Oh mess every day in every state across the country our political system is bankrolled by an army of fundraisers pulling in millions of dollars a race sometimes it looks like you might imagine knocking on doors, calling every name in the phonebook, and emails, so many emails. But for all those little fish drawing 100 to their local race, its the whales, those Campaign Fundraisers really need powerful and rich individuals and companies. And when they donate 20 5,000, 1 million, they want a favor or ten it should be obvious that thats corrupt, but with a wink and nod, political deals to the bribery line every single day. And we may never have noticed that certain illinois the governor hadnt flung back the curtain within unrepentant ego, a political corruption, crime spree in a set of unprecedented Audio Recordings that shined a bright light on the inner workings of american political power. Ladies and gentlemen meet Rod Blagojevichs it was Early Morning because i used to get up every morning and turn on the 06 00 news then, you know, like you can awake him up and then youre like, whoa wait, what oh, outside of a boy, which is house, they got cameras, they got cars. And then they march amount and yellow eye thats a governor joe. Breaking news. The illinois governor, Rod Blagojevichs charged with plotting to sell Barack Obamas former senate seat. Remember this guy. He sure hopes he do. Governor Rod Blagojevichs went down in a blaze of infamy for one of the largest political corruption scandals of our time. The governor was allegedly trying to sell the Illinois Senate seat vacated by president elect obama in fact, part of the governor sales pitch, whos at the seats still had that new obama smell appointing someone to the senate is a rare opportunity when the will of the people is swapped wholesale for a gubernatorial power trip will go have a ced, the Sole Authority to place whomever he wanted straight into the halls of the us senate and he was not shy about wanting a Little Something in return. With the fbi recording his phone calls for the First Time Since nixon, the public was able to listen in on raw backroom politics. And theres nothing quite like hearing it from the horses mouth the criminal complaint quotes blagojevichs saying the senate seat was a valuable thing. You just dont give it away for nothing. Another quote, ive got this thing and its bleeping golden. Ive got this thing go and im just not given up. Nothing. Ive got this thing and its in gold. Yeah im not just giving it up for nothing was there a second . Then theyre racking up a staggering 24 criminal charges. Governor blagojevichs actions essentially boiled down to four things. Extortion bribery, corruption, and wire fraud and it wasnt just about the senate seat will go, which was also found guilty of extorting a Childrens Hospital you cant write this stuff. Hes an arrogant punk who thinks that, you know, hes bulletproof. Well, hes not he was convicted on 18 total charges and sentenced to 14 years, the longest sentence ever handed down to a governor people loathe the image for the way he politics, but was what he did so blatantly criminal because the truth is that the line between whats illegal and whats allowable is much murkier than wed like to thank this is where the Rod Blagojevichs story gets interesting. Let me reassert to all of you, wants more that i am not guilty of any criminal wrongdoing. Was rod a corrupt politician or just a politician operating in a corrupt system that still thrives to this day. So governor, thanks for joining us. Thank you. So youve been out of prison now for almost two years, little over two years, and youre still very outspoken about how you feel like the case against you was unjust there isnt really an argument about what you said. Its on tape by the question, is whether it was illegal and whether it was morally wrong. Look, if youre saying do we have a Fundraising System in america that you could argue is legalized bribery i think theres truth to that. But did i do anything other than that standard that every other person in politics does from President Biden on down. I did the same as them and nothing worse. There is this real problem in American Politics today, where prosecutors are weaponizing themselves criminalizing routine and Legal Practices and government in politics. And i think its wrong when they do to bill clinton. Its wrong. I think when they did it to President Trump because i have strong views on that and i know it was wrong and they did it to me okay. Well, its one factor. Lets talk about the chicago in illinois system because youre hardly the first governor in history, even in recent history, to go to prison whats the situation here that causes this to happen . Well, i think its time honored here and theres a long history in chicago politics, illinois politics were pretty much everybody gets rich chicago politics. Its like go into a paper. When you go fishing, like give, you are as the curator, you can not be in illinois and not get something illinois steeped in a rich history of political corruption that dates back a century to the prohibition era, when bootlegging gangster such as al capone bought off politicians and police departments, keeping them drunk on power and also just drunk and rides lifetime illinois has developed a rap sheet that any mobster would be proud of more than 1,700 convictions for corruption, including nearly 30 chicago alderman, eight State Legislators to us congressmen. And before rod came onto the scene, three governors in an odd way, the very people who should hate the idea of corruption or kind of proud that this is al capone is illinois chicago is a wink and nod town its a shot and a beer town a lot of it has to do with Family Relationships because a lot of the Political Leadership in chicago in illinois, our family unrelated. Theres the Daily Family Madigan all of these families sort of become part of this mafia. A political mafia, and theyre the ones who make the rules i didnt come from that. I had to marry into it. I met a girl 6 march 1988. She was wearing a red dress and she happened to be the daughter of a oldfashion in chicago political ward boss. And shes my wife, patti and fell in love patty will go evich is a loyal wife. She is a tough customer and shes the daughter of dick male. Shes complicated that budding relationship between those two is how rod goes from this. Nobody politically finding a way to kind of embed himself into one of these big political families in chicago. They had so much power. I dont think it was some great surprise that like, you know, when it comes time to meet the parents that dick mel was the fatherinlaw and the powerful City Council Chieftain in a shrine to work he added a foot display city it back together so that all part of it are you all for free dick male was a guy who always had her voice in the backrooms. He was a powerbroker in that kind of chicago classic sense before politics, it was a nice relationship, but for the most part respectful and then because i was in the family and i was actually pretty good at helping her dad local politics, knocking on doors and trying to get them votes. There was an opportunity to run for office in Rod Blagojevichs male could see a guy that eventually if he doesnt write, i could sort of pass the mantle toward rod was an immediate hit with illinois voters who sent him first to the statehouse in 1992 and then to the us congress in 1996. Dig mill says i can see you being governor. 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Its good, fair, satisfactory, like a percentage if you had to get understood. Great studentteacher ratio we bring you the real indepth school info. What were you thinking . I dont know. I dont know homes. Com the campaign for illinois governor has gotten pretty lively. You got chicago congressman Rod Blagojevichs whats that name again, a larger large of a child lodge of which you sure. Positives during raj 2002 governors campaign, dick mills, membership in the Old School Chicago elite was a definite bonus, but it was rods, Working Class Bona Fides and People Skills that did all the rest coming from the family. Did. He had a real Working Class Chip . On his shoulder and his two heroes, were elvis and richard nixon, both because they were guys who came from the wrong side of their tracks and fought their way up. And were kind of distain by the elites. In fact, if those two gritty 20th century icons fought their way into a single person, you might actually end up up with Rod Blagojevichs for better and for worse Rod Blagojevichs that i first met was youthful. He was energetic. He had this kind of maine, a black hair that was super thick and you could tell it just filled with hair product. The hair so iconic and its own right that it became a Comedy Staple on every layer. Nycha that thats also wearing in to pay huge infatuation with all this presley his charisma was disarming but. The elvis of illinois was itching to lose his Colonel Parker because despite the many benefits of dick mills patronage, rod was still in his shadow. You know, he really became known as dick mills, soninlaw first. And i know he hated that he didnt know how to both be his own man and not let Dick Nell Overshadowing the only way for rod to survive outside of his fatherinlaws machine was to create his own cash flow. So his first step was to hire two of chicagos most bare knuckle political fundraisers chris kelly, and tony rescue chris kelly and tony roscoe could generate big bucks. They were fundraisers, they were donors. You know, lets just call them what they were, there were influence peddlers they wound up being able to shake the bushes here and help rod raise money they promised access and favors if blagojevichs one and they got results, were dick mills, Good Old Boys would fetch 2,000 at a time. Kelly and rascoe would shake loose 50 grand. All that money plus rods appeal to voters who had felt ignored by the entrenched chicago political dynasties well, it proved to be an unstoppable combination he ran on some things that were uniquely important to black people and health care for kids is a good idea when he said free rides for seniors on public transportation, that resonated with black people specifically laguardia, which became governor in 2003. Graduations governor may god bless how, do you view your time as governor apart from the scandals, how do i say this in a way where i dont sound like a guy without any humility. But i truly believe i was a great governor. I cant think of any governor in my life that did anything for anybody i knew they can walk around and say, you know what, thank you. Governor, my daughter had health care through you, Free Public Transportation for seniors and disabled. I did that because they raised the sales tax, which hurts working people and poor people and seniors with the legislature raising taxes that hit lowerincome illinois. Ians hardest and rods striking back with policies to offset that, its no surprise does that his populist agenda made him a lot of enemies amongst the big political families to the people in the mass as he was on our team, and to the aristocracy into the political elites. He was this guy that was taking their resources and giving him to the peasants. And so he became robin hood i knew the reality that im going to have resistance from the old guard, the old board bosses, the vaticans daily to some extent, my fatherinlaw. And so the goal was raised money now and raise a lot of it so that you can afford to make enemies. And you can afford to lose support, right . But some of these people that you were relying on like chris, kelly were were crowned right. Well, it turned out that chris had problems in his own personal business and he was found guilty of those things and doesnt do with me. But like a lot of the people in the world of fundraising or not necessarily, they are not upstanding individual there now. Yeah. No, theyre not whats the saying . Ignorance is not a defense. Tony rascoe and chris kelly started compiling this list of different entities that were Stay Contractors and hit all of us people up for money, probably with rods assistance hey, youve got a contract you want to keep it where you want to get more. You gotta pony up a lot of people in play have scalpel like tendencies when they fundraise and rod was probably more of a Meat Cleaver Kelly and rascoe, were using Government Levers to squeeze anyone they could for a campaign contribution. Kickbacks like a cushy job or a fat contract. A little light extortion such as holding up teachers funds. They had deep pockets to fill and a financial so machine to do it. You cant trade official actions as a governor can exchange for Campaign Contributions are jobs. I mean, there is one simple word for that. Its called graft. Graft is simply the use of political power and authority in exchange for personal gain. To state the obvious, appointing unqualified people to stay physicians because you want to use the government as a Vending Machine for your political campaign. Thats completely illegal. The mo was to make money from every State Petitioner possible and small town hospital ceo pam davis, looked like just another easy mark. In this case, the Whole Shakedown Process is recorded by the Hospital Executive who is getting shaken down oh god, another wire i dont care the governor really wasnt on my radar at all until i experienced an Extortion Attempt through one of his colleagues. Pams Hospital System wanted to build a new facility in plainfield, illinois . It seems pretty straightforward, but there were red flags right away