Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hey, Joel malcol for WJ andO dot com, and we are have
(00:05):
our election spotlight on the race inthe Republican primary for Congressional District twenty two.
There are three candidates in the winnerof this race, we'll be facing
incumbent Lois Frankel in the general election. And Deborah A Demi is joining me
now. And I know you go. You often go by deb So should
(00:25):
I call you Deborah or deb Everyonecalls me Deborah, especially my dad yelling
across the house when you're very angry. I think we just used dev because
I think it was short. Idon't know, but I'm always Deborah.
Thank you. Krev all right,well, I appreciate you joining me and
(00:47):
speaking to the voters of District twentytwo on the Republican side. And let's
get some background. I know youand I spoke a couple of years ago.
You were in the same race forthis same seat, running in the
Republican primary. But for folks thathave just moved here, we've got people
moving here from other states all thetime and other dndrums. So talk about
(01:12):
yourself for a minute. You know, what do you do for a living?
You know, give me your background. Well in the last cycle,
I stepped in the race relatively late, real late, so I paused my
job. I've been working for WallStreet firms here in Combeach County long time,
(01:38):
JP Morgan, Morgan, Stanley,Merrill, Lynch. I've been working
there over twenty five years. Sowhen Biden pulled out of Afghanistan and surrendered,
I just thought, let me helpout some candidates. And I saw
the two people who were running,and I saw it, Man, they
(02:00):
can't win, and I thought,well, I can. So I stepped
in the race really late, andI ended up trying to recount with Dan
Francis, who spent seven to oneagainst me, he self funded, spent
(02:22):
one point four million trying to buythe seat. New person from New York
and people who know Palm Beach County. It's not that simple, quite complex.
My hometown and my family's been herefive generations a century, so I
know the district, I know myhometown, and I know Lois Frankel,
(02:46):
that's for sure. So now youagain have Dan Frenzies in this race,
and then another candidate, Andrew Gutmanthat that's a new name for this race.
But let's you know, so didyou go back to work for the
Wall Street firm. Yes, yes, of course, yeah, so yes.
(03:09):
So after the recount, we hadto wait five days and Dan Francis
ended up running against Lois Frankel,and even with DeSantis on the same ticket,
he's still lost by ten and ahalf the lowess Frankel. And at
(03:29):
that time I went back to workworked for J. P. Morgan,
And so here we are. Ihad my like I said at that and
since I tied, I thought,okay, I'll try to second time here,
So running again? Are you aI'm pretty sure I remember you saying
(03:53):
you're a Florida resident. Are youa Palm Beach County not resident but native?
Are you a pom Beach County namegood Sam Hospital yep? Five five
five generations, yep. Let's see, my grandfather flew. Well, both
my grandfathers were in World War Two. Both my grandfathers lived here, they
(04:16):
both passed away. Mister Ademi flewin World War two with mister Brinker.
Actually, so yep, I'm I'ma native. I'm the only Floridian running
here. I'm the only Native inthe district. So I certainly have seen
this Palm Beach County area explode andchange over the decades. So, friends,
(04:43):
Dan Francis, I think he's beenhere about three years, and mister
Gutman came down from I think NewJersey about ten months ago. So,
okay, we u have former PresidentTrump running again for president, and you're
(05:08):
going to be, you know,when you hope to be on the on
the ballot as you know, atthe same time as he is in November.
And I'm looking at some of yourstances, you know, would you
say that you are that you takeon the America First platform. I think
(05:29):
we all believe that Americans should begiven priority, especially above well illegal immigrants.
I mean, we have veterans andhomeless people and a lot of people
who came here illegally working two threejobs. And I think we all believe
(05:53):
that you take care of your own, your own is given priority. As
a matter of fact, most countriesbelieve that. So I don't think there's
anything wrong with taking care of yourown. You're going to hear a lot
and you already are, but youknow you're going to hear a lot about
as we head closer to the generalelection. Convicted fell in this convicted fella
(06:16):
in that one comes to when itcomes to Trump. You know, I'm
sorry, repeat that, please.Somebody keeps calling in repeat that. As
we get closer to November the generalelection, you're going to hear and you're
already hearing some of it, butfrom the media, you know, convicted
fella in this, convicted fella inthat when it comes to the you know
(06:39):
Trump, are you a Trump supporter? And how how would you work?
Would you work well with him?In Congress? We're not talking about convicted
fella Hunter Biden or unconvicted fella inJoe Biden. We're talking about Trump.
Okay. I think a lot ofof President Trump's positions have proven to be
(07:08):
successful. You actually have a fouryear report card for Trump's administration and this
administration, and they couldn't be anymoreextreme. You have multiple successes with the
Trump administration, and the failures,the destruction of this country intentionally by whoever's
(07:31):
pulling the strings behind Joe Biden couldn'tbe anymore extreme, complete failures versus successes.
So I think a lot of peopleare looking back thinking, I'll tolerate
the mean tweets if we can bringback what we had under the Trump administration.
(07:56):
Do you think he gets back onX. I know he's back on
he's allowed to be back on there, but he only he's only done one
post on there, on the formerTwitter, and I believe that was to
announce he was running. If Iremember correctly, I could go on it.
But do you think he'll get backon there or stick to Truth?
Just as a side note, Well, that's a competition, you know,
(08:22):
that's a competitor technically. You know, when he set up Truth, you
didn't have the brilliant Elon Musk comingin, and whoever would believe that he
would risk so much Elon Musk touh, you know, dave America's freedom
of speech. So will he getback on I suppose if he would make
(08:45):
it a compliment, you know,compliment to the Truth social platform. But
you know it's technically a competitor.But he could certainly do both, that's
for sure. The former president andperhaps future president is you know, making
a pledge to do some mass deportationsof illegal immigrants. What are your thoughts
(09:07):
on that and the immigration crisis asit currently is. I'd love to see
at least the blueprint on how they'regoing to pull something like that off.
One of the main things, andwe've seen this in the past, is
(09:28):
employment. Are these illegal immigrants gettingemployed? Are they getting jobs that used
to be a deterrent. However,this administration is basically giving them food and
cell phones and closed and beautiful hotelsto live in. So shutting that down
(09:52):
it's going to be the first step. Obviously, they're basically, like I
said in the beginning, being takencare of better than the veterans and the
homeless and you know, people workingtwo three jobs that came here legally as
immigrants. So illegal immigration does somuch damage in so many different ways.
(10:16):
Overwhelming the schools. I know alot of teachers. My aunt was the
head of the science department. They'renot even allowed to ask their background,
you know, if they're legal,they don't speak English. That pulls the
rest of the classrooms down, blowsit down, overwhelms the hospitals. The
(10:43):
food. We've all been in publicsand we've seen huge parts of food with
these large families, and you know, we're all struggling to make our paychecks.
So illegal immigration decides the theory ofmanipulating voting going forward. It has
(11:09):
so much damage and so many differentways. You know, besides obviously security
and especially women and girls being youknow, hurt and killed. It's destructive
in just so many ways. Youhave on your campaign site website you talk
(11:31):
about pledging to work with Congressman BrianMast, who also he's being challenged in
a Republican primary only like I thought, believe every two years, right,
But you know, talking about ourFlorida, our water with the water.
I know that Mast has done somuch in Washington and some of that is
(11:52):
slowly starting to come to fruition.So talk about our waterways and you know
what still needs to be done wellspecifically, Brian Mass is really spearheaded the
water aspect. Here in Florida.We are a peninsula. We are unique.
(12:15):
If you look at the shape ofFlorida, we uniquely are surrounded on
every side, you know, whichis why we're so vulnerable during World War
Two. But Florida is such acomplex water state when it comes to the
intracoastal, the Everglades, the inlets, the ocean. A lot of people
(12:39):
from up north panock when they seethe King tides and they don't understand this
has been happening for centuries. Youknow, there are different high level technical
ideas about how to control that,but I'm not sure you can control the
movement of you know, the oceanand the tides and such. But it
(13:05):
is a delicate structure the Everglades.People that aren't familiar. There's so many
different complexities to Florida's waterways, andyou know, it is delicate when it
comes to poisons. Are damaging chemicalsthat get into our waterways and throws off
(13:30):
the balances, and that's where youget these weird gross and blooms. And
it's a whole massive project. Weare a water state, so that is
something that definitely is unique to ushere in Florida. All right, and
then my final question is, andyou might remember this from two years ago,
(13:54):
you got two candidates running against youin this primary, and then of
course Congresswoman Lowis Frankel waiting in thewings in November in a I believe still
a pretty blue, pretty Democrat district, right, what makes you the best
candidates? Well, I'll tell youwhat. This specific district has collapsed in
(14:20):
two years. In twenty twenty two, it was about a D plus Democrat
plus twelve thirteen point advantage, andit is collapsed in two years, which
is unheard of to a D plussix advantage, and most of us in
(14:43):
politics know anything nine and below isflippable in the right environment. We all
recall Glenn Youngkin in Virginia. Ithink he was in a Democrat plus eleven
or twelve advantage and because of thepeople, the voters, the environment,
(15:05):
he ended up flipping that district.So currently, Lois Frankel has been targeting
and attacking me. After Trump gothis thirty four one hundred and four felony
convictions, she immediately sent out atext attacking me, sending out a picture
(15:30):
with me and Trump. So LoisFrankel is very aware of my advantage here
in this district. I know alot of families, I know a lot
of businesses. My family's been herea long time, and I believe my
background and credentials are something that's reallyadvantageous, not only in Congress, but
(15:56):
in Palm Beach County, my hometown. And what's interesting is whenever you run
for politics, you know, runfor office, Let's say, people say,
oh my gosh, how could youdo that? You know, aren't
you nervous or going to bring upor exaggerate something weird? And I've thought,
(16:17):
I don't have anything to worry about. I don't have anything, you
know, in my background to beconcerned about. When you work for Wall
Street firms, they do background sweepsabout every six months, so you have
to have an excellent, excellent background. So just two days ago, Dan
Francis sent out a really ugly attackmailer on me, where Minutia from let's
(16:49):
say twenty five years ago, payingan HOA quarterly bill late in two thousand
and eight is displayed on a maileras her current homes in foreclosure. I
thought that was some house I ownedfifteen years ago. But the distortion of
(17:11):
something so tiny. I have something. Something came on the card about,
oh there's a tax lane in Georgiatwenty six years ago. I paid an
income tax due twenty six years ago. So I suppose I'm supposed to be
(17:33):
flattered that Dan Fancies couldn't find anythingon me. The speeding tickets are real.
If anybody knows my dad, he'sbeen a race car driver a long
long time as a hobby. Myspeeding tickets are real. But you know,
so you inherited that you inherited thelead foot is what you're as well.
(17:55):
Oh, Yep, not my fault. But my point is when you
run for office, you think youbetter have a clean background and make sure
you know there's no skeletons. Andthat's one thing I never worried about.
You got to keep a good,strong name when your family's been here a
(18:17):
century. But you know, Inever accounted for distortions and exaggerations because my
opponent can't find anything on me.But I believe, and apparently so does
low With Frankel, that I'm thestrongest candidate here to run for my hometown.
I'm the only Floridian, I'm theonly native here that knows the district.
(18:41):
So Lowis Frankel is focused on me, and I think this is the
year that we're going to finally flippom Beach County. Read the numbers are
in our favor, the momentums inour favor, and I think Palm Beach
County is changed, and it's definitelytime to go Republican and get things in
(19:08):
order. It's just time for achange. Lois Frankel's been here fifty years
and it's time to raise expectations andupgrade and move forward. And I'm the
one to do it. I cando it all right? Well, I
appreciate taking the time join us todayagain. Republican primary candidates in the District
(19:34):
twenty two Congressional District here in PalmBeach County. Deborah Adimi on WJ and
O dot com