transcript
Speaker 1:
[00:00] And a very happy Thursday to you at 12.06 in the West, each The John Phillips Show. Mr. Randy Wengs in Culver City.
Speaker 2:
[00:07] Well, John, last night in San Francisco, it was the big debate on Next Star with six of the top candidates running for governor. And I'm sure there are a lot of takeaways from everything that was discussed at that debate. But the one thing I can't stop thinking about is, is Katie Porter watching Heated Rivalry with her kids, or is that later at night with a bottle of Chardonnay?
Speaker 1:
[00:31] With no lights in the room, except the glow of her cigarette.
Speaker 2:
[00:39] I think I figured out why she suddenly says she's into hockey.
Speaker 1:
[00:44] And we know why the daughter likes it too. Talk about bonding. 800-222-5222 is telephone number 1-800-222-5222. Well, last night was the big debate. It was the first time all of the candidates running for governor, at least the top candidates, have appeared on stage together since the Eric Swalwell scandal broke. And Randy, it didn't disappoint.
Speaker 2:
[01:19] There was a lot of attacks at Tom Steyer from pretty much every single person on stage because of course, Matt Mahan got some pretty decent shots at Tom Steyer. Javier Becerra was also there.
Speaker 1:
[01:38] Boy is that guy a disappointment. Everyone was expecting Javier Becerra to have his coming out party. This is where the guy who's been in single digits, who's suddenly in the mix, is going to show the world why he was a member of Congress, why he was the Attorney General, why he was the Secretary of Health and Human Services. And did he come across as an empty suit or what?
Speaker 2:
[02:08] Scrub it. Pretty much every candidate had some sort of substantive answer for some of the policy discussions. By the way, it was a very well organized debate and Nicky Lorenzo and Frank Buckley did great jobs as moderators. Everything coming out of Becerra's mouth was a cliche or he sounded like somebody that did not do the homework the night before.
Speaker 1:
[02:28] What is it with that office that makes everyone a running CNBC ticker of cliches?
Speaker 3:
[02:34] Bob Bonta.
Speaker 2:
[02:37] Gotta look at her time. I wonder how many cliches Kamala did when she had that office.
Speaker 1:
[02:42] The debate last night was in San Francisco, right?
Speaker 2:
[02:45] Yes.
Speaker 1:
[02:46] Okay, couldn't he at least read USA Today on the plane trip up there? Does he show up to every event that ill-informed?
Speaker 2:
[02:59] I mean, this isn't a surprise for you and I. We heard his first interview when he announced he was running for governor on Alex Michelson and he didn't know any of the subject material then either.
Speaker 1:
[03:11] He got everything confused.
Speaker 4:
[03:14] But when you do the scrub.
Speaker 2:
[03:16] He also, and I know this is an easy slip, but sometimes you want to make sure you don't confuse Iran and Iraq.
Speaker 1:
[03:26] Which he did. He also claims that he doesn't watch television at all.
Speaker 2:
[03:31] Yeah, anybody that said that, which was Becerra and Bianco, I'm not buying that whatsoever. You don't want to tell us what you're watching.
Speaker 1:
[03:40] There are a lot of people out there who lie about not watching TV. In the old days at least, they used to give you a little bit and they'd say, yeah, we only watch PBS when we watch television at home. Which was also a lie. But people who claim that they don't watch TV, which I guess assumes videos on their phone too, complete and total liars. If you don't have a television in the room, how do you even know where to put the couch?
Speaker 2:
[04:09] If you say, I don't watch TV, what you're saying is, I'm embarrassed to tell you what I'm watching.
Speaker 1:
[04:15] Yeah, I wonder what he's watching that he doesn't want us to know about. Maybe he did rivalry too.
Speaker 2:
[04:21] For Bianco, I think it's Lindell TV.
Speaker 1:
[04:25] Could you imagine me on stage last night? Mr. Phillips, what are you watching on streaming services? Well, of course, I'm watching the Cursley's for about the fifth time. That's first and foremost. Then I watch Vegas Matt playing in the casinos in Las Vegas on a daily basis, both the live feeds and the edited videos. And I watch old reruns of The Price is Right. Next question.
Speaker 2:
[04:57] Well, John, we've got a lot of different debates that we can get into. I have the entire debate cut up. So, we have the gas tax, the Ashley Zavala question, which was rating Gavin Newsom on homelessness. We've got the cost of housing. We've got insurance. We've got social media. And of course, we have heated rivalry.
Speaker 1:
[05:21] Surprise me.
Speaker 2:
[05:22] Let's start with the gas tax. Why not? That's what everybody's thinking about because we have to pay at every, well, you people have to pay it every single day. I have an EV. Here is the candidates on the gas tax.
Speaker 5:
[05:34] Mr. Steyer, the first question of the night goes to you. Should we cut the gas tax? You have 60 seconds.
Speaker 2:
[05:41] And I love how this debate, they didn't go into like intro statements or preamble. It was straight up. Let's get into it. Gas tax, go.
Speaker 1:
[05:48] Oh, I hate the preamble. Oh, thank you so much for inviting me to this prestigious forum. Nobody cares.
Speaker 6:
[05:55] Let me say that the reason that gasoline is so expensive, that our president, Donald Trump, has started an insane war in Iran and driven up the cost of gasoline for everybody in California.
Speaker 2:
[06:07] OK, so why was it high more than two months ago?
Speaker 1:
[06:10] And why is it still higher in California than it is in Nevada and Arizona?
Speaker 6:
[06:15] That has put $70 billion into the pockets of the oil companies who actually put him in the presidency. Californians are suffering across the board. The biggest problem in California is that the Californians can't afford to live here anymore. The answer on this is not to give up the gas tax, but actually to have a windfall profit tax on the oil companies who have been ripping us off for decades.
Speaker 2:
[06:42] So is he just watching Gavin Newsom circa 2023 game tape to prep himself for this debate?
Speaker 1:
[06:48] OK, comment on the aesthetics here. He has more money to spend than any of the other candidates. So when you turn the television on, unless you're Javier Becerra and Chad Bianco, all you see are Tom Steyer ads. And he has these slick advertising firms that are trying to sell him as this aggressive, profane ass kicker. And then he shows up to the debates wearing the kicks. He was wearing a suit, and he was wearing tennis shoes. And he looked like someone who just escaped from an old folks home, who's wearing the tennis shoes to make sure that he has a grip on the floor, so he doesn't fall and break a hip. And he was more subdued and sedate than he is in the ads. The person that they're selling in the ads did not match the person that showed up at that debate last night. The person that showed up at that debate last night looked like a confused 80 year old. The person in the ads that they're trying to sell is someone who's going to blow up buildings.
Speaker 6:
[08:00] To have a windfall profit tax on the oil companies who have been ripping us off for decades, that's on the books. We can activate it right away. We can get the money and we should send it directly back to California citizens. The problem we have here is a president who's out of control, who's driving up costs across the board, and we actually need to take on the special interest oil companies who are taking advantage of Californians and making— Thank god for that bell.
Speaker 1:
[08:29] The Easy Bake Oven's done.
Speaker 6:
[08:31] —and making $70 billion more because of this war.
Speaker 5:
[08:34] Mr. Steyer, thank you. Ms. Porter, what is your position on the gas tax? You have 60 seconds.
Speaker 7:
[08:40] Affordability is not a buzzword for me.
Speaker 2:
[08:42] It's been my— Hey, that rhymed.
Speaker 1:
[08:45] Maybe she could be mayor of LA.
Speaker 2:
[08:47] Don't give her ideas.
Speaker 7:
[08:48] Affordability is not a buzzword for me.
Speaker 2:
[08:51] It's been— Also, nobody in the right mind would ever move from Irvine to LA.
Speaker 1:
[08:56] Especially if the state's paying for your housing.
Speaker 2:
[08:59] That's a downward move.
Speaker 7:
[09:01] Affordability is not a buzzword for me. It's been my life's work, sitting across from families who have been pushed into bankruptcy by bills they couldn't pay, helping families avoid foreclosure or eviction when they were cheated by subprime lenders. It is too expensive to live in California, and I get that. I'm a single mom of three. I push a shopping cart and I... There we go.
Speaker 1:
[09:24] You knew it would come down to food.
Speaker 7:
[09:26] I'm a single mom of three. I push a shopping cart and I fill up my minivan, which has nearly 180,000 miles on it.
Speaker 1:
[09:34] Back to the minivan. By the way, when we play her clips on this program, all I hear is the audio. And I have an idea in my mind as to what Katie Porter looks like in person. She looked like she lost about 100 pounds last night.
Speaker 2:
[09:52] Ozempic. I mean, I don't have that confirmed, but well, maybe she finally got on the exercise bike that she had.
Speaker 1:
[10:03] What do you think she weighed at her peak?
Speaker 2:
[10:06] I'm not going to comment on that as a currently in process of becoming a former jet person, I am as supportive of everything Katie's doing.
Speaker 1:
[10:16] No, it's an admirable thing. But what I'm saying is she lost a dramatic amount of weight.
Speaker 2:
[10:24] Good for her.
Speaker 7:
[10:26] I absolutely feel these pressures and I think we need to do something about it. But I also want to be clear, 82 percent of Californians don't breathe clean air today.
Speaker 1:
[10:38] How about by the Tijuana River?
Speaker 7:
[10:42] You can smell it right here.
Speaker 2:
[10:43] And by the way, if that's true, that's with all of our insane regulations that have us buying the cleaner burning gasoline that makes it so expensive.
Speaker 1:
[10:55] Yeah, what are we doing wrong?
Speaker 2:
[10:57] Well, every single emission reduction that we've had in the last 20 years was wiped out in the last five years of wildfires.
Speaker 1:
[11:06] That's true.
Speaker 7:
[11:07] And when we look at what that's costing our health care system, what that's costing people, we have to continue to make investments in having the cleanest fuel that we possibly can. So I absolutely think we ought to be thinking about how to move away from fossil fuels. And that means moving away from a gas tax and replacing that with the general fund taxes. Ms. Porter, thank you.
Speaker 1:
[11:28] Now, wait a minute. If we move away from fossil fuels, what is she going to do with that minivan?
Speaker 2:
[11:34] She's going to get one of those converters and put that E85 corn alcohol in her car.
Speaker 1:
[11:40] You know, Lyndon Johnson once had an automobile that turned into a boat, and he'd drive around his property in Texas with it. And if you didn't know that it turned into a boat, you'd think he was insane as he was driving directly towards the lake. Maybe she'll do that to the minivan.
Speaker 5:
[12:02] Ms. Porter, thank you. Mr. Mahan, you support temporarily suspending the gas tax. Some, including the candidates on the stage tonight, have called that proposal un-serious. What's your response? You have 60 seconds.
Speaker 2:
[12:15] By the way, just for some context, because people hear about how much the gas tax is, but you don't think about how much the gas tax raises. It has gone down significantly over the last few years because a lot of people are driving EVs. The gas tax, which is around $0.61, $0.63 a gallon, only raises $8 billion a year of California's $350 billion budget. It is a rounding error at this point.
Speaker 8:
[12:46] Well, Nicky, Frank, it's great to be here with you this evening. I'm the only candidate on this stage who has called for suspending the gas tax and reforming it so it no longer is the most regressive tax in California that's putting an undue burden on working families like the one I grew up in. Look, I'm in this race because we deserve better answers. We deserve better answers than we've been getting from the other candidates on this stage. We don't need a billionaire who made his money in private prisons and oil and gas that he's now supposedly against or...
Speaker 2:
[13:18] There's your first shot at Steyer.
Speaker 1:
[13:22] I don't think he heard him.
Speaker 2:
[13:25] Well, the thing that's great is he was smart enough to know, don't say Steyer's name, but everyone knows who you're talking about because if you say his name, then he gets to respond and then he gets more time.
Speaker 8:
[13:36] Trump's handpicked candidate or a DC insider who the Sacramento establishment is now rallying around. Let me tell you who I am.
Speaker 2:
[13:43] That was a shot of Baccaria.
Speaker 1:
[13:45] Oh, yes, it was.
Speaker 8:
[13:46] Let me tell you who I am. I grew up in Watsonville, working class family. My mom was a teacher. My dad was a union mailman. I know what it means when gas prices go up a dollar or two unnecessarily. I'll reform the gas tax so it's no longer the poorest, hardest working people in our state who are paying an unfair share to maintain our infrastructure.
Speaker 2:
[14:09] Hey, he hit the bell.
Speaker 1:
[14:13] He had a good night last night.
Speaker 2:
[14:14] He had a very good night last night. And at this point, it's on the California voter if that means anything.
Speaker 3:
[14:21] No, I don't know enough to give you any good information, but good luck finding someone who does.
Speaker 1:
[14:26] The problem for Matt Mahan is that the people I know who are impressed by him are Republicans who aren't going to vote for him. I just don't think there are any Democrats out there who are buying what he's selling. Because he's talking about California issues. He is acknowledging that the one-party rule has destroyed the state in so many different areas. He's critical of Newsom. He's critical of the programs that Newsom has championed. What Democrat out there is buying that? They're happy with Newsom. They voted for him twice and once during the recall. They're happy with the state legislature. They re-elect them every time they come up. I just don't know what Democrats are out there. It's like Republicans who are never Trumpers. Every never Trump Republican I'm aware of has a television contract. I don't know any in my actual life, in my actual social network. I know a lot of Republicans. I don't know any Republicans who think like Anna Navarro. In terms of Democrats, there are a lot of them on Twitter, the Ezra Klein abundance Democrats that you see on X all day long posting. I just don't know any Democrats in my own real personal life who think that way. The Democrats I know like Newsome and like the policies out of Sacramento.
Speaker 5:
[16:05] Mr. Mahan, thank you. Frank.
Speaker 9:
[16:07] Mr. Becerra, you have said you don't support suspending the gas tax. Why? You have 60 seconds.
Speaker 2:
[16:13] Get ready for the most educated answer you're going to hear on the subject, not 802-222-5222.
Speaker 1:
[16:21] Is telephone number 1-800-222-5222. If you'd like to email the show, you can do so at johnnydontlikeshow.com. That's johnnydontlikeshow.gmail.com. And Randy, if you missed yesterday's show and you want to find out what you missed out on, that's easy to do.
Speaker 2:
[16:40] What did we talk about yesterday? Oh, yesterday was great. You know what? I'm not even going to be silly about this. If you didn't get a chance to listen to John's interview with John Morgan and his new book, Life is Luck, it is a great, inspiring interview and it was very enjoyable. We got a lot of great emails about it. So give it a listen. Search for The John Phillips Show. Wherever you get your podcast, whether it's the Apple Podcast app, iHeart, Spotify, search for The John Phillips Show, hit subscribe. You can download all the episodes and look for the two o'clock hour from yesterday. John Morgan and Life is Luck. That was a really fun interview.
Speaker 1:
[17:17] In the meantime, what do you say we make a couple of listeners very happy?
Speaker 2:
[17:21] Well, let's do that right now. The LA County Fair is back. May 7th through the 31st, don't miss the country's largest county fair and the best entertainment in Southern California. Tickets are on sale at lacountyfair.com. But right now, caller number 9 at 1-888-790-5222, that's 1-888-795-222, gets a pair of tickets to see Brad Paisley on Saturday, May 16th. Tickets furnished by the LA County Fair. Good luck dialing.
Speaker 1:
[17:53] 800-222-5222 is telephone number 1-800-222-5222. Right now, we're going through the sound of last night's gubernatorial debate in Northern California.
Speaker 2:
[18:04] So we heard about what their plans are for the gas tax from Tom Steyer, from Matt Mahan and Katie Porter. Now it's time for the candidate everyone's paying attention to because he was surging in the polls, Javier Becerra.
Speaker 4:
[18:21] But when you do the scrub.
Speaker 2:
[18:23] Let's hear what Becerra has to say about the idea of suspending the gas tax to give some instant relief to Californians.
Speaker 9:
[18:29] Mr. Becerra, you have said you don't support suspending the gas tax. Why? You have 60 seconds.
Speaker 4:
[18:36] Frank, we need to make sure our roads, our highways, the potholes, we take care of business because every day people get in their cars.
Speaker 2:
[18:43] Wow, he is a cliché machine. He is bigger than Bonta at this.
Speaker 1:
[18:47] Oh yeah. Who do you think Bonta learned from?
Speaker 4:
[18:50] They take transit. They need to get to work. They need to come home. The last thing they need to see is infrastructure for roads and transportation that doesn't work.
Speaker 2:
[18:59] Have you seen our roads?
Speaker 1:
[19:01] OK, we were just in New Mexico for a week and you flew. I drove, so I went through Arizona as well. The roads in New Mexico and Arizona were so much better than the roads in California. It's not even comparable.
Speaker 2:
[19:17] And, for parts of New Mexico that you were driving in, those are parts of the state that get snow regularly. And still, the roads are in good condition.
Speaker 1:
[19:27] How does that happen?
Speaker 4:
[19:28] I remember when my parents would tell me the stories of when they came with $12 in their pocket. They had to make a life…
Speaker 2:
[19:34] Cliche! I mean, look, there may be some policy differences, but when you just want to base on who gives a real answer and who has the semblance of intelligence, Becerra is a step removed from everybody else.
Speaker 1:
[19:52] Yeah, and when did suffering become a credential? Well, my dad was an Angel fan. Who suffered more than him?
Speaker 4:
[19:59] They had to make a life here. They needed to make sure California could work for them. Let's make sure Donald Trump…
Speaker 2:
[20:05] And the gas was what, 20 cents back then?
Speaker 1:
[20:10] Something like that.
Speaker 4:
[20:11] Let's make sure Donald Trump is not starting reckless wars to keep the prices of gasoline down.
Speaker 2:
[20:16] So if you're doing your Trump ticker for this debate, so far Steyer's mentioned him and Becerra's mentioned him.
Speaker 1:
[20:24] And they're going to do it again.
Speaker 4:
[20:26] By up to $2 a gallon, we could reduce the price of that war in Iraq that Donald Trump started.
Speaker 2:
[20:32] No, that was the one that Bush started.
Speaker 1:
[20:37] Should we get the map?
Speaker 4:
[20:40] By up to $2 a gallon, we could reduce the price of that war in Iraq that Donald Trump started.
Speaker 2:
[20:45] Oh, Becerra.
Speaker 1:
[20:48] You know what's funny is that it was the Biden people that pushed him into this race. Ron Klain, Biden's chief of staff, was one of the original backers of Javier Baccaria. And you see him on stage and you listen to him talk, and you can tell why the Biden people saw something about Joe Biden and Becerra that they liked. And you know what else is a similarity here? And I'm going to throw Becerra, Biden and Bass, the killer bees, into the same bucket. What Joe Biden was, was a demented old man who was not in charge of the government. What he was, was a figurehead of a coalition. And the coalition ran the government. It wasn't him who was in charge. It was Jill Biden. It was Ron Klain, the chief of staff. It was all the people who worked in the West Wing. It was the unions. It was congressional leadership. It was the Democratic Party, not the party itself, but just the major players within the party who were in charge of the government. In Los Angeles, Karen Bass is not the chief executive of the city. She's the figurehead of the coalition. They call it the Bradley Coalition. And to a certain extent, the Obama Coalition is somewhat similar to that. And when you look at Javier Becerra, he's another empty suit. He's a guy who would be the figurehead of the coalition. But if he were to be elected, the Dana Williamsons would be calling the shots. The California Teachers Association would be calling the shots. Lorena Gonzalez would be calling the shots. And he would just be the guy that shows up to the ribbon-cutting ceremonies and has his picture taken with all of the dignitaries.
Speaker 2:
[22:52] If you think about it, right now, Becerra is the only machine Democrat that's in the running for this because the machine doesn't like Porter, they don't like Steyer, and they don't like Mahan.
Speaker 1:
[23:03] Well, what's crazy to me is that they chose him because Viragosa is so much more of a capable person than Becerra. Viragosa is likable. Viragosa is someone who has been the executive of a big entity before the city of Los Angeles. It's wild to me that they passed him over for this dope.
Speaker 4:
[23:29] Would go away. My parents looked at things like this and said, hey, help me make a living here in California. That's why they were able to at the end of the day, send my three sisters and I to college, buy a house, make it so that they could retire here in California. We need to bring down those prices, but we have to do it the right way. I'll make sure as governor, I tackle these crises because I've been through the-
Speaker 2:
[23:50] Zero substance in everything he's saying.
Speaker 1:
[23:53] And that will be the theme for everything that he says.
Speaker 4:
[23:57] Because I've been through these crises before and had to handle them. We need someone with experience, someone who doesn't need on-the-job training.
Speaker 2:
[24:04] Cliche, cliche, cliche.
Speaker 1:
[24:07] Rob Bonta, what do you think of his performance?
Speaker 3:
[24:10] Bob Bonta.
Speaker 10:
[24:12] Every type of leadership is about meeting the moment and rising to the occasion. And this is what's required. And so we're stepping up and getting it done.
Speaker 2:
[24:21] How pissed is he watching this debate that he didn't run? And we all know why he's not running, but we know he wanted to run.
Speaker 1:
[24:28] Oh, yeah, he could be the guy up there with the bucket of cliches the moment they get into the governor's office.
Speaker 9:
[24:33] Mr. Becerra, thank you. Mr. Bianco, you have said you want the total elimination of the gas tax. How would we fund roads and bridges? You have 60 seconds.
Speaker 11:
[24:42] So funding roads and bridges is a fundamental responsibility of government. We need to get rid of the rest of all the waste, fraud and the abuse of the rest of government.
Speaker 2:
[24:51] Abuse?
Speaker 1:
[24:54] Jed Clampett used to pronounce it that way.
Speaker 11:
[24:57] Of the rest of government, which all of the Democrat policies over the last 20 years, 30 years have created, we only have the highest gas price in the country because of Democrat policies that are absolutely destroying the oil industry, the automobile industry, and forcing those prices up, forcing our refineries out of the state, forcing our oil companies from drilling in our state. When you send oil, make it into gasoline, and send it to across state lines, and it miraculously becomes $2 cheaper, you know that your state is the problem. It is Democrat policies for the last 20, 30 years that are driving the cost of not only gasoline, but the cost of living in California up. We have the highest cost of living in the country because we have had one party Democrat progressive rule for-
Speaker 2:
[25:43] We didn't think about this, but if you really wanted to play the drinking game, you take a shot every time Bianco says Democrat.
Speaker 1:
[25:52] Well, in his defense, they did wreck the state.
Speaker 11:
[25:54] Democrat progressive rule for decades that is destroying the state.
Speaker 9:
[25:58] Mr. Bianco, let me ask clarification one more time. How would we fund roads and bridges if you eliminate the gas taxes?
Speaker 1:
[26:05] Now, wait a minute. Think about all of the money that we spend on the homeless in this state. All of these crooked organizations that exist to quote unquote, provide services for the homeless or advocacy for the homeless. The more we spend, the more bums we get living on the streets. If I were in charge, we would spend zero on them. Zero, certainly on these organizations. Maybe you can kick dollars to the Midnight Mission and the non-for-profits, the private entities that actually put a dent in the problem. But what the state of California does is it takes tax dollars and it launders the money to political entities staffed with political cronies who have no vested interest in solving the problem. Because if these groups were to solve homelessness in California, there would be no reason for them to exist. So why in the world would you ever go about doing that? In which case, if the existence of these groups is to perpetuate the problem forever, why not cut the funding for all of them? Why are we even playing in that sandbox? That would be a great place to start. If you're looking for more money for the roads and the bridges, cut off Nithya Raman's group, cut off Katie Hill's group, cut off all of those Mike Bonnen affiliated groups, and all of these groups that pass out all of the drug paraphernalia, the tin foil, the needles, all of that. All of those groups should get zero government funding because they make life worse, not just for the homeless, who they kill, but for the rest of us who have to live in that filth and then pay the bills. All of those groups should be defunded.
Speaker 11:
[28:14] We eliminate all of the waste, the fraud, and the abuse that's going on where our money is being spent now. The number one responsibility of government is public safety. Number two is infrastructure, and if you look at where California spends its money, infrastructure is way down the line. Don't say that the gas tax is funding our roads because we have the worst roads in the entire country.
Speaker 9:
[28:33] Mr. Bianco, thank you. Mr. Hilton, you support permanently cutting the gas tax in half and eliminating carbon climate policies. With the super majority of Democrats in the legislature, how would you as a Republican governor make any of these changes into law? You have 60 seconds.
Speaker 12:
[28:51] We have to make these changes because Californians are being crushed by the gas prices, by the gas tax. We have the highest gas tax in the country for the worst roads in the country. And across the board, we have the highest taxes for the worst results. And you know who's really suffering? It's working Californians. It's small businesses. Most of my career has been in business. I know what it's like to try and run a business. The costs that are being imposed on our businesses and on workers in California is just too much. And one way or another, all the Democrats here are part of this system that obviously isn't working. We need common sense solutions. We need practical solutions. Why are we importing oil from 7,500 miles away in Iraq, rather than using the...
Speaker 2:
[29:43] Wait, I thought Becerra said we're at war with them...
Speaker 12:
[29:49] .rather than using the oil we have here in California. That's the kind of common sense change that as governor, I will be there to persuade the legislature to do, because they, in the end, want to help Californians too.
Speaker 9:
[30:03] And just to clarify the question again, how would you as a Republican governor make any of these changes into law with a super majority of Democrats? 15 seconds.
Speaker 12:
[30:12] The first point is that to open up California oil production doesn't need the legislature because it's through executive action. The way that they've been closing it down is through an agency of the executive branch called CalGEM, the California Department of Geologic and Energy Management. I would replace the people in there and give them a clear instruction to issue permits to our oil industry to produce oil here in California so we can cut gas prices for California families and businesses.
Speaker 9:
[30:41] Thank you very much, Nicky.
Speaker 2:
[30:43] You can say what you want about Steve Hilton. Guy does his homework.
Speaker 1:
[30:47] What's wild to me is that the Democrats, with the exception of Mahan, are so led to the gas tax. Because when you think of a regressive tax, who does the gas tax punish the most? It punishes those who commute the farthest. And you think to yourself, okay, who is it that's doing the community? This is where Democrats have a very old-timey view of things. In the old days, it was white flight to the suburbs, where the white people, the Archie Bunkers who used to live in the cities, moved to the suburbs because they didn't want to live in the cities anymore. Too dangerous, too congested, too violent, the whole thing. And so it used to be those people who were the ones doing the commuting. So okay, let's punish them as much as we can because we don't like that group of people. But you think about who's doing the commuting now. Let's say you're someone who cleans hotel rooms on the west side of Los Angeles. That person cannot afford to live in Brentwood. That person cannot afford to live in the South Bay. If you're cleaning hotel rooms on the west side of Los Angeles, you're probably living somewhere in the Antelope Valley, maybe in the San Gabriel Valley somewhere, somewhere on the outskirts because that's where you can afford to live. The people who are the gardeners in Malibu don't live in Malibu. They live somewhere else and they commute in and they cut the lawns in Malibu and they commute long distances. People who provide child care, the list of jobs goes on and on and on and on. What do they all have in common? They're very low paying, blue collar jobs. Those are the people who are sitting in traffic. It's not the man in the gray flannel suit anymore. The man in the gray flannel suit works from home because that's a white collar job. So all of the people that they claim to care about get hammered by this tax and they don't care because the unions want the money. That's where they want the money to go. Becerra said he wants the money to go to bridges and roads. Okay, if the money was going to bridges and roads, do you think that our roads would look like the surface of the moon? I don't. The money goes to the unions and that's what's important to them. 800-222-5222 is a telephone number, 1-800-222-5222. Fix California Hour coming up after the news at one. Right now we're going through the sound of last night's scuba tutorial debate.
Speaker 2:
[33:59] And at one point, they asked specific questions to every single candidate and maybe something that's a little uncomfortable for them. For Katie Porter, it was time to ask about this.
Speaker 7:
[34:09] Get out of my f***ing shop.
Speaker 9:
[34:11] Ms. Porter, you've acknowledged that your interactions with an aide and with a reporter captured on videos which went viral.
Speaker 2:
[34:19] That was Julie Watts.
Speaker 1:
[34:21] Oh yes, our friend.
Speaker 2:
[34:22] We may have helped make that video go viral.
Speaker 9:
[34:25] Were, in your words, a bad look and that you could have done better. What have you done to address those concerns? And as a person who frequently speaks about being a parent on the campaign trail, what would you tell your own kids if they ever faced a boss like that? You have 60 seconds.
Speaker 7:
[34:41] I apologized that day to that staffer four years ago, and I took responsibility then and I have taken responsibility since, acknowledging that it was not the right way to treat someone. And that is a big contrast to what we have seen other candidates do when they have been called out for misconduct.
Speaker 2:
[35:00] I'm proud that that's a shot at Swalwell.
Speaker 1:
[35:04] I think it's a shot at Swalwell, but I'm not entirely sure.
Speaker 7:
[35:08] I'm proud.
Speaker 1:
[35:09] Because comparing, I guess, snapping at an employee to drugging someone and raping them, I don't know if they're in the same realm, but okay, if that's what you want to compare it to, go ahead.
Speaker 2:
[35:25] Maybe she's trying to compare herself to Amy Klobuchar.
Speaker 1:
[35:28] Maybe.
Speaker 2:
[35:29] We know she liked to yell at her staffers.
Speaker 7:
[35:32] I'm proud that that staffer in that video, and I continued to work together for four years following that incident, and it speaks to how I addressed it. I work hard with my team to deliver for Californians things like free COVID testing in the first days of the pandemic, first weeks of the pandemic. Things like cracking down on pharmaceutical price gouging, calling out a bank CEO for the fact that their employees couldn't pay for housing. All of my accomplishments...
Speaker 1:
[35:57] Can you tell that she's nervous? Her voice is kind of quivering here.
Speaker 2:
[36:01] This is the one question she did not want to answer because there's so much has happened in the last few months that she's hoping everybody forgot about this. Get out of my f***ing shop!
Speaker 7:
[36:13] All of my accomplishments have come from my team, and I would say that if somebody is treating you rudely, you should speak up. And that's what I would want my children to do, and that's what I did when I was being pushed again and again and again to cow, to cowtow, to give in and defend Donald Trump when he was engaged in despicable actions. I wasn't going to do that for that reporter, and I'm-
Speaker 2:
[36:36] Wait, what?
Speaker 1:
[36:38] She's trying to turn herself into the victim here, where she was the one getting bullied and she had to speak up.
Speaker 7:
[36:46] That's what I did when I was being pushed again and again and again to cow, to cowtow, to give in and defend Donald Trump when he was engaged in despicable actions. I was-
Speaker 2:
[36:56] No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, this is what happened.
Speaker 1:
[37:01] Well, to those voters, okay, so you-
Speaker 7:
[37:03] I don't want to keep doing this. I'm going to call it. Thank you.
Speaker 5:
[37:08] You're not going to do the interview with us.
Speaker 7:
[37:10] Nope, not like this. I'm not. Not with seven follow-ups to every single question you ask.
Speaker 1:
[37:16] But that's about Donald Trump too.
Speaker 2:
[37:20] Oh, I wonder how Katie's going to do when she sees Julie next week. Because the next debate is at CBS.
Speaker 1:
[37:26] And we're going to be there.