WTW52: New College's Unqualified, Teacher-Hating President

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors — the audio is the record.

0:00:03 Clip: What's so scary about the woke mob, how often you just don't see them coming.

0:00:11 Clip: Anywhere you see diversity, equity, and inclusion, you see Marxism, and you see woke principles being pushed.

0:00:19 Clip: Wokeness is a virus more dangerous than any pandemic hands down. The woke monster is here, and it's coming for everything, everything, everything, and everything. Instead of go-go boots, the seductress green M&M will now wear sneakers.

0:00:41 Thomas: Hello and welcome to Where There's Woke. This is episode 52. I'm Thomas. That's Lydia. How you doing?

0:00:48 Lydia: I'm doing okay. How are you? I almost said all right and okay combined. I noticed my mouth doing it. No, it was like all okay.

0:00:57 Thomas: All K. Yeah, I like that. Doing all K. Yeah, I'm doing all K as well. I think make sure I remember everything going on. This is New College 3. make sure you check out the first two parts of course and had tracked the takeover in part one part two we talked more about the the experience of the students we section on the sports teams lots of time dedicated to the stats and and all that and now uh going to talk the money right we're following the yeah Yeah. Steve Banyan's.

0:00:59 Lydia: I'm doin' okay. How are you? Yeah. Go Banyans. Yeah Yeah, yeah.

0:01:30 Thomas: Now we're going to follow the money.

0:01:32 Lydia: Yeah, we're gonna talk politics. We're gonna talk money. We're gonna talk Richard mother effing Corcoran.

0:01:41 Thomas: Right. Well, we're gonna find out who that is after. No, that's the president, right? The new president. Yeah. New president, Richard, that guy. After the break. Please go to patreon.com/wherethereswoke to not hear commercials and to support the show to so where's the where'd the money lead you who's who's profiting most on this thing

0:01:56 Lydia: So Okay. All right. Well, first of all, I have to do a quick disclaimer. So as I was doing all of this research into Richard Corcoran, I was thinking, you know, oh, Corcoron, that last name sounds familiar.

0:02:10 Lydia: And is someone else in Florida with the last name of Corcorin, Evan Corcorun. Yeah. So I spent a lot of time trying to figure out, are they related? Because I was like, they have to be.

0:02:13 Thomas: I remember yeah I mean it yeah it's definitely a decent chance of that both

0:02:25 Lydia: I was, like, on Ancestry.com. I Was Searching Birth Records.

0:02:26 Thomas: Right -wing asshole maybe they don't know you're related and you're gonna reunite these two right -wang assholes brother

0:02:31 Lydia: I know. Yeah, Yeah, what is that? Like, the Discovering Your Roots, like that TV show or whatever? Yeah, I was searching.

0:02:35 Thomas: Except these guys are happy that their ancestors were slave owners they're like yes score

0:02:42 Lydia: Yeah, yeah, exactly. I find any evidence that they are related, but who knows? If anyone else wants to help me dig, let me know. I would love to find out for once and for all, even after this series is over, if Richard Corcoran is in fact even a second cousin of Evan Corcoran, the guy who's involved with the records at Mar -a -Lago and turned on Trump. So who is Richard Corcoron? That's who we're talking about today. Richard Cororan moved to Florida at 11. He was actually born in Canada, and he went to University of Florida, you know, eventually once he went into college, but he ended up dropping out. And sometime later, he went to St. Leo College, a -affiliated school, graduated in 1989, and then he went to Regent University, getting his J.D. in 1996. that, he was admitted to the Florida Bar a couple years later, I think 1989 ,and then did, you know, lawyerly jobs and different things like that, and started getting involved He worked for candidate Marco Rubio in 2006 and then served as his chief of staff from 2006 to 2010. While he was serving for Marco Rubo, there was pretty lavish spending from the Republican Party

0:03:59 Lydia: Of Florida funds, and there was some scrutiny that came up from it. And asked, know, you Richard Corcoran about it. And he was like, oh, there's nothing excessive about this. But it the spending included an $8,000 meal at the French Laundry. Why

0:04:15 Thomas: They don't have another one of those out there do they yeah I didn't think so enjoyed

0:04:17 Lydia: They went to Napa. And on the Florida's tax dime, they spent $8,000 dollars there. Yeah.

0:04:23 Thomas: A delicious dinner eight thousand dollars

0:04:25 Lydia: Eight dollars. But it's not excessive. If I were a Florida taxpayer, I'd be pretty pissed that I just paid for that.

0:04:26 Thomas: Holy friggin crap no

0:04:36 Lydia: Yeah. For Marco Rubio to go eat at French Laundry.

0:04:35 Thomas: Kidding kidding I mean yeah well not only that to spend way more unless was it a group of like 20 people I mean it's it's a pricey place but it's not that expensive or you order you know a ridiculous bottle of wine or whatever crazy wait

0:04:45 Lydia: I don't know. Yeah, I don'T. It's an entourage. Yeah wine. Yeah yeah. Yeah. Well, and then, yeah, are they ordering wine on the taxpayer's dollars? Anyway, so you know, this lavish spending.

0:04:58 Thomas: You that was taxpayers not a campaign thing

0:05:00 Lydia: Sorry. Republican Party of Florida. So it probably wasn't taxpayers. It was the. The...

0:05:03 Thomas: Fuck him great order two bottles of that crap taxpayers I'm

0:05:09 Lydia: There, he joined the Florida House of Representatives in 2010, and he was there from 2010 to 2018. There's some coverage that a speaker position was sort of promised to him as he entered into the House of representatives, but he didn't serve as speaker until 2016. So 2016 to 2018, he was the speaker. One of his colleagues reported to a organization that, been you in Florida politics, this individual, for over 20 years. And he's quoted as saying he being Richard Corcoran has flat picked more fights with more people than anybody I've ever seen before. And Richard Cororan has also noted for describing the Florida Teachers Union as disgusting, repugnant and downright evil. All quotes.

0:06:02 Thomas: Sorry like come on I I know I know you're anti -union and plenty of people will probably be susceptible to a negative view of a union in Florida sure but evil like debt like teachers union are they murdering kids what do you think they're doing what do they think is the purpose of this union like we as part of our negotiations we should be allowed to eat one kid a year in ritual okay

0:06:14 Lydia: Downright evil? Yeah. Yeah. I'll give you some information about why he feels that way about teachers unions. He's really into school choice. Wife, Ann Corcoran, she's a lawyer as well. She actually founded a classical liberal arts charter school in Florida. And she's active in what's referred to as the Barney Charter School Initiative, which is through Hillsdale College. So she has deep ties to Hillsdale They are working very hard to increase the presence of charter schools nationwide through this initiative. And she's a big part of that move in Florida specifically. Specifically well

0:07:02 Thomas: But none of that explains why teachers union would be evil sorry I hate to be a stickler but don't he have any charges of what the teachers union is doing that's evil

0:07:10 Lydia: Nothing related to that I think he just doesn't Like them in general after his time as speaker in the House, he thought about running for governor and he worked with a political action committee called Watchdog USA. That was his pack. And this is the ad they put out for him.

0:07:28 Thomas: they'RE COMING FOR YOUR children. They're trying to eat them. My God. This is amazing. Just looking at this is amazing Well, the first, I don't know what the first image is, but it's just a gun pointing at me.

0:07:42 Clip: Who should've been depoted, but protected by, a sanctuary city, when I heard Kate Steinle's story, I thought about my own daughter, Kate, and how this could have happened, to any family, anywhere, incredibly, some Tallahassee politicians, want to make Florida, a Sanctuary State, on my watch, Florida will never, be a Sanctionary State, sponsored by Watchdog Pack, All

0:07:52 Thomas: She was murdered by a teacher. Oh my God. Well, okay. My favorite, there's a lot to love about this.

0:08:16 Lydia: There's a lot of visuals. Can you please describe to our listeners?

0:08:17 Thomas: I know my favorite part is that That this quote -unquote immigrant is obviously a white dude. The actor is white because they probably could not find someone non -white to participate in this nonsense.

0:08:25 Lydia: With like a dark beard.

0:08:29 Thomas: Yeah, yeah, he didn't shave for a few days. So, you know, he's definitely a Mexican, of course. This is the best. Wow.

0:08:36 Lydia: The acting right.

0:08:37 Thomas: Yeah. Yeah, you wouldn't think with no lines that you would have that opportunity to act that badly. But you do, actually. You can act very badly without saying a word. It's possible.

0:08:46 Lydia: Yeah. So he ended up not officially running for governor. Yeah, that ad was kind of, you know, poking around, seeing like if there was interest there. And it actually got panned pretty significantly. I think people really recognize like this is pretty racist.

0:09:02 Thomas: What year was this?

0:09:03 Lydia: This is 2017, I guess.

0:09:07 Thomas: It would do better now.

0:09:08 Lydia: Yes, it would do better now. But the person who did win governor was DeSantis. And when DeSantas came into office, he appointed Richard Corcoran as the education commissioner. Commissioner. He was unanimously approved by the Florida Board of Education, which is entirely appointed by the governor. It's a board of education of people that DeSantis had picked. And there was some criticism. In particular was from a Democratic lawmaker in Florida that said that Corcoran has no professional background in education. Like, why is he the the education commissioner. And there concerns were also of his conflicts of interest. I mentioned, really into school choice, very pro -charter school. His wife founded a charter school, classically liberal arts charter school, connected to Hillsdale College with the goal to create more charter schools and get rid of public education, essentially. Connections to classical charters has led even to the of Florida right now. This legislative season, they had a bill up, and with the Florida House, of course, or, technically.

0:10:20 Thomas: Too busy building sports teams, gathering W's.

0:10:23 Lydia: But there was a bill that was basically to designate classical charter schools as distinct entity, and they would get preferential treatment for various things. And teachers that taught there could go a different route. They wouldn't have to to be credentialed through any sort of, you actual education, they would receive education that was affiliated with the charter school. And then that would make them able to teach the classically liberal information at the charter School. So kind of making this like really like insular situation that passed, unfortunately.

0:11:00 Lydia: Yeah, Yeah, I just looked that up. And yeah, that went through. So we'll see, you the impact is going to be in the years to come. But a he's not the only person, but he is a big reason why Florida and their relationship with charter schools is the way it is. And we'll get into even more about why that would be.

0:11:16 Thomas: So, is he cozy with Betsy DeVos, or do they just share the same hobbies? That's

0:11:21 Lydia: Don't know know that He's a big Trump fan, though, so I'm sure he's a big DeVos fan. And maybe there has been some elbow rubbing. I do not know. But her name has not popped up anywhere.

0:11:32 Thomas: We should be careful. These are allegations only of elbow rub. We have not personally witnessed any rubbing of elbows.

0:11:38 Lydia: Right. Even at French Laundry. We are not sure. Maybe they went there. Who knows?

0:11:43 Thomas: That's the thing they charge extra for the elbow rub that's why it was so expensive

0:11:48 Lydia: He was serving as education commissioner, an opportunity came up to apply for the president for Florida State University. And yeah, Florida State University. He applied in 2021 and he was one of nine to be invited for the interviews. This

0:11:56 Thomas: Florida state oh okay gotcha he was like okay I don't want to film another ad so he tries to make that ad like fit into it they want to make florida university but now that doesn't work hmm

0:12:13 Lydia: So he was thought to be kind don't want to say a shoo -in, but he was definitely identified as like, oh, this political insider. If DeSantis could just appoint somebody outright, would it be Corcoran. At the time, people were reporting that. And it so concerning that the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, the entity that accredits FSU, sent a letter of concern to the Florida Board of Governors. And they said, hey, this is a potential conflict of interest because education commissioner, Corcoran is on the board that appointed the selection committee and would participate in deciding the appointment. What are you doing? You can't be in that role and apply to be president for one of the schools that you are commissioner over. That happened, and he did not make it to the finalists. And I think this plan was that he would have gone to FSU. But because that fizzled out, that was 2021 now. Looked for a new opportunity. How can we get Corcoran in someplace?

0:12:22 Thomas: We need him to ruin something for

0:13:18 Lydia: Yeah, exactly. But that's not all he got up to while he was the education commissioner. Commissioner. Is actually very recent news right now Now, regarding a federal grand jury tied to things that happened in 2021 or I guess prior to 2021, but it really came to a head with an in 2021 locally regarding a in Florida, Jefferson County, that was really struggling. And this is a county that's up in the panhandle in Monticello, Florida. High percentage of black students in the school district had been struggling for a while. And so essentially what the state watched was a takeover from the state going in, taking over the school board and appointing. I entity to essentially be the schools for this county. So what ended up happening, they had charter schools come in, a charter school company come in and take over the public schools. Schools.

0:14:20 Thomas: This one county like the entire county how many schools was that do you know it's

0:14:21 Lydia: This one, the entire county, it's a smaller county. I mean, we're talking about scope and scale, right? Like they're going to pilot things at the lower level and work their way up. Think you it is one of the smaller counties or terms of population and fewer schools in that county than a lot of others. It's not like Miami Miami -Dade, you

0:14:28 Thomas: Not gonna be a handful though right yeah how did this work did they did they really like just over the buildings or were they like okay now you go to this charter school child what

0:14:51 Lydia: They took over the buildings. So they came in and they announced that the state was getting involved, essentially took over the school board, and then the Department of Education launched, you for proposals because there has to be a competitive bidding process. Came to light during this investigation is that there were conversations with a company before the bid went out. That company was owned by a former colleague of Richard Corcoran. And they coordinated to figure out, okay, what is this going to look like to make you like stand out, right? Like to make you win it. It was called MGT Consultants or something. And they with them and then you can't just give it to them. So then

0:14:52 Thomas: The hell right sure

0:15:41 Lydia: They had to put it out for competitive bid, but it was obviously shaped to a specific company. However, it gets even crazier because then during that, as you were crafting the bid process, two people who worked under Corcoran went and started started a company based off of the bid that was going to be happening. And then they submitted during the request for proposal and they won.

0:16:08 Thomas: So not that company wait

0:16:09 Lydia: But two people who worked in the Department of Education, they coordinated to undermine the bidding process in order to profit.

0:16:20 Thomas: I'm sorry was this a ruse

0:16:22 Lydia: No. So Corcoran did not. I don't think Corcorans knew that happened.

0:16:25 Thomas: Appreciate the unpredictability of this corruption it's really it's like a George R.R. Martin version of I don't know what so let me get this straight first I was going to play an assholes advocate just it's a role I was born to play he didn't have to agree like okay we are married but yeah it's fine think both of us have maybe been in the situation where we had a job listing and we're like, hey, somebody who I would prefer to get this job, let me help you a little bit with your resume.

0:16:54 Thomas: Maybe that's inappropriate, but it's more like, all right, it's still going to be a fair process, but some for someone who I want to see succeed, maybe that's not fair. I don't know. But on a scale of that, I can at least see that That is something that is not like super duper corrupt versus how bad was that? Would they was it more than just like, here's some pointers on how to get this contract?

0:17:16 Lydia: I frustrating is there's not a lot that has been super publicly shared about this because the state did an investigation in quotes and they were like, oh, nothing actually happened. Here. Yeah. How convenient. So that's why there's a federal grand jury involved now, because they also used covid money from the feds to pay for this charter school.

0:17:40 Thomas: This guy really is like a collect them all of corruption. What else can we do that's inappropriate? Appropriate. But OK, so what was that weird thing then? So there was a company he was going to help. And was that actually Corcoran who was going to help that company get the thing?

0:17:43 Lydia: Isn't this crazy? It wasn't I mean, I don't want to say that we know that Corcoran was going to help. Right. But there is evidence that they shaped the bid to benefit that company in particular. Sorry, not the bid, the bidding process to benefit that company.

0:18:10 Thomas: Shape the bid. Oh, gotcha. Then the fake out happened of two. Now, is that tied to Corcorant at all or no?

0:18:17 Lydia: Then know, I don't know. I'm trying to figure this out, too.

0:18:27 Thomas: Well, if it's an active investigation, then maybe, you know, there's

0:18:28 Lydia: Is. And if folks want to follow along with me as I follow this forever for the rest of my my life. A Billy Townsend over on Substack. His Substack is called Public Enemy Number One. He is a former Polk County out in Florida school board member, and he's been covering this very thoroughly. And so I recommend everybody check out his coverage for even more details else because there's there is just so much here about what's going on this is crazy not

0:18:36 Thomas: A docket. It okay but to be clear neither of those things I we don't really have like solid evidence that that's tied to corcoran at all do we just fair yeah

0:19:05 Lydia: Necessarily okay so um no of course I think um we do know is that one of the individuals so um I'm just gonna name names uh yeah uh vice chancellor of strategic improvement Melissa Ramsey and state board member Richard, who went by Andy, Tuck. They created basically a fake company to try and get state contracts. And the specifically said that they were looking for vendors who have a demonstrated experience with successfully operating schools of similar status. The company that won was started in August of that year.

0:19:15 Thomas: It's out there there's no yeah

0:19:43 Lydia: So it was two two months prior, three months prior.

0:19:43 Thomas: Yeah there you go and they're about yay hi the answer to the name up that's who we're looking for okay

0:19:49 Lydia: This is just like corrupt. And I can't imagine that. I mean, yeah, maybe he had no idea that this was going on if he stood to benefit more directly if the other guy won won bid opportunity. But yeah,

0:20:02 Thomas: Is it a case of like oh they both tried to be corrupt but you know only one corrupt person could win in this situation who knows

0:20:09 Lydia: It could be it could be. And now all of Corcoran's, you know, potential stuff was coming to light because of of the investigation based off of those two. Melissa Ramsey resigned basically immediately and resigned the same day that she was interviewed by the inspector general investigators, November 22nd. She lied twice in her testimony that they caught like on the spot. And she was like, all right, I'm resigning. And yeah.

0:20:10 Thomas: Who a good move I hear Starbucks is hiring. I'm out of here.

0:20:36 Lydia: And then Then Tuck, Andy Tuck who is the board of education member who was involved in this agreed to meet with investigators on November 17th and then he talked to a lawyer and he was like oh never mind and never interviewed. He just resigned and retroactive to the day before he was meant to have interviewed. It says for some reason nobody knows.

0:20:57 Thomas: Well, sure. Why would that matter? Yeah, I

0:21:01 Lydia: I'm sure whoever his lawyer is like him to do that um the oig considers the investigation closed they're like they're were the two bad actors they're gone but clearly there is other stuff that's happening again because this was related to covid dollars um corcoran is not named in the federal grand jury but there are documents from his time as commissioner that are going to to be called into question here.

0:21:01 Thomas: Don't know if that matters. Yeah. Hmm. Hmm.

0:21:30 Lydia: And I think what's even more surprising is that the counsel who's representing him for this federal grand jury investigation, even though he's not a named individual, he is going to be implicated to some degree with regard to discovery. And the who is his counsel is the counsel for New College of Florida. So he doesn't have personal counsel. The college is paying for this. Isn't that crazy?

0:21:58 Thomas: Yeah, that seems weird. It's not related to New College at all, right?

0:22:01 Lydia: It's not. It seems so shady. It's like, yeah, it's weird liability.

0:22:06 Thomas: Grift. Sounds like grift.

0:22:07 Lydia: Yeah. All that was happening. And shortly after. So I mentioned the inspector general was, you know, doing those interviews November and then those folks resigned. Richard Corcoran resigned shortly after that. Interesting. So resigned, I 2022. And he said in that he was really looking forward to going back to being a private citizen. He planned to spend more time with his wife and his six kids. Kids.

0:22:37 Thomas: I would like to corruption with my family and chill. I'm going to focus on corrupting my family. I'm

0:22:45 Lydia: And 10 months after that, he's named the interim president for New College of Florida 10 months after he resigned as commissioner.

0:22:53 Thomas: A statement all right uh bored of my family god how do people do it anyway uh okay I'm back at work

0:22:56 Lydia: That was was enough. So that brought me to my question. Why is he president?

0:23:07 Thomas: Yeah well it's a sterling resume of nothing being grifty and arguably yeah being investigated maybe Maybe Rod DeSantis is like, hey, I need someone who's really used to being investigated.

0:23:11 Lydia: Yeah. Of trying to be president at FSU and not getting it. And yeah, there's also other grift. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

0:23:27 Thomas: That's the skill set we need here at New College, because this is a crime.

0:23:31 Lydia: Yeah. One, there's also, you of potential grift related to his brother. His brother is also I think he's also a lawyer, but he runs a major lobbying firm. And there was significant money that got paid out to victims of something. I don't recall exactly what it was because this was like a little side story. But the analysis showed that it was something like 47 percent of the victims were being represented by Richard Corcoran's brother. So how much money is he getting paid from representing folks in that situation? And they were getting state money as part of that payout. So I don't know. There's a lot of weird things going on. And now we get to new college.

0:23:37 Thomas: Evan Cork. No, I'm just kidding. Whenever you look into any of this, it just makes me wonder, is all of government just corruption? And it's probably a selection effect. I'm sure there's plenty of local that are just comptrolling. They're just out there. They just wake up. I comp troll. I put on my fence one leg at a time and I comp troll just like I'm supposed to, just like it says in the job description of comp troller, a job I don't understand the name of, makes me wish we had more local newspapers still because they actually care about this stuff. Um, wow, that's just one corrupt thingy after another.

0:24:30 Lydia: Just comp trolling. I comp troll here. I cop troll there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I know. I know, and again, shout out to local journalism, because I wouldn't have been able to put a lot of this together without them. Are really following a lot of this stuff specifically, and I'm here, you just trying to spread the word. Doing great work out in Florida at these news offices. We get to New College of Florida. What we know is Ron DeSantis took over the school board. Board. DeSantis could not appoint a president, but the school board does. Right. Is there

0:25:20 Thomas: I think I heard about this on a podcast.

0:25:21 Lydia: Is someone by the name of Robert Allen, and he came out. I don't know why he started saying this. I think maybe he was speaking with friends, but there was coverage that he said to to multiple alumni that shaking up New College's board wasn't on DeSantis's radar until he raised the issue with the governor.

0:25:46 Thomas: Was me. I want New College to know.

0:25:49 Lydia: So I first read that, I was like, OK, this is crazy person, like just trying to insert themselves. He's a yacht lawyer. So he's kind of weird.

0:25:56 Thomas: A yacht lawyer.

0:25:57 Lydia: Yeah, Yeah. Covers He the law of yachts.

0:26:00 Thomas: That person's guaranteed to be an asshole.

0:26:02 Lydia: Yes. Yeah, he really is. He. Man. OK, I'm going to send you a picture of him just so you have his face in your mind while we talk. Side note, it kind of looks like somebody and I wonder if you'll think the same. It look like Todd?

0:26:18 Thomas: That's our neighbor Todd. So, you sent me a photo of our neighbor, Todd, with President Trump. I, for one, am pretty disappointed, but you know, you can't really choose your neighbors. They are who they are. I know.

0:26:29 Lydia: Todd's so great, too. I'm

0:26:31 Thomas: He's awesome.

0:26:31 Lydia: So sad. So this is, yeah, Bob Allen. Again, Mr. Yacht Lawyer, who is with President Trump.

0:26:38 Thomas: There's a hundred percent chance that guy sucks. There's just, there's, it's weird. There's not a lot of jobs where if you tell me what the job is like, oh, you suck. There's some yacht lawyer. There's nothing unless, unless somehow that means he's like, yeah, yachts destroying the environment. I go around and I sue yachts, but I don't think that's going to be what it is. I think probably be the opposite of that.

0:26:58 Lydia: No, it's not. Yeah. Yeah.

0:27:00 Thomas: I sue the environment. It I just

0:27:01 Lydia: He had like this one presentation I was watching a little bit where he was like, it is going to be a good year for yachts. It is like, what?

0:27:16 Thomas: Want that like quote under his picture it's gonna be a good year for you I can't think of anything like more worthless to society god what a weird set of life values to have of

0:27:23 Lydia: Well, Florida. I mean, I am sure it is big there. It is. With Donald Trump, just so everyone knows what it says, it says Happy Father's Day, President Trump. Hash know hashtag father's day hashtag god bless america hashtag freedom hashtag america

0:27:30 Thomas: Our neighbor yeah is that is that his dad I don't what do you just post a picture he amazing you don't just like post a picture of a dad I'm gonna find a it's just a kiss ass bullshit thing happy father's day and it's a picture of you with this guy's amazing he

0:27:51 Lydia: It's a random person yeah Yeah. So is amazing. So Allen is a new college alum. The pieces are starting to fit together. Initially, I was like, OK, this is just a crazy yacht lawyer guy who loves Trump.

0:28:14 Thomas: Is how could you go to new college get a liberal arts education and become a yacht lawyer no seriously well okay that that too yeah Yeah.

0:28:20 Lydia: Wait a second. Yeah. It's almost as if you could pursue whatever you wanted to pursue there. Because they weren't indoctrinating folks.

0:28:29 Thomas: That is also a good point. But also, how the fuck did that happen?

0:28:32 Lydia: Why did he go there? Well, because yacht lawyer, maybe he's the only one in the world because he did an individualized major that helped him become a yacht lawyer at New College. Could

0:28:43 Thomas: Goes to his academic advisor. Yeah, I have a certain set of interests. Yacht History 101.

0:28:50 Lydia: Boats and hoes. So there is another new college alum that was interviewed, and he said if Bob is to to be be believed, the one who brought it to DeSantis's attention that there were vacancies on the new college board where he could move in there and do whatever DeSantas wants to do. This is an alumni who knew Bob Allen socially when they in were in college college students together. Other and recently had spoken with Bob about the takeover effort. So as I'm reading this, I'm like, OK, I think he might have actually done this.

0:29:22 Lydia: And coverage continues to talk to someone who we had a very short romance with, Eddie Speier, one of the trustees that DeSantis appointed, the only one that showed up to the Senate and the only woman that didn't get confirmed. Yeah.

0:29:37 Thomas: That guy. Okay.

0:29:37 Lydia: So he said that he and Allen communicate frequently. And Allen has been trying, Bob Allen has been trying to act as And in quotes, I'd be foolish not to listen to him. Alan has a kid. He's a kid who's a child who played tennis at the Bradenton School founded by Spear, the Christian school. And Bob Bob Allen encouraged Eddie Speier to apply to become a trustee. Deborah Jenks, the chair, who is the Floridian, like the lone Floridian I talked about, that's on the board. Is an attorney with Bob Allen on the Judicial Nominating Commission for Florida's 4th District Court of Appeals. So there's a connection there. And DeSantis had Allen to the position in 2019. All these people know each other. They all know each other. And Bob Allen spoke to DeSantis's office. And I am not going to say allegedly. I know he did because there are text messages of him coordinating this. And I didn't want to spoil that, but this crazy.

0:30:39 Thomas: Man, want to do some corruption? P .S. Yachts. Hashtag Yahtzee. To be a great year for yachts.

0:30:48 Lydia: Here we go. College of Florida, lest the politicians in Florida forget, is a public institution and is subject to public records requests. Requests. So someone got text messages via the public records request, and they show Bob Allen acting as a liaison between DeSantis and the board members during the takeover. January 9th, Allen texted holdover board member Sarah Mackey and asked her to please call me. Alex Kelly from the governor's office would like to speak to you. We'll call you as soon as I get a break, Mackey responded.

0:31:21 Thomas: Sorry. Who's any of these?

0:31:22 Lydia: So she's a board member. She was one of the ones that DeSantis didn't appoint because she was still on the board.

0:31:29 Thomas: OK. And so this is yacht enthusiast texting. OK.

0:31:31 Lydia: Allen texting them.

0:31:32 Thomas: And so the theory is just to and it's a lot of names. I get confused. Probably every listener is like, Thomas, all we get it. It's fine. But I just get confused when there's a lot of names. So Yotman is trying to coordinate, allegedly, like you saw him bragging about the takeover and like it was his idea. And at first you're like, what the fuck are you talking about, Yoteman? And then now it's like, wow, shit, this is him assembling the A -team to ruin this? Maybe.

0:31:58 Lydia: This. Yeah. So I what this is, is him not just assembling the A -team, because this is after DeSantas nominated you know, appointed his six folks. This is him talking to the people who remained on the board still. And I think essentially.

0:32:10 Thomas: But I thought you'd said the claim he made was that the take over was like it new college wasn't on the radar until he

0:32:16 Lydia: Right. Is the claim. So we don't have text messages between Allen and DeSantis.

0:32:19 Thomas: So that gotcha so this doesn't really answer that question this is just about his involvement after okay hmm

0:32:24 Lydia: He is very, very involved. You'll remember in the first episode when we talked a bit about the timeline, January 31st, they fired the former president. And on February 1st, the first vote, very, very first meeting on February first, Bob Allen texted Ron Cristaldi, who's on the board, spoke again with Corcoran. We are going to knock it out of the park. He had been talking with Corcoran prior to him.

0:32:37 Thomas: That was like their first vote right

0:32:54 Lydia: Yeah.

0:32:52 Thomas: Yacht emoji yacht emoji nice

0:32:56 Lydia: Indicates that individuals were communicating with New College board members about public business. And people only know about this because of the public records request. New College was not going to release these. They were trying to not. They were stalling. And then there was a lawsuit filed. That's when they released a certain selection of things.

0:33:06 Thomas: I bet wow can we get in on this I want to I want to request stuff too right

0:33:20 Lydia: Know. But what is especially concerning here is that there are things called sunshine laws. Laws. Board is supposed to be operating in the sunshine. Everything is supposed to be public. All of these text messages of them coordinating decisions and votes and how things are going to line up, that is illegal.

0:33:29 Thomas: It should be part of some sort of record you would think that would yeah

0:33:45 Lydia: Yeah, this should have been board business that should have happened out in public.

0:33:48 Thomas: On a yacht with a drink but written down give

0:33:54 Lydia: So we have this stuff that's just, man, it's just going.

0:33:58 Thomas: Give us some hits what

0:33:59 Lydia: You know, we only have selections of these texts. Yeah, New College tried to say that these aren't public yeah uh not even privileged I think they're saying like it's not necessarily like public you board business they're private personal communications um spear you know again said he had a lot of conversations with alan uh I spoke about him taking his advice like why wouldn't I take his advice bob allen had served on the board previously so he you know had the the ins and outs. He knew a lot of things. Then when they asked Speer if he had spoken to Bob Allen about Corcoran as interim president, Speer just said, perhaps.

0:34:05 Thomas: Like privilege and stuff okay oh private conversations okay sure okay question

0:34:42 Lydia: Concerning. In addition to texting some of the board members, he also sent an email to board members on January 26. He sent it to the six board members appointed by DeSantis and a couple others. And he gave feedback based off of town hall discussions that Speer and Rufo did on campus.

0:35:03 Thomas: He didn't send it to the whole board that seems like you would want to do that

0:35:06 Lydia: And And then he sent another email forwarding a column from a conservative new new college graduate and who was saying, like, this is a good move. The college is overdue for a reset. And then in the email, Alan says, please don't respond, except if you do so only to me, given Florida's sunshine law. Yeah.

0:35:30 Thomas: That's a bad document wow

0:35:33 Lydia: Yeah, then we have Matthew Spalding. Matthew Spalding is the President of the Washington D.C. campus of Hillsdale college.

0:35:35 Thomas: How many fucking campuses these assholes have I

0:35:45 Lydia: Well, I think they I want to say they just have two but they have like the charter schools And all these things that they like help lift up. I could be wrong. And are text messages showing him coordinating with individuals behind the scenes on the motions that he was going to make. Um texting with richard corcoran himself so I'll say with a person whose contact is rc uh who appears to be corcoron and the text says from rc motion is I start no later than march 1st I may start earlier that text was sent january 31st the same day that they voted to fire the president. Then Spaulding is the one that made the motion to negotiate with Corcoran to become an interim president. Named Kelly, who we think is from the DeSantis's office, office texting with Spalding Matt Spalting regarding counsel specifically Galvano who now represents Richard Corcoran in this federal grand jury situation talking about making him general counsel you know all these things just happening behind the scenes and yeah

0:36:58 Thomas: Assholes advocate once again it's not as though they nominate someone who's unknown that they're even getting nominated they're like you sir you're president and they're Like me why I've never even heard of like there is some amount of this that's actually totally reasonable it's just or is it just that it wasn't in the record like they should have put it in the like I don't know this isn't a law show but I I guess I'm not sure what if like if we put some sinister music behind this it sounds really sinister but I don' t know if some of this is like totally fine

0:37:28 Lydia: I mean, it could be. I would say that, for... I don't know all the exact rules that should be happening here. I haven't served in any sort of capacity in that way, but I think that all of this stuff should have been happening out in view of the public and someone, you know, that could have been the January 31st meeting instead of firing the president right away. They could have talked about or even fired her and said that you can serve until, you know, a suitable replacement has been found. Let's take some, you know, thoughts from the group on on folks that we could talk to, to pursue an interim agreement. And then someone could have thrown out Richard Corcoran's name at make the motion March 1st and then I might just start earlier. Just seems so weird. And someone

0:38:21 Thomas: I mean that's negotiating a starting date of a job though like he's gonna have some say well

0:38:25 Lydia: Before he's named as interim president, before he even suggested as interim president.

0:38:31 Thomas: That all makes sense what just tell someone you're gonna be interim president and you're starting on this date like it well

0:38:37 Lydia: No. But I think, I, the way that it should be and I'm sure we'll hear from folks if they have experience with this.

0:38:43 Thomas: It's it's gonna be specific to whatever the fuck this thing is

0:38:46 Lydia: But I think that, again, you would throw out names during that conversation. Again, that's all in public or, you know, that it could be, you know, directing the board to go out and return with ideas for interim presidents. But none of that happened. They just they took over the board and their very first meeting.

0:39:03 Thomas: So there's no competitive process yeah and I was gonna say if there's a sense in which like negotiations were staged, that could be super corrupt. If it's like the board's responsibility to try to negotiate some sort of competitive salary, and then they were behind the scenes doing it, that Could be something different, I guess.

0:39:23 Lydia: You know, and Bob Allen himself, like if it weren't just the text messages and his other, you know, friends, he's very active, I guess, in the New College Facebook alumni page. Like, a stirring debate and is really rude. I think he's been banned a few times and then has come back into the group. He said that, you know, preserve New College, I recommended the governor fill the vacancies. He did so. And see, then from there, Richard is appointed the interim president, and not just at the previous president's salary. I think she was getting $299,000 a year. He got that same day, the salary was at $699,000. Yeah, why as interim president no, gets $83,000 in a housing stipend, $12,000 car, and $699,000 in base compensation yeah

0:40:11 Thomas: Wait, Oh, For a year for president of this 700 100 person school. Wow. That's a lot of money.

0:40:30 Lydia: Isn't that crazy and we see then from there after he makes that money is his efforts to change new college yeah and his lawyer cover for federal grand jury Very.

0:40:39 Thomas: Plus his lawyer covered, right? Yeah, that's a shitload of money, I can tell you that. Futuristic sound effects. Wow, here we are in our time machine. Wait, no.

0:40:52 Lydia: Beep boop, beep boop.

0:40:53 Thomas: I don' know. What sounds would it make?

0:40:57 Lydia: Your sound effect was better than mine. I just said, beep, boop beep.

0:41:03 Thomas: Yeah, I think the odds of a time machine making that sound are probably zero. Mine is at least like, I don't know, point zero zero zero one percent maybe when you punch in the numbers of where you're trying to go it has like for some reason anyway we're here from the future because lydia had so much amazing crap on this that we went much longer than we thought and so we're cutting in here for a part one part two is a little bit longer but was kind of the best place to uh it off so while we just discussed how much fucking money that fucking asshole is making uh can we expect in part two a little teaser hmm

0:41:10 Lydia: Not if I'm in charge of making them. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Part two, you know, he's making that money as interim president. Part two, we're going to be looking at searching for a president.

0:41:53 Thomas: Let's find a real president because interim he probably just filling in for a minute you know okay we'll see how that all went plus some amazing comedy you're not gonna believe it that you're not gonna literally you're not gonna believe it there's like actual stand -up comedy from people involved in this fucking story it's amazing I can't seriously you got to check out the next part sorry to cut it off here but who it's a doozy and so we're gonna hop back in the time machine we'll blend our sounds that way we're

0:41:54 Lydia: Let's find a real one. A couple months, you know, not going to want to miss it. Yeah,

0:42:27 Thomas: In the same one yeah right, let's get out of this.

0:42:28 Lydia: Yeah. Oh, that's nice. Beep, boop, beep.

0:42:32 Thomas: We'll see everyone for part two. Thank you so much for supporting the show at patreon.com/wheretheres Wait, also speaking of patreon.com/wherethereswoke, we just released a bonus and it was amazing it was and now patrons I'm sure you've already heard it if you haven't get on it it was another bullshit lawsuit by a bullshit law professor who's an asshole who's but it's weird it's a genre somehow it's genre of dub to dub it's amazing you're not going to want to miss that Lydia takes us through the actual complaint and the stuff that went on with Scott Gerber, our second asshole, egomaniacal law professor we've covered on this show. Once was lightly touched by someone on the shoulder and lost his fucking mind. And you've got to check that out. That's on patreon.com/wherethereswoke woke.

0:43:26 Lydia: And so many fun things I attached for everybody, too, so they can take a look at all the documents they want.

0:43:33 Thomas: All right, let's fill up this time machine with time machine gas and get on out of here. Oh, it's so expensive. God damn. That's really expensive. Is there an electric one yet? All right. Well, we'll see you all next episode for part two.

0:43:46 Lydia: Bye.

0:44:07 Thomas: I was going to play an assholes advocate just it's a role I was born to play he didn't have to agree like okay we are married but yeah it's fine

0:44:17 Lydia: It is going to be a good year for yachts. It