it is that time again for informed
analysis and considered opinion about
the weeks that news stories that can
only mean one thing the roundtable a
little fun also as always and we have a
great roundtable for you today
mark Caputo is so Florida correspondent
for Politico and author of the daily
political Florida playbook must reading
for political junkies Sean Forman is
professor of political science at Barry
University and our go-to guy for
analysis on all things political and
when a Pedrosa
is a veteran South Florida reporter
right now with a medical debate and also
heard on the radio and we're a little
manly today where are my women you will
do just fine I think if we can let's
let's begin with the Adam Putnam story
because it's endlessly fascinating and
Mark you I think and Politico
have been right on top of this let me
try and give a brief some synopsis but
as it appears that his department
department of agriculture issues
concealed weapons permits and in
2016-2017 for thirteen months hundreds
of thousands of concealed weapons
permits were issued without going
through a National instant crime
background check and at a news
conference yesterday and a Putnam said
hey is no big deal we actually went back
and checked anybody who shouldn't have
got one a permit didn't get it but this
is serious stuff it's serious stuff in
part because the story you reported
which is a story that was originally
reported by the Tampa Bay Times yes and
not disputed by the Agriculture
Department it's wrong they actually
didn't do background checks and what had
happened pardon me for clearing my
throat
what had happened was there was an
inspector general's report that said a
woman in charge of doing a secondary
layer of review on rejected background
checks for concealed weapons permits
didn't do her job and do an extra layer
of review so 365 permits were at issue
and 291 were improperly then issue
then revoked after the report came right
the problem is is that the Agriculture
Department when we all called and asked
about this inspector general's report
didn't say hey here's the real story
they let it sit they let it fester and
then it blew up on them and so now for
two days did they know Adam Putnam has
been playing defense well the question
is what did they know they knew a year
after this one wasn't doing her
secondary layer of review checks that
she wasn't doing them but background
checks were indeed performed on all
three hundred and sixty-five thousand I
and I heard that she couldn't log in or
something that was the real she lost
that should have raised some serious
flags Michael I totally agree with you
the fact that she couldn't log in and oh
by the way a year later this dis
transpired and having said that let's
remember that Adam Putman when he was
elected he was the one that was in favor
of speeding up the process right well I
got a nice analysis in which he said
we've gone from 12 weeks to 30 days or
something for concealed weapons permits
anyway Shawn weigh in here what do you
what do you think what does this mean
for his chances to be the GOP nominee I
think on the face of it it looks bad but
it's probably not as bad as it initially
looked once we get through the details
of what actually happened and if you
hear Putnam explain it people got
concealed weapon permits which are look
like a license that says you can carry
your gun but that didn't allow them to
purchase a weapon because of this glitch
you would still get a criminal
background check at the point of sale so
it's hard to explain and when you're
explaining you're losing so it's not
good for out of point today professor I
think in the long term it's I think and
I think correct me if I'm wrong I think
if they would have stepped in front of
this before it even blew up the way it
blew up I think we will be having a
different conversation right now the
generals report was finished you would
think that maybe Putnam would have come
forward and said exactly like we looked
into it I have acted and here's the
report well there are three inflection
points number one when the report comes
out hey look this happened we acted
quickly we fix it they didn't do that
yeah number two before the legislative
session buttoms office sponsored
legislation to fix this glitch that got
exposed as a result of this Office of
Inspector General report but
didn't disclose the report at the time
so they could have done it that and then
point number three was on Friday when
the Tampa Bay Times first called they
could have said look here's what
happened but the reality is they did
none of that and in the end sometimes
it's not the crime so to speak I'm not
saying it's a crime it's the cover-up
lling though is something that Politico
actually uncovered I want to say a month
ago that mental health checks like Wawa
one in five mental health checks for the
purpose of a concealed weapons permit
was coming in so late that the weapons
permits were issued that the mental
health checks were never done and and
hundreds of people received their
permits that should not have for mental
health reasons that was a politico story
it was and we base on Florida part of
law enforcement requests for more money
from the federal government health fix
this incidentally there is 53 million
additional dollars sitting in a
specialized trust fund for concealed
weapons permits to handle gun regulation
issues legislature refuses to touch it
and rate it for anything else I'm like
all other trust funds it's like hey why
don't you use that money to do other
things and fix background checks at this
time sorry Mike really quick this story
comes out only four months after the
Parkland shirring so which makes that
even politically though does that matter
I guess this is for you showing
politically does that matter in a state
where red and blue the gun culture as it
were is a political issue and there's
one side and there's one side and no
matter what happens it there is no
crossover there is no rolling back well
there's very little I think where this
will matter is in the general election
the Democratic candidate nominee will
use this already with putnams comment
that he's a proud and are a sellout he
was already facing repeat on the issue
so he's going to have to defend on guns
but in a primary you know Ron DeSantis
is his primary challenger he will say
the Putnam was a bad manager that he
threw the employee under the bus and I'm
not sure that that really gets you
points with Republican voters who want
to see more people get concealed weapon
permits now Adam Putnam had a news
conference yesterday and thanks to marc
caputo sent me the link and here he is
in Bartow if we can run the SOT here is
Adam Putnam defending what happened here
the headlines and the stories that say
that there were no background checks for
a year is inaccurate and misleading
no one's safety was put at risk by the
inadvertent purchase of a firearm you
cannot purchase a firearm with a
concealed weapons license where now
you're shaking your high I'm shaking my
head because I I mean just this mistake
to me is and it goes back to what you
said Mike it is big and do we believe
that no one's life is at risk we don't
know that until maybe they go back I
don't know if that's if they could do
that or not and actually go license by
license to see who they sold those
weapons to so I said as I pointed out
296 licenses it's to revoke so when did
they ask you a question well they they
finally came up with a number on
Saturday so I fastened the rest of the
media on Monday are putting a records
request to say ok you know show us the
show was happens right right well the
Democrats have gone crazy about this
some have demanded that Adam Putnam
resigned from office or stop running for
governor which he is not going to do
we'll come back and talk about what the
Democrats are saying in just a minute
you