Speaker 1: There is no one who said Federman did a good
Speaker 1: job last night. It was awful. However, the big question
Speaker 1: remains how much is it going to hurt him. Maybe
Speaker 1: we're in this new era of politics where nothing matters.
Speaker 1: Were so tribal. We just want to make sure that
Speaker 1: the guy, has Britt said, can sit on the Senate
Speaker 1: floor and raise his hand for your your team. That
Speaker 1: is right. That's Moralison from NPR. She was on Fox
Speaker 1: yesterday saying, we are in a new era of politics
Speaker 1: where nothing matters. That is true. Did my team get
Speaker 1: more people than your team? Character doesn't matter according to polls,
Speaker 1: Health doesn't matter according to polls. Just do I get
Speaker 1: more people from my team? That's just the era we're in.
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk a little California politics and a lot
Speaker 1: of you don't live in California, but California is about
Speaker 1: to be the fourth biggest economy in the world. One
Speaker 1: out of eight Americans live in California, and I think
Speaker 1: the governor is going to try to become president of
Speaker 1: the United States. There's a lot of things that happened
Speaker 1: in California spread across the country. We're gonna talk with
Speaker 1: Katie Grimes she's the editor of the California Globe, longtime
Speaker 1: investigative journalists covering the California state capital, and the co
Speaker 1: author of California's War against Donald Trump? Who Wins, Who Loses? Katie,
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Armstrong and Getty Show. Good morning, Jack,
Speaker 1: Thank you before we get into something probably of more important. So,
Speaker 1: I was just looking at this whole drag queen pumpkin
Speaker 1: carving thing that Senator Winner's havan over the weekend. Yes,
Speaker 1: what what is that? What is the obsession with pushing
Speaker 1: drag queens into everything all the time? But anyway, so
Speaker 1: it says for for families, which I assume means kids
Speaker 1: have Also, if you want to take your kid to
Speaker 1: a pumpkin carving judged by drag queens, go ahead. But
Speaker 1: I just don't know why drag queens have to get
Speaker 1: shoved into every event. Now, Yeah, you ask such a
Speaker 1: good question. I think, uh, millions of California parents want
Speaker 1: to know this as well. Um, every every event. Senator
Speaker 1: Wiener holds and Senator Weener for those who aren't familiar
Speaker 1: with him, he is a San Francisco UH state senator. UM.
Speaker 1: He is openly gay. He most of his legislation surrounds
Speaker 1: um the gay community in the state. Uh. So for him,
Speaker 1: this is just normal. I think what he wants is
Speaker 1: to make it normal for everybody else. Ye, well, good
Speaker 1: luck with that. That in San Francisco is its own thing,
Speaker 1: even in California for California as a whole. And we've
Speaker 1: been talking about this mostly using your article, but I
Speaker 1: think this is damned interesting because well, first of all,
Speaker 1: you think Gavin Newsom is gonna run for president, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I too, so um So that's why this becomes an
Speaker 1: issue for you wherever you live, because I think there's
Speaker 1: a decent chance he's the Democratic nominee running for residing
Speaker 1: it's Trump or de Santist or whoever, and he's going
Speaker 1: to tout all the amazing things he did in the
Speaker 1: state of California, including how the test scores for California
Speaker 1: kids were better during the pandemic than all other states,
Speaker 1: including Florida. How is that dishonest, Katie Grimes? Oh, it's
Speaker 1: so dishonest. Um. First of all, we were one of
Speaker 1: the states that was locked down the longest. So our
Speaker 1: kids and you have kids, no, fully, well, uh that
Speaker 1: the kids were out of out of you in person school,
Speaker 1: so the learning loss parents could see day by day,
Speaker 1: month by month. Um what's so interesting about the actual
Speaker 1: um UH test, the national testing that he's talking about
Speaker 1: is he is trying to compare California students to the
Speaker 1: rest of the country on learning loss when that's certainly
Speaker 1: not what the national testing was for in the first place.
Speaker 1: He should be talking about California kids and their actual
Speaker 1: test scores. And it was actually more important that is
Speaker 1: that the kids went into COVID already the worst test
Speaker 1: scores in the country. UM. So two thousand nineteen, our
Speaker 1: kids were, you know, half the kids could barely read,
Speaker 1: a third of them weren't even competent in math, and
Speaker 1: so then you pile on top of that the lockdowns.
Speaker 1: But the and and the distance learning, I think is
Speaker 1: where I was trying to go with us. Um So
Speaker 1: the new national assessment tests, which our state did try
Speaker 1: to keep secret. They wanted to cover this up until
Speaker 1: after the midterm election, which is another story in and
Speaker 1: of itself. UM. But these did come out, and they
Speaker 1: show that California's kids aren't doing well compared to other
Speaker 1: states kids. But we should be more concerned with our
Speaker 1: own kids test scores and they are abominable. Um. What
Speaker 1: this showed is that white students dropped from a math
Speaker 1: proficiency of only forty percent in the state to thirty
Speaker 1: four percent proficiency. African American students dropped from only ten
Speaker 1: percent math proficiency to seven percent, Hispanic students dropped from
Speaker 1: only fiftcent math proficiency to eleven percent, and low income
Speaker 1: kids that the schools measure if they're eligible for the
Speaker 1: school lunch program, their scores dropped from an already low
Speaker 1: sixteen percent to eleven percent. So I think, yeah, it's
Speaker 1: just it was horrific to begin with, as you you know,
Speaker 1: I said they were already low. Now they are outrageously bad,
Speaker 1: and it's going to take years to play catch up. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm amazed that those those numbers from before weren't a
Speaker 1: bigger headline that we were all talking about all the time. Right,
Speaker 1: that's just you can't have half your kids are more
Speaker 1: not meeting the already not very high standards. Exactly. What
Speaker 1: was also bad is before COVID in two thousand, nineteen, UM,
Speaker 1: white students reading proficiency was only at forty five percent
Speaker 1: in the state, African Americans ten percent, Hispanic nineteen percent,
Speaker 1: Low income students were only reading proficiency at eighteen percent.
Speaker 1: So these were really really bad numbers to begin with us.
Speaker 1: Uh and then obviously locking them down, we're seeing the
Speaker 1: devastating effects. I know there's a long road between here
Speaker 1: and presidential election and a lot of twists and turns
Speaker 1: and and uh and and people's names we've never even
Speaker 1: heard of that are going to decide to run, that
Speaker 1: could become rock stars, all that sort of stuff. But
Speaker 1: one thing that would be great about a Gavin Newsome
Speaker 1: Rhonda Santis race is I think it would really end
Speaker 1: up being a national debate over two very different views
Speaker 1: of how to run your politics, your schools, your businesses,
Speaker 1: your your culture, war, your everything. And uh, it would
Speaker 1: be fun to have that torn apart at a very uh,
Speaker 1: you know, intricate level all those different topics. Yeah, certainly would. Um.
Speaker 1: What's interesting is, I think my next book needs to
Speaker 1: be California's War against Rhonda Santism, because that's certainly where
Speaker 1: our governor has his laser focus these days. So I
Speaker 1: think you know that shows us he's truly running for president. Um,
Speaker 1: but you are right, uh. And and as you and
Speaker 1: Joe talk about um our our politics, in the United
Speaker 1: States kind of almost being tribal. Were the Republican tribe
Speaker 1: or were the Democrat tribe? And that's all we care about? Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: let me. I gotta do the the statistic of the
Speaker 1: day today that I keep repeating because it's just so
Speaker 1: freaking amazing. Um uh NBC News poll percentage of Americans
Speaker 1: who say the opposite party's agenda poses a threat that,
Speaker 1: if not stopped, will quote destroy America as we know it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's eight for Democrats and eight for Republicans. So
Speaker 1: four out of five of everybody thinks the other party
Speaker 1: is out to destroy America. Well, if that's what you believe. Obviously,
Speaker 1: politics get pretty, first of all, the front and center
Speaker 1: in our lives, and secondly pretty vicious. Yeah they do.
Speaker 1: I think that's what would make a DeSantis Newsome race
Speaker 1: in in being observed in such a granular fashion as
Speaker 1: we would do. Certainly, I don't the mainstream media would
Speaker 1: certainly root for Newsome, um, but I think it would
Speaker 1: really show the country what's at stake, um, without being
Speaker 1: you know, my guys good, your guys bad. I think
Speaker 1: I think these things that we're talking about right now,
Speaker 1: you know, our our students test scores. Um. You know, homelessness,
Speaker 1: Florida versus California, crime Florida versity of California. It would
Speaker 1: really be a fascinating UM breakdown. Here's my guests. You
Speaker 1: tell me whether you think this is right. And I
Speaker 1: just think that Gavin Newsom has been surrounded by people.
Speaker 1: Who is the mayor of San Francisco. He's been surrounded
Speaker 1: by people so far his direction for so long. He
Speaker 1: really is out of touch with mainstream America. There aren't
Speaker 1: near as many people in the country that want to
Speaker 1: uh pay for flying somebody in front of abortion or
Speaker 1: give healthcare to illegals as he thinks you are absolutely right, Um,
Speaker 1: and yeah, I've been covering him a long time. He
Speaker 1: has been groomed by the San Francisco political cabal now
Speaker 1: for years for this. He thinks he's the heir apparent. Um.
Speaker 1: He is not well liked in the state capitol. I
Speaker 1: will tell you that the Democrats don't like him and
Speaker 1: Republicans don't like him. He's very imperious and I'm gonna
Speaker 1: ask you why don't the Democrats in California like Gavin Newsom?
Speaker 1: He won't work with them. He issues edicts and orders
Speaker 1: and sends his staff to deal with them instead of,
Speaker 1: I mean, give the devil his due. Jerry Brown would
Speaker 1: sit down and hash out a budget with the Democrats
Speaker 1: and Republicans when the Republicans were allowed in the room. Um,
Speaker 1: but he would he would meet with um, you know,
Speaker 1: the leaders of both parties, of both houses. He was
Speaker 1: extremely accessible and so this legislature was used to that.
Speaker 1: And yeah, Gavin Newsom is kind of ruling from the
Speaker 1: Ivory tower. Well, you mentioned Willie Brown, which reminded me
Speaker 1: of Kamala Harris, for better or worse. And so what
Speaker 1: is what is their relationship between Gavin and Kamala Because
Speaker 1: I've had a couple of reporters on today we're talking
Speaker 1: about how like two days after the election, because we'll
Speaker 1: have a day of results and then races on with
Speaker 1: the expectation that Biden won't run again, and Kamala Harris
Speaker 1: is a vice president but nobody so does Gavin run
Speaker 1: against her? What's their relationship? You know, I think their
Speaker 1: relationship is certainly in the media, it's like, you know,
Speaker 1: just friendly, you know, local rivals. I don't think any
Speaker 1: of these folks from San Francisco have a good relationship
Speaker 1: with anybody else. They all want power and control and
Speaker 1: that's always their primary motive. Obviously, Kamala Harris showed us
Speaker 1: she would get there by any means necessary. Yeah, that
Speaker 1: that'll be something if you end up having the California
Speaker 1: government governor in a former California senator really vying for
Speaker 1: the Tom top spot there and how the go at
Speaker 1: each other. Um uh, Katie Grimes, we appreciate your time.
Speaker 1: We really love your columns. We read you all the time,
Speaker 1: we quote you all the time. Thanks for coming on
Speaker 1: the show today. Appreciate it. Thanks very much. Jeff Armstrong
Speaker 1: and Jetty