What Minneapolis Cops Are Saying That News Ignores | Michele Tafoya

0:00Well, it's interesting. I've been out and about talking to hundreds of people, and everyone is frustrated. Now, I'll grant you, I have not spoken to the people who are—I will say that, you know, there are some people who are angry at both ICE and at the illegal immigrants who are committing crimes here. They, you know, and you're having, they're threading that needle of how do I express this? My expression of it is this. Governor Walz, you could have assisted. You could have helped. Mayor Fry, you could have assisted. You could have helped. But just like during the George Floyd riots, when both of those guys were MIA, they were not around to do anything.

0:46I've spoken with leadership in the St. Paul Police Department and Minnesota police officers who have said this stuff could have been avoided. The tragedies, which were tragedies, could have been avoided. Had we been allowed to help? Had we been allowed to open our prisons and our jails and let these federal law enforcement agents come take these criminals directly away?

1:17All right. I'm Dave Rubin and joining me today is a four-time Emmy Award winning sports journalist, now host of the Michelle Tafoya podcast and candidate for Senate in Minnesota. As if we don't talk about Minnesota and Minneapolis and that whole thing enough. Michelle Tafoya, how are you? I am good. Yes, we've suspended the podcast because running for United States Senate takes about every minute of every day and then some. All right. Podcast on hold. On hiatus. on hiatus. You're getting primetime 11 a.m. Rubin Report placement right now. Yes, I love that. For many reasons. I'm really thrilled to have you on.

1:55And, you know, I know you originally from the sports world, which I do want to talk a bit about some about the Super Bowl and just sports media in general. But also, when I saw that you were running for Senate and I saw the ad, I immediately retweeted it because we have such a lack of decent people in politics. And you, as I think will be illustrated for my audience that does not know you over the next 45 minutes or so are really incredibly thoughtful and smart. And I'm glad you're getting involved. But let's start with the sports world. Now that we're a couple days post Super Bowl. As someone that's covered all these things for years and was just deep into that world, are you able to watch the game and not be sucked in by all the politics and the culture war stuff?

2:41Because I find it very hard not to, even though I want to take a break every day from all that stuff. Hey, listen, I've talked to former players who are having a hard time watching the Super Bowl. And even one told me he's having a hard time watching the Olympic Games because of the politics around it. It's really rough. I mean, this isn't necessarily new, right? We've had some of this in the past. but I think it's really affected American teams and athletes in such a way that it's tough to get away from. You know, I thought for the most part, and I folded laundry during halftime, so I didn't do anything but fold laundry during halftime.

3:20But I thought, you know, and the game was unfortunately a little dull. I thought the Seattle punter, quite frankly, could have been MVP of that game. But, you know, it is tough. And I know that Roger Goodell, I've seen it for a long, long time while I was in the league and since, wants to make this the global game, the global sport, just globalize it. They're going to even play games in Australia next season, which seems, I don't know how you physically do that, but they're going to do it. So that's what his focus is on. And to me, it's sort of taken away from the American charm of the NFL. So to that point, I mean, we do, even if you didn't watch the halftime thing, we do have to talk about it for a second.

4:08Look, everyone has their own musical taste. Bad Bunny is not my thing. But to me, putting aside the style of music, to do it all in Spanish, 13 % of Americans speak Spanish. Obviously, the lyrics, even though they edited some of them, are, let's just say, over-the-top sexual and all of that stuff. I mean, is that Goodell just throwing all in on what you just described right there? It's just like doing anything possible, especially because it's the backdrop of America's 250th anniversary. To me, it should have been such a celebration of America, and it just wasn't. And, you know, there are other genres of music that are huge and that represent a lot of Americans.

4:47I saw Piers Morgan tweet out something about how 50 million Americans, that Spanish is their first language. I'm not sure he has his statistics right there. I saw 13%. We double-checked it this morning. There we go. So, you know, it's the fact that this is that the halftime is such a hot button. It tells you kind of a lot of what you need to hear. But yes, so Bad Bunny is globally a massive artist. Remember that Jay-Z and his rock nation have huge influence over the halftime artist selection. And that's why, you know, you're seeing whom you've seen. We've had a lot of international artists. We could talk about U2.

5:27We can talk about Coldplay. We can talk about a number of different artists. But, yeah, the fact that it was all in Spanish was sort of, I don't know. I think there were a lot of people who didn't appreciate it. And the fact that the Turnpoint USA alternative halftime got what, I'm hearing, like 23 million sets of eyeballs on it is remarkable. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's just hard to believe. To me, it's one of those things where it's like we have so few days, really, I would say Super Bowl, Thanksgiving and Christmas, basically, where we should all just be putting down all of this stuff. And the fact that this is not a knock at Turning Point, but the fact that they felt they needed an alternate halftime show.

6:07And clearly a lot of people agreed that shows you that there is a problem, that there is a problem that we really have to deal with. Let me ask you one thing, because you mentioned the Olympics. And until earlier in the week, I didn't even know the Olympics were happening. I just wasn't seeing anything. I didn't see opening games. I didn't see anything. Subsequently, of course, I've seen some of these athletes, the skiers who are kind of, you know, talking crap about the U.S. or not that proud to have the flag on, et cetera, et cetera. What do you make about what's going on over there? It's disappointing.

6:35You know, just ahead of the Olympics, I don't know if you've seen this, Dave, on Netflix, there's a movie, a film called Miracle, The Boys of 80. And it revisits the members of the team, Michael Ruzzioni and all those hockey players that played in that miraculous, you know, game against Russia to advance to the gold medal game and then the gold medal game. And my buddy Al Michaels is interviewed for it. It brought me chills. It made me cry. I you all we all know how the story ends and still watching it again. You just get the same goosebumps and the same American pride and these players. And by the way, Mike Arruzzioni, when he heard about this skier saying, you know, I represent my family, my friends, not necessarily America.

7:21Arruzzioni just torched him. And a lot of people said, wait a minute, you're wearing our flag on your uniform. This is a game about countries competing against countries. So you're either in or aren't, you know, or are you? And so it is disappointing. And it's, you know what, and it's also notable that so many, not only at this event, but tennis events, we have these reporters in the pressers who have to ask the question, what's it like being an American and representing America right now with everything that's going wrong? You know, this is their M.O., and they're getting some of what they wanted.

7:58Wouldn't it be odd if sports reporters asked about sports? Would that just be a bridge too far? Am I too old school? Is that why you got out of the biz? You know, I'll tell you that covering the NFL during the COVID year, covering it during the Kaepernick stuff, the kneeling of the anthem, it really shifted focus away from the actual games and the athletic excellence that you see on the field and some of the other stuff. But, you know, I suppose if like George W. Bush throwing out the first pitch after 9-11, that was a sporting event and that was political in nature. You know, it was unifying.

8:38Right, right, right. It was unifying. So, you know, are we supposed to just say, well, we can only unify? I'm a big free speech advocate, Dave. I know you are, too. And so I'm going to let these people do it to themselves. I would hope that sponsors will pay attention and say, you know what? This might not appeal to our cereal box buyers, and we're not going to put you on a Wheaties box. Right. That's the key part. You know, I happen to live in New York City during 9-11, and the Yankees get into the World Series, and him throwing out that pitch, which was a perfect strike. I mean, you could not have made any of that.

9:14All right. Let's shift over to the other thing we've been talking about for a month, which is your state of Minnesota. There is a lot going on in Minnesota right now. How would you describe the state of your state? Well, it's interesting. I've been out and about talking to hundreds of people, and everyone is frustrated. Now, I'll grant you, I have not spoken to the people who are—I will say that, you know, there are some people who are angry at both ICE and at the illegal immigrants who are committing crimes here. They, you know, and you're having, they're threading that needle of how do I express this?

9:56My expression of it is this. Governor Walz, you could have assisted. You could have helped. Mayor Fry, you could have assisted. You could have helped. But just like during the George Floyd riots when both of those guys were MIA, they were not around to do anything. I've spoken with leadership in the St. Paul Police Department and Minnesota police officers who have said this stuff could have been avoided. The tragedies, which were tragedies, could have been avoided. Had we been allowed to help? Had we been allowed to open our prisons and our jails and let these federal law enforcement agents come take these criminals directly away?

10:39But instead, we risk life and limb once going after them, and now they're risking life and limb going after them a second time. It doesn't make sense. So I really hold our, I don't want to use the word leadership, our elected far left officials accountable for a great deal of the chaos that's been on the ground. Do you see this as just the natural extension of the rest of their political views? I mean, is this kind of obvious now looking at Walls' record and the fact that the guy was almost vice president? I mean, Jacob Fry has been deeply involved with the Somali community there for a long time and has made it clear that they're going to remain a sanctuary city and all of these things.

11:19So in some sense, it's, you know, everyone's like, oh, my God, why Minneapolis? Why Minnesota? But in some sense, it does kind of make sense. It does. And honestly, it does. And the more that I look at Tim Walz and the persona that he has tried to sell all of us this, I'm just a nice guy. I was a teacher and a football coach. And yeah, sometimes I'm a knucklehead. He'll punch you. Don't forget, he'll punch you. He wants to punch J.D. Vance. That's true, too. It's a front. It's a front for who he really is. A guy who visited China multiple times, took students on trips to China, admires what's going on in China.

11:55A guy who let Minneapolis burn along with Jacob Fry during the George Floyd riots because, well, his wife loved the smell of the burning tires in the streets. This is who he is. And I was shocked when he was selected as Kamala Harris's vice president, you know, nominee. And I was breathing a heavy sigh of relief when they did not get elected. And I'm glad he stepped out of the governor's race, but there's a reason, Dave, that he has. He is so up to his knees, up to his neck in fraud, and it's going to keep coming. The indictments are going to keep coming. I continue to hear from very trusted sources that this is only the beginning.

12:40You hear it. This is the tip of the iceberg, but it's what I hear. So it makes sense, yes.

13:13conspiratorial, but my gosh, they sure have benefited from this. You know, the fraud conversation is not on the front page like it was. Well, it wasn't in our newspapers because our newspaper is a leftist rag, the Minnesota Star Tribune. But it's now, it's coming back because we are seeing a quieting down of these ICE protests. We're actually seeing Minneapolis police department officers getting rid of these, you know, you see at these intersections, these people throwing these big barricades up. And funny, they're asking for ID, which is what they don't want, apparently. But they're doing it because it's okay for them to do it.

13:55So we're seeing people getting arrested for vandalizing and for some of this really violent protest. I am all about peaceful protest. Go for it. You start throwing stuff and breaking stuff and kicking cars and breaking windshields and hurting people and stealing their stuff. It's no longer a peaceful protest and it's got to stop. And I'm happy to say that there are arrests being made now. There seems to be a bit of change in tone and tenor over the weekend. So what do you make of that change? Because it seems to me that if you're Walls, if you're Ilhan Omar, Jacob Pryor, you're just going to continue as is.

14:31Now, Trump brought in Holman. It seemed like things then did shift at that point. And there were some signals like, OK, maybe we'll work with them a little bit. But, you know, the foot soldiers, they seem to just turn on and off whenever the powers that be seem to want that to happen. Yeah, it's interesting to watch. It may be that Pam Bondi spent a few days here in one of the legal offices in town looking into the fraud. It may be that they're really putting the screws on these guys as it comes to fraud and you better cooperate or else. But I hope that's not a negotiating tact that is going to be seen through, because I want this fraud stuff to be cleared up.

15:11I want everyone held to account. Some of the money can be clawed back. We want that. And it wasn't just Minnesotans' money. This was federal tax dollars as well. But yes, sending in Tom Homan was a very wise move on the part of President Trump. He is really respected by law enforcement. And I just think that the tone really changed. Now, that's not to say that we don't still have protesters paid and otherwise here. But I think we're starting to see this quelled a little bit. Have you talked to any local law enforcement about how they have felt about this? Because one of the strange things for me is, you know, you see the barricades in the middle of the street.

15:52And you're right. They're literally asking residents for their own IDs to get home, which is what they don't want people to do when they come into the country. You know, putting mattresses in the streets, throwing things at ICE people, all that. Putting aside what anyone feels about ICE, the local Minnesota police should be dealing with that stuff. And they weren't even dealing with that. I can't imagine that they're happy about that. No, they're not. And they are starting to try to clear those up. But it almost seems as soon as one comes down, another one goes up. it's very centered in a specific part of Minneapolis.

16:25So anyone who lives sort of in the ring of suburbs is not feeling that necessarily. Although I will say there are a lot of ice out posters all over the place in the suburbs as well as in Minneapolis. So there are people very opinionated about this. We had a, getting back to sports really quick, we have a radio station here in Minneapolis, St. Paul, called KFAN. And one of its most beloved announcers, a guy named Paul Allen, who is also the voice of the Minnesota Vikings, and people have heard his calls all throughout the nation because he's just so distinctive. He made a joke about protesters being paid, and he got absolutely pummeled.

17:07Now, I don't know who was doing the pummeling, but they took him off the air for a week. And it was just this joke about the weather and do paid protesters get hazard pay, I think is what he joked. But immediately, it was a firestorm around this guy. But there's a lot of evidence that they do get paid. Well, you know, there is. There's this guy named Neville Ray Singham. Yeah. He was born in the States, but now lives in China. And there is a lot of smoke around this guy, but apparently he's protected in China. But he's got a ton of money, George Soros type money. And like George Soros, he's giving it to a lot of these groups paying them to get these protests together.

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18:59So tell me before we dive into all the reasons you're running for the Senate, tell me a little bit about Minnesotans that we don't really know. Because at this point, we're really just covering that, OK, your governor's wacky and there's some fraud there. I do plenty of stuff on Ilhan Omar, sometimes with choice language. You know, the mayor of Minneapolis, little whatever. We don't talk about the people that – no, no, Jacob Fry. But, you know, I was just trying to be nice and not even give an adjective to him. So – but what is it – what do we know about the people there? Because if you just look at what, you know, the coverage is, it's, oh, that they're all out on the streets fighting nice.

19:36And that obviously is not the case. It's not the case. It's not the case. I've spent the last two weeks very much talking with the people, regular folks here in Minnesota who they use words like embarrassment, that they don't like to admit where they're from when they talk to other people because it's embarrassing for them. They're angry as hell over the fraud. They realize it's their money that these people have just decided to take. So when they drive over a pothole and they realize that that money is probably sitting in a Rolex watch somewhere instead of filling that pothole with their taxpayer dollars, they're ticked off.

20:18They're very frustrated. So there are a lot of really reasonable people out here that that's those are the people I'm looking to represent in this run because there are lots of them. And many of them and I've gotten emails saying, why isn't anyone speaking for us? They're interviewing all these crazies in Minneapolis and St. Paul, they're not talking to the rest of us. And I hear their frustration because they care about stuff like schools and fraud and crime and secure borders and all of those things. And they are fed up. And so I really believe that in this run, I'm going to be able to represent a lot of these people who feel like they don't have a voice, Dave.

21:05So what finally pushed you into doing this? I mean, you don't need the headache. You're successful. You don't need the headache. I mean, what really was the final? Was it all of this? I mean, was it the immigration slash fraud that finally just pushed you into a corner? I think that, yeah, the fraud really was the final straw. I had thought about this for many years. My family wasn't really ready, you know, when my kids were younger. I think they're more ready now. My husband's certainly more ready now. And I am very ready. And so I have thought about it, thought about it over the course of many years and haven't done it.

21:37And I finally said, you know what? I got to do this. I'm not going to be able to live with myself if I don't at least put myself out there and try to fight for the people of Minnesota, for the things that they need. And not only for Minnesota, for the country. You know, I'm concerned about the future of the country as a whole. This is, you know, things need to get better. And the Senate needs to stay Republican. And if I have anything to say about it, we'll grow the majority. Because it could get very, very nuts if the House flips. And I just I think all of those things just finally pushed me to say, Michelle, put your money where your mouth is.

22:14If you're going to complain, you have a platform. Use it. Use it in a way that that you can really be of service to the country and to the state. So you're trying to take the seat of Tina Smith, who's stepping away. Obviously, Amy Klobuchar has a big name. She's she's the other senator. But OK, so two blue senators. You're going to try to flip one of them red. I mean, what are the, well, I don't know enough about the, probably the overall electoral breakdown of the state. So maybe you can talk about that. But also to convince people in a midterm, you know, a mid-year election, midterm election, where it likely doesn't go great for the incumbent party.

22:50I mean, the numbers are like, probably not great for the Republicans. This state is different. And I like to point to the fact that Indiana just won a college football national championship. Who would have thunk, right? There's a time and a place for him. In my town. In your town. So that happened. This can happen. I think enough people are really fed up. And Republicans here are tired of losing. And I think there's a general consensus on the Republican side that the votes get stolen anyway. This goes back to Al Franken beating out Norm Coleman by a couple hundred votes and some some shenanigans around that election.

23:29People were very, very frustrated. Well, now they're seeing what the offshoot of they're not voting may be doing to the state. And they are ticked off. They're frustrated. They've had it. They want someone who can win. I think I give them someone who can win. I think I'm a reasonable, common sense conservative and someone who can convince people to get out and vote. So, yeah, it's I'm not saying it's going to be easy. It's not. The two running on the Democrat side, Dave, are interesting. Peggy Flanagan, who, as far as I know, has a lead in the polls over there, is the lieutenant governor currently.

24:09She's directly tied to Tim Walz and all of their failures. The other is Angie Craig, who is currently a congresswoman. She likes to paint herself as a moderate. She is not. You can look at her voting record. And she has, you know, she did vote for the Lake and Riley Act. And now everyone's booing her when she comes to a Democrat, you know, sort of gathering. They boo her because she voted for the Lake and Riley Act. So she's having to run further to the left. So I think no matter who I'm running against, I present an alternative that is level-headed, not crazy, common sense, and, you know, is going to listen and represent Minnesota well.

24:51And by the way, now, real quick, now that you mentioned Amy Klobuchar, she's now running for governor because Tim Walls got out of the race. So Klobuchar will be able to appoint, if she wins the governor's race, she'll be able to appoint a Senate to replace her. Imagine who that might be. Tim Walls? I don't know, maybe. It'll be a lefty. It will definitely be a lefty. I mean, there's just so many interesting little plays that are taking place right there at the moment. How do you convince people, not only in Minnesota, but in the rest of the country, that you can be a thoughtful, interesting, decent human being and be in politics?

25:31Because when I saw your ad, that's what I tweeted, something to that effect. Like, here's a good one. Here's a good one running. And it seems to me that you almost have to be completely insane these days to run or just willing to burn everything down or do unbelievably terrible things. How do you convince people, hey, we could just be serious adults that care about the country and want to fix things? I think the more I talk to people and the more they hear from me, the more they understand that I have a grasp of the issues. a lot of, you know, I'm not just a sports reporter, folks. I got a master's in business.