SPEAKER 01 : 0:05

Every day, it just feels like we’re getting hit over and over again with new news and more information. Here’s the latest. Biden’s FBI, it was revealed yesterday, targeted Charlie’s Turning Point USA. The FBI director, Kash Patel, and Chuck Grassley, revealed that this political weaponization was continuing and was underway. And so what a rare treat we have. And this is kind of fun for us here in our Tampa Bay studios because we’ve never had an in-studio guest before. So we’re breaking in our guest position with the Attorney General from the state of Florida, James Utmeyer, who graduated from the University of Florida. Mark Lecker, one of our guys here, said he’s a gator. He’s a gator. Make sure everybody knows that the Attorney General is a gator. Mr. Attorney General, welcome to the Mike Gallagher Show. It’s great having you. Great to be here.

SPEAKER 02 : 1:00

Yeah, thanks for having me.

SPEAKER 01 : 1:01

No, I know you’ve got some business here in Tampa Bay, so we thought we’d have you stop by and talk about some really tricky, difficult issues. Of course, Florida, I drive around, lots of flags at half-staff, a lot of people in shock and disbelief that this happened. arguably America’s most prominent conservative influencers, Charlie Kirk, who had deep Florida connections. One of my first text message exchanges with him a few years ago was him talking about residing in Tampa. So he’s obviously near and dear to Floridians. Can we start with this shocking news that the – was apparently targeting a number of conservative organizations, including Turning Point USA, of all things. And I understand that as Attorney General of Florida, you have a response to that.

SPEAKER 02 : 1:52

Absolutely. Yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmed what many of us already knew, which is that Biden officials at the Department of Justice and FBI were targeting almost 100 individuals and organizations because of their conservative or Republican beliefs. organizations like Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA, like the Republican Attorneys General Association, our political arm for the AGs. Obviously, everybody at home knows what happened to the president. So we’re going to go after these people. We’re going to use every tool that we have civilly and criminally, possible civil rights violations, and we’ll have subpoenas going out in the weeks ahead to gather as much info as we can on who, what individuals were involved.

SPEAKER 01 : 2:36

You know, I don’t think people even comprehend the connection that Florida has to a lot of these national issues. I mean, one of the assassination attempts, of course, on President Trump’s life happened on a golf course here in Florida. So you definitely have your hands full. I think Americans all over are thankful that Florida is going to take a lead here in trying to get to the bottom of this. Mr. Attorney General, this has got to stop. We’ve got to stop seeing the FBI used for going after groups or organizations that have a political ideology that maybe the current administration doesn’t agree with. And it would include the current one, too. We shouldn’t weaponize the Justice Department in any way, shape, or form.

SPEAKER 02 : 3:21

No. Malicious prosecutions and political witch hunts have no place in our justice system. A lot of these organizations and influencers, they call Florida home. They’re based here. People at home here know by now in Florida, we don’t just talk the talk. We actually do something about it. We’re a rule of law state. We’re action oriented. And we’re going to pursue this investigation and hold as many wrongdoers accountable as we can.

SPEAKER 01 : 3:43

We’re visiting with the Florida Attorney General James Uthmeyer here in the studios of the Mike Gallagher Show. We’re glad you’re with us. And if you have any questions or input for the Attorney General, feel free to text us your comments. And that’s a good way for us to share those with him. 800-655-MIKE. Because you’re doing a fantastic job. I’m not saying that because you’re sitting here. I’m so proud to have been driven out of New York City a few years ago and becoming a Florida resident like so many others. We’re glad to have you. Sean Hannity. We’re all glad to have you. Governor DeSantis, we’ve talked about, look, getting out of other, some of these, and that’s a big deal, right? Because people are fleeing blue states and coming to a place like Florida that seems to have its act together.

SPEAKER 02 : 4:22

Yeah, we’ve got big cities, Tampa, Miami, but we don’t have all these murders and crime rates that you see in big cities, in sanctuary states, in blue states. I think that’s why so many people are flocking here. We want this to be the safest place to raise a family. We support law enforcement. We support free speech. And if people cross the line and want to threaten or harass others, we hold them accountable.

SPEAKER 01 : 4:45

Well, and perhaps one of the reasons we don’t have the kind of mass shootings and some of the violence you see in big blue cities is not only do we have Republican legislators like your boss, like you, that have common sense response, including the right to keep and bear arms. And that’s been a big issue recently here in Florida, and that’s the whole issue of open carry in Florida. Can you bring us up to date on where that is?

SPEAKER 02 : 5:09

That’s right. Last week, the appellate court up in the Northern District of Florida, the First District Court of Appeals, they struck down a longstanding Florida law that prohibits open carry. They struck it down following recent United States Supreme Court decisions. They struck it down as inconsistent with our Constitution and the interpretation derived from the time of the founding. This is the right result. It becomes the law of the state. I’m happy to see it. But I also warn people, don’t abuse it. If you go out there and you’re open, caring in a way that’s violent, threatening, harassing, again, we will hold you accountable. We have a strong commitment to the Constitution, but we also have a strong commitment to fighting crime in the state of Florida.

SPEAKER 01 : 5:51

We’re having a big debate, certainly in our world, over free speech versus hate speech. And the Attorney General of the United States this week, Pam Bondi, Floridian, has gotten tongues wagging over some comments she made on a podcast. If you don’t mind, if you can be with us for a few more minutes, I want to ask you about that and more. Of course, yeah. We’re talking to the Attorney General, James Utmeyer, here in the Mike Gallagher Show studios, and we’re glad you’re with us. Mr. Attorney General, I’ve got to ask you about the provocative remarks from the United States Attorney General, Pam Bondi. A lot of Tampa AGs. A lot of Tampa AGs. I’ve gotten them all mixed up. Pam Bondi said this week that we will go after you. We will target people with hate speech. You can’t incite people to kill people. This is a tough, tough area because on the one hand, if you’re calling somebody like Charlie Kirk a fascist over and over and over and over again, and then some 22-year-old carves the word apparently fascist on bullets and bullet shell casings and kills him, somebody could say that speech led to what happened to Charlie. On the other hand, Charlie himself once posted, there is no such thing as hate speech in America. There’s gross speech, there’s reprehensible speech, there’s evil speech, but there’s no hate speech. Can you give me the Florida Attorney General’s perspective on how to deal with this very complicated issue? Sure.

SPEAKER 02 : 7:14

Well, I think what A.G. Bondi was saying is speech that starts to directly call for violence or threaten certain individuals, speech that’s so specific in nature, wanting to cause harm to people, that will not be tolerated. It certainly can be prosecuted if you are directly calling for somebody to be harmed or killed. But look, there’s a lot of speech out there that’s gross. There’s speech out there that I strongly disagree with. But that is why we have the First Amendment. We’re supposed to have the disagreement and the discourse, the exchange of ideas, the ability to even criticize people in our own government. So, no, people can’t be prosecuted for free speech. But if they’re calling for harm to an individual, I’m certainly going to tell our law enforcement to go investigate and look at it. And look, law enforcement, they have difficult decisions to make, but that’s why they investigate. They look at the other context. They look at other communications that may be out there that suggest somebody may be a great danger to society. I’ll tell you what people don’t have a right to, though. They can have all these questions. gross opinions, but that doesn’t mean the state has to employ them. So we’re looking at all these public school teachers, we’re looking at state employees that are celebrating this tragic murder, and we’re going to make sure that they lose their jobs. We don’t want our little kids in front of somebody that’s celebrating such political terrorism.

SPEAKER 01 : 8:36

That’s not an unreasonable position to take. I mean, like you said, these are teachers. These are mental health professionals. These are state employees who have positions of responsibility and authority. Mr. Attorney General, have you been shocked at the amount of vitriol that has come from people like that?

SPEAKER 02 : 8:54

I have been shocked. But I think this is what happens when you’ve got good versus evil. I mean, I believe we as conservatives, I believe Charlie, we advocate truth. And in a debate, truth will win. Common sense, reason, and truth will win. And when the other side realizes they can’t win on the arguments, they turn to danger. They turn to murder. They try to silence us. So we as conservatives, we have to band together. We need to speak louder than ever. We need to continue to advocate for truth because it wins.

SPEAKER 01 : 9:24

I want to go back to what was revealed yesterday about the FBI being weaponized, apparently, and targeting a number of conservative organizations. As you said, this isn’t new to you or to your office. This is something you’ve been aware of. This has been an appalling event. And it didn’t just happen overnight. This has been building over a matter of years, has it not?

SPEAKER 02 : 9:48

It appears that way. You’ve got a leftist, deep state weaponization of government that is very concerning. I mean, thank God President Trump won, and we are getting to the bottom of it. But at the end of the day, people should never be using government positions of power to go after others, potentially criminally, trying to incarcerate them for years. This is wrong. Our founders are rolling over in their graves because of it. So we are going to continue to investigate. Like I said, we’re going to have subpoenas going out within the week. We’re going to hold wrongdoers accountable.

SPEAKER 01 : 10:23

And that’s the way it is done. Why is it so hard? You know, we talk about red states and blue states. And some people jokingly say we ought to have two countries. You know, you want to live in Berkeley? Knock yourself out. You know, but there is, it seems to me, a fundamental failure on the part of a lot of these blue state attorneys general, governors, mayors. county commissioners. It’s not hard to be neutral. It’s not difficult. And I will say from your office, also Ashley Moody, I have seen the effort to say, look, we got to follow the rule of law. This is about right versus wrong. This isn’t about Republicans versus Democrats. There’s a lot of Democrats here in Florida, as you know. But ultimately, it’s not difficult to do

SPEAKER 02 : 11:15

It’s not that hard. When you look at the preamble, you know, we the people, but the first thing listed is established justice, rule of law. Supporting law enforcement is going to lead to lower murder rates. Enforcing the law as it’s written and not trying to bring in some political animus. It’s not difficult. Do your job. Do it right. Enforce the law. That’s what the founders would have wanted. It’s what I’m going to do. We’re going to put bad people away and we’re going to make Florida very safe. And I hope the other states in the country will follow.

SPEAKER 01 : 11:43

What’s What should Floridians be looking forward to and coming next from your office? What do you see on the horizon? Because I know there’s a lot of good things that we have in store for us here in the state of Florida.

SPEAKER 02 : 11:54

Sure. Our number one priority is to protect our kids, do it in the school system, do it through criminal justice. We’ve been a part of almost 500 child predator arrests since I took office. We’re using technology and social media to identify these evil people that are pursuing these new ways to get to our kids. We’ve got to protect our next generation. We’ve got to keep them safe. And people can look out for many more arrests and convictions to get these dangerous predators off the streets.

SPEAKER 01 : 12:21

Well, I know that I speak for Hannity and a lot of fellow broadcasters and hosts who have sought sanctuary here in Florida. And we are so – I mean, I’m so honored to get to spend a little bit of time with you and to brag on Florida to the country because everybody gets it. You know, I mean, and there’s challenges. We’ve got property tax issues and, you know, we’ve got – Now, for some reason, no hurricanes so far this year, God willing, that that holds. But this is a great place to be.

SPEAKER 02 : 12:49

We welcome patriots that share our conservative values. You know, some of the New Yorkers coming down, I get scared they’re going to try to turn us into what they’re fleeing. But for the most part, the people coming in. They like what we’re doing. They like the safety. They like the security. We’re the number one state in almost every meaningful metric now with GDP growth and business formations. Governor DeSantis has done a great job investing in infrastructure, roads, trying to deal with the influx of traffic. But Florida’s doing well, and we’re going to fight to keep it that way.

SPEAKER 01 : 13:19

Well, the good news is the New Yorkers can come down here and try all they want, but they’ve got to get through Governor DeSantis and Attorney General James Uthmeyer before they can be successful, and we’re grateful for you. Keep fighting the good fight. I’m glad you could visit with us here in the studio for a little bit, Mr. Attorney General. Thank you for having me. All the best. Stay safe. Thank you. We appreciate it. The Attorney General of the state of Florida joining us.