Episode Transcript
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This hour of programming on WR issponsored by Black Mountain Capitol now former Westchester
County Executive Rob Astorno on seven tenWR. Yeah, it's four oh five.
That means I'm on and it's aSaturday, and I'm glad you are
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listening for the next fifty five minuteshere on the Rob Astor Reno Show on
seven to ten WOR. I loveSaturdays. Start with Newsmax from one to
three. Take a nice fifteen minutewalk over here on sixth and fifty fifth,
get to talk to you, andwe're gonna have a great show.
Kelly and Conway, the Great Kellyand Conway, the former twenty sixteen campaign
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manager for Donald Trump and counselor tothe President, would be with us in
just a moment. And also DanDonovan, former congressman and the Staten Islander
Richmond County District Attorney. He'll beon as well. Because obviously there's a
lot happening Monday in Lower Manhattan wherethe first of many kangaroo courts against Donald
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Trump will take place with a highlypartisan judge, aren't they all certainly here
in New York. But this isobviously gonna be the you know, the
trial of this century. They're makingit into oj without a murder, although
the Democrats are trying to make itlook like Donald Trump murdered somebody. So
it's all the ridiculousness. But howit will play in the presidential race,
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I guess is still to be determined. But let me just bring her in
right now. Kelly and Conway,one of my favorites of all time.
How are you. I'm great,Rob, Thanks for having me so all
right. You know, I wasin the Thornwood Diner the other day,
and you're a Jersey girl. Youlove diners. So I was. I
was in the Thornwood Dinner and it'sjust like normal people there, and I
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heard a table. It was likea mixed crowd, big table, and
they were all kind of talking aboutDonald Trump, the trials, and you
know, some people didn't like him, but they were saying that they didn't
think that this was realistic or legitimate, and they were scared. These were
some Democrats were scared that Trump wasgoing to win because these are show trials
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and political. What are you seeingin the numbers? What do you think
as this goes forward? How muchof an effect is it going to have?
These trials well, there's no question, Robin, thanks again to you
and your listeners for inviting me ontoday. There's no question that the prosecution
of persecution that many people detect hashelped to cement, not create, but
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cement President Trump's resurgence into the Republicannomination. If not the presidency, why
well. Even The New York Times, in a piece a couple months ago,
admitted that quote. The title said, quote how college educated Republicans learned
to fall in love with Donald Trump. I thought i'd read an article about
the border, or crime or inflation. It was mostly an article about what
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you're discussing is people feeling absolutely disgustedthat our justice system could be two tier.
There's a tier for Donald Trump andthere's a tear for everyone else.
There is a woman quoted in therebasically said, I don't even know if
I like Donald Trump. I don'tthink I voted for him before, but
I'm voting for him this time becauseevery time you tell me I shouldn't do
something, I feel like doing it. And people just believe. Some people
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believe it's election interference, some peoplebelieve it's time to try to harm him
politically, and most people if youlook at everybody's polling, Rob, Most
people think that these cases are morelikely to be politically motivated and legally sound.
That's the important part here. Andthey're going to see him, They're
going to hear him when he getsout of the courtroom. Every day.
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He'll give you his spin on that. He just challenged Joe Biden to debates
earlier and often in this election cycle. I think our great democracy, constitutory
republic, deserves that can endure that. Let's just poke the fruit and watch
the two of them next to eachother, one on one. But trying
to hobble Trump by putting him ina cour on a case. People should
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just know. I'm sure you've beeninforming them every week, Rob Astererina,
but they should know that this lawhas never been used in this fashion before
in a state trial. Campaign financeviolations just never been used this way.
I was the campaign manager at thetime. I helped bring that campaign to
a successful conclusion. You were there, You were so helpful. But guess
what. The idea that I wouldauthorize paying off women for saying this,
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that and the other is ridiculous.We barely had money for ads on social
media, and so I don't knowwhat other people were doing. I've already
testified to the grand jury twice inthis particular trial. I doubt they'll call
me because I don't think their testimonyis very good for the prosecution. But
people know what this is. Letme say one last thing. I lived
in Washington, D C. Fortwenty years, than Manhattan for the next
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decade, and now back in Washington, D C. The only things I
ever saw move quickly in Washington,d C. Or New York City where
Donald Trump's the only thing that evermoves quickly is getting him, getting him
on the docket. And well,like I said, we'll see what happens.
But so far, Donald Trump showsthat he's strong, resilient, not
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afraid to back down, a shirkof fight, and that's exactly what people
want. They see weakness, theopposite of that is strength. They see
failure. The opposite of failure isstrength. They want strength, you know.
So at that diner, I startedasking people like who they were going
to vote for, and there weresome definite Trump people, no question about
it. There was somebody who wasa Biden fan, not a fan,
but she was like, probably Idon't like Trump. Probably Biden and then
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there were others who didn't like Trump, did not vote for him last time,
but they are going to vote forhim this time because it's weird,
because they think even though they can'tstand him personally, and you know the
rap on him obviously, but it'sthe whole country's a freaking mess. And
that's it. That's what it comesdown to everywhere you look. When I
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worked in the Trump White House,we were told on the daily, rob
oh, chaos and crisis. Chaosand crisis. Okay, what in a
tweet or underwing or in the pressbriefing room here and there. Now we
have chaos and crisis everywhere you lookwith your own two eyes. The rise
in crime in our cities, theopen border, eight point eight million people
have crossed over expected to cross over. Rob. That is eight point eight
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million, is a larger number thanthe population of thirty nine states, the
Middle East, Ukraine, you nameit. It's just all a mess.
Gas prices, groceries, rent,mortgage, utilities, insurance. That's real
chaos and crisis. People feel likeno matter what they do, living on
his life, work hard, paytheir taxes and their dues, they just
can't get ahead. They're not tryingto afford Mercedes Benz and Tesla. They're
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trying to get bacon and eggs.And so they know their life with Donald
Trump versus their life under Joe Biden. They can make that judgment for themselves,
are free to do it. Butthat's exactly why people who all along
were saying I want Trump's policies butnot his personality. They're coming around to
both. And I'll tell you what, folks, I've worked very closely with
him for many years. You don'tget his policies without his personality. You
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cannot rob You simply can't unscramble theegg and get one without the other.
It's John Trump's personality that did remainin Mexico. That was building the wall,
that got those trade deals with Chinaand Japan and Korea, and Mexico
and Canada told the NATO members payyour fair share to the Common Defense.
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It's the Tax Cutting Jobs Act,it's the Energy independence. It takes strong,
resolute America first leadership to get thosepolicies. And let me say one
last thing. I said it afterAccess Hollywood in October twenty sixteen. I'm
going to say it again now withthese trials and whatnot. People love,
We Americans love to go on aloneall day and converse and complain and canvetch
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about what offends us. And thenwe vote according to what affects us.
And why wouldn't we? Of courseyou should vote what affects you and your
family. And there's a big differencebetween what bothers us and what motivates us
to actually pick a president. AndJoe Biden is a big gift to Donald
Trump. That's a great point,Kelly and Conway with us here on the
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Rob Asparino Show. In seven toten wor so, the Democrats are like
jumping for joy and think the electionis just about over now in favor of
Joe Biden because of the Arizona SupremeCourt ruling one state, by the way,
I think there's forty nine other states, but I think in their mind
it's one state nationwide on this oneruling very narrow but can be corrected,
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by the way in Arizona. Floridadid similar six weeks and Trump is winning
by thirteen points in Florida. Youknow, when I ran in Westchester,
it's a three to one Democratic countyand everyone kept saying, never, never,
never, never never talk about abortion, or you know, it's just
say you're pro choice. I neverran on it, but I never ran
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from it, and no Republican shouldrun from it. Because the crazies,
the radicals on this so out ofstep with America is the left, and
let's keep our eye on that ball. This interneesine warfare that's happening in the
Republican Party in the pro life communityhas to stop right now. The left
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is for abortion anyone, any time, anywhere, anyhow, no reasonable restrictions
or regulations. They are signs deniers. Rob They knew enough to mask up
a five year old for the betterparts of two school years, and they
look at a five month old sonogramand they pretend they don't see the male
organ, the baby sucking in someand weaving at mom and dad. Come
on, everybody, as the gestationaldevelopment and science and medicine and technological advances
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has just taught us more about thebeauty of human life, you have fewer
Democrats disproportionately from that recognition saying thattheir pro life are that they're for anything
lower than thirty nine weeks. Ofcourse, New York very permissive twenty four
weeks, but then you can geta special exception for mental health or physical
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health for the mother and go waybeyond that. So let's keep our eye
on the other thing is I've gota sort of a kinder, gentler way
of explaining what it means to bepro life in twenty twenty four. We
can certainly explain what it means tobe pro choice, but what means to
be pro life is basically, let'sjust challenge all the Democrats. Let's say
to Kathy Hochel and Jared Poulis andGavin Newsom and Jab Pritsker, the governors,
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the sitting governors of the four stateswhere it's thirty nine weeks, Let's
say to them, Hey, youhave babies in your states being born at
twenty four weeks, twenty three weeks. Can you come off from thirty nine
weeks to at least where these babiesare being born and they are now citizens
of your states accounted in the sensuslike you are. I talk to nonpartisan
doctors and scientists who perform surgeons whoperform in vitro procedures on onborn babies.
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Every single one of them assures methat if that baby is fifteen weeks gestation
or more developed, the baby getsanesthesia in addition to the mother. The
baby gets it. Rob The onlyreason you and I ever get anesthesia is
because we can feel pain. Sostart to show people you don't want to
deny science. And look, PresidentTrump, he always says, as all
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six Republican president since roversus waded innineteen seventy three have all said Nixon,
Ford, Reagan, Bush, Bush, Trump, they've all said on pro
life, with three exceptions, lifefor the mother, rape, or incest
conceptions. That happens to be PresidentTrump's position. He thinks it's wisest to
begin with those three positions, andthen he'll talk to you a little bit
about first trimester. But now he'ssaying, put it back to the states.
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That means some states, like theten that have already acted, are
going to have trigger laws or ballidinitiatives or just simple straight up legislation signed
into law by a governor. Wherethere's abortion only to save a life for
the mother, then you're going tohave ballad initiatives. But the ballad initiatives
now are coming from the left.In Arizona, the Arizona Supreme Court just
found they just upheld an eighteen sixtieslaw, territorial law no abortions at all.
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But the current law there is fifteenweeks that Republican Governor Dug Dousey signed
into law. That's a Dobbs factimehis second trymester. The woman as she's
pregnant, the baby can feel pain. So why do I say this because
Arizona already had that, but peoplechallenged it. They want the territorial law.
And now the ballot initiative that's beingpushed by the hard left out there
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would put abortion at twenty four weeks, way past where it was already in
Florida. If the DeSantis six weekbill does not is not sustained and the
ballot initiative passes. That ballot initiativepretends it's for a quote state constitutional right
to an abortion, but it hasno guardrails, no limits whatsoever. So
there's a very real possibility that ifpeople don't start articulating this less whining,
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more winning, that we can bein a worse position with respect to life
than when this all started. Predobsand that would be regrettable because the census
of the country is either no abortionsor abortion of very limited circumstances or with
guard rails, restrictions and regulations,particularly that look at science. You know,
I'll never forget when I was runningfor reelection, my opponent every ad
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was guns or abortion against me,right, So we did a focus grow
and I'll never forget. We hadeight women, all of whom had voted
for Obama, said that they wereopen to voting for a Republican. So
we asked the question about abortion,and you know, oh my god,
you could just see the hair ontheir backs go up. They were so
pissed when I will never vote fora Republican who doesn't support a woman's right
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to choose. So I said tothe panel, you know that the woman
running, and I said, gofurther. I want to see how far
this will go. So she keptgoing deeper and saying, well, do
you agree with you know, thirdtrimester abortion or up to birth. They
looked at her like who would everbe in favor of that? And they
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all, with the exception of one, seven of the eight landed at first
trimester, one of them second trimester. And that put in my head this
is our issue. If we doit right, we may not win,
but we won't lose. You won'tlose. And by the way, voters
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are often long on opinion and shorton information. And again that's the burden
is on the pro lifers to makesure people just have the facts. And
the fact is what you just said. Pro lifers and pro choicers both they
react in horror, if not shanewhen they hear we we're a twenty four
weeks, thirty weeks, Why nownobody's and then they say that can't be
because they're projecting wishful thinking. Andthat's that's the information on the loud that
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needs to be corrected. I agreewith you one last question, Kelly and
Conway with us here on seven toten WR. So RFK Junior is going
to try to get on as manystate ballots as he can. It's interesting
because I mean, I even battledwith him when I was county executive over
Indian Point in the Hudson River.And he's a far lefty his whole life.
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And now in some Republicans' minds,and maybe this is the ones that
don't necessarily love Donald Trump. Idon't know if it's TDS or you know,
the Lincoln Republics are just people whomay not like him, but there
are some Republicans who find something thatthey could like. An RFK who unbalanced.
Does he affect more? Are youconcerned about him? No? Right
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now, he's taken from Biden.In fact, all three independent candidates RFK
Junior, Jill Stein, and CornellWest are all taking from Joe Biden.
If you look at the head tohead balloting between Trump and Biden, Trump
is beating him in six or sevenof the seven swing states. When you
make it a five way race andyou had the other three, Trump widens
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his lead and in Arizona and atleast before Tuesday, in Arizona and Georgia,
it's outside the margin of error.The Democrats made a grievous error of
disrespecting and just dismissing isolating RFK Jr. You won't get any recognition with a
demmigrantic party. They told him nofunding, no debates, and he took
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his significant marbles and went to adifferent playground. He's running as an independent
now and he captures a good outof the vote. There's no question that
there are RFK Junior voters who admireTrump and probably voted for him before.
A lot of the Trump voters admirewhat RFK Junior is saying on some stuff,
not all of it's certainly goodness,but they're not gonna leave Trump.
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The question for rv K Junior isvery simple, which state can you win?
Ross Barrow in nineteen ninety two,Rob he received nineteen percent of the
popular of it. That's pretty impressivefor a guy who had dropped out of
the race and got back in.Got nearly one in five American voters.
But Ross Prow got nineteen percent ofthe popular vote and zero let me repeat
zero, absolutely no electoral votes.And politics is not about biology or even
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chemistry. It's about math and science. He needs more electoral votes and than
other people to win. He wonzero. Bill Clinton, the challenger Democrat
in nineteen ninety two, he wononly forty five percent of the popular vote,
but he received sixty eight twenty eightpercent of the electoral votes and won.
So question for the third party candidaciesis I know how you could be
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a spoiler, but which state orstates can you actually win? Because then
we're talking about something different. Don'tforget Bernie Sanders, and everybody has forgotten
because it's a hurtful thing to Hillary'svery few, if any discuss it.
They never forget Bernie Sanders won liketwenty three states in twenty sixteen against Hillary
Clinton in primaries and caucuses. That'sa boatload, my friend. And he
got thirteen million votes. He waslike picking up he was beating her in
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states. No one is coming evenclose to doing that to Trump or even
to Biden. But with them andthe race, they don't get out of
the race. They do to Biden. They helped you to Biden. What
Jill Stein and a few others didto Hillary Clinton in twenty sixteen, What
Ralph Nader he hurt Al Gore intwo thousand for that matter. But too
bad. People can't wind that awayand say, oh, I would have
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won. If these people weren't well, then you respect their agenda. You
give them something to do. Butso far, all of the all of
the attempts to get someone to challengeTrump have failed. We had a full
primary season. Hello, there werefour or five debates. Trump wasn't there.
The rest of the candidates were.They got all the media coverage they
wanted. Some of them got tonsof money. Ron Desanta spent one spent
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over one hundred million, and hespent nine figures in I within win a
single county. We spent nine figuresto beat Hillary in twenty sixteen, so
we had a full and fair andprimary and this is the result. The
Democrats did not do that. Theysquelched the descent. They kept out the
primary opponents. I think that's goingto cost them. No labels, seventy
million dollars, rob joke, thirtythirty nos, thirty no thank yous from
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candidates they approached to run for president. That's just what's been reported and a
big fat zero. So maybe someof them come along and support Trump.
Now, we like to get community. But yeah, so far, so
good. That doesn't mean that he'sThat doesn't mean he absolutely will win.
He's ahead now and that's a goodplace to be in the late spring or
mid spring, but a lot canhappen between now. In November in twenty
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eleven, Mike Bloomberg and I wentup to Albany to get other on some
lobbying thing, and he was thinkingabout running as an independent, and I
asked him, I said, areyou going to run? And he said,
I just spent like twenty five milliondollars studying whether I could get on
the ballot and win he goes,I could win votes, but I can't
win one electoral College vote. SoNoah, I'm not running. That's exactly
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right, By the way, thatwas twenty eleven. He actually ran in
twenty twenty, right, and whathe told you in twenty eleven came true.
I think he won Guam or America, Samoa and come on, so
and it was embarrassing, and hespent over a billion dollars and the only
people happy about that were his consultantsbecause it was embarrassing. And Elizabeth Warren
did diet Michael Bloomberg within a minuteor two what Edward scissors hands would have
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done. And it was all sopredictable that he was going to be asked
those questions. But she was standingright next to him, and she was
relentless. Yep, Kelly and Conway, you're the best. I hope you're
back in the White House January twentiethand I you can watch her, of
course on Fox, and she isthe best at what she does. Kelly,
thanks again for coming on. Rob, thank you, and God bless
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you and your listeners. Thank youall right, when we come back.
Dan Donovan, former congressman but alsoformer district attorney in Richmond County, which
is Staten Island. He will givea perspective of what's gonna happen Monday because
his you know, one of hiscolleagues, I guess at one point Alvin
Bragg will start his trial against DonaldTrump. So we'll figure out what's going
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to happen. I also have thequestionnaire that the jurors get, and I'll
tell you what some of the questionsare. So a lot to do.
One eight hundred three two one zeroseven ten. I'll try to. I'll
try to get to some of yourcalls a little bit later, but rack
him up if you want. Oneeight hundred three two one zero seven ten
rob Asterno show rolling along here onseven ten WR seven ten war for since
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so rob as do Reno show?Then d all right twenty seven minutes after
four o'clock h rob as Dono hereone WR and please follow me, you
know this whole social media phenomenon.I'm on Facebook, X, Instagram,
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Truth, Social Getter, the allof them. So it's at rob Astorino
and I'd love to have you followme. And of course I know people
sometimes tweet me or ex me whateverthe hell I'm supposed to call it now
and facebook me and I try toget back. I don't always, but
I love to hear your comments.So and if you always, at any
point want to listen to that Kellyand Conway interview it was great, or
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the next one with Dan Donovan,or any show, just check out the
podcast version of this. You goto seven to ten wr dot com,
where you could always listen to theshow, by the way, not just
on the good old radio. Andthen you click on the podcast tap and
go to the Rob Astrino. Okay, so of course it is the people
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versus Donald Trump index number seven onefive three. That's Monday, a kangaroo
court it will be. Dan Donovanwas the Staten Island Richmond County District Attorney
for quite a while and also servedStaten Island and part of Brooklyn in Congress.
All around, good guy, mybuddy, Dan Donovan. How are
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you there, Dan? I'm doinggreat, rob and an all around great
guy. Folks, who's Rob Astrinathe guy who I wanted to speak governor
of this great state of New Yorkwhere I'm raising my family. Unfortunately,
not enough for the folks got outthere to vote for him. But Rob,
We've been great friends for a longtime. Glad to be with you,
and congratulations on the show. Thankyou. So you were a district
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attorney, you every day had tomake a decision on whether to charge somebody
or not, whether it would riseto a level of a crime, or
whether you could win, all thosekind of things. Give me your view
of this case coming up Monday withDonald Trump, Alvin Bragg taking this ridiculous
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charge against Donald Trump, and what'syour thoughts about this. I mean a
part for me, it's not somuch as Donald Trump. Of course it
is, and as political, butit's just that this whole judicial system now,
especially in a place like New York, has become so tainted and so
political, like what Tis James isdoing to Trump as well, and that's
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really dangerous and scary it is.I mean, the power of a prosecutor
is unmatched in our government. Imean what a prosecutor is, power they
yield is unlike a governor or acongress person. And you know, when
you have the ability to put casesinto a grand jury and have them come
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out and indit someone and charge somebody, it's very scary if that power is
in the wrong hand. This case, rob is going to be very dificult
in many many reasons. I mean, the first hurdle everyone's going to have
to overcome is trying to find animpartial jury. I mean, if there's
one thing about Donald Trump that everybodyI could agree on, is that everybody
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has an opinion about him, whetheryou like them, dislike them, love
them, hate them. Uh,you know everybody. There's no gray area
when it comes to form of PresidentTrump. And the goal here for both
the prosecution and the defense is tryingto find twelve people and four alternate jurors
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who or impartial, who can judgethe evidence, listen to the facts,
and come up with an unbiased conclusionbased solely on those facts. And that's
some predisposed position or opinion they haveof the person who's being accused. So
I think that's going to be avery difficult hurdle in our in our justice
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system, when you have a highprofiled case or high profiled defendant, many
times what the defense would argue andand move for is a change of venue
and move the case to a differentjurisdiction. But there's probably not a jurisdiction
on this planet that has a citizenpopulation that doesn't already have a predisposed opinion
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about Donald Trump and this case.So I think that's going to be the
very first difficult turtle that has tobe overcome and that that process begins,
as you said on Monday. Sothat's a good point. And Donald Trump's
lawyers wanted to move the venue outof Manhattan, out of New York County.
Staten Island was mentioned where, youknow, that was the only borough
that actually voted for Trump. Butat least there would be more of a
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jury pool that would be like yousaid, I mean, nobody's not heard
of or doesn't have an inining onTrump, but maybe it would be a
little more fair towards him. Andeven they mentioned maybe moving it, you
know, to the suburbs. I'mlooking at the jury questionnaire and really it
comes down to question number forty two, the last question. Is there any
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reason, whether it be a biasor something else, that would prevent you
from being fair and impartial if youare selected as a juror for this case,
Well you could be the furthest tothe left in the world if you
say with a straight face to thejudge, sure I can be honest I
don't have a bias in me.I really don't have an opinion on Donald
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Trump. What's to prevent that jurorfrom getting on? Yeah, I think
people who want to be on ajury know what to say, and people
who don't want to be on ajury know what to say, and talented
prosecutors and talented defense attorneys and hadto discern from other answers of other questions
that these folks would be asked whetheror not they're being truthful and question number
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forty two, Rob you know,I never wanted anybody on a jury.
Of the cases I dried before Iwas the District Attorney of stem Out for
twelve years, I worked for thelegendary District Attorney of Manhattan, Robert Wogan.
Now, and you know, we'vealways talked, and I always believed
that I didn't want someone who wasvery anxious to be on a jury,
or I didn't want somebody who justdid not want to be there and would
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do anything in the world to getoff. I wanted people who had a
civic response, felt the civic responsibilityto serve. Yet you know this was
disrupting their lives, and you know, I'd rather not be here, but
everybody has to contribute it in ourside. Those are the folks I would
look for, and and and andprosecutors and defense attorneys will question these jurors
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and ask them many other questions andand try to discern answers from them.
Uh, you know that that givethem a hint whether this it's somebody who
you wanted. You know, youwere never able to ask a potential juror.
Uh. You could always ask themif they have a served on a
jury before. You could always askthem if it was a criminal case or
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a civil case. You could evenask them what the charge was. And
talented lawyers would know if I askedrob Aserno jevisit on a jury, Yes
they did. Was it a civilmatter or a criminal matter? It was
a criminal matter. And what wasthe charge of the guy committed a robbery?
Well, I knew you're convicted.If you said the man was accused
of committing a robbery, I knowyou acquitted. So there's ways of listening
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to the answers, of phrasing questionsthat would give prosecutors and defense attorneys some
insight into this person and whether ornot they want to select him as a
juror Dan Donovan with us on sevento ten WR here on the rob Astarino
Show. And Dan, of courseformer Staten Island District attorney and congressman.
So they take this case with statecharges and try to up it to a
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federal case basically, right, Imean, this is it's just insanity what
they're trying to do here. Becausethe FEC, the Federal Elections Commission said
there's no case here, there's nothinghere. The Biden DOJ said nothing here.
We were not going to do anything, and sith Ance said the previous
Da Bragg's predecessor, there's nothing here. We take a pass. And yet
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Bragg comes in and like everybody else, he ran on getting Donald Trump,
just like Letitia James. But hetwisted and turns this and then goes to
a judge who obviously doesn't like DonaldTrump either. I mean, that's pretty
clear. And so they both sayyeah, sure, winking a odd.
So now they got to go forward. We have to go through this absolute
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circus, which most people think isunfair. Do you think that, I
mean, I don't think Donald Trump'sgoing to get a fair trial, but
do you think that there could bethe potential of a hung jury one person
out of that twelve who says Ijust don't think there's enough here to vote
(29:53):
guilty. Do you think that's possible? Oh? Absolutely, I think.
You know, I think twelve peopthat the sunrises in the east is a
very difficult task. So yes,you know, the burden on the prosecution
here to prove beyond a reasonable doubtthe twelve citizens who all would have different
(30:14):
views of not only Donald Trump,but the evidence is a very difficult thing
to do. And when you thinkabout, you know, the charge here,
So the charges is filing false businessrecords. Now, traditionally that's a
misdemeanor. What raises that to thelevel of a felony is that if you
file false business records, try tocover up another crime. So here,
(30:41):
not only do they have to provethat Donald Trump filed false business records,
they have to prove that he didit trying to cover up another crime.
Now what is that other crime?And you just pointed out that the most
obvious crimes are either some kind ofcampaign finance fraud or tax rule. And
so many prosecutors have already taken apass on those charges. So I think
(31:07):
there's a difficult task here before theprosecution, and I think they're gonna have
a very difficult time proven the elements, particularly when you think about their main
witnesses. One is a convicted fella, Michael Cohen, the former president's attorney,
who supposedly made these payments to StormyDaniels as hush money and then during
(31:34):
their filings of their business records reportedthis as legal fees. And you have
to depend on Michael Michael Cohen,who's already pled guilty to the federal charges,
and Stormy Daniels, who recanted.She first said that there was no
relationship between the former president and herselfand then recanted. So now you have
(31:56):
these two witnesses, and I thinkthat President Trump's attorneys are gonna have a
field day during cross examination of thesetwo. And these are the two main
witnesses. So what will this othercharge? Will they have to come out
and say, here's the other charge. Is it going to be like it
wasn't oj, it was him,it was Donald Trump? I mean,
what is it gonna be? Theyhave to because you have a right as
an accused person to know what thecharges are against you, and so they
(32:22):
have to reveal and should be inthat indictment. I haven't read the indictment,
Rob, but it should be anindictment. What the predicate is to
raise this charge, this misdemeanor chargeof filing a false business record up to
a felony. What was the othercrime that they were trying to cover up
by filing the false business records?Well, let me read it. They
filed it. I only read itand see if you find anything in this
(32:45):
right. The allegations are that DonaldTrump falsified business records to conceal an agreement
with others to unlawfully influence the twentysixteen presidential election. Specifically, it is
alleged that Donald Trump made or causedfalse business records to hide the true nature
of payments made to Michael Cohen bycharacterizing them as payments for legal services rendered
(33:07):
permanent a pursuant to a retainer agreement. The people allege that, in fact,
the payments were intended to reimburse MichaelCohen for money he paid to Stephanie
Clifford, also known as Stormy Daniels, in the weeks before the presidential election
to prevent her from publicly revealing detailsabout a past sexual encounter with Donald Trump.
Donald Trump has pleaded not guilty anddenies the allegations. In our business,
(33:32):
I used to think when a casewould come up, would I rather
be prosecuting this case or defending it? In this matter, I'd much rather
be defending it and trying to provethose allegations. It's going to be such
a frickin' circus, such a distractionthat we really don't need with everything going
on in this world. Let mejust ask you real briefly about the Letitia
(33:55):
James stuff again she campaigns. Imagineif you and Dan when when you were
running for district attorney. Imagine ifyou ran on a I'm going to get
whoever you know, and then youget elected and you go after whomever on
trumped up charges part of the punBut but that's what you run on,
(34:17):
and you keep your promise and youdo that. How unethical is it?
And how in God's name is itallowed to happen? Even in a state
like New York. You'd think therewould be some guardrails, you would think,
and you would think that she wouldhave to be disqualified for bringing a
(34:39):
prosecution. Not that no one couldn'tbring a prosecution, but the person as
you said, who campaign that thisis what I'm going to do predisposed she
had no idea, no knowledge ofevidence against him. She was just going
to get him. And I'll tellyou, you know, Tis James,
when I was the DA, youknow, I the matter of the investigation
(35:01):
and the death into the death ofEric Gardner, and Chis James was the
public advocate at the time, andwe presented months of evidence before grand jury,
and the grand jury decided not toindict the police officers involved, and
Tis James sued me to release allthe grand jury evidence, which is a
(35:24):
felony in New York. Releasing grandjury evidence is a felony in New York.
And now this woman is our chiefchief law enforcement officer. So I
leave it to you and your listenersto decide whether or not she's qualified to
be prosecuting anyone. The only qualificationyou need in this state is to be
a Democrat. That's about it,Dan Donovan, I'm glad that you came
(35:45):
on. Thanks again. I hopeone day, I hope one day you're
back in public office. But itis a crazy so you liked me,
that's true, And thank your listenersfor finding that these matters are so important
that they spend their Saturday afternoon listeningto the brilliance of yourself. I'm not
(36:08):
saying of you, of all ofyour guests, I exclude myself there,
but folks like KellyAnn and the others. It's really important for our citizens to
know what's going on and to havea voice in what's happening, and their
biggest voice is at the voting booth. So again, congratulations on the show,
and I'm available for my friend RobEstorino anytime. Thank you, my
(36:30):
friend, Take care. Dan Donovan, former Staten Island DA and Congressman,
all right, one eight hundred threeto one zero seven ten. One eight
hundred three two one zero seven ten. If you want to talk a little
bit about the Trump trial coming upon Monday, and when I come back,
I will read you some of thepertinent questions for the jurors or perspective
(36:50):
jurors in their questionnaire, and acouple other things to take us to five
o'clock. So one hundred three twoone zero seven ten. Rob As here
rollng till five o'clock a rab Asdo Reno show on seven ten. Woor
hi, So I've got the questionnairefor the jurors, and I'll go through
(37:12):
this in just a moment. Iknow Sondra from New Jersey has been holding
on one eight hundred and three totwo one zero seven ten. Hi Sondra,
Oh, good afternoon, Rob.I was having lunch with friends today
who are very concerned about Donald Trump, and we wanted to know what would
be the best possible outcome for Trumpwith the story one you discussed before the
(37:35):
hung jewelry. Then I have hereacquittal or a mistrial, or maybe offer
a deal, or maybe take bellonyoff the table and make it a misdemeanor,
or with no contest and a fine. So these are the different things
we were talking about, and Iwanted to ask you what you think the
best scenario would be. So anyone of those would be fine, because
(37:59):
as long as he doesn't get asloves, he doesn't get convicted and found
guilty of a felony. And thenof course the Democrats will use in all
their commercials and Joe Biden will sayI'm running against a felon. I'm not
going to debate a felon. Thereis no way. So it'll just give
the left the constant talking point andit may it may have an effect on
(38:23):
people who really aren't paying attention toexactly what he's on trial for. Blah
blah blah, blah blah blah.He's a felon, So I think that's
really the only scenario. Anything else, and it's like this was just ridiculous.
So I think he'll be okay withbeing acquitted. Clearly a mistrial hung
(38:45):
jury. And as you mentioned,there is one option that has been discussed
in kind of the legal circles,and that is that they could step it
down and the jury, the defensecan ask the judge at the end to
have the jury also give the optionof finding him guilty of a misdemeanor on
(39:06):
these and I you know, I'msure he wouldn't want to be found guilty
of anything, but he would takethe misdemeanor because that's silly and that amounts
to nothing. Sondra, thanks forthe call. I appreciate it very much.
All Right, I want to justgo through some of these the questions
on Judge Mershon's letter to both councils, and he said, this is this
(39:30):
is what I'm gonna ask people fillout, all right, and I guess
these were agreed upon. But thebiggest thing is excusing jurors who self identify
as unable to serve, so insteadof one by one, which would take
a long time, he's agreed,and I think he may have suggested that
a show of hands in this courtroomhere is unable to serve for any reason.
(39:55):
You might hate Donald Trump, youlove Donald Trump. Who here feels
that they are unable to serve ifthey raise their hand one by one,
they're going to go up to himreal quickly, and he'll probably just excuse
them, so that'll, you know, that'll Winnow it down to the rest
of the folks who are there,and they also agree that in his thing,
the mere fact that someone is aRepublican or a Democrat does not give
(40:17):
either party the right to strike forcause. So, in other words,
you're a juror, Are you aRepublican or a Democrat? I'm a Democrat?
Okay, Judge, I wish tohave that person excuse No, that's
not the reason. You got togo deeper. So there are let me
see how many pages here. It'sa seven page juror questionnaire. I'm not
(40:37):
going to go through all of them, but it asked about educational background,
you know what kind of college degree? These are important because if you're Donald
Trump and you're looking in the polls, who does Donald Trump do better with?
He does better with people who donot have a college degree. Those
who are quote highly educated tend tobe much more liberal, and they vote
(41:00):
for all the way could do soin the back of your mind if you're
one of his attorneys, if someonesays, oh, yes, so I
have a doctorate from Columbia, Icould be very very fair and impartial here.
Well, no, you're not.You're not serving on this because we
will understand in our minds that youare highly unlikely to have voted for Donald
(41:20):
Trump, probably hate his gut.There's a whole bunch of things in there.
Do you participate in any organizations oradvocacy? Which of the following cable
network programs or radio stations do youlisten to? They list all these you
know, truth social for social media, x Washington Post, New York Post,
(41:42):
Daily News, all these things.What podcasts do you listen to?
Talk radio? If so, whichprograms? I hope there's somebody in that
pool that says the Rob est RenoShow on seven to ten wor you have
a relative in law enforcement, anypolitical, moral, intellectual, or religious
beliefs that might prevent you from beingon this jur jury. And then,
(42:07):
of course twenty six, can yougive us an assurance that you will be
fair and impartial and not base yourdecision in this case upon a bias or
prejudice in favor of a person whomay appear in this trial? Blah blah
blah. Have you ever a relativethat may have ever volunteered to work for
Donald Trump and his campaigns? Didyou ever attend to rally for him?
(42:28):
Have you ever signed up for anynewsletters or emails or anything on behalf of
Donald Trump? They go through allthose kind of things. Have you ever
this is my favorite number? ThirtyHave you ever considered yourself a supporter or
belonged to any of the following theQAnon movement, Proud Boys, oathkeepers,
(42:49):
three percenters. I don't even knowwho they are, the Boogaloo boys,
I don't know who they are.Antifa, I know who they are.
Do you have any strong opinions aboutthe president? Can you give And this
is what I said, this islike the big question. Thirty three can
you give us your assurance that youwill decide this case solely on the evidence
you see and here in this courtroomand the law as the judge gives it,
(43:14):
and then the other one any reasonor any bias that you wouldn't be
fair and impartial. So that's whatthe jurors starting on Monday, they're going
to get that. They all haveto fill that out. Then they all
get questioned what's called vad deer.And you know, it's now up to
Donald Trump's attorney is to try tofigure out which of the twelve will serve
(43:37):
and the six that will be alternate. And look, their goal is not
to get twelve on there that theyknow is gonna vote not guilty. Their
job is to find one or twoor three at most that they think will
be the most fair or of coursemaybe partial to Donald Trump, because the
(43:58):
whole goal here is to get anot guilty verdict or as I was saying
before Desandra, at least a hungjury, something that will not at the
end of this trial, have JuanMurshan read from the jury's note and decision
guilty. You and I know it'sa joke. This is insane, it's
(44:22):
ridiculous, it's dangerous, it's horrible. But it's happening, and the whole
world is watching the former president ontrial. And yeah, he has to
sit there in trial in courtroom becauseit's a criminal trial Monday, Tuesday,
Thursday, Friday, for as longas it takes, and they expect it
maybe a month. No'll think aboutthat only on Wednesday and the weekends.
(44:45):
Is he free to go out andcampaign and do stuff? Maybe at night
if some of these court dates.But he is hampered by sitting there in
the Manhattan Lower Manhattan courtroom for thisridiculous kangaroo court. And he's got a
hope that at least there's one guyor one woman who will give him a
(45:06):
fair shake, even if they don'tlike him. So anyway, speaking of
like corrupt, and I'm not talkingabout Trump, I'm talking about our governor.
So she just as as all electedofficials in New York have to do.
You have to fill out your financialdisclosure forms every year, and the
(45:29):
governor's was just released now. Shemakes her own salary obviously, have about
I think it's two hundred and fiftythousand as governor of New York, which
by the way, is very underpaidif you're going to be the governor of
the state of New York, andwhich is maybe why you don't get the
best and the brightest running for thisspot, because who wants to give up
what might be a much higher salaryin the private sector and deal with the
(45:52):
crap you got to deal with asgovernor for two hundred and fifty thousand dollars,
which you know is not bad,clearly, but for what you got
to deal with and what you mightbe giving up. So anyway, Hokel
has an income of two fifty Weknow that her husband the first gentleman of
New York, her husband Bill,And of course, if this were a
(46:13):
Republican let's just say I was governorand my wife and I you know,
you know what I would make.But my wife, let's let's say,
was making several million dollars from acompany that does business with New York.
Do you think for just a secondthat that would not be the story every
day in every paper. Of courseit would. Kathy Hochel's husband, Bill
(46:37):
worked for Delaware North. Now they'vegot all of the concessions at so many
arenas and stadiums around the country.Delaware North also had the concessions at the
stadium in Buffalo in twenty twenty one. In twenty twenty two, he got
paid six hundred thousand dollars a year. Pretty darn good. Now, well,
(47:00):
just around then, they were decidingthe State of New York, the
County of Erie, and the ownersof the Buffalo Bills, the Pagoula family,
about putting in a new stadium inBuffalo taxpayer funded. And her husband,
Kathy's husband worked for the company thatworks for the Buffalo Bills. He's
(47:24):
sleeping with the governor and going towork the next day, and I'm sure
somebody put in a little thing inhis ear. Can you maybe help a
little bit? Anyway, it wasapproved the new stadium. The State of
New York will pay eight hundred andfifty million dollars, largest ever public funding
for a stadium in this country.Taxpayer commitment of eight hundred and fifty million
(47:46):
dollars from the State of New York. Six hundred million will go for construction
costs. So he went from sixhundred thousand and suddenly after that decision in
twenty twenty three, he made onepoint five million bucks. One point five
million bucks. I'll let you decideif you think something stinks, if something
(48:08):
might be potentially unethical. Not sayingit is, I'm just laying it out
there for you to think about that. I was flipping through the paper today.
I think it was the post thisis how crazy the world is,
and this is how crazy the marketis in South Florida, especially with so
(48:29):
much money from New York leaving becausethe taxes and the absurdity of how this
city especially is being run with illegalaliens everywhere and getting everything when we're not.
The citizens are not, the hightaxes, the just the I don't
have to go into what's going on, you know, so everyone's leaving New
York. The big money is goingdown to Florida. The Palmbeach real Estate
(48:52):
dot com website which lists all thehigh end real estate Palmbeach Realestate dot com.
I know what that url is sellingfor what they're asking If you want
to take over that website, thepalmbeachreestate dot com, they'll sell it to
you. You know what. Theasking price is two million dollars. Two
(49:15):
million dollars if you want Palmbeach realEstate dot com. Crazy And one other
thing you don't think Apple is certainlyfar to the left. You type in
Jerusalem in your text on the iPhonewith the new upgrade, and you know
what pops up? A Palestinian flagemoji. H Okay, all right,
(49:36):
I'm out of time here. Solook, you want to listen to the
show or forward the show, goto the podcast section of seven to ten
wr dot com or on your iheartapp. Listen in and make sure you follow
me on social media x Instagram,all of them at Robastarino. Thank you
to Bruce, thank you to Noah. I'm rob Astorino. We were back
(49:57):
here again next Saturday at four pm. Enjoy the weekend.
This hour of programming on WR issponsored by Black Mountain Capitol now former Westchester
County Executive Rob Astorno on seven tenWR. Yeah, it's four oh five.
That means I'm on and it's aSaturday, and I'm glad you are
(00:22):
listening for the next fifty five minuteshere on the Rob Astor Reno Show on
seven to ten WOR. I loveSaturdays. Start with Newsmax from one to
three. Take a nice fifteen minutewalk over here on sixth and fifty fifth,
get to talk to you, andwe're gonna have a great show.
Kelly and Conway, the Great Kellyand Conway, the former twenty sixteen campaign
(00:47):
manager for Donald Trump and counselor tothe President, would be with us in
just a moment. And also DanDonovan, former congressman and the Staten Islander
Richmond County District Attorney. He'll beon as well. Because obviously there's a
lot happening Monday in Lower Manhattan wherethe first of many kangaroo courts against Donald
(01:07):
Trump will take place with a highlypartisan judge, aren't they all certainly here
in New York. But this isobviously gonna be the you know, the
trial of this century. They're makingit into oj without a murder, although
the Democrats are trying to make itlook like Donald Trump murdered somebody. So
it's all the ridiculousness. But howit will play in the presidential race,
(01:30):
I guess is still to be determined. But let me just bring her in
right now. Kelly and Conway,one of my favorites of all time.
How are you. I'm great,Rob, Thanks for having me so all
right. You know, I wasin the Thornwood Diner the other day,
and you're a Jersey girl. Youlove diners. So I was. I
was in the Thornwood Dinner and it'sjust like normal people there, and I
(01:52):
heard a table. It was likea mixed crowd, big table, and
they were all kind of talking aboutDonald Trump, the trials, and you
know, some people didn't like him, but they were saying that they didn't
think that this was realistic or legitimate, and they were scared. These were
some Democrats were scared that Trump wasgoing to win because these are show trials
(02:16):
and political. What are you seeingin the numbers? What do you think
as this goes forward? How muchof an effect is it going to have?
These trials well, there's no question, Robin, thanks again to you
and your listeners for inviting me ontoday. There's no question that the prosecution
of persecution that many people detect hashelped to cement, not create, but
(02:38):
cement President Trump's resurgence into the Republicannomination. If not the presidency, why
well. Even The New York Times, in a piece a couple months ago,
admitted that quote. The title said, quote how college educated Republicans learned
to fall in love with Donald Trump. I thought i'd read an article about
the border, or crime or inflation. It was mostly an article about what
(02:58):
you're discussing is people feeling absolutely disgustedthat our justice system could be two tier.
There's a tier for Donald Trump andthere's a tear for everyone else.
There is a woman quoted in therebasically said, I don't even know if
I like Donald Trump. I don'tthink I voted for him before, but
I'm voting for him this time becauseevery time you tell me I shouldn't do
something, I feel like doing it. And people just believe. Some people
(03:20):
believe it's election interference, some peoplebelieve it's time to try to harm him
politically, and most people if youlook at everybody's polling, Rob, Most
people think that these cases are morelikely to be politically motivated and legally sound.
That's the important part here. Andthey're going to see him, They're
going to hear him when he getsout of the courtroom. Every day.
(03:42):
He'll give you his spin on that. He just challenged Joe Biden to debates
earlier and often in this election cycle. I think our great democracy, constitutory
republic, deserves that can endure that. Let's just poke the fruit and watch
the two of them next to eachother, one on one. But trying
to hobble Trump by putting him ina cour on a case. People should
(04:02):
just know. I'm sure you've beeninforming them every week, Rob Astererina,
but they should know that this lawhas never been used in this fashion before
in a state trial. Campaign financeviolations just never been used this way.
I was the campaign manager at thetime. I helped bring that campaign to
a successful conclusion. You were there, You were so helpful. But guess
what. The idea that I wouldauthorize paying off women for saying this,
(04:29):
that and the other is ridiculous.We barely had money for ads on social
media, and so I don't knowwhat other people were doing. I've already
testified to the grand jury twice inthis particular trial. I doubt they'll call
me because I don't think their testimonyis very good for the prosecution. But
people know what this is. Letme say one last thing. I lived
in Washington, D C. Fortwenty years, than Manhattan for the next
(04:51):
decade, and now back in Washington, D C. The only things I
ever saw move quickly in Washington,d C. Or New York City where
Donald Trump's the only thing that evermoves quickly is getting him, getting him
on the docket. And well,like I said, we'll see what happens.
But so far, Donald Trump showsthat he's strong, resilient, not
(05:12):
afraid to back down, a shirkof fight, and that's exactly what people
want. They see weakness, theopposite of that is strength. They see
failure. The opposite of failure isstrength. They want strength, you know.
So at that diner, I startedasking people like who they were going
to vote for, and there weresome definite Trump people, no question about
it. There was somebody who wasa Biden fan, not a fan,
but she was like, probably Idon't like Trump. Probably Biden and then
(05:36):
there were others who didn't like Trump, did not vote for him last time,
but they are going to vote forhim this time because it's weird,
because they think even though they can'tstand him personally, and you know the
rap on him obviously, but it'sthe whole country's a freaking mess. And
that's it. That's what it comesdown to everywhere you look. When I
(05:58):
worked in the Trump White House,we were told on the daily, rob
oh, chaos and crisis. Chaosand crisis. Okay, what in a
tweet or underwing or in the pressbriefing room here and there. Now we
have chaos and crisis everywhere you lookwith your own two eyes. The rise
in crime in our cities, theopen border, eight point eight million people
have crossed over expected to cross over. Rob. That is eight point eight
(06:19):
million, is a larger number thanthe population of thirty nine states, the
Middle East, Ukraine, you nameit. It's just all a mess.
Gas prices, groceries, rent,mortgage, utilities, insurance. That's real
chaos and crisis. People feel likeno matter what they do, living on
his life, work hard, paytheir taxes and their dues, they just
can't get ahead. They're not tryingto afford Mercedes Benz and Tesla. They're
(06:42):
trying to get bacon and eggs.And so they know their life with Donald
Trump versus their life under Joe Biden. They can make that judgment for themselves,
are free to do it. Butthat's exactly why people who all along
were saying I want Trump's policies butnot his personality. They're coming around to
both. And I'll tell you what, folks, I've worked very closely with
him for many years. You don'tget his policies without his personality. You
(07:06):
cannot rob You simply can't unscramble theegg and get one without the other.
It's John Trump's personality that did remainin Mexico. That was building the wall,
that got those trade deals with Chinaand Japan and Korea, and Mexico
and Canada told the NATO members payyour fair share to the Common Defense.
(07:26):
It's the Tax Cutting Jobs Act,it's the Energy independence. It takes strong,
resolute America first leadership to get thosepolicies. And let me say one
last thing. I said it afterAccess Hollywood in October twenty sixteen. I'm
going to say it again now withthese trials and whatnot. People love,
We Americans love to go on aloneall day and converse and complain and canvetch
(07:47):
about what offends us. And thenwe vote according to what affects us.
And why wouldn't we? Of courseyou should vote what affects you and your
family. And there's a big differencebetween what bothers us and what motivates us
to actually pick a president. AndJoe Biden is a big gift to Donald
Trump. That's a great point,Kelly and Conway with us here on the
(08:07):
Rob Asparino Show. In seven toten wor so, the Democrats are like
jumping for joy and think the electionis just about over now in favor of
Joe Biden because of the Arizona SupremeCourt ruling one state, by the way,
I think there's forty nine other states, but I think in their mind
it's one state nationwide on this oneruling very narrow but can be corrected,
(08:28):
by the way in Arizona. Floridadid similar six weeks and Trump is winning
by thirteen points in Florida. Youknow, when I ran in Westchester,
it's a three to one Democratic countyand everyone kept saying, never, never,
never, never never talk about abortion, or you know, it's just
say you're pro choice. I neverran on it, but I never ran
(08:50):
from it, and no Republican shouldrun from it. Because the crazies,
the radicals on this so out ofstep with America is the left, and
let's keep our eye on that ball. This interneesine warfare that's happening in the
Republican Party in the pro life communityhas to stop right now. The left
(09:11):
is for abortion anyone, any time, anywhere, anyhow, no reasonable restrictions
or regulations. They are signs deniers. Rob They knew enough to mask up
a five year old for the betterparts of two school years, and they
look at a five month old sonogramand they pretend they don't see the male
organ, the baby sucking in someand weaving at mom and dad. Come
on, everybody, as the gestationaldevelopment and science and medicine and technological advances
(09:33):
has just taught us more about thebeauty of human life, you have fewer
Democrats disproportionately from that recognition saying thattheir pro life are that they're for anything
lower than thirty nine weeks. Ofcourse, New York very permissive twenty four
weeks, but then you can geta special exception for mental health or physical
(09:56):
health for the mother and go waybeyond that. So let's keep our eye
on the other thing is I've gota sort of a kinder, gentler way
of explaining what it means to bepro life in twenty twenty four. We
can certainly explain what it means tobe pro choice, but what means to
be pro life is basically, let'sjust challenge all the Democrats. Let's say
to Kathy Hochel and Jared Poulis andGavin Newsom and Jab Pritsker, the governors,
(10:16):
the sitting governors of the four stateswhere it's thirty nine weeks, Let's
say to them, Hey, youhave babies in your states being born at
twenty four weeks, twenty three weeks. Can you come off from thirty nine
weeks to at least where these babiesare being born and they are now citizens
of your states accounted in the sensuslike you are. I talk to nonpartisan
doctors and scientists who perform surgeons whoperform in vitro procedures on onborn babies.
(10:39):
Every single one of them assures methat if that baby is fifteen weeks gestation
or more developed, the baby getsanesthesia in addition to the mother. The
baby gets it. Rob The onlyreason you and I ever get anesthesia is
because we can feel pain. Sostart to show people you don't want to
deny science. And look, PresidentTrump, he always says, as all
(11:01):
six Republican president since roversus waded innineteen seventy three have all said Nixon,
Ford, Reagan, Bush, Bush, Trump, they've all said on pro
life, with three exceptions, lifefor the mother, rape, or incest
conceptions. That happens to be PresidentTrump's position. He thinks it's wisest to
begin with those three positions, andthen he'll talk to you a little bit
about first trimester. But now he'ssaying, put it back to the states.
(11:24):
That means some states, like theten that have already acted, are
going to have trigger laws or ballidinitiatives or just simple straight up legislation signed
into law by a governor. Wherethere's abortion only to save a life for
the mother, then you're going tohave ballad initiatives. But the ballad initiatives
now are coming from the left.In Arizona, the Arizona Supreme Court just
found they just upheld an eighteen sixtieslaw, territorial law no abortions at all.
(11:48):
But the current law there is fifteenweeks that Republican Governor Dug Dousey signed
into law. That's a Dobbs factimehis second trymester. The woman as she's
pregnant, the baby can feel pain. So why do I say this because
Arizona already had that, but peoplechallenged it. They want the territorial law.
And now the ballot initiative that's beingpushed by the hard left out there
(12:09):
would put abortion at twenty four weeks, way past where it was already in
Florida. If the DeSantis six weekbill does not is not sustained and the
ballot initiative passes. That ballot initiativepretends it's for a quote state constitutional right
to an abortion, but it hasno guardrails, no limits whatsoever. So
there's a very real possibility that ifpeople don't start articulating this less whining,
(12:33):
more winning, that we can bein a worse position with respect to life
than when this all started. Predobsand that would be regrettable because the census
of the country is either no abortionsor abortion of very limited circumstances or with
guard rails, restrictions and regulations,particularly that look at science. You know,
I'll never forget when I was runningfor reelection, my opponent every ad
(12:56):
was guns or abortion against me,right, So we did a focus grow
and I'll never forget. We hadeight women, all of whom had voted
for Obama, said that they wereopen to voting for a Republican. So
we asked the question about abortion,and you know, oh my god,
you could just see the hair ontheir backs go up. They were so
pissed when I will never vote fora Republican who doesn't support a woman's right
(13:18):
to choose. So I said tothe panel, you know that the woman
running, and I said, gofurther. I want to see how far
this will go. So she keptgoing deeper and saying, well, do
you agree with you know, thirdtrimester abortion or up to birth. They
looked at her like who would everbe in favor of that? And they
(13:39):
all, with the exception of one, seven of the eight landed at first
trimester, one of them second trimester. And that put in my head this
is our issue. If we doit right, we may not win,
but we won't lose. You won'tlose. And by the way, voters
(14:00):
are often long on opinion and shorton information. And again that's the burden
is on the pro lifers to makesure people just have the facts. And
the fact is what you just said. Pro lifers and pro choicers both they
react in horror, if not shanewhen they hear we we're a twenty four
weeks, thirty weeks, Why nownobody's and then they say that can't be
because they're projecting wishful thinking. Andthat's that's the information on the loud that
(14:24):
needs to be corrected. I agreewith you one last question, Kelly and
Conway with us here on seven toten WR. So RFK Junior is going
to try to get on as manystate ballots as he can. It's interesting
because I mean, I even battledwith him when I was county executive over
Indian Point in the Hudson River.And he's a far lefty his whole life.
(14:45):
And now in some Republicans' minds,and maybe this is the ones that
don't necessarily love Donald Trump. Idon't know if it's TDS or you know,
the Lincoln Republics are just people whomay not like him, but there
are some Republicans who find something thatthey could like. An RFK who unbalanced.
Does he affect more? Are youconcerned about him? No? Right
(15:09):
now, he's taken from Biden.In fact, all three independent candidates RFK
Junior, Jill Stein, and CornellWest are all taking from Joe Biden.
If you look at the head tohead balloting between Trump and Biden, Trump
is beating him in six or sevenof the seven swing states. When you
make it a five way race andyou had the other three, Trump widens
(15:30):
his lead and in Arizona and atleast before Tuesday, in Arizona and Georgia,
it's outside the margin of error.The Democrats made a grievous error of
disrespecting and just dismissing isolating RFK Jr. You won't get any recognition with a
demmigrantic party. They told him nofunding, no debates, and he took
(15:52):
his significant marbles and went to adifferent playground. He's running as an independent
now and he captures a good outof the vote. There's no question that
there are RFK Junior voters who admireTrump and probably voted for him before.
A lot of the Trump voters admirewhat RFK Junior is saying on some stuff,
not all of it's certainly goodness,but they're not gonna leave Trump.
(16:15):
The question for rv K Junior isvery simple, which state can you win?
Ross Barrow in nineteen ninety two,Rob he received nineteen percent of the
popular of it. That's pretty impressivefor a guy who had dropped out of
the race and got back in.Got nearly one in five American voters.
But Ross Prow got nineteen percent ofthe popular vote and zero let me repeat
zero, absolutely no electoral votes.And politics is not about biology or even
(16:41):
chemistry. It's about math and science. He needs more electoral votes and than
other people to win. He wonzero. Bill Clinton, the challenger Democrat
in nineteen ninety two, he wononly forty five percent of the popular vote,
but he received sixty eight twenty eightpercent of the electoral votes and won.
So question for the third party candidaciesis I know how you could be
(17:03):
a spoiler, but which state orstates can you actually win? Because then
we're talking about something different. Don'tforget Bernie Sanders, and everybody has forgotten
because it's a hurtful thing to Hillary'svery few, if any discuss it.
They never forget Bernie Sanders won liketwenty three states in twenty sixteen against Hillary
Clinton in primaries and caucuses. That'sa boatload, my friend. And he
got thirteen million votes. He waslike picking up he was beating her in
(17:26):
states. No one is coming evenclose to doing that to Trump or even
to Biden. But with them andthe race, they don't get out of
the race. They do to Biden. They helped you to Biden. What
Jill Stein and a few others didto Hillary Clinton in twenty sixteen, What
Ralph Nader he hurt Al Gore intwo thousand for that matter. But too
bad. People can't wind that awayand say, oh, I would have
(17:48):
won. If these people weren't well, then you respect their agenda. You
give them something to do. Butso far, all of the all of
the attempts to get someone to challengeTrump have failed. We had a full
primary season. Hello, there werefour or five debates. Trump wasn't there.
The rest of the candidates were.They got all the media coverage they
wanted. Some of them got tonsof money. Ron Desanta spent one spent
(18:10):
over one hundred million, and hespent nine figures in I within win a
single county. We spent nine figuresto beat Hillary in twenty sixteen, so
we had a full and fair andprimary and this is the result. The
Democrats did not do that. Theysquelched the descent. They kept out the
primary opponents. I think that's goingto cost them. No labels, seventy
million dollars, rob joke, thirtythirty nos, thirty no thank yous from
(18:33):
candidates they approached to run for president. That's just what's been reported and a
big fat zero. So maybe someof them come along and support Trump.
Now, we like to get community. But yeah, so far, so
good. That doesn't mean that he'sThat doesn't mean he absolutely will win.
He's ahead now and that's a goodplace to be in the late spring or
mid spring, but a lot canhappen between now. In November in twenty
(18:56):
eleven, Mike Bloomberg and I wentup to Albany to get other on some
lobbying thing, and he was thinkingabout running as an independent, and I
asked him, I said, areyou going to run? And he said,
I just spent like twenty five milliondollars studying whether I could get on
the ballot and win he goes,I could win votes, but I can't
win one electoral College vote. SoNoah, I'm not running. That's exactly
(19:18):
right, By the way, thatwas twenty eleven. He actually ran in
twenty twenty, right, and whathe told you in twenty eleven came true.
I think he won Guam or America, Samoa and come on, so
and it was embarrassing, and hespent over a billion dollars and the only
people happy about that were his consultantsbecause it was embarrassing. And Elizabeth Warren
did diet Michael Bloomberg within a minuteor two what Edward scissors hands would have
(19:42):
done. And it was all sopredictable that he was going to be asked
those questions. But she was standingright next to him, and she was
relentless. Yep, Kelly and Conway, you're the best. I hope you're
back in the White House January twentiethand I you can watch her, of
course on Fox, and she isthe best at what she does. Kelly,
thanks again for coming on. Rob, thank you, and God bless
(20:03):
you and your listeners. Thank youall right, when we come back.
Dan Donovan, former congressman but alsoformer district attorney in Richmond County, which
is Staten Island. He will givea perspective of what's gonna happen Monday because
his you know, one of hiscolleagues, I guess at one point Alvin
Bragg will start his trial against DonaldTrump. So we'll figure out what's going
(20:25):
to happen. I also have thequestionnaire that the jurors get, and I'll
tell you what some of the questionsare. So a lot to do.
One eight hundred three two one zeroseven ten. I'll try to. I'll
try to get to some of yourcalls a little bit later, but rack
him up if you want. Oneeight hundred three two one zero seven ten
rob Asterno show rolling along here onseven ten WR seven ten war for since
(20:48):
so rob as do Reno show?Then d all right twenty seven minutes after
four o'clock h rob as Dono hereone WR and please follow me, you
know this whole social media phenomenon.I'm on Facebook, X, Instagram,
(21:11):
Truth, Social Getter, the allof them. So it's at rob Astorino
and I'd love to have you followme. And of course I know people
sometimes tweet me or ex me whateverthe hell I'm supposed to call it now
and facebook me and I try toget back. I don't always, but
I love to hear your comments.So and if you always, at any
point want to listen to that Kellyand Conway interview it was great, or
(21:34):
the next one with Dan Donovan,or any show, just check out the
podcast version of this. You goto seven to ten wr dot com,
where you could always listen to theshow, by the way, not just
on the good old radio. Andthen you click on the podcast tap and
go to the Rob Astrino. Okay, so of course it is the people
(21:55):
versus Donald Trump index number seven onefive three. That's Monday, a kangaroo
court it will be. Dan Donovanwas the Staten Island Richmond County District Attorney
for quite a while and also servedStaten Island and part of Brooklyn in Congress.
All around, good guy, mybuddy, Dan Donovan. How are
(22:18):
you there, Dan? I'm doinggreat, rob and an all around great
guy. Folks, who's Rob Astrinathe guy who I wanted to speak governor
of this great state of New Yorkwhere I'm raising my family. Unfortunately,
not enough for the folks got outthere to vote for him. But Rob,
We've been great friends for a longtime. Glad to be with you,
and congratulations on the show. Thankyou. So you were a district
(22:42):
attorney, you every day had tomake a decision on whether to charge somebody
or not, whether it would riseto a level of a crime, or
whether you could win, all thosekind of things. Give me your view
of this case coming up Monday withDonald Trump, Alvin Bragg taking this ridiculous
(23:03):
charge against Donald Trump, and what'syour thoughts about this. I mean a
part for me, it's not somuch as Donald Trump. Of course it
is, and as political, butit's just that this whole judicial system now,
especially in a place like New York, has become so tainted and so
political, like what Tis James isdoing to Trump as well, and that's
(23:26):
really dangerous and scary it is.I mean, the power of a prosecutor
is unmatched in our government. Imean what a prosecutor is, power they
yield is unlike a governor or acongress person. And you know, when
you have the ability to put casesinto a grand jury and have them come
(23:48):
out and indit someone and charge somebody, it's very scary if that power is
in the wrong hand. This case, rob is going to be very dificult
in many many reasons. I mean, the first hurdle everyone's going to have
to overcome is trying to find animpartial jury. I mean, if there's
one thing about Donald Trump that everybodyI could agree on, is that everybody
(24:12):
has an opinion about him, whetheryou like them, dislike them, love
them, hate them. Uh,you know everybody. There's no gray area
when it comes to form of PresidentTrump. And the goal here for both
the prosecution and the defense is tryingto find twelve people and four alternate jurors
(24:33):
who or impartial, who can judgethe evidence, listen to the facts,
and come up with an unbiased conclusionbased solely on those facts. And that's
some predisposed position or opinion they haveof the person who's being accused. So
I think that's going to be avery difficult hurdle in our in our justice
(24:53):
system, when you have a highprofiled case or high profiled defendant, many
times what the defense would argue andand move for is a change of venue
and move the case to a differentjurisdiction. But there's probably not a jurisdiction
on this planet that has a citizenpopulation that doesn't already have a predisposed opinion
(25:21):
about Donald Trump and this case.So I think that's going to be the
very first difficult turtle that has tobe overcome and that that process begins,
as you said on Monday. Sothat's a good point. And Donald Trump's
lawyers wanted to move the venue outof Manhattan, out of New York County.
Staten Island was mentioned where, youknow, that was the only borough
that actually voted for Trump. Butat least there would be more of a
(25:44):
jury pool that would be like yousaid, I mean, nobody's not heard
of or doesn't have an inining onTrump, but maybe it would be a
little more fair towards him. Andeven they mentioned maybe moving it, you
know, to the suburbs. I'mlooking at the jury questionnaire and really it
comes down to question number forty two, the last question. Is there any
(26:06):
reason, whether it be a biasor something else, that would prevent you
from being fair and impartial if youare selected as a juror for this case,
Well you could be the furthest tothe left in the world if you
say with a straight face to thejudge, sure I can be honest I
don't have a bias in me.I really don't have an opinion on Donald
(26:27):
Trump. What's to prevent that jurorfrom getting on? Yeah, I think
people who want to be on ajury know what to say, and people
who don't want to be on ajury know what to say, and talented
prosecutors and talented defense attorneys and hadto discern from other answers of other questions
that these folks would be asked whetheror not they're being truthful and question number
(26:51):
forty two, Rob you know,I never wanted anybody on a jury.
Of the cases I dried before Iwas the District Attorney of stem Out for
twelve years, I worked for thelegendary District Attorney of Manhattan, Robert Wogan.
Now, and you know, we'vealways talked, and I always believed
that I didn't want someone who wasvery anxious to be on a jury,
or I didn't want somebody who justdid not want to be there and would
(27:15):
do anything in the world to getoff. I wanted people who had a
civic response, felt the civic responsibilityto serve. Yet you know this was
disrupting their lives, and you know, I'd rather not be here, but
everybody has to contribute it in ourside. Those are the folks I would
look for, and and and andprosecutors and defense attorneys will question these jurors
(27:37):
and ask them many other questions andand try to discern answers from them.
Uh, you know that that givethem a hint whether this it's somebody who
you wanted. You know, youwere never able to ask a potential juror.
Uh. You could always ask themif they have a served on a
jury before. You could always askthem if it was a criminal case or
(27:57):
a civil case. You could evenask them what the charge was. And
talented lawyers would know if I askedrob Aserno jevisit on a jury, Yes
they did. Was it a civilmatter or a criminal matter? It was
a criminal matter. And what wasthe charge of the guy committed a robbery?
Well, I knew you're convicted.If you said the man was accused
of committing a robbery, I knowyou acquitted. So there's ways of listening
(28:22):
to the answers, of phrasing questionsthat would give prosecutors and defense attorneys some
insight into this person and whether ornot they want to select him as a
juror Dan Donovan with us on sevento ten WR here on the rob Astarino
Show. And Dan, of courseformer Staten Island District attorney and congressman.
So they take this case with statecharges and try to up it to a
(28:48):
federal case basically, right, Imean, this is it's just insanity what
they're trying to do here. Becausethe FEC, the Federal Elections Commission said
there's no case here, there's nothinghere. The Biden DOJ said nothing here.
We were not going to do anything, and sith Ance said the previous
Da Bragg's predecessor, there's nothing here. We take a pass. And yet
(29:11):
Bragg comes in and like everybody else, he ran on getting Donald Trump,
just like Letitia James. But hetwisted and turns this and then goes to
a judge who obviously doesn't like DonaldTrump either. I mean, that's pretty
clear. And so they both sayyeah, sure, winking a odd.
So now they got to go forward. We have to go through this absolute
(29:32):
circus, which most people think isunfair. Do you think that, I
mean, I don't think Donald Trump'sgoing to get a fair trial, but
do you think that there could bethe potential of a hung jury one person
out of that twelve who says Ijust don't think there's enough here to vote
(29:53):
guilty. Do you think that's possible? Oh? Absolutely, I think.
You know, I think twelve peopthat the sunrises in the east is a
very difficult task. So yes,you know, the burden on the prosecution
here to prove beyond a reasonable doubtthe twelve citizens who all would have different
(30:14):
views of not only Donald Trump,but the evidence is a very difficult thing
to do. And when you thinkabout, you know, the charge here,
So the charges is filing false businessrecords. Now, traditionally that's a
misdemeanor. What raises that to thelevel of a felony is that if you
file false business records, try tocover up another crime. So here,
(30:41):
not only do they have to provethat Donald Trump filed false business records,
they have to prove that he didit trying to cover up another crime.
Now what is that other crime?And you just pointed out that the most
obvious crimes are either some kind ofcampaign finance fraud or tax rule. And
so many prosecutors have already taken apass on those charges. So I think
(31:07):
there's a difficult task here before theprosecution, and I think they're gonna have
a very difficult time proven the elements, particularly when you think about their main
witnesses. One is a convicted fella, Michael Cohen, the former president's attorney,
who supposedly made these payments to StormyDaniels as hush money and then during
(31:34):
their filings of their business records reportedthis as legal fees. And you have
to depend on Michael Michael Cohen,who's already pled guilty to the federal charges,
and Stormy Daniels, who recanted.She first said that there was no
relationship between the former president and herselfand then recanted. So now you have
(31:56):
these two witnesses, and I thinkthat President Trump's attorneys are gonna have a
field day during cross examination of thesetwo. And these are the two main
witnesses. So what will this othercharge? Will they have to come out
and say, here's the other charge. Is it going to be like it
wasn't oj, it was him,it was Donald Trump? I mean,
what is it gonna be? Theyhave to because you have a right as
an accused person to know what thecharges are against you, and so they
(32:22):
have to reveal and should be inthat indictment. I haven't read the indictment,
Rob, but it should be anindictment. What the predicate is to
raise this charge, this misdemeanor chargeof filing a false business record up to
a felony. What was the othercrime that they were trying to cover up
by filing the false business records?Well, let me read it. They
filed it. I only read itand see if you find anything in this
(32:45):
right. The allegations are that DonaldTrump falsified business records to conceal an agreement
with others to unlawfully influence the twentysixteen presidential election. Specifically, it is
alleged that Donald Trump made or causedfalse business records to hide the true nature
of payments made to Michael Cohen bycharacterizing them as payments for legal services rendered
(33:07):
permanent a pursuant to a retainer agreement. The people allege that, in fact,
the payments were intended to reimburse MichaelCohen for money he paid to Stephanie
Clifford, also known as Stormy Daniels, in the weeks before the presidential election
to prevent her from publicly revealing detailsabout a past sexual encounter with Donald Trump.
Donald Trump has pleaded not guilty anddenies the allegations. In our business,
(33:32):
I used to think when a casewould come up, would I rather
be prosecuting this case or defending it? In this matter, I'd much rather
be defending it and trying to provethose allegations. It's going to be such
a frickin' circus, such a distractionthat we really don't need with everything going
on in this world. Let mejust ask you real briefly about the Letitia
(33:55):
James stuff again she campaigns. Imagineif you and Dan when when you were
running for district attorney. Imagine ifyou ran on a I'm going to get
whoever you know, and then youget elected and you go after whomever on
trumped up charges part of the punBut but that's what you run on,
(34:17):
and you keep your promise and youdo that. How unethical is it?
And how in God's name is itallowed to happen? Even in a state
like New York. You'd think therewould be some guardrails, you would think,
and you would think that she wouldhave to be disqualified for bringing a
(34:39):
prosecution. Not that no one couldn'tbring a prosecution, but the person as
you said, who campaign that thisis what I'm going to do predisposed she
had no idea, no knowledge ofevidence against him. She was just going
to get him. And I'll tellyou, you know, Tis James,
when I was the DA, youknow, I the matter of the investigation
(35:01):
and the death into the death ofEric Gardner, and Chis James was the
public advocate at the time, andwe presented months of evidence before grand jury,
and the grand jury decided not toindict the police officers involved, and
Tis James sued me to release allthe grand jury evidence, which is a
(35:24):
felony in New York. Releasing grandjury evidence is a felony in New York.
And now this woman is our chiefchief law enforcement officer. So I
leave it to you and your listenersto decide whether or not she's qualified to
be prosecuting anyone. The only qualificationyou need in this state is to be
a Democrat. That's about it,Dan Donovan, I'm glad that you came
(35:45):
on. Thanks again. I hopeone day, I hope one day you're
back in public office. But itis a crazy so you liked me,
that's true, And thank your listenersfor finding that these matters are so important
that they spend their Saturday afternoon listeningto the brilliance of yourself. I'm not
(36:08):
saying of you, of all ofyour guests, I exclude myself there,
but folks like KellyAnn and the others. It's really important for our citizens to
know what's going on and to havea voice in what's happening, and their
biggest voice is at the voting booth. So again, congratulations on the show,
and I'm available for my friend RobEstorino anytime. Thank you, my
(36:30):
friend, Take care. Dan Donovan, former Staten Island DA and Congressman,
all right, one eight hundred threeto one zero seven ten. One eight
hundred three two one zero seven ten. If you want to talk a little
bit about the Trump trial coming upon Monday, and when I come back,
I will read you some of thepertinent questions for the jurors or perspective
(36:50):
jurors in their questionnaire, and acouple other things to take us to five
o'clock. So one hundred three twoone zero seven ten. Rob As here
rollng till five o'clock a rab Asdo Reno show on seven ten. Woor
hi, So I've got the questionnairefor the jurors, and I'll go through
(37:12):
this in just a moment. Iknow Sondra from New Jersey has been holding
on one eight hundred and three totwo one zero seven ten. Hi Sondra,
Oh, good afternoon, Rob.I was having lunch with friends today
who are very concerned about Donald Trump, and we wanted to know what would
be the best possible outcome for Trumpwith the story one you discussed before the
(37:35):
hung jewelry. Then I have hereacquittal or a mistrial, or maybe offer
a deal, or maybe take bellonyoff the table and make it a misdemeanor,
or with no contest and a fine. So these are the different things
we were talking about, and Iwanted to ask you what you think the
best scenario would be. So anyone of those would be fine, because
(37:59):
as long as he doesn't get asloves, he doesn't get convicted and found
guilty of a felony. And thenof course the Democrats will use in all
their commercials and Joe Biden will sayI'm running against a felon. I'm not
going to debate a felon. Thereis no way. So it'll just give
the left the constant talking point andit may it may have an effect on
(38:23):
people who really aren't paying attention toexactly what he's on trial for. Blah
blah blah, blah blah blah.He's a felon, So I think that's
really the only scenario. Anything else, and it's like this was just ridiculous.
So I think he'll be okay withbeing acquitted. Clearly a mistrial hung
(38:45):
jury. And as you mentioned,there is one option that has been discussed
in kind of the legal circles,and that is that they could step it
down and the jury, the defensecan ask the judge at the end to
have the jury also give the optionof finding him guilty of a misdemeanor on
(39:06):
these and I you know, I'msure he wouldn't want to be found guilty
of anything, but he would takethe misdemeanor because that's silly and that amounts
to nothing. Sondra, thanks forthe call. I appreciate it very much.
All Right, I want to justgo through some of these the questions
on Judge Mershon's letter to both councils, and he said, this is this
(39:30):
is what I'm gonna ask people fillout, all right, and I guess
these were agreed upon. But thebiggest thing is excusing jurors who self identify
as unable to serve, so insteadof one by one, which would take
a long time, he's agreed,and I think he may have suggested that
a show of hands in this courtroomhere is unable to serve for any reason.
(39:55):
You might hate Donald Trump, youlove Donald Trump. Who here feels
that they are unable to serve ifthey raise their hand one by one,
they're going to go up to himreal quickly, and he'll probably just excuse
them, so that'll, you know, that'll Winnow it down to the rest
of the folks who are there,and they also agree that in his thing,
the mere fact that someone is aRepublican or a Democrat does not give
(40:17):
either party the right to strike forcause. So, in other words,
you're a juror, Are you aRepublican or a Democrat? I'm a Democrat?
Okay, Judge, I wish tohave that person excuse No, that's
not the reason. You got togo deeper. So there are let me
see how many pages here. It'sa seven page juror questionnaire. I'm not
(40:37):
going to go through all of them, but it asked about educational background,
you know what kind of college degree? These are important because if you're Donald
Trump and you're looking in the polls, who does Donald Trump do better with?
He does better with people who donot have a college degree. Those
who are quote highly educated tend tobe much more liberal, and they vote
(41:00):
for all the way could do soin the back of your mind if you're
one of his attorneys, if someonesays, oh, yes, so I
have a doctorate from Columbia, Icould be very very fair and impartial here.
Well, no, you're not.You're not serving on this because we
will understand in our minds that youare highly unlikely to have voted for Donald
(41:20):
Trump, probably hate his gut.There's a whole bunch of things in there.
Do you participate in any organizations oradvocacy? Which of the following cable
network programs or radio stations do youlisten to? They list all these you
know, truth social for social media, x Washington Post, New York Post,
(41:42):
Daily News, all these things.What podcasts do you listen to?
Talk radio? If so, whichprograms? I hope there's somebody in that
pool that says the Rob est RenoShow on seven to ten wor you have
a relative in law enforcement, anypolitical, moral, intellectual, or religious
beliefs that might prevent you from beingon this jur jury. And then,
(42:07):
of course twenty six, can yougive us an assurance that you will be
fair and impartial and not base yourdecision in this case upon a bias or
prejudice in favor of a person whomay appear in this trial? Blah blah
blah. Have you ever a relativethat may have ever volunteered to work for
Donald Trump and his campaigns? Didyou ever attend to rally for him?
(42:28):
Have you ever signed up for anynewsletters or emails or anything on behalf of
Donald Trump? They go through allthose kind of things. Have you ever
this is my favorite number? ThirtyHave you ever considered yourself a supporter or
belonged to any of the following theQAnon movement, Proud Boys, oathkeepers,
(42:49):
three percenters. I don't even knowwho they are, the Boogaloo boys,
I don't know who they are.Antifa, I know who they are.
Do you have any strong opinions aboutthe president? Can you give And this
is what I said, this islike the big question. Thirty three can
you give us your assurance that youwill decide this case solely on the evidence
you see and here in this courtroomand the law as the judge gives it,
(43:14):
and then the other one any reasonor any bias that you wouldn't be
fair and impartial. So that's whatthe jurors starting on Monday, they're going
to get that. They all haveto fill that out. Then they all
get questioned what's called vad deer.And you know, it's now up to
Donald Trump's attorney is to try tofigure out which of the twelve will serve
(43:37):
and the six that will be alternate. And look, their goal is not
to get twelve on there that theyknow is gonna vote not guilty. Their
job is to find one or twoor three at most that they think will
be the most fair or of coursemaybe partial to Donald Trump, because the
(43:58):
whole goal here is to get anot guilty verdict or as I was saying
before Desandra, at least a hungjury, something that will not at the
end of this trial, have JuanMurshan read from the jury's note and decision
guilty. You and I know it'sa joke. This is insane, it's
(44:22):
ridiculous, it's dangerous, it's horrible. But it's happening, and the whole
world is watching the former president ontrial. And yeah, he has to
sit there in trial in courtroom becauseit's a criminal trial Monday, Tuesday,
Thursday, Friday, for as longas it takes, and they expect it
maybe a month. No'll think aboutthat only on Wednesday and the weekends.
(44:45):
Is he free to go out andcampaign and do stuff? Maybe at night
if some of these court dates.But he is hampered by sitting there in
the Manhattan Lower Manhattan courtroom for thisridiculous kangaroo court. And he's got a
hope that at least there's one guyor one woman who will give him a
(45:06):
fair shake, even if they don'tlike him. So anyway, speaking of
like corrupt, and I'm not talkingabout Trump, I'm talking about our governor.
So she just as as all electedofficials in New York have to do.
You have to fill out your financialdisclosure forms every year, and the
(45:29):
governor's was just released now. Shemakes her own salary obviously, have about
I think it's two hundred and fiftythousand as governor of New York, which
by the way, is very underpaidif you're going to be the governor of
the state of New York, andwhich is maybe why you don't get the
best and the brightest running for thisspot, because who wants to give up
what might be a much higher salaryin the private sector and deal with the
(45:52):
crap you got to deal with asgovernor for two hundred and fifty thousand dollars,
which you know is not bad,clearly, but for what you got
to deal with and what you mightbe giving up. So anyway, Hokel
has an income of two fifty Weknow that her husband the first gentleman of
New York, her husband Bill,And of course, if this were a
(46:13):
Republican let's just say I was governorand my wife and I you know,
you know what I would make.But my wife, let's let's say,
was making several million dollars from acompany that does business with New York.
Do you think for just a secondthat that would not be the story every
day in every paper. Of courseit would. Kathy Hochel's husband, Bill
(46:37):
worked for Delaware North. Now they'vegot all of the concessions at so many
arenas and stadiums around the country.Delaware North also had the concessions at the
stadium in Buffalo in twenty twenty one. In twenty twenty two, he got
paid six hundred thousand dollars a year. Pretty darn good. Now, well,
(47:00):
just around then, they were decidingthe State of New York, the
County of Erie, and the ownersof the Buffalo Bills, the Pagoula family,
about putting in a new stadium inBuffalo taxpayer funded. And her husband,
Kathy's husband worked for the company thatworks for the Buffalo Bills. He's
(47:24):
sleeping with the governor and going towork the next day, and I'm sure
somebody put in a little thing inhis ear. Can you maybe help a
little bit? Anyway, it wasapproved the new stadium. The State of
New York will pay eight hundred andfifty million dollars, largest ever public funding
for a stadium in this country.Taxpayer commitment of eight hundred and fifty million
(47:46):
dollars from the State of New York. Six hundred million will go for construction
costs. So he went from sixhundred thousand and suddenly after that decision in
twenty twenty three, he made onepoint five million bucks. One point five
million bucks. I'll let you decideif you think something stinks, if something
(48:08):
might be potentially unethical. Not sayingit is, I'm just laying it out
there for you to think about that. I was flipping through the paper today.
I think it was the post thisis how crazy the world is,
and this is how crazy the marketis in South Florida, especially with so
(48:29):
much money from New York leaving becausethe taxes and the absurdity of how this
city especially is being run with illegalaliens everywhere and getting everything when we're not.
The citizens are not, the hightaxes, the just the I don't
have to go into what's going on, you know, so everyone's leaving New
York. The big money is goingdown to Florida. The Palmbeach real Estate
(48:52):
dot com website which lists all thehigh end real estate Palmbeach Realestate dot com.
I know what that url is sellingfor what they're asking If you want
to take over that website, thepalmbeachreestate dot com, they'll sell it to
you. You know what. Theasking price is two million dollars. Two
(49:15):
million dollars if you want Palmbeach realEstate dot com. Crazy And one other
thing you don't think Apple is certainlyfar to the left. You type in
Jerusalem in your text on the iPhonewith the new upgrade, and you know
what pops up? A Palestinian flagemoji. H Okay, all right,
(49:36):
I'm out of time here. Solook, you want to listen to the
show or forward the show, goto the podcast section of seven to ten
wr dot com or on your iheartapp. Listen in and make sure you follow
me on social media x Instagram,all of them at Robastarino. Thank you
to Bruce, thank you to Noah. I'm rob Astorino. We were back
(49:57):
here again next Saturday at four pm. Enjoy the weekend.
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