When you want your family's staycation to feel like and you're confirmed connecting rooms to feel like and you're a hotel bed to feel like Oh and room service to feel like Choose Hilton because at Hilton, hospitality feels like Good morning. Enjoy your breakfast It matters where you stay. Booknowedhilton.com Hilton for the stay Well it's Groundhog Day. Again, how are you today Anna? Did that little rolling see its shadow? It did. Six more weeks winter. I can't take it. Even winter in Miami. It is Monday, February 2nd. I'm here with the lovely, the talented, the Laquacious and a Navarro. How are you Anna? It's been a tough week. It's been a very tough week. For you know, democracy reasons for news cycle reasons. It's just the things happening. And the country are heartbreaking and enraging. And it's been a tough week. With the Friday news dump. You know, all these things happening. And it's kind of astounding. We come in in the morning. And any one of them. 500 topics. We had to talk about. Would have been the lead. One thing we talked about a little bit today. But there's a lot more to say. say is the arrest of Don Lemon. Um, Don Lemon is a friend of yours. You were at his wedding. Um, he was a mind. He was at yours. He was arrested over the weekend. You were kind of on the lookout for this. We had talked a little bit about it and you said he was still nervous and mentioned that they were maybe going to not give this up. Um, he was later released without bail. Have you talked to Don? Yeah. I, uh, I spoke to Don and I've, uh, texted with Don. Listen, yeah. So I've known Don Lemon for what? For 15 years. But to me, whether you know Don Lemon or you don't know, Don Lemon is irrelevant because this is about the first amendment and protecting the first amendment. And on the side of the White House attacking the first amendment, um, Don has been a journalist for over 30 years. He has been an anchor. He has been on the ground journalist. Don is one of the smartest guys. He knows exactly how to do his job and does it ethically. There is zero evidence that Don is an activist journalist that Don was an organizer of this protest. So this is all about a protest that happened inside a church in Minneapolis that Don went and covered. Right. Um, as an independent journalist. They are trying to portray him as an activist, as an organizer of this protest. That's just absolutely ridiculous in its face, which is why DOJ went to three separate judges to try to get them to sign off on a warrant to go detained Don and the three judges told them to get the hell out of town, told them they were clowns, which is why they went and did what, you know, is easy to do, which is indict somebody. There's the old saying you can indict a ham sandwich in this occasion. They indict an element. And so, um, and three other journalists, one is Georgia Fort. Look, um, I have no doubt that there is zero chance that these charges will hold up in court. I also don't know if this government, because they're so vindictive and so insane and love wasting taxpayer money on stuff that's going to get you nowhere is not going to continue appealing. But I do know, uh, I know because I am a friend of Don's because I've been a colleague of Don's, I can tell you, Don is focused. Um, he is not a guy who's going to give up. He's not, you're not going to see Don settle. You're not going to see Don apologize. You're going to see Don continuing to do his job, not being silenced and fighting these charges to clear his name. If anything, I think this is, he's Donald Trump is going to end up regretting he picked on Don Lemon the same way that he should be regretting he picked on Jimmy Kimmel, because it means they now have more viewers, more followers, more people rooting for them. Um, you know, the charges against Don, if you go read the indictment are stupid. I mean, they're stupid, more chronic lies by Pam Bondy and her shop. And I tell you that because if you go see the video that Don was taking, there is video evidence of this. You see, the guy rolled for seven hours practically. There's seven hours of footage and none of the things that they allege on the indictment that Don was blocking the entrance to the church. He was holding the door open, asking people politely if he could interview them. He was not obstructing anything. He was not organizing anything. He was there with a camera covering what was happening. But this administration is terrified of the truth. Is terrified of facts is terrified of informed, engaged voters because they lie. They lie time and time again, the same way they lied about Liam Ramos, the same way they lied about Alex Freddie, the same way they lied about Renee Good, the same way they lie every single day about this ice enforcement. They are lying in this indictment about Don Lemon and they're going to lose. It's going to be a pain on the neck. It's going to be costly. It's going to be emotionally draining anytime you're in legal in a legal situation. It is, but but Don has a village around him. He's got a lot of people who love him and will support him through this, starting with his husband, Tim Malone. He's going to come through this with with with flying colors. I've been I've been rather amused by all of the tap dancing of Republicans and their talking points and this administration when it comes to this case, right? You had you had Todd Blanche, the deputy AG on TV saying that he didn't know. If Donald Trump even knew Don Lemon or even thought about Don Lemon, the White House tweeted out a picture of Don Lemon. You know, Donald Trump has tweeted against Don Lemon. I don't know how many times more times than he's tweeted against me. Then you had, you know, you had like Republican panelists and contributors saying that Don Lemon was irrelevant. If he was so irrelevant, why'd they arrest him to use him to gas like the country on the same day that the Epstein files were released? And it makes me laugh when I hear like a, you know, a Republican nobody could pick up out of a lineup. You know, nobody could could tell you their name. If you, you know, if you paid the money called Don Lemon, who's got millions of followers and viewers irrelevant. And if people, you know, if people want to support Don a way to do it, is to follow him on Instagram and follow Georgia Fort, the other journalist, independent journalist who was detained. And it was horrible. What they did to her was horrible. They showed up at her house like, you know, like in full armed regalia. Her children were there. They were taking her in the middle of the night. I mean, just, you know, the drama that they like to create around this. They had told Don, you know, Don could have shown up and or told this woman, you know, she could have shown up and turned herself in. But no, they have to go in with sirens blaring and, you know, mount the whole Hollywood production of a show. But if people want to help Don and help Georgia Fort, go follow them on Instagram, go follow their shows and show, you know, support them in their attempt not to be silenced and amplify the truth, amplify the truth. Go watch the, the footage that Don posted. You mentioned Jimmy Kimmel. Don's going to be out with Jimmy Kimmel tonight. So if you get a chance to watch that, that should be interesting. I'll be watching and I'm sure we'll be talking about it. I'll be watching as well. And, you know, like Jimmy Kimmel, when he just got an Emmy in his acceptance speech, he thanked Donald Trump. Donald Trump's made him that much more popular and successful at talk show host. So it was a critics choice, but yes, it was a critics choice. Okay. Another award I don't have. All right. You just mentioned. I can't wait for Don to win this case. I think I might send the White House a case of lemons, Floyd Elements. You just mentioned them and I know you've been watching the story of five year old Liam Ramos. This has been very important to you to follow and talk about on the show and his father, Adrian, they were released over the weekend and able to return home, which is wonderful. What is notable to you about their story? Everything. It is another act of performative purposeful cruelty by, you know, these federal agents that frankly just have no business doing this. Look, so let's break this down. Liam Ramos and his father, his family are from Ecuador. They came into this country legally through a program that existed under the Biden administration called CBP one where you registered and you presented yourself at the border. They have a pending political asylum application. That means they have a legal right to be here while that application is pending. Right. They weren't fighting. They weren't. They weren't. They didn't cross the border illegally. They crossed legally. They did it the way that they were supposed to do it and they are here legally while that application is processing. But they should have never been detained to begin with. But then, eyes chases his father and grabs this five-year-old boy with his little bunny beanie hat and his Spider-Man backpack and uses him as bait in the freezing Minnesota winter to lure his mother and sibling out of the house. They detain him and they send him to this detention center from hell, Dilly, in Texas. So Joaquin Castro, the congressman from San Antonio, who is a friend of mine and who I am incredibly grateful to because of his advocacy, because of his compassion, because of his heart, he demanded to be allowed into Dilly to go check on Liam and the other kids there. So, I drove 85 miles to go to the Dilly detention center, stayed there for hours. When he was there visiting with Liam and his father, he found that completely lethargic boy slept the entire time. I spoke to Joaquin Castro last week. Little Liam was in his father's arms, sleeping the entire time. This was going on at noon. Joaquin visited with the two of them from noon to 1 p.m. Joaquin, who's got his own small children. When we spoke, it was such a hard, hard thing for him to have done. Because anytime you see a child like this, I think you think to yourself, there but for the grace of God could go my child. And Joaquin told me about the dozens and dozens of children that he saw there. Many of them looking sick, looking frail, looking lethargic. He talked to me about these little Egyptian girls that were holding on to his legs, begging him not to leave them there. He talked to me about the conditions in that detention center, which are deplorable. No child should be being held there, particularly no child being held without reason like little Liam was. But so little Liam is released. Two things. One, this ghoulish cruel government and administration is saying that they may appeal the judge's order. And the judge's order, I encourage people to go read it, is scathing against the government. I'll tell you. And the second thing is, so one, the fight for Liam may not be over. And two, there are hundreds of other Liam's being held in detention centers around this country that we have to worry about and fight for. And one of the things that just gets my blood boiling, Brian, is we hear so many of these Trump supporters that forgive and justify anything he does. We hear them quote the Bible. And we hear them talk about how Christian they are. And we hear them advocate for the unborn. What about those who are that are born? What about the rights of those children to have an innocent childhood, to be with their mothers and fathers? So I would say to all of those cross wearing administration members that go behind a podium and justify this unjustifiable act against this five year old and so many other children that they are hypocrites. And they really need to do some soul searching and look in the mirror because you are no Christian. If you are holding a five year old for no reason and having that child in distress and then you know, justifying it. I mean, it's just disgusting. We talked about it last week that the people on the people that are supporting this action were saying that the child was abandoned by his father and that the mother wouldn't come back and that he wasn't able to be there. That's not what school officials say. That's not what the mother says. And those and school officials and the mother don't have a record of lying. Eyes agents and this government does. John Canyonus was on the plane. Right. If you get a chance to listen to the start here podcast, he was interviewed on that this morning and it was great. And he talked to the father about that allegation and the father said that he was just calling for help, getting people to come outside and help him because he was by himself. He was never left his child and he just walked out in front of the car to yell for people and that's what he says happened there. Listen, I slice the things that have happened. And there was a case that we should also discuss, which is horrible. That was revealed this weekend. In Minneapolis, a, a, a, a, a, eyes detained a man. He was in handcuffs. They took him to the hospital with a broken skull and severe brain bleeding. And they allege the man while handcuffed ran into a brick wall. And that's how he broke his skull and did it so badly that it caused his brain to bleed. The ER nurses and doctors said were quoted as saying that those allegations, that explanation was laughable. There's also the case of the Cuban man, the Cuban immigrant who died in ice custody. The medical examiner ruled had been as fixated. In other words, strangled and that they said had died by suicide. So you know what we need? We need oversight. We need answers. We need somebody in Congress to be able to ask the tough questions so that we can get the answers. These eyes cannot be unchecked, unrained, running around with immunity and impunity, involved in, uh, out there doing cruel acts, commit perpetrating cruel acts and rounding people up like they were savages. Well, someone else we talked to about Liam was a Democratic Texas Senate primary candidate James Hillary Goe was on the show today. You asked him about it. Um, overall, what was your takeaway from him today? I thought it was an interesting conversation. Well, you know, he's, um, he's very positive. Uh, he's very optimistic. Uh, he, um, it, I mean, he's, he's a, um, he's a, um, he's a, um, he's a, um, he's a, he's a guy that brings light. And I think he, uh, he, I don't know him. This was my first time meeting him. I have friends who are friends with him and they, they love him. They talk about him very highly. Um, it struck me that, you know, he talks very openly about his faith and his religion and what that means to him and how that grounds him. And the way he talks is reflective of that, right? Because there's so many people that I just said to you that have, that wear crosses and, and clutch bibles and then get behind a, a, a microphone and do nothing but spew venom and division and hatred and racism and bigotry. You know, this guy, um, seems to really get it and, and I, and I think he could get some crossover votes in Texas. And you know, people always say, well, you know, this happens every four years. This happens every six years where people say, oh, Texas could go blue and then it does it. And it wasn't that long ago, uh, in my lifetime, when Texas did elect, uh, Democrats statewide and Richardson was the governor of Texas. She was a democratic firebrand. Uh, you know, the, I mean, the Lloyd Benson was a senator from Texas. There's, so things change, demographics change, voter sentiment changes. The quality of candidates change in Texas. The two Republicans running one is John Corning who's been the senator there forever and ever. Uh, John McCann used to say that he was like a senator from central casting. He looked at parts so much. And the other is Ken Paxton who's had like, uh, incredible criminal, uh, allegations and indictments and scandals and, and, um, and it's, you know, and, and, and everybody that's, uh, watching this race closely says that they think Ken Paxton who's got a ton of negative baggage might win. So that might open up, uh, the door for, for the Democrats. Today I want to tell you about one of our partners, reafflead. 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That's abcsecretsavings.com slash btt to get yours today for just $29. abcsecretsavings.com slash btt. Starring Ryan Gosling. I'm not an astronaut. Two worlds, one impossible mission. So I met an alien project tale Mary. You are brave as human I have ever met. Is joke I only meet one human and is you? In cinemas everywhere March 19. Please stop cheering for the gap. Another morning another reminder there's a gap to be careful of. But maybe it's time to bridge the one between your nine to five and your dream of living life on your own terms. At HSBC we know ambition looks different to everyone. Whether it's retiring early or leaving more for your family we can help because when it comes to unlocking your money's potential we know wealth. Search HSBC wealth today HSBC UK opening up a world of opportunity HSBC UK current account holders only. From the tragic to the absurd President Trump announced the Kennedy Center will shut down for about two years for full renovation. He said the Trump Kennedy Center will shut down. What do you think is behind this we've been hearing about the cancellations of acts and everything else is this or is he really just shutting it down to make it old gold? I don't know what do you think Brian I think they can't get anybody to play. They can't get anybody to sit in the seats and watch and they can't get anybody to donate. I mean the you know the the Kennedy Center under chairman David Rubenstein who's a billionaire he's the guy who owns the Baltimore Orioles. That guy gave a hundred million of his own money. They raised billions of dollars for the Kennedy Center. They were able to attract some of the most important acts and artists to come and play. I mean they Donald Trump hosted the Kennedy Center honors and they had their lowest ratings and I don't know how long. You know there's just what's the purpose of okay so I actually think it's very it's a metaphor for the whole Trump administration. Yeah he took it over. Yeah he put his name on it but you know what everything Trump touches turns to Gaga. I'll allow it. Okay. I like you sitting here and thinking of what word you could say. Yeah no I mean I've been to the Kennedy Center. It's been a couple of years but it didn't seem particularly run down to me. Is it as bad as Trump says? Well the last time I was there was probably about two years ago for the Kennedy Center honors. Two or three years ago it was it was glad it's night. It was you too. I thought it was beautiful. I was every time I've been there I have found it impressive. I have found it beautiful. Great acoustics. Just you know one of these iconic stages in the world. Yeah certainly not something that needs two years of renovation while being shut down. I think Donald Trump needs three years of renovation. Be nice if he shut down and went in for renovations. All right I know I know you mentioned before that you had a hard weekend and I know you now lost somebody please tell me about this. So I'm very sorry. Yeah I was you know I was supposed to be going to a wedding this weekend then then I get this text in the morning on Friday that one of Al's close friends lifelong friends. They the lifelong friends decades and decades and decades had passed away. He died by suicide. I guess that's what we call it now. He had stage four cancer terminal was in a great deal of pain and just couldn't do it anymore. And it has really made me think about the need to have a conversation in this country about end of life because we cannot make you know we have a terrible healthcare system. A lot of people have no health insurance and I and even people with health insurance and with means getting doctors appointments can be weeks and months. And you know there's so many countries and even in the United States there's there's several states seven eight states that have laws that allow allow you to die with dignity and have control over your death. Of course there's a lot of bureaucracy doctors have to sign off on it. You have to prove that you're terminal. You have to prove all of those things but we're all living to be older. We're all living to you know and these diseases are more and more prevalent and I just feel very strongly that as hard as it is we have got to find the way so that people can die with dignity and without causing their loved ones the pain and anger and hurt of walking into a violent scene because that's that's what desperation let them to do. No it's a hard conversation and I agree it's something that people don't want to talk about but needs to talk about. Yeah but you know we all say we all say I've said it I'm sure you've said it or thought it we all said you know I don't ever want to live under these conditions right. Well there's people who actually mean it yeah and and you know I actually was struck by the funeral home saying and this is a small community and the funeral home saying that there were three cases just this month of people who had terminal cancer who had who had done that and that you know it's navigating the healthcare system is so hard and being in constant pain is so hard so you know I'm not I'm not angry about it I'm not I understand why he did it it hurts me terribly the pain that it's caused but um but I want for me I want this to serve as a catalyst for me to become an advocate for us finding a way for people to have the opportunity to die with dignity and under their own terms if they are terminal and if that is what they choose to do. Yeah no I understand that completely maybe we can talk about it on the show a little bit because it is an important topic if you or someone you know is struggling help is available call the suicide and crisis lifeline at nine eight eight all right before we go let's close on a happy note did you watch the Grammys did you yes I did get ready for bad bunny at the school. I've done nothing to make progress with you in your Spanish and your bad bunny proficiency. They have a dual-lingo bad bunny prep course. Well you got five days. What are you waiting for? I'm working on my bets but I'll I'll I'll get there for sure I get bad on bad bunny I can this is actually a good question for you the sports picks are asking what song is the first song he's going to do I think it's going to be a titi me I think it's going to be titi me but I listen that bunny made history yesterday last night in many ways he's the first Latin record to win album of the year all in Spanish yeah he also won the music Urbana and he and many other artists took the opportunity of having that mic and having the podium to denounce the actions of ice and talk about unity and the need to call it out and you know he talked about the dignity of immigrants that were not animals were not savages and and I I am so grateful to Benito for having uses platform I'm so grateful to every other artist who did so as well who war pins and I know a lot of people say oh that's just celebrities virtue signaling look I think celebrities are just like everybody else they have eyes they have a heart they have the right to speak about something that outrageous them and I I strongly believe that we all have a platform we may not have 60 million followers we may not have the audience of the Grammy Awards but everybody has a platform whether that platform means going on your social media whether that platform means your kitchen table and trying to speak to somebody who maybe doesn't know the truth or doesn't see the truth it's incredible how siloed our lives are depending on what your algorithm shows you on social media yeah I wasn't a CNN panel the other day and in the commercial break I brought up the Beckham issue the Beckham family drama not a single person on that panel knew what the hell I was talking about really yes which tells me you know God knows what their what their algorithm is but so so but that happens in politics right and so the the fact that I'm seeing all of these immigration cases these immigration abuses and why I like to bring them up and talk about them doesn't mean that other people are watching I'm not seeing any of those on his feet he's not uh here's a question for you he's not because you talk about platforms bad blunt bad bunny is about to have the largest platform anyone can have in this country how many people watch the super bull uh I think it's over a hundred million um I'll have to look up the last time it's gotta be even more and it's just and it's international and when you factor in streaming and things like that um I'm gonna look to the control room and have them find it for me but uh bottom line is he's gonna have this opportunity do we think he's gonna use it again I do yeah is there a bet on that I'll look for it look for it because if there's a bet on that I'm put you need to bet a hundred bucks on on on that you know what I would you know what I would love for him to do yeah I'm I have no idea that he's doing this this is just me meusing I would love for him to come out with a blue beanie cap no a blue bunny and it's a bunny cap mm-hmm because Liam's Liam Liam Ramos' uh middle name is conejo Liam conejo Ramos conejo means bunny means rabbit in in Spanish so um I could I could I could you know it would be amazing if he made some sort of statement through his uh act remember I'm looking right now to remember when um by the way I'm dying for one of those blue bunny caps I've been looking for it online I can't find who makes it um so if somebody out there knows how to send me one but um do you remember when Shakira and JLo did the halftime show I do and do you remember JLo brought out cages with children in them as part of the of the show so uh and Shakira brought a bad bunny as a guest right uh which was not uh controversial at that time but you know now Trump and his insanity and so I um and bad bunny I've always said this to you bad bunny has a very long record of standing up for just causes and for and against injustices this is a guy who's done record who's done songs and videos about the electric grid in Puerto Rico this is a guy who's done songs and videos against um you know about uh Puerto Rico and the need for equality and the need for dignity uh in in Puerto Rico about uh police brutality he you know he did one where he he makes references to George Floyd he did one back then and so this is not a new thing for bad money it's something he has always done it's important to him he loves his community he is proud of his latino heritage of his Puerto Rican heritage and um so find me out back because I want to put some money on this well 127 million people watch the last Super Bowl and um I'm sure it's the reaches even bigger than that was playing was playing don't know the Seattle sea hawks in New England Patriots okay what are you going for I hate the Patriots so the Seattle sea hawks it's just a question of how many points they win by but um yeah I mean I hate the Patriots so much I can't even tell you and I what time is it uh I think they probably are at six o'clock it starts the the whole thing okay you don't have to wear a bad bunny of your own like nine yeah well no I want to fly in in time so that I can watch the Super Bowl the the halftime show um and then goes to sleep and we'll have our uh Super Bowl snack down on Friday here so that'll be fun all right that's oh uh I didn't want to say what's your favorite snack sweet uh Buffalo Wings I'm a wing guy I love I hate them spicy Buffalo Wings. Too messy I hate wings. Thank you for joining me today Anna tomorrow I'll be back with Elissa and we'll see you then. 9-1-1 where is the emergency? It's the middle of the night in a small town on the Jersey Shore someone reports an abandoned car on a bridge a search gets underway for the missing driver 19-year-old Sarah Stern is it a missing person is it a suicide at this point nobody knows old friendships buried cash and a sinister plot that was once pitched as a movie plays out in real life I'm Juju Chang from 2020 and ABC audio listen now to bridge of lies wherever you get your podcasts
