Speaker 1: And we continue at two five in the afternoon on
Speaker 1: The John Phillips Show Live from Las Vegas, Nevada. Mister
Speaker 1: Randy Wiggs in Culver City.
Speaker 2: You really can't make this one up. An employee for
Speaker 2: the nonprofit in LA People Assisting the Homeless was arrested
Speaker 2: for dealing drugs in MacArthur Park. And John, you want
Speaker 2: to know what job this employee had at People Assisting
Speaker 2: the Homeless?
Speaker 1: Oh, I can't wait to find out.
Speaker 2: Passing out needles, of course. So he was giving away
Speaker 2: the needles and selling the Fentinel at the same time.
Speaker 1: Sounds like a barber Ferrara special to me. I have
Speaker 1: no idea eight hundred two two two five two two
Speaker 1: two is telephone number one. Eight hundred two two two
Speaker 1: five two two two. It is our pleasure to welcome
Speaker 1: our next guest to the program. He is a republic
Speaker 1: political strategist. So you can follow on exit the Thomas Guide,
Speaker 1: John Thomas, Welcome.
Speaker 3: Hey John, thanks for having me on.
Speaker 1: Well, thanks so much for stopping by. Let's get into
Speaker 1: the gubernatorial election here first, because I've got to tell
Speaker 1: you one of the things, one of the reasons that
Speaker 1: we all study history in school is because history tends
Speaker 1: to repeat itself, and you want to learn from your
Speaker 1: mistakes and you want to try not to repeat them
Speaker 1: in this election. The Democrats were almost entirely willing to
Speaker 1: get behind Eric Swalwell when he was a candidate for
Speaker 1: governor because they thought he would have the best chance
Speaker 1: at finishing in first place and keeping a Democrat walkout
Speaker 1: from happening on the November ballot. He didn't really know
Speaker 1: much about California politics, he didn't really seem interested in
Speaker 1: learning about California politics, but he was well known because
Speaker 1: he is a foil to Donald Trump, and that was
Speaker 1: good enough for them. And then all the negative stories
Speaker 1: broke about all the rape allegations and sexual harassment and
Speaker 1: mistreating people, misusing money, the whole thing. And we find
Speaker 1: out the guy's a complete dirtbag. Even Stephen Klubek kicked
Speaker 1: him out of his house. And what do the Democrats do.
Speaker 1: Instead of trying to learn from their mistake and figure
Speaker 1: out where they went wrong in their evaluation of this candidate,
Speaker 1: they jump headfirst in with Javier Bessera, a guy with
Speaker 1: more red flags and a golf course, a guy who
Speaker 1: the Biden administration is saying was the worst pick that
Speaker 1: Joe made his entire four years as president. He is
Speaker 1: a guy whose chief of staff is cutting a deal
Speaker 1: with the FEDS after he was accused of stealing and
Speaker 1: not paying the irs. Dana Williamson is being charged by
Speaker 1: the fires with a crime, and it looks like she's
Speaker 1: cutting a deal with them, and it seems like they
Speaker 1: don't seem to care or seem to be too concerned
Speaker 1: with all of these storm clouds on the horizon, and
Speaker 1: it's looking to me like Eric Swalwell two point zero
Speaker 1: your thoughts.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's incredible. First of all, the fact that in
Speaker 3: the state is deeply blue as California, that candidates like
Speaker 3: Swallwell and Javier Butsera are the best they have to
Speaker 3: offer is really quite pathetic and shocking. And the second
Speaker 3: is I hear what you're saying, John about history, that
Speaker 3: they should learn from it. But let's also look at
Speaker 3: the recent presidential election where they coued Joe Biden and
Speaker 3: slammed in his vice president without having without having the
Speaker 3: proper thought of perhaps forcing Joe Biden to have a
Speaker 3: competitive primary and perhaps find a more viable national democrat
Speaker 3: rather than be incompetent and idiotic and feckless Kamala Harris
Speaker 3: who ended up obviously losing to President Trump. So this
Speaker 3: is somewhat consistent. And I also think that Democrats are
Speaker 3: so blinded by their identity politics that also causes them
Speaker 3: often to not look beyond the surface. And so they're
Speaker 3: going to get Hobby Air Besera taking over at a
Speaker 3: time that California is in deep, deep crisis. So not
Speaker 3: only do you need a competent Democrat, but you need
Speaker 3: a Democrat who isn't corrupt, And so it looks like
Speaker 3: they're going to be. California may be quite frankly longing
Speaker 3: for the days of Gavin Newsom, because at least he's
Speaker 3: just your standard issue San Francisco limbal Jabber. Besara is
Speaker 3: like just Joe Biden a few years younger.
Speaker 1: Well, when you look at the possibilities of what could happen,
Speaker 1: we know that everyone in this guy's inner circle is
Speaker 1: now in trouble with the Feds. So it is an
Speaker 1: entirely within the realm of possibilities that this guy could
Speaker 1: get indicted after the primary, and then suddenly you have
Speaker 1: someone who might go to federal prison as your nominee.
Speaker 1: What do you do then my guess is they stand
Speaker 1: behind him because they rather deal with a democratic criminal
Speaker 1: than a republican. What do you do if he gets elected,
Speaker 1: becomes governor, and then gets indicted. You have a guy
Speaker 1: who is essentially impotent as governor, won't be able to
Speaker 1: do any of the things that you want him to
Speaker 1: do because he'll be under a federal cloud. All of
Speaker 1: the possibilities that they have coming up with Javier Bessera
Speaker 1: are bad. And let's say he doesn't get indicted, You're
Speaker 1: going to end up with a guy who, based on
Speaker 1: past performance, will likely be a very poor governor, and
Speaker 1: you're going to rely on that guy to lead the state.
Speaker 3: Well, particularly the time of broad economic crisis within the state. Yeah,
Speaker 3: you're exactly right. I think the other kind of story here,
Speaker 3: as it relates to the candidates, John, is that although
Speaker 3: I don't know that the Democratic establishment thought too deeply
Speaker 3: about their backing of Javier Sarah other than he's not
Speaker 3: Tom Steyer and Tom you can't doesn't play well with
Speaker 3: the Democratic establishment. I think really it's the establishment trying
Speaker 3: to run more broadly from all the other candidates, John,
Speaker 3: I mean they, yes, Javier may be a bad governor
Speaker 3: in effective governor. But the establishment hates Katie Porter. They
Speaker 3: can't stand to be in a room with Katie Porter.
Speaker 3: They would take somebody who's incompetent over any day of
Speaker 3: the week. And quite frankly, a similar similar thing with Stier.
Speaker 3: So I wonder if it's more that the Sarah was
Speaker 3: just the best the least bad alternative in a time
Speaker 3: when they got caught flat footed because Swallow was obviously
Speaker 3: bounced out.
Speaker 1: You debate a lot of Democratic strategists on cable, on radio,
Speaker 1: different forums. When the cameras are on and you're talking
Speaker 1: to them about Katie Porter, what do they say.
Speaker 3: I have yet to meet a single Democratic strategist, state, local,
Speaker 3: or national that thinks highly of her. It's really they
Speaker 3: all just want her to go home, go back to teaching,
Speaker 3: or whatever she wants to do. They personally detest her,
Speaker 3: And I think they're all going to be actually, I
Speaker 3: know they're all going to be quite relieved when she
Speaker 3: very likely will not prevail in this race. And what
Speaker 3: is that Two back to back losses and her old
Speaker 3: seat was kind of carved away, So they're all relieved.
Speaker 3: The only person I know I believe that likes Katie
Speaker 3: Porter would be Elizabeth Warren. I think she's her protege.
Speaker 3: But outside of that, Katie's finding herself without a home.
Speaker 1: What I talk to Democrats, not only do they not
Speaker 1: like her, they all seem to have unique Katie Porter
Speaker 1: stories where she did something to them, She was nasty
Speaker 1: to them, she was nasty to someone in front of them,
Speaker 1: she did something vulgar, whatever. They all have stories, every
Speaker 1: single one that I talked to.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right. You know, it's interesting because politics is
Speaker 3: a team sport. It doesn't mean that you can't ruffle feathers.
Speaker 3: So President Trump goes toe to toe with people all
Speaker 3: the time, but he also is very loyal and knows
Speaker 3: how to get along with people to get things done.
Speaker 3: Katie Porter doesn't get along with anybody. She's in it
Speaker 3: for herself, and that's simply it. You know, her whole
Speaker 3: thing during Congress was to try to make a rocket
Speaker 3: to try to embarrass a CEO that would come in
Speaker 3: front of oversight. And then she used that clip to
Speaker 3: get her on MSNBC simply so that she could take
Speaker 3: that clip and put it in her email machine and
Speaker 3: keep dumb low information voters keep giving her five dollars
Speaker 3: a month, and that worked pretty effectively to put together
Speaker 3: a just But the problem is, John, it's one thing
Speaker 3: to run for Congress. The electric doesn't get to know
Speaker 3: you that well because it's pretty much your TV ads
Speaker 3: and your mail pieces. But when you run for governor
Speaker 3: in a big state like this, yes, paid advertising is important,
Speaker 3: but you've got to build traditional coalitions. And if you
Speaker 3: have flashed and burned everybody along the way, there's going
Speaker 3: to be nobody there to stand with you. And that's
Speaker 3: why she's in bloating.
Speaker 1: Quite frankly, what do you make of the fact that
Speaker 1: there seems to be no genuine interest at all within
Speaker 1: the Democratic Party electorate for Matt Mayhan, who is by
Speaker 1: all accounts the sanest of all of the Democratic candidates
Speaker 1: running for governor. He certainly wants to do something about crime,
Speaker 1: he wants to do something about the homeless problem. He
Speaker 1: doesn't want to spend the state into bankruptcy. But he's
Speaker 1: with them on all the social issues that they care about.
Speaker 1: He hates Donald Trump, and it doesn't matter. They're not
Speaker 1: buying that product.
Speaker 3: That actually is the most interesting story that I don't
Speaker 3: think is being covered about the scubatorial race, which is
Speaker 3: that moderate Democrats are completely rejected by both the establishment
Speaker 3: and the electorate in blue states like California. That is
Speaker 3: just shocking that they're looking for positions at the extremes.
Speaker 3: And Matt Mahon, it's just I mean, he's floundered. The
Speaker 3: only people that have gotten excited about him are kind
Speaker 3: of quite frankly, the ultra wealthy and Silicon Valley elites.
Speaker 3: Like that's about it. He never was resonant with the electorate.
Speaker 3: And I think, in part John, it's because intensity in
Speaker 3: these races is generated with Democrats at the extreme, who
Speaker 3: is the most anti Trump, who is the most woke?
Speaker 3: And Mahon's positions don't generate any excitement or intensity right now.
Speaker 3: He's not partisan enough, and so forget this the race
Speaker 3: of in California. I think as we project as we
Speaker 3: look into the midterm cycle, and then of course as
Speaker 3: we look into the next presidential cycle, this may be
Speaker 3: foreshadowing of what the Democratic primary race looks like, that
Speaker 3: a moderate governor from some flyover state may not actually
Speaker 3: be quite viable in twenty twenty eight. They may be
Speaker 3: looking for somebody more like an AOC to carry the torch.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, this is horrendous news for Josh Shapiro or
Speaker 1: Ram Emmanuel or Andy Bashar. I can't see that type
Speaker 1: of candidate winning a Democratic primary right now.
Speaker 3: I struggle to see it. You know, I know, the
Speaker 3: the you know, the Democratic elites, the donors will probably
Speaker 3: give them plenty of money, so you know, you can't
Speaker 3: totally discount it, but I struggle to see it. They're
Speaker 3: going to splice up what ever, small flights of the
Speaker 3: electric but really they're just not going to generate a
Speaker 3: lot of attension because primary is about generating attention and intensity,
Speaker 3: and you know, somebody like AOC John, you know, probably
Speaker 3: starts out with I don't know, mid mid to high
Speaker 3: twenties and in support, and her voters are are not
Speaker 3: leaving her. So all she has to do is hang
Speaker 3: on to her voters and maybe pick up a couple
Speaker 3: points here or there, and heck, she can ride this
Speaker 3: thing out. So it's this really bad news for Democrats,
Speaker 3: and it's good news for Republicans if they're thinking about
Speaker 3: breaking the historical trend of you know, holding the White
Speaker 3: House after two terms in power.
Speaker 1: Do you think Biserah has seen enough of a bump
Speaker 1: to prevent the Democrats from being locked off the November ballot.
Speaker 3: I do, yeah, I mean, look, strange things do happen.
Speaker 3: But I've been I look at pullings a snapshot in time,
Speaker 3: of course, but I really are looking kind of at
Speaker 3: consolidation trends, and it seems to be the Democrats are
Speaker 3: kind of getting in line broadly behind the Sarah. His
Speaker 3: and Styre has been falling back, and interestingly, his attacks
Speaker 3: and whatnot kind of uh, He's resaturation point, whereas advertising
Speaker 3: really has marginal utility for each dollar that he spends,
Speaker 3: and in fact, you know, every time it's just paid
Speaker 3: for by time Tom sire, it reinforces kind of the
Speaker 3: Democratic electorates to stained for rich guys. So Tom seems
Speaker 3: to be falling back far enough. If he were closing
Speaker 3: at a faster rate, I would say, hey, maybe there
Speaker 3: could be two Republicans. But you know, President Trump's endorsement
Speaker 3: of Steve Hilton seems to consolidate the Republicans, and the
Speaker 3: kind of Democrats are getting in line more broadly with
Speaker 3: the Sarah. So I think it will be an R
Speaker 3: and D going in and and but look, I think
Speaker 3: the big wildcard is what you said, John does some
Speaker 3: bad doj News break about Hoavier with Sarah, you know,
Speaker 3: in a runoff, because that could tilt this thing in
Speaker 3: some kind of black Swan event towards Steve Hilton.
Speaker 1: What do you think Tom Steyer does next? Because he
Speaker 1: ran for president, spend a ton of money and lost,
Speaker 1: he's running for governor spending a ton of money, gonna lose.
Speaker 1: Do you think he just goes away at this point
Speaker 1: or do you think he spends the rest of his
Speaker 1: life running to win something.
Speaker 3: You know. I was thinking about this this morning actually,
Speaker 3: And on the one hand, it's completely idiotic about how
Speaker 3: much money this guy has wasted in just perennially running
Speaker 3: and losing. On the other hand, well, I completely disagree
Speaker 3: with his policies and world viewpoint I actually kind of
Speaker 3: respect it in a way, John, that he's a man
Speaker 3: in the arena. You know, he gets in the fight.
Speaker 3: At least he has no shot, but at least he's
Speaker 3: he's trying to do something, you know, juxtaposed to other
Speaker 3: billionaires like Rick Caruso who just don't have the you know,
Speaker 3: the stuff to go through it again. But so I
Speaker 3: tend to think his days in electoral politics, Tom says
Speaker 3: are over but I think he's going to turn this
Speaker 3: and leverage it into some kind of appointment if the
Speaker 3: Democrats take the White House. I just I just have
Speaker 3: to think that he's going to convert you know, not
Speaker 3: just the name might but also he's given a lot
Speaker 3: of influencers within the Democratic Party a lot of money,
Speaker 3: so he's going to try to try to convert that
Speaker 3: into an appointment if Tom Steyer runs for president again.
Speaker 3: I don't know. I guess I'll eat my hat, but
Speaker 3: I guess at that point he just loves burning money.
Speaker 3: I really have no one there no other explanation for it.
Speaker 1: What the hell is going on with Rick Caruso. You
Speaker 1: mentioned his name. He got behind Matt Mayhan in a
Speaker 1: big way. Matt Mayhan is not going to win this election.
Speaker 1: And now it looks like Carusell might get in trouble
Speaker 1: because there is coordination between one of the independent groups
Speaker 1: and the campaign, or at least an allegation of that,
Speaker 1: and they're looking into that right now, So people might
Speaker 1: get in trouble over that. He's getting behind a challenger
Speaker 1: to Brad Sherman, the longtime congressman from the San Fernando Valley,
Speaker 1: who is attacking him from the left. He has certainly
Speaker 1: gotten behind other candidates that make no sense to me.
Speaker 1: He won't endorse or hasn't endorsed Spencer Pratt, who is
Speaker 1: catching fire right now in that La mayor's race. He's
Speaker 1: only going after Nitia Rahman, So I assume he's going
Speaker 1: to endorse Karen Bass in the general election if it's
Speaker 1: Bass and Pratt. As soon as he started taking advice
Speaker 1: from Democratic consultants, A, what he did made no sense
Speaker 1: to anyone, and B he went from being the guy
Speaker 1: with the Midas touch to being a guy who can't
Speaker 1: win anything.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's really interesting. You know, when you expect Rick
Speaker 3: to step up and use his voice to do the
Speaker 3: right thing, like endorsing Spencer Pratt, he remained silent when
Speaker 3: he has no business getting involved in a race like
Speaker 3: the one against Brad Sherman. He speaks up and he's
Speaker 3: backing a loser because he didn't run for mayor and
Speaker 3: he didn't run for governor. And it was such a
Speaker 3: bizarre lead up by the way right he was on
Speaker 3: an electoral tour essentially saying an announcement is coming and
Speaker 3: then only to pull the trigger and pull back. Was odd,
Speaker 3: and that meant that if Rick Crusoe endorsed in the
Speaker 3: race for governor, politically speaking, he needed to back a winner.
Speaker 3: He could not take a long shot. And so the
Speaker 3: fact that he got all in, I mean all in
Speaker 3: behind Matt Mayhan. And I saw some messaging Johnny put
Speaker 3: out on Twitter where it was a little disingenuous, where
Speaker 3: he was saying, oh, Matt Mayhem on the rise, he's overtaking.
Speaker 3: He was in fifth place at the time. I mean,
Speaker 3: there was just no there was no bad way at
Speaker 3: that time. It's look, I think any shred of political
Speaker 3: capital that Rick Caruso had after this coming election cycle
Speaker 3: is probably gone. I thought what he could have become
Speaker 3: when he decided not to run, although I do think
Speaker 3: he should have given it a shot in the LA
Speaker 3: mayor's race. But when he decided not to run, I thought,
Speaker 3: perhaps he could be like an elder statesman, the voice
Speaker 3: of reason who just did the right thing by getting
Speaker 3: behind the right people at the right time. And it's
Speaker 3: it's a hodgepot. I think it's bad political advice and instincts,
Speaker 3: a desire to be liked, and what's the end of
Speaker 3: happening is his political capitals eroding, and people who should
Speaker 3: be listening to Rick's advice are just going to discount it.
Speaker 3: And he's been more and more irrelevant as time goes on.
Speaker 1: John Thomas, Republican political strategist, so you can follow on
Speaker 1: exit the Thomas Guide. Thanks so much for stopping by.
Speaker 1: Have a great weekend.
Speaker 3: Thanks thanks John, you too.
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Speaker 1: Quite frankly, And on election night, we're doing double duty.
Speaker 5: Yes, we are, absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 2: We're gonna be broadcasting live on June second, from seven
Speaker 2: to nine pm election results. If there are anyone the
Speaker 2: polls close at eight o'clock, we'll have them for you,
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Speaker 2: and we're gonna be live on the Big KMJ in Fresnow.
Speaker 1: Well, there's more drama going on right now in the
Speaker 1: gubernatorial election involving paid influencers.
Speaker 2: Tom Steyer has been getting a lot of flak for
Speaker 2: straight up paying social media influencers to endorse his campaign,
Speaker 2: and a lot of the influencers have not been disclosing
Speaker 2: that they've been paid to support Tom Steyer.
Speaker 1: But it's not just Steyer doing this.
Speaker 2: Apparently Nithia Rahman is doing this in the La mayors race.
Speaker 1: For more, here is CBSLA Well.
Speaker 5: To right, there's new scrutiny over political campaigns and social
Speaker 5: media influencers.
Speaker 3: Politicians are writing.
Speaker 2: Beache starting to understand why the radio buys are so
Speaker 2: low for political because you can really skirt the rules
Speaker 2: when it comes to social media.
Speaker 1: But here's the thing, though, If you are an influencer
Speaker 1: who talks about fashion or rap, music or fill in
Speaker 1: the blank, and then suddenly you stop talking about rap
Speaker 1: or fashion or whatever and you start shilling for Tom Steyer,
Speaker 1: I don't think your audience has any interest in that
Speaker 1: at all.
Speaker 2: No, it's an obvious cash grab and maybe they're cool
Speaker 2: with that. Hey, I'm ripping off Tom Steyer's campaign. I'm
Speaker 2: not saying it's a good strategy. I'm just saying that
Speaker 2: this is what the consultants think you got to do.
Speaker 5: Now, politicians are writing big checks for endorsements from influencers
Speaker 5: CBSLA political reporter Time.
Speaker 1: We imagine if that was legal in radio, Oh, the
Speaker 1: amount of money that would be going to these stations
Speaker 1: would be unreal.
Speaker 5: CBSLA political reporter Tom wait Us, hear Tom. The big
Speaker 5: issue not all these payments are being disclosed, that's right.
Speaker 6: And you know, here's the thing. We spoke with one
Speaker 6: influencer tonight. Really nice guy, just try to make a living,
Speaker 6: not really you being in the political world, right, They
Speaker 6: don't know a lot about sort of disclosure laws, and
Speaker 6: so I think that's part of it. So paying influencers
Speaker 6: for a product or campaign endorsement, it's nothing new, but
Speaker 6: the payments are getting more scrutiny after a Democrat for governor,
Speaker 6: Tom Steyer, dropped a staggering one hundred thousand dollars on
Speaker 6: a Texas based influencer to promote his campaign.
Speaker 1: WHOA. Now, you do the radio show from noon to
Speaker 1: three and then again later on in the afternoon. Let's
Speaker 1: say you had your own podcast where you talked about
Speaker 1: cooking and it had nothing to do with the radio station.
Speaker 1: You could theoretically sell your endorsement on your podcast legally
Speaker 1: speaking to one of these candidates. Correct. I think our
Speaker 1: contract doesn't allow that. Let's say it did. How much
Speaker 1: money would it take for you to endorse Katie Porter
Speaker 1: on your cooking podcast? Well we could make ESTRONI together.
Speaker 5: Sorry for the noise, I'm cutting carrots.
Speaker 1: That's true. Look, I a thousand.
Speaker 2: I am a shill for a lot of things, but
Speaker 2: I don't think I could ever be a shill for
Speaker 2: a politician. What about if she offered one hundred thousand dollars, Hey.
Speaker 1: It's randy for Katie Porter.
Speaker 2: Do you like politicians that scream at their assistance? Then
Speaker 2: you will love Katie Porter out of my shop?
Speaker 1: How about this twenty five thousand dollars? But she'd sleep
Speaker 1: with you too.
Speaker 2: You're gonna make people want us to play that call again.
Speaker 2: Maybe we'll do it in the last segment. What the hell?
Speaker 1: It's a holiday weekend. The street is tom st I
Speaker 1: do like money, so there is that.
Speaker 2: But would but would anybody be able to take me
Speaker 2: seriously in the job that I have here and on
Speaker 2: my five o'clock show if they know that I'm getting
Speaker 2: paid to promote these candidates?
Speaker 1: What do you care? Because the people who are interested
Speaker 1: in making sooufles aren't listening to this show. That is true.
Speaker 7: Word on the street is Tom Steyer is actually playing
Speaker 7: to slash utility bills by twenty five percent.
Speaker 6: So Cow based influencer Javier Knight on TikTok giving a
Speaker 6: thumbs up to Democrat Tom Steyer in his bid for
Speaker 6: governor California has a solution. What isn't said in this
Speaker 6: video is that Styer's campaign paid Night close to three
Speaker 6: thousand dollars. Knight did write two captions stating the video
Speaker 6: is in partnership with the Styer campaign. Night spoke with us,
Speaker 6: telling CBSLA.
Speaker 2: He was s I want to get a shirt that
Speaker 2: says Tom Steyer paid me three thousand dollars and all
Speaker 2: I got was this T shirt.
Speaker 1: So I've never heard any of these influencers that they're
Speaker 1: all paying off. And then a friend of mine who
Speaker 1: used to work at our then sister station, WABC, called
Speaker 1: me and one of the influencers that's at the center
Speaker 1: of this used to be a salesman at WABC who's
Speaker 1: now an online influencer and apparently is supporting Beserah for
Speaker 1: money that tracks.
Speaker 6: Night spoke with us, telling CBSLA he was surprised when
Speaker 6: he got the offer from the Styer campaign because most
Speaker 6: of his content is comedy and lifestyle.
Speaker 1: I'm not one for policies.
Speaker 7: I don't lean right, don't lean lamp, working to every
Speaker 7: American trying to live the American dream.
Speaker 2: And hey, if this guy wants to get me three
Speaker 2: thousand dollars, sure he'll buy my not vote.
Speaker 1: Good.
Speaker 2: Is it surprising to anybody that this campaign has a
Speaker 2: ceiling and all the money that he's spending. Did you
Speaker 2: see that chart, by the way, of how much Tom
Speaker 2: Steyer has spent on local TV in Los Angeles?
Speaker 1: Oh yes, And let me tell you, at least with
Speaker 1: the influencers, all of this is being wasted because this
Speaker 1: program is a broadcast. It's meant for a broad audience.
Speaker 1: Podcasting is narrow casting. You're talking to people with very
Speaker 1: specific interests. The podcast I listen to, I listen to
Speaker 1: a podcast about the Angels losing. They don't talk about baseball,
Speaker 1: they don't talk about sports, they don't talk about these
Speaker 1: broad categories. They talk about one team and one team only,
Speaker 1: and that's it. And if I tune in and instead
Speaker 1: of hearing about the Angels losing, I hear about Tom
Speaker 1: Steyer and how great he is, I'm gone.
Speaker 2: This report that we're playing is from CBSLA KCBS in
Speaker 2: Los Angeles. To this point, Tom Steyer has spent ten
Speaker 2: point seven million dollars on ADS on just that shown.
Speaker 1: And he spent a ton on the rest of them too.
Speaker 2: Eight point five million dollars on ABC seven Los Angeles,
Speaker 2: zero dollars on KABC, Thank you very much, eight point
Speaker 2: one million dollars on NBC four, five point five million
Speaker 2: dollars on KPIX, five point three on KCRA, four point
Speaker 2: one on NBC in the Bay Area, three point nine
Speaker 2: on Fox eleven, three point nine on KTLA. There's so
Speaker 2: much money that's directly going to all these TV stations.
Speaker 1: Did you see that the one TV station that he's
Speaker 1: not really spending much on is KRON in the Bay Area.
Speaker 2: That's interesting. No love for KRON four. It's up with that,
Speaker 2: Tom Styer.
Speaker 7: Could it be ignorant of me to just be like, yeah,
Speaker 7: I'll take the money. And but at the same time,
Speaker 7: when someone's throwing a big pile of money at you,
Speaker 7: and you got to make this book.
Speaker 2: Influencers got to make rent. So whether they're pushing collagen
Speaker 2: peptides or Tom Styer.
Speaker 1: They are for sale.
Speaker 7: When someone's throwing a big pile of money at you
Speaker 7: and you got to make bills and pay rent and
Speaker 7: that's what you do for a living.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna take it.
Speaker 6: Knight's check was small potatoes compared to what Styer paid
Speaker 6: influencer Carlos Eduardo Espina.
Speaker 1: Second thing, do you support ice? Hell no. The really
Speaker 1: funny part is him trying to relate to these podcasters
Speaker 1: and these influencers.
Speaker 3: He is.
Speaker 2: The best way to describe Tom Steyer in this campaign
Speaker 2: for governor is a term that the kids use.
Speaker 1: Delulu.
Speaker 6: As first reported by The New York Times, a Spina
Speaker 6: based in Texas, was paid one hundred thousand dollars to
Speaker 6: promote Stier's campaign to his more than fourteen million followers. Initially,
Speaker 6: there was no clear disclosure from a Spina that he
Speaker 6: was being paid.
Speaker 2: You would think you'd yeah, that would get your life
Speaker 2: is pulled if you are a radio station. None of
Speaker 2: this is allowed in this profession, but it is the
Speaker 2: wild wild West in social media. And even if we
Speaker 2: have laws in California where you have to disclose it,
Speaker 2: who's enforcing that?
Speaker 8: You would think you would see the potential pr problem
Speaker 8: coming on this and getting out in front of it.
Speaker 8: And it's probably just as simple as you know, the
Speaker 8: influencer saying, Hey, YO, just to be clear, I'm getting
Speaker 8: paid to do this, but I am taking the money
Speaker 8: because I really believe in the guy.
Speaker 6: Sire's campaign says they are following all applicable laws and
Speaker 6: they are compensating creators in part because they see them
Speaker 6: as small business owners and deserve to be paid for
Speaker 6: their time and production. The Stier campaign is hardly alone
Speaker 6: in paying influencers to promote their candidacies, but Stire's seemingly
Speaker 6: unlimited wealth and reach has added to the scrutiny.
Speaker 2: I'm telling you the amount of ads he's bought, the
Speaker 2: amount of influencers he's bought, it's a turn for a
Speaker 2: large portion of the electric because it just reminds everybody
Speaker 2: that this guy has way too much money.
Speaker 1: And it's not like they have a longstanding relationship with
Speaker 1: the guy. It's not like they had worked with him
Speaker 1: in the past and were really impressed with him, and
Speaker 1: that's why they're getting behind him. I'm sure they'd never
Speaker 1: heard of the guy until he showed up with a check.
Speaker 6: But Styr's seemingly unlimited wealth and reach has added to
Speaker 6: the scrutiny.
Speaker 1: Vote for Nithia Rahmen.
Speaker 6: Here's well known actor, writer, and comedian Adam Conover promoting
Speaker 6: LA mayoral candidate Nithia Ramen. What he doesn't say in
Speaker 6: the clip is that a company registered to him was
Speaker 6: paid just over one thousand dollars from the Ramen campaign.
Speaker 1: That's shady. Nithia talk about corrupt politics just buying people
Speaker 1: to endorse you.
Speaker 6: While makers say influencers new to politics need to brush
Speaker 6: up on campaign disclosure laws.
Speaker 4: For the folks who are making a thousand bucks or
Speaker 4: ten thousand bucks or one hundred thousand dollars, you know,
Speaker 4: at that point, yes, the responsibility is on you as
Speaker 4: the person entering into that contract.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: It makes me question, because Tom Steyer has done a
Speaker 2: lot of interviews on a lot of different podcasts, how
Speaker 2: many of them were interviews because it went through the
Speaker 2: traditional process of he's booked because he's somebody running for office,
Speaker 2: and how many were paid interviews?
Speaker 1: Okay, think about this, Think about the candidates who have
Speaker 1: the resources to buy celebrity endorsements, and think about how
Speaker 1: well those candidates have done. Remember in the last presidential
Speaker 1: campaign when Kamala Harris went out and bought who was it,
Speaker 1: Beyonce someone like that where they had a big free
Speaker 1: concert in Houston and everyone showed up to see the
Speaker 1: singer do the concert, but it was there was a
Speaker 1: financial transaction that took place. There was like a million
Speaker 1: dollars or more that the campaign paid the artist to
Speaker 1: come show up and perform at the campaign rally. And
Speaker 1: it's a bad look because that becomes the story. Whatever
Speaker 1: amount of money you paid the influencer is what's going
Speaker 1: to be printed in the paper, and that's what people
Speaker 1: are going to see. And it's a bad look. And
Speaker 1: she lost. And Tom Steyer, who's buying all the influencers,
Speaker 1: He's gonna lose, and so is Nitya Ramin.
Speaker 4: To understand what your responsibilities are in California.
Speaker 1: Finding these payments can be tricky.
Speaker 6: The payments are often buried under layers of campaign finance disclosures,
Speaker 6: and in some cases, the influencers create their own companies,
Speaker 6: so the payments from the politicians are not paid directly
Speaker 6: to the influencers.
Speaker 5: Pat Well, I hope they watched a report too. Tom
Speaker 5: get an education. Thank you.
Speaker 2: Elections are changing right before our eyes. It's AI videos
Speaker 2: and paid influencer endorsements.
Speaker 1: One hundred two two two five two two two is
Speaker 1: telephone number one eight hundred two two two five two
Speaker 1: two two. If you'd like to email the show, you
Speaker 1: can do so at Johnny don't like show at gmail
Speaker 1: dot com. That's Johnny don't like show at gmail dot com.
Speaker 1: And if you want to take a peek at my ballot,
Speaker 1: I see here that we have a bunch of emails
Speaker 1: asking for my ballot. You can get that online at
Speaker 1: KABC dot com, KSFO dot com. It's right there on
Speaker 1: the front page. And you can see how I'm voting.
Speaker 1: That doesn't mean you should vote the same way. It's
Speaker 1: just how I'm gonna fill my ballot out. But you
Speaker 1: make up your own mind. You're all big boys and girls.
Speaker 1: All right, Let's go to the phones and welcome Brianbrian.
Speaker 9: Hello, Hey, Hey, John here Randy. Love the show. And
Speaker 9: I pulled up your ballot John, and uh, it looks good.
Speaker 9: And I understand the concept of voting for Bianco. I
Speaker 9: think it makes sound strategy. But why do you think
Speaker 9: the Republicans didn't get better organized and try and come
Speaker 9: up with something like, if your name starts with a
Speaker 9: three AM, you vote for Bianco. If it's end through Z,
Speaker 9: a vote for Hilton. Some like that, where you give
Speaker 9: a little more structure to what you're telling your voters
Speaker 9: to do.
Speaker 1: Well. For whatever reason, a lot of people in the
Speaker 1: Republican Party are not playing for a Democratic lockout in November.
Speaker 1: That is not their goal. What they want is they
Speaker 1: want Steve Hilton on the ballot with a Democrat because
Speaker 1: they think that if they play for the top two,
Speaker 1: then there's a chance that they could get locked out
Speaker 1: themselves and there would be two Democrats on the November ballot,
Speaker 1: and then that would hurt candidates who are running for
Speaker 1: Congress or state Assembly or other down ballot races. My
Speaker 1: point is is this Gopher broke. If you have an
Speaker 1: opportunity at winning the seat by going for a Democratic lockout,
Speaker 1: then that's your play. If you're putting a Republican candidate
Speaker 1: on the November ballot against a Democrat with less than
Speaker 1: a one percent chance at winning, then you're essentially giving
Speaker 1: them the seat for another four years. I think the
Speaker 1: state is currently in a crisis level and we need
Speaker 1: to do everything we can to block the Democrats from
Speaker 1: keeping that seat for another four years, even though the
Speaker 1: legislature would be hostile. You can appoint judges, you can
Speaker 1: appoint people to the Public Utilities Commission, you can appoint
Speaker 1: people to parole boards. You could appoint people to fix
Speaker 1: the nine to one to one system. A lot of
Speaker 1: good can happen if you have a competent governor, which
Speaker 1: we haven't had in this state in a very long time.
Speaker 1: Thank you for the call, Sir,