Speaker 1: And we continue at one oh five in the afternoon
Speaker 1: on the John Phillips Show, Mister Randy wangs in Culver City.
Speaker 2: John ballots are still being counted in the city of
Speaker 2: Los Angeles, but right now it sure looks like Spencer
Speaker 2: Pratt is advancing to the November runoff along with everybody's
Speaker 2: favorite D dropper.
Speaker 3: And when the.
Speaker 1: World comes in ten short days, the world will be
Speaker 1: here for the world come, and we're gonna show them
Speaker 1: the magic of Los Angeles. Well, she may drop the D,
Speaker 1: but Tom Steyer doesn't.
Speaker 3: I'm Tom Steyer.
Speaker 1: I'm about to ride the tea. You better hope he
Speaker 1: gets more votes. So we're gonna have no reason to
Speaker 1: play that. Oh it'll be gratuitous, but we're gonna continue
Speaker 1: to play it for sure. Eight hundred two two two
Speaker 1: five two two two is a telephone number one eight
Speaker 1: hundred two two two five two two two. It is
Speaker 1: our pleasure to welcome our next guest to the program.
Speaker 1: He is the publisher So Doesitmatter dot Com, which covers
Speaker 1: California politics. If you log on and subscribe, they'll send
Speaker 1: it right to your email box and you'll be able
Speaker 1: to check out John's take each and every morning on
Speaker 1: California Politics. You can get them online at Sodoesitmatter dot com.
Speaker 1: John Fleischmann, Welcome.
Speaker 4: John, Thank you for having me back on the show
Speaker 4: for another opportunity to chronicle the burning of Rome.
Speaker 1: Well, let's start with the governor's race because and you
Speaker 1: always have to add this caveat because we take over
Speaker 1: a month to count all the ballots here in North Korea.
Speaker 1: But as of now, it appears that Steve Hilton is
Speaker 1: in the driver's seat in first place, with Javier Bessera,
Speaker 1: the former Attorney general and second place, and Tom Steyer
Speaker 1: finishing out of the money just under twenty percent in
Speaker 1: third place. What do you make of that result?
Speaker 4: Well, I mean the first thing I would tell you
Speaker 4: is now having I'm wonky enough that I spent some
Speaker 4: time with a calculator and figuring things out, and these
Speaker 4: results are not going to change. There is no way,
Speaker 4: with even several remaining million ballots to be counted, that
Speaker 4: the numbers will change enough to change the outcome. So
Speaker 4: this is going to be a Steve Hilton versus Bessarah showdown.
Speaker 4: And so what you've got is Besserah is going to
Speaker 4: have to spend the fall or he should be spending
Speaker 4: the fall defending Gavin Newsom's record, because he really, of
Speaker 4: all of the Democrats running kind of ran on the hey,
Speaker 4: I will be the least attruptive transition from Gavin Newsom
Speaker 4: to Xavier Bessera and it'll all be good, right, That
Speaker 4: was his pitch. So he owns everything. And of course
Speaker 4: Newsom gets what he wants, because what he didn't want
Speaker 4: was a new person running for governor and becoming governor
Speaker 4: in California. That would be attacking his record while he's
Speaker 4: busy running for president. So we have Steve Hilton, who's
Speaker 4: extraordinarily articulate and hard charging focus on Bessara in the
Speaker 4: Fall on his record, and of course Bassara will just
Speaker 4: respond by saying, but Trump, Trump, Trump Trump. And it
Speaker 4: remains to be seen whether or not the prop fifty
Speaker 4: playbook from last fall can repeat itself where the Democrats
Speaker 4: never have to talk about all of their failures because
Speaker 4: all they talk about is Donald Trump. That's possible, you know,
Speaker 4: I don't know, but that's that's kind of the setup
Speaker 4: that we have. And then you know, you'd appreciate this, John,
Speaker 4: because you study politics like I do, there's a whole
Speaker 4: lot more Democrats than Republicans in California. So not only
Speaker 4: does Steve Hilton have to do everything right, but Bessarah
Speaker 4: is going to have to take a fall. He's going
Speaker 4: to have to stumble, and you know, I know you've
Speaker 4: talked about it plenty on your show, but we can
Speaker 4: talk a little bit about the legal issues that are
Speaker 4: just right tendential to him with his own with the
Speaker 4: scheme to pay his own chief of staff, more money
Speaker 4: out of nonprofit funds and all of that. But but
Speaker 4: the governor's race is set, and I think it's going
Speaker 4: to be a vibrant one. It's going to be an
Speaker 4: interesting one. But we are a blue state, so something's
Speaker 4: got to happen. But the outcome is pretty predictable.
Speaker 1: My theory, and maybe you disagree, I don't know, is
Speaker 1: that the Democrats are going to run Javier Bessera as
Speaker 1: the California Joe Biden, and they're going to try to
Speaker 1: turn him into a generic Democrat and put him in
Speaker 1: the basement and put him on TV as little as possible,
Speaker 1: put him in front of small, friendly audiences. Don't let
Speaker 1: him go on TV often. If you do, just put
Speaker 1: them on MSNBC or something like that every so often
Speaker 1: to just remind people that he's there. But you don't
Speaker 1: want him sitting down on Meet the Press. You do
Speaker 1: not want him debating Steve Hilton more than once. You
Speaker 1: do not want him out there in a position where
Speaker 1: he exposes himself to liability if something goes haywire. And
Speaker 1: the way you prevent that from happening is you just
Speaker 1: lock him down at home.
Speaker 4: I agree with you one hundred percent. You're totally right.
Speaker 4: There's nothing to gain and everything to lose by having
Speaker 4: Sarah out there on the campaign trail, giving speeches and
Speaker 4: becoming the object. As a matter of fact, I think
Speaker 4: the plan will be where he will do lots of
Speaker 4: quiet private events while his public employee union friends start
Speaker 4: running the whole Trump's Best Friend ad campaign against against
Speaker 4: you know, Steve Hilton, because they would like to stop
Speaker 4: Hilton at the roughly forty percent mark, which is the
Speaker 4: high point if all the Republicans are unified him once again.
Speaker 4: This turnout model so far as kind of proving that
Speaker 4: because if you take the numbers that currently exist for
Speaker 4: Hilton and add in the numbers that Beyonco got, it's
Speaker 4: right around forty percent, which has always been the cap.
Speaker 4: Of course, not forty percent of the House seats now,
Speaker 4: but forty percent of the voters in California really would
Speaker 4: like to see a significant change. And then you know
Speaker 4: it's all these undecided voters, and right now anyways, the
Speaker 4: president is particularly unpopular with that group, so you can
Speaker 4: imagine that they will. You know, it's not very hard
Speaker 4: to tie Steve Hilton to the President, who just as
Speaker 4: of yesterday was on truth Social saying I need Steve Hilton, right.
Speaker 4: It's kind of like Steve Hilton used the Trump endorsement
Speaker 4: very effectively to become the Republican nominee. But you know,
Speaker 4: in for a penny, in for a pound, right, he
Speaker 4: is now the Trump guy.
Speaker 1: If you are Steve Hilton, what do you do to
Speaker 1: lure Javier Bessera out of the basement and get him
Speaker 1: in debate two and get him to show up for
Speaker 1: interviews where people will challenge him, and get him in
Speaker 1: front of large audiences. How do you make that happen?
Speaker 4: I mean so intuitively, since you don't prep your guests
Speaker 4: with your questions, I would say a couple things first
Speaker 4: and foremost. If I'm Steve Hilton. I'm going straight into
Speaker 4: doing public events in the Hispanic dominated areas of Los Angeles,
Speaker 4: taking it right to him so that it's it's it's
Speaker 4: painfully obvious that he's avoiding Hilton, and Hilton takes his
Speaker 4: message right there. And then, of course, you know, Hilton
Speaker 4: needs to and all of Hilton sergates need to go
Speaker 4: on all the media shows and say I'm here, I'm available,
Speaker 4: and it's you know, it's kind of like the equivalent
Speaker 4: back in the day. Remember the milk carton ad right,
Speaker 4: Where's where's you know, you can the milk carton with
Speaker 4: you know, where's Javier?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 4: You've got to You've got to just roll out a
Speaker 4: constant message of this guy has gone a wall. He's
Speaker 4: nowhere to be seen. As a matter of fact, we
Speaker 4: hear more from Gavin Newsom, the outgoing governor, then we
Speaker 4: hear from the guy that is going to be the
Speaker 4: next governor of California or wants to be the next
Speaker 4: governor California. So I think those are the two things
Speaker 4: that immediately.
Speaker 3: Come to mind.
Speaker 4: Do you have a great idea? You always have a
Speaker 4: good idea.
Speaker 1: I would just appeal to his ego and his narcissism,
Speaker 1: and I would put stories out there that his team
Speaker 1: doesn't trust him and that's why they want to keep
Speaker 1: him locked up in the basement. And I would try
Speaker 1: to create conflict between him and his team so that
Speaker 1: he forces himself out there. That's what the Democrats do
Speaker 1: to Trump, and it seems to work on a regular
Speaker 1: basis with him. But Javier Bessera, don't forget, is not
Speaker 1: going to have his kitchen cabinet running this race because
Speaker 1: one of them is cutting a deal with the Feds,
Speaker 1: the other ones in the process of cutting a deal
Speaker 1: with the Feds, the third one's in trouble, and he's
Speaker 1: going to have arranged marriages with all of these new
Speaker 1: consultants and strategists that he may or may not trust himself.
Speaker 1: I would try to create conflict between the two of
Speaker 1: them and make it seem like they treat him like
Speaker 1: he's an infant, and they keep them locked up because
Speaker 1: they think he's going to have a gaff.
Speaker 4: Well, and then I think, on top of it, I
Speaker 4: think another way to lure him out. You could tell me,
Speaker 4: I mean, I could see the pros and the constant
Speaker 4: this is put the president on him. Just start calling him.
Speaker 4: Chicken besserah right, and it's the president of the United States.
Speaker 4: By the way, what's going on in California. Chicken Besara
Speaker 4: won't debate, Chicken Bessera won't come out right. You know.
Speaker 4: The downside is it's more time. I don't think you
Speaker 4: can tie Hilton to Trump any more than.
Speaker 5: He will be.
Speaker 4: That's already done anyway, So you may as well use
Speaker 4: the president to really humiliate, you know, because you can
Speaker 4: see it now. Gavin Newsom will be on He's no Chicken,
Speaker 4: and then Gavin newsomill be oh no, then why are
Speaker 4: you the one talking to me instead of the guy
Speaker 4: that wants your job?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 4: You could just kind of play it out that way.
Speaker 4: So that's just another idea.
Speaker 1: Let's shift gears here and talk about Katie Porter because
Speaker 1: her support just collapsed. I'm looking at the Secretary of
Speaker 1: State's website right now. She's currently sitting at four point
Speaker 1: six percent, which is lower than what she had been
Speaker 1: pulling almost the entire way through the election. It looks
Speaker 1: like Democrats who planned on supporting her at the last
Speaker 1: minute got cold feet and decided to jump to another
Speaker 1: can because her support just evaporated.
Speaker 4: Well, you're not.
Speaker 3: You're not. You're not.
Speaker 1: Kid.
Speaker 4: It's kind of funny. I woke up this morning to
Speaker 4: the fact that a local Republican volunteer happened to be
Speaker 4: last night at a bar in Newport Beach. And who
Speaker 4: is sitting at a table in the bar in Newport
Speaker 4: Beach with a couple of people cool in her heels
Speaker 4: but Katie Porter, who I guess needed to tie on
Speaker 4: a stiff one after a after losing her campaign. She
Speaker 4: you know what, I think she she thought she was
Speaker 4: going to be the next Elizabeth Warren. And now now
Speaker 4: you just have to feel bad for a bunch of
Speaker 4: law school students at the UCI Law School who are
Speaker 4: all going to hear her preach to them about how
Speaker 4: she would have run America. It's going to be. I mean,
Speaker 4: pro tip if you're an incoming student that you see
Speaker 4: hervine avoid Professor Porter's class. I think she's just gonna
Speaker 4: all all the students in there are just going to
Speaker 4: suffer horribly from her feelings of inadequacy.
Speaker 1: It's going to be. I think she's going to be
Speaker 1: one of these people that never goes away. She's going
Speaker 1: to spend the rest of her life running for office.
Speaker 1: She's going to run for attorney general or something else.
Speaker 1: Next time around, she'll run against Todd Spitzer for DA
Speaker 1: of Orange County. I don't think she's ever going to
Speaker 1: leave public life.
Speaker 4: I agree with that. You know, right now, she's going
Speaker 4: to be like all upset because Dave Min, who taught
Speaker 4: at the law school, is now sitting in quote her
Speaker 4: congressional seat while she's stuck back at the law school
Speaker 4: and he's not going anywhere anytime soon because Prop fifty
Speaker 4: drew him a district that is very difficult. I mean,
Speaker 4: Jenny ray LaRue, who ran for governor, is now the
Speaker 4: nominee against Dave Min. But for her to be successful,
Speaker 4: Republicans in Congress have to expand the playing field, and
Speaker 4: it's going to take a lot for them to go
Speaker 4: after she's, you know, and not just defend the one
Speaker 4: they have. But yeah, I could see her run for
Speaker 4: county supervisor in a few years, or you know, you
Speaker 4: you know, you just you know, maybe she'll sit around
Speaker 4: and burn incense and hope that somehow Elizabeth Warren will
Speaker 4: become a cabinet secretary in somebody's administration so she can
Speaker 4: get appointed and you know, be yell cusswords with people
Speaker 4: that aren't doing.
Speaker 1: The job right. Matt Mayhan. It was the darling of
Speaker 1: Silicon Valley also saw his support evaporate. He did four
Speaker 1: point one percent according to the last posted numbers from
Speaker 1: the Secretary of State. I felt like Silicon Valley played
Speaker 1: this all wrong, Matt Mayhan. I get it was their
Speaker 1: number one choice. He's from San Jose, They're familiar with him,
Speaker 1: They're happy with his performance as mayor. However, at a
Speaker 1: certain point it became obvious that it just wasn't working out.
Speaker 1: If they took some of that money and used it
Speaker 1: to uplift via Ragosa and uplift Bianco, maybe you would
Speaker 1: have gotten two Republicans onto the November ballot, and that
Speaker 1: could have been their plan B. But they never cut
Speaker 1: bait on him. They stuck with him the entire time,
Speaker 1: even when it became obvious that it just wasn't going
Speaker 1: to happen.
Speaker 4: You know, I think that's a good point. And I
Speaker 4: also think I heard somebody else make this observation last night,
Speaker 4: and I think I kind of agree with that. I
Speaker 4: think one of I mean, I always felt there were
Speaker 4: two reasons why Mayheon did not really catch fire. One
Speaker 4: of which is that he has all the charisma of
Speaker 4: oatmeal without the brown sugar. Right, So that's that's item
Speaker 4: number one. But then the second point is I think
Speaker 4: that there is a growing sense of apprehension on the
Speaker 4: right end of the left of big tech and AI
Speaker 4: and chat bots and what is that all going to mean?
Speaker 4: And I think there's a group of people that are like,
Speaker 4: I don't know who I want for governor, but that
Speaker 4: guy's bought and paid for by big tech, and I
Speaker 4: don't want to have somebody who's the big tech guy
Speaker 4: being our governor. I think that factors into it as well.
Speaker 4: Either way. You know, he, like Katie Porter, isn't going anywhere, right,
Speaker 4: He'll go back to San Jose and consider Prossessor Sam Lecardo,
Speaker 4: the former mayor of San Jose, is now squatting on
Speaker 4: the House seat, so there's really no place for him
Speaker 4: to run for Congress. So I'm sure he'll be back.
Speaker 4: We'll see him somewhere doing something and maybe I don't know,
Speaker 4: if they have termlinits in San Jose, maybe he'll just
Speaker 4: stay the mayor there for a while. But you know,
Speaker 4: unless that guy can go to Charms School, unless that
Speaker 4: guy can figure out, you know, how to actually elevate
Speaker 4: his pulse above forty on a stage. I don't think
Speaker 4: that guy's ready for prime time because well, I think
Speaker 4: that there is a sense of voters that you want
Speaker 4: somebody who's a sure, steady hand. Oh my god, you
Speaker 4: don't want somebody who puts you to sleep.
Speaker 1: No, And I also think part of his problem was
Speaker 1: that he didn't look like a governor. But Sarah looks
Speaker 1: like a governor Mayhand in person. At least when I
Speaker 1: saw him at one of the debates, he looked like
Speaker 1: a teenager. He looked like he was writing that sweet
Speaker 1: spot for the Lincoln Project guys. And I think that
Speaker 1: people look at that and they just don't see a governor,
Speaker 1: and that's part of his problem.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I agree with that completely. And so again, this
Speaker 4: is one of those guys. His candidacy, you know, sounded
Speaker 4: great policy wise to a bunch of wealthy people, and
Speaker 4: they wanted to run him like a tech startup. And
Speaker 4: you know, the bad news for Mayheon is is he
Speaker 4: got the people invested in him are the kind of
Speaker 4: people that like, well, I guess that investment didn't pay
Speaker 4: off and they're onto the next thing, right, and you know,
Speaker 4: he's going to have to ultimately figure out you know,
Speaker 4: you know, I mean, look at all the money that
Speaker 4: was spent and look at the vote that he got,
Speaker 4: and you have to just have to realize that, you know,
Speaker 4: like I said, oatmeal without the brown sugar. There's nothing
Speaker 4: sweet about it. It's just really boring. And and I've
Speaker 4: not met him in person, but based on your short
Speaker 4: description of him, it's not very impressive.
Speaker 1: Gavin Newsom did not endorse a candidate for governor this
Speaker 1: time around. However, he did un He had a classless
Speaker 1: response last night. I don't know if you saw it.
Speaker 1: This kind of got lost in the noise, but through
Speaker 1: his spokesman, Isy Gardone, he put out a statement put
Speaker 1: out a tweet where he slammed some of the Democrats
Speaker 1: who lost the election last night, including Katie Porter, Met Mahon,
Speaker 1: and Antonio Vieregosa. The tweet said, quote, the candidates for
Speaker 1: governor who spent the most time attacking Gavin Newsom were
Speaker 1: the first to concede. Bye bye. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Well there you go, right, So Gavin Newsom got the
Speaker 4: one thing he wanted. I mean, at the end of
Speaker 4: the day, he wanted somebody who's running for governor, and
Speaker 4: who will be governor who will be reticent to run
Speaker 4: against Newsom's record. He doesn't need somebody while he's pursuing
Speaker 4: the White House to have a governor in California who
Speaker 4: was saying, Hey, I can't get my job done because
Speaker 4: Newsom screwed it up on his way out the door, right,
Speaker 4: he can't have that. And Steyer would have done that
Speaker 4: in a heart. Syrah would have said, oh, you know what,
Speaker 4: you know Newsom, you know doesn't Newsom was terrible. I'm
Speaker 4: going to fix everything. But Sarah is not wired that way.
Speaker 4: But Sarah will surround himself with Newsom's people. As a
Speaker 4: matter of fact, Newsom's political people already went to Bessara
Speaker 4: to help lift him. You know, yes, the kind of
Speaker 4: like with Swallwell. I don't think the governor endorsed Swowell,
Speaker 4: but he sent his people to elect Swalwell. And then
Speaker 4: when Swallwell imploded, some of his people then went over
Speaker 4: and helped Besera. Because of course it's all one big intra,
Speaker 4: you know, mural. They all incestuous, you know thing over there.
Speaker 4: And so I think, you know, Newsom's pretty happy right
Speaker 4: now because Besarah laying low. You know, one of the
Speaker 4: features of laying low which I think they will figure
Speaker 4: out the uh. I don't think they will call it
Speaker 4: the Phillips strategy. I'll call it the Phillip strategy. Uh.
Speaker 4: That Phillips strategy works great because he wants he will
Speaker 4: want to be low key to get elected, and Gavin
Speaker 4: Newsom wants him to be low key because Gavin Newsom
Speaker 4: wants to take full advantage of the last seven months
Speaker 4: of his governorship to still be the governor of California
Speaker 4: to delegates of a national convention for Democrats that is
Speaker 4: two years hidden, so you know, so you know, Gavin
Speaker 4: Newsom could It's hard for me to think about somebody
Speaker 4: that was running for governor that would have been a
Speaker 4: better choice for Newsom than Xavier Versera is it or Xavier?
Speaker 4: It's probably Faber.
Speaker 1: I've always pronounced it Javier, but when you look at
Speaker 1: it on paper, it reads like Xavier. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Well, I guess you know, maybe somebody who's listening to
Speaker 4: this program can call in and let us know, because
Speaker 4: I don't think Psarah is going to call either one
Speaker 4: of us to let us know.
Speaker 1: There used to be a player for the Seattle supersonic McDaniel.
Speaker 4: John, we could start right now, Xavier Hobbyer, whatever your
Speaker 4: name is, we invite you to come on to the
Speaker 4: John Phillips Show talk about your candidacy, and we could
Speaker 4: start off by telling us how to say your damn name.
Speaker 1: Rub it. Well, we know that Joe Biden could have
Speaker 1: pronounced it right.
Speaker 3: For Secretary of Health and Education is over. I nominated
Speaker 3: Hobbier Bakaria.
Speaker 1: Well, there you go, and apparently he never learned his
Speaker 1: name the entire time the man worked for him. John Fleischman,
Speaker 1: publisher of sodesitmatter dot com on California politics. You can
Speaker 1: get them online at sodoesitmatter dot com. John Fleischman, thanks
Speaker 1: so much for stopping by.
Speaker 4: Thanks for all the great things you say and do.
Speaker 1: My friend eight hundred two two two five two two
Speaker 1: two is the telephone number one eight hundred two two
Speaker 1: two five two two two. If you'd like to email
Speaker 1: the show, you can do so at Johnny Don't Like
Speaker 1: Show gmail dot com. That's Johnny Don't Like Show at
Speaker 1: gmail dot com. And Randy. If you missed yesterday's program
Speaker 1: where we previewed the election, we talked about the mayor's race.
Speaker 1: The governor's race, and you want to find out just
Speaker 1: exactly how spot on or how off our predictions were,
Speaker 1: you can go back and listen and find out.
Speaker 2: I wonder if anyone's actually going to do that. Search
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Speaker 2: whether it's the Apple podcast app, iHeart Spotify, search for
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Speaker 2: all our episodes. YouTube dot Com, slash at Cumulus news Talk,
Speaker 2: anywhere you want to download the podcast is great, and
Speaker 2: download the apps as well.
Speaker 1: You know you might need it someday. I will say this.
Speaker 1: Usually people on the Internet don't pass up the opportunity
Speaker 1: to tell me, and I'm an idiot.
Speaker 4: M M.
Speaker 1: All right. So we mentioned that Tom Steyer finished third
Speaker 1: place last night when at least I went to bed.
Speaker 1: He's currently sitting at third place right now, according to
Speaker 1: the latest update from the California Secretary of State's office. Obviously,
Speaker 1: that could change as they take over a month to
Speaker 1: count all the ballots. But last night things weren't looking
Speaker 1: good for Tom Styer, and he gave an angry and
Speaker 1: defiant speech.
Speaker 2: Somebody had a little airing of the grievances last night,
Speaker 2: Tom Steyer.
Speaker 3: Clean Energy, Here comes Chevron taxing AI.
Speaker 1: Wait did someone just woo Chevron? Sounded like it. I
Speaker 1: think they're at the wrong rally.
Speaker 3: Clean Energy, Here comes Chevron taxing AI. What about Meta
Speaker 3: lowering electric bills? Hello, PG and E.
Speaker 2: Apparently all those companies donated to Bessera.
Speaker 1: And he's not happy about that quote.
Speaker 2: How fresh for somebody like Tom Steyer to complain about
Speaker 2: money in politics.
Speaker 1: The sugar Daddy himself.
Speaker 3: To quote FDR. Never before in all our history have
Speaker 3: these forces been so united against one candidate as they
Speaker 3: stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me,
Speaker 3: and I welcome their hatred.
Speaker 1: Well, it's not just them. You can add a lot
Speaker 1: of people to that list, including me.
Speaker 3: But here's the thing. Their spending wasn't personal. It wasn't
Speaker 3: about who I am. It was about what the corporations
Speaker 3: believed I could do for the corporations. Elections are always
Speaker 3: about policy. For the corporations, politics isn't about parties, It's
Speaker 3: about profits. They do not think in red and blue teams.
Speaker 3: They think in red and black ink. They think in
Speaker 3: dollar signs and balance sheets. Their priorities and decisions have
Speaker 3: proved soulless.
Speaker 2: He talks about corporations the way Kyle Reese talked about
Speaker 2: the terminator.
Speaker 1: If you know what's funny is it was Katie Porter
Speaker 1: who hated Tom Steyer with the hot hot hate of
Speaker 1: a thousand sons. He never really acknowledged her, he never
Speaker 1: really engaged with her. It's Javier Bessera, who he regards
Speaker 1: as a corporate Democrat, who this guy hates.
Speaker 3: They think in dollar signs and balance cheats. Their priorities
Speaker 3: and decisions have proved soulless. They're totally unconcerned with the
Speaker 3: well being of working people, with the health of our democracy,
Speaker 3: with the very concept of justice. They will support who
Speaker 3: and whatever they have to in order to usher in
Speaker 3: the future that is beneficial.
Speaker 1: Now, wait a minute, why is it immoral for Chevron
Speaker 1: to write a check to a candidate, but it's not
Speaker 1: immoral for this guy to spend over one hundred million dollars.
Speaker 2: Someone's got a god complex. I've said it before and
Speaker 2: I'll say it again. There's no such thing as a
Speaker 2: normal billionaire. They're all crazy in some special way.
Speaker 3: They will support who and whatever they have to in
Speaker 3: order to usher in a future that is beneficial to
Speaker 3: their bottom lines. It's why they uniformly backed Trump, It's
Speaker 3: why they uniformly opposed progressives. And none of that was
Speaker 3: unique to this race. Here they were just especially brazen
Speaker 3: because here they were especially scared.
Speaker 1: Okay, here's another trick that I've noticed. You notice that
Speaker 1: words lose all meaning over a certain period of time,
Speaker 1: and anything he doesn't like is Trump. So the corporations
Speaker 1: donate to candidates who want them to do something for them,
Speaker 1: so of course it's Trump. That's what Trump does. Trump
Speaker 1: gets behind the corporations. It's bad. And then he turns
Speaker 1: around and frames Besserah as the Trump in this race,
Speaker 1: because the same corporations who are donating to Trump are
Speaker 1: donating to Bessera, So in his eyes, Bessera is Trump.
Speaker 3: The dollar amounts are different, but in elections everywhere, the
Speaker 3: principle is the same. You want to fight for working
Speaker 3: people at the expense of corporate profits. Watch corporations do
Speaker 3: everything in their power to stop you.
Speaker 2: Usually you spent way more money than the corporation styre.
Speaker 1: You know what's funny is he talks about things not
Speaker 1: like the new Left. He talks about things like an
Speaker 1: old timey lefty where they talk about the bourgeoisie and
Speaker 1: the proletariat, which is a real odd way for a
Speaker 1: billionaire to talk about money. That's why a lot of
Speaker 1: people didn't really buy it.
Speaker 3: Usually they try harder to hide what they're doing, and
Speaker 3: usually they're confident that.
Speaker 2: If they mean, if the numbers hold right now, eighty
Speaker 2: percent of the people that voted said no to Tom Steyer.
Speaker 2: And that's just of the people who voted, because there's
Speaker 2: a lot of people who looked at all those ads
Speaker 2: and said, I'm not participating in this.
Speaker 1: Usually, Dick, I wonder how many people have.
Speaker 2: You actually asked if you got a real pull of
Speaker 2: the vast majority of California's that did not participate in
Speaker 2: the June primary, and you asked for a reason. Some
Speaker 2: would say they were too busy, some would say that
Speaker 2: they're not political. Some would say love Island was on,
Speaker 2: some would say those Tom Steyer ads pissed me off.
Speaker 1: Here's a question, and I think there's a certain amount
Speaker 1: of people out there that fit that category. What percentage
Speaker 1: of those seventy percent of the population in California that
Speaker 1: didn't vote do you think are people who are dead
Speaker 1: or moved out of state, or are sitting in prison
Speaker 1: or whatever can't vote for one reason or another, and
Speaker 1: we just don't take them off the voter rolls because
Speaker 1: we never cleaned things up in California. So the reality
Speaker 1: is is that most people who can vot do vote.
Speaker 1: I think there's probably some of that.
Speaker 4: But counterpoint, no, I don't know enough to give you
Speaker 4: any good information, but good luck finding someone who does.
Speaker 1: Because when I lived in my old house, I got
Speaker 1: the ballot for the guy who lived there. I think
Speaker 1: the place was vacant for seven months before I moved in,
Speaker 1: and then I was there for seven years, and I
Speaker 1: don't know when he moved out, but I got his
Speaker 1: ballot in the mail the entire time I lived there.
Speaker 3: Usually they try harder to hide what they're doing, and
Speaker 3: usually they're confident that if they spend enough, whoever's threatening
Speaker 3: their profits will be forced to back down and go away.
Speaker 3: This is how working people have been priced out of
Speaker 3: our politics.
Speaker 2: By the way, Steyer is spending money right now on
Speaker 2: a big texting campaign. If you voted for me, check
Speaker 2: that your ballot was counted.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, because he's going to start to cure ballots.
Speaker 3: This is how the system text itself. And I'll be
Speaker 3: the first to say it. That isn't how the system
Speaker 3: should work. You shouldn't have to be a billionaire to
Speaker 3: run on single payer.
Speaker 1: Do you think Katie Porter is throwing things at the
Speaker 1: TV as she's watching this at that bar in Newport Beach?
Speaker 2: I think she might need to go to Best Buy
Speaker 2: this weekend. Out of my shot, you think she picked
Speaker 2: up our listener again. If you bring it up, people
Speaker 2: are just gonna ask for us to play it, or to.
Speaker 3: Challenge monopolies, or to call out a corrupt system when
Speaker 3: you see it. But the system depends on its ability
Speaker 3: to crush anyone who tries. And I know that there
Speaker 3: are many many people activists and organizers and ordinary working
Speaker 3: people who are out there today and who have been
Speaker 3: out there for decades saying and doing all of these
Speaker 3: things brilliantly and fearlessly. Those are the people I can
Speaker 3: this race for. Those are the people I'm in this race.
Speaker 2: With But instead of propping up one of those people
Speaker 2: to run for office, you chose you the running the
Speaker 2: president and spending one hundred million dollars there, the total
Speaker 2: lack of charisma, the billionaire bravado. Nobody's buying what Tom
Speaker 2: Steyer is selling, and he's been trying to sell himself
Speaker 2: on the TV over and over and over again for
Speaker 2: the past seven years.
Speaker 1: Do you think he just goes away after this or
Speaker 1: do you think he's going to be like Katie and
Speaker 1: just keeps running for office until he drops dead.
Speaker 2: Well, he's never going to run out of money, as
Speaker 2: much as his consultants try to make that happen. I mean,
Speaker 2: what's disgusting about wealth at his level is the two
Speaker 2: hundred and thirty million dollars that he's spent on this campaign.
Speaker 2: He'll probably make back by the end of the year.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, this is nothing for him. He's indulging himself
Speaker 1: in his hobby and it's not costing him a lot
Speaker 1: to do it.
Speaker 3: The corporate just came at us with everything they had
Speaker 3: and we didn't back down.
Speaker 2: Why don't you go buy PG and E. They're a
Speaker 2: publicly traded company. He probably could Helly if you really
Speaker 2: want to break up pg and E, take your billions
Speaker 2: of dollars, get a couple of friends with you, put
Speaker 2: through a hostile takeover, and take it apart piece by
Speaker 2: piece like you're doing CBS.
Speaker 3: We were absolutely uncompromising in our values and our vision
Speaker 3: for California, and together we've scared the hell out of
Speaker 3: the corporate interest who are used to getting it their
Speaker 3: own way.
Speaker 2: We exposed what do you think the crowd is, like?
Speaker 2: What's the demo breakdown of the people that showed up
Speaker 2: to Styers rally.
Speaker 1: It's probably hardcore lefties and people he's paying to be there.
Speaker 3: We exposed the fact that their power.
Speaker 2: I mean, like his influencers, that's exactly what I'm referring to.
Speaker 3: We exposed the fact that their power depends on a
Speaker 3: system that is fundamentally corrupt. We showed with clarity and
Speaker 3: conviction that we do not have to accept the system
Speaker 3: they've built as inevitable. We proved something FDR said almost
Speaker 3: a century ago that government by.
Speaker 2: PGD was in bankruptcy. Seven years ago. He could have
Speaker 2: bought them for a song, that.
Speaker 3: Government by government by organized money is just as dangerous
Speaker 3: as government by organized mob and We showed that a
Speaker 3: better California is possible, and that we know what it
Speaker 3: looks like, and we know how we'll get there together,
Speaker 3: day by day, vote by vote, because together all of
Speaker 3: us in this room believe in a not so radical
Speaker 3: idea California can work for working people.
Speaker 1: No, it can't, not with your plan.
Speaker 3: Because we believe in a California where we have single
Speaker 3: payer health care, A California where we have clean air
Speaker 3: to breathe in, water to drink, A Califerni yet where
Speaker 3: young people can.
Speaker 1: Did you just say California? He did?
Speaker 3: A Califerniet where a califern Yet, where young people can
Speaker 3: imagine a future in the place they grew up.
Speaker 1: They already moved to Texas well, Some of them moved
Speaker 1: to Arizona.
Speaker 3: A California where corporations and billionaires who got rich here.
Speaker 2: What do you want, the dry heat that's gonna make
Speaker 2: you miserable or the human heat that's gonna make you miserable.
Speaker 3: A California where corporations and billionaires who got rich here
Speaker 3: and then pulled the ladder up behind them do pay
Speaker 3: their fair share?
Speaker 1: Are actually are you paying your fair share? Tommy? I
Speaker 1: love how defensive he gets. Whenever anyone asked him about that.
Speaker 2: He said on the debate stage, me paying more taxes
Speaker 2: won't do anything.
Speaker 3: Do pay their fair share and are actually proud of
Speaker 3: their contribution to the twenty four century society.
Speaker 2: That's us, I'm telling you right now, for the people
Speaker 2: that are running the campaign for that wealth tax. If
Speaker 2: you want that thing to pass, even though it's a
Speaker 2: stupid idea and the money all goes to the SEIU,
Speaker 2: if you want it to pass, just put up billboards
Speaker 2: everywhere that say, help take Tom Steyer's money away from him.
Speaker 1: Plutigh tom Steyer, vote for this that the rest of them.
Speaker 2: If you would like to never see Tom Steyer waste
Speaker 2: money on advertising again, vote to take away his wealth.
Speaker 2: You almost convince me with that one.
Speaker 3: That the rest of the world admires. That's what we're
Speaker 3: fighting for together, and that's what the corporations are hell
Speaker 3: bent on stopping because they know what we know. If
Speaker 3: we win, corporations lose. I've always been an optimist, and tonight.
Speaker 1: You sound like one. Every time I see him on TV,
Speaker 1: he's like Donald Duck with pants on. He's just one
Speaker 1: big oil and cauldron. Of rage.
Speaker 2: You know, there is a certain point where money does
Speaker 2: allow you a certain level of comfort, which can lead
Speaker 2: to happiness. But for as rich and as wealthy as
Speaker 2: this guy is, he may be one of the angriest
Speaker 2: people I've ever seen.
Speaker 1: He's just pissed off. Twenty four to seven.
Speaker 3: I've always been an optimist, and tonight I remain an optimist.
Speaker 3: None of this is far off. These dreams are not
Speaker 3: too big.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 2: Tom Steyer spent two hundred and thirty million dollars on
Speaker 2: this campaign. How big of an island could you have
Speaker 2: bought for that and had staff work on it for
Speaker 2: the rest of your life? He probably could have bought
Speaker 2: a Wahoo. I think Zuckerberg already bought half of that.
Speaker 1: I thought it well. Oprah brought Maui after they burned
Speaker 1: it down.
Speaker 2: When you look at how much the billionaires have bought
Speaker 2: up Hawaii, you will also probably vote yes on that
Speaker 2: wealth tax.
Speaker 1: All right, Tom Steyer kids, not a happy man, not
Speaker 1: a happy camper. Let's go to market, milpitaes Mart. Hello,
Speaker 1: Oh hi, I.
Speaker 5: Really like your show. It's a nice mix of sarcasm
Speaker 5: and humor. I just wanted to say I held out
Speaker 5: to the last minute to vote. It was a day
Speaker 5: before the Bianco Hilton thing. I was really thinking about
Speaker 5: doing the Bianco thing, like you had mentioned a few
Speaker 5: weeks ago, But at the last minute, when the poll
Speaker 5: started to close, I was really worried that Hilton might
Speaker 5: get bounced out by the surge of these other guys.
Speaker 5: So I ended up with Hilton. What happened to Bianco?
Speaker 5: Why did he fade so quickly?
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people did what you did.
Speaker 1: I think the poll started to tighten at the end,
Speaker 1: and people said, if we don't vote for Hilton, then
Speaker 1: Hilton may not make the November ballot. Now, my point
Speaker 1: of view was whether you make the November ballot or not,
Speaker 1: the point is to win the seat, and you should
Speaker 1: give yourself the best position or put yourself in the
Speaker 1: best position to win the seat. And the way I
Speaker 1: see it, and I hope I'm wrong, but the way
Speaker 1: I see it is the only way the Republicans are
Speaker 1: going to win the seat is to have a democratic lockout.
Speaker 1: So that's why I went with that until the bitter end. Now,
Speaker 1: I also went into it of the belief that Hilton
Speaker 1: was always going to make the November ballot because Donald Trump,
Speaker 1: while he's not popular in California with the overall population,
Speaker 1: is very popular with Republicans. So the moment that he
Speaker 1: endorsed Steve Hilton, there's a certain number of votes that
Speaker 1: are baked into the cake with that endorsement, probably enough,
Speaker 1: most likely enough to get into a runoff. So I
Speaker 1: didn't have the same fear that other people did that
Speaker 1: Hilton would get blown out and he wouldn't make the runoff.
Speaker 1: What I was what I was interested in was getting
Speaker 1: Bianco up because he was always pulling in those low
Speaker 1: double digits, lifting him up to the point to where
Speaker 1: he could get on the November ballot and then one
Speaker 1: of the two of them could be the next governor.
Speaker 5: Do you think, realistically, now that there's a Democrat with
Speaker 5: what is it sixty forty in California, sixty five thirty five,
Speaker 5: is there a real, real chance that a Republican versus
Speaker 5: a Democrat really has a chance here.
Speaker 1: It's remote, but certain things would have to break Hilton's
Speaker 1: way be Sarah would have to get indicted, But Sarah
Speaker 1: would have to have a number of gaffes that caused
Speaker 1: Democrats to question his competence or his ability to do
Speaker 1: the job. I believe right now we're in such partisan
Speaker 1: times where he could do almost anything and you'll get
Speaker 1: them to vote for him, which is why I think
Speaker 1: it's such a tough pot for Hilton in a Republican
Speaker 1: versus Democratic matchup, and that's why I was trying to
Speaker 1: avoid that with a Democratic lockout. Thanks for the call, sir.
Speaker 1: All right, if you went away in on yesterday's election,
Speaker 1: give us a call at eight hundred two two two
Speaker 1: five two two two one eight hundred two two two
Speaker 1: five two two two. It's the John Phillips Show.