>>Welcome back.
Nikki Fried is waging a bruising fight
against Charlie Crist to be the Democrat
to run against Ron DeSantis in November.
She's currently trailing Crist,
and so I asked her how she thought Annette Taddeo's exit
from the governor's race would help her.
>>You know, I think what this does is make a very clear
one-on-one distinction between Charlie Crist's past record
as a Republican and my record
as a long-term lifetime Democrat.
I think that right now, when there's so many things
that are on the ballot, between abortion rights,
between just human rights, voting rights, LGBTQ rights
are on the ballot, and Democrats are looking for somebody
that they can trust.
When all of those things are coming into play,
we are giving the people of our state a clear difference
between leadership styles, achievements, accomplishments,
and of course, women are looking for somebody
who's gonna protect them.
And that's why a one-on-one between myself and Charlie
is something that we have been looking forward to,
and we are excited for the conversation.
>>You've gone fairly negative against Charlie,
and I'm just wondering if you are at all worried
that in the long run you're just doing more damage
to the Democratic party and by extension
helping Ron DeSantis in November
should he have to face Charlie.
>>You know, first of all, people across the entire state
have a right to know people's past records.
These aren't personal attacks.
These are policy differences,
and the issues that are impacting people of our state today,
whether that is affordability in housing,
whether that is individuals that are still incarcerated
because of laws that Charlie passed.
The fact that we have right now a Supreme Court
chief justice and other members of the court
that were appointed by Charlie which are lifelong impacts
on the policies and direction of our state.
The people of our state deserve to know those issues,
and if Charlie can't deal with me during the primary,
$150 million lodged against you
will just be icing on the cake.
So if he can't stand up for his policies and his records,
you better believe that come the general election,
it would be an annihilation from the Republican party.
I don't need to expose him to the general.
Republicans will do that.
This is an opportunity, and that's why primaries
are so important to hash out these issues,
to make sure that the best candidate
that represents the Democratic ideals and can win,
which is the most important thing to Democrats right now.
We've been losing for 28 straight years.
We need somebody who's a proven track record
and a proven winner, and who has been able to
take on DeSantis for three and a half years.
If Charlie can't deal with that,
then he certainly is not ready for prime time
against Ron DeSantis.
>>Let's talk about some of the issues.
At a rally this week in South Florida, you said,
and I just want to quote it correctly.
We need to change the culture of America
when it comes to guns.
What did you mean by that?
>>You know, what's happening across the state
and across the country is heartbreaking.
We see these mass shootings and see our children
selflessly dying in their classrooms,
teachers dying,
but the problem isn't just these mass shootings.
I talk to mothers all the time
who have lost their sons and daughters from gun violence.
Every single day I wear these two bracelets on my wrist,
which is Bullets 4 Life,
attempts to get the bullets off the streets.
And what's happened though
is the culture in our state is glorifying guns.
Whether it is Congressman Steube in a hearing last week
showing off all of his guns to every Republican,
feeling like they need to show guns in their commercials
and holding up the guns and getting that NRA endorsement,
people in the Black communities just holding out guns,
and these are the conversations
that I'm hearing on the ground.
When I talk and sit and say there's not gonna be one
fast solution to this, whether it's banning ARs,
whether it is increasing ages or mental health,
there's just not one solution.
But overall, what it comes down to is we gotta take a change
in the way that we are viewing guns and the culture of guns.
I made this comparison, and I'm not the first one
who's made this comparison, actually.
Manuel Oliver was the first one,
and I had this conversation about this.
He's like Nikki, the reality is that we did this already.
We changed the culture when it comes to tobacco smoking.
We had the Truth campaigns that fundamentally changed
how society views tobacco and how we market tobacco.
We need to be doing that when it comes to guns in America.
And that is, I think, how we start
to kind of change the culture,
but also start changing the hearts of people.
What happened in Buffalo, my God,
you're talking about targeting a Black community
because of the increase of hate
and racism in our society.
They felt that the solution was taking up arms
and gunning down African Americans in Buffalo.
I think that we need to start changing the conversation,
changing the culture,
but we also need to be changing the laws
to protect the people of our state
and the people of our country.
>>Up until very recently, you had not signed the pledge
when it came to banning assault weapons.
>>My track record when it comes to gun safety is impeccable.
From my time when I ran in 2018, and you know this.
One of the biggest promises I made on the campaign trail
was that if I became Commissioner of Agriculture
I'd be one, kicking the NRA out of my office,
which is exactly what we did,
but it's ironic that Charlie out of all people
would even attack me on this issue,
considering for 30 plus years
he has been endorsed by the NRA,
has been touted as their candidate.
In fact, even put the head of the NRA in Florida
in the Women's Hall of Fame.
>>I wanted to go back to this notion of
almost what becomes a purity test for Democrats.
I mean, you've donated to Republicans,
and one in particular, you gave money to Ashley Moody
when she ran for attorney general in 2018.
Do you think Ashley Moody has been a good attorney general?
You serve with her on the cabinet.
>>First of all, the comparison isn't this similar.
The comparison is that the positions that Charlie has taken
for 95% of his political career, not just positions,
but things that he's put into place,
everything from when he was in the state legislature.
There's a reason why he was called Chain Gang Charlie,
because he pushed legislation that.
>>I understand, but I want to stay with your decisions,
and you made the decision to donate to Ashley Moody's
campaign over Sean Shaw, who is the Democrat.
I would imagine that you would think the state of Florida
would be much different if Sean Shaw
was currently the attorney general than Ashley Moody,
considering the lawsuits that she's filed,
the steps that she's taken
to sue the Biden administration and others.
My guess is Sean Shaw, if he had been attorney general,
would be going to court right now
trying to stop many of the things
that DeSantos has been doing.
So again, you decided to throw your support
behind Ashley Moody.
Why was that?
>>You know, first of all Jim, as everybody knows,
I grew up in a household where my mom is a diehard Democrat.
My dad is a diehard Republican,
and I was brought up in a household
where you talked about issues.
You looked at different conversations and topics
and you come together for resolutions.
It should be not asked for anybody to always be unwilling
to talk to other sides, because people in America,
in our country, want our elected officials to come together.
What's happening in Congress and up in Washington DC.
The fact of the matter is that the people of our country
don't want that.
They want people to come together,
and the decisions that I've made
to support previous Republicans in the past,
look what's actually gotten accomplished by that support.
I was able to pass landmark legislation
that gave rights to our foster care children
to give them attorneys and then funding that.
The expansion of access for medical marijuana.
>>And again, I'm sorry to interrupt you,
but I understand why you might give to Republican members
of the legislature to work.
You spent your time in government relations as a lobbyist,
so I understand that need.
The attorney general position is a very different position.
As the chief law enforcement officer
for the state of Florida, so again,
I'm asking specifically about Ashley Moody.
Why did you decide to support Ashley Moody?
>>First of all, as you all know, I'm a diehard Gator
and I went to undergrad.
I went to law school with Ashley,
so I've known Ashley since probably 1995, 1996.
So we have a long term friendship and relationship
that even spanned after law school.
We both practiced law up in Jacksonville
when she was at the US Attorney's Office.
When she first came to me when she was running in 2018,
everything that I had known about Ashley Moody
was that she was impartial.
She had been a sitting judge,
somebody who was gonna be able to weigh both sides
of a conversation, and as a female.
Unfortunately, another disappointment that I had
is when she got elected, and to be kind of honest,
as soon as I got into the race
and decided to run for Commission of Agriculture,
I absolutely put my support behind Sean Shaw.
That was a shift that happened.
But certainly when she got into that office
and didn't live up to her promises that she made
to the people of our state,
that it was going to be not politics
inside of the attorney general's office,
and she has abandoned every single day that promise
that she made to the people of our state.
So am I disappointed with her leadership,
disappointed that she's become the attorney general
of Ron DeSantis and not the people of our state?
>>I want to move on.
The governor vetoed in his budget
83 full-time equivalent positions for your department
that would have investigated and reviewed
concealed weapons permits,
the process by which people get those permits.
Those 83 positions were vetoed by the governor.
In response to that, you put out a fundraising email
and said, and I'm gonna quote it,
it's no wonder why DeSantis denied us funding.
He wants permitless carry in Florida,
no matter how many lives are put at risk,
and he wants to support a violent,
white supremacist insurrections.
The governor also canceled this month's cabinet meeting,
which means there's no clemency board meeting
to consider restoring civil rights to individuals
to give them a second chance,
as well as address whatever the needs of the state may be
through the cabinet process.
>>One, he believes that he's above it
and that he doesn't need to govern with the cabinet.
It's something that I've been talking about
for almost three years now,
that he believes that he's the supreme dictator
of the state of Florida
and that he doesn't need the cabinet,
doesn't need to share power or authority or stage.
So that's first off.
Second, he feels that at this point
he's already looking at Washington DC
and he is already looking past the state of Florida,
and so why waste his time
dealing with the business of our state, and especially,
especially when it comes to our clemency.
There are tens of thousands of people
that are waiting to have their day in front of us.
Some of them have waited 10, 15 years to get in front of us,
and he changed the rules last year
and he's played this little shell game
that he's called this an automatic change
in some of the rules
to give people their automatic rights back.
But the reality is he's taking almost 50% of the people
every single month off that automatic list
and putting it back for a hearing,
and yet then now canceling hearings.
This is a complete dereliction
of his responsibilities and duties.
This is how his MO is.
Why deal with other people who may have conflicting opinions
or thoughts, only gonna go into safe environments,
and unwilling to have those debates and conversations
and giving people an opportunity
to actually see their leaders in action.
>>In October, Trulieve acquired Harvest Health,
making it basically the marijuana branch of the business
that was very dominant here in Florida.
I think that was like a $2.2 billion deal.
You had a stake in Harvest Health.
I think last year's financial disclosure forms
had it at about $130 million.
I'm curious, as a result of the sale,
how much did you profit from that?
>>I didn't profit at all.
In fact, and I haven't really looked at the numbers.
I'm a little bit too busy running for governor.
But basically when the merger happened,
our Harvest shares merged as any other merger
and acquisition happens, merged into Trulieve,
and actually we've seen a significant loss in stocks.
I have lost a lot of money
when it comes to those investments.
And look, at the end of the day,
we have a lot of problems in the marijuana space
here in the state of Florida.
The fact of the matter is that we've got too many
big monopolies in our state.
We need to break up vertical integration.
We need to be giving out more licenses
and we need to legalize.
The fact of the matter is
that we need to get to legalization in our state
and we need to get there for economic opportunities,
for jobs, for equity,
to changing of our criminal justice system,
expunging records.
We have so much opportunity to move forward
in one of these last issues
that really transcends partisan politics,
and that's where as a state we need to go.
It's unfortunate that this governor today
has said never under his term as governor,
so we need to get rid of him
to actually start making progress on these issues
and create equity and equality
and give patients truly options
when it comes to the medical marijuana space.