Yeah. Over the weekend, we're awful. Brown University, there was another one. I saw a young woman who survived the Brown University shooting, also survived a shooting at her high school. I think that's going to start happening more and more because there's so many high school shootings and that now they're happening at universities. I think, you know, I saw the video of it and it was... I saw a video. So there's... Right. So the students were in the library and then the police came in to announce themselves. And you can just see how afraid they were. And I don't understand why we love guns more than the people who were a part of this country. It's the gun lobby. I mean, the gun lobby is so powerful and has so many politicians in their pocket. It is... I would love to hear Walter Masterson's take on it. Oh, I'm sure he's got a ton to say. Yeah. I'll text him and tell him to pop off in the comments on this video because I just... I think, like, I don't know. We see it all the time, right? Like corporations get more standard, get more power, get more privilege than people do in this country. Like this is truly a broken down late stage capitalism. And I just think that, like, especially with gun control, there is such like a causal connection. There is no, like, gray area about it. But it's gotten to a point, I mean, after the pulse shooting, I think I was talking to you and you and I were like, we are at a place where we probably will have to survive a shooting at some point. That is what it's gotten to statistically in America. It is not dramatic. It is not hyperbole to say that there's a possibility, maybe even a strong possibility, that we will have to survive a shooting. Yeah. And I will say that when I am in certain spaces, especially if it's places that I go to often, I have scoped out places for me to hide, to run, you know? And I can remember that there was a time when we didn't have to do that, but now I feel like it is absolutely necessary. You need to be ready to sort of go because, like you said, it's going to happen. Yeah. Right? After Aurora, I remember now ever since then, every time I go to a movie theater, I take note of where we're sitting in relation to the entrance, where the exits are in relation to where we're sitting. It's just become a part of how my brain functions now. I don't go to a movie and not think about that. When you were a kid, did you do active shooter drills or no? No. No. Too old. No. Columbine happened when I was in, I think like the sixth grade, seventh grade, around there. I was a grown-ass adult. My birthday's 420. So I remember being like, school's canceled today and I didn't really get it. No, of course not. It has always kind of been a part of my cognizance, but I don't know what it was like to. Sort of go through those drills. I know that they have them all the time. They have them all the time. I mean, I have one of my cousins was really upset because there was an active shooter drill for her kid's school and they didn't tell the parents. Oh. Whereas I have another friend who the school sends a schedule. Yeah, I think that's good. Right. Because you can prepare your kid for what's going on to explain what happens. I would be terrified. Sure. Sure, sure, sure. Even if I had notice. But what? Fire drills used to freak me out. I used to love a fire drill. She said, pound the alarm. I used to love a fire drill because it was like 10 minutes of like, oh, yeah. She's outside. I had the dumpster smoking a cigarette. Smoking a new port. So a menthol. A menthol. A menthol, a capri. No, I was. A super skinny capri. I was. What were you smoking apartment? Marlboro lights. Marlboro lights. Because my dad smoked them and I used to like flinch cigarettes from my dad. He first he smoked the red pack, the hard pack, and then he sort of decided to go for a lighter cigarette and he started smoking Marlboro lights. We've got it. Can we just, just I'm just going to hard cut to the Haitian cigarette company that Melissa was telling me about her grandmother auntie. There is a Haitian cigarette company that boasts that it's healthier than other cigarettes. Because it's got either like honey or bee pollen or something in it. And let me tell you. No. And the name of the, did I ever tell you the name of the company? Yes, you did. It's the punchline. Do it. Comilfo. Comilfo, which means. The way that it is. The way it is, man. The way it is. The way it is. Yeah. Yeah. When I first moved to Flatbush, so people who don't know it, so Flatbush is still pretty much, even though it's becoming very gentrified, a very sort of like West Indian neighborhood. And there was a huge population of Haitian people. And I had just moved into this neighborhood and I was walking from some store and I looked down, I took a picture of it. And you saw. And I saw a crumpled up. Comilfo. Comilfo. And it was, and it was the light green pack. Cause it was menthol. Cause it was menthol. Cause it was menthol. But that was like, okay. I live in Haiti. So it is. Yeah. All right. Eric Botcher is here. Say it on three. So it is. Comilfo. Comilfo. Comilfo. Let's take a break. Welcome back to Brief Recess. I'm Michael Foote. This is Under Oath. We're going to go deep diving with Eric Botcher, who is a dedicated public servant and activist who has devoted his life to progressive causes and to the betterment of the community he loves. In 2021, he was elected to represent New York City Council District 3. And Eric is also running for the house right now, right? That's right. He announced his candidacy to replace Nadler, right? Is that right? Okay. I didn't mess that up. To be your member of Congress. My member of Congress. Yep. That's right. So I represent Council District 3. There's 51 New York City Council members in New York City. We each represent around 180,000 people. My district, Council District 3, it spans from Spring Street up to 55th Street, roughly west of Broadway. Wow. Okay. So that's a big swath of New York City. Yeah. It is. It is. I'm just wrapping up my fourth year on the City Council and I was just reelected last month. Congratulations. Thank you. Congratulations. That's great to hear. It's 90% of the vote, which I was so happy about. Wow. That's amazing. That's awesome. I know. Yeah, congrats. It was on election night and we were like teetering at like 89%. Yeah. And I was like in console, but I was so upset because I wanted to get 90%. No. And my staff was like, you are not allowed to get upset. Yeah, you are not allowed. Oh, when is a win, Aaron? We're here to tell you, yeah. And then overnight, it went over 90, which I think is just like the ultimate customer satisfaction survey for me and my team. It was really cool. And how many terms has this been for you? So generally speaking, the City Council is four-year terms. But this time, I had a two-year term and a two-year term because it fell on the 10-year redistricting. Okay. So they redrew the lines and I had to run this as technically my third term. Wow. Okay. All right. And was there anything that you sort of voted on recently that you're really proud of or things that like, I mean, our listeners are awesome and so keyed into politics on the local level, national level, anything that is just like top of mind that was recently created? Well, this is something I'm really, really, really excited about. Yeah. So I introduced a few weeks ago and we had a hearing last week and it's a bill that would re-legalize a housing type in New York that's been functionally illegal for many years and that is shared housing. Oh, interesting. Okay. And single room occupancy housing. SROs. SROs, housing with shared common areas, shared living areas, shared baths, shared kitchens. Okay. I mean, that's so important for just like affordability and the housing crisis in New York City altogether. I didn't realize that those were no longer illegal. When did they do away with SROs? So essentially by the 80s, they were phasing these out and because they were bad, right? They were often unsafe, very poorly run, poorly managed. And so we phased them out and... They were sort of like slum lords kind of a situation. There were, but the phasing out of single room occupancy housing tracks almost directly with the exponential rise in homelessness in New York City because for decades and decades, hundreds of years really, SROs, single room housing was shared, baths, kitchens, common areas was a important rung on the housing ladder. If you didn't have a lot of money, it was a source of stable housing, we want to restore that rung on the ladder, but do it in a different way with new safeguards, like no more than three people, three units sharing. Yeah. I understand the safety and the probably hygiene situation of a lot of people sharing. But the more accessible you make housing, the more you sort of put it as a rung on the ladder, the fewer homeless people, the more accessible you make it, the more likely it is someone is going to use that money to get a room, especially in the cold winter months. Yes. That's right. And the truth is that shared housing is very, very common all throughout New York. It's often referred to as having roommates. Right. But it's family size apartments that are getting rented out by singles with different people living in different bedrooms. So it's there. It's everywhere, but it's often unregulated with very few tenant protections. You have people who enter these roommate situations who are often victimized and taken advantage of by the person who has the least of the apartment. There's no real fire code. You have illegal walls and partitions. I was going to say illegal walls and partitions, fire codes. Also a lot of migrants live in those spaces too. A lot of my clients have shared living situations that are just really disturbing and complicated sometimes, right? They have dozens of people living in really tight spaces, right? Right. Yeah. What do you know about SROs, Melissa? I know. So you had a flicker recognition with that. Years and years ago, when I first started working, I was a paralegal at the gay mental health crisis. We had a lot of clients who were living in SROs. Some of them were, either they were, because they were working, they were able to pay for it, or they got a housing stipend that allowed them to live in those spaces. I don't think I realized that they had sort of gone by the wayside. But a lot of them would complain exactly of what you were saying. Well, yes, I'm lucky to have a roof over my head. However, there's a rodent problem. There's a roach problem, that kind of thing. It doesn't feel safe. It's not clean. It's not well maintained. I love that you did this. Because people, I mean, I look at how much it costs to rent an apartment now in New York City. And I can't believe how much people are supposed to have. How much money is somebody who's just starting out, who's supposed to make? The average rent in New York City right now is $5,000. That is the current amount. I don't know how people afford these rents. It's unbelievable. Really, it's shocking. I mean, again. People I know, when I find out how much they pay in rent, I'm like, how do you do that? How much must you make? Well, and also, what are you not doing? Are you... I mean, I appreciate that vacations and things are a luxury, but are you able to feed yourself? Are you able to do some nice things for yourself? I mean, I feel like this idea of people working just to pay rent is just... It's wrong. It's wrong. For people in the shelter system, we have to create ladders out of that. And it doesn't necessarily have to be their forever home. It's a place for them to go, to get independence, to get stabilized before they move on and get a larger apartment. Are you getting pushback on that as you're trying to reintroduce as far as like, who are you up against? Yeah. That surprised me because I posted about this bill, The Times did a piece about it, and I posted about it. And I thought, everyone would say, oh, Eric, that's such a great idea. There was a lot of pushback on social media from people who felt like it was like a really bad thing. Because... You just want to make apartments smaller instead of addressing affordable housing. You just want to make everyone's apartments tiny. Right. Oh, this helps the developers who just want to make really small apartments and sell them for a lot of money. That was exactly what the knee-jerk reaction from people was. So it is going to take some education. I get that. I also think that this thing happens on social media. It happens to me a lot where haters come in who have never stepped foot in New York City. Oh, 100%. The people who hate on my videos who are mad at me about the videos about ICE, they're not even American sometimes. I'm like, what? You really have to couch what criticism you internalize and how you move through your work. That's right. Because a lot of the times it is a kid who stole their mom's phone. Right. Right. And I'm living in Idaho who has no idea what it's like to live in New York City. Why would you want to live in New York City? And then there's always somebody in the comments who's just like, I live behind God's back someplace and I pay $100 for this huge place. Namik, well, then I have to be in that place. Right. And for somebody who is a life on New York or New York is my home, I want to be here. Yeah. And it turns to me that I should be able to afford to live in the city that I grew up in. That's right. And I think a lot of the criticism is well-meaning. Right? Yeah. People feeling like we want to shoo horn people into tiny boxes and no one should have to live that way. But the truth is that almost everyone, almost everyone I know at one point in New York has had roommates. Of course. Yeah. And that's essentially what we're talking about. Some of the people who are getting kind of nasty in the comments, I actually said like, when I met you, you had roommates and you were okay with it. You're not going to be now, but at the time it was a way for you to be in New York and get your footing in the city. That's how we all started. That's how we got here. That was the entry point. And we need all of the above. Yes, we need more three bedroom apartments for families. We need more two bedroom apartments for families. We need more big apartments. We also need more shared housing for everyone. This isn't the silver bullet. That's right. I mean, I didn't hear you here today on the show say that it is this Deus Ex Machina that's going to fix all of our problems. It's not. But it is definitely a step in the right direction or one of many things that we can do to support affordability in New York. Yeah. So I'm excited about it. We had a hearing. We're going to be doing more education and I'm going to be getting my colleagues on board and I hope that we can pass it early next year so that we can see more options. One more thing about this. It's really good for people with mental health issues because social isolation and seniors, social isolation is a really big problem. When I talk to service providers and people who work in social services, one of the problems I have is people shutting in, staying in their room. Interesting. And this really gets people out. That social interaction, it also gives social service workers the opportunity to observe the person and make sure they're okay. Right. There's a door to knock on to do that wellness check, right? Eric, let me ask you a couple of questions. So is the intention to build these spaces or to take already apartments that are there or maybe vacant and rehab them so that they can become SROs? The second question is you mentioned this idea of people who are struggling with maybe substance abuse or mental health issues. Would there be a social work component in the basement of the building? That's right. So supportive housing on-site social services is very important for those populations. And we're talking about new housing, we're talking about conversions of office space. Sure. Yes. So that's a really big opportunity for more housing. Because the district you mentioned, right, all the way, that includes Midtown, which has seen a lot of things change about it since the pandemic, right? Which has been awesome. At the beginning of the pandemic, we were very frustrated by the lack of office residential conversions. New York wasn't doing many of them. They were happening in other parts of the country, they weren't happening in New York. Now, we are leading the country with office to residential conversions and it's a really, really great development. That's awesome. It is going to help address the housing shortage. It's also going to help revitalize some of these commercial-only districts, which is an outdated concept, right? The idea that you have this area is residential, this is an office area only that shuts down at five o'clock. Yes. It's a 24-7 vibrant neighborhoods. We have limited space in New York. It's such an obvious statement, but we really can only build up so high and you can't really go out too far. It's an island. Right. Right. I was in LA a couple of weeks ago and I was like, oh, as far as the eye can see is Los Angeles. Oh, yeah. It's flat. Yeah. It's spread out. Add another neighborhood. You're good. Right, right, right. Yeah. A little bit, Melissa mentioned the game and health crisis. I know that HIV AIDS funding has been cut in America recently that there's a lot of things on the table. You are also running for one of those house seats. Tell me a little bit more. I know this is a cause that's really important and near and dear to your heart. Let's get into it. I want to talk about this. This is something that I think everyone in the room has dealt with. Yeah. Truly shameful what's happening with HIV AIDS funding, both foreign and domestic, right? Yes. Yeah. WTO. Funding that one of the few good things that George W. Bush did, one of the very few, was with the prodding of Bono. With the prodding of Bono was really upscale United States funding to help end HIV and AIDS around the world. That is predicted, that is thought to have saved like millions of lives. Yeah. That's truly incredible. They want to zero it out, which could cost millions of lives. I'm truly, truly shameful. Then United States, you have programs like Ryan White, which have really also helped save countless lives. They're talking about zeroing those out. They would love to do it. There's a real possibility that we'll see a resurgence in HIV and AIDS after many, many years of incredible progress. It's been truly incredible what we've been able to live through the last few years. I also feel like when it comes to HIV AIDS, now that we have prepped, now that we have all these medications, that people don't, especially in the gay community, that I'm a part of that I hear a lot about, that my friends, my community, it's almost as if people people are definitely it's not on their mind. They're not like, oh, I'm at risk. I'm on prep. Right? It is very much an out of sight, out of mind thing now. But I don't think what people consider is how white and privileged that thought is. How very few people actually get to experience that feeling of comfort, that feeling of like a sound mind of not having to be concerned or worried. I grew up when there was no prep, like when I was sexually active outside of closed relationships. It was at a time when HIV was very much still something that you could contract everyone was concerned about. That's right. Yeah. The idea of not using a condom never entered my mind. No. Yeah. Because I had from childhood going to elementary school in the 80s, part of our curriculum every year ongoing was safe sex and HIV and AIDS. Yeah. And it was so shocking to me when a prep came along and condom free sex became a thing. I never imagined doing that. Well, of course not. I mean, because the message was you couldn't. It was right. You just couldn't do that to yourself unless you want. So dangerous. So dangerous unless you want to die this terrible, horrible, lonely death. Right? So when I was working at the game as a health crisis, it was sort of the mid 90s. I remember when AZT first came out. Do you know what I mean? So like, sometimes people were dying. People were dying. And I will say, I think I've shared this before. One of the reasons why I left JMHC was because all my clients were passing out. It just felt like that's what was happening. And it was at the time, the kind of place that eventually it took its toll on the soul. And I just remember one day I was just like, I'm crying at work. This can't be. And it keeps happening. And it keeps happening. Right? And the thought of that time coming back again is so scary to me. I really can't stress that enough because I, and I hate sort of saying these things like, back in my day, but honestly, back in my day, I have some gay friends who are my age, who all their friends have died. Unreal. Do you know what I mean? I feel so privileged to be. So if I was born a few years earlier, I probably would not be alive right now because I would have been part of that generation. We're lucky that we're here because we were just born a few years later. Yeah. I paid close attention to this. There was a cruising spot in Penn Station that is in your district that is right in its Penn Station. It's one of the major transport hubs for New York. There's a cruising spot in the men's restroom where gay men were having sex. And recently, I think it was over the summer, police were cracking down and sort of policing that activity. Let's get into it. It was very much a situation where, yes, what was happening is illegal. We're not. There are people who are engaged in sexual activities and technically a public space, but the police were approaching it in a way that was like, oh, that person looks gay and then they would arrest. There was entrapment. Yes. There was entrapment. And my office, we were in contact with one of the people who was entrapped by the cops and he said, I want you to know that I was not doing that. I was not doing that. Yeah. And the problem with this sort of entrapment of the NYPD was it was during Pride Month and there were over 200 people who were picked up and it was like people who were just wearing pride bracelets in your Penn Station, which if you've ever been to gay pride in New York, you need a bathroom quick. Sometimes it wasn't necessarily like actual things were happening. People were clearly. It was a perception. It was, oh, a gay person was near the bathroom in Penn Station. Let's round them up. We're not too far from it now. Right. They're also really disturbing accounts of the language that the officers use. I'm sure. We won't use it on the air, but a lot of Queerslars were thrown around and they're referenced on the Q&A report. We went public about it. I'm co-chair of the city council's LGBTQ caucus. I also represent Penn Station. So council member Tiffany Kamban and I, my colleague, we went public about this and Amtrak responded eventually saying that they were just responding to complaints about things that were happening in the room, restrooms. We are watching this very closely to ensure that those practices stop because this is something that's been a theme throughout my career. When I started as the LGBT liaison at the city council back in 2009, there was entrapment happening in video stores where the PD, their vice squad was approaching these very attractive undercover guys. Approaching older men. Oh, God. Offering sex. That's right. Right. That's entrapment. Yes, of course. Yeah. I think the NYPD and a lot of police forces have a long, ugly history of doing this. To me, I had heard about these things happening decades ago where the police were doing this. There's a really long history of this type of behavior and as a criminal defense attorney, I'll be one of the first people to tell you once you're sort of a part of the system, it's really hard to get out of it. It's very much a system that it's fly tape. Once you touch it, it's kind of stuck to you. When I heard it, I was like, what fucking year is it? This is 2025. We're still doing this. It really was one of those moments, especially in a city like New York. We have one of the fiercest pride parades. We've got a huge queer community. This is where queer kids come to get away from this in their hometown. Absolutely. I was going to say that. Yeah. I'm glad you did something about it. Take me through that thought process, how you approached it because this is not politically palatable. Right? Saying, okay, technically, public gay sex is illegal. You could imagine how this in the wrong conservative hands could get twisted. Absolutely. Those words, especially with drag queen story hours. We could talk about that as well. I know you have been outspoken about supporting drag queen story hours and so have I. I would just love to hear a little bit about what was that thought process? You're a queer man. You've been focused on these issues. You hear about this happening in your neighborhood. You live in the district. What do you do? Because I know I would, if I were in that scene, I had to make the decision, I would probably have a dark night at the Soul Bar. I have to really think about how I approached this because, like I said, in the wrong hands, this could be an ugly headline for you. I think in New York City, we have trauma from law enforcement. The Stonewall rebellion was started with a police raid. Our communities want safety, but they don't want to be persecuted. Yeah. Right. And they deserve safety, as do we all. We all do. And I think especially folks who are in vulnerable communities, like the LGBTQ community, like black women. These are the people who need our help. And we need our, not just our citizens, but obviously our public servants to sort of rally around us and say, this is important. You are part of my community. What happens to you is important to me, to us. And I have a good relationship with the LGBT NYPD organizations. There's one that's called Goal, Gay Officers Action League. They are very active within the NYPD, and there's so many more of them than there used to be. And that's been a really powerful force of change in the NYPD. Of course. Yeah. Because they're everywhere within the force. And that's such a very positive sort of culture change from within. It's a complex sort of line to toe, right? Working to work with people that are maybe politically opposite or sort of pulling people together. I know you're running for Jerry Nadler's seat in the house right now. What is your plan when you sort of get in there? We've heard from, you know, New York City politicians have been pretty outspoken about partnering with Trump, how we sort of work with this administration, what we can do to ensure that New York remains the safe place that it is for many people, especially migrants. Like, what is your plan? Like, how would you approach this as someone who's running for this seat in the house? Obviously, we have to stand up against Donald Trump. We have to stand up against fascism on the march. We have to oppose it. We have to be against it. But we also, as Democrats, we have to be for something and something that people are going to be able to feel tangibly in their lives. One of the reasons why Mom Donnie won against all odds is because he spoke directly to people about the issues that they were confronting in their lives, and he gave people a real sense of hope that those things were going to change in their lives. Yes. In, let's just say New York City, for example, in New York City, they say that an individual has to make like $130,000 a year to have a good quality of life, and a family has to make like $250,000 to have a good quality of life. 90% of New Yorkers don't fit in. That means 90% of New Yorkers have a substandard quality of life. Financially, don't belong here, right? And they, people want their Democratic party. If we as Democrats want Americans to start voting for us again, when we are in charge, when we do have power, we need to make a difference in people's lives. One of the issues that we talk about a lot is housing. How do we bring housing costs down around the country? At its core, the rise in housing costs is caused by a shortage of homes. As a country, we're around 5 million homes short nationwide. How are we going to make up that difference? How are we going to have 5 million homes built around the country so that there's not this scarcity created, so that you have 25 people competing for every vacancy? I will work to establish a program, a nationwide program, where we as a federal government, we should be incentivizing cities, counties, and states to allow for more housing construction, transit-oriented development, walkable neighborhoods with multifamily homes near public transit, near transit options. The United States stopped developing that way 75 years ago, where the federal government needs to create a program for these entities to sign up for, to buy into, where they will be compensated per unit of housing created. There could be an affordability mandate included, that way, the federal government's helping with the cost of the infrastructure that'll come with that. Who's buy-in do you have for that? That is your vision. Love to hear it. I think it sounds, what do you think? No, it sounds amazing. I think it sounds really cool. What? Really hopeful. How do you approach that? How do you get that sort of data? How do we make that happen? There's a cohort of members of Congress who are onto this. They get it. They include members of both parties, by the way. They understand that we, as a country, have created a scarcity of housing, the scarcity environment where we're competing against, for limited resources, when it's totally unnecessary. We can have a society where we have ample resources for all, where the rich and the well-connected aren't winning every hand because there's a scarce amount of housing. I think growing that coalition, addressing the misinformation about transit-oriented development and walkable neighborhoods, people don't really understand what that means. Donald Trump, when he ran for president in 2016, he accused Democrats of wanting to abolish the suburbs. The Democrats in D.C. have been and want to, at a much higher level, abolish our beautiful and successful suburbs. Because what we were talking about is really building more density in the suburbs, allowing multifamily housing in the suburbs, not single-family homes. It resonated with some people saying they want to build a skyscraper next to my home. It doesn't have to be like that. We're talking about two stories. We're talking about duplexes, triplexes, areas that you could walk around. By the way, the vast majority of Americans, they want to live in walkable neighborhoods. The polls show again and again, surveys show that most Americans want to live in a neighborhood where you could walk around, but the vast majority of Americans, they don't live in those neighborhoods because it's functionally illegal where they live. How's the race been going? How's that looking? It's been exciting. The race has been in the headlines recently. There's a demon twink running against Eric who said that it's a twink-off currently, which I would love to hear what your thoughts are. This is a total tonal shift from Trump and affordable housing and multifamily homes. Twink-off really does sound like a Fire Island Pines mud-wrestling activity. I love Cameron Casky for saying that because I'm 46 and he described us as having twink-like qualities. Incredible. I'll take it at 46. I do identify more and more as a daddy than a twink. Actually, I'm a twiz. You heard it here first, Eric Botcher's a daddy. I'm a twiz. He's a twiz. It's been years since I've been a twink. Twiz the night before you were a twink. Exactly. That twink death hits hard. I've been there. To be called a twink at you said 46, that's a beautiful thing. Great job. Round of applause on the skincare. You got that Korean skincare 12 step. What are you doing? In very dim lighting especially. Not Michael. CJ hit the lights. Michael loves lighting. I love a good lighting moment. I'm sorry, I'm not going to apologize for it. I took a leaf out of the Leah Remini book and just said, give me all the lighting and the nails. All lamps, no overhead. No overhead. We had a moment at the city council about overhead lighting because I passed. It's a hate crime. That is worse than the policing of pensions. I'm telling you, I passed legislation that would require the city to better light underneath scaffolding. I was going to say. No. I said at the press conference, I said there's a stereotype that gays hate overhead lighting and it's 100% accurate. Except for scaffolding. Except for scaffolding. If you are campaigning on no more overhead lighting, you have my vote. Because let me tell you something. As a bald diva, that glare could light this entire show. I hear a lot about the glare. I hear a lot about the glare. Airplanes are distracted with overhead lighting and the glare. I think you, oh, just. Vin Diesel call me, we need to discuss because I think we could start like a little super pack against this overhead lighting. Just as bald as. Yes. If I come to your home and you have overhead lights, I will turn on every lamp and turn off every overhead. Well done. I'm quite imperious when I go to people's homes. Melissa knows. Just walk right in and open the fridge. Yeah. Make a sandwich. Yeah. Have a glass of water. He's also been known to go into purses. I went into your purr one time. Eric, what do you think about, okay, this is our Christmas episode. A, how do you celebrate? And B, we are currently beefing. We're not going to tell you who's on which side. Eric wasn't in the studio when we covered fake versus real Christmas trees. But you do have to pick a side. I'm team real Christmas trees. Even though I'm definitely team artificial plants in general. Interesting. We've got one right there. Yeah. I think artificial plants. Cut in on our fake bamboo tree at I Heart Studio. They're way better than no plants. Yeah. A lot of them are like, I have a fake orchid that. Oh, do you get compliments on it? It's far enough away where it's an orchid. Right. As far as anyone's concerned. Yeah. Does it get dusty? Do you dust your. It does get dusty. See, that's the problem with the fake plants. Yeah. Like they get dusty. Real plants get dusty too though. But not like a fake plant. The fake plant seems to like really like. It can get that way. Really like absorb the dust. And I got my parents some fake like really tasteful big plants. Yeah. And unfortunately they've been taking it too far. And my father. Yeah, you just lost the game. Started planting fake plants outside. Like he put them. My friend did that. In the lawn. Yes. My friend did that. I've never heard of this. Yeah, I haven't either. So. Unbelievable. People do that. What? People do that. Comment below if you've planted a fake. I've never heard. This is like actually. I will tell you. This is worse than the pineapple on the pizza. Who was what? A really good friend of mine. And I'm not going to say who she is. But she knows who she is. Yeah. She planted, you know, in front of her door on either side instead of having like two real plants. She put some fake plants. Okay. All right. I mean, I guess I had a strong reaction, but I guess it does kind of make sense. Maybe in a harsh climate or something. They're in the out of Ron Jackson. In a hurricane, if I get hit by a fake orchid, I'm going to be. I get clobbered by your fake birch tree. On your shiny noggin. What happened to him? I had a fake birch tree land on my house. That's what happened to the Wicked Witch. Okay. Well, thank you for joining us. Do you want people to do you want to plug anything? Do you want us to check out their hand? I would love to invite people to follow me on social media. Okay. You can follow me on social media channels. It's a great way of us staying in touch with each other. EricBotcher.com is my website. Okay. And I really want to thank you for having me. Of course. We'll clip this. We'll put it on socials and we'll tag you so you can, so people can see your handles and everything. And does your campaign, are you looking for volunteers or anything like that? We're looking for volunteers. You can sign up. Yeah. We're going to have. Fantastic. It's going to be really, really exciting six months. We're always looking for fun ways to get involved. So thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you Eric. Thank you. We'll be right back. This is Tales from the DMs. This is where I answer all your burning legal questions. Honestly, any of your questions ask me relationship advice. I've been in a relationship for almost 10 years. As I always say. We have a disclaimer. We do have a disclaimer, which is that while Michael is a lawyer, he's not your lawyer. So let's try and remember that. Yes. But if you do want me to be your lawyer, I actually just recently opened up in my link tree, you can click a book of consultation with me and I charged like a small fee. I think it's pretty reasonable. But to book a consultation with me is 30 minutes. I'll review your case. I'll review what's going on. It'll be very much like this, but with less bronzer. And I won't be there chiming in. Unfortunately. It's a upcharge if you want Melissa. Yeah, for sure. I'll come. I'm a listen Michael. I was just calling to see if you could discuss something that happened here in Indianapolis on Tuesday, December 9. There was a naturalization ceremony that was being held. However, 38 out of 100 prospective citizens were turned away at the door. I did hear this. They were turned away. Yeah. Exactly. Like she said, there were some people who were set all set to become naturalized, which means so you tell people what that means. Yes. Yes. So when you're said to become naturalized, it means all of your paperwork is literally done. Everything's been approved. USCIS has approved everything. Right. And it's I think actually most of it's been like stamped process. Yes. You are. This is the last step. It's sort of like the swearing in ceremony. You won the election. Correct. This is you put your hand on the libel and swear. And if you are interested in becoming a citizen, like this is sort of this is the prize. Right. This is the prize. You invite family, you invite friends. Yes. I've gone to a couple for some clients. It's fun. Yeah. And for whatever reason, and we don't know why a group of them were turned away that they couldn't do it. I don't know why they were turned away. Right. I can guess. I can postulate. I think that there is a lot of miscommunication going on right now. The directives coming down from USCIS, from DHS, from the Trump administration, down to the officer level, like communication is very garbled, I would say, in the enforcement space. That's what I'm sort of witnessing is that certain clients, the police are acting one way. ICE is acting one way. Like there is no comprehensive plan of these are the rules. This is how to follow them. We had an organization like ICE that exploded in activity is huge and has so many people now working for them that are all brand new. So that is what I think is happening. I don't necessarily know exactly what happened in Indianapolis. A lot of what they're doing is illegal. I can't say whether or not this is just off the top of my head. A lot of what they're doing is illegal, but it's not going to be enforced. It's going to take years to get to the bottom of it. We need lawyers and firms to pick up those lawsuits. A lot of it will be litigated long after people have been removed from this country. I see that it is heartbreaking. It looks like a part of the reason. I don't know what happened there, but what has been happening more and more is that the people who were about to be sworn in are from countries that the current administration deem as high risk. So they're coming from some country that he's probably called the shoot-hole. Venezuela, yeah. Yes, exactly. Somalia, et cetera. So yeah. Okay. Well, thank you for your question. If you want to ask us a question, you can go to my link tree, click on Ask Us a Question. You can record your voicemail. We will play it on the air. I'll try and answer legal questions. And that was Tales from the DMs. Thank you for watching Brief Recess. I forgot my line. Thanks for watching Brief Recess. I'm Melissa Malbranch. He's Michael Foot. I'm Michael Foot. I'll see you in court. Wait, we swear count. Throw it up on the screen. What was my swear count? Zero. Lies. That is a revisionist history. Lies. Lies. I'm still going to donate. Well, yes. I'll keep you honest. It's a great, wonderful holiday, everyone. Happy New Year. We're going to have episodes playing throughout the holiday break, but we'll be back in the studio in January with some fierce tea. Yay. This has been an Exactly Right production recorded at iHeart Studios, hosted by me, Michael Foot. And me, Melissa Malbranch. Our producer is CJ Ferroni. This episode was edited by Nicholas Gallucci. Our associate producer is Christina Chamberlain, and our guest booker is Patrick Cottner. Our theme song was composed by Tom Brievogel with artwork from Charlotte Delirio and Vanessa Lylak with photography by Brad Obono. Brief Recess is executive produced by Karen Kilgariff, Georgia Heartstark, and Danielle Kramer. You can find me on Instagram at Department of Redundancy Department or on TikTok at Michael Foot. And I'm on both Instagram and TikTok as Melissa Malbranch. Got legal questions? Reach out at briefrecess at ExactlyRightMedia.com. Listen to Brief Recess on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And of course, we're a podcast with video. Search for Brief Recess on YouTube.