How Sabrina Carpenter Got NYC Mayor Eric Adams Indicted ft. Rep. Maxwell Frost
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bit.ly slash book club IRL for tickets. Grab yours before they sell out. Rise and shine, fever dreamers. Look alive, my friends. I'm V Spear. And I'm Sammy Sage. And this is American Fever Dream presented by Betches News, where we explore the absurdities and oddities of our uniquely American experience. Can you believe there is another debate tonight? I'm so excited. I

I am so not excited. No? You think it's going to be crazy? No, I think it's going to be unsettling. And I just don't really want to watch J.D. Vance have this much –

of a national stage on which to maybe get a few points off of Tim Walz. And it just feels like a higher risk situation than Donald Trump against Kamala Harris because J.D. Vance is a more controlled person. But I don't want to say that Tim Walz can't close the deal, but I just think I never want to assume everything's going to go right.

I hope that Kamala gives Tim Walz a little pep talk ahead of time. And she's like, be your own rainbow, be you don't hold back because when he gets to be himself,

He can be a little bit more in it. And I think that public school teacher comes out a little bit more when he tries to be vice presidential. I think he panics. And then we see that reaction, like what we saw in the Dana Bash interview where she was like, well, you said that you did IVF and you actually did IUF or whatever the different minor difference in what fertility treatment he had. How could people trust you when you lie? And he got like really sad and upset.

I hope that JD Vance, and I'm sure he will, and I'm sure he was trained for this, is going to go for the personal attacks on Tim because that tends to hit him in a way that kicks him off balance unless he could be his full Tim Wall self and get defensive and call him weird and an asshole or whatever other thing. Yeah, I think,

We'll see. But I do think this is this worry or not worry. It's not even really a worry. Just this like thought that I'm having is sort of reflective of a bigger picture approach from both campaigns is that we have so much off the cuff, out of pocket, really disgusting stuff from both members of the Republican ticket. Sure. And they go freely on shows and they talk and they just sort of blab.

I wish that Tim Walls and Kamala Harris would both do more of that because then once they have these moments where they don't have the script in front of them, they just kind of get asked an open-ended question and they're not on a prompter, I think that any sort of misstep or misspeak becomes a whole story because people are so not used to hearing them speak off the cuff without like

remarks kind of generally understood what they'll be saying. And not that they aren't doing like plenty of retail politics and like you do see like tons of videos of spontaneous, you know, spontaneous interactions. But I do think the reason that there is so much more of a panic when they say things on these national stages compared to the way people react to Donald Trump is

is because they don't have as many moments that they're just sort of like the wheels are greased casually. I'm worried about CBS's fact-checking policy because I think what we learned from CNN was no fact-checking came off as like completely disingenuous and like, you know, against journalism. It was just awful. And then we saw the last debate with ABC, them fact-checking right in the way. There is no, they're not eating pets. There's no state where abortion after birth is legal. And I think that that

was fair and balanced and important. And now CBS is saying they're going to do sort of a mix of both, that if one of the candidates fact checks the other in rebuttal, they'll allow that, but they personally won't be interjecting the way that

ABC did. And I think that that sucks. And I am not looking forward to that. So are the microphones on? I think the microphones are on. And I also think one of the problems is that that puts Tim Walls on his heels the whole time to be fact-checking crazy shit J.D. Vance says instead of talking his talking points. Yeah. I mean, there has to be a line.

They probably don't want to get the backlash that ABC got. And now Donald Trump is saying, they owe me an apology. Oh, please. I could revoke their licenses. Oh, remember? Yeah. He's threatening to take away the broadcast license of ABC, one of the biggest networks, who's in bed with Disney and other... I mean, this is huge. The things that Donald Trump does are so casually catastrophic. And

Because we've been numb to him being so insane, a lot of it we're like, oh, there goes another one. Well, he wouldn't – he would. Well, speaking of that, we will actually get into more of that later with Representative Maxwell Frost who will join us in the second half of this episode. We also talk about Hurricane Helene. We talk about Kamala Harris and his role as a surrogate for the campaign. It's a great conversation. We are –

Big fans. Also how you can help, how you can help. I'm like so many people, we've got like five or six weeks left and I see so many people being like, I've done so many TikToks. I've talked to my family. I've bought the merch. What can I do? I feel like it's not enough yet.

knock on doors and phone bank. Knock on doors and phone bank, and we'll have information about that in the second half. Also, just keep going, which is kind of, he touches on this, that it's not like one conversation is going to be determinative. Changing who you vote for or deciding to vote or becoming engaged and aware of these things is often a journey, and one conversation is probably not going to turn you into a voter for

either side maybe doesn't doesn't really matter the point is that it's all about multiple touch points and if it feels like oh you haven't done enough it's because we just need to keep doing more until it's done keep it going we'll we'll sleep when we're dead per tim walls all right it's time for temp check we are talking about chapel rowan and is she h-o-t-c-o-g-o or not for kamala harris

So this is a big one. People are on Chapel Rowan's ass about her political stance, and she really went through it last week. Here's what happened. This discourse around Chapel Rowan and her political stance sort of started around Pride Month, when she rejected an invitation from the Biden administration at the time he was the nominee to celebrate Pride Month. She said at that time during her GovBall performance, which if you remember was huge, that was kind of like right when she was blowing up.

While she was dressed as the Statue of Liberty, she said,

So it was pretty clear and also just from her fundraising and what she does talk about, mostly trans rights and Gaza, is that she was not happy with the administration's stance on Gaza. But when Kamala became the nominee and since lots of other celebrities have been embracing the campaign and openly endorsing it, people started to wonder if she would maybe change her tune.

So this came up again after an interview with her in The Guardian was published on September 20th, less than two weeks ago, where she said, quote, I don't feel pressured to endorse someone. There's problems on both sides. I encourage people to use your critical thinking skills, use your vote, vote small, vote for what's going on in your city.

People freaked out for obvious reasons. The two parties are not equivalent and certainly not when it comes to the issues that she herself expressly cares most about and

So in response to that backlash, she then gets on TikTok and says, I'm voting for fucking Kamala. Oh, yeah. She said her name wrong. Yep. And saying that a vote is not the same as an endorsement. Totally valid point on that. She also clarifies that, of course, Kamala is better than Trump, but that she finds both political party stances to be problematic. But then she

She dropped out of her performances in New York City and D.C. this past weekend and wrote on Instagram, things have gotten overwhelming over the past few weeks and I am really feeling it. I feel pressured to prioritize a lot of things right now and I need a few days to prioritize my health. I'll also note that during this period, there was a headline that said that she had been diagnosed with major depressive disorder.

So this is all happening sort of over the course of a month. Yes. So I'm going to be honest. What do you think? My reaction as a millennial oldest daughter who on the day that they told me my brother died, I elected to finish my day at work first because the show must go on, right? And I know that's toxic the way that we were raised, but I initially thought if you've committed to something, if you promise people you're going to be at a job and then you should be there, right?

And I posted on threads, okay, Chapel Roan is from Missouri, the state where one person who's running for governor right now put an innocent man to death. And the other candidate said she doesn't want to put innocent people to death, but there's problems on both sides, right? And I didn't

I didn't think that was that crazy, but I was, of course... Now, who am I? A 42-year-old grown-ass woman projecting my disappointment with the killing of Marcellus Williams on a 26-year-old pop star as if she could have literally done anything to stop this. But I did, and that post was up for about four hours, and I have since come to realize that we are putting too much pressure on young celebrities and pop stars to be perfect in their political givings, but also...

Yeah.

It's not a one for one comparison. I don't know. I struggled with my response and now where I feel about it now that I'm glad she's prioritizing her mental health. Honestly, like.

I feel for her because she's only 26 years old. She also has a lot tied up in this in terms of her family. One of her family members is a very big time anti-abortion activist in Missouri. Her mother's brother. Who she is. Her uncle. She's friends. Yeah, her uncle. Yeah. You know, she has a relationship with her family. She's also come out in the process of this. Like it's...

she performs in a character for, I'm assuming, a reason. I also don't want to assume that just because she – like I think because she spoke out about trans rights in Gaza that people assume she's like super educated or hyper aware or political about this, about things. And I think that she's young. She's very busy being very famous. And this is her first time, I think –

Having this level of exposure where the weight of words like this has more – more than she – like more comes with it than what she realized. And I feel badly that people are roasting her and being – like attacking her. And I don't think it's helping. I don't think it pulls her to their side.

And it just, like, I really just feel badly for her, and I hardly believe that she has thought through anything she's said on this that much. And I really just wish her the best in, like, moving through this time, and that's really –

I mean, like I said, I had my own little tantrum that I was going to pin on Chapel Row not speaking out, which was nuts. You know what I mean? And we grow because I also have watched the world eat up and spit out Britney Spears. I've watched famed

kill Amy Winehouse. So many artists that have come before who were just incredibly talented people who then too much was asked of them and they gave it and look what they gave up for it. And I'm glad that we're breaking that cycle. Right. I just feel like her words should not be given the import as if she's speaking them from behind.

the Resolute Desk. She is a newly famous pop star who has made amazing art. And you don't do that because you're thinking about you're keeping up with the news all day. You just don't. Sorry. I just don't also think that she may be, like you say, keeping up with the news. At the time that she said, when you can promise equal rights for all, including in occupied territories, then I'll come, she should have left it at that. Because from then until now, things have changed.

People were closer to Kamala Harris. We're fighting an autocratic regime that could be coming in. And I think people where they would have heard both sides are bad when it was Biden versus Trump are sort of less willing for that to be the current fashionable talking point now that it's Kamala. So.

Here's my thing. I think, one, we saw what the repercussions for her not showing up to the shows was. And it was that they put drag queens on stage to dance along with her music. People still showed up dressed like her and had a blast. And that is the new generation. And I love that for them.

I understand the frustration from fans who – Okay. A lot of money to come. The two things, the political point and the not showing up are different points. I understand there might be people who are like, you show up no matter what. Okay. Or like you don't, you know, and you – I've seen lots of shows. It's like you show up no matter what or you end up like Britney Spears or you take care of yourself. And I understand why people are upset that they spent money. That really does suck. And I understand people begrudging her that.

who were financially affected. But this bystanders who were just sort of like rubbernecking her...

Mental trauma. Full grown adults being, yeah, gross. Well, let me tell you what happens when you do show up to a show that you shouldn't because of your mental health. I'm a big fan of this band, Edward Sharp and the Magnetic Zeros. I've been a fan of them since like the 90s forever and ever. And he wrote that song Home. And that girl from the song broke up with him. And then he did shows afterwards without Jane. And if you've been to an Edward Sharp and the Magnetic Zeros show since Jane left him, he's so weird, guys. I was watching it with Natalie a couple of years ago and I was like,

Babe, I'm worried for him. This man's going to take his life. Like, this is not well. He should not be performing right now. What would we be feeling if she did go and perform and couldn't handle it? We don't need to be putting a spotlight on people and putting them on stage when they are actively saying they're not okay. And so I think they wouldn't have gotten the performance that they paid for either way if she's not feeling well. And the other thing I think that she might want to consider having sort of girl boss very close to the sun in this case is what type of famous do you want to be?

because she has had this taste of what being a mainstream pop star is, the things that a Taylor Swift deals with and talks about and writes songs about how she pushes through it anyway and how much that costs her as a person. And maybe Chaperone decides that she wants to be more of a recluse indie artist who doesn't do big stage shows.

Maybe she needs to do a Vegas residency or something where she could control her schedule based on what she's capable of giving. And I think that people would accept that. I think maximizing anything has hurt so many people and it causes burnout. And maybe she gets to decide, you know what? I don't do big arena tours. It doesn't work for me, but I'm going to write you some boss-ass music. She would be so perfect for a Vegas residency. I will say that. Look, Lana Del Rey just married an alligator guide.

We love that. They want to be normies. Normies super famous. It can be done. I support it. It could be done. We support you, Chapel Roan, and I'm sorry I was sassy to you on the internet for four hours. I regret it to this moment. I didn't even see it. Most people didn't because it was like a little thread. You know what I mean? Threads is like my journal. I treat threads like my train of thought and quickly deleted it. I said something very stupid about the subject of our next topic.

on threads the other day. I said that Mayor Adams is what happens when you don't get ranked choice voting because I forgot that we had actually had ranked choice voting when we voted him in. But when we get back from the break, we're going to talk about Eric Adams.

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Visit BetterHelp.com to learn more. That's BetterHelp.com. Welcome back, friends. Before the break, we were talking about Mayor Eric Adams, and I have an announcement from the city of New York.

There is a new saint in New York City. Her name is Saint Sabrina, Our Lady of Justice. Sabrina Carpenter, the Mi Espresso singer, former Disney Channel star, seems to be at the root of a federal investigation into the business dealings of Mayor Eric Adams, one of the most hated mayors, which is really saying something when you're talking about New York City mayors we don't like. It's a tough crowd. I'm excited that Sabrina Carpenter, another super pop star, is taking down the mayor because, you know, this is girly things.

See, this is something I never could have predicted at the beginning of 2024. Just this combination of events is so unlikely, but...

Hit it. Yeah. Gen Z girl artists are like completely flipping the world on their heads right now. And I love it. So last year, Sabrina Carpenter got permission to film a music video for the song Feather at the Blessed Virgin Mary Church in Brooklyn. Now it's unclear how she chose this specific church, but it might be due to the priest who was in charge there. This guy named Monsignor Jamie Gigantiello. We're going to call him Father Jamie. Father Jamie is

was doing a stint as the vicar of development for the diocese and was housed at this Blessed Virgin Mary church. Now, he claims that he allowed Carpenter to film her music video there as part of his plans to build a bridge to younger people. He allegedly did not ask about the theme of the music video. He was not present for the filming and basically just like handed the keys to the castle over to her and the production crew, and they ran amok in the church and

in a very small black dress and used the altar to stage a fake funeral for men who killed themselves over their love of Sabrina Carpenter. It's a very edgy music video if you've not seen this music video. Very unholy.

This is right up there with Madonna and her like a prayer and all of the like hotness that came out of her. And she wasn't even in church. I don't think I think she was just just in a field of blazed crosses. And but they didn't learn from that. So yeah.

As this got going, this priest was already on the Vatican's nerves for the fact that he has a podcast, cookbooks, a party lifestyle. He has a cooking show. So he's the Mayor Adams of priests. He's the Mayor Adams of priests. He has a cooking show called Heaven's Kitchen, and he markets a tomato sauce called Taste of Heaven. He's been known for generally doing too much cooking.

Aside from all of that, the church put him in charge of fundraising and advancement for the Diocese of Brooklyn. He was in charge of fundraising and the budget for the Catholic schools, academies, parishes, and affiliated corporations, which the more you learn about the Catholic church being a business, the more I'm like, tax the church.

Anyway. Oh, fully. I just hope he is paying heaven a licensing fee for that sauce. He should be. I mean, what's next? That Jesus walks on water wine? This guy, he's a hustler. Don't even give him the idea. I know. But he was in particular in charge of this thing called the Generations of Faith Capital Campaign, where he raised more than $100 million tax-free for the Diocese of Brooklyn. How do you pitch that?

We know that Catholicism and religion is on the decline, but Father Jamie out here, he could pull 100 mil for one campaign. That is already a little suspicious, even to the gold-crusted Vatican. They're like, where's this guy getting this money from? Yeah.

That's kind of iconic for her. I know, I love it.

The bishop also ordered an audit of Father Jamie's activities in the church to root out any other potential impropriety. Remember, they were trying to kind of like get rid of this guy for being too flashy. And this bishop was like, oh, my God, this is my chance. Well, that is the start of tying the priest's actions to one of his longtime parishioners and business partners, the mafia-esque Frank Carone, who happened to be Mayor Adams' chief of staff. Oh, boy. Yeah.

That makes a lot of sense. Here we are. This is like a movie. You know what I mean? This guy, Frank Carone, also worked with de Blasio, who was the last mayor of New York, who we all hated. And he works with the current speaker for the Democrats, Hakeem Jeffries. Hakeem Jeffries, who has notably stood by the mayor's side and has not called for him to resign. They all have this collective central thing of this priest and this Frank Carone guy. Oh, that's a question. That's a little question there.

Now, Frank invests in the priest's businesses and the priest in return invested in Caron's businesses. The priest, Caron, and Adams all went to Rome together on a very fancy trip to the Vatican because Mayor Adams claimed that he needed the prayers of the Pope himself to battle the migrant crisis in New York. So that's how he got the taxpayers of New York City to send him for three days on a luxury vacation to Italy. Wow.

What are their businesses? So one of Frank Caron's businesses, the priest invested in what is currently facing charges of money laundering. So that's under investigation right now. And I could go on and on about Mayor Adams' horrific reign over the city, like how on his first day of office, he asked for a waiver from the Conflicts Interest Board so he could hire his brother into a $210,000 job as the mayor's head of security. Or Mayor Adams' quote, zero tolerance policy for homeless people sleeping, just sleeping.

or how he announced that he objects to the separation of church and state. I wonder where he got that idea from. Maybe his three-day luxury trip to the Vatican.

But it does look like Mayor Adams Goose may finally be cooked, and it came with a side of Mi Espresso, which is just chef's kiss. Can you explain how Sabrina Carpenter is actually connected to this, though? It was the investigation into the priest and how much money he got from Sabrina Carpenter's production to allow her to use the church.

that connected the priest to Frank Carone, Frank Carone to the mayor. And this began the federal probe into all of the priest's business dealings, which connected him to all of Frank Carone, the chief of staff for Adams' business dealings, and then in return connected the priest to Adams through this trip to Italy. So if it had not been for Sabrina Carpenter's music video, they wouldn't have had this paper trail to Adams. Interesting.

So as they were doing that, once they investigated the priest, that led to, whoa, the priest is in bed with this Frank Caron guy. Whoa, Frank Caron is dealing with Mayor Adams. What else do they have going on, which they hadn't been looking at before? So what should have been just this priest getting a slap on the hand for letting her do a risky music video ended up happening.

With the New York Southern District, which right now has like Diddy under lock and Sam Bankman Freed and Trump being like, oh, why don't we add another to our pile of indictments? Why don't we get the mayor too? And Diddy and Sam Bankman Freed are in the same, they're sharing an actual like room. But the thing that's also weird is that we talked about this last week. Sorry, Eric Adams gave Diddy the key to the city last year.

It's all very weird. The thing is, we've known that Mayor Adams has had a bunch of questionable stuff. We know that almost everybody in his administration has been raided by the feds in the last month or so. What kicked this all off was this one thing with Sabrina Carpenter's music video and the priest. That's when they were like, whoa, this is just one of many potentially impropriety things that have happened.

Right. He was indicted last week, which we talked about, but he's also under more investigations at the same time. Yeah. So he gets indicted for wire fraud. They come to find out it wasn't just this fancy trip to Italy he took on the taxpayer's dime. And that seems to be their big issue that they're leading with is the accusation that Adams accepted more than $100,000 in airline upgrades and luxury hotel stays from Turkey. And in 2021, when a Turkish official told Adams it was his turn-

I guess to like pay them back. Adams allegedly pressured the New York City Fire Department to rush a safety inspection of the new Turkish consulate in Manhattan. So they opened without being sufficiently cleared by the fire department, the fire department that also has Father Jamie as their official chaplain. It's just a mess.

It's also they have messages that show – they show them booking and negotiating what price they should charge for Adams for his first class flight so that it would look real. And according to the indictment, he actually demanded to be given bribes.

from these officials. Well, I mean, once a hustler, always a hustler. Let's not forget that Adams started his life in Queens as a drug runner in the gang, the Seven Crowns. He was also the personal aid to a handicapped sex worker named Mickey, which I actually support. I think, you know, we got to take care of everybody in the neighborhood. And he is known to this day as the nightlife mayor because he's never married and he's at the clubs every Friday and Saturday night hanging out with gangsters. That's what I'm saying. Every night.

He's always at zero bond. He's always at zero bond. He's hanging out with like these mafia type guys. He's in with the Catholic church, which seems to be in with the mafia type guys. It's like a movie straight out of a movie. So this guy, in addition to all of this, um, at the same time, the adult survivors of sexual violence act in New York was expiring. And that's why we saw all of these people come forward with charges from the nineties that previously they had sort of like aged out of being able to prosecute. Um,

One of them is for Mayor Adams. There's a woman that filed an allegation saying that he had tried to extort her for sex in return for a job in 1993. And he still has to face the charges for that. That investigation is ongoing. So the brother's got a lot going on. Well, much like Donald Trump, who also has several investigations and lawsuits against him, he is taking the Donald Trump plea.

claiming that he's being politically targeted. Right-wing bots and incels have come to his defense online, claiming that it's because he spoke out against the migrant crisis that he's now being targeted. So you'll see him on Fox News in a few years.

I don't doubt it at all. This is, I mean, we've talked about corruption is just the same thing over and over and over. This is like Clarence Thomas light in some ways. It is Donald Trump light taking money from many foreign countries, allegedly. Yeah. Well, goodbye, Adams. He's up for election right now, which-

You know, could mean that we get a Republican mayor of New York. I don't know. But I do wonder how far this is going to be spreading and if Hakeem Jeffries is going to get looped into it somehow. I hope not because I really like that guy. But he's in cahoots with Frank Carone, who is, you know, Frank Carone is also just one of his constituents. So, yeah.

Maybe he's not in cahoots. Maybe he just like knows him because he's his constituent. But right now, if Mayor Eric Adams were to resign, the mayor would be city advocate Jumaine Williams. Oh, I love. You don't know who would run for the next term, but TBD. Well, Kathy Hochul has been a ride or die of Eric Adams, and that's been part of the reason why a lot of people don't like her. So I hope that she uses her governmental powers. That doesn't reflect well on her.

to make him resign in whatever power she can because getting the public advocate would be incredible. He's such a wonderful person. It's really not a great look that she doesn't do that because having your mayor accused of taking bribes from Turkey while under investigation for similar behavior for many other countries is just really beyond the pale for what should be allowed, and it undermines a lot.

People say she's wrapped up in the Buffalo mafia. I mean, it's New York and I love us, but we have a reputation. Well, that's not okay. All right. Well, we will have more updates about Eric Adams to come in the morning announcements every day, five minutes. Get all of your news in your feed. Check it out. And when we get back from the break, hear our conversation with Congressman Maxwell Frost and enjoy it.

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At Banner Health, we're here to provide more than health care. Whatever you're planning, wherever you're going, we're here to help you get there. Banner Health. Exhale. All right, Maxwell Frost, welcome to the show. How are you doing, friend? I am doing great. I'm doing great. I had a great weekend. I am hitting the road in a few hours on the campaign trail, so I'm feeling good. It's going to be a very long campaign.

What, six weeks, five weeks, something like that? No, I feel you. I feel you in my bones. I do just want to say before we get into everything that you are the only elected official to come on this show who has not asked us about the topics in advance, who has not asked us for questions or parameters or guidelines. And we respect that because, you know, as an elected official, you obviously take seriously your duty to be able to just speak to the people.

Yeah, 100%. And like that, we want to meet people where they're at and answer really any questions, right? I mean, that's kind of what I get paid for too, right? Like it's to work on all the issues. So should be able to speak on all of them. Fun and not fun, but you know, here to talk. Very much appreciate it. So not fun. How are you going to take on...

the hurricane Helene recovery, given that you are Florida representative, it really seems really tough. We are just, we're recording this Monday morning for context. So what's happening with that?

So the good thing for my district is it didn't really hit my district at all. We had some power outages. Before a storm, I always do it. I have like a checklist. One of the things I do is I call all my mayors, all the mayors in the district. And then I also called the members of the city council and county commission that have districts that tend to have more flooding and different things like that to check in, make sure the pumps are working, you know, and is everything ready to go? And then I check in with people afterwards. And so

We're good in Orange County, we're good in Central Florida, not so much for a lot of communities in North Florida. I know Perry, Florida is a community that got hit really hard. But honestly, some of the biggest devastation we're seeing is in North Carolina.

Asheville, areas like that, that I think, number one, just generally are not prepared for a storm like that. Because usually once they get over land, they weaken very, very quickly. But this storm moved so fast. I mean, it was a very quick storm that it quickly got over there

and hovered there for a little bit and just wreaked havoc, devastation, especially because there's a lot of hills and mountains. And so you have all this water just pouring down these mountains, hitting these communities, trees falling. I mean, it's devastating. So I know that the president and FEMA are working closely with the state government, North Carolina, to help with that recovery. And we're here to do anything that we need to do. We just signed on to a FEMA letter for Florida recovery.

But the thing is, like, we're still recovering from Hurricane Ian. That was like two years ago, right? There are still people recovering from that. And so, again, you know, the climate crisis, we have rising emissions that are warming our planet, warming the oceans, and warm oceans equal more hurricanes, hurricanes that are larger and create more devastation. That's what's going on. We've had like

seven or nine, you know, hundred year storms in like the last decade. So we just, we got to get a hold of this. It's not just like polar bears and ice caps, even though that's really important. Like this is like, it's here. The crisis is here. People are dying now. People are being displaced now. One of the questions I have for you is you're able to speak so factually about what's going on. And it makes sense to me the way that you're describing it.

But you're in a state where your governor often denies the idea of climate change or these once-in-a-lifetime weather events. And then inevitably when they happen, because he didn't accept federal funding to kind of like mitigate harm, we're now in a situation where he has to beg for help. How do you keep a cool head while dealing with Ron DeSantis and not be like, dude, I told you so. We got to do better here. Well, I don't always keep a cool head. Sometimes things slip. But...

I just stay really focused on my community and focused on the local work going on in Orlando. You know, we're a very loving community and I just love where I live. And that really helps bring me being home, brings me home. Right. Like it brings me the foundation. I need to do this work nationally. But we still we're still out here fighting around the senses, fighting this like right wing thing.

Christian nationalism, white supremacy, neo-fascism in the state of Florida, and trying to build the broadest coalition that we can to defeat it. Because we're going to essentially need as many people as we can to get to a place where we have a state that, like, Ron DeSantis banned the term climate change in schools and in government, right, or in government buildings. And so there's no laws or federal regulation or anything like that in the state of Florida that will say climate change in it.

So denying the science denies the solutions and then denying the solutions means we're just out here and we have to depend on each other. So mutual aid is more important than ever in the state of Florida as it relates to abortion access, LGBTQ plus protections and health, gun violence, everything. And, you know, it shouldn't just be up to society.

our communities, it should also be up to our government to protect us and give us the resources that we need because that's our taxpayer money. Do you think a storm like this that destroys so many communities, many of them Republican-leaning, will have an effect on Rick Scott and the Debbie Marcel Powell race or future races where they're saying, look, maybe I'm a Republican, but I don't support these policies that are making it impossible for me to get home insurance that are destroying my town? Yeah.

I think, yes, little by little, we're seeing a lot of conservative people say the homeowners insurance, this book banning, like all this stuff is compounding. And I think like, you know, we hear a lot of Republicans say, I didn't leave the party, the party left me, right? That kind of thing. And a lot of them voting for either Democrats or at least voting for progressive ballot initiatives in the state of Florida. And I think we'll see that continue. Like the climate movement has never been as big as it is now. Why? Well, the good thing is it's big.

The negative part is the reason it's big is because so many people are feeling the impacts firsthand. My district in Central Florida has so many Puerto Ricans in it now. It always has been, but more than ever. Why? Because after Hurricane Maria completely devastated Puerto Rico, so many of them had to move to Central Florida.

And so they're not referred to in this way, but I always refer to that group of people. They're the largest group of climate refugees in the country. And that's what they are. They were forced out of their home to come to Central Florida because of the climate crisis. The problem is these storms come, they're happening more often, they're killing more people, displacing more people. And then, for instance, I put out a tweet about it, and then you have all these accounts, these right-wing accounts replying, being like, well, we've always had hurricanes. Not like understanding hurricanes,

the point we're trying to make, right? So I think it is an educational thing too. And I'm always thinking about new ways we can help educate the public. How does it, how do our emissions directly impact these horrible weather patterns, extreme weather that we're seeing from heat to hurricanes to tornadoes? There's a ton of education that goes into it, but I do think it's worth adding that the insurers are

know that this is not something they want to be dealing with. They're pulling out of Florida, they're raising rates. And so consumers are seeing the impact of it. And to your point, I think there's no way that once it hits consumers' wallets, that there's no way that they aren't somehow going to get the message. But what I'm wondering, from what you're seeing, and it's very impressive that you're able to be briefed on this so quickly and all of

what's going on there while also dealing with your own district.

Are people talking about how the damage might affect voting access in Asheville? Are they discussing potential workarounds given the infrastructure damage there and elsewhere? So I don't think it's, I haven't been looped into those conversations as much as it relates to Asheville specifically. But usually the way this works is FEMA has an allotment of money that's already there to spring into action in the places. But the problem we're running up against is FEMA has a very large budget deficit.

they need a lot more money than we just sent them. We passed this continuing resolution in Congress and they need a lot more money. And so that's the problem is like there's so many Republicans in Congress, they want to cut spending, cut spending, cut spending, not from oil subsidies or our inflated military budget or this and that, but from FEMA.

Or they want to cut money from the Social Security Administration or food stamps, $6 a day for someone trying to feed their kids. Those are the things that they want to cut versus these inflated budgets and money that we send to corporations. And so it's really frustrating because we have organizations, institutions like FEMA that need the money. Like if there's one thing you're going to give a lot of money to, it should be FEMA.

especially as the climate crisis continues. So it's just this complete ignorant cycle of denying the climate crisis and then denying us the means to deal with the repercussions of their denial, right? And so we're just here. We'll see what happens. I just saw a tweet. You know, it's funny, like people think because we're in Congress, we get like

inside information about everything, which we get some inside information, but a lot of my information, I just see what everyone else sees it. So I just saw a tweet that apparently the president saying he might need to call Congress back to appropriate more funds. I assume he's talking about FEMA. And so we'll kind of see what happens.

That was actually what I was kind of getting at when I said it was impressive that you were able to be briefed on this because I had sort of assumed, you know, did you receive information specifically for you as a representative about the storm and about what the recovery efforts are? Or are you reading this, you know, in the news and on Twitter and –

from government statements kind of the way the rest of us would be? It's both. And so I get a lot from online, reading what's going on. I've been texting a lot with people on the ground to one of my good friends, Anderson Clayton. She's the chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party. She's been sending us updates as to what she's dealing with and the devastation going on in the community. Also,

Also, we'll get briefs from FEMA. A lot of times you have to request them. You request a brief from FEMA or an organization that's on the ground. So it's kind of like you do as a member of Congress have to step out and seek it if it's not impacting your district directly. But the resources are there. We really have a lot of resources to stay up to date on things. You just have to make the effort to request a briefing, set it up.

go out and seek the information that's out there for you. Just outside my parents' district, much to my dismay. Hopefully.

We can get you maybe as a senator someday in Florida and then we can vote for you. But speaking of elections and crazy stuff that's going on, Donald Trump seems to be becoming more and more undone and going further and further with his rhetoric. Just this past weekend, he said that maybe we need one really rough hour where the purge occurs, I guess. He was saying crime is so bad and we need to just like allow a day of extreme violence to

to deter criminals from being criminals. What do you think about that? Did you hear this clip? I did not hear this clip. We'll play the clip for you. Okay, okay. The liberal left wants to destroy them and they want to destroy our country. You know, if you had one day, like one real rough, nasty day with the drug stores, as an example, but they have to be taught. Now, if you had one really violent day, like a guy like Mike Kelly, put him in charge. Congressman Kelly, put him in charge for one day.

Mike, would you say, right here, it's a chain of events that's so bad, one rough hour, and I mean real rough, the word will get out and it will end immediately. End immediately. You know, it'll end immediately.

This was how he was trying to address the issue of theft in Pennsylvania. Yeah. He's obviously never been to an Eagles game. We already have one rough hour after the games, but it's a productive, happy rough hour, not a murder your neighbors rough hour. Like, that's crazy. Yeah. And what is he saying? Like, he was pointing out a congressman. Is he saying that this person should be the czar of the rough hour because he's rough? Yeah, Mike Kelly.

Yeah, Mike Kelly from the 16th District should oversee the purge. That was the suggestion. No, I mean, I don't even know how to respond to that. I mean, every day he's saying something crazier. I think it's because – or he's saying something just out of pocket. I think the reason is, number one, he knows that he doesn't have any momentum.

And that's not where you want to be, you know, coming up in October. But Kamala Harris is the momentum. So he's just unraveling and he's just saying anything that he can say to try to make it stick. I think he's also very upset that he's not getting the media attention he used to get.

Because now more people are paying attention to Kamala, the things that she's doing, the energy behind her campaign. And he's just like Trump isn't he's not hitting like he used to. You know what I mean? Like, I hate the guy. But, you know, he would be kind of entertaining and saying something and people would have him online. But it's just now it's just like you're cringing. You're like, what is he saying? I don't want to listen to this racist stuff anymore. And I think he's really upset about it. And so now he wants the purge, I guess.

He is one breath away from using the N word or the R word. I'm telling you, that's going to be our October surprise is that he finally just says the word. I think he's not hitting like he used to, but I also don't think he's as worried about hitting like he used to because he's not playing.

playing a game where he's trying to get votes. He said this, I'm not, I don't need your votes. I don't need your votes. He's counting on suppression on capturing the boards on preventing certification on violence if he needs to. And I actually think that like, it sounds insane coming out of his mouth to us, but I think the way that autocrats are,

Yeah.

He didn't say notice like a complete sentence here. I had to, that was like stitched together over time, but you know what he's suggesting. And then when he gets a certain reaction to it, he then takes that in. And then later on when he's either pushed on it or he wants to get more of a reaction or he wants to change a story, he will then say something like that again more clearly. And then the words that he's saying, you end up with January 6th or you end up with whatever he's trying to,

cause in the future. So it's like, this is crazy, but it's also so dangerous. And Ruth Ben-Ghiat tweeted that, I love how much we're referencing Twitter, that,

She tweeted that this was like chilling to her and she's an authoritarian scholar. And this is like, I think this was like really one of his worst statements. And the eating cats and dogs was like an appetizer for that in a way. No pun intended. No, yeah. I mean, this is like, this is from the fascist playbook, right? Like you have to amp up fear, amp up feelings, amp up hatred.

against very specific groups of people that you will assume from a strategic point of view that most of your base doesn't have relationships with or know in their personal life. So it's easy to alienate them. So, you know, trans kids,

Haitian Americans, like very specific groups here that maybe the typical very culty MAGA kind of person just doesn't know in their personal life. So you amp up that fear and then you say, listen, if you want me to take care of this and protect you, like I need power and I need you to give me power. And I think that's why we see him just amping up, amping up as much as he can to try to consolidate this power. But I do think it's having a really big backlash because

He's just going off the rails here. And that's just a wild thing I heard. Thank you for showing me that.

Something I want to get onto now because we are seeking the new path forward and we are going into the light and not responding to darkness. And something I love about the way that Kamala Harris has structured her campaign is to truly ignore all of this insanity and not be in reaction to him, but continue to put forward her vision and be clear about who she is and what she's offering. You've been on the road with her. You got to speak at the DNC, which is fantastic. Can you give us a little inside info

as to what it's like inside the campaign? Because from an outsider's perspective, it feels great. What's your experience been like? Well, my experience has also been great. And I've done, like right after the DNC, I went on a five-day back-to-school tour in a lot of the battleground states. And I did a lot of different campuses. Like I did big...

state universities, you know, UMICH, UNC Chapel Hill. I also did HBCUs, did Bennett College, and I did community colleges, did the community college in Philadelphia. And so the energy was great everywhere. And the real bellwether for me is like, look, I can go to a college, I can speak to the college Dems, it's going to be great. And I love that. And we got to, we got to like get our own focus decided. But at every one of these stops, like

the college president or students for Harris leader would come to me and say, Hey, there's a lot of people here I've never seen before. And then we'd go up and talk with them and they'd say, yeah, this is my first like political thing. I just like showed up. I brought some friends, you know, I don't know what to expect. I'm just here. I like follow Kamala online or I follow Kamala HQ and I just wanted to come out. And that that's the real power.

is like when you can bring in new people. And my favorite thing is when you ask someone why they're at a place and they really have a hard time articulating it. Like I think about during March for Our Lives, I had so many friends that came out to the Orlando stop and I was like, dude, you hate politics while you're here.

I don't know. I just felt like I needed to be here. That means that your cause, your movement, your campaign has become part of the culture. And when it becomes a part of the culture and you're bridging that gap between cool and consciousness, people won't be able to say exactly why they entered a space, but they're just happy to be there. And that's where we as organizers and leaders have to help

put people in a political home like that's what the the real organizing is all about so i'm feeling really good however i'll tell you this i believe and i don't really make declarations or predictions because number one i just don't think that highly of my uh you know prediction skills um and number two i've been burned too many times but i do believe she will win

the popular vote. I think that is going to happen. But the thing we need to be very worried about and like, you know, continuing to organize on is that she can very well lose this election because of the electoral college, the way that the system works. It's really coming down to what, five or six states?

and we're narrowing it in the polls, but it's hard to tell. So we should really be worried about all of them. And again, for people to know, Donald Trump could be ahead two votes in Pennsylvania and he gets all those electoral votes, which makes the path for Kamala that much harder, almost nearly impossible.

And so we really need to keep like, even though the vibes are good, vibes don't always equate into votes unless organizers are there to make that happen. And that's why we need everyone knocking doors, going out and doing the work that they need to do because we could still lose this race. But the

the good thing is we have the momentum. We just got to keep it up. Will you talk a little bit more about this idea of door knocking and phone banking? Because I've asked, what can I do? How many TikToks can I make? And they're like, can you actually fill this hour on the Pennsylvania call bank? And I'm like, really? Okay. I mean, we had Broadway stars doing phone banking because as much as Broadway votes is doing great stuff, it truly is about door knocking and calling people and having conversations. Can you give people a little more color as to what that experience is like?

100%. And for people who don't know, before I ran for office, this is what I did in my job. I was a field organizer, field director. So this organizing is really my bread and butter. The thing people should know is in a campaign, the top thing you're trying to do is get your message out. You land on a message that you think is good. And then the next step is getting it out there and getting people to go out and vote for you because they resonate with your message. There's different ways you can get your message out. We have paid media, which are

ads, mail, digital advertising, stuff like that. You have earned media, which is like TikToks, influencers putting out things about you, talking about your campaign, press conferences, rallies, stuff like that. And then you have what we call peer-to-peer communication, which is person-to-person communication. And that's door knocking, phone banking, going to events, connecting with people personally.

The most effective way to get a voter is one-to-one conversation. There's nothing more effective than that. All the numbers show us this. But here's the thing, it's not the most efficient

The most efficient thing you can do is put an ad on the television. Why? Because everyone's going to see it a lot of times. But an ad might not change your life the way a conversation will. So conversations are the most efficient, but not the most effective. And ads and stuff like that are not the most efficient, but the most effective. However, when we get a lot of people having the conversations,

Then the door knocking and the phone calls become both the most effective and the most efficient. That's when we start winning in bigger numbers. So that's why we need people to really go out and knock those doors is you might do a shift where you're knocking 40 doors in a few hours. You might only speak with 10 to 15, maybe 20 people. But

But all the doors you're not knocking on, you're leaving the literature there. People are going to read it when they get home. And if you bring your friends and you're doing more doors, we can speak with more people, we can get more votes, and we can win the race. That's why the organizing, at this point, it's the most important thing we can do. And I know I like to look at polls too because I'm a bit of a nerd, but-

On the ground, the polls are really for the headquarters to make these big ad buy decisions and all that. For us on the ground, and even me as a surrogate going places, the only numbers I care about are how many people are showing up to events, how many doors are we knocking, how many phone calls are we making? And that's what we really need people's help with at this point in the campaign. It's like, keep doing your content online, but try to add a call to action when you speak with someone to say, hey, also, can you go out and knock some doors?

this weekend. You can go to go.com.com, right? And that's going to bring up what available opportunities are in your district because you may not live in a swing state or near one, but they'll say to you, Hey, if you're in, you know, I don't know, San Francisco, California, can you help us out with phone banking for Iowa? Can you help us out with phone banking for Nebraska?

you still speak the language of that territory a little bit. You can really reach out to people. So don't feel like just because you're in a safe district, there's nothing you can do. We need you so badly to go knock those doors and do the phone banking. And yeah, I get hung up on a couple of times, but you have some great conversations with people as well. I also think people underestimate the effectiveness of speaking to their own friends about it who are maybe less engaged. Maybe they live in other states, just having conversations because

that is actually the most effective way, even more than just speaking to a stranger, because they know you, they trust you, they can speak to the issues that are meaningful to you particularly and know the language that you'll receive them in. But as a surrogate, as someone who is just speaking generally, and we've had many political conversations and persuaded many voters, how would you say is the best way to get, what are you telling people about Kamala Harris from what you have seen of her up close?

So what I do, especially I'm going to I'm speaking with like a lot of young voters to which, you know, young voters like they you ask them what they care about. They're not going to tell you one thing. They're going to tell you like several, which gives me a lot of hope because people are very hyper aware of things going on.

I actually just, I'm really big on like storytelling and I just tell my story of like why I got involved. And I really talk about the Office of Gun Violence Prevention, which for people who don't know, like gun violence is the reason I got involved in politics. I witnessed and survived gun violence in downtown Orlando and have been involved in it for about a decade now. And it's one of the hardest issues to move anything forward in, but

Joe Biden created the Office of Gun Violence Prevention based on a bill I introduced, and Kamala Harris has been running it for the last year. And during Black Lives Matter, I was one of the organizers in Orlando. I was tear gassed, maced. I was arrested. I went to jail in the district I now represent because I was fighting to get more money into our communities so we can focus on ending gun violence outside of the carceral system.

Kamala Harris is running this office that for the first time in the history of our country is sending hundreds of millions of dollars to community-based violence prevention organizations working outside of this system of locking people up. And I've seen the difference at home.

Like gun violence has gone down and across the country, gun violence has actually gone down. Not enough. We have a lot more work to do. Donald Trump's elected. The first thing he's going to do is get rid of this office. And all of these local organizations doing this work are going to lose all their funding from the federal government, which is a big deal. It means like more people are literally going to die on our streets.

That's one of the many reasons that I really want to see Kamala Harris elected, not just an anti-Donald Trump thing, but because I know she wants to build off of that, get even more resources for those local communities. And when you think about like a president and they're thinking that locally, it shows you like they really get that grassroots work is really important and a part of this network and this system.

And so I just tell people about like, I really give people that bit of truth and answer any questions. I really try to come from a place of grace and love. I speak with, you know, some people are really excited. I speak with some people who have questions. Maybe they're skeptical about voting. Maybe they disagree with Kamala on an issue or two or a few issues. But most of the time we get to a really good place at the end of the conversation. The other thing though, is,

I feel like in politics, we put a lot of pressure on our conversation. Like, yeah, after they talk with, you know, Maxwell Frost, you know, first Gen Z, but they're going to leave and be like, yo, you're right. I'm going to vote right now. That's just not the case. Like in organizing, we should never see our one interaction as the one, but as one of the interactions.

conversations, one of the interactions that hopefully will be a part of this timeline. And at the end of it, they'll go out and they'll vote hopefully the way that we want. But the problem is, is if we put people off and we shame people and we yell at people and we don't validate people's concerns, we could turn off a voter for the rest of their life.

And so we should not have a lot of pressure on our conversation to impact someone drastically, but we should see it as like, this is just one piece of this puzzle. And that's the way I see me traveling the country for Kamlo now. I see myself as a piece of a much bigger puzzle. And I hope that my story can help people in their decision. And it's a hard decision to figure out, do I take part in this system that has created a lot of harm?

You know, am I going to be a part of putting my, you know, of voting? But my hope is people will see, of course, the sacrifices made generations before us to allow us to have a say in who runs our government and how important it is to really push back against this fascism growing in the country. It's really scary. And I and I really try to talk to people about that, too.

Brett Frost, you've been so generous giving us all of this time and talking about what you're doing with Kamala. I wanted to give you an opportunity to talk about one of your recent initiatives that I personally really respect and I'm excited to learn more about. One of the communities that's being really negatively impacted by Trumpism and by hate right now is our migrant communities. And a lot of those folks are folks that when I was a chef and worked in kitchens and whatnot, those are my best guys. Those are like my

family. Once you get to know people who came to this country because they believe in the American dream, you can never hate them again. Everything that you've ever been told that might be

you know, gross or bad or whatever. You're like, that's just not true. That's just not true about these folks. But you recently introduced a Work Permit Reform Act to help keep migrants on the job. Can you just tell us quick about that? Yeah, so real quick, like, you know, we have migrants who come here on legal status and a lot of, you know, many of them are promised the ability to obtain work

work permits. People who are coming to this country, they want to work. They're coming here to be a part of this American dream. They want to work. They want to provide for their family. They want to be productive members of society. And so let's say you come here on temporary protected status. You now have to go through a separate process to also obtain a work permit. So let's say you go through this process, you get your work permit, you start working somewhere.

Well, temporary protected status has a certain timeline. So let's say you can be here legally for two years. And oftentimes the government waits until the last minute to extend your TPS. So you start getting very anxious and then you hear, oh, TPS is extended. I got another year. I got another two years.

But the way our government works right now is when your TPS is extended, your work permit isn't automatically also extended. You have to go through a separate process to get your new card. And the problem here is we have so many migrants here that are working and their TPS gets extended if their work permit doesn't. And it takes them a long time to get that new work permit.

And if their work permit expires and there's a time period where they don't have a valid work permit, they get fired from their job and they're unable to work. And this is a really bad situation that impacts, honestly, both employers because they have to really let go a bunch of the workforce.

and the migrants, human beings who are trying to work and provide for their family. I actually came up with this bill after my office helped a recent Haitian migrant, someone who came here, has been working, she works in hospitality, and she was diagnosed with cancer and started receiving cancer treatments. And her work permit

was beginning to get to the place where it was going to expire. And her boss said, I have to take you off the schedule. I have to let you go if it's not updated by next week, which means you're also going to lose out on your health insurance. And so she started to try to figure out like, what the hell am I going to do? Like, I can't pay for this cancer treatment out of pocket. And for her, because our office got involved, like we were able to help her and there wasn't an overlap, but it came down to the last day.

So this is a problem. So my bill will help streamline this and really connect both of the process of TPS and the work permit so you don't have to have that anxiety. And as long as your status is extended, you're able to also work here.

This is what it's for. Former restaurant guy and chef, I appreciate it because so often that's exactly what happens. So many of the migrants are coming. They're working in hospitality, frontline, entry-level jobs, jobs that are really difficult to train people for and often at small businesses or restaurants or places where we can't afford to lose somebody on a shift. We've got these great folks and because of government bureaucracy and red tape, we end up all getting hurt by it.

So I'm really grateful that you're doing that for small businesses and for folks who are coming here just trying to make a better life for themselves. Maxwell Frost, thank you so much. Tell folks where they can follow you and find out more about what you're doing. Yeah. Folks can follow me at Maxwell Frost, F-L. That's M-A-X-W-E-L-L-F-L. All the things. Awesome. Well, hopefully we'll see you out there on the campaign trail and certainly for a victory party after November. Yes. Yes. Thanks, y'all. Have a good day. Bye.

Until next time, I'm Vita Spear. I'm Sammy Sage. And this is American Fever Dream. American Fever Dream is produced and edited by Samantha Gatzik. Social media by Candice Monega and Bridget Schwartz. Be sure to follow us on Instagram and TikTok at Betches News. And follow me, Sammy Sage, at Sammy and V at Under the Desk News. And of course, send us your emails to AmericanFeverDream at Betches.com. Betches.