SCOTT: I…
SINK: — and excuse me, but he says how proud he is of his company that he built. He didn’t build the company. He was a corporate raider. And he left as a disgraced chief executive officer because his company, the people that he says were smart and that he trusted, either he didn’t know about it or he did know about it. And he did know for four years. His financial statements disclosed that were — they were engaged in activities that were possibly illegal and he didn’t do anything. He says that I don’t take responsibility…
KING: All right…
SINK: — I’m the kind of person that when I — John, when I hear about problems, I step up and try to solve those problems, just as I have done in the last four years, serving the people of this state as their chief financial officer.
KING: Well, I want to ask you in more detail about what he raised, which is the NationsBank (INAUDIBLE). But I want to give you, first, Mr. Scott, take 30 seconds or so to respond to that.
SCOTT: This — this is — this is — every debate is like this. So, Adam asked a question about the Taj Mahal. You did nothing about it until after it happened. You’re the fiscal watchdog. You’re a failed fiscal watchdog. In every debate, we’ve talked about NationsBank. You’ve never once responded to what you did at NationsBank, how you defrauded all those seniors with your tellers.
Oh, laugh about it. Those seniors aren’t laughing. All right, you’ve never responded to the fact that at Sykes, a public company, you’re — you’re the — you’re the auditor. You’re — you’re on the audit committee of the board. Falsifying the county records — you’ve never responded. Every time we bring this up, you smile and you laugh and say, oh, those are lies. Well, go to FactsforFlorida.com. That’s truth. You never respond to any of this.
Look at all the money you lost in the pension fund. Our pension fund in this state went — oh, yes, smile about it. Think about all those people that they’re — you went from a pension fund way over funded to way under funded. You were told by outside auditors multiple times, you’re in too risky investments. As a matter of fact, you all put up…
SINK: Are you giving him…
SCOTT: Oh, laugh about it.
SINK: Hasn’t he passed his minute of…
SINK: — of time to let him…
KING: I think he’s past his 30 seconds. I’m trying to — this is…
SINK: Because I am happy to respond.
KING: This is your debate. I’m willing to let you two go as long as we stay roughly equal on time, I’m actually willing to let you have a conversation with the people of Florida. But let me — let me come back to the NationsBank question, because Mr. Scott did raise it. You — you were the president of NationsBank Florida. And the national — the national bank was fined $6.7 million for deceiving customers into these high risk securities. That’s the allegation Mr. Scott was talking about. Now, you had no knowledge of this?
SINK: No. These are the facts. First of all, let me say that I retired from banking 10 years ago. That case, the lawyer that brought that case — it was a class action case against another company — he even has said publicly that Alex Sink had nothing to do with the case, had nothing to do with the situation and didn’t know about the problems. What more can I say, John?
KING: The question is — I don’t know what more you can say. The question is, should you have known about the problems? Here’s one of your own supporters who was quoted: “The state presidents were being told what to do, that they had to help the securities people.” Were you the state president when you were told that and did you raise any questions about it, that why am I being asked to do this?
SINK: Well, when the case was brought that that other company was not treating seniors correctly, then I immediately got involved, after the case was brought, to ensure…
SINK: — to ensure that…
KING: — came down from on high to do something that might have been questionable, did you see it? A governor will have to deal with policies that come across his or her desk, you will look at them and have to make a judgment when the — did that come across your desk and just get passed on your did you say at the time, why are we doing this?
SINK: Let me make this clear, because it’s important for the people of Florida to know about Alex Sink and what kind of governor I’ll be. If someone tells me to do something that is not legal, I’m not going to do it. If somebody tells me to do something that’s not the right thing, I don’t do it.
The people that I care about and that I will care about as the governor of Florida are the people who are working every day, trying hard to make a living. And when he says that I don’t care about seniors, I have been a champion for senior protection as the CFO.
One of the first things I did was I started — I asked what the biggest problems were and my people told me insurance agents are selling annuities to seniors inappropriately. A 92-year-old grandmother who was sold an annuity, $200,000, her life savings, that had a 15-year surrender charge. That guy should go to jail. So we put together a Safeguard Our Seniors task force and we have done hundreds of seminars around this state.
Plus, I got legislation passed in the Republican legislature this year to tighten up the requirement for the disclosure to protect seniors. And I have seniors like Bonnie Madden…
KING: I need to call a time…
SINK: — who will stand up for me…
KING: — I need to call a time out here…
SINK: — and say that I protected her from losing her life savings.
KING: It’s time…
SINK: That’s the kind of governor that Alex Sink is going to be. I’m not going to be the gov — the person who…
KING: All right. All right, I’m going to read…
SINK: — puts profits over people like Rick Scott does.
KING: — I’m going to reassert control for just a minute. I appreciate your saying — Mr. — Mr. Scott, you will get a chance to respond. We’re going to take a quick break. As you can see, a feisty conversation. When we come back, again, 11.9 percent unemployment in the state of Florida. We’ll bring it up with the candidates.
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