Speaker 1: It is the John Phillips Show at Johnny's on vacation.
Speaker 1: He'll be back on Monday. It's Randy Wang here and
Speaker 1: the phone number to join us is eight hundred two
Speaker 1: two two five two two two. You can email us
Speaker 1: at Johnny Don't Like show at gmail dot com. You
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Speaker 1: Phillips Show wherever you get your podcasts, and while you're
Speaker 1: at it, subscribe for free to my substack so you
Speaker 1: can see my daily show prep.
Speaker 2: I call it the California Report.
Speaker 1: All the stories we talk about, all the links to
Speaker 1: all the YouTube pages are right there. You can watch
Speaker 1: them in your own time, share them with your friends,
Speaker 1: your family, your social groups. Randy Wang Radio dot substack
Speaker 1: dot com. We have a new poll out in the
Speaker 1: LA mayors race and it's looking like we're seeing an
Speaker 1: increase in support for Spencer Pratt. According to the Tavern
Speaker 1: Research poll from May first to the fourth, they have
Speaker 1: Undecided in first place at twenty nine percent, Karen Bass
Speaker 1: in second place with twenty two percent, four points behind
Speaker 1: her Spencer Pratt, two points behind Spencer Pratt sixteen. Spencer
Speaker 1: Pratt being at eighteen percent might be why Karen Bass
Speaker 1: and Nythia Rahman decided to pull out of the debate
Speaker 1: that was supposed to happen this week on Fox eleven. Now,
Speaker 1: Spencer Pratt already wasn't available for that debate, but it
Speaker 1: sure seems after the debate that aired on NBC four
Speaker 1: that Karen Bass and Nythia Rahmen have realized the less
Speaker 1: opportunities for them to be in a debate environment, whether
Speaker 1: Pratt is there or not, is not going to be
Speaker 1: a very good look for them because they did not
Speaker 1: go very well. Meanwhile, Spencer Pratt did a whole lot
Speaker 1: of interviews over the weekend, including one with CBS News
Speaker 1: is Adam Yamaguchi, he's the guy that's been doing all
Speaker 1: of the hospice fraud stories. He sat down for a
Speaker 1: thirty minute interview on Spencer Pratt's burned out lot and
Speaker 1: apparently what was originally posted was a small package for
Speaker 1: CBS Mornings that he didn't really care for. He thought
Speaker 1: they inserted way too many clips of the reality show
Speaker 1: and he considered it to be a hit piece, and
Speaker 1: he said, you know what, CBS release the full interview,
Speaker 1: And to CBS's credit, they released the full interview and
Speaker 1: I listened to it, But of the interviews that Spencer
Speaker 1: Pratt did over the weekend, I would argue the better
Speaker 1: interview was him sitting down with NBC Force Conan Nolan.
Speaker 1: And now this is where I subscribe. You know, you
Speaker 1: get an extra benefit of subscribing to the YouTube channels
Speaker 1: of all of these news stations because Conan Nolan has
Speaker 1: a weekly local political news show. It's the longest running
Speaker 1: one in Los Angeles called news Conference. But it's only
Speaker 1: an hour and so even if you go eighteen to
Speaker 1: twenty minutes in an interview, only eight to ten minutes
Speaker 1: of that is going to make the air.
Speaker 2: That's the beauty of YouTube.
Speaker 1: They put the whole unedited thing on there ready for
Speaker 1: you to go because all of it is newsworthy. So
Speaker 1: without further ado, and by the way, this is one
Speaker 1: of those videos that you can listen to watch share
Speaker 1: by checking out my substack Randy Wangradio dot substack dot com.
Speaker 1: Let's hear what Spencer Pratt had to say over the
Speaker 1: weekend with NBC four's Conan Nolan.
Speaker 3: Good morning, and welcome to the Tom brok On News
Speaker 3: Center here at Universal City. I'm Conan Nolan. Thanks for
Speaker 3: joining US with US. Spencer Pratt, candidate for mayor of
Speaker 3: the Great City of Los Angeles. You know him as
Speaker 3: a former reality show star but also a media entrepreneur.
Speaker 3: Mister Pratt, thank you very much for coming.
Speaker 4: Do I have that right?
Speaker 3: I mean, you're in you've been in media for pretty
Speaker 3: much your entire life.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, but I once.
Speaker 2: Oh boy, it's contagious.
Speaker 5: Absolutely absolutely, But I once the city let my house
Speaker 5: burn down. I pivoted quickly into a community advocate, and
Speaker 5: I've received two Community Advocate awards. So when you vote
Speaker 5: for Spencer Proud in your ballot today or tonight, it'll
Speaker 5: say Spencer Brack community Advocate.
Speaker 1: Hey, look at that a call to action. You can
Speaker 1: be voting right now. And that is true. Everyone in
Speaker 1: the state of California should have their ballots. If you
Speaker 1: live in the city of Los Angeles, well, then you
Speaker 1: are able to vote in this election. And apparently I
Speaker 1: haven't opened mind yet. I'm going to vote probably this week.
Speaker 1: But if you open your ballot, Spencer Pratt is the
Speaker 1: first name on there, and it says community advocate.
Speaker 5: Community advocate, because that's how I identify now I'm no
Speaker 5: longer a reality star. And also It's funny I keep
Speaker 5: being called a reality star. I'm the only candidate living
Speaker 5: in reality too.
Speaker 3: Okay, Right, and I saw that you gave an interview
Speaker 3: where he said, hey, another community activist was a guy
Speaker 3: named Barack Obama when he ran for the US Senate.
Speaker 1: That is accurate. When Obama ran for Senate, he was
Speaker 1: a community organizer.
Speaker 5: Yeah, people give say you don't have the experience. I said,
Speaker 5: I have two awards for my community. President Obama actually
Speaker 5: didn't even have awards when he was a community organizer.
Speaker 5: He was able to become a senator and then a
Speaker 5: president for a or so.
Speaker 1: I feel like, look, when it comes to the job
Speaker 1: specifically of a mayor, being a good communicator is a
Speaker 1: big part of the job, and he's got that one
Speaker 1: figured out.
Speaker 4: Him and I have the same experience.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: The other part is being trustworthy, and I think he
Speaker 1: has shown that he is way more trustworthy than Karen
Speaker 1: Bass and Nithia Rahman combined.
Speaker 4: Him and I have the same experience.
Speaker 3: Okay, we're going to get into some of the issues.
Speaker 3: But it's been several days since the debate. I think
Speaker 3: a fair assessment indicates you did well. What's been the reaction.
Speaker 5: Well, according to your incredible NBC poll after the debate,
Speaker 5: I think I won by eighty seven percent.
Speaker 1: I know it was like, I don't know if anyone
Speaker 1: could watch that thinking that Nithia won, maybe they can
Speaker 1: come on thinking Karen Bass didn't do too much damage
Speaker 1: to herself. But the takeaway from everybody, whether you're biased
Speaker 1: or not, is that you know, even if you didn't
Speaker 1: you know anything about Spencer Pratt, even if you didn't
Speaker 1: even know that he was on a show called The
Speaker 1: Hills twenty years ago, you'd know that he was on
Speaker 1: his subject material. The guy had an answer for every
Speaker 1: single question and they were real answers.
Speaker 5: I know it was like eighty two I posted that
Speaker 5: and then it went up to eighty seven, so I
Speaker 5: had to do two posts. But it was the most
Speaker 5: fun I've had, maybe you know, besides my two sons
Speaker 5: being born. It was that much fun because it finally
Speaker 5: felt like truth was forced onto power. And after the debate,
Speaker 5: this high school kid that was in the crowd, he
Speaker 5: came up and he shook my hand. He couldn't have
Speaker 5: been older than fourteen years old. He said, thank you,
Speaker 5: sir so much for being the only one up there
Speaker 5: speaking the truth. You can tell when somebody's telling the truth.
Speaker 5: And I said, thank you God, because that was my
Speaker 5: only goal is to just be true and authentic. People
Speaker 5: are tired with politicians lying about what we see every
Speaker 5: day in LA and what we feel.
Speaker 3: Right So before the fires, someone get to that, I
Speaker 3: know you have a degree in political science from usc That.
Speaker 2: Is true, so he does know a little bit about
Speaker 2: this world.
Speaker 3: What was your attitude towards Minisuba government or city government
Speaker 3: back then before the conflagration that was the Palisades place.
Speaker 5: You know, I was a naive tax paying citizen. I
Speaker 5: always believe that you pay your taxes. The firefighters will
Speaker 5: show up, LAPD will show up, your.
Speaker 4: Water comes out of the scene. I was I have
Speaker 4: blinders on.
Speaker 5: I wanted to just be an entertainment business, provide for
Speaker 5: my family, make money.
Speaker 1: You know, this is maybe one of the most real
Speaker 1: answers that you can give for a question like this.
Speaker 2: This is the.
Speaker 1: Average, especially an LA voter. Like first off, the majority
Speaker 1: of people don't vote, and the ones that do, some
Speaker 1: of them are fully engaged, but a lot of them aren't.
Speaker 1: They got their own stuff going on, They got their
Speaker 1: own lives going on. People that listen to shows like this,
Speaker 1: you are so much more tuned into what's going on
Speaker 1: than everybody else. But there are a whole lot of
Speaker 1: people that just they don't pay attention to any of it.
Speaker 1: They got their own stuff going on.
Speaker 5: And I just didn't get that. I needed to be
Speaker 5: an advocate. I needed to be questioning everything. And now
Speaker 5: after you lose everything because of the failures as city leadership,
Speaker 5: you realize how important local government is.
Speaker 1: What happened to Like talking about the mission statement of
Speaker 1: this show, you.
Speaker 5: Realized how important local government is. What happened to America
Speaker 5: is we all got caught up with phones and national
Speaker 5: politics and the celebrity politics, when what really affects all
Speaker 5: of our day to day lives are our ladwp CEO,
Speaker 5: our chief of police, our chief of fire, our mayor,
Speaker 5: our city council members. All these things I truly was
Speaker 5: not paying attention to because I was just like, I'm
Speaker 5: paying lots of taxes, that everything's figured out.
Speaker 1: So I really love that answer because it is it is.
Speaker 1: It is how we are today. People are so focused
Speaker 1: on what is going on nash and internationally, and yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of crazy important stuff going on there. Yes,
Speaker 1: I'm a little nervous about all the war stuff going
Speaker 1: on in Iran, but you only have so much attention span,
Speaker 1: and it is just it is something that we all
Speaker 1: have to deal with. It is so important to pay
Speaker 1: attention to what is going on in our local offices.
Speaker 1: If you are not paying attention and we have low
Speaker 1: voter turnout, that's when the special interest groups are the
Speaker 1: ones that are able to get their people in there,
Speaker 1: the ones that are supported by the union so they
Speaker 1: know they're voting, or the DSA block, that's how they
Speaker 1: get their people in there. But the average person, if
Speaker 1: they're not engaged and they're not paying attention, that's how
Speaker 1: the fringes end up in there. And one thing that
Speaker 1: we always have tried to advocate here is it's so
Speaker 1: important to pay attention to what is going on locally.
Speaker 1: Having a competent mayor makes a big difference. Just look
Speaker 1: at the turned around in San Francisco in the last
Speaker 1: couple of years. London breed originally was a disaster. Now
Speaker 1: she pivoted and she realized about halfway through that she
Speaker 1: needed to change because San Francisco was getting out of
Speaker 1: control and.
Speaker 3: Less tolerant of all the bulk that has destroyed our city.
Speaker 1: But ultimately the voters decided that her pivot towards public
Speaker 1: safety was too little, too late, and Daniel Lurry got
Speaker 1: in there. Danie Lurry, by the way, somebody that had
Speaker 1: no political experience, He just had a lot of money. Well,
Speaker 1: a new poll has shown that Daniel Lurry is the
Speaker 1: most popular mayor in America, with a seventy four percent
Speaker 1: approval rating. He is getting support from Democrats, Republicans, and
Speaker 1: independents because of his efforts to revitalize downtown, his efforts
Speaker 1: on public safety. Are there still a lot of problems, Yes,
Speaker 1: the Tenderloin is a disaster, so much has a lot
Speaker 1: of problems, has a lot of problems. But the other neighborhoods,
Speaker 1: it is crazy how beautiful and clean. Later on in
Speaker 1: the hour, I'm going to tell you about my trip
Speaker 1: to San Francisco. I stayed in Union Square and I
Speaker 1: was so pleasantly surprised of how safe and clean it was.
Speaker 1: And you know what Daniel Lurie did that that that
Speaker 1: is how important these elections are. It can all change,
Speaker 1: just with the right management and the right ideas and
Speaker 1: somebody that cares about the most important local issues.
Speaker 4: Never before until a lost everage. Well you lost your home.
Speaker 3: Very sorry about that. Your parents lost their home. How
Speaker 3: are they doing? I should ask?
Speaker 5: My mom cries all day long now for what is
Speaker 5: it eighteen months?
Speaker 4: It feels like forever.
Speaker 5: But she can't take herself out of this because everything
Speaker 5: she's ever known was gone. She didn't even get like
Speaker 5: they say, get your go bag. She didn't even get
Speaker 5: a goat, shed even get her passport. So my dad
Speaker 5: has more hope than my mom because my dad sees
Speaker 5: me becoming the mayor and making these changes.
Speaker 4: And you know, he grew up in la He was the.
Speaker 5: Picture at Inglewood High So he is like some positivity.
Speaker 5: But my mom, plus her heart, is just struggling.
Speaker 3: Right. So, at what point did you say I'm going
Speaker 3: to run for this office?
Speaker 6: Yeah?
Speaker 1: What point was enough enough? I can't take this anymore.
Speaker 1: I'm getting in.
Speaker 3: I mean, did people come up to you and say
Speaker 3: we need somebody You're in?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 5: So I just kept on whistleblowers from the LAFD. We're
Speaker 5: giving me the information of all the negligence by Mayor
Speaker 5: Bass and the city's failure. And I was posting this
Speaker 5: all this information.
Speaker 3: You're getting You're getting information from the fire Department.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean so much of this was so organic, where
Speaker 1: most politicians everything they do is fake and doesn't seem authentic.
Speaker 1: He has a real reason to be pissed off. His
Speaker 1: home burned down, his family's home burned down, his neighborhood
Speaker 1: burned down, And because he does have a social media platform,
Speaker 1: he was trying to get out the information about what
Speaker 1: was really going on because we had so much obfuscation
Speaker 1: from the La City Council, from the DWP, from leadership
Speaker 1: at the Fire Department, the after action report, all of that,
Speaker 1: And at that point he really became kind of this
Speaker 1: emblem of Okay, this is the guy on the scene
Speaker 1: people inside the government that are afraid of getting retaliated against.
Speaker 1: We're giving him the real scoop on what was going
Speaker 1: on with the Lockman fire that then became the Palisades
Speaker 1: fire and so many other failures that the city does
Speaker 1: not want to admit.
Speaker 3: You're getting information from the fire department, Yeah, about the
Speaker 3: level of failure across the board.
Speaker 5: And I'm posting this. I go to Congress, I get
Speaker 5: a congressional investigation set up with Center Scott and I'm thinking,
Speaker 5: oh my gosh, Mayor Bass is going to jail. She caught,
Speaker 5: this is criminal negligence. Twelve of my neighbors burned alive.
Speaker 1: And so if we could actually arrest politicians for criminal negligence,
Speaker 1: we'd need to build a whole lot more prisons.
Speaker 5: And so I started having more positivity. There'll be hope.
Speaker 5: And La Times then reported that she hired this literal
Speaker 5: crisis pr firm with charity money to alter the after
Speaker 5: action report proving her negligence, like, oh, she's definitely going
Speaker 5: to jail, obstruction to justice, and nothing was happening. She
Speaker 5: announces she's rerunning when to me, I truly believe she
Speaker 5: would have resigned from Africa when she was on the
Speaker 5: flight from Ghana. I thought she would just send a
Speaker 5: letter like.
Speaker 2: Just cancel a return ticket. I'm going to stay here.
Speaker 4: That would have been what I would expect.
Speaker 5: So I'm just complaining on social media, as the kids
Speaker 5: would say, I'm yapping. I'm just saying, how is this acceptable?
Speaker 5: And I see no one is running against her. So
Speaker 5: I call Rick Crusoe and I say, I'm going to
Speaker 5: run after Mayor Bass if you're not doing this, And.
Speaker 1: Okay, this is the first I've heard of this. Before
Speaker 1: Spencer pred announced he was running, he checked with Caruso,
Speaker 1: who was constantly doing the will they won't they will?
Speaker 1: I won't they Maybe I'll run, Maybe I'll run for governor.
Speaker 1: Maybe I'll run for mayor. I don't know. And now
Speaker 1: Rick Caruso is like a full time social media influencer,
Speaker 1: but this is interesting against her.
Speaker 5: So I call Rick Crusoe and I say, I'm going
Speaker 5: to run after Mayor Bass if you're not doing this,
Speaker 5: And he obviously made up his mind he said go
Speaker 5: after Bass.
Speaker 4: So that when I hung up, I said, Okay, no
Speaker 4: one else is going to do this.
Speaker 5: I have to do everything I can to try to
Speaker 5: fix LA and get it back on track. La should
Speaker 5: be the most beautiful, best place on planet Earth.
Speaker 4: What has happened? So that's why, right, So.
Speaker 3: I have to point out the mayor has denied the
Speaker 3: allegations in the La Times article.
Speaker 4: And they stand by their report.
Speaker 3: They do.
Speaker 2: That's right.
Speaker 3: Is Rick Kruso in your camp if you got elected mayor,
Speaker 3: would he have a role in your administration?
Speaker 5: Rick Cruso cares about LA as much as all of
Speaker 5: these top business leaders that I'm talking to I'm meeting
Speaker 5: with everybody wants what I want. They want LA changed
Speaker 5: big time. My two opponents. You heard them for an hour.
Speaker 5: They just make up. They're talking about beds and blah blah.
Speaker 5: They don't even say how horror things are.
Speaker 1: Things are horrible, well, because they can't then they'd have
Speaker 1: to own it. But yes, if you live in the
Speaker 1: city of Los Angeles, which for some unbelievably stupid reason
Speaker 1: I still do, this city is a disaster. Even when
Speaker 1: things looked like they were getting a little better when
Speaker 1: Best first took over, it's all back. You go onto
Speaker 1: Haskell at Van Owen to get on the four or
Speaker 1: five freeway, the street is once again covered in RVs.
Speaker 1: And that's after they took away a metro parking ride
Speaker 1: lot that was supposed to be for all the RVs.
Speaker 1: We still have all the RVs. It's a nightmare.
Speaker 4: Things are horrible.
Speaker 5: And they try to say I'm the angry guy the
Speaker 5: LA times like always an angry white guy. No, everyone's angry,
Speaker 5: all genders, all races.
Speaker 4: All.
Speaker 3: Let's talk about that for a second, because one gets
Speaker 3: the impression, and you would know better than I that
Speaker 3: had started with a fire and then people started saying, wait,
Speaker 3: it's not just the fire, and there's a there's a
Speaker 3: grievance much of it. An argument can be made it's
Speaker 3: justified over over homelessness, over drug addiction, over the fact
Speaker 3: that the streets still have too many encampments, and that
Speaker 3: is what has fueled your campaign.
Speaker 4: Well, it connects it.
Speaker 1: Well, and it connects to the fire in a lot
Speaker 1: of ways, including that the LAFD is stretched so thin
Speaker 1: because the majority of the calls they have to go
Speaker 1: on are about the homeless.
Speaker 5: Well, it connects to the fire because I learned firsthand
Speaker 5: how diabolical these NGOs were because with the.
Speaker 3: Fire aids scam and governmental organizations.
Speaker 5: Thank you, with the fire aid scam, one hundred million
Speaker 5: dollars was supposed to go to fire victims in Altadena,
Speaker 5: Pacific Poliicades.
Speaker 4: Nobody got that money.
Speaker 1: Yeah, if there was really all of these payouts to
Speaker 1: the fire victims, which we're not talking about that many people,
Speaker 1: Spencer Pratt didn't get a check.
Speaker 5: It went to these non governmental organizations that have salaries
Speaker 5: of over a million dollars. They have all these employees
Speaker 5: making five hundred thousand dollars. This money went to random initiatives.
Speaker 5: People can again research this all even fired when they
Speaker 5: defended it with their law firm, they said, several of
Speaker 5: these organizations gave directly to fire victims.
Speaker 4: Let's go along with that, Google several. It's under ten.
Speaker 5: There was two hundred and fifty non government organizations that
Speaker 5: took the soul. When I learned that versand I was, oh,
Speaker 5: here's what they're doing with the homeless billions of dollars. Yep,
Speaker 5: there's billions of dollars coming into California, specifically Los Angeles
Speaker 5: to stop this horrible tragedy of people living on the street.
Speaker 5: What's happening with that money? It's being increased Mayor Bass
Speaker 5: I didn't want to interrupt her with because that's trying
Speaker 5: to be very respectful. But her number about homelessness being
Speaker 5: down seventeen percent, let's talk about real quick.
Speaker 4: First off, when Mayor Bass ran.
Speaker 5: For office, she said she was going to remove fifteen
Speaker 5: thousand people from the street.
Speaker 1: She did say that that has not happened since when
Speaker 1: she ran. Even the numbers with insight and say if
Speaker 1: it's like three forty percent of them went back to
Speaker 1: the streets.
Speaker 5: When she opened office. Start office, homelessness has increased. She
Speaker 5: her made up numbers. She's talking about seventeen percent is
Speaker 5: year to year. That's not even true. The way they
Speaker 5: count homeless people or drug acts whatever. They just go
Speaker 5: around and they go one, two, three. They're not going
Speaker 5: in the sewers, They're not opening up the tents, they're
Speaker 5: not going in the camp Some of these encampments.
Speaker 4: Are so dangerous.
Speaker 5: I talk to LAPD, like when I was telling Cancel Raman, Yeah,
Speaker 5: go try that volunteer timent and you'll get stabbed in
Speaker 5: the neck. The LAPD will say they can't go down
Speaker 5: there because they will get shot at.
Speaker 4: They're not counting homeless people.
Speaker 2: He's damn right about this.
Speaker 4: The RAND Corporation, and I.
Speaker 1: Gotta tell you it is very refreshing. And this might
Speaker 1: be striking while the irons ho it. You have a
Speaker 1: couple of things going on at the same time. One,
Speaker 1: the city is a disaster, but you have a lot
Speaker 1: of attention being paid on this race because of the debate.
Speaker 1: But also those AI videos that are going around with
Speaker 1: Spencer Pratt. Those are getting a lot of attention. And
Speaker 1: if anybody who's a vote who has been paying that
Speaker 1: much attention to this race just decides. Okay, let me
Speaker 1: hear what he has to say. It's really hard to
Speaker 1: dispute anything that he is saying, so we don't know
Speaker 1: what's gonna happen. There's still a lot of undecided, but
Speaker 1: at least right now it looks like at the very least,
Speaker 1: it's going to be a top two runoff Bass and Pratt,
Speaker 1: which means it's going to be quite a few more
Speaker 1: months of all this. It's Randy Wang here. Johnny's back
Speaker 1: on Monday. The phone number to join us is eight
Speaker 1: hundred two two two five two two two. You can
Speaker 1: email us at Johnny Don't Like show at gmail dot com,
Speaker 1: search for the John Phillips Show wherever you get your podcasts,
Speaker 1: and subscribe to the California Report my substack where I
Speaker 1: post all the videos we talk about at Randywangradio dot
Speaker 1: substack dot com.
Speaker 2: Let's do a couple of emails here.
Speaker 1: Linda writes in one thing that we should highlight for
Speaker 1: Spencer Pratt is he's doing all of this without a
Speaker 1: campaign manager. He's running circles around the democratic machine single handedly.
Speaker 1: You know what, I think that's why the campaign is
Speaker 1: coming off so authentic. He has some friends that are
Speaker 1: putting together those crazy AI videos where he's Batman, but
Speaker 1: he does not have a consultant or a campaign manager
Speaker 1: eating up all of his money or giving him terrible advice.
Speaker 1: Will writes in at Johnny don't like show at gmail
Speaker 1: dot com. Thank the Lord Caruso about out of another
Speaker 1: mayor run. He is more boring than the small world
Speaker 1: at Disney with the charisma paint and is fake and
Speaker 1: spineless as a Republican switching parties to help Bass point
Speaker 1: out what a fraud he is. If that Claude ran again,
Speaker 1: Karen Bass could have phoned in her reelection from Ghana.
Speaker 1: Let's go to the phones, Brian and West Hollywood.
Speaker 7: Brian, Hello, Yes, good to speak to you.
Speaker 8: I guess you have covered our area pretty well with
Speaker 8: the politics, and I'm always happy to listen to your viewpoints.
Speaker 8: I want to mention a point or two. I noticed
Speaker 8: that Nippia Ramon is campaigning, and she's campaigning at the
Speaker 8: very end. She decided on the final day on a Saturday,
Speaker 8: that she's a candidate, and it was very obvious to
Speaker 8: me that she was waiting to see if Lindsay Horbeth
Speaker 8: was going to be a candidate as well as Rick Caruso.
Speaker 8: And once those two candidates or potential candidates said they're
Speaker 8: not entering this campaign, then on a last Saturday, she said, Okay,
Speaker 8: I'll give it a try. So she's basically a default
Speaker 8: on this campaign, and she's trying to be in what's
Speaker 8: called a viable candidate, but in mentally thinking, she knew
Speaker 8: she couldn't win if those two candidates entered the race.
Speaker 8: So I'm questioning whether she's really campaigning on their decision
Speaker 8: or she's really campaigning on her own will and believes
Speaker 8: she's the right person to be the next mayor.
Speaker 1: It's a really bizarre campaign because she even constantly is
Speaker 1: having a hard time I'm justifying why she's running or
Speaker 1: what she would do differently. I've listened to so many
Speaker 1: Nithia Rahman interviews, and every single answer to every question is, well,
Speaker 1: I would do the same thing as Karen Bess, but
Speaker 1: I'd be more focused.
Speaker 8: Right, that's yes. I conclude that viewpoint. That's yes, And
Speaker 8: I think it's going to be interesting to see the
Speaker 8: voter's interpretation, and we'll only know by the numbers that
Speaker 8: come in, and then we'll say, well, with our thinking
Speaker 8: relative to what these voters decided upon.
Speaker 9: Although, although there are.
Speaker 8: Exceptions, once in a while somebody comes along and they
Speaker 8: are they turn out to be a candidate by surprise
Speaker 8: and win the election. But I don't think that this
Speaker 8: particular person is going to overtake the current mayor. I
Speaker 8: just don't think she's ready for the job right now,
Speaker 8: and I think she realizes it that she's running a
Speaker 8: little bit too soon as to the future. Who knows
Speaker 8: what's what beholds her her, you know, aspirations. She may
Speaker 8: have some great ideas in mind, but right now I
Speaker 8: think she's running a little too soon. But we'll have
Speaker 8: to wait really to see what the voters think.
Speaker 1: Well, I think a big takeaway from that debate that
Speaker 1: aired on NBC four is that Nithia Rahman was not
Speaker 1: ready for prime time and according to interviews, she said,
Speaker 1: if she doesn't win this race, she's leaving political office.
Speaker 1: So we'll see if that happens. Brian, thank you so
Speaker 1: much for the call. Appreciate it. Let's go back to
Speaker 1: Spencer Pratt sitting down with NBC four's Conan Nolan to
Speaker 1: discuss the mayor's race.
Speaker 5: The RAND Corporation says the count. That wasa and Mayor
Speaker 5: Va says, they say that count is thirty percent low,
Speaker 5: and I don't even believe RAND can count it proper, right.
Speaker 3: So Randy, I know that study.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so the corporation of the Rand Corporation they did
Speaker 1: their own study and they looked at very specific areas
Speaker 1: like skid Row. Nobody on skid Row will say that
Speaker 1: Karen Vass has done a damn thing. And look, if
Speaker 1: you are running on ending homelessness, what she ran on
Speaker 1: and what Garcetti ran on, and what everyone wants to
Speaker 1: run on, why wouldn't you tackle the problem where it's
Speaker 1: most visible, where if you made any kind of a difference,
Speaker 1: you'd see it and immediately.
Speaker 3: I know that study, and that was a I think downtown,
Speaker 3: skid Row, Venice, and Hollywood. They looked at those three
Speaker 3: specifics and they said yes. But there are plenty of
Speaker 3: people who say, so let's get back to homeless. How
Speaker 3: much of it, in your opinion, is it a law
Speaker 3: enforcement issue that you can actually arrest your way out
Speaker 3: of this by giving by doing sort of a European
Speaker 3: model from what I understand, which is you're going to
Speaker 3: jail or you're going to rehab picket, but you're not
Speaker 3: staying here LAPD.
Speaker 1: And I've been to some major cities in Europe. You
Speaker 1: do not see this. You see a few people that
Speaker 1: are on the streets in Dublin, couple in Madrid, usually
Speaker 1: like beggars on the street. Uh, it was two damned
Speaker 1: cold in Amsterdam. I don't know if I think I
Speaker 1: even saw any But what's unique to Los Angeles even
Speaker 1: compared to San Francisco. I mean outside of the Tenderloin.
Speaker 1: But the thing is with la it is everywhere. I
Speaker 1: flew back to Burbank Airport last night, just driving on
Speaker 1: Van Owen, going from Burbank to where I live in
Speaker 1: the valley tent ten tent, tent tent every single intersection,
Speaker 1: whether in North Hollywood, you're in Valley Glen, you're in
Speaker 1: Sherman Oaks, you're in Van Eyes. It doesn't matter that
Speaker 1: tents are everywhere.
Speaker 5: LAPD have more arrest during COVID lockdowns than they do
Speaker 5: right now. We don't enforce any of the laws we
Speaker 5: need to enforce. Council Moraman is fighting that forty one
Speaker 5: to eighteen the law way have to remove dangerous encamments
Speaker 5: from schools, nurseries, parks from the libraries. And her argument
Speaker 5: is it doesn't work, it just moves. No, it was
Speaker 5: the law to make kids safer, you move it. Yes,
Speaker 5: I agree moving en campus doesn't work, but we should
Speaker 5: take at least moving them away from the kids. So, yes,
Speaker 5: it's an law enforcement thing because again the DEA statistic
Speaker 5: ninety percent plus are drug addicts.
Speaker 1: And if you look at what's going on in the streets,
Speaker 1: how does anyone disagree with that unless you're on the take.
Speaker 5: People addicted to drugs do not want these services that
Speaker 5: mayor baths and inside safe and counselmen Ramen are offering.
Speaker 5: They want more drugs. When people are high, out of
Speaker 5: their minds, doing the fenanyl fold at the parks, next
Speaker 5: to kids blowing fentanyl, shooting up. These people do not
Speaker 5: want services optional.
Speaker 4: We need as a functioning city to.
Speaker 5: Take these people, put them into medical treatment, help them
Speaker 5: get sober, then go get them a bed, then help
Speaker 5: them get back into society and give them opportunities. Anyone
Speaker 5: in addiction knows anyone sober wants drugs, they want alcohol,
Speaker 5: they want so Again, it's an enforcement thing. These animals
Speaker 5: that are being abuse on the streets.
Speaker 4: This is a known thing.
Speaker 1: This is another thing that is very specific about his campaign.
Speaker 1: And later on this week, we're gonna talk with Joey
Speaker 1: Joey Tuccio, who is the guy who's covering all the
Speaker 1: animal abuse that's going on skid Row. Spencer Pratz the
Speaker 1: only one willing to talk about this. Karen Bass completely
Speaker 1: ignores the problem, says there isn't a problem with animal
Speaker 1: abuse on skid Row, even though it's being documented every
Speaker 1: single day. Nitia Rahman, at the debate between her and
Speaker 1: Karen Bass for the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association, was asked
Speaker 1: why all of a sudden, after six years at city Hall,
Speaker 1: she finally is putting out a plant about the animals,
Speaker 1: and she said, I have only been to an animal
Speaker 1: shelter in LA for the first time five days ago.
Speaker 4: Unacceptable that are being abused on the streets. This is
Speaker 4: a known thing. They don't enforce the laws because this
Speaker 4: is real.
Speaker 5: Stacey Danes from the Animal Services on zoom you can
Speaker 5: watch this video says we can't enforce the law because
Speaker 5: the mayor's office has told us it's culturally insensitive to
Speaker 5: give people without an address citations or tickets.
Speaker 2: Sounds like Karen Bass.
Speaker 5: Everybody that's in LA should be able to get citations
Speaker 5: and tickets and be arrested. This is a point council
Speaker 5: Woman Ramen will say, Oh, Spencer just wants to arrest.
Speaker 4: All this homeless people.
Speaker 5: If Councilwoman Ramen walks out of Arawan with her smoothie
Speaker 5: and silver Lake, pulls down her pants and goes number
Speaker 5: two in front of kids, she is going to jail. Yeah,
Speaker 5: people are going number two in front of kids on
Speaker 5: all streets across LA right now and nothing happens to them,
Speaker 5: and maybe not jail, but they're going into treatment. The
Speaker 5: courts once they get arrested, will decide if this is
Speaker 5: a violent criminal that's you know that maybe was just poop.
Speaker 1: Well, here's one thing Spencer Pratd does need to learn.
Speaker 1: The courts are kind of a mess in LA and
Speaker 1: that's part of the problem. But you know what, he
Speaker 1: is saying things that you would never expect any candidate
Speaker 1: in this race to be saying. And I think for
Speaker 1: certain topics, especially the animals that will resonate.
Speaker 2: Let's go to Chris and Westlake Village.
Speaker 9: Chris, Hello, Hey, Randy, how's it going.
Speaker 6: I got to say that fire aid to me, will
Speaker 6: be the absolute worst scam perpetuated across this land ever.
Speaker 6: But you know, you talk about last week, you spoke
Speaker 6: about the homeless shelter in Los Fielitz. You know, the
Speaker 6: drug addicts coming in, coming in and out and everything.
Speaker 6: You know, in the good old days, there's a cop
Speaker 6: car there and they're rousting, and if not, there's five
Speaker 6: or ten in the neighborhood and these drug acts don't
Speaker 6: go in there.
Speaker 9: And then you talked about the MacArthur Park. Why did
Speaker 9: it take the Feds, you know, to come there and
Speaker 9: bust everybody out? You know, where's the police? And we
Speaker 9: know that Karen's of failure. You know, I know we
Speaker 9: have budget problems and everything with getting police, but we
Speaker 9: have like seventy four hundred We need fourteen thousand, you know, And.
Speaker 1: You're totally right about that, Chris. We are so for
Speaker 1: the city that the size that we are we have
Speaker 1: about we're getting to a point we have half they've
Speaker 1: had a police that we should have and we need
Speaker 1: more manpower.
Speaker 2: That is completely true. Thanks so much for the call.
Speaker 1: And part of the reason the police budget is so
Speaker 1: bloated is because we're so understaffed that we have to
Speaker 1: spend so much money on overtime, which means everyone is
Speaker 1: stretched so thin. But we also need local elected leaders
Speaker 1: to have law enforcements back. Let's go to Bobby in
Speaker 1: San Jose. Bobby, Hello, Hello, this is Bobby.
Speaker 2: Hey, Bobby, who is this. It's Randy.
Speaker 7: Hey, Randy, how are you doing? Man? Are we on
Speaker 7: the air?
Speaker 2: We are.
Speaker 7: Okay. Well, here's my thing about this homeless stuff and
Speaker 7: all these people living on the streets. We need put
Speaker 7: a performance statement together. Hilton or the sheriff. Buy some
Speaker 7: cheap land way outside the cities where nobody is, Provide
Speaker 7: them with thousands of trailers from the RV manufacturers, build
Speaker 7: an RV park and case them in. Provide all the
Speaker 7: services psychiatric care, drug rehabilitation, but nobody gets out of
Speaker 7: there until they earn their way out. Think these people
Speaker 7: cannot be allowed to come and just depicate in people's
Speaker 7: doorways and scrub and steal and everything else that's going
Speaker 7: on with this homeless crap. It's ridiculous. Or let these
Speaker 7: politicians steal the money like they did on the train
Speaker 7: situation here in California and everything else. It's a simple problem.
Speaker 7: It can be solved within ninety days if you build
Speaker 7: these places outside the cities with a cheap land.
Speaker 1: I think you're totally right about that, Bobby, thank you
Speaker 1: so much for the call. If we centralize the problem
Speaker 1: and centralize the services and the solutions, can do that,
Speaker 1: but local electives will say it's not equitable.
Speaker 2: So I spent.
Speaker 1: The weekend a whirlwind trip in San Francisco and I
Speaker 1: had the best time. This all came about because we're
Speaker 1: trying to burn off our American Express hotel credit, so
Speaker 1: by June thirty, first we need to spend three hundred
Speaker 1: dollars at one of those hotels. San Francisco has a
Speaker 1: ton of those, and for some of them you could
Speaker 1: do a one night's day. So we got a five
Speaker 1: star hotel room at the TAJ Campton Place in Union Square.
Speaker 1: It was three hundred and twenty nine dollars, so minus
Speaker 1: the room credit, it costs three hundred dollars and it
Speaker 1: came with an early check in, late checkout, food and
Speaker 1: beverage credit.
Speaker 2: It was a great deal.
Speaker 1: Flew up there on Southwest Bourbank to SFO, which is
Speaker 1: like an hour flight, and first, can I just tell
Speaker 1: you this as somebody that has to deal with Lax
Speaker 1: on a regular basis. SFO is a really pretty airport
Speaker 1: and it is really easy to get out of the
Speaker 1: terminal and into your ride share to get to your destination.
Speaker 1: You go right out there. It's clearly marked where the
Speaker 1: lift and ubers pick up. You call it. It picks
Speaker 1: you up immediately. Eventually you can do that with Waimo
Speaker 1: as well, but you have to go to the rental
Speaker 1: car park. So we get to Union Square and let
Speaker 1: me just say, the first thing that you notice is
Speaker 1: the branded trash cans everywhere. The people that are cleaning
Speaker 1: up Union Square is back and it is in full force.
Speaker 1: There was a beautiful festival going on for Taiwan Ease people.
Speaker 1: There was great food, There was so much energy going
Speaker 1: on around that neighborhood, and it felt clean and it
Speaker 1: felt safe. The old Union Square of car break ins.
Speaker 1: Didn't see any of that. Didn't really see any homeless
Speaker 1: people at all in Union Square proper.
Speaker 2: You see a couple here there. But we had the
Speaker 2: best time.
Speaker 1: So what we like to do when we go to
Speaker 1: San Francisco is drop the bags of the hotel immediately
Speaker 1: take away. I'm out of Golden Gate Park with the
Speaker 1: dogs and go hiking around because that is a gem
Speaker 1: that is such a gorgeous, incredible space. And so we
Speaker 1: wandered around for an hour till we ended out on
Speaker 1: the east side in Coal Valley. And this is where
Speaker 1: I really had a great idea. We're trying to figure
Speaker 1: out some brunch places and I don't know San Francisco
Speaker 1: that well, and I could do my own research, but
Speaker 1: there's an influenza that I follow for cooking. Her name
Speaker 1: is Violet Witchell. She's the woman that does all of
Speaker 1: those the dense bean salads that are all over Instagram.
Speaker 1: I messaged her, I said, Hey, my wife and I
Speaker 1: are going to San Francisco. I know you're gluten free.
Speaker 1: I know you got dogs. What's a great gluten free
Speaker 1: brunch place that I could take my dogs to? So
Speaker 1: she told us about Zazzi in Cole Valley, and we
Speaker 1: had gluten free eggs benedict, and holy cow, is it fantastic.
Speaker 1: They also have really really fancy mimosas. It was a
Speaker 1: great time. So we hung out there for a while,
Speaker 1: went back to the hotel. I wandered around Union Square,
Speaker 1: which was so much fun. I got to go to
Speaker 1: the Nintendo Store, which was a blast as a lifelong
Speaker 1: Nintendo fan, had brought some gifts for my family, very
Speaker 1: excited to go there. And then this next place I
Speaker 1: did find out on my own because you know, San
Speaker 1: Francisco is a big international city. I bet they have
Speaker 1: some great Spanish bars. So we found a place to
Speaker 1: get top us and to get Spanish wine and more
Speaker 1: importantly Spanish vermoot And we found a place called was
Speaker 1: it l l Lopo?
Speaker 7: Oh?
Speaker 1: El Lopo was so much fun, such our vibe, and
Speaker 1: I think with San Francisco and dogs as they mostly
Speaker 1: kind of let you bring them inside if they're not
Speaker 1: bothering anybody, and our dogs are really good. So had
Speaker 1: a couple of great drinks there, like very authentic Spanish
Speaker 1: vermoots that you cannot get anywhere else. So that was
Speaker 1: a lot of fun. But then it was time for
Speaker 1: the main attraction. One of the reasons we love to
Speaker 1: go for a quick trip to San Francisco is we
Speaker 1: are obsessed with Tony's Pizza Napolitana in North Beach. I
Speaker 1: know it gets really really crowded, but not only is
Speaker 1: it incredible pizza, but if you're gluten free, they have
Speaker 1: some of the best gluten free pizza. We're not talking
Speaker 1: your typical thin crust. They do gluten free Sicilian and
Speaker 1: it is so wonderful. Got a great trip from I
Speaker 1: got a great tip from my boss Larry that, Hey,
Speaker 1: if you're going to North Beach and you're waiting for
Speaker 1: an hour plus at Tony's Pizza Napolitana, go grab a
Speaker 1: drink two doors down at Tony Knicks Cafe and Tony
Speaker 1: Knicks Cafe, that bar is fantastic.
Speaker 2: And you know what's funny.
Speaker 1: For as expensive as the city of San Francisco is,
Speaker 1: I don't think I had a cocktail that was more
Speaker 1: than sixteen dollars. The ones at Tony Knicks were fifteen dollars.
Speaker 6: LA.
Speaker 1: In the valley there are places with twenty dollars cocktails.
Speaker 1: So we had a great time the first night. The
Speaker 1: second day, we went back to Golden Gate Park, hiked
Speaker 1: for an hour. Got another tip from Violet Witchell about
Speaker 1: this breakfast burritop place Heist in knob Hill. Oh my goodness,
Speaker 1: is it fantastic. We enjoyed the crap out of those
Speaker 1: and then got ready to pack because this was just
Speaker 1: a really quick trip. Found another place, super dog friendly,
Speaker 1: super chill in near the Pacific Heights cow Hollow neighborhood, Palmhouse.
Speaker 1: They have great pineapple margaritas enjoyed there By the way,
Speaker 1: we waymoded everywhere. We love the robot cars. It's such
Speaker 1: a fun experience. Now you can plug in your music
Speaker 1: account so you can play your music while you're going
Speaker 1: around the city. We just have a blast with it.
Speaker 1: It was such a fun little trip. We painted the town,
Speaker 1: We had a blast, We took our dogs everywhere. We
Speaker 1: just it is really special and I was so pleasantly surprised,
Speaker 1: you know. On Sunday, I was wandering around Union Square
Speaker 1: and they had like a little outdoor gallery and a
Speaker 1: little place where kids could play games and read books
Speaker 1: and have little activities. And then there's just a guy
Speaker 1: out there playing the most beautiful guitar you've heard, playing
Speaker 1: the girl from Epanima. It was it's a vibe down there,
Speaker 1: and I felt completely safe and had a wonderful time.
Speaker 1: And we already planned our next trip when we're going
Speaker 1: to do one of these quick little weekend trips to
Speaker 1: San Francisco.
Speaker 2: It was a ton of fun.
Speaker 1: Thank y'all so much for being a part of this show,
Speaker 1: I'm going to go get in the car, hit the freeway,
Speaker 1: and then I'll be back on the air on seven
Speaker 1: to ninety KABC at five o'clock for the News Blitz
Speaker 1: with Randy Wang. If you're in the Bay and you
Speaker 1: want to give it a listen, you can stream it
Speaker 1: at kabc dot com, or you can search for the
Speaker 1: KABC News Blitz wherever you get your podcasts. Regardless, I'll
Speaker 1: be back here tomorrow from noon to three for another
Speaker 1: edition of The John Phillips Show.