How Broken Policies Are Hurting America | Richard Lamondin

And we're back with another episode. This one we went from news cycle. Now we went to now we're going to a political one. You know, we you know, we like to keep it fresh here. You know, bring it bring bring everything up on onto the table. Now, this one, I know we're going to get a lot of people out there and what's going on what's going on. But

I want everybody there be with an open mind, okay? We try to be we try to be fair here in this in a day in Miami. So, I want to

you know, to that point, people always complain. If we put a Democrat on, they say that we're we're the leftist. Then we put a republic on say we're a far right in the middle.

I try to save people that's why we bring everybody here and we let you guys and ladies make that decision. So we have with us here Richard Lamonding.

Richard, welcome to the day in Miami, brother.

It's great to be here. Long time listener, first time caller. How's it going? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Appreciate that. So Richard, you know, and I'm going to let him, you know, I'm going to ask questions to Isa, but I want him to introduce himself first. and and Richard is running for Congress. Yes.

For district 27.

27.

So for those that don't know the district and then you can go ahead and say it, you know, to give a little bit of clarity, that's the district that right now is being held by, I think, uh, Congresswoman Maria Salasar. Correct.

Correct. So Richard, welcome again. Give us a little bit of what's a district like.

Perfect. Yeah. So the district is, in my opinion, the crown jewel of Florida. It's a district that runs from downtown all the way down the coast to like Cutler Bay, Richmond Heights area and then out west it follows the turnpike. So if you come up from there, it runs basically from down there all the way up to Westchester. So south of the 836.

Shout out to Westchester.

Westchester. That's right. East of the Turnpike. Uh basically FIU is like right outside of it to the west there. So all right. It's uh it's I think in many ways Miami's premier district. It's one that has is incredibly diverse in terms of socioeconomic status, in terms of the people that live there.

Okay.

Uh and it's one that uh I think is really hungry and for some change.

Was was I'm sorry by any chance was that redistricted or or

it was Yeah. So it used to uh before 2022 it was Miami Beach was part of the district too. Got it.

So it was it originally held by for many years by Ross Leighton.

Yes, of course. Sure. Stable.

Yeah. Donna Shala um won that seat in 2018.

Correct. Yep.

And Marto won in uh in 2020.

Correct.

Correct.

So, I don't want to sound dumb, but what are the responsibilities of a congressman or congresswoman

uh to oversee the district? What are they supposed to be in charge of? You know, what are they supposed to be doing?

That's a great question. I get that a lot actually. Um so, I'm our representative to Washington DC. So, my first priority is to make sure that Miami is being represented. And when I when I'm in the rooms uh making decisions on behalf of the entire country, whether that's on budgetary matters. So one of the big things that happened very recently, if you remember, Trump labeled it his big beautiful bill. I call it big bad bill, but you know, we'll have we'll have some chats over that. Uh that was a decision of how the resources of this country are allocated.

Uh on top of that, we make a lot of decisions. Congress decides whether we go to war.

Uh Congress decides uh many of the laws that we see. If you talk about um some of the issues we're facing today like artificial intelligence, they do a lot of the stuff on our regulation. So uh Congress is the one who created a lot of the departments of the federal government. So they the legislative branch is the one that has the power of the purse it's called that funds a lot of agency and does a lot of the the law making. And so Congress uh has 435 representatives spread roughly even population across the entire country. And it's a seat that runs every two years. the founders entitled it to be the pe the the position closest to the people. So you run into your terms because you are the most likely to be affected by the current public opinion.

Yeah. Because a lot you know that's funny you bring that up. That's that's a good topic really quick because a lot of people say how is one two you know president's four and then senators are six. Yeah.

You know what I'm saying? You know we're we're you know as you said the forefathers came up with this. you know how you know God knows you know how far ahead they were thinking you know but the gap between the Congress and the senators

you know wouldn't you think that also it would have been better maybe the senators to cut down from six to maybe four

I mean I I don't know I'm just saying because that gives you know it gives responsibility gives the power of the people to really say you're not doing a good job I'm taking you out

for sure

are there term limits on those or any of those

no but we should talk about that so there are no term limits on senators or members of Congress I would say to your point, I think they were trying to give senators six years so that they are less likely to make political decisions and more decisions right for the country. Same way that initially the Supreme Court has lifetime

uh appointments because they're trying to make you less political. What's happened in our current system and the and the problem I see

if you're running every two years in Congress, it means you're always in campaign mode.

No, that I've never and I don't care if you're Democrat, independent, Republican. I think that's crazy. It is crazy

because as soon as you become elected, you got to start already raising money for the ne, you know, because in a year you got to start, you know, campaigning again to that point.

Exactly. And and the money is a huge issue, too. The fact that uh if you remember the term Citizens United, it was one that basically allowed unlimited uh donations into super PACs. So, you have a lot of money that's in the system right now that does not have a name attached to it. It's called dark money. And so one of the major issues we have right now is campaign finance and the fact that to run a congressional race. You need to be able to raise millions of dollars. Um yeah,

we just announced 700k raised and they're like good job now now go raise a lot more. You know what I mean? And like I've raised more than

any Democratic candidate for the seat for a long time. But but it's uh at this point but it's something that again it's like a hamster wheel. You keep going, you keep

Why why is that? Why why do you feel that you're raising more money than other people that that that have been doing? I mean, are are are people resonating with your message? What what Yeah. Well, I think now is a good time maybe to talk about who the heck I am, right?

Yeah. Well, yeah, that's what I'm saying.

And why we asked this every politician is getting into why the hell do you want to do this to yourself?

I can I can answer all that. I'm born and raised here in Miami. Uh I grew up north side, North Miami Beach area.

Uh I' I've done everything here. Born and raised here. Went to school here. I did go to college out of USC in LA. Uh, but that's because I I wanted to see what life was like outside of Miami, but I needed a warm place. Great school, right? It was a great school.

Phenomenal.

Yeah. But you you you saw you had to come back. You said, you know, there's nothing like Miami.

Exactly. The craziest part is I actually then I came out of college in the Great Recession.

How old are you?

38.

38. So you were there during the M liner years.

I was there the year after. So I I was the year after the national championship.

Amazing.

Yeah. So it was a good it was a good run for football. But then my last year is when they got the sanctions for like you remember the Reggie Bush.

Yeah. The Reggie Bush. Yeah. They took away his took away his highman.

They gave it back to him. No,

they I think they finally gave it back to him. I remember that. I was crazy to hear.

And now NIL

was that before after he dated Kim Kardashian.

That's a good question. You missed, you know, you stumped me on that.

I don't know. I don't know. They took it away before he started or after. I don't know. But anyway, go ahead.

Like Lamar ODM.

How funny it is. And how funny it is now everything with NIL,

dude. N everything just crazy.

Anyways, not the diverse. Go go go. Real quick aside about NIL actually is that my brother-in-law's nephew is a offensive guard and was choosing between University of Miami and USC. And you know, it's funny. I went to USC, but I told Mike, I was like, "Dude, University of Miami is on a better trajectory." Like, but he chose USC. I don't know why, but I'm I assume NIL had probably had something to do with that.

I guess you know, that's the way the world works.

It's crazy. Making big money.

It's crazy.

It's better to go just stay in college. But what they've even said that is Zire Wade now that he never went to college. He went straight to overseas Dwayne Wade's son. Apparently now he has the ability. He's still eligible and he's going back to college.

That's crazy.

And he's going to get a couple million dollar contracts.

Why not? Why not? Jay, are are you taking notes about this? I'm going to throw you at some type of college or university.

Anyway, Richard, go ahead.

So, going back to it. Yeah. So, born and raised here in Miami. Actually, uh when I came out of college was the Great Recession. There wasn't many jobs here. Actually, young people are facing a similar issue right now where youth unemployment is over 10%. But uh so I actually moved out to uh Shanghai, China for a year. Oh wow. Because everyone was talking about China as the rising China and I was kind of I got a job. My first job I was the only foreigner in a Chinese translation company. It was like a sitcom. I couldn't read the language and I was expected to perform. But uh the best part about my journey was that I met my Italian wife over there. She was

Oh wow.

In China.

In China.

Damn.

And but how was that? China's I mean I've been dying to travel over there. I'm actually going to go to Vietnam in the in in the summer.

Vietnam is

but how's China? I would say I would say for people who haven't been to Asia yet, Japan is a good first.

I went I went to Japan already. That's where I did my honeymoon. China is fascinating because it's moving so fast. The thing is the country we hear so much about it, but one of the crazy things is when like Mao Zadong came up, they destroyed a lot of their history and their culture and the culture revolution it was called. And uh and a lot of people still think it's a communist country. you know, it's just a dictatorship now at the top. You cannot speak politics to them. The deal they have with their people is it's like we'll make your life better. You stay out of our way. And that works sometimes, it doesn't work other times, but uh for me, I was there at a time when the when the country was really in transformation. Uh but right now, it's become much more restrictive. We actually have a really interesting case study. I would say interesting for us, but what it looks like when a totalitarian government gets a hold of technology.

They use AI a lot to surveil their population and things like that. And so going to Congress, why this matters is because with China being our biggest geopolitical rival, I have experience living there, working with people and understanding the culture. And I know enough about the culture know that I know nothing. And anyone who pretends like they do. It's such a big huge country, I think, is uh you should be worried about anybody who talks like they know what they're talking about with them.

No, but not even if they're getting those intel briefings.

Yeah. you know, you're not getting

maybe the intel I'm not getting the intel briefings right now, but the point is like, you know, foreign policy is another role for Congress and that's something that obviously like I've had experience with. So, going back to my story, I moved back here in 2012. I started a company, I'm an entrepreneur. I started a company called EcoFi back then was ecosystems with my brother.

We basically saw a statistic online that 20% of all toilets leak across the country. So, anytime you see like your toilet leaking, hit me up. You know,

it's happening right here.

It was happening here like weeks ago. Yeah. I'm you know I'm going to walk in there and dissect that to figure it out.

I know what it is. It's a little thing just stays up when you flush or the little

brother. We get we get the bill. It's $800 in water.

Oh yeah. So now you got to call me because I'm going to come in and fix your car.

You know what?

Okay. Go ahead. At least somebody is fiscally responsible.

Yeah. Yeah. You know and I was like that's that over there. You know I've been hearing it. Yeah.

So you think about that. Now think about in this country there are 340 million people. If 20% if everyone gets a toilet, let's just assume 20% of them are leaking.

How many how much waste do we have?

More than 20% toilets leaking for sure.

Yeah. And so and so that was the first stat that we built our business on. We went on YouTube, learned how to change toilets, went door to door to different properties and uh spent 5 years dead broke. A lot of people saying no, thinking like why don't mess with my bathrooms. But then we got enough results where we we exploded around 2016 2017. Uh two years back toback we were in the Inc. 5,000. I saw a plaque in here.

Listen, to get one of those plaques, it's almost like they got to give you a physical. Exactly. They ask for so much financial information.

Yeah. So, we were 75th one year and 48th fastest growing company the next year. So, we so we we now you

still have it or

Yeah. So, I run it with my brother. We still exist. Right now, we've become one of the most impactful companies in real estate. So, I work with the largest landlords in this country to assess their portfolios, identify opportunities for them to save money, but they also we've saved hundreds of thousands of metric tons of carbon, billions of gallons of fresh water, and over hund00 million in utility costs for renters. So, I reduce the cost for the renters, I save money for the owners, and I make an impact on the environment. So, that's been my life for 13 years.

Uh, but I'm running now because I have a three-year-old son named Leonardo now. He's the man. Uh, except for today, you know, he did give me a hard time putting his socks on. Shout out to him.

That's a great time.

Enjoy it.

I have a 20-year-old.

Oh, you wow.

Yeah. Must have started early.

Started very early. He jumped right out of the crib.

She's in New York going to school. So,

that's amazing.

He was one of those boss babies. There he is.

Yeah. There we go. What's he What's he studying?

Yeah. Yeah. She's studying architectural design.

Yes. She graduated from Guliver and went over there and she's doing a good job. That's amazing. Very proud of

her. I can tell you're proud. So, yeah. I'm in a very early phase like we're dealing with monster trucks right now. You know what I mean? But uh we're going to go see them in February. So yeah, that's that's going to be the vibe. But

that's the best time of the that's my till like they're like 10 years old, you know?

A little bit intense.

Yeah. But uh No, I'm running because I'm I'm concerned for his future here in this country.

I think we have a

What's your concern? Tell me what what's what's your biggest concern?

I'm concerned that it feels like this country is tearing itself apart. Uh I feel like a lot of the values that uh I raise him in uh American values, the respect, freedom, uh the fact that everyone deserves an opportunity. I don't think that those values are being upheld right now. I also think right here in Miami, uh I'm concerned for his future here. A lot of people here are struggling. Yeah.

A lot of people I mean these days it's almost become cliche to talk about affordability. That's been my day job for 13 years. Um on top of that, I work a lot with our communities to help young people achieve better economic outcomes. I helped start a nonprofit called Project Transforming Hope. I see the the way our young people struggle and the fact of the matter is whether you're a parent starting off, I know you you haven't been the game for a while, but preschool costs anywhere from 1,500 to 25,500 bucks right now a month. That's another rent that people are dealing with. Our schools, um, you know, it depends what zip code you're in, whether you have access to a good school. when it comes to affording rent and the fact that we're not building enough affordable housing here in South Florida, whether it comes down to the fact that um the administration cut uh flood infrastructure projects that are geared up to help us deal with storms, but in you know, we have rising property insurance costs if you're a homeowner. These are all issues that we are all feeling but that the federal government has an impact on but our leaders like my opponent Maria Via Salasad who's the current oper uh person in the seat have not been dealing with. And so uh I'm running because quite frankly I think this community is really hungry for for practical problem solvers.

No.

Well, but don't you think that sometimes I mean and and and and listen I mean I I respect your your your opinion. I mean I I

I I don't agree with some of them. Sure.

In the sense I mean I feel that we're you know right now I I feel we're more respected that we are in in the world that right now with and again it doesn't I'm not going to get into the fact of Republican Democrat. I just feel in the sense of and I can go through that because I I used to I told you before I worked for a Democrat for many years of my life. So my thing is is I just like the views of what that person is doing. I think you know the president is doing a very good job in in certain areas. I think that one of the biggest ones and and I would love to get your opinion is the whole immigration situation because I think that's really right now and and and and I agree with you 100% the fact of housing and this and let's be honest at the end of the day we you know we have candidates here for commissioner we have candidates here for for mayorship and everybody's in the housing situation.

Sure. Sure.

It's going to be a topic for everybody from now for till God knows that you know till we're here. Um, but I think really really really the hottest thing right now is the immigration situation.

Yeah.

And and I think that when you do go to Washington or when you get to Washington, whoever gets to Washington, you got to tackle what's at the at the helm right now on the agenda, you know, because even though you can have your agenda what you want to do, it's what's thrown at you at this at this moment, too. You know, this is what's being voted on right now. So you got to sometimes, you know, step back on your stuff and okay, we got to deal with this thing now. So I think that the immigration situation is is is the one that, you know, is really So what what are your thoughts? What what what can we do? Because

I saw an interview yesterday. I'm not going to say what network, but you know, I I flip networks to see where, you know, everybody's in the whole thing of like um everybody's illegal. Okay, all the illegal people have to go back. Okay. But then if you go through that, I mean, you're talking about how many people are really legal here that they've been here for 30 years

and and if you know, you got grandmothers and and grandpas that have been stopped.

I am and and again, I support I support the current administration that's going on now, but I don't like

some of the stuff that's going on. I feel there has to be some type of reform that we can do,

you know. So, I'm I'm I'm curious to know, you know, what where where are you in that?

Absolutely.

And in as we say in in Spanish, you know what I'm saying? Where where where are you in that?

And I would say I agree with a lot of what you said because I think we were all promised and agree that we should deport criminals, but not the you know, I think and I think that's that's the crux of I think what a lot of people are feeling. My stance on immigration is I was born and raised in a city in many ways built by immigrants, various generations. I'm the son of an immigrant. Yep.

I'm the husband of an immigrant.

The fact that here in Miami, we understand that that makes us stronger because this whole city wouldn't exist without people wanting to come here and better themselves and their community. And so I think that's the foundational value that leads me. I personally think that our immigration system right now is broken. You talk about reform, I think that we have a system that people try to put band-aids on. The administration right now is sending people out masked uh going after quotas and people and and and ICE has said that, hey, like the numbers that they're trying to get us to round up have forced us into these tactics.

Yeah.

Right. We need we needed a an agency that finds the criminals and the people that should not be here. But rounding up a lot of these people, using force, surging these cities, overriding local law enforcement, I think that is what people respond to in a way that say like there's a better way to do this. And this administration, I think, has used fear as a tactic uh to try to get people, as they call it, to self-deport.

Yeah.

Um

well, but to that point, you know, I I feel that there was a I don't know which one it was. Maybe you can help me out with that. Uh there was a latest interview that he just did. I think it was with um with Llamas.

Yeah. He said that he wanted to like, you know,

and he even and and I think he even agreed to the point that he said that, you know, was too elevated a step down. You know what I'm saying? Because I think that we're all in agreeance that, you know, I think everybody that the whole thing of

the whole force thing is a little bit

out of hand. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? I also am 100% if if if you committed crimes and this and that and everything you you should you should be you know deported back.

Yeah.

But you know one of the parts and and I want to get your take on this is I know that there is I don't know where it's at either and there's legislation from I think Maria in the fact of trying to do something for immigration.

Yeah.

You know what I'm saying? I think she's trying to you know bring this up. I don't know what the dignity act the dignity act right which again um we've tried and and not for anything but you know we've tried to bring her on the show I would love for her to come and explain the dignity act she you know we've spoken to her office apparently you know day in Miami is not

come on down congress

no but you know we're not we're not up there for I guess for her but that's fine you know what I'm saying she's here so don't it's not

but it's okay and this full disclosure I voted for her so let's let's let's you know I and you know I I

Will you be voting for her again? Well, I mean, you know, whatever Miami at the end of the day, we have we have reached out to her office. We've wanted her to come out here. You know, this is a day in Miami. This is your backyard. I think you should come and and explain it to us. Not because of anything, but we have been voted for in Miami for number one podcast. So, you know, on that end, what do you how do you feel about that? I mean, are you are you in agreeance with that or do you would you tweak it or what what would you think of trying to do different in the sense of

For sure. So I'll start with what I what I view and then I'll talk to you about her law and her effectiveness as a legislator also. Um

I think that I believe very strongly that we need strong borders in this country and we need strong uh protections at our border. Yes.

The problem is that our system has been it's like a zombie system. Every so many different types of visas and groups have different pathways and it's also expensive. For example, my wife came here uh she's got two master's degrees. the type of person we want I think living here in this country

mayor based

yes she it cost us I think 15 grand in lawyers u and to be clear the first job she got here in the states she worked in a company in New Jersey that had two department of labor investigations against them uh they gave no paid time off no benefits they would slap her folder out of her hands and say pick that [ __ ] up basically and that's the kind of thing where but you're tied as an immigrant with a work visa to that What happened eventually was uh she ended up having to leave and we had to navigate that. But these are the things that even like our highly educated immigrants have to deal with where you know there should be some level of enforcement of abuse of the system. Also at the same time we have jobs going unfulfilled both at the high level whether that's nursing jobs whether it's the fact that rural hospitals are closing where we need doctors from other countries whether if it's engineers whether it's people working in construction there are jobs that are going unfilled here in Miami by the way uh we have hundreds of of unfilled aircraft maintenance jobs and I think those should be we focus on people here to fill those jobs but those those you can make over six figures on. So there there are ways that we have distortions in our system and if our if our immigration system is not focused on bringing in people to make it so our country gets stronger then the immigration system is failing and I think we all agree it's failing right now.

Yeah.

So my focus is we have to I think we need a complete reform to make sure that that it is a smoother but also more effective process in bringing people I've been hearing about it since we were young. The only common sense thing that I've seen is what I've seen this administration not on the enforcement side but on the ideas that have come out of it is like merit-based you know like sure you apply and if you you know you really have talent you want we want you to come in

um investment based I think is probably the most important because you have investors come in that probably want to get into the market

but you can get the drunk card

that's what I'm saying and then you you create jobs you know then you create jobs etc black card

um I know a lot of people who've

whatever for whatever reason that come to the border and they say that they're coming through amnesty and they're really not like, you know, a political persecution or anything like that, you know. So, I think there was so much abuse in the system in in those cases that that's why this went to like this radical format now. Go ahead.

No, no, but but but how do we solve that? Do we get to Congress? Do we What do we got to do? I'll give you something.

I'm going to elaborate on that for him to answer. No,

you're right. But at the end of the day, the thing is, and all due respect to you and all the ones that are over there now,

Congress for years has never wanted to tackle

Yeah.

the fact of immigration because nobody has what, however you want to call them, you know what I'm saying? Or nobody wants to tackle immigration because, you know, this is something that they've tried to throw back at Congress. Nobody votes for it. So then every president comes in has to do executive orders. So the thing is because all these congressmen and congressw women get there and then you know you start polling if it's going bad if it's going good you want to talk about you don't want to talk about it nobody wants to say I'm going to go in there for two years or four years and just do what I think is right someone to do it that's the biggest thing

so it's politics it

it's politics so if if if you're the if you're that person that going to go in there you say you know I'm doing it because

for the reasons you're talking about now because I'm an immigrant my parents are immigrants you know then that's the people you got to respect and those are the people you're going to So elaborate on that that you wanted to talk about that that

well you referenced the history of it in 200 I don't remember the exact year 2008 2009 there was the gang of eight Marco Rubio was part of that

right and they came up with a a a reform bill that then uh at that time the GOP got hot on it and guys like Rubio backed off because you said like maybe they didn't see the polling. Uh there was also an immigration bill um in the in the in the spring of uh two years ago when the election season was going

that yeah 2024 when Trump said kill it because if we had passed an immigration bill it would have probably helped uh then Biden then Harris uh with their re-election.

So that's a good point. Why do they wait till the end?

It's it's great to know they want to use as a political tool. They wait right to the end to get some points. I know that's what I hate about politics, right? The difference with me the politics it's part of our world.

The difference with me is two things. One is uh my fallback let's say I come in two four years I deal with immigration and then people are like you know upset I go and I run a company right that's true

so I'm coming at this from as an entrepreneur as a CEO coming in because I see problems that need to be solved and I think that that our current immigration system is flatout bad for business right so you want to talk about some of the solutions well let's talk about the ways that we are actually missing out on tal in this country if you are a foreign student and you pay four years of college education and you get something called an OPT visa after you get one year to find a job that'll sponsor your visa. We have educated you for four years in our system. We have you have paid full ride and a lot of times at state schools that help Americans pay a lower cost to go to school and then we give you one year and then send you back and we have now trained you to your country to make your country better. I want those people to stay here. I want that talent here in the US because one of the great things about this country is a lot of our biggest in innovations and developments have come from people from from somewhere else. You even talk about you know what the atomic bomb okay it's not a great invention but like you know Einstein

no but it was needed

fed me like these are Italian immigrants German immigrants you talk about this the fortune

you want the best like like you're running the country like a business you know that's how it is

funny enough our our editor one of our editors is from Poland he studied at FIU

he couldn't stay for whatever reason even though we're off for what and he's like listen I got to go back man you know as much as I would like him to stay he's like I can't so he's trying to find his way back now but

and we're losing talent for that

we're losing a lot of talent that I think can be job creating that can that can build things and we don't know where our next talent comes from. A lot of the Fortune 500 CEOs are are immigrants. No.

Right. Elon Musk. Yeah. Yeah. He's an African-American.

Yeah. Technically. Yeah. U so but I think the other piece of it is is that there are jobs that go unfilled like in our in our agricultural areas that Americans are not doing those jobs. But if you do not have people go in and fill those jobs, then you know we have a huge problem. My family, I am actually Italian-American, came through Ellis Island. They were economic. Yeah, we have their signature and stuff. That's great. My dad, my dad's an immigrant from Canada. Very exotic land. So, I speak Spanish just cuz I'm born and raised in the 305. But

you speak French?

And Paraliano.

My wife's My wife's parents don't speak English. So, I speak Italian with my dope.

In my house, my son speaks Italian with my wife and English and Spanish with me.

But you give me the Italian vibe, man. With the hair and everything, too, you know. Baan.

Yeah. Yeah. You feel it? Whenever he's not a Pan.

Hey, whenever whenever whenever whenever whenever you guys want to go eat and you know whenever Kiko wants to actually do a

No. No. # Petty that we can't get to that.

Listen, Kiko is the guy to go to for a lot of free,

the recipes, the the food, anything you want.

I want everybody to know that when I say P, I say in the most loving place.

So look,

but I will say no mama. So, you know,

he does a good job.

Yeah, man. And look, I think even there in the in the hospitality industry, right, a lot of the back of house is being driven by immigrants, right? So, these are things that we have to deal with. I mean, you and and if we don't, it hurts our economy. There's no Sorry. Yeah. Go ahead.

The that is 100%. We know we have a marketing side. We have a marketing firm adjacent to the to the to the business to the channel and we have a hospitality client and when the crackdown came down on the immigration uh he told me it's hitting him really hard you know like really hard. He's seen sales go down. He's seen people leave and everything.

I don't think there's a doubt that if you're a Republican, independent, Democrat, everybody has an issue with the immigration.

Yeah. All I'm saying is at some point somehow people are going to have to get to Congress and say I'm not going to play political.

Yeah.

You know, and where the numbers are going and just say we as Congress, as you said, the forefathers did Congress for a reason.

You know, have to come up with a law.

Yes.

And that's it. Because every time we're going to get a new president, whoever we're going to be, another Democrat, another Republican, everybody's going to play with this.

Yes.

You know what I'm saying? Everybody's going to play with it.

You're totally right. And we need to solve it. We can't keep playing politics with this. The same way, by the way, things like minimum wage.

Yes.

Right. Like they always make it a huge fight. My thing is, why don't we just set it and forget it? Like when you have social security,

uh your social security goes up and down based on cost of living changes. Minimum wage stays static until someone decides to change it. Why isn't minimum wage changing with cost of living changes uh and going up based on okay like you know costs went up in the United States so we have a calculation and let's just set it and make sure that people can get at least paid a decent wage and then we stop the political fights over it. The problem like you said is that what happens is the parties fund raise off of that.

Yeah.

And that is a huge problem because we have deep systemic issues here in this country and that's why when I talk about going to DC I talk there's two tracks for me. The first one is short-term fixes and I do believe immigration is one people are hungry for change. I put that in the short term category. I also think you mentioned the fact that uh it's difficult to reach Maria Salasar. One of the most important things you can do as a member of Congress is not actually what you do in DC is you build what's called constituent services which is a concierge for the people you represent to help make their lives easier. Whether you need a passport, whether you can't get your social security card, whether you you know someone's locked up abroad, you come in and you help somebody out.

Well, let me be clear. I mean, in my case, I mean, I've just I want we wanted to bring her on so she could talk about, you know, her bill. Yeah.

You know what I'm saying? I I don't even care about anything else. I want to I want, you know, talk to me about your bill. But again, that's, you know, hearing her say, but

that reminds me about her bill really quick.

Yes.

Um, what what what are your thoughts on that on that bill?

Look, there there are aspects of the bill that I think are reforms. The biggest issue with the bill is that it doesn't include any kind of pathway to citizenship. What it does is it creates a second class of people in this country. So the way it works is it's it's you come in, you pay a certain percentage of your earnings. Um and what happens is you have no pathway to ever become a citizen.

And to me that is that is uh against all of our values as Americans which is eventually everyone be can become an American as part if you if you do the right thing. Yes. But yeah, exactly. So you have the American dream, but no, you're the American dream, but like like

Yeah, like 80%. You know, right? But this is and this is why, again, I'm not trying to, you know, keep on hammering this, but this is why I've wanted her to come and explain it,

you know, explain that correctly, you know, is it just a fact? Because I don't want to, you know, misinterpret how it says. I want it I want her to explain it. And again, I'm just, you know, uh, for all those viewers out there that'll say, "Oh, but you're not." If you guys know or you're the expert that know exactly what it says, you let me know. But

but you studied it. You reviewed it. Yeah. Give it to you. Is it just you know is it the fact of uh you you know they keep on saying you pay some taxes.

Yeah. You pay

or some taxes you then they give you I guess

some kind of status but you have no pathway to citizenship. And what she'll tell you if she was in this room is well that's the only way I could pass it in Congress the Republican Congress. And what I say is well the fact is she's been in Congress for five years.

She has written and passed one law since she was in Congress. You know what it's about? birds.

No way.

So they it leads

I'm actually interested. What What would you pass about birds? Like

it was a waiting bird law to help protect waiting birds, you know, the ones that walk through the the So the fact but in all fairness in all fairness people could not be, you know, isn't this maybe at least a step what she's trying to do? Is it a step at me, you know, in the right direction?

Well, let me tell you about her what she does. She's like a weather vein. So she goes which wayever the wind blows. If you're going to take a stand on immigration, then take a stand on immigration. You know what I'm saying? Like, don't try to do these half measures that don't solve anything. The same way goes, by the way, I'll give you another example. She voted to uh for the budget bill that cut Obamacare subsidies for people here in this community, except her district has one of the most largest number of people on Obamacare in the entire country. To me, that's not party. If I'm sitting there and I'm representing the community with the most number of people or one of them, then I'm going to fight to make sure that my people have affordable healthcare. The other one is on the Epstein files. She only was in favor of it once they had enough votes to release the Epstein files. So, she she leads from behind on every issue.

Listen, I'm not even going to get into the Epstein files because any minute now they're going to say that I was in the Epstein. So,

well, let's ask you the question that damn thing because

Hey, someone pull up the laptop. Let's see if we can search him. I just tell you that this whole Epstein thing is just such a croc of

Manny. Do we need to search you right now or

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know, man. I don't know.

You went Lolita Express.

I I don't know what was happening in

Listen, everybody's in there. It's crazy to me, man.

You know, that whole thing for me is just

such ridiculousness already. But I I I feel that everybody has to be, you know, more on the on the on the whole issue situation. Yeah. And and and really, you know, I praise you in the sense that, you know, you're you're you know, you're taking a stance on this, you know, because I like to bring in people again, we're not pushing for a Democrat or Republican. We're we're not to we like people to put we put here, you know, people have become mayors of cities that they said she was a socialist. We we we we asked, right? People asked us, hey, ask her if she's a socialist. I asked the mayor Higgins, are are you a socialist? You know why? You know, everybody says you're a socialist. You know, she explained herself. So, we like to ask everybody.

You're welcome to ask me that question.

No, no, but I listen, I know you're not a socialist. I'm not going to ask that question. They ask you that.

That's that's we're in Miami. We're, you know, we're we're hipsters from the from from the hood here. You know, we're not we're not the view.

Yeah. Yeah.

But anyway, at the end of the day, you know, all I'm saying is

that's a good image, though.

No. No. Yeah. Please. No. We're not the view. But and and the ones that want to become, you know, famous out of the view, you know. So here we just like to for you to set what you're going to plan to do and let our our our audience

I like to ask questions and we ask those questions

but I really keep on saying right now

the hottest thing is as you say we're all immigrants. We all come from immigrant families. I think something has to be done and and again I think the president me personally I think the president has done spectacular things. I think, you know, we're back in in, you know, in in world power. We're up there. We're being respected. I love what happened with Venezuela. I love the pressures being put on Cuba. Sure.

I think it's it's fabulous.

You know what I'm saying? I mean, and and I hate people that are hypocrites that would not like that just because they don't want to go through a party line.

I think it's a fair point.

I I think it's, you know, I for me it's great. My dad's 90, my mom's 85. If they can, they never went to Cuba. think they'd be great before, you know, they pass to a better world or whatever to visit before. Sure.

But the immigration situation is something that all these politicians likes to play with.

So if that's really your, you know, your platform and that you're going to get up there and you're going to say, I'm going to fight for some type of reform, listen, brother. I mean, let everybody out there vote how they want to vote their conscience. You know what I'm saying? and and vote for what people are saying, not vote for the party lines.

Exactly. And and look, I think I what I explain a lot of people too is uh you know, a lot of times you'll see people uh look at the national what's happening on the national level. I always explain to people outside of Miami that Miami is very different.

The way by the way also we've done a in for a lot of long time a pretty decent job of Democrats and Republicans working together to govern, right? I think that's the important thing to focus on is and and this town has shown that it has been swinging. One of my great frustrations with my own party, Democratic party, is that we have not in recent times spoken to the real needs of people. So when you heard me talk about the fact that I'm focused on making people's lives in this community better, it's because one, I'm living a lot of those same challenges they are, but two is why are you going into public service, which you have to take cuz one of your your questions me when we were off air was why the heck are you doing this? We ask that to everybody.

Going to war, man. You're going to war.

But it's because I feel if if not now, then

you need to have that passion. And I can tell you have it.

And and if if I if I don't want to as any kind of parent wants a better life for their child and you and I see eye to eye on some things and not others. And I think that that beauty is we can sit here and talk about it. Right.

Right. Which I think we've lost that ability here in this country. My campaign is not about Democrat, Republican, independent. It's about do you do we share values and I think we do whether it's about making sure that family is taken care of that people have an opportunity to make it in this country that people that our systems and our government is working in a way that is effective and I think most people agree with me on that we may disagree on the degrees that we go to

but if you agree with me on seven out of 10 things I'm talking about you should probably vote for me regardless of party

and people have lost that

talking about how split the country is in you know between red and blue your parents are republic Republican. You told me

my parents are Republicans. Yes.

So your parents being Republican and you're running Democrat.

Yes.

And how is that Thanksgiving dinner?

They're not feeding him.

Look, I look I think I think they

and especially coming out of Miami, too, cuz Miami was notoriously more Democrat. Now it's kind of leaning more Republican. I know Trump.

That's the thing about Miami, too. But he was saying a lot of people it it depends. I I really And you're going to answer that, but I just want to say that there's a lot there's a lot of I like that because

Yeah, it should be like that. are thinking people are saying

I like the views from this person. They're not looking at what I say at the party lines. So, you know,

cuz you come off a little, you know, you come off some a little bit conservative, too. You know, like

I'm a pissed-off pragmatist.

Yeah. So, tell us a little about that, how you got there and then how the the, you know, the funny side is how dynamic is.

I think the most important thing is what is the right solution to the problem?

That's good solution based. So when it comes to things like affordable housing, we have in the federal level, I'll say organization called Housing and Urban Development, HUD. You all have probably heard of it because if you ever bought a home, you got to sign some form.

Uh

there's a lot of red tape with a lot of my company works a lot with affordable housing. My wife runs an affordable housing nonprofit. There's a lot of red tape there that slows down the building of that type of housing. We need her for that for

Yeah. My wife's amazing, by the way. Martina, uh I love you. Um, but and also she's amazing. I want to say a point here too about spouses. When you run for political office, it is not a single person.

No, it is a family affair and my wife, even though working a full-time job, holds it down with my son. I try to be as present as I can, but I'm out almost every night. And like this is the kind of thing that we discuss and then when you saw things like, you know, Charlie Kirk get assassinated and something happened in Minnesota. These are these are discussions you have to have with your family about, hey, we need to beef up security on our home and it shouldn't have to be that way. I mean, you had Columbus get out had a thing yesterday and my son goes here.

Yeah. And this is the kind of thing it's like goes here. No parent should have to deal with that. And there's and there's so many

which was a hoax, right?

It was a hoax or someone called in some nonsense there. So,

look, on the same token, healthcare to me is not a free market. When I was building my company in um 2016, I'm a rugby player, believe it or not. I know I'm small, but a little quick, you know. Damn.

And uh Okay.

Uh so don't come at me like that. No, no, but a lot of hits.

Uh, but uh I took a hit to my knee, tore all my ligaments to my knee. It two tennis came off the bone and I I lost to be able to lift my foot.

But I could have told you from the beginning. What the [ __ ] You know, sorry, but what the hell are you thinking of being a rugby player?

Look, just just But it feels good camaraderie and stuff, man. It's a great tough.

Look, if anybody's into it, Miami touch rugby. I'm out there. You should come out. But uh look, I I'm a little bit

I play two hand touch now, man.

Yeah, that's easy touch.

Two hand touch, bro. Hey, Kiko. You come come out and I'll show you that cardio voice. Come out and go. You know, let's go. But uh

No. No.

Yeah. Yeah. Look, tackle like my body can't take.

All right. Go go go continue.

But the the point is uh I lost a bit lift my foot. I had a reconstructive surgery on my knee. Cost me 40 gs. Just the surgery. I needed two years of physical therapy.

I went 10k in debt building my company. That almost put me out of building my company. But I had Obamacare subsidized healthcare. As an entrepreneur, people think this is all about low-income people. It's about people trying to build and have a foundation. And what I what that did is I was able to keep building my company. If I went 50k in debt off of that injury, I would have had to go get a salary, I probably wouldn't be talking to you today because I would not be a successful founder. And so it is not you don't choose to to get sick to. And so when you deal with health issues, we need to increase competition, but we also need to think about the fact that in my opinion, everyone in this country deserves at least basic catastrophic health care because so many people in our community get sicker and sicker and sicker because they don't handle things up front and it costs our system more. And so

it's like a preventative.

So there I sound I think a little bit more like a Democrat because I think that this is a huge issue that cannot be solved purely by the free market. There should be a new party like you know you know rep them

you know like yeah rep them if you got a little bit of republican in you got a little bit of democratic in so I don't know

depends on the problem man

it it depend on depends on that for sure I know you have your your agenda is nextgen 305

can you tell me just kind of like line item by line item what is is its goal and how do you want to implement it or what is it that you're going to

look I talk about my agenda in terms of freedom because in the end I think the American dream is sacred I think we all come here and we want to make a better life for ourselves than our parents did and that is something that if we truly want to be a meritocracy in this country we need to make sure that people have a foundation to be successful so the way I talk about this is uh that you have the freedom to be healthy we just talked about healthcare that one diagnosis doesn't ruin your life like it almost did for me that you have the freedom to raise a family right now early child education costs a rent and many people can't afford even though you two parent working households to send their children to preschool. I think we should expand access to early childhood education to make sure that our children are prepared for schooling because the most important years as parents know one to five.

I think that should be like free for everyone. I mean the early childhood you know

there's the word free.

I mean I don't know you need to invest into kids you know like

you're talking about somebody who had a daughter at 17. How would I put my daughter in school? You know

you decided to jump out of grad and go straight for it. So now I'm providing jobs.

But here's the thing is if you if our kids if our kids have that education, that foundation, then they could be successful. The same goes with access to good schools.

I think I think that's true, man. You need to take care of the kids first. You know,

every person agrees.

But again, there's a lot of there's there again we could be here tomorrow.

That's why I said values first, brother.

Evading the whole situation and the things of that of schools. You know, there's a lot of parents that also, you know, busted their butts always to put them in in good schools. all of a sudden you know then this happens and then oh these people can go to you know can't go to this school can't go to that school so it's there's I'm telling you it's just

there are systemic issues correct

but I think we start at values at least values you know again that's a good way to see

there's an arguable point for all for look for all of that

we may not agree on the full path but if we agree on the values then we can have a debate on the path and that becomes a much more business-like negotiation discussion than you're a bad person you're evil 100% like most people are good people and and we all have our own lived experience

and you can't you can't diss somebody for their ideas. You know what I'm saying? And that's why we live in this spectacular beautiful country that we can have these arguments and they can be voted on or it can be voted off they can pass or not pass and if you don't like it in to your point in two years you can get rid of that person six year you can get rid of the other person. You know we have the you know the

Yeah. A lot of systems don't have that

that you don't have that. I mean, look at we just talked about Cuba, right? Like look at look at the regime there.

So the next one I talk about is freedom to freedom to afford a home.

And what I mean by that is a lot we actually have a domestic migration out of Miami right now. People born and raised here and that's because it's getting harder and harder to make it. But the people we are training and educating if they want to stay here, how do we build the kind of housing that they can afford? And that's not talking about single family is a much more difficult challenge because we are bound by the sea in the Everglades, right? And we have to preserve our environment too. But right now we are not building enough how we have a housing shortage here.

Um and the last one is the freedom to retire with dignity. I go to a lot of senior centers where people are like hey I can't I can't afford my groceries.

Yeah. The retirement situation here is

Did you see that the Poly Market opened a grocery store in New York and it's all free? It's a free grocery store. I'm sure they have

How does that work?

I don't know, but they just did it.

Is that Is that Monty's thing? No.

Fedally, it's not fedally funed. No, it's private. It's privately funed. It's by Poly Market.

Okay.

Is So they No, they have Oh,

do they use their They use their wings. Yeah, they use their winnings.

Yeah, but it's not like everybody come in just take 45.

I don't know. But it officially opened. I don't know. I'm sure they have limitations. Maybe like a $200 credit per person again. They're going to give them a little card, a little then you're going back to the whole, you know, communism situation.

But how crazy is that that for me it's great marketing. We're talking about it right now, you know.

Well, look, I think you brought it up. I didn't bring it up.

The For me, it's about making sure that our seniors have a foundation to be successful.

I'm all for I'm all for help.

Listen to me, brother. Listen to me. They cut Medicaid to pay for tax cuts for billionaires. We put two trillion on the deficit to pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest people in this country and we cut Medicaid. But you know when the Medicaid cuts hit after the election.

Okay. After what election? The the

the upcoming midterms. They 27. And so the thing is like it's not all about government assistance. But we have to make sure that our seniors taken care of. And when I go to these centers, they're all terrified right now.

For real.

Yeah.

So,

and by the way, they're open to voting for someone like me because of the fact that they're not being solved. And this is not a Democratic bastion.

But again, that's another one. That's another one. Again, we can debate it. That's another one that's also, you know, one of politics, the whole Medicaid, Medicare situation. If they dig into it, they cut it, they don't cut it. Everybody, every politician uses the Medicare, Medicaid situ just like the immigration situation. And nobody really goes into Congress and really does. Boom. A full reform because that's one that you can play with. You know, everybody, Republicans, Democrats, independent, they all they all use that that tool.

Yeah. I don't want to play with it. I just want people to have a foundation, man.

I got it. But at the end of the day, you were just saying, "Oh, they cut this, they to give to the billionaires." I I get it. You know, I mean, I never sit down there and can read those, you know, what a million pages. You know what I'm saying? Because that's another thing. This whole negotiation situation when happens in Congress. Oh, wo vote to not, you know, shut down the the government. Perfect. And then all of a sudden, now you have Trump talking to Schumer. Schumer's up there talking about the clown and now you're talking, oh, because I need you to put this in there. And if you put this in there, you know, as we say, Cortando Bakalo, you know what I'm saying? Everybody's Cortando Bakalo. But anyway,

call it in English they call it pork, you know.

Yeah, it is. Yeah.

So, my my two I got two final questions before Eddie goes question. No, no, you don't have him finished. You have your

No, I have my one. Yeah.

So, first you win.

First thing you go to Washington.

What do you do in Washington?

I end the tariffs.

You end the tariffs right now. Talk to me here.

I uh and I'll

Well, you're going to be one of those votes.

But wait, you never mentioned any of that in here, too. So,

well, the tariffs are part of affordability, but that's one that's something that you could switch on and off. So, first of all, let's talk about the tariffs really quick. In my business right now, we import a lot of products. You talk, we talked about the toilets.

Did you know that because of tariffs last year, there was a a shortage of water efficient toilets in this country? Because every time Trump would wake up and decide that he wanted like it's 10%, 30%, 100%, 50%. What happened was the importers weren't putting boats on the water because you pay the tariff once the boat arrives. But if you have no idea what the number is going to be, you're just not going to send it and take the risk. Yeah.

And so what happened to my business was we were about to close a deal. And right and we negotiate everything with our suppliers with a big company, $5 million deal.

Right before we went to close a deal, our material costs went up 30%. And I had to go to this big company and be like,

"If I close this deal, I'm going to grow myself out of business. We need to renegotiate."

I don't think anybody I don't think anybody, you know, disagrees with the whole terrorist, but you got to agree that You don't have to, but it's a leverage thing. It's a tool that is used by them in the sense to, you know, make things happen. Again, it's a cause and effect. Anything that you do with the Medicare can affect some other people when you use it for a bargain.

Philosophically, yes. But execution wise, it has not, in my opinion, achieved the outcomes we need.

I I I think it I think it has it. It's moved a little bit of we have a lot of like Benos

and listen, we we a lot of our Yeah. I got we got car dealership, you know, that says, you know, my my car dealer guy, you know, says, "Oh, that price is going to be a little bit more because again,

listen,

there's nothing more than I wish for you if you win and you get there is for all your promises for you to make them whole,

you know, and always know that in this program, as long as it exists, if I see something, I'm going to go ahead and call it out." just in the sense

I would love to see you on Congress floor right there. Cool, man.

We'll bring Manny in for one for one debate. Come back once you get there. If you get there, you know, and come and give us a review. I will come back and tell us what's going on. But my other question, just to be clear, Manny will start, you know, he'll start negotiating with all everybody.

Here's my last question.

One more thing about tariffs before we move on.

Okay.

The other thing is that in the constitution,

the power to tax is with Congress.

Yes.

A tariff is a tax, right? Right. So the other thing that I think people need to understand is that we are being taxed for this. The question comes again you feel like it's justified. I don't it has hit my pocketbook in ways that has had me to cause to freeze hiring for the the entire year. So I have been I have not seen the the benefit to the that I have had to carry the water on. But in my opinion this power Congress has given it to the presidency. I want to bring it back into the Congress where the constitution asks for

but they have a Supreme Court is going to rule on if that's legal or not. Did that happen already? I know. We're waiting for the rules.

Well, you know, and you

they're going to have to rule that it is because that would throw everything

tax, dude. I know. But from a from a power perspective for the president for you to say you can't do that, that's going to throw because then the other countries now feel more emboldened now to go to, you know, do whatever they got to do.

We can do a whole another talk about the executive branch. You know,

that's interesting. Yeah. You talk about the constitution, but we got to tell a lot of people first to get educated first with the constitution because early childhood education don't even know what the damn constitution say.

But before his question, my thing is will you or will you not get on the Nancy Pelosi stock a a ticker? I I for the for the

we all are for the record. We all are. You're

going to follow Nancy Pelosi stock tickers.

First of all, don't hit me up for stock tickers.

Okay, good. Because I believe with every fiber of my being that the fact that Congress could trade stocks is out and individual crypto and on I you know what my my feeling is that be my number two in the tariffs. My number two is we do a congressional ban on stock a ban on congressional stock trading

for members of Congress

also crypto coins because they do impact that with policy as well. Yeah,

you can trade ETFs the broader market. You have some money in there. Fine. That's some that's auto. It's it's a basic thing. You can't manipulate that. But the fact you could choose one stock. The fact that that that that does so good. Are you on that train by the way?

Well, whatever. Nancy does I follow.

Yeah. Look at that.

It comes down to that. Not on her agenda, but for stocks.

Look, the deep corruption queen by the way. And the corruption is endemic because Ken Griffin yesterday called out the Trump administration for enriching his family.

Yeah.

So that's Ken Griffin, a Republican donor saying that. So this

but another billionaire. But anyway, that's another story. We love Ken Griffin. They do great stuff in Miami.

The fact of the matter,

we invite them to come on the podcast, but

I feel like I keep unearthing people that need to come on.

Yeah. Yeah. That's good. You call it, you say it.

But the fact the fact of the matter is there is a deep corruption that needs to be solved because even if it's not actually corruption, the perception of corruption is is corrosive to our system. And when people don't believe in our institutions and our system, that is a pro. It takes a long time to build trust. It takes one day to finish.

Maybe you should maybe you're running for the wrong seat. Maybe you should go for AG. Go for

I'm not a lawyer, bro. No, you're not. Listen, listen, man. There's There's enough attorneys in DC right now, man. You need some more. You need some more entrepreneurs. You know what I mean?

You do need some I think you need some more entrepreneurs. Problem solvers. Last question. Ready?

Top three.

This is the hardest question.

Yes.

Yeah.

This is This is harder than

You got to give us your top three restaurants.

Top three restaurants.

Number three. And the reason why.

Number three. Uh,

so I'm going to name I'm going to name uh in and out of district because I I lived all over.

Absolutely.

My number three in district new kitchen in downtown Spanish food.

Yeah.

Heard of that one?

You haven't heard of that one?

No.

Yeah. Those venos. Look, it's uh

been there a while.

It's a It's one of these places in downtown. It feels a little bit like a New York restaurant. I mean, they they used to be in this tiny

nu. I think I did I go there?

I don't know.

Maybe we can go there whenever you want.

Some uh so that's

Spanish.

Yeah, Spanish more like Catalonian Basque like um really unique uh unique menu.

Tap style.

Yeah, you can do tapa style, but also excellent wine list if you're into that.

All right, number two.

Number two is got to be I mean I I it's got to be Sunny's, man. Like I know everyone says it, but I don't know. We haven't been able to get a reservation at Sunny's. You know,

it's okay. Our our geek contact hasn't pulled through.

Look, look, Sunny's Sunny's is fantastic. Uh

and yeah, Chef Aaron been eating his meats for a long time. I don't know if that maybe that came out wrong, but

it's okay. A lot of people that Yeah. Yeah. You know, but

but uh yeah, with Edge, too. Uh shout out to my buddy Demo who's my who's my foodie guide in Miami.

Oh, nice. I met him before Kiko, so I got to give him a shout out for good. Okay.

And uh number one

number one.

Number one, brother.

Look, I'm Italian American. I'm married to an Italian.

I was going to say I was waiting for an Italian restaurant here, brother.

Macelina.

Oh,

hey. Yes. Macelina is in uh in Miami Beach.

Okay.

It's actually uh it took over. It used to be next to I don't know if you remember that hostel that the Fwells had. There was a documentary about like and anyways.

Yeah. Yeah. Right on Alt. Anyway, so there's a little bit of a seedy history in that area, but but the it's amazing. Uh it also has the food's incredible. The pasta is incredible, but one thing you got to get the tiramisu.

It's like a deconstructed tiramisu fan. I'm a huge fan. They do like a deconstructed ice, but they do something called bralio on top of it with a a nitrogen balio. It's an Italian amato

and it is made in the valley my wife comes from in northern Italy. So like there's a bit of like a special connection there because uh because that amato is used in there. So yeah, brother

listen before you go explain to the viewers what's your next step? How do people vote for you? You know, and and then what's the process for you to finally

perfect get in a position to compete.

So yes, again, my name Richard Lamonden. I'm running for the United States Congress District 27. I'm running to bring practical solutions to this community. I'm an entrepreneur by trade. I want to focus on the fact that we need to make sure that businesses can compete here on that we have the freedom to be healthy, the freedom to raise our families here, afford a home, and make sure that our parents and grandparents can retire with dignity. Uh I'm running because I believe that our community needs leaders that are focused on making this community better and making sure that our children have the ability to make it in America, just like many of us did. And I would love your vote. Uh, if you're in the Democratic party, there is a primary August 18th. If you're an independent, I encourage you to register with a party because in Florida, we have closed primaries and you cannot vote in primaries, whichever party. And the election is next November. Uh, we have an incredible opportunity to make a huge change. And I'm going to go up there and make sure that when I come back here with these guys that when they grill me, I've accomplished.

I'm going to hold you. I'm going to hold you to it.

That I'm going to I'm going to bring it because in the end, it's not about Republican, Democrat, independent. It's about Miami and making sure that someone who has done everything here, been born and raised here, built a business here, employed people here, raising my son here, that I'm making sure that this community is one that's going to last for a long time and be as successful as it's been. So, love your vote. Richard. Follow us on social. Uh, we don't have quite as good as

No, you're going to have it now. You can't plug in that, brother. Hey, good luck, brother. Good luck. Good luck, brother. Good luck. Absolutely, guys. We appreciate you.