Scandal in City Hall

No BS Newshour Episode #432

Scandal in City Hall

 

(0:04) EXCLUSIVE- Detroit Mayor’s Ex Boy Toy Tells All

He describes bribes, kickbacks, shakedowns and he’s gone to the Feds.

(3:02) The Chief of Police enlisted to make it go away.

(9:20) Witnesses tell of threats and handcuffs. 

Can Mayor Mary Sheffield last?

 

(23:24) Did Jocelyn Benson illegally delete the evidence that could get her kicked off the November ballot?

 

(42:39) Abdul El-Sayed bombs on National TV.

 

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Sponsored by American Coney Island, Pinnacle Wealth Strategies, and XG Service Group

 

Transcript:

Charlie Leduff here. I’m at the scene of the weirdest story I’ve ever been on and I’ve been on a lot of them. I was called to meet a man named Marvin Walker here.

Marvin is the former lover of then city councilwoman and currently mayor of Detroit, Mary Sheffield. He showed me a dossier, text messages, videotapes, emails. He alleged they were running a racket, taking kickbacks.

He was the middleman of it all. And now he feels slighted. Is it revenge? Is it true? Are we back to the bad old days of Kwame? Well, I got to ask you this.

Why are the Detroit police involved asking people to delete social media posts? Now, what I will tell you is I did see, you know, some of the posts that you made and the posts with Mary kissing Marvin. This is my ask. It is not a big ask at all.

But what I would like for you to do, I would like for you to take those pictures down off your Facebook page. I would like for you to do that. Now, city hall acknowledges the relationship between Marvin Walker and Mary Sheffield, but they deny that he ever gave her money.

In fact, they say it was she who loaned Marvin money when he was a little bit short. And this must be him paying her back in cold, hard, untraceable cash. Like I said, weird.

We’ll stay on it. And look at her beautiful hair. I forgot to do her hair today.

So everybody, this is Miss Mary Walker. Miss Mary Walker. Live from downtown Detroit, it’s the No Bullshit News Hour with my main man, Charlie LeDoux and Jared Nubes.

Is this the hole in one? It’s a hole in one. $50,000 if you hit it. Luke Nowacki, financial wealth management.

What is 50 grand after tags? $37,750. What about state tax? Yeah, that’s, I’m throwing both in there. What about sales tax? There’s no sales tax.

Well, you’re buying the beer. It’s income. You’re buying the beer.

Eh, we write that off. Luke Nowacki, financial wealth management. Expense allowance.

You can call or text him at 248-663-4748. Okay, heaviness ensues. Let me explain what you just saw.

Mayor Mary Sheffield has man troubles. First, there’s the demolition contractor being investigated by the FBI for allegedly poisoning the city with toxic dirt. Now, Sheffield’s first instinct was to tell the public she didn’t vote to give her lover city contracts, and that turned out to be a $59 million lie.

Now comes her latest himbo eruption, and this one threatens to burn down city hall. Sheffield’s handlers do not deny her relationship with businessman Marvin Walker. There are too many salacious photographs and videos for that, but Sheffield’s minions are quietly whispering to reporters that if any money changed hands between the two, it was Sheffield helping out her former lover when his funds were short.

Now, for his part, excuse me, I got a bug in my toe all day. For his part, Walker claims that he was Sheffield’s bag man while she was a member of city council, acting as the courier who collected illegal kickbacks on her behalf and deposited them in her mailbox. Walker came to meet me with a heavy portfolio of videos, text messages, and screenshots.

Walker described an ornate scheme, one of many, where Sheffield used her public position and municipal contacts to help her steer lucrative real estate deals to a pair of prominent businessmen. Those men, in turn, Walker alleges, would provide him with the quid pro quo, wads of cash as thick as a head of cabbage. Walker estimates that he collected and delivered at least $200,000 to Sheffield.

In one screenshot, Walker is sitting in his car with a bundle of high denomination currency, quote, $7,000 in your mailbox, he wrote, along with a photo of the cash. Thank you, she replied. The rationale for his alleged criminality, quote, I loved her man, Walker said.

I would have done anything for her, and now she’s throwing me under the bus. Then Walker showed me some wedding photographs of he and Sheffield taken in Las Vegas in 2022. It wasn’t a real wedding, said Walker, who’s married with children.

They were just playing house. As he was talking about the Vegas getaway, Walker’s telephone rang. It was Detroit Chief of Police Todd Bettison.

Photographs and videos of Walker and Sheffield were starting to appear on social media, and the chief wanted Walker to take them down. Quote, how am I supposed to take them down when I didn’t put them up? Walker asked the top cop. I don’t got nothing to do with that.

City Hall refuses to answer questions about Walker’s relationship with Mary Sheffield, except to say, quote, we highly recommend you consider the source and motivation behind what is being said, unquote. Now detractors paint an unsavory portrait of Walker. He’s been called a slumlord, a car thief and a manipulator who uses his properties to house homeless women and then use them as his own personal harem.

Now, Walker denies it all. Nevertheless, police confirm that they have asked the county prosecutor for an arrest warrant against Walker for criminal sexual conduct. And last week, Detroit police came 12 deep, 12 deep to lock and shutter his midtown building for code violations.

Wow. Also, plainclothes detectives have been scouring local car car dealerships inquiring as to whether Walker had engaged in title fraud. But car titles were not the only things detectives inquired about.

Quote, they asked us if we knew anything about his and the mayor’s relationship. One surprise salesperson recalled to me it was fucking crazy. I mean, we’re just a car dealership.

What were we supposed to know about that? In response, a lawyer for Walker has made overtures to the FBI. They’re looking to cut a deal. Quote, I did whatever she asked of me, Walker said, as we spoke in the parking lot of one of his moldering properties.

Clay faced women stared from their porch stoops. Now, when I needed her, she turns on me and I’m not going out like that, he said. But this story doesn’t end with Walker.

Earlier this month, Chief Bettison phoned Jodante Smith, a hard charging, high strung activist who had posted intimate images of the couple online. Smith recorded the call with the chief and you just heard it. And I will repeat.

Quote, I did see some of the posts you made. The post with Mary Kiss and Marvin, Bettison said. What I would like for you to do, I would like for you to take those pictures down off your Facebook page.

I would like for you to do that. I’m asking you, said the chief of police. And Smith refused.

Then last week, as Smith was walking downtown with his seven year old son, four uniformed cops jumped out of their squad cars, cuffed Smith and seized the cell phone. Now, this is what Smith told me. They never presented a warrant, didn’t articulate suspicion.

They just snatched his phone. The administration’s off the hook. Not good.

When contacted by telephone, Chief Bettison said, quote, It’s an open investigation and I cannot comment it. Close quote. Now, all of this shouldn’t be taken as a story of lust, but rather a story about the lust for power and money.

It’s a story about judgment and the company Mary Sheffield keeps a scorned and sleazy lover trying to settle a score. A mayor using the police force as a personal palace guard. It’s fair game for the public to ask if their city is being run like an organized crime racket.

Are we going back to the bad old days of Detroit? Maybe or maybe the battle days never left and we just couldn’t see it. Now, I’d like to welcome in to Dante Smith. Are you with us, Jay? Yeah, I’m still here.

I got to put these up. How are you doing, dude? I’m OK. I’m good now.

Take us through it like you’re a hard charging dude, man. You are like. One of them citizen journalists, political activists, one of the guys that keeps everybody in this town fresh, honest and on their toes.

And then all of a sudden. You got cops handcuffing you, taking your shit. Can you walk us through it? Were you surprised it was coming or did you know they were coming for you? I was somewhat alluded to the fact that my phone might be a subject of a subject of what the police is wants.

But to know that I was going to be attacked by four officers in a tactical formation and shut down like I was being robbed by common criminals. No, I had no clue that would happen to me, especially not downtown in front of all these cameras and just in broad daylight with no reasonable suspicion and no search warrant. Wow.

Now, the call, the original one from the chief that came a couple of weeks ago. So what was your feeling? I mean, look, when the chief’s calling me like that, I’m kind of tripping. It’s it’s not like, hey, Dante, it’s you know, it’s Todd.

How you doing? Like, we just do a favor. You’re the chief of police 24 seven. Is that how you felt? So I have a relationship.

That was the third call that I got from the chief. We would generally not talk on the phone always, but I would text him and just different issues in the city. I felt like for him, I was holding the line for him because there’s a lot of people who I know who don’t like him, who are victims of crime or relative to victims of crime, who their cases have missed off.

Detroit Police Department has treated them poorly. And I’ve been trying to be a mediator. So we would generally talk.

But this is the third conversation about those Facebook posts about Mary Sheffield, where I was pretty much asked to take them down. And I refused three times. Don’t yet.

Don’t you think it’s weird that a chief of police is just, you know, thumbing through Facebook and he goes, oh, wow, that’s you know, she’s my friend. But, you know, I don’t know. Let me just call this guy.

Well, he wouldn’t. He wouldn’t. Someone clearly had would ask him to do that, I would think.

I mean, that just seems logical. Should I do? What do you think? Where’d the order come from? I think the order came from the mayor. I would say the order came from the mayor in the order to take my phone also came from the chief.

I don’t think that a sergeant is a sergeant named Michael Jackson would take my phone. He’s a supervisor without some orders coming from a higher power, because that’s a very serious fourth amendment violation. He could lose his badge.

He could be criminally prosecuted possibly for that because he presented me with no search warrant. And then when I did get a search warrant, it was from the 12th of August, even though my phone was taken the 19th and they couldn’t provide a search warrant seven days later, a whole seven days. So you actually had to send a representative to the precinct to pick up the search warrant, right? Yep.

Because they told me I wouldn’t get my phone back without coming to the precinct, gave me no receipt of taking my device or taking anything from me. And it just, it didn’t make sense at all. It seemed to be very, very odd.

It seemed to be criminal almost. Well, have you gotten the phone back? I have not. I’m able to get the phone back with the property department is property section of public safety headquarters closes at noon.

So if you can’t get down there by noon, you can’t get, you can’t get any property back, but they have given me a task number, which is what they give you to get property back. So I’m able to retrieve my phone, but at this point the damage has been done. Do you back your phone up regularly? I mean, will you be able when you get your phone back to compare it to what was on there before to see what might’ve been copied or deleted? So I don’t back it up as often as I should back it up, but I have another iPhone.

So I had an iPhone, have another iPhone. I’m borrowing from a coworker and most of my stuff is not on my phone still. So I’m not able to, I don’t have every single thing that was on my phone.

So a lot of stuff is missing. These guys, it’s like the slickest detectives, there’s something called the cloud guys. You know, what’s on my phone is other places too.

Believe me that dossier, I got that thing stored in about four or five different places. And if you want my text messages, you subpoenaed a phone company. Yeah.

Yeah. And they gave me the most wide range. They gave me the most wide range of search warrants you could ever see it and hear about the claims.

So the claims coming from a person who filed a complaint against me for harassment apparently, supposedly, and I think this is in a revenge sense because apparently this guy, Marvin Walker was riding past, allegedly riding past his lady’s house and she posted her address publicly on Facebook. She thinks that I gave him the address or just something stupid. And she’s also mad because I told her that she couldn’t trust some of these individuals because she’s name dropping the mayor.

Well, she’s name dropping the chief of police and Horace Sheffield, the mayor’s dad, and telling her she doesn’t know these people. She can’t trust them. I think this whole allegation was, uh, and this warrant was based on a revenge, a police report.

Hold on. Let’s keep this up. Wait.

Okay. Here, here’s, here’s the deal. You got shit your phone and it’s upsetting people.

Let’s go get the phone, right? Um, yep. Walker’s being investigated for, uh, yeah, okay. You know, rape or whatever the criminal sexual conduct is.

Then you’ve got police going to, uh, just, just randomly go into car dealerships and asking about him and asking about his relationship with the mayor. You’re, you’re coming 12 deep and locking his buildings and investigating for larceny. This Jadante, it was the worst kept secret in Detroit since the election, right? Once the first lover boy, the demo contractor it’s found out, right? He’s allegedly, oh, by the way, let me little side sidebar here.

Oh, the fucking feds are coming on that one. Oh, they’re coming on that one. They’re talking tonnage and cubic yards and shit.

Now. I mean, you know, when the feds do a start using the calculator, you can expect it. So you got that problem and the city’s got no money to clean any of this shit up.

Now this came out, it had to come out during election season and I’m not going to ask you to spill brother, but you were posting. So you got them. You’ve had them almost a year, right? Yeah.

At least seven, eight months. Yep. At least seven, eight months.

I’m not going to ask you a source. I don’t want you asking my sources. You’ve had it.

You’re not the only one that has it right now. Lots of people have been contacted. They say, take it down.

So we’re running around trying to, you know, fire, uh, water on a grease fire here. That’s not going to work. Yeah.

I think, I think this is a coverup of, uh, beginning to be ethical portions. And I think that there’s other stuff out there that may be worse than just some, some pecks on the lips that are existing out there. Did you just hear what I read to you? Did you just hear like cash, cash payments? There’s other stuff.

I don’t want to get into it. You know, a lot of stuff that has to be worked through verified, you know, you know how it is due because you do it. You know what I mean? Yeah.

Yeah. There’s more and more to be seen. A lot more to come out.

Have you been, have other people reached out to you? Um, other intermediaries, not just the chief of police, which is, you know, almost as high, but maybe that was a last resort have other people in her realm, maybe kind of like, Hey, why don’t you take that down? Like politely before it got to this point or was the chief just the hammer that came down? Uh, so there was another guy’s name is Ray Simpson. He’s like a special, uh, uh, department neighborhoods, uh, liaison or something like that. He reached out to me and it wasn’t so nice.

It was almost threatening. He, uh, he pretty much called myself with a victim of, uh, this guy, Martin Walker, a lot of times and pretty much told me, you know, they didn’t like these posts. Uh, also I talked to a guy, a guy named Mario Kelly called me.

He’s not, he doesn’t work for the city, but he has contracts with the city. He’s very close to Mary Sheffield. Um, and then also for Sheffield, he didn’t necessarily ask me to take the post down, but he, uh, approached me in a threatening manner.

And he told me, quote unquote, no one cares about dirt. Oh, they do, dude. Cause this, this, uh, everybody stay tuned to the end of the program.

Could do a little update for you. Oh, they do. Okay.

So now you’ve got lover boy with a federal dirt investigation, and now you’ve got lover toy and he’s going to the feds. I mean, I’m just a reporter. He’s got this, she’s got nothing to say.

And the chief police is running around. Wow. What the fuck? Well, and I mean, the irony is it’s got a Streisand effect now because now, because you love that you always, he just loves going to the fact, like, what are you like a psychologist? Don’t laugh at me.

I just mean, it makes more. Wait a minute. Who’s Streisand? I’m not sure.

Is this what I’m saying? Look at this guy over here. What he’s dated, like a boomer reference. I hate both of you now.

No, it’s Barbara Streisand. Yes. She once sued somebody about something and because she sued, it got a lot of media attention.

So nobody would have known about it unless the pushback came. So because all this pushback’s coming, it’s just going to blow this story up more and more. And my question would be, you know, I’m sure you’ve posted, they can take your phone, but you still have access to your social media.

So did you put it out there that this is what they’re doing and what is the feedback been like that? I haven’t put it out there fully that this is what’s because it’s still an open investigation. So they’re giving me my phone back. They’re saying it’s an open investigation, haven’t lodged any charges.

And it doesn’t seem to make fully make sense, but I’ve been being quiet on the advice of my attorney. But at some point, you know, I’m talking to you guys now. I want to go more public about this and just talk about it as much as I can.

Yeah. Look, I want everybody to know this young man works hard and he does it in service of the public and he does it for free. And okay, if you don’t like what he’s coming up with, well, then just bury your head because it ain’t good.

It ain’t good, man. Here we go again. Here we go again.

Now, last thing, man, I’ll let you go. But so you’re walking downtown with your son holding his hand, father, son out for the day and the cops come and cuff you. What happened to your boy and how did he take this? I mean, he was hysterical.

I mean, he had to be. There was a security guard on Plum Market where I don’t know what we learned. The security guard took him into the store, just not let him have to witness this from his father.

But I think it kind of severed his trust with police. And I think that it it really made him question because he knows his father to be a good person. People literally stop me when we’re out and, you know, tell me, tell him anywhere I’m a good person.

So it was just I think it really damaged him a bit emotionally and I think gave him a little bit of PTSD just from having to witness that. I would think so, man. And I, you know, I don’t know why the police would not be kind to your son in a perfect strange while you’re you’re being restrained.

A perfect stranger is walking off with your kid. I think I’d fucking flip. Yeah.

All right, man. Keep it up. I mean, yeah, dude, I watch your ass.

But, you know, now they know I know you. I look out for you. You look out for me and we’ll try to look out for the public.

Right. Yes, sir. My man.

Thank you for being on, dude. Thank you for inviting me. Sorry, I wasn’t in person.

Don’t call me, sir. Yeah. Oh, yeah, that’s right.

I’m like, where are you? And he’s like, well, I’m supposed to come in. And I’m like, yeah. And he goes, hold on.

Let me go to the neighbor and see if I can get a ride. But you look better now because you look like you’re in the jailhouse. I mean, they took my phone.

My world has been thrown off since August 19th. My world has been in a whirlwind of like up is down, down is up. People are telling me, don’t go anywhere by myself.

And I’ve still got to be a dad, still got to function, still got to do everything. So we’ll keep it up, man. Keep your head up and I’ll call you later.

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Yeah, that’s right. Call XG services at 734-245-4100. Okay.

Now my next guest just asked me, what did he get arrested for? And just to make it clear, he didn’t get arrested. He got detained. They took his phone.

They didn’t present a search warrant. They didn’t, they didn’t explain anything. They’re harassing him.

They’re getting his cell phone. That’s what they’re doing now. Anyway, total, total shift update from what was it two weeks ago? We had Robert Davis, Robert Davis, political savant.

Now there’s three things I want to do, Robert. Sure. Jocelyn Benson, you, it’s not a lawsuit.

It’s a lawsuit. Where are we with Jocelyn Benson? Robert contends, did not get her filings in order for secretary of state. She was fined for late paperwork.

She was required by law to pay the $50 fine. She didn’t. It looks like it looks like by the filings from our committee, the committee paid it, which is just bait.

The basic law can’t do that. Basic law can’t do that. And now her office is engaged in a coverup in which they’re trying to claim that the records were destroyed and they’re not, they’re non-existent.

And it’s, quite ironic. I think I provided you with a copy of the policies with respect to the retention of public records here. The statute requires that these types of financial records be kept for 15 plus years.

And now while all of a sudden her records with respect to this questionable payment are now not available. If secretary of state Benson is an ethical individual who now wants to become mayor governor, I mean, governor, I’m sorry, governor, not, not, not mayor, but governor, then she should be transparent to the electorate of the state of Michigan and come out and provide a copy of the check that was paid. Was it paid by the committee to elect Jocelyn Benson secretary of state, or was it paid by her personally from her own personal bank account as the statute requires? She is not being transparent.

They’re now involved in the coverup and now is full flags on to clearly show an exposure for the unethical person that she truly is. That does not deserve anyone’s vote for governor in this upcoming election, whether you are Democrat, independent, or Republican. It’s important to say, tell me if I’m wrong.

There’s zero tolerance for fucking around with campaign filings. I talked to a guy whose case went to the Supreme court and zero tolerance. I talked to a woman that was in the legislature, same thing with the check and the committee, zero tolerance.

It’s just absolutely sorry about that. I know it sounds like it’s small, but it’s not trivial or small as the courts have indicated. And it is very specific and she has disqualified individuals for owing less than $10.

It doesn’t matter if you owe a dollar, it doesn’t matter. The dollar amount is the fact of the matter is you attest under oath that on that date that you signed that affidavit, that all campaign statements or late filing fees required of you as the candidate or required of any candidate committee that was organized to support your election to any office has been filed or paid with the appropriate filing official, be it the County clerk or the secretary of state. And in this instance, she’s the secretary of state and now she’s using her office, which is a criminal offense to cover up factual financial documents that should always be readily accessible for the public to assess.

Now what they’re doing, I read their response to you. Yes. I remind me to ask you where we at.

Sure. There is a retention policy, right? It’s laid out. It’s in codified.

There are two conflicting provisions. Yes. Provisions.

What are they? What are they? The two provisions, one is a global provision that is in accordance with the Michigan campaign finance act that says the records need to be retained for 15 years, all records, financial data, right? Everything, everything associated with your campaign finance committee. Okay. Okay.

Okay. Filing fees should be 15 years, everything, 15 years. What’s the second one they’re leaning in the second one in which they want to try to cite is one that is a very discreet provision that says, oh, you should be able to, uh, destroy records within five years and it’s seven, seven years.

I’m sorry. Thank you for the correction. Seven years.

And that particular provision is in direct conflict with the Michigan campaign finance act. If the campaign finance act requires you to keep the written documentation of the origins of your candidate committee for 15 years, why would it allow you to destroy records pertaining to financial payment, tracking late filing fees of the short to be destroyed in a shorter amount of time? The financial data is the most important data. Now you get, then you’d have to go in and say, what, what, you know, what, what did they do with all the other campaigns? Oh, I mean, you had, you know, it was at 15, you know, Oh, here’s an interesting, I specifically asked for them to produce the, the late filing fee.

I’m sorry. The fine that was assessed to Abdul El-Sayed during his gubernatorial run nearly 10 years ago or eight years ago. 18.

Yeah. Okay. So it’d be, it’d be over seven.

Yes. It’d be over seven years. Guess what they did? What’d they do? Treasury produced the check.

Oh, and guess what the department of the secretary of state did? What claim? Oh, we don’t have it, but treasury produced the check. So now you hold on, hold on, hold on. Just let that simmer.

Okay. Do we have my closeup Mark? Please continue. Oh, let me try it again.

So what that clearly shows now that Jocelyn Bisson is using her office to obstruct justice and obstruct citizens from getting public information that may be incriminating to democratic nominated candidates. I’m going to assume now maybe treasury, yeah, treasury probably does have it.

Where are we at? Because now, you know, it’s getting to the 19th of September, the, the ballots have to be mailed, you need some printing time. They need to vet and make sure there’s no mistakes. Now they gave the judge is going to be like, what can I do? It’s destroyed.

No, that’s the, and that’s the beauty of it. Uh, our response, my response is due tomorrow and we have a great response crafted. Um, they have the documents, treasury has the documents, it’s something called the archive.

And I have to thank former attorney general, Mike Cox, who pointed me in the direction of the statute that governs the requirement that certain documents, particularly financial documents have to be archived and those particular provisions. And that’s, what’s very interesting is that the department of treasury, when you, when a candidate or candidate committee pays a late filing fee, guess who the check is made out to treasury, the state of Michigan, which goes to the department of, oh, wait, just, okay. That’s I know you want, it’s, you want to get everything in.

Everybody wants to get everything, but just, oh, so this, again, this thing’s active, this is extremely, this thing is serious, very serious. And as of this afternoon, a separate lawsuit would be filed in Macomb County, asking the Macomb County clerk in the Macomb County election commission to keep Jocelyn Benson’s name off the ballot. The election commissions of each County makes the ultimate decision as to what candidates names are placed and printed on the ballot for November.

Okay. That’s all good. But again, the check, oh, we need to check.

We need to check. So I, I, I, because you do great, great investigative journalism and you’re in your face, I beg of you, I give you my next paycheck. If you go knock on Jocelyn Benson’s alleged Detroit residents, sit on her porch and say, produce the check.

If you want the citizens of the state of Michigan to trust you, why can’t you simply put this issue to bed by producing the check that will clearly show who paid the late filing fee? Was it you personally or your committee? No, I wouldn’t waste my time with that because my bank’s not keeping my records that long. So if she, oh, your bank does for 15 years. Oh, the check is from 2015.

That’s what, yeah. Okay. So it’s only 11 years, 11 years.

The bank’s keep it that long. Yeah. Any who.

All right. Well, she’s going to say, I don’t have it all. I’m good.

Look, bro. All I’m going to do, I’m going to call you. Does she even live at the Detroit address? I’m going to talk to the neighbors.

That’s who I’m going to talk to. That’s what, that was the reason why I said the alleged Detroit address. And this guy, okay.

This guy, you want to know what this guy does? Cause he’d been doing this, man. He does this, he does, he gets hired. He’s the guy.

He’ll do this. I don’t think you live there. He goes to the judge, right? Uh, under discovery.

I want your utility bills and I want them for that other house you stay at. And which one are you using the power at? That is fucking genius. Well, I learned that little secret from some great criminal trial attorneys.

W. Otis called pepper and Robert F. Kenny, uh, and Carl Marlinga. I learned some little secrets nearly 20 plus years ago. And, and so when you have people who deliberately lie, because they think that certain information is not public information and that they would never think that a judge or judicial entity will grant you permission to get that private information in terms of utility bills, your taxes, which you typically reflect where you truly live.

And when you go that extra mile, in fact, I have a case pending right now with an elects candidate for treasurer of the city of Highland park claiming that they live in a house directly across the street from me, but, but, but in that, in that vein, that’s why I asked you to go by the river. Right. I know all about that.

Now, come on now, uh, speaking of Mike Cox, he filed suit against Jocelyn Benson. You aware of this, right? I was made aware. Okay.

So he was asking, uh, for all contact, any, any subject matter that had to do with her role as a board of director for the Southern poverty law center and them funneling money to white nationalists. So they could have white nationalists so that they could raise money to battle against the scourge of the people they’re funding and they get nothing back. They hit him for 10 grand, but guess what they found in the little bit of stuff they did send him.

She’s using a private email. Well, not using the public email. Well, that just shows you, she has a DNA of corruption and that’s not a unique trick.

You know, you, you, if you remember, if you recall, but it was so dumb to link them all together. Oh, I mean, I mean, she’s not a very bright lawyer. I mean, she’s not a bright public servant.

Let’s go to the next one. She’s got another lawsuit. This one, I don’t know if you heard of it.

And she’s telling local and County clerks that seven days after the election to delete the electronic poll book, the data, the proof that you voted and who didn’t vote, yes, it will be uploaded to the master file. But the evidence, the direct stuff, right? The, the, the totals will be uploaded, but the direct stuff will be deleted. Is that right? No, it’s a contrary to federal law that requires them to keep all data with respect to elections, especially where federal candidates are involved for close to, I think, 18 months, 22 months, 22 months, or it’s like the voting rights act or something like that.

It’s a, it’s a very specific statute that provides explicitly provides that the data, all data from those particular elections where federal candidates appear on the ballot have to be preserved and maintained and cannot be destroyed. But this is her MO. Benson thinks she is the legislature.

She thinks she, if I could rewrite laws and does things her way, the court spanked her a bunch of times, bringing firearms to the polls, right. Or, uh, telling poll workers like me, the guy that worked at Cobo, uh, if the, if the signatures don’t match, don’t worry about it. Right.

That was the instruction. This is nonsensical. Absolutely.

But, but this is the unethical person that has been serving in the position of secretary of state for the last eight years by purposely deliberately violating the law for her own personal political agenda. And now she wants to become governor. Absolutely not.

And I’m a Democrat and I’m going to be campaign. If she stays on a ballot, the rule of law should prevail and she should not be on the ballot, just like other candidates have been disqualified for submitting false affidavits of identity. She should be treated the same across the board.

No excuses. And we’re done with that segment. Hang with me here.

Michigan drivers pay the highest car insurance rates in the country. Detroit. I pay one.

Yeah. Yeah. Oh, preach.

Have you heard of cure? I have. Okay. Have you tried it? No cure.com. Just take a look.

Um, they price you on your driving record, not on your credit score. Okay. Not on your, not on your, uh, you basically, your, your rate is priced mainly on how well you drive your driving record, not your credit score.

Get priced like it cure.com. Save up to 40% C U R E.com. I’m going to check it out when I leave here. Thank you, man. Okay.

Wish they’d give me a number. All right. This we like to, we had a little segment.

We started, it’s called keyboard. Tough guy. Time to answer the mail from the toughest guys online.

Get ready for keyboard. Tough guys. That’s really not a, not a, not a, not a keyboard.

Tough guy. I know the man. I like the man.

I’m not going to say the man’s name. It was just interesting to me. And, uh, can you put it up for me to see? Okay.

Yeah. There’s your, there’s your first post below. Okay.

No, the first post is what he’s commenting on. It was Medicare for all sounds good. But how do you accomplish that when you can’t fix medical care in a juvenile jail house for 150 kids? Okay.

Just bear with me. Now he writes back. I don’t, you know, look too much, but I saw nobody’s optimistic about the many dim bulbs in this Congress being able to do much of anything that’s beneficial to Americans.

That doesn’t mean universal healthcare isn’t a good idea. I prefer candidates who dream of better things over those trying to reinvent the past. Okay.

Twitch. I wrote to him, look, man, the world. No, Mark, what are you doing? That’s not the right one.

Just leave it. Okay. Stop moving everything.

All right. So I wrote back like, well, dreaming gave us NAFTA and we lost our factories and dreaming gave us banking deregulation and we lost our homes. Dreaming gave us Obamacare and now we can’t afford medicine.

Dreaming gave us windmills and now we can’t pay our power bills. So I’ve learned when it comes to public policy, I prefer mathematics. Is there a response to that? Yep.

Right there. Now, I don’t know why we’re going to do political trees on Twitter, but the world isn’t as simple as Charlie wishes. As an example, he brings up us companies were offshoring long before NAFTA.

Was it someone’s dream? That’s dumb. Frankly, that’s dumb. We weren’t offshoring in the way we are now.

We, right. We didn’t normalize trade with China. Look, the reason we had the American century is because nobody else had a factory after the war.

We were making everything. So not really like a mass offshoring. Maybe there was some stuff in Canada, right? The, the auto compact between the United States and Canada came before NAFTA.

That’s what it was based on. There were no fucking car factories in Mexico. Delphi didn’t take all of our fucking spark plug plants and put them in Mexico in the sixties.

No, no, no, no, no, no. Okay. Now, uh, major industries are now international by necessity.

Why are we trying to reshore them? Why are we bringing the auto lines back? Why are we bringing semiconductors back? It’s not a necessity. It was a necessity for the rich man, for the stockholders who control this government while we’re wearing fucking secondhand underpants, a necessity. I don’t have an answer for that, but protectionism, a douchebag.

Okay. Now I am getting mad at the guy’s protectionism. It’s like, you’re not a fucking business writer.

Protectionism turns you into North Korea. What the fuck? Again, I want you to read Sir David Ricardo, whose book on politics and tariffs that he wrote in 1817 during the Napoleonic blockade, that’s when he was talking about tariffs. It’s all based on that.

It’s called comparative advantage. He said, none of this works. If capital is international and labor is international, then you simply go where you make the most money.

Read it. Stupid bullshit. Protectionism in North Korea in this talking point, middle class, aging white guys, man, these liberal dudes like wake the fuck up because the Republicans now with the MAGA shit, right? They got to talk about working people.

What are the democratic socialists doing? They’re talking about working people and how we got fucked by the system. Now you’re all coming around. Do not give me this shit.

Keyboard tough guy. It’s just none of you give me this shit. Just unfollow me.

Time to answer the mail from the tough, but call here. Get ready for keyboard because here’s the deal. I think it’s a good idea.

Medicare for all. I haven’t studied it, but I think it’s a good idea. Now here’s your leader.

This is politics. Abdul El-Sayed is a funny guy. He’s a personable guy.

You know what I mean? He speaks well, fine. But he was on Jesse Waters. I want you to which clip is this? There’s the budget one, and then there’s the health care.

Let’s do the budget one first. Okay, watch. You want to go to Washington? Be one of a hundred of the elite smart.

You’re aware of everything. Medicare for all in the company. Roll it.

Do you know how much the federal budget is now? Not neither do I. Here’s exactly federal. But you guys want to write P. Hexeth. And so answer the question.

Do you know what the federal budget is? No, no, no, no, no. I just I just want to talk about this. Look, you want to talk about budgets? I’m happy to do that.

Okay. Okay. In fiscal year 2025, the federal budget was 5.8 trillion.

The debt, the deficit was 1.8 trillion. We spent over $7 trillion, Abdul. You got to know this shit.

You got to know this shit. What’s Medicare for all going to cost? No, stop using four trillion. There’s new estimates.

That’s an old baseline. It’s over 5 trillion with a lot of assumptions. So boom, there’s that now.

Jesse and Abdul sex changes for minors. Do you support that? Look, you know, I remember having great conversations with my conservative friends about right to try legislation. The idea that the government shouldn’t tell you what kind of healthcare you should have.

I just think the government shouldn’t tell you what kind of healthcare you should have. And if you’re a minor, you want to try on kids. Now, if you disagree with that, if you disagree with that, if you disagree that healthcare decisions need to be made by a doctor and their parents and a patient, then I just, we think we agree to disagree, but you know, you want to put government inside.

So Abdul, you’re a doctor, right? I am. So you think it’s okay for a parent to slash his kid’s thing going off? You think that’s okay? I mean, do you, so do you really want to have this conversation? Are you circumcised? Yeah. Yeah.

But I mean, that’s a personal question. Okay. Doctor, you probably should want to move on.

You probably should want to move on. A circumcision is different than castration. I think it’s a, it’s a problem.

It’s a problem that you think that you get to decide what happens between a parent, a doctor and a patient. And I’m just saying that yes, circumcision is surgery on a kid’s dingling. So if you really want to bring that up, you can, I just think you guys are really selective about these things.

Abdul, Michigan’s not going for that. That is sick stuff. Okay.

Here we go. I didn’t, I mean, that was not a great performance at all. Well, also you could, first of all, I’ve reached out to him.

Like I’m from Michigan dude. And I know the issues here and I know the numbers. So you’re welcome.

Jesse waters. And that’s not, I mean, that was, that was, that, that was not very senatorial. Well, you could also see the debating style, which is okay.

I’m not going to answer that question. And then when he gets badgered out of, he just moves, he changes. Okay.

But here’s, that was funny. I just wanted y’all to hear dingling. I want you to replay the beat, just the beginning of it for a second.

I want to point something out here. Sex changes for minors. Do you support that? Look, you know, I remember having great conversations with my conservative friends about right to try legislation.

The idea that the government shouldn’t tell you what kind of healthcare you should have. I just think that’s exactly what Medicare for all is. It’s going to be rationed just like it is in Canada, because when it’s free, it’s not free, everybody goes.

So now add your knee replacement can wait. You know what I mean? The government is going to tell you the order of things. So that’s, does that make sense? What I said? Well, I mean, I, there needs to be some drastic changes to our healthcare system.

And you and I agree to disagree on certain things. And I think the Obamacare system was good because the premiums were very low. Uh, now they’re astronomical where people cannot afford healthcare.

But I think the messaging from our democratic candidates need to be very direct and clear and concise and not just say Medicare for all. What does that consist of? And because people are begging for a much needed solution, I mean, those popular tag frames, uh, you know, can only go so far. He needs to have some more substance.

And I think, I mean, that’s one of the things in which we’ve talked offline about is that I’m not completely sold on his ability to win this race. I’m not completely sold on his ability to convince African-American voters here in the city of Detroit and Saginaw and Flint and other urban areas to come out in droves in support of him, because I think he comes off very arrogant, um, and he comes off as a know it all. But when you peel back the substance of his platform and his achievements here in Wayne County in Detroit, it’s very insufficient.

I want to go on record. You know, that’s, I want to, I want to like, look at this based on people’s life work right now. I haven’t said that.

And yes, the work is coming. I look at Mike Rogers and I’m like, you don’t have a message. Like, let’s be honest.

Right. Everybody here like what, uh, you know, I mean, uh, we, you know, the higher wages, right. Oh, dude, you can’t just rope a dope and go, you know, this guy’s like a, uh, uh, Islamist and said crazy shit about ding-a-lings.

That ain’t enough because it is fucked up in corporations and the healthcare industry insurance. They took over. They took over.

I got to apologize. I was a total supporter of Obamacare. You know why? Cause it sounded good.

I, it passed with, with not a Republican vote. It sounded good. I was for it.

And since then, whether you, whatever you, whatever you want to blame it on. Medical costs have doubled. The premiums are through the roof.

And so are your deductibles. Well, I mean, I got insurance. I can’t use because my deductible is $15,000.

I think that the Obamacare system is better than what we have now. Yes. There was some need for improvement, but I think in all, I think that’s a debate we can have, but I think in my humble opinion, that Obamacare system was, was better than what we had.

Oh, it’s not here. I mean, they’ve stripped that away. I mean, that’s why the premiums now are astronomical.

So, I mean, we could agree to disagree on that issue. Here’s what happens because like Obamacare required that we pay for 10 things like you pay for maternity care and you’re not a matron, but you’re going to pay for it. We’re going to, we’re going to pool it in order to take care of Medicaid, Obamacare, the working poor, right? The, how necessarily you got to charge us more to fill that in to get the equal care.

So no, ours have to go up in order for all these people to have healthcare. Currently under Obama, before Obamacare, they were 80 million people underinsured means no medical, or they couldn’t afford to access what they paid. What’s the number now? 85 million and prices have doubled.

So what I’m asking you, and I don’t have to answer. But we’re intelligent, man. We agree to disagree.

No, we agree. We agree on the issue. I’m a problem.

Give me a fix, not a phrase. Give me a fix. Oh, I, I agree.

And hopefully this Saturday, while we’re at the convention, I’m going to try to talk one-on-one with Abdul El-Sayed, um, to, because here’s my problem with him. And as you know, I think we both worked on this particular story when our good friend, who’s now gone on to glory, Bob Carmack, uh, was going after the mayor of the city of Detroit, the former mayor, uh, Mike Duggan. If I could jump in there again.

So everybody saved me your, oh, I can’t believe you’re getting into the bedroom. No, with, with Bob put a tail on Duggan and Duggan was making the midnight booty call out there and Wixom, and then we find out money’s getting funneled to her. Absolutely.

The public’s business. When Kwame Kilpatrick was sleeping with the federal, uh, oversight chairman over our police, cause we were under federal oversight for like a decade, he was sleeping with her story story. Right.

It had nothing to do with your color, with your, with your DNA. You asked for the big chair, do us right. Well, on that note, uh, what’s, what’s important about that, that’s that narrative you just put out there is the fact that who was the director of the health department in the city of Detroit at during that period in which money was being steered, the money funneled to Duggan’s mistress was being funneled through the Detroit health department.

Who was the director? Abdul El Sayed. So that’s one of my problems with his candidacy because that issue, which is also attached to John Slim Benson’s husband, who was the unindicted co conspirator who covered up deleted, deleted once the, the law enforcement agency executed search warrants that city hall, there is a DNA of corruption with these people. And people need to know what the relationships are as it relates to certain corrupt deals that took from the citizens of the city of Detroit.

And when I saw Abdul on TV, uh, pumping up his, his success with what’s the program in which Doug eyeglasses, not eyeglasses, but, uh, debt forgiveness. No, not debt for child infant mortality. There you go.

Which, which is what Duggan’s now wife, former mistress, her foundation was being unlawfully steered public dollars. Watch this now. Watch this.

So there was no accomplishment there, but it was promoting it as it was 14, 14 per thousand kids, something like skyrocketed, like double the state. And this state measures, uh, nowhere decently in any category per health. By the time this would, they were shoveling.

Oh no, but it’s a great program. It’s been very successful. You just go to the health and human services website.

Look up infant mortality. It’s skyrocketed. By the, by the time Syed left, it went from 14 to 17.

So if he’s, if he’s promoting that, the infant mortality program as a success, then he needs to be upfront and transparent about the money that was funneled from his, from his department for Duggan’s mistress. Okay. He needs to address that.

So like how long you been working politics in this town? Yeah. Give me a, give me a year, 30 years. Okay.

What year was that? That’d be like 90 the nineties. I came back home in 2008. We know shit.

Okay. Syed was the director of the, uh, Wayne County’s health department. Do you remember Grundy? Mike Grundy? I do.

I helped put him in prison. He was a predecessor who was embezzling funds. Some of them were for hair plugs and they didn’t even work.

He, he was getting in his sedan after he left federal court, right? He’s convicted and he gets into the car like this and our cameras there and we freeze it, we go, look, they didn’t even work. So no, we, you know, we watch who walked. So I’m going to move along, but I need to say this.

At least he’s bringing it up, but it’s a nice message. Nice. Medicare for all money in your pocket, money out of politics.

Mike Rogers, you got to come with something, dude. I mean, what is this? Come with something. I mean, it’s an empty suit with Mr. Rogers and me.

Unfortunately, our choices in this election are very slim, but I’m done with just going with the lesser of the two evils. And we as African-Americans in the democratic party have been, um, taken for granted. And I’m telling you my first issue, I’m not voting for Benson.

I’m going to be very vocal against Benson. If, if she’s not taken off the ballot and she should be, if the rule of law shall be upheld and prevail, I am not automatically going to sign on with Abdul El-Sayed and, but I’m going to give him an opportunity to persuade me, but that’s going to be my number one issue. If I get opportunity as a one-on-one with him this Saturday at the convention to ask him, if you’re going to promote this infant mortality program, discuss the other side of that infant mortality program.

When you are over the city of Detroit health department. Now I’m, I’m worried about this quarter claims judge. I drove up there to talk to him.

Couldn’t get in there. Bulletproof glass up there in the justice center in Lansing. Um, did you really? Yeah.

Chop, chop, sir. He was appointed by Whitmer. Chop, chop.

We got an election coming. Be honest before it’s right. And dude, if this looks to me to be true, and if, if the law is applied, this is unbelievable and then the central committee of the Democrats have to get together and pick somebody.

So is it going to be Winnie Brinks? Well, I mean, here’s, you know about Winnie Brinks? I have no clue. Couldn’t get the budget through last time around. And the way we got Winnie, the Democrat, uh, Senate majority leader, and she got a hundred million, I believe unencumbered dollars.

Here you go. And for your district, go on. All right.

Anyway, let me do this. This is how fucked it is. Yes.

I went out there. The most poison hole in the city. Elevated lead levels.

They dug it up. They didn’t fill it up. Now it’s filled with water and the lady’s house is contaminated.

Watch this. Forgive it. Forgive the visual.

I don’t know what’s wrong with my phone. So I’m at the site of Detroit’s most poison demolition hole. Remember the corrupt city leaders and corrupt contractors were dumping garbage in here and charging weed to public tens of thousands of dollars.

This one was found to have so much lead in the field dirt that it’s unsafe for human contact, wildly unsafe. A month ago, they came to dig it out. Didn’t finish digging it out, threw plastic over it to keep the rain out.

It’s full of fucking water. And now the water’s gone into the woman’s house and this thing’s contaminated. And the dipshits at city hall, they can’t fill a hole.

What speaks to incompetent government more than not being able to basically fill a fucking hole. They’re corrupt downtown. They don’t care about you.

This woman’s left to her zone, her own. And they think if we just ignore it, it goes away. It doesn’t go away.

You’re bums. City council, you’re bums. You went off on vacation and you left her.

The mayor is a bum. Got more troubles than in this hole. But let’s not forget about the people.

Stevie Wonder learned to play piano. Where at this hole where a house used to be on top of it, this, this is a landmark, but it’s a different kind of landmark now of how nobody, nobody running for Senate who’s got a medical degree, anybody running for governor. The, the mayor of this town, you just do us like this.

Well, I’m going to stay on it. I’m on a bus some ass and I wish all of you the best. Let’s stick together.

Look at this shit. It’s full of water. The whole shit filled up with water.

Now the water’s leaking into her basement. Contractors won’t even get in there. They say it’s so contaminated.

Look, and they left this next to her house for the last month. The fuck is going on here? I’m going to get that fixed today. Mark my fucking words.

Thanks for the work you’re doing.