Florida Governor Hopeful James Fishback MELTS DOWN on Race & Immigration

There is systemic racism. It is against white Christian men. Do you believe that if Byron Donalds was a white guy, he wouldn't be in Congress? Yeah, I don't believe if he were a white guy, he'd be in Congress. I believe he is a DEI hire. There's nothing special about him. I don't think we're a country of immigrants. I think we're a country of settlers. What are settlers if not immigrants? If everyone in America stopped speaking English and started speaking whatever the heck they speak in Somalia, which is unintelligible to most people, then this would cease to be America. Welcome back to the Tara Palmieri show. Before we start, I want to be clear about something. My guest today, James Fishback, is a provocateur running for governor of Florida. And what's unsettling about this is that he is not fringe. He's polling competitively. According to Patriot Polling, he's at 23 percent compared to Congressman Byron Donald's at 37 percent. For Fishback, being a white man is unbearable. In his view, the oppressors are immigrants and minorities. It's grievance politics wrapped in bravado. It's familiar. It's loud. And it's increasingly mainstream. Some of you probably are asking, why would I give this person airtime? Well, here's why. He's running for governor of one of the largest states in the country. Ignoring people like this doesn't make them disappear. And I've always believed in confronting power and controversy head on the way Barbara Walters did when she sat across from figures like Bashar Al-Assad and Fidel Castro. She didn't look away and neither will I, because if we don't ask those hard questions now, we wake up later wondering how this all happened. So this interview may be uncomfortable. There are a lot of moments that are raw. There are moments that veer into outright racism, but this is what parts of American politics sound like right now. And I think it matters that you hear it for yourselves. I also want to address one mistake that I made during the interview. I said that he raised $1,000 compared to Byron Donald's $45 million. So that was from his first fundraising report. And he filed an amended one in response to bad press that he got for the low fundraising report. And it showed that instead he raised $19,000 but has $6,000 on hand after expenditures. So it's still not great. But let's get into it. inventors, entrepreneurs, politicians, and okay, probably some wonky types like me, if I'm being totally honest. Congress to me was a very entrepreneurial place. It's like Shark Tank, but a lot less glamorous. When nerds get rich and powerful, they can't help but get involved in politics. I want to talk about how we can get unstuck and live up to the country's many promises. It does seem to me that there is some awakening of a desire to act together to solve problems where they are. If we believe in this country, it's worth fighting for. Join me Wednesdays on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you for joining the show. I want to start with just you, like as a person, who you are, your values, what matters to you, right? Because I know a lot of your policies, you've been on a lot of TV shows, and we'll talk about them too and podcasts. But I wonder what you think when you hear this line. I know in my heart that man is good, that what is right will always eventually triumph and there is purpose and worth to each and every life. What do you think of that quote? Do you agree with it? Reject it? I agree with that 100%. Do you need to talk? No, I don't care who said that. I mean, I think that's a really good quote. I mean, you know, Thomas Jefferson in his first draft of the Declaration of Independence wrote, we hold these truths not to be self-evident, but to be sacred and undeniable that all men are created equal. And so if I'm doing one thing and running for governor, I'm reasserting that truth from 250 years ago. Whether you're a Christian, a Muslim, or a Jew, whether you're black or you're white, or you're straight or you're gay, rich or poor, rural or urban, I'm running to represent you as the next governor of Florida. I'm part of the Republican Party, but I'm not part of the Republican Party that wants to take more of our money and send it overseas. I don't want private equity firms to buy up single family homes. I don't want foreign workers taking jobs that could go to qualified Americans in my state. And so equal protection under the law is paramount, but it's not just a legal thing. You actually have to fight for the economic dignity of every single worker senior in our state. And that's what I'm running to do. What about people who are immigrants? I know you've even said that people who are naturalized immigrants shouldn't be here. Do you think that still applies to them? Should they be put in these warehouses, these max prisons now? No, Tara, I don't think I've ever said that. I haven't said that and I don't believe that. I believe that if you've been naturalized through the legitimate due process of our immigration system, there's absolutely a place here for you in America. The truth, though, is that the immigration- But you don't believe in birthright citizenship. So it depends how you want to define what birthright citizenship is. I'll give you an example. If you are here and you cross the border, 20 minutes into crossing the border, you have twins, you're here illegally, those twins are not American citizens. The way that the current legal system has interpreted the 14th Amendment of birthright citizenship is egregious, it is a historical and it is wrong. And so if I were visiting China and I had kids in China, they would not be Chinese citizens. If we were visiting Spain and someone had kids, they would not be Spanish citizens. Why is it that we are the only country in the world that allows anybody to have kids, whether on vacation, when they're a Russian oligarch and they're spending the winter here, because they have kids that are all of a sudden. This is a country of immigrants and immigration. Correct. So, but so, okay. So at its core, we're all immigrants, including yourself. No, I don't, I don't agree with that at all. I don't think we're a country of immigrants. I think we're a country of settlers. I think that immigrants have been a historically apart of our country. What are settlers? It's not immigrants. We can play board games and semantics. The truth is that the folks who came here on Ellis Island, the people who came here on Ellis Island actually assimilated, actually pledged their allegiance to a singular flag, not having dual allegiances to their homelands, not importing their tribal conflicts from the Middle East or sub-Saharan Africa here. They pledged their allegiance. And guess what, Tara? The biggest thing is the folks who came here to Ellis Island, they did not get food stamps and Obamaphone and $7,000 a month in federal taxpayer benefits to live their own lifestyle, to live their own way. You don't get to steal from the productive to give to the unproductive. And so Tara, when I think about the immigrants who came here in the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, even up until the 90s, they came here, they worked hard, they pulled themselves up by the bootstraps. They didn't rely on federal welfare. They didn't steal jobs. They didn't do any of that. They actually played by the rules. Some would say they did. As the great, great granddaughter of a immigrant that came through Ellis Island, they were called WAPs without papers. That's how they described Italians. and Italian Americans can still carry on their ethnic heritage into the American fabric. And in fact, a lot of people that come from all over, they continue to hold onto their traditions from the countries that they came from. And that's what makes America what it is. Traditions are not allegiances. Of course you hold onto your traditions. But we talk about allegiances. But allegiances, traditions, we of course hold onto our traditions. We all should, and we all should care for them. But there's a difference between cultural heritage and refusing to assimilate into your country. I don't believe that Somalians living in Mogadishu, sorry, Minneapolis, are in any way, shape, or form trying to play by the rules, obey the laws of this country, and genuinely assimilate into America. My mother was born in South America. My mother was born in a small town called Barranca Bermeja in the state of Santander in the country of Colombia. My mother did not speak much English until she came to this country. My mother still struggles at times to speak English, but guess what? In my house growing up, she refused to speak to us in Spanish and only spoke to us in English because she recognized that when she married my father, when she lived in America, when she raised my sister and me, she was pledging her allegiance to a singular flag, the United States of America. Teddy Roosevelt, our 26th president, Tara, he said we have but one language, the English language. Speaking English doesn't mean, there was nothing about speaking English that made you American. English is just the language. No, it is the national language of the United States of America. If everyone in America stopped speaking English and started speaking whatever the heck they speak in Somalia, which is unintelligible to most people, then this would cease to be America. English is an inseparable part of our national fabric. And I'm proud that here in Florida, just last week. You're talking about tradition. I want to keep going. So you've called for deportations or ICE, basically, to take part in school. You have said that they should be able to go into schools and round up children who are in schools illegally, that they are not illegal. They did not come to this country legally. Are you concerned about the white children being traumatized by that? Tara, when did I say that? When did I say I want to send ice into our public schools? You have said that. I literally listened to you say that on CBS Miami. You have said that the problem is that these teachers, you have said that the teachers spend so much time working with the kids who come from other countries that it's detrimental to the white children there and that you would call for the deportation of these children from school. I did not say that. On day one, I'll sign an executive order to begin the immediate removal of any child in any grade in our public schools who is not authorized to be in the United States. Executive order number four is to remove all illegal immigrant children from our school I had someone ask me recently isn that cruel And I said no ma No it not No Tara you use the adverb exactly. That is not exactly what I said. There is truth to the frustration that we're talking about. And I'm happy to talk about it. But what I don't appreciate with all due respect is I think you're actually a diligent reporter. I've been reading your work for years. I don't appreciate when you mischaracterize something. If you want to have a genuine debate about what do you mean? What do you mean then? What would you do? So great. So let's do that. Let's have a genuine conversation about what I actually said. Let me just set this straight. I do not support sending armed ICE agents into our public elementary schools and removing kids from school. I did not say that the white kids are being traumatized by deportations. No, no, no. I'm not saying you said that. I'm asking, are you worried they would be traumatized by that. So let me tell you what my position is. Are you worried that they would be traumatized by seeing their classmates being removed from school, whether it's through armed ICE agents or nice people just tapping them on the shoulder and telling them it's time to go? So let me tell you what I said, Tara. Okay. Plyler v. Doe was disastrously decided by the Supreme Court. Okay. Plyler v. Doe found that illegal immigrant children have a constitutional right under the 14th Amendment to attend public school. I don't think they do. I don't think illegal immigrant anything has a right to come to our schools, to use our resources, to bog down our classrooms, and to draw attention away from American citizens, Black or white, Christian, Muslim, or Jew. I don't think it's fair when I sat across from a teacher in Hendry County in a small agricultural town called LaBelle last year, and she broke down crying because she does not speak Spanish. And she had to spend upwards of half of each class day with the 20 kids in her class, seven of whom do not speak a word of English, trying to teach them U.S. history in broken Spanish. Plyler V. Doe says that those illegal immigrant children who are here from El Salvador, from wherever, that they have a constitutional right to Tara. No, Tara, let me tell you what I said. Let me tell you what I said. Because what I said, you probably still disagree with. So I'm going to give you an opportunity to disagree with me. So what I said was... No, it's not that I disagree with you. I just want to call you. I just want to make it clear that... Tara, I'm pretty sure you disagree with my position on this. I'm pretty sure you disagree with my position on this. I'm just a journalist, okay? I'm asking you questions. I understand that. But I think deep down, if you had a choice to vote for this policy that I'm proposing, you would be opposed to it. So let me tell you what my position is. As Florida governor, before the sun sets on my first day, I'm going to direct the Department of Education, which is under my complete constitutional authority as Florida governor, I'm going to direct them to begin winding down the enrollment of any student in our public schools that is not a citizen of the United States of America. If you are black, if you are white, if you are rich, if you are poor, if you worship however you choose to worship, I myself am an unapologetic Christian and you're a citizen of this country, there will always be a place for you in our public schools. I can't stand the fact that young black kids in Belle Glade and Pahokie are being replaced or having their school time and attention, that teachers are being underpaid and overworked to teach students who do not belong in our country, who do not speak a word of English. And that is not about Republican or Democrat. That is not about right or left. That is about right versus wrong, Tara. And so absolutely, I am going to make sure that our public schools in Florida are for American citizens only. We have too much on the plate of our teachers, too much we've asked of our parents and too little attention we've given to the citizens of our schools. I'm going to make sure that public schools in Florida are for Florida kids once again. Okay. I do want to talk to you about the first quote. You said you believe there is worth and purpose in every life. So how do you support someone like Nick Fuentes. Who doesn't see it that way? When did I say I supported Nick Fuentes, Tara? You have said that he is patriotic. You've never actually come out against him and what he says. He seems to be fond of you and you seem to be okay with that. I don't agree with everything that anyone says, and that includes Nick Fuentes. I've never met him. I've never spoken to him. What I can tell you is the men that I have met, the men that I have spoken to that have come to our events like UCF last night, where we drew a crowd of over 300 people with 12 hours notice. A lot of them were wearing America first hats. A lot of them watch Nick Fuentes. And what I've said is that in my conversations with those men, I have found them to be incredibly patriotic, insightful, and well-informed. Am I going to agree with them on everything? No. But I'm not going to sit here and disavow or denounce my fellow Americans merely because I have a political disagreement with them. You are never going to disavow patriotic Americans. Okay. Why do you think these- Why would I? Why would I disavow? By the way, I'm not going to disavow. I have a question, though. why do you think these so-called patriotic Americans, these so-called, you know, these white nationalists and anti-Semitic supporters, what do you, why do you think you attract so many of them? What do you think they see in you? Well, you're calling them white nationalists. Where's the evidence that they're white nationalists, Tara? I mean, Nick Fuentes is pretty clear about the fact that he is, he is a, he is a white supremacist. I don't think anyone would disagree. I don't think he would disagree with it. He wouldn't disagree with it. So, so Tara, my understanding is he lives in the state of Illinois. I live in the state of Florida. I'm running to be the governor of Florida. What I can tell you is the supporters on the ground at our events are patriotic Americans. We are not going to agree on everything, but I am fighting to be a governor for every single American citizen in my state. Look, there is not a Democrat Florida or Republican Florida, the issues that afflict my state affordability, the cost crisis, gas prices, everything, property insurance, property tax, all of that does not uniquely afflict one group or one political party. We are all in this together. And as my grandmother always reminded us, no one will make it out alive. And so I mean, these are definitely my goal. Issue, guys, I just don't like what do you think you're just saying you haven't answered my question. things. You're just saying things. You haven't answered my question. What is your question, Tara? My question is, why do you think you attract these people? What do you think they see in you? What do they believe you represent? Why? What is it about you? Why don't you come down to Florida? Genuinely, I invite you to come down to the campaign trail and spend time with us and talk to our supporters and get a better idea who supports our movement. I can tell you, we got a lot of Democrats who recognize that the next governor of Florida, just facts, the next governor of Florida is going to be a Republican. And they're switching over in droves to change their party affiliation to Republican, away from Democrat, away from Independent, away from Libertarian, to vote for me because I'm the only real America first candidate that will fight for the economic dignity of every young couple, of every working family and every senior in our state. And your accusations that I'm a racist, a white nationalist, an anti-Semite. I never said that. I just asked you why those people like me. You're playing the guilt association game with me. No, I'm not. I want to know if it bothers you to know they support you. Okay, what does it bother me? Okay, tell me who supports me, what they've said, and why would that bother me? I need specifics. What does it say he supports you? He said he's voting for me. He can't vote in Florida, Tara. No, he doesn't say he's voting for you. He said positive things about you. And his followers, they come up to you in their blue hats, which is a signal. I love the blue America first hat. I prefer it to the MAGA hat because I believe that America first is something we have to get back to. It's not something new. It's something old that we need to reassert our sovereignty. This is our country. It's our home. It's our birthright. And no one, no one, not multinational corporations, not billionaires, not foreign nationals. No one should steal that, the birthright from American citizens, Tara. Okay. You've used some racially charged language to describe your opponent, Byron Donalds. You've called him Byron, called him DEI Donalds. Do you believe that if Byron Donalds was a white guy, he wouldn't be in Congress? Yeah, I don't believe if he were a white guy, he'd be in Congress. I believe he's a DEI hire. There's nothing special about him. I've heard those conversations with folks in Washington, D.C. and in Tallahassee, that he is our guy. He's kind of the token black guy. He's moved up the ranks when a lot of other people who are highly qualified would not be in that position if they were white or if they were not black like him. So I absolutely believe that he is a DEI hire. And for me, what DEI means is he did not earn it. DEI didn't earn it. He did not earn the ability to serve. He has not won over the trust of my state. Tara, I've done more in-person campaign events in the last nine weeks than byron donalds has done in 12 months he's not even trying to be the governor million dollars in the bank and you have less than a thousand oh my gosh he has 45 million dollars thousand dollars to me suggests that not a lot of people know tara tara tara what are you talking about less than a thousand dollars i don't have less than a thousand dollars i bought this big gulf i have a thousand dollars minus 89 cents look tara this idea that since I don't, I'm not a multimillionaire and I didn't take millions of dollars from AIPAC to be a slave for Israel, like Byron Donald's has that, that somehow disqualifies me. That is completely unacceptable. Indicative of people believing that you have a shot and wanting to support you, but I want to keep going. I'm pulling it. Hold on. Tara, Tara, I'm pulling it second place. Okay. I got 23% of the boat. Byron Donald's has 37%. We got seven months to go. I will end this election on the debate stage with Fox News on June 23rd when I call out Byron Donalds for all of his lies, all of his duplicity, all of his disingenuous words and actions and deeds over the last five years. The fact that he went to Congress and did nothing but drive up the national debt. He passed the Allies Act with Joe Biden that lowered the betting requirements for Afghan refugees like the sicko that came into our country and shot two National Guardsmen the night before Thanksgiving last year, a block from the White House. I will call him out for everything, But I will also assert the affirmative positive vision that I have for my state which is that we are the best state in the country That means nothing if the people who made us the best can no longer afford to live here Tara mark my words I will be the 47th governor of my state I'll be the sixth governor in my family, and I will put Florida on the map and actually create a state where working families and seniors have a shot again. Okay, but before we get into that, you know, you've spoken about the indignity of being a white man. I'm not a white man, so I don't know what it's like. So can you explain what that looks like in your life concretely? Like, do you walk into a store and people are like, hey, whitey and discriminate against you? Did you have a harder time getting into Georgetown? I want to know what how white men are suffering. So if you could explain that to me, that'd be really great. I'll explain it in the words of the Coca-Cola presentation from January 2021, where it told employees to be less white is to be less arrogant, to be less conceited, to be a better listener. That's what it means, is that the systemic lie. I actually, Republicans say that there's no systemic racism in America. I disagree. There is systemic racism. It is against white Christian men. It is codified in our education system from K through 12, in our public universities, and in lectures like that from the literal slide deck of the Coca-Cola company, one of the largest companies in this country. And so can you imagine, Tara, if there was a presentation at Coke that said to be less black is to be this, that, and the other? Can you imagine how hateful and how disrespectful and how universally condemned that would be? And yet it's OK to demonize and diminish white men across this country. It's time for us to stop and to reassert the fact that all men are created equal. I just want to know about you, though, personally, like I get it. You're saying this is something that Coca-Cola has done. You feel like this is something that corporate culture has done. You don't work. I don't feel like it's something I'm citing. I'm citing primary source evidence to you. But I want to know what it's like for you. I want to know what it's like for you to feel the indignity of being a white man. Tell me what it's like. Tara, I'm not going to recount my lived experiences of 31 years on God's green earth, if you're right. Yeah, why not? I want to know why you do this right. If you want to come down and hang out at 7-Eleven with me, you're welcome on the campaign trail. But what I'm citing to you is primary source evidence of anti-white discrimination for one the largest companies in this country, one of the largest employers in this country. Why can't you honestly tell people the way that you have felt discriminated against? Do you think it was harder for you to get into Georgetown? Did people mock you for being a white guy? Did you feel like there was something that made you uncomfortable in day-to-day situations? Don't just give me data. Give me real. I didn't give you any quantitative data. I actually just cited cited primary source evidence from a presentation at Coke. I'm not going to sit here and be a victim for you, Tara. I'm not going to be a victim on demand to explain the struggles of white men in this country. I'm not going to be a victim and tell you that seven out of 10 of the suicides in this country are white men, that 200 fentanyl overdoses a day happen every single day in this country. And that disproportionately affects white men. The poison that came across our southern border was trafficked and sold into white communities predominantly. I get that. What's thing that happened to you. What's the worst thing that's ever happened to me in my entire life is after the Haitian earthquake in January of 2020, January of 2010, my dad lost his business because hundreds of thousands of Haitians who were illiterate, only knew how to do manual labor, took over the tree trimming and landscaping business in South Florida, something my father solidly did for 20 years. And we were on the brink of bankruptcy. We almost lost our home and I was living on food stamps for eight months. And so, yeah, it was really, really painful to have to see my dad and see my mom go through that, to lose our family business for foreign immigrants who came here and stole, stole opportunities away from American citizens. But you know what? I'm done being a victim. I'm done allowing this victimhood culture that has pervaded large parts of America, particularly in a DEI sense. But we're not sitting here and complaining. We're sitting here to fight back, Tara, to reassert our dignity and our sovereignty over our country. Did all of the white landscapers go out of business, or is this you looking down on someone to explain failure? So I don't think that the Haitian immigrants who came here with TPS after the Haitian earthquake in 2010 could become SAT tutors or math teachers. They could do one thing and one thing only, and that is manual labor. And yes, most of the tree trimmers who are white or black, but American citizens, they lost their businesses. Because when you have 100,000 cheap foreigners who will work for $5 a day, who will work for a sub-market wage, guess what? People like my dad will lose their business called Tom's Tree Trimming Service. And that was unacceptable. And it's yet another example of how the open border that was pushed by Republicans and Democrats has infiltrated and destroyed large parts of our culture and our economic identity. I want to get into a comment you made about Don Lemon. You said that he should be hung in a public square. First of all, let me let me stop. Hold on. Let me. No, let me stop you right there. I want you to read what I said verbatim. If we're going to have this conversation about Mr. Lemon, please. Why don't you say it verbatim? Say it. I'm happy to say it verbatim. Let me let me pull it off because I want to tell you verbatim exactly what I said, because you're saying is lucky he's not getting hanged in the public square for ransacking a church. Those are your words. I'm reading them for you. Don't worry about pulling it out. Perfect. Thank you so much. Do you think he should have a hearing? Do you think he should have a hearing? Yes, of course he should have a hearing. Do you think he should have a hearing? Yes, of course. When did I say he shouldn't have a hearing? Do you realize that public hangings were common in this country up until the 1920s and they were the result of a due process and a fair trial? That public execution was actually a way- That language is historically tied to lynching, though. Do you recognize that lynching is extrajudicial by its very nature? It's inherent that lynching means you are sidestepping and circumventing due process. And that extrajudicial lynching is absolutely wrong. What I said was, if in this country you ransack a church, you should be afforded due process. And at the end of that due process, Don Lemon should be lucky that in the early days of this country, the due process would have been for someone like anyone to go into a church and do that would have likely been public execution. That is merely a historical observation. The fact that you would say that I'm inciting violence against Don Lemon, I want him to have a fair trial. I think he will be convicted of the crimes. I read the indictment. It is ironclad. He should not have stormed that church. He should not have deprived Christians of their First Amendment right to pray and to worship our God. It was unacceptable. Tara, okay, then you know what? Tell it to the judge. Tell it to the judge. If I had to go, first of all, if I had to go into a cave to interview the Taliban, am I a co-conspirator to interview them? If there is a fire inside of a church and I'm in there covering it, am I a co-conspirator? Am I the arsonist because I'm in there? Tara, if the 9-11 hijackers gave you a heads up and you boarded the plane to cover the 9-11 hijacking, then yes, you and anyone else involved should be publicly executed. Oh my gosh. Why would I get into a plane that's about to detonate? Okay. I want to keep going. Tara, Tara, you asked me, if you were a journalist and you are participating in a criminal act, which is what those sick BLM Antifa rioters did in Minneapolis. If you are doing that, you cannot hide behind the First Amendment protections. Again, I ask you, if you were not- Tucker Carlson covers protests all the time. There's no talk about him getting hanged. There were a lot of journalists that cover on both sides of the aisle protests. It's one of the most basic parts of journalism. That was not a legal protest. Depriving American Christians of their right to worship and pray is not a legal protest. It violated the Klan Act. It's a federal law. He'll have his day in court. He was indicted. Let the facts play out. What I said was that if you ransack a church in the early days of the country as a result of due process, one of the likely punishments handed down by a jury of your peers would be public execution. That's what I said. I did not call for the lynching of Don Lemon. And once again, the only way you can score points against me, Tara, is if you deliberately mischaracterize what I say. I mean, you purposely put out provocative tweets like that. I don't know. How do you? Were you sitting there when I wrote that tweet? I was literally at Panera Bread and you picked two. You're on Tinder looking for supporters. It's weird. Okay. I want to get back to it. I got 4,000 matches and then they banned me. Look, you know what's weird? That Republican losers, that Republican losers in Washington, D.C. are opposed to the fact that I want paid maternity leave for the moms in our state. I joined Tinder to let young women know that to be pro-life, you have to fight for paid maternity leave. Do you support paid maternity leave, Tarek? Sure, yeah. Wonderful. I do too. I'm not a journalist. Why are you asking me? Well, because this is a two-way conversation. I don't know why you're asking me a lot of the questions that you're asking me. Because it's not a two-way conversation. You're running for governor and I'm a journalist. This is totally different. Do you understand that? It doesn't matter what I think. You know, I do want to talk, though, a little bit about women. You know, how should a 17-year-old brother react? I mean, how should a brother react to a 27-year-old going after their 17-year-old sister? Like, I've talked to friends about this, and they were all like, they all said they'd beat your ass. Like, how should they feel about that 27-year-old dating a 17-year-old? well here's how they should feel about it false accusations in america are all too common today this individual took those accusations to court and after seven hours of testimony a judge rejected her petition said there was insufficient evidence and exonerated me is this all you got tara is all you got is to make up lies to take things that have already been debunked not by me but by a sitting judge a year ago and use them against this campaign to discredit us what was your relationship with a 17-year-old girl? How did you even come into her work? You know, I've never dated a 17-year-old girl. Maybe I did when I was 16. Actually, I did when I was 16. I did a 17-year-old girl in high school. I have never dated a 17-year-old girl. Yeah. Okay. I also want to talk about the partner. Hold on Don take my word for it Don take my word for it She tried to shake me down She tried to get millions of dollars which I don have I don know why she asked for it And then she went to a judge after we didn pay her and then had her sob story in court And then guess what The judge fully exonerated me It called due process You didn't answer my question about how you became acquainted with a 17-year-old. I never dated a 17-year-old. I don't know what your question is. You're saying that you didn't date her. How did you become acquainted with this girl? How does she know you? How did you spend time together? So I run a statewide high school debate league that has thousands of students in it. So I'm not acquainted with any 17-year-olds. There are students that are part of our programs. I know them and I'm connected with them because they're a part of the work that we do with Incubate Debate. So I want to keep going with this theme though. You presented that you had a partner who later turned out not to exist, not to be real. What did that give you emotionally? Like, were you afraid that being alone would be a political liability? What on earth are you talking about? Genuinely, what on earth are you talking about? Your girlfriend or woman you're presenting as future first lady is not your girlfriend. I mean, it was not a real thing. So like, why present that? She's not a real person? Well, it wasn't a real relationship, according to her. According to her, wouldn't she say that? It just came out. It just came out what? Want to read the statement to me? Sure, I'll have my producer pull up the statement. Here she is. Hold on one second. Let me get this. But we'll move on for now, and then we'll get back to your partner. Here's something else. You literally, hold on. You literally just said. We'll move on. We'll move on for now and then get to your partner. You're a dollar from APAC. That was the ribs that Francesca and I, we split the other day at Chili's. You know, it's so funny. They criticized me. This is your wife? Yeah. This is your wife? Yeah. This is your wife? Yeah. I did not join Tinder a single man. 24 hours later, I am a single man because I joined Tinder. My better half was not very happy. I said, look, you have to meet young women where they are. I know this is all confusing. perhaps purposely confusing to keep the algorithm going in his favor. So that's why I followed up with him after the show. He said the post that he put out about a breakup was a joke, but he didn't respond to a follow-up question on whether this woman is in fact his wife or his girlfriend. We're going to take a beat for a second to hear from my partner, Chapter. Millions of seniors are on the wrong Medicare plan, and Chapter makes finding the right one simple. They scan all of the plans in under 20 minutes and they find the right one for you, saving seniors on average $1,100. It's free and if you're already on the right plan, they'll just tell you and it gives you peace of mind. So for free and unbiased Medicare help, dial 305-515-5237 to speak with my trusted partner chapter or go to askchapter.org. But first I want to talk about the job that you claim to have at this hedge fund, you were macro director. What does a macro director do at a hedge fund? So I was a macro trader. I was a macro investor. My job was to, I mean, going to get really specific, my job was to figure out how the Fed was going to screw things up next and then take a number of bets in the interest rate futures market. So for futures, euro dollar futures, interest rate swaps, calculate what inflation was going to be, what nominal GDP growth was likely going to be, and then make a number of bets that capitalize on those changes in the market environment. Okay. And why did this firm sue you saying that you inflated your title and that you took money from them and that you had to owe them money afterwards, 200 something thousand dollars? So I left that firm in the middle of my third year there to start my own firm called Zoria. I guess I didn't like the fact that I started a competitor, but I'm not going to sit here and be a victim and not take responsibility. I think it was wrong for me to start a competing firm in the middle of the year, to leave my former boss holding the bag of all my positions, all my research, and not give him time to wind that down. And so it was a mistake for me to leave the way that I did. I regret that. I don't regret starting a competing firm. I'm proud that Azoria deployed $40 million at Capital under my leadership last year alone in companies that were hiring on skill and merit as opposed to race and gender. But anybody can make accusations about a false title that has never been adjudicated by a court. And I was proud of the work that I did at Green Light Capital. And now that I'm doing it as Rory Capital. According to the court documents, they claim that they're about to fire you for poor performance, and then you left to create a competitor. And that was when you found out you were going to be fired. So, you know, why should Florida voters trust your representation of yourself when, you know, you've been judged in court to have embellished your own record at Green Light? what was the court date on that that never went to court actually you you've been i hold on you're gonna have to try harder right now you have to try harder on this seriously it's a complaint from green light capital that was filed obviously when you file a complaint you do that under you know you're under under oath um so this would be the first time anyone so this is no one's ever lied under oath before you're saying i don't know i mean i mean you know what if you want to play this game or we're going to dig through court documents let me tell you why floridians to trust me i think it matters i mean you're you're basically asking to have the job of chief executor of the god of of of this of the state of florida so that's right i think people need to know this stuff probably more important than your tinder life but um yeah My Tinder life, sadly, was short only 48 hours in. Well, so I quit my job. It's kind of like, oh, you break up with a girl, and then she says, it's not you, it's me. And then it's actually, she broke up with you. I'm not going to play this game of who broke up with who. I am here to tell you that it was wrong for me to abruptly leave Greenlight Capital in the middle of the year to start a competing firm. I should have talked to my boss before him. I should have just up and left and resigned over an email. That was wrong, and I accept full responsibility for that. But guess what? good men can make mistakes. I am not impervious to that. I am running to be a governor for every single Floridian. And you know what, Tara? I'm not rich. I don't aspire to be rich. That's a dunk. You say, well, Byron has $45 million and I only have $1,000 in my bank account. How do you think that feels to a single mom in Pahokie, Florida or Pensacola who actually has $1,000 in the bank account? It's not about that. It's not about the physical number. Do you look down on people who make less than $1,000 in a bank account? believe in you. And they're willing to open their paycheck, their checkbooks for you. That's the difference. I don't want Israel to give me money. Sorry, Tara. I'm not taking money from APAC. I don't want millions of dollars from Israel or hedge fund billionaires who are going to destroy our country again as they did in 2008. And if that means turning away, by the way, I don't know where you're getting your thousand dollars from. This campaign has raised over a quarter million dollars. We'll hit a million dollars in donations by Easter. We are really proud of the work that we are doing. But guess what? We are not going to outspend our opponent. Miriam Adelson has already told Matt Dixon on the record of NBC News that she will spend whatever it takes to end my campaign. So you know what? I'm willing to show up and fight for voters. They deserve a governor that they can see, talk to, and guess what? Maybe even yell at while Byron Donald sits like a fat, lazy DEI hire in Washington, D.C., going to his Fox News studio, complaining and railing about the Democrats when he hasn't done anything in five years for the people of my state. Tara, if you like Byron Donald so much, why don't you have him on your show and ask him, Why do you deserve a promotion to be governor when in the last five years you've been in Congress and you've done nothing to make Florida more affordable for her people? I want to ask you, you mentioned the word mistakes. What's the biggest mistake you've ever made and what did it teach you? The biggest mistake I ever made in my life was I was born and raised Catholic. Parents are Catholic. Grandparents are Catholic. When I went to college and afterward, I strayed from the Catholic faith. And, you know, my life verse is Luke 646. Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and not do as I say? And I've always believed in God. I've always believed in Jesus Christ. I went to church, but my actions, I didn't always follow the Ten Commandments, the precepts of the Lord. And so my biggest mistake was straying from the Catholic Church, straying from my Christian faith. Three years ago, I reconnected with that faith, and I haven't missed a Sunday Mass since. I'm looking forward to Lent starting here in a couple weeks. And the most important thing in my life is my relationship with Jesus. Okay. Well, on that note, thanks for your time. I appreciate it, James, and we'll see how this all works out. Thanks, Tara. I really appreciate it. That was another episode of the Tara Palmieri show. By the way, in case you were wondering, the quote at the top of the show about there being purpose and worth to each and every life was actually Ronald Reagan's tombstone. Yeah. Wonder what you think. Do you think this candidate for governor of Florida truly believes that? Love to hear from you. 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