Gavin Newsom - Governor of California | SRS #218
[Music]. What? What is this? What's this? Gavin Newsome. >> It's good to be with you, man. >> Welcome to the show. >> It's great to be here with you. >> Well, this is a very uh unexpected. interview. >> Come on. What do you What do you mean? Guy from California. A coastal elite. Hey, I've had a lot of. coastal elites on lately in the tech. space. But, um, >> it's true in the tech space. Yeah. I. imagine your audience is ecstatic that. I'm on your show. >> Oh, um, sure they will be. But, um, no,
in all honesty, I I just I really. appreciate you coming. And, um, you. know, I've been. >> wanting somebody that thinks a little. different than me and maybe on the. opposite side of the fence. And, uh, I. couldn't I've tried and I couldn't get. anybody, you know, for the last. election. and I I I paid myself out to. be somebody that talks to everybody, which been extremely hard uh to get. somebody that thinks differently than. me. So, >> I appreciate you coming. >> No, I appreciate it. And look, man, I.
appreciate your openness cuz I I say to. everybody all the time, divorce is not. an option, man. We got to we got to live. together and advance together across our. differences. So, no BS. I mean, this is. critical that because this zero sum, everyone talking past each other, down. to each other. I mean, our kids are. going to model that and it's just not. sustainable. >> Yeah. You know, America has become very. tribal in the past. 8 12 years. >> and uh just seems to be getting more and.
more amplified. And so, you know, what I. what I really hope comes out of this is. that people can use this as an example. of how to talk to each other. I love it. >> And uh because I think we've lost that. uh in America. So. >> kudos to you balls for showing up today. and uh I do I do appreciate it. >> I love it. >> But um I'm going to start you off with. an introduction here. >> Beautiful. >> Not that you need one. >> Jesus. Let's hear this. I'm curious. where you're going to go with it. >> Gavin Newsome, the 40th governor of.
California, leading the nation's most. populous state since 2019 and the fourth. largest economy in the world. >> Eat your heart out, Japan. a former. mayor of San Francisco, a businessman. who built the Plumpjack Group, turning a. winery into a hospitality empire, host. of the podcast. This is Gavin Newsome, where we've sat down to discuss issues. with those you disagree with. A husband. to Jennifer and a father of four. children. >> We're probably going to disagree on a. few things here, but like I said, thank.
you for showing up. I appreciate. introduction and talks about my kids. You you already you won me over on that, man. That's that's that's real bio. stuff. That's what it's all about, right? >> Yeah. I mean, come on. That's that's the. obituary stuff, not the resume stuff. That's the stuff that matters. >> Yeah. But um so I'm wondering if you're. Did you come here to uh hang out with. the 92,000 Californians that. >> Oh, you got. you're hitting me right there, man. The.
California exits. By the way, complete. [ __ ] Now, the last two years, we've. seen significant growth in California's. population. So, it's reversed uh and uh. record-breaking tourism. Uh now the. fourth largest economy in the world. We. dominate in every major industry, including the number one manufacturing. state in America, 41% larger than the. next largest state. Um and so we're. really proud of California and we went. through a little rocky period over a. 2-year period where there was some. adjustments all across the country, one. of 18 states, many red states, too, not.
just blue states that saw an adjustment. of population during CO. And now we're. on the other side of that, seeing. population growth backtoback years. >> Well, it's impressive. California is an. impressive state. >> Even if you hate it, >> very controversial state as well. >> But um but yeah, I'd love to dive into. some of the co and stuff later, but um. but a couple things before we get. started. So, everybody gets a gift. >> Oh jeez. What do you got, man? >> Here we go. You ready for this?
>> Look. Oh Jesus. >> Ready for this? >> Is this an accident? I got to report. this gift, man. >> That is so that is a California. compliant. >> Oh, >> Sig Sour. >> This. >> E365 macro. >> Come on, man. >> I don't know exactly what makes. >> By the way, this is uh this is too cool. The fact that you would give me this up. So, you just want me TSA to take this. from me and not ask for the airport. I'm. on to you, man. Well, I got a buddy at.
SIG and I he was like, "You got to get a. Sig in his. brother. >> This is fabulous." Um, you know what. people last thing people would expect is. that I respect this gift. >> Really, >> I appreciate Yeah, man. I'm not anti-gun. at all. I'm for just some gun safety. common sense that I think vast majority. of folks to the right and the left. agree. And I think we've lost a little. touch with some common sense around. background checks. I think there's an. age appropriateness. Um, I do have some. ch, you know, I'm challenged by large.
capacity magazine clips in urban. centers. Um, and uh, you know, weapons. of war that are out there sometimes. outgunning the police and I've. experienced that directly with the loss. of a police officer. It was gunned down. by an AK-47 and the police were. outgunned in Bay Hunter's Point in San. Francisco. Uh, but otherwise, man, people have the right to bear arms and I. got no ideological opposition to that at. all. >> Do you think I was going to say, by the. way, you're welcome. >> That's crazy. The last damn thing I. expected I expected a hat. Okay. You.
gave me a goddamn gun. >> Well, I got another gift for you, too, >> but um but diving into the two-way. stuff. I'm just I'm just curious. We see. >> a lot of the cities that don't have that. don't that you can't conceal carry or. it's extremely hard to get concealed. carry or or you know, California being. one of them, >> Illinois, New York. I mean, do you think. that. everyday citizens carrying a gun reduces. crime or increases crime? >> I think the evidence, the evidence.
suggests the opposite. It increases the. likelihood of a gun death. And you look. at all the states with the most. comprehensive gun safety reforms. They. have lower gun death rates than states. with weaker gun laws. And there's a. correlation there. California is one of. the lowest gun death rates in America. Uh the highest murder rates in the. country tend to be red states. significantly. So you look at the murder. rate, eight out of the top 10 uh murder. rates cap per capita in the country are. all red states. >> Well, I thought Chicago was the number. one. >> No. Well, as cities, you all have.
different experiences, but at state. levels, gun safety, from our perspective. saves lives. And we have the data to. bear that out. You look at the common. sense gun safety laws that California. started establishing in the '9s. You. look at our gun death rate from the '9s. till today, significant reduction, nationleading reduction in the gun death. rate. So that's that's the prison to. which I I'm into the data. I'm into the. evidence. I'm also deeply mindful and. respectful uh of the Second Amendment uh.
and people's constitutional rights. Uh. but as it relates to just simple common. sense around background the idea we're. we're addressing the issue of background. checks and we haven't fundamentally. addressed some of those gaps for people. that are struggling with mental health. disorders and the like or substance. abuse. Uh I I just don't understand that. gap. Well, I think I think that the gap. is a at least for me I can tell you why. it bothers me. I I mean I carry a gun. everywhere. I protect to protect myself.
and my family. appreciate. >> and. and you know when when I hear about the. the you know background checks and and. you know mentally unstable people I mean. you know a lot of veterans I mean almost. all veterans are proun and and and. fought for the country and want to be. able to own one to protect themselves. and their family and especially you know. if there's any recourse from those wars. which you know we've we've talked about. it on here there's supposedly over a.
thousand sleepers cells of terrorists if. they're within our borders and you know. but if we go down that road I mean I. know for a lot of veterans me included. is is you know some people have been. diagnosed with PTSD and depression and. [ __ ] like that from coming home from. combat and so is it you know maybe we. start with schizophrenia but then then. the next thing is oh well is PTSD going. to be on there is depression going to be. on there am I going to lose my [ __ ]. rights you know when I fought for the.
country because somebody, you know, that. that deems me unstable. Well, maybe I'm. not, you know, and. >> but a convicted felon, you know, someone. that that has had a violent, dangerous. past, someone is a domestic abuser, I. mean, I'd like to red flag some of those. folks. I mean, >> I can't argue that. >> Yeah. And so unless we have a system. that allows at least some vetting with. some objective constraints along the. lines of what you suggest I you know it. just right now it's so it's just this. zero sum games like you're either proun. or anti- it's like no that's not the.
case man there's nuance here and I think. if you look I mean you look at I'm not a. polling guy but it's interesting when. you look at gun safety polling like Fox. News polls and these sort of top four. controversial issues they're. overwhelmingly. supportive bipartisan support for some. of these safety measures and I just. think it people demagogue this they. demagogue on all sides but that you know. it's not enduring to a safer country I. mean there's no other country in the.
world that has this kind of gun violence. and it suggests we're doing something. very differently in the rest of the. world everyone has mental health. problems it's not unique to the United. States of America it's not about that. >> that's not the issue I just think it is. the accessibility suicide rates are off. the charts in the United States because. of the simple access as well. Um, so. look, I it's a it's it's a tough issue. It's very divisive. It's weaponized. Um, again, blue and red, uh, certainly. weaponized nationally. Um, but, uh, man,
lived experience, former mayor living in. cities, dense urban centers, uh, and. looking at the evidence in California, uh, for, as I refer to it, common sense, gun safety. Well, let me ask you this. then. I mean, I know you want certain. weapons restricted and you know, there's. the California compliant versions of. everything, but it's really hard for. people to get a concealed carry permit. in California. >> Yeah. >> Why is that?
>> Yeah. Because I mean the idea of I mean. it just I think there's a cultural. construct in California that people just. don't want people running around with. concealed carry. uh and you know folks. you're running into in a restaurant, a. bar, you're on the BART and Barry Rapid. Transit or you're you know you're in the. school or in the playground and everyone. running around that's got a gun and uh. you know all the good guys from the bad. guys. I think there's just sort of a a. cultural mindset around that, a concern. around that. Uh we allow for it. There's. a process. There's you know law. enforcement has a process. By the way, we exempt law enforcement from these gun.
safety laws in the vast majority of. cases along the lines of what you're. suggesting as relates to our veterans. and military. There are exceptions to. many of the rules that we advance. Uh. but on concealed carry, it's that's you. know that's been a principle that um we. just believe in a permit process that's. yeah admittedly very comprehensive and. it's what your state wants. It's what. the state I think overwhelmingly wants. >> Well, I mean well I disagree with it. I. mean, I do, you know, digging into your.
background, I mean, I I found a number. of things that have. a number of narratives against you that. that there's definitely some nuance on. But one thing that I did find is that it. does seem that that whether people want. to [ __ ] agree with me or blast me or. whatever for saying it, I mean, it seems. like. you're doing what the majority of the. population in California wants. And. yeah, and I mean, look, and and it's not. look, they don't hire me to be a weather.
vein, right? I mean, I think. leadership's defined, you know, they. they hire me for judgment and and they. want they want leadership. And so, it's. not about public opinion in that. respect, but you have to be sensitive. public opinion. I did two gun safety. laws that I actually put on the ballot. so I can validate. the assertion that I just made. That's. where the public is because my gun. safety legislation overwhelmingly passed. in California. >> Interesting. >> And and so that was my initiative. I got. out I did signatures and put it in front.
of the voters, work with law enforcement. on some exceptions and exemptions along. the lines that I suggest. Um and it's. been wellreceived. Now, there's certain. pockets and camps, they you know, folks. in the gun rights movement. They look, I'm a poster child for them. I get it. Except, you know, what did I do on. Mother's Day? I was at Wing and Barrel. with my kids with a 9-year-old doing ski. shooting. >> No [ __ ]. >> That's what I did on Mother's Day. >> Are you any good at it? >> I'm not good. I'm great at it. Okay. Cuz.
I've been doing it for years and years. Or the goddamn record. You can laugh. I. wish we were doing that right now. >> Your wife must be a shooter. She. >> Mother's Day for ski shooting. >> Mother's Day ski shooting. God is my. witness. >> You got a cool wife. >> And and so with the kids and we're with. grandpa and grandma and uh you know that. she grew up you know she's we we we got. married in Montana. Uh my daughter's. name is Montana. Uh family has a ranch. out there. We're hunters bow hunting for. me uh primarily. Um my son was 11 years. old uh got his first rifle from uh his.
his grandfather and that was a point of. pride. It was emotional like my my the. attachment the history that attachment. to his grandpa now because of that. Um. so again I I I I celebrate that and at. the same time man running a fourth. largest economy in the world size of 21. state populations combined trying to. keep people safe. Um we we have a. different approach than many states in. the country but the approach is bearing. fruit. If you look at gun death rates.
and murder rates, substantially lower in. the state of California and in the vast. majority of blue states. >> Interesting. Interesting. Well, I got. another gift for you. >> What is that? >> All right. Here we go. >> Jeez. >> Oh, it's my favorite one. >> How you going to make up? What is this, man? >> Vigilance League gummy bears legal in. all 50 states. I'm hoping you brought me. some California gummy bears, >> brother. that uh you know, by the way, when I did that gun safety initiative, I.
also did the uh the legalization uh of. cannabis for adult use in California. >> Right on. >> Uh that mean only reinforces my. progressive uh you know, bonafidees or. what how you what's that word? Bonafidey, whatever the hell. Uh thank. you, man. >> You're welcome. >> That's why I'm advertising this. Look at. this. >> You're welcome. And u. >> gummies and a gun. >> Gummies and a gun. >> Jesus. Gummies and a gun. >> What the hell is that? And we just. started this. But um. >> I want to see what happens at the end. What else? >> Oh, we got lots of good stuff coming.
But um so one last thing to crank out. before we get going and um actually. before I before I read this question. So. I want to do a life story on you and go. through your you know go through your. life story from childhood all the way up. until now. And along the way we will. dive into some issues that I know that. we disagree on. Awesome. and um and and. have a beautiful discussion. >> I love it. Big beautiful discussion. >> But one thing, so I have a Patreon.
account. It's a subscription account and. uh it's turned into quite the community. >> and uh they've been here with me since. the beginning. And so what I do is I. offer them the opportunity to ask each. anding every guest a question. >> Oh, interesting. >> And so I just posted a picture of us at. breakfast. and about 2 minutes after I did the. post. What do you got? >> Joe Rogan texted me. >> [ __ ] Joe, I loved, by the way, I'm a Joe Rogan fan. He ain't a fan of. mine,
>> but I'm a Joe Rogan fan. No [ __ ]. >> Right on. >> And for dec I feel like it's a decade. back in the day before Joe was a Joe. Rogan. >> He was just a podcaster, man. >> Now he's a phenom. >> Well, he's What did Joe say? >> Good friend of mine. So, this is from. Joe Rogan. >> Oh god, >> this is a tough one. He won't have me on. the show by the way. >> Who will be held accountable for. mandating co 19 vaccines for children. which were unnecessary and ineffective. and who will take responsibility for the.
unprecedented increases in myocarditis. and cancer cases among them? Second to. that, do you feel any remorse for that. draconian decision that was obviously. heavily influenced by the pharmaceutical. company's desire for maximum profit? Yeah, I've been I've been I' I've signed. some of the most progressive laws. against big pharma in the country. So, I. have receipts on that. So, no one should. suggest that it was about doing the. bidding of big pharma. Quite the. contrary. Uh California like many.
states, red states included, Florida. included, uh moved forward early in the. pandemic, working with the Trump. administration and the advisers from the. Trump administration uh to impose dirt. strategies to mitigate the impacts of. this novel disease coronairus. Um what's. interesting about this process is none. of us have really reviewed in an. objective way. It's all through the lens. of politics. what we did right and what we did wrong. And so I'll answer that question by.
telling you what I've just tasked. I've. asked our team to put together an. objective review of everything we did. right, everything we did wrong. We're. interviewing people that vehemently. disagree with us, that opposed the mask. mandates, that opposed the stay-at-home. orders, uh people that are international. experts. We're stress testing our entire. process. could have, should have, would. have comparing and contrasting to what. other states did. I mean, Florida shut.
down their bars and restaurants before. California. Before California, the. question was when did we start to unwind. some of those restrictions. California. was more restrictive and we were. certainly aggressive at scale. as it. relates to vaccines, vaccines save. lives. But Joe asked a very different. question about children and I respect. that and that was where there was a lot. of feedback uh with a lot of experts. that I had as advisers. By the way, I. used advisers from two other states. We.
did this West Coast alliance to review. not just what was coming from the. federal government, but to have a prism. and lens on the recommendations coming. from the CDC through our own independent. adviserss. and I took their advice, not. as a doctor, but as a governor. So, with. humility, seriously, humility and grace, I've asked them to have that report. done. It's going to be done next month. And it'll be the only state that I know. of that is putting out a truly objective. review of what went right and what went.
wrong. And I know everyone's a goddamn. genius now in hindsight, but at the time. none of us knew what we were up against, including the president of the United. States, who I worked very closely with. There wasn't a Democratic governor in. America that worked closer during the. pandemic than I did with Donald Trump. And and you can go back and stress test. that. Um, and I say that with the kind. of humility he deserves as well and. grace or rather grace that he deserves. in terms of the decisions he made early.
on. We were all up against something. none of us had any experience around and. we counted on the experts. >> What are some of the things during co. that you think maybe were a mistake or. that you could have done? >> Well, I mean we we we were sitting there. with Purell. Remember early on we had. price gouging issues around getting. Purell. we were wiping down uh. everything in the house. Uh and we were. concerned it was airborne and and folks, you know, we were worried about people. being outside even. Uh and we realized. then after the fact, what the hell are.
we doing? Shutting down the beaches and. open areas, you know, and not. understanding that early on. And so I. think that of all issues, uh looking. back, I remember Florida, there was a. big issue too, even there, not just in. California. >> No, I mean it was in Florida. I remember. that they had that cruise ship off the. coast of Florida that was just stuck. there. >> Yeah. >> For I can't remember how long. >> And I say that cuz look at Florida, I. keep bringing up because I think there's. sort of this sort of triumphant new. narrative. It's all mythmaking. It's all. storytelling narrative. There's some. truth to it, but there's a lot of.
[ __ ] about it. You know, Florida had. worse educational outcomes during co. than California. Kids did worse on. reading and math scores. Fact, three out. of the four areas, fourth grade reading. and eighth grade reading and math. uh. three out of the four categories. California outperformed. Uh from a. health perspective, they had more per. capita deaths than California. And from. a wealth perspective, their GDP. contracted more than the state of. California. >> I mean on three key areas, there's a lot. of mythology around what they did versus.
again big blue state, California. Again, we weren't the only state doing it, but. the state of mind of the California. derangement syndrome. >> There's a Trump derangement syndrome, no. question. But there's also California. derangement syndrome. Uh as if. California stands unique in some of. these interventions and respects. It's. true in some but not all. Uh I just. think more objective minds should. review. And for one reason, we're going. to have another one of these damn. things. And we're totally unprepared.
because we're so distrustful of. everybody. And again, we see the world. purely through the lens of red versus. blue. And so to Joe, that's a good. question. And I want an objective. answer, not a political answer. And uh. that's why I've tked these folks to. objectively stress test what we did. right, what we did wrong. >> What What are some of the things that. are I mean, how how far along are you in. that poll? >> They're Well, they're almost done. They. they've been working on this 6 months. In fact, not only 6 months, a couple. years ago at Sunnylands, California,
which is amazing place down near Palm. Springs, I I invited and convened a. group of international experts around CO. and they began the process of stress. testing. The interviews that are going. to inform this report were done then a. few years ago, and now we're really. looking through all the data, which is. county by county. remember California's, you know, I know we did the stay-at-home. order, which was top down, but a lot of. the local decisions really informed the.
pathway ultimately out of this process. and or out of COVID and so each county. had different approaches um because each. region of the state is radically. different. Big rural areas didn't have. the issues of density that downtown Los. Angeles may have. So, you had different. rules and regulations. we probably would. have I I'm assured this report was so we. should have started with the flexibility. earlier in the process but again we. didn't know what we were up against. >> So I think those are examples of areas.
where going forward we want to inform. whoever is in leadership going forward. how to approach a novel virus. Uh but. vaccines man lives period full stop. I'm. just not I and I by the way RFK Jr. It's. a friend of mine. I was with him in the. governor's office. >> really talking about he was hand he. handed me I think I six or seven damn. books he gave me uh just all these. attacking big farmer etc. He's an old. friend, one of my environmental heroes.
Guy's next level. Wrote some of the best. environmental books in this country. Connecting to God and mother nature, connecting to generations. I mean, there. was a spiritual quality to how he. expresses himself and connects uh to our. earth and our spe and biodiversity. Um, he touches me, man. His dad was my. political hero. Like the why I'm here. Bobby Kennedy, man. His dad. Sarge. Shrivever. the vernacular of the 60s. solving for ignorance and poverty and. disease and so his son his family I.
rever what is I was at his mom's funeral. one of the few governors the only. governor in the country at his mom's. funeral. >> and so I I respect Bobby but he he I. mean he really turned on me early and he. flat out lied about some things. >> what did he lie about. >> he lied about said though because. Newsome got some um I I I got sick for. two or three days and he said it was. because of a vaccine and then he lied. lied about what I had. He weaponized it. Uh he misled. I was like, and I was. reaching out going, "Brother, the hell's.
going on?" And I saw him go down this. sort of darker, you know, good people. can disagree. And I'm, by the way, make. America healthy. That's California. I've been leading that cause for. decades. There's no governor again. I'm. forgive me. That movement started in. California. I did the Skittles ban a. couple years ago. My buddy Marshawn. Lynch was all pissed at me because we're. going after Red Die earlier than and all. the folks on Fox were mocking me. Now. they're all jumping over, patting. themselves on the back leading this ef. But so I I've always admired that about.
Bobby. But on the vaccines, >> I think some skepticism absolutely. >> but I think that there's a lot of miss. and disinformation that is uh really. hurt public health. It's my humble. opinion. Do you think that some of the. restrictions that you put in place. created a a mental health crisis. >> by being locked up by not being able to. enjoy the outdoors? >> Devastating. Come on, man. Of course.
>> I mean, it was for everybody. Kids in. particular. I got four kids sitting. there trying to get them on Zoom. I. mean, Jesus. I mean, you can't now. I. can't get them off a damn device. No. No, no one's naive about that. Come. on. It was It was It was I mean, we're. all And we haven't gotten through it. We. haven't [ __ ] We haven't We don't want to. talk about this. We want to We want to. We want to indict people, but we don't. want to talk about it. We don't want to. have a a real conversation about this. It's one way, not two-way, because it's.
again through the prism and lens of, you. know, our certainty, the sort of binary. You're right, I'm wrong. And um but. yeah, no, I experienced it firsthand as. a father of four, as a as a husband, as. a governor, um as a you know, guy. responsible for, you know, 40 million. people. >> trying to keep people alive, working. with the president, taking the advice. and counsel from his administration, which I think people forget Operation. Warp Speed was next. >> Well, they definitely forget that. And I. don't understand the mental gymnastics.
behind that either. And by the way, to. to Trump's credit, one of the great. triumphs, how many lives he saved. because of Operation Warp Speed because. of vaccines. >> Now, do you you really think that the. vaccine prevented people from getting. CO? >> I think it prevented the acuity of uh. the symptoms and disease and kept people. out of the emergency rooms. And I think. that's universally accepted at least by. 90% of objective of experts. >> Man, I don't know. I just, you know, when that I wound up getting the.
vaccine. It's one of the only [ __ ]. things I regret. And And I did it. >> Which one was it? Did you go old school? Johnson and Johnson. >> Fizer. >> And you So you did the MRA. Yeah. You. did the the novel the the a different. version. >> And uh the I just I was scared to death. I was going to miss the birth of my son. So. >> I took it and then I got [ __ ] COVID. like Yeah. couple weeks later. And they. couldn't test. I would they kept I got. the test and it was this one's positive,
this one's negative. And I'm like, >> you guys have any idea what the hell. you're doing? Like, you just gave me the. same test with with an a positive and a. negative. >> Yeah, there's a lot of false positives, >> man. It's Look, it's messy. Life's. messy. Public health is messy. And and. and there's no experts out here. And. there's again back to I I just think. everybody everybody. I don't know how to best say it. Uh.
anyone has certainty about what we did. or didn't do or could have. I mean uh I. just [ __ ]. Little humility across the board. All. the so-called experts that said just let. it rip. >> Mhm. >> That's Earth two. And I'm glad I didn't. live on Earth too. And you know for in. in vaccines, yeah, there was we. overhyped that somehow this was going to. end the pandemic. So there was some. language. I mean was that Fouchy, was. that Trump? Was it because then again. Trump administration buck stops. somewhere. Can't blame Biden for that.
>> Mhm. >> Um you know he didn't he didn't I mean I. I'm sitting there talking about reagents. with him and swabs. I mean I remember. calls with Trump. None of us knew what. the hell we were talking about. I mean. Corona. We were talking about beer back. then, man. People don't even know what. corona vir what the hell is this uh MN. na what that you know literally it was. all this is all new and so you had to. count on the experts and and and that. leadership is at the top coming out of.
the white house. >> and I know you know we talk about bleach. and stuff like that I mean I know we. mock that but man it wasn't like a. masterclass of leadership yeah. >> ultimately there but it was a. masterclass on operation warp speed and. uh and I I grant I grant Trump on that. and it shows that government can do big. things when it wants to. Uh I happen to. believe in vaccines. I think it's one of. the most extraordinary things that's. ever happened in our lifetime because. it's extended our lifetime, saved. millions and millions of people's lives. Uh and I say that as a guy that's gone.
after big pharma and has the receipts. Want more from the Shawn Ryan Show? Join. our Patreon today for more clips and. exclusive content. You'll get an. exclusive look behind the scenes where. you can watch the guests interact with. the team and explore the studio before. every episode, plus unlock bonus content. like our extra intel segments where we. ask our guests additional questions, our. new SRS on-site specials, and access to. an entire tactical training library you.
will not find anywhere else. And the. best part, Patreon members can ask our. guests questions directly. Your insights. can help shape the show. Join us on. Patreon now. Support the mission and. become part of the Shaun Ryan Show's. story. The news just doesn't stop. Between the. national debt and the economic. uncertainty, it's hard to know what to. do. But if you look above the noise, you'll see many high-n networth. individuals and central banks are.
stockpiling gold. In fact, gold has. broken another record, climbing past. $3500 an ounce. I still remember when it. was under $2,000 an ounce just a while. ago. It's clear, too, that now is the. time to learn more about how gold and. silver can help you. So, reach out to my. partners over at Goldco. They're a great. award-winning company I trust, and. they've got over 7,000 five-star. reviews, so you know you're working with.
the best in the industry. Visit. shalikesgold.com. to get a free 2025 gold and silver kit. and you'll also learn about their. unlimited bonus silver offer if you. qualify. It's a great way to get. started. Go to shaunlikesold.com. That's shaunlikgold.com. Performance may vary. You should always. consult with your financial and tax. professional. Every day it becomes more obvious. The. world is changing fast and the systems. we were taught to rely on can't be.
counted on anymore. Whether it's. institutions, governments, or supply. chains, when things go wrong, most. people are caught completely offguard. That's why it's up to you to take. responsibility for yourself, your. safety, and your family's well-being. Preparation starts with the basics. For. me, that includes long-term emergency. food. That's why I use and trust My. Patriot Supply. Because when the. unexpected hits, I want to know I've.
done everything I can to be ready for. myself and the people I care about. Go. to my patriotsupply.com/srs. and shop a curated collection of my. favorite products. From long-term food. storage to water filtration, medical. kits, and portable power solutions. With. lightning fast shipping, your supplies. can be at your door in as little as 48. hours. Go to my patriotsupply.comsrs. right now. That's my. patriotsupply.com/srs.
>> You know, I think you got you you. received a lot of criticism in, you. know, kind of the where I'm going with. this is the rules for the not for me. type thing. And so we saw, you know, we. saw Nancy Pelosi at the at the hair. salon with no mask when California had. the mask. I I read somewhere. I don't. know if it's true that you had closed. all the wineries except your own. >> Such crap. >> Is that [ __ ]. >> It's such crap. It's not even It's It's.
so insulting to your intelligence. and to your audience that anyone would. [ __ ] believe that. Are you kidding? >> Obviously not. I mean, we we we. literally had a map as it relates to. percentage of those that tested positive. by county and as the percentage. declined, we lifted restrictions on. capacity and restaurants, bars, hotels, hospitality generally in each county on. the basis of an independent analysis had.
those restrictions lifted. One of those. counties, many of the counties, dozens. of counties were in Ryan country, which. exists not just in Napa and Soma, but. Central Valley, Central Coast, and they. were lifted. I have businesses, and I'm. proud of the fact that I've created. close to a thousand jobs, started 21. businesses, uh, with no trust funds, right? college pen to paper. Uh, and I. have a number of businesses in Napa um, that had the benefit of reopening, had. the burden of closing like every other.
business in that region. >> This is just questions, you know, I want. to ask. ask him. We were talking at. breakfast, you know, I mean, I told you. I don't I don't watch any news anymore. because I think it is I don't I know. it's all [ __ ] and um and so there's. Yeah, there's some things that you know. that that I've despised you for. >> I love that. I love your honesty. >> that that. >> I despise me for the [ __ ] I read, too. >> I want to you know that I want to uh. >> I despise me for the French Laundry.
>> The French Laundry. >> Well, I was wrong. I went to this damn. restaurant. That's the rules for thee. You just mentioned I'm I'm going to. indict myself here. >> Biggest boneheaded damn decision I made. Now, it was a restaurant that was open. I went to a restaurant or and it was. sort of coming out of of co we were in. that that sort of category that I just. expressed where things were lower in. that region. And this was a restaurant. that was open and but it was against the. spirit of what I was saying which is you. shouldn't have large dinners with large.
group of people uh as we did. And I went. to a damn birthday party and uh I paid a. price and I own it. You know, I'm not. perfect, man. Um and I, you know, I beat. the [ __ ] out of myself for that. Um and. everyone who criticized me is goddamn. right. And I own that. >> And uh you know, there were plenty other. people making those same damn decisions. that weren't on Fox News every single. night. Uh but that doesn't matter. I. control, you know, I take. responsibility.
>> Um so yeah, stuff. Those are the things. I mean, you mentioned Nancy, others. I. mean, you know, life, man. It's uh none of us are. perfect. Maybe the president is in some. people's minds, but none of us in my. mind are perfect. >> Yeah. Yeah. Well, I appreciate you. coming clean on that. >> And so, one, it seems like you're. gearing up for maybe a presidential run. I mean, you were just in South Carolina, went to a couple different places there.
to speak. I mean, are you gearing up for. a 2028 run? >> No, I I'm I'm gearing up for 2016 cuz. from my humble perspective, I think it's. existential if my part is not successful. next year. And that's why I was out. there on the stump nine different. events. Uh just making the case, don't. look for the guy or gal on the white. horse to come save the day in 2028. I. think it's the Democrat party's the I'm. blown away the Democrat's obsession with. just that that sort of perfect person. that's going to say you sort of this.
John Wayne thing. >> Um this romantic version of that person. is going to save the day. Meanwhile, we're not doing the hard work uh in. between. 2028 is four damn. I mean, this. guy just got elected. >> Been obvious a little over six months or. about six goddamn months. Why the hell. we talking about 2028? Uh, and so we got. to grind. We got to at house, you know, these House seats, uh, that's it, man. It's to me, uh, I need a Speaker Jeff. People out there love this Speaker. Johnson guy. I don't, uh, he wants, of.
course, to tar and feather me. Uh, it's. a spiritual term, I imagine. I didn't. see that. Maybe it's in the. Old Testament, not the New Testament, but uh um, we're just we have different. different points of view and world. vision. >> So, you're not going to run? >> I'm not. Well, I'm going to avoid I'm. going to run if he tries to t feather. me. But as it relates to uh the. presidency, who the hell knows? That's. that's fate. That's Do you mean a. moment? Uh are you wasting anyone's. time? Do you do you have a why, a.
compelling why? I mean, I I have I would. have to sit in front of you and feel. totally congruent. >> Mhm. >> That I'm just like, this is the why. Why. are you running? And just say this is, you know, and have that burning. conviction. I'll tell you, the more. Trump keeps doing what he does, the more. compelled I am to think about it. Um, I've never felt more outrage, more. anger, uh, uh, towards the actions and. often this individual than I do now.
>> Well, we'll get into that. Who, who are. some, if it's not going to be you, who. are some leaders in the Democratic Party. that you would like to see step up? >> I think there's a ton of them. Look, I. can give you, you know, the who's who. name the list that everybody knows. But. yeah, look, you have the lineup, a lot. of folks that ran last time. They're. outstanding leaders in our party. Again, nine out of 10 people listening, rolling. their eyes. I get it. Different parties. Um, but you have extraordinarily. talented people. You have to acknowledge.
like Pete Buddha Judge. Um you have. extraordinarily talented uh governors uh. that are emerging uh from Basher uh to. Whitmer to Shapiro uh to Wes Moore who's. a rock star. He's a buddy. Um you've got. a lot of folks we don't talk a lot about. uh in the Senate. Many in the House of. Representatives. I mean you see Roana. making moves obviously. You see uh you. see Chris there uh up in in Connecticut. to see folks um I I think that will.
emerge um out of nowhere including a lot. of brand names, celebrities uh that. folks are trying to mold since we're so. into performative uh policy. >> Interesting. Who. >> I don't know. I mean just you know the. the sort of you know you get the the. Cuban types that are always being pushed. the rock types. >> you know where I don't know you know. their party affiliation. I mean, you. know, McConnell is always talking about. running for something. Uh, you know, and. and so you just you have folks I think. Trump has just opened the damn door and.
you know, it's it's style now. It's. narrative. It's not facts. It's who can. dominate the conversation, man. Flood. the zone. >> And this guy's a master at this. >> Mhm. >> You know, I think he's a bit of a flim. flammer. He's a carney from my humble. perspective, a music man in many. respects. Um but he's incredibly gifted. at at at at defining the terms of the. debate unlike anyone in my lifetime. Um. the Democratic version of that that may. emerge may not. Bernie though is.
powerful man cannot deny the populism of. Bernie Sanders the purity of heart sort. of conviction the consistency of message. repeats himself over in the vernacular. of Marshawn Lynch over and over and over. and over and over again. Trump does the. same. There's something about that in. terms of communication style. Is it. AOCC's and the next generation or is. that Roana in that mold? I don't know. Um, but it's uh, you know, there's a lot. of talent and I I haven't said I. wouldn't have said that seven, eight.
years ago. I didn't I didn't sense we. had that kind of deep bench. We do now. Well, thank you. You know, speaking of. Trump and the presidency, I mean, a lot. of people are frustrated uh, on his base. with what's going on. All right. So, I. want to ask you a couple of things, you. know, that are that are really hot in. the news right now. And, you know, and. and I mean, let's talk about the Epstein. stuff. You know, there was a big big. push in his campaign in his campaign. about releasing the Epstein files. When.
are we going to see the list? And I. mean, he rode that, you know, in a. campaign and then. is potentially destroying his entire. base by just dismissing it and closing. the case. So, I'm I'm curious, what are. what are your thoughts on what's going. on? >> I mean, I I you know, I I don't want to. just play it because I the whole thing. has always been to me a sideeshow, but I. thought it got real interesting when. Elon put out that tweet. >> Mhm. >> And then all of a sudden, a few weeks. later, what file? I thought it was.
really interesting to watch Trump take. over for Pam, who's an old friend of. mine. Don't want to get her fired for. saying that. Uh Bondi, the the AG, and. she was asked a direct question about. it. Trump defensively jumped in. That. was the most defensive I've seen him in. a while. >> So, what do you think is going on? >> I don't know what's going on, but. >> I know the rumors. Was it a Was it a Was. it a intelligence op by MSAD? Like, what? Well, that was one of one of the. the the the current uh uh look, man. I I.
have no idea. I just. I felt it was getting down a little down. the corridors of Pizza Gate for a while. and I'm like, "What the heck what is. going on, you know?" And and by the way, that that's manifest in real craziness. I mean, you about two years of protest. where I wouldn't get out of my damn. house. I've had every version of that. Like, what the hell's going on? get into. the chemtrail stuff. I mean, there's a. lot of stuff. I get it. Um UFOs are a. little more interesting to me. I'm a.
little more uh less on the conspiracy. side of that, but that's another. conversation. Uh but the Epstein stuff, man, I couldn't make or break anything. except Trump. Look, man, the guy Epste. and Trump knew each other. That's not. even There's no fake videos. Those. aren't AI videos of those guys hanging. out. >> Uh and uh it wouldn't make a lot. I. don't know. I just I'm going to leave it. to more objective minds. I have no. objectivity. I don't even I'm not going. down this rabbit hole except to say what. Elon put that out. I thought it was a. big tell. Something's up. A. >> lot of weird stuff's going on. I mean,
you know, and and you know, it just it. sucks because want to take people for. their word and time and time again, you. know, we're we're seeing that word. broken. And it's it's made me rethink. how I choose my leaders. And not saying. that I'm choosing you to be my leader by. any. >> You just said you said you said you. despised me earlier. I am extremely. frustrated uh with with with what's. going on. And so let's move on. You. know, the other hot topic is Iran. I.
mean, what do you think about that? >> Well, you know, we bombed Iran. >> Leon Pedetta on uh my podcast last week. and was interesting to have former CIA. director obviously Leon Secretary of. Defense and chief of staff um with all. of his hats that he wore and you know. they were doing they were gaming out. this exact mission. >> Mhm. uh back when he was in charge. Um. and it was executed flawlessly. Goddamn. heroes. Unbelievable. >> It was a master class. I I'm You're the.
expert here, man. But I I was proud uh. of how flawless they executed on that. How many years they were working on it. and and how seemingly effective, obliterated or not, you know, whatever. a lot of bloiation from Trump but you. know may have it seems to have delayed. the program and certainly not ended it. Um so it's now going to require the hard. work of diplomacy. Well see what's. interesting to me and this word maybe.
it's my understanding that our 18 not. one of our 18 intelligence agencies said. that there was enriched uranium there. Now I'm not a friend of Iran. I know. Iran uses terrorist groups as proxies, but I thought it was interesting that. now one of our 18 intelligence agencies. said that we had enriched that Iran had. enriched uranium at those facilities. And then Israel Assad comes along and. says, "Oh, no, it's in there." And just. like that, we're saying it for most of.
my life. I mean, I can't remember when. BB wasn't saying it. We're just month. away. We're just a year away. I think I. was 40 at the time. Now I'm, you know, I'm almost on social security. Uh, so I. get the cynicism there. I mean, Tulsi. was testifying a few weeks prior. >> Yep. >> Uh, so that's a legit question, man. That's a that's a legit question. And. that absolutely it's a legitimate point. of critique as it relates to what may or. may not have occurred. Um, the fact that. they did make the decision, the fact.
that regardless it's delayed the. program, uh, makes me sleep better at night. if we do the hard work of diplomacy. because we didn't solve for anything. We. didn't end anything. >> Mhm. >> And I really worry more broadly with the. aftermath of what's happened in Gaza and. the devastation uh of Gaza. Um, you. know, I I pray there'll be Abraham 2. I.
pray Saudi deal Israel. I pray that we. can begin to negotiate for peace. I. appreciated the president immediately. pivoting to wanting to negotiate after. the successful bombing. Um, and I think. that's critical now. So this success. will be defined moving forward. regardless of the legitimacy of your. observation uh and what has been. reported from the intelligence. communities publicly. >> How do you think the stuff between. Israel and Gaza ends?
>> I BB is just enough. Come on. All these. poor children. Enough. When's enough. enough? >> Mhm. >> I mean Famas. I went I flew out there. one of the first flights in. Had to get. to Cypress. could barely get out of. Israel. Flew in to meet with BB. Met. with the president just weeks after. October 7th. Um, sent a field hospital, deep reverence for the state of Israel. and Israeli people. My family married a.
lot of Jewish family. I'm we can get. into my history and so there's a why. there. I feel always connected to that. country. I was proud to go out there and. support country. I mean it terrorist. attack a kamas. >> Mhm. But Jesus, I mean, look at these. children. >> Yeah. >> Starving, you know, and uh can't I mean, so. enough. I know we're we're in the final. stages and as we talk, they're. negotiating these 10 hostages and we're. looking for temporary peace deal. Um but.
it breaks my heart, man. And again, this. is someone that reveres the state of. Israel and and and and and has its back. I'm not, you know, BB I remember meeting. him in the bunker right after, man. And. it's so interesting. now to hear what he said, not in the. moment, but with everything that. happened after it doesn't surprise me. that his mindset understandably, but I mean.
enough. >> Yeah. I mean, the last numbers I saw. 40,000 people dead. >> My man, >> that's a lot of. >> And these are 40,000 families. >> Yeah. that are going to have a point of. view as they grow and get their lives. back about what the hell just what. happened. And that's uh 40,000. opportunities going forward. >> Y. >> uh where we may not feel so safe in that. cafe uh when we're traveling. And um and. so I you know, look, I I applaud.
President Trump on the Abraham Accords. I I think there's a pathway. I think the. Biden administration moving down that. pathway with Saudi Arabia, which a big. goddamn deal. and the opportunity now. with Syria and everything that's. happened there, the conditions have. radically changed and how they have. significantly I think they just exposed. Iran is not a paper tiger in terms of. their proxies but in terms of their own. sort of domestic uh military capacity. certainly from a defense perspective. You have this extraordinary moment that.
could transform the history of this. country our country and the world. certainly the Middle East. Um, and I. pray uh that cooler heads prevail and. that they can temper some of the. appetite of BB particularly of some. members of his coalition in particular. that are rabid on this topic uh to I I. think get a pathway or not think that. need to get a pathway to peace and do it. so immediately. >> Well, let's move into your life story. You ready?
>> See, I I I prefer Middle East politics. to my life story. >> Come back to it. We can come back to it. Where'd you grow up? >> I was San Francisco man. I know people. are booing. Don't hate. Um San Fran, fifth generation. Uh my uh my dad used. to joke his great-grandfather he said he. didn't know what came first, the Irish. cop uh or San Francisco. Uh so it's been. about 150 years from the Irish cop uh to. uh to a politician. Uh and uh and so I.
grew up there, had pretty significant. learning disabilities, so I struggled in. school. Couldn't read or write. Severe. dyslexia. It's why I don't read. speeches. Never seen me read a. >> Yeah, I've read that. You You can't even. You do not read a teleprompter. >> I The only thing I can do is a. teleprompter. And it's difficult beyond. words, but it's But I certainly sure as. hell can't look down and read a speech. never been able to which is a little bit. of a disability in politics. I imagine I.
could have picked another profession. Uh. there's been a gift and can get to that. later. But as a consequence that moved. to Maring County for better schools, my. mom single mom came from nothing. She. died left about a $5,000 state. No. [ __ ] Which was a mayor. Amazing. Because with all the care at the end, she died of cancer. Um it was amazing. that she didn't have more debt. And it. just puts in perspective. There's a sort. of perception of me some rich kid. uh. somehow born to privilege. Uh but she. was a teenage she was uh 19 when she was.
pregnant with me. Two kids, divorced a. few years later. She's just like hustled. man. She worked for aid to adoption of. special kids the Debult family. So when. it comes to issues around uh physical. and intellectual disabilities been my. cause, man. Special Olympics back to SAR. Shrivever and the Strive. I mean, and. just the issues around intellectual. disabilities and Best Buddies and and. and people, you know, being bullied. I. don't like bullies. >> Mhm. >> Goes to why I have strong opinions about.
Trump, man. Just is. It's like it. triggers me. All of us have that. I. don't like people talking down to. people, past people. I don't like people. exploiting weakness. And so, my mom. taught me that and she was tough son of. a [ __ ] And she just taught me hard. work, man. I mean there was no if you. know I was doing paper roots working for. Jeffix Construction was doing janitorial. work down at the tenderloin in San. Francisco. I mean I was my summer job. through college just grinding. >> uh was going to go to community college. I mean I got 960 or something on Monday.
SAT. >> Uh my mom said don't even take it again. It's okay. I was panicked you. I was. just like that guy. I remember fifth. grade Mr. Morris's class I start. reading. You know they make everyone. read a little part of a book and you. just you seen the clock you're like. [ __ ] You're like, "Please, please let. the let's let's class end." And you're. like counting the desks and you're like. and I remember getting up people I swear. to God I'll never forget people laughing. when I couldn't even read the goddamn. words. >> Damn. >> And and you those are the scars of your. life, man. I identify you. And so my mom. struggle with that. My sister's smart.
She's going to fancy school. She goes to. Georgetown. She's getting 13. I don't. remember that. It don't even matter. It. was easy for her. And I'm just And so. for her, I I have so much empathy. I. never I never had kids. She died years. and years, 18 years ago. So, she never. got me my kids and I never got to say. thank you because as a parent um I've. got a couple kids that have been. struggling and it's so hard on the. parents. I never even thought about. that. Never thought about my mom, man, and all the sacrifices, all the [ __ ] she.
went through. She worked two, three jobs. her whole [ __ ] life. I mean, that's. how I got in the restaurant business. I. was she was a waitress and doing. bookkeeping and part-time real estate. and I was the bus boy and that's how I. kind of got introduced to the business. and um and then she ended up working for. me near the end of her life when I. started growing my businesses from one. little store uh with uh one part-time. employee and built that to 20 plus. businesses across California. And so. that was my mom. My dad was uh uh he.
kind of panicked. He he uh tried to get. into politics, lost, went into debt, tried to do it again, lost lost the. relationship with my mom, and then just. moved out of San Francisco and went up. to uh Lake Tahoe area and he just he had. a little nerv he had a little breakdown. >> How old were you when he left? >> Uh just a few years old. >> Do you remember him? Yeah, I mean I. remember him for, you know, summers.
I remember him sometimes on the weekend. I remember when I started getting good. at baseball and basketball. That was where we reconnected. And it's. the only reason I got into four-year. college baseball and uh was pretty good. basketball player, better baseball. player, and got recruited to Santa. Clara. Uh and that's they kind of that's. you kind of snuck in there. a nothing. scholarship. Wasn't even about that. It.
was the ticket to a 4-year college. But. those high school years, man, my dad was. started to show up as proud. It's like. the son's, you know, >> you were proud. >> He was proud. And he's proud. >> Yeah. And sort of connected and that and. I was like, "Hey, dad." You know, so he. kind of started coming back in our lives. a lot more. >> How did your mom handle him leaving? I. mean, what was. >> they neither neither ever got remarried. Uh they both every time they came close, they sabotaged each other. Did they talk well of each other or with. each other? >> Yeah, there was there was no abuse. There was no no issues. There no.
affairs. It was u my dad just struggling. with his own identity. And uh and he. eventually he became a he was a lawyer. then became a judge. He was on the. superior court then the court of. appeals. Incredibly bright um. objectively so. I mean that was he was. that was his sort of legendary status. Uh he was a he was at Stanford. He was. doing a little English work there. professor for a brief period of time or. was teaching there and then became a. judge and wrote these beautiful opinions.
and his entire inheritance he passed uh. he made it just through uh my election. day as governor which is a hell of a. thing in a wheelchair. >> Wow. >> Survived just to see his son become. governor man and uh which is just. [ __ ] in hindsight I'm like. good as that man. Let's roll it back a. little bit. I mean, >> did you feel I mean, did you feel any. resentment or or I mean, when your dad. leaves at that young of an age? I mean,
>> man, I think you all everybody goes. through these journeys differently and. there's so many people that have the. same experience. Uh, I never, you know, you didn't I didn't know any. other pathway, right? So, I didn't. experience something and lose something. because it was I was so young. >> That's a good point. So I didn't sort of. connect with that other caregiver, the. other person being home or around. I. just connected with my mom and that sort. of, you know, and that was like a jawing. thing, man. Like I'm the only son, you.
know, I'm struggling, but I'm like the. guy, the boy just like So, man, she just. Yeah. I mean, she sacrificed everything. for me, man. Like gave up everything, any ambition, anything else. >> How did you receive him coming back into. the picture? uh his gift, man. He's my. hero. I mean, he was the he was he was. the he was the Bobby Kennedy, you know, he was the the judge, the politics, you. know, he had all these interesting.
relationships, including with the Getty. family, his closest relationships, which. opened a lot of doors for me and created. a lot of opportunities I wouldn't have. otherwise have. And um and so he was. adventure. The summers were he's a he. was a ravid outdoorsman like man we were. like we'd go I mean we're all over the. world. We would go it was one summer. trip and it was just always a [ __ ]. adventure and river trips primarily and. and we you know up there and you know up.
there in Manitoba Winnipeg and we're out. there beluga whales in Hudson Bay. I'm. like this is amazing. We're doing blue. whales down uh in Baja or or or grey. whales in Baja. We would be out uh doing. these river trips on the the middle fork. of the salmon and American and Rogue. River up in Oregon and he was just that. guy. So I'm connected to adventure. Um. and then he was passionate about. politics but it was public service. wasn't partisan. It was like man just it. again it was the feelings around the 60s.
like it was a noble calling. Um, and uh, and so you combine the hard work and. ethic of my goddamn mom. Don't complain. Don't explain. You have agency. You're. not a [ __ ] victim. You got to deal. with [ __ ] And that idealism of my dad. What a gift. >> Wow. Wow. I mean, any any Did you ever. ask your dad why he left? >> Yeah. He said he had a he said I just. was I was in I.
>> He I He says he literally had a. breakdown. I mean, we were talking earlier he did. some interesting stuff. I mean, I'm I'm. getting in different territory here. Uh. he told me he did some LSD experiments. at Stanford University. He said he. primarily did it cuz they paid a lot. Uh. he was just always he was he was on a. journey, man. I think I didn't you don't. think about that with your parents. My. mom, you know, my mom's dad was prisoner.
of war um in Corri. He ultimately took. his life. Talk about pts. Talk about veterans. Don't even get me started either, man. My mom struggled with that. I mean, he. put a gun to their head. to his my mom and his sister. after he came back. That's how he was. Was a beautiful man, but not when he. drank. And so my mom struggled with that and.
was very lonely, isolated. My dad. clearly was struggling more with his. mental health than I expected. Not in an. acute way, but in a way that I'm. starting to more appreciate. He said, "I. had a damn breakdown. I couldn't I. couldn't face you guys. I couldn't own. up to being a good father, and I wasn't. gonna be a good husband." And so I said, "I had to leave." And he just said, "I. broke down.". >> Wow. >> And but he was a beautiful man. And as I. say, his inheritance was his idealism.
and um in the sense of adventure and. limitlessness obligation, you know, he was, you know, he was I. think community opportunity. responsibility. He was the. responsibility guy like you have an. obligation, brother. You know, you got. to give back. That's your job. And he he. was charitable and he was causeoriented. uh justice, you know, just justice Nuome. and um so I thought he's he was a.
beautiful man in my mind, but terrible. not a great not the best father and. certainly not a good husband. >> I mean, what kind of LSD experiments? >> I man I I'm just learning about him, brother. I'm learning more and more. about this. I'm trying to find out more. from uh other family members. I'm like. >> some MK Ultra [ __ ]. >> Yeah. This this is like predates all. this stuff that's now everybody's. starting to understand how powerful and. potent and profoundly. important. this space is. >> Mhm. >> In ter not just for the I mean for vets.
next level. I mean you're look I'm. talking to the expert here. I'm going to. my words but more broadly man. This. mental health crisis it was the right. question you asked me about co goddamn. right man. Social isolation we haven't. come. We're more lonely than ever, more. isolated, more distrustful. Community's been afraid. That did not. help co quite the contrary accelerated. They were pre-existing trends. I mean, you you had the former surgeon. general and Obama that made the point. that the number one disease in America.
is loneliness even before the pandemic. and then it was accelerated. And we. haven't figured that one out, man. And. that's that's I where I want my. leadership to speak to those better. angels, man. and not divide, take down, separate anymore. And that's that's my. gripe. I don't want to get back into. politics, but that's my gripe about. what's going on in 1600 Pennsylvania. right now. It just we need to knit. things back together, man. And um this. guy's uniquely capable of doing it.
because he has no political mornings. It's not ideological Trump. So, his. ability to pivot, shapeshift. >> Mhm. >> Uh what a gift if he would just damn. exercise it. I mean, do you feel like. the last administration was divisive? >> I think, you know, we we got. ideological, you know, failed at the border. And by the way, I. say that as a guy put 394 National Guard. down at the border. >> I saw that. I didn't. >> years and years ago. I didn't react to.
that. I mean, I I invested over a. billion dollars, 1.1 almost 1.3 billion. dollars into migrant centers in three. counties, Imperial, San Diego, and. Riverside counties along the border in. order to put a lid on it. It's why you. didn't see on the nightly news. I know. you weren't watching as much as others, but there was a lot of the flooding of. the news was primarily around Texas, but. we were able to kind of keep a lid on it. a little bit in California. Trust me, my. friends on the right would have. exploited the hell out of California.
>> had we seen that flood. And we we were. trying to manage it and I was trying to. manage the politics, trying to have the. back of the president, >> but very very critical saying you guys. wake up to the hell is going on down. here. I. >> mean, the fact that here's a progressive. governor putting hundreds of military at. the border. >> and and consistently funding that in. every b fighting in every budget to keep. that going. Um, rever those guys in the. National Guard, by the way. Rock stars. >> You know, I I did I read that you put.
400 398. You just said uh National Guard. troops down there on the border, but I. did do some research and I found that. California is the number one state with. illegal immigration and Texas is right. there behind you. >> Yeah. In terms of people crossing the. border. I mean, it's the largest border. crossing in the Western Hemisphere. So, you'd expect that. I mean, just by very. nature of it. uh largely in the western. hemisphere um and obviously two-way. trade there. I mean it's a whole region. that whole entire economic region is.
connected Tijana and San Diego region uh. and it's a very vibrant crossber. relationship which is another issue that. you know respectfully we should talk. more about the economic side of border. policy um but undoubtedly it's a very. poorest border uh beyond sort of that. San Diego sector where the wall has. substantially been built but hardly uh. the ultimate deterrent it's a deterrent. of a people even with double border. Uh. they have a legendary status. I've been.
in I was in tunnels with the guard uh. not too long ago and border patrol went. into the tunnels and we're discovering. tunnels all the goddamn time. >> which are just next level tunnels uh. that the cartels are running. And by the. way, that's two-way. That's folks. sending guns arms down and cash down. south, not just the drugs coming in. north. >> Um but no, I I I've just never been that. guy. I remember there was some. Democratic primary and everybody raised. their a bunch of folks raised their. hand. Would you get rid of the border? I'm like what the hell is what are they.
talking about? Nations need borders. Question is what's the most effective. approach? I thought 1954 miles of a. wall. I thought Trump was uh a little. bit uh you know, come on man. He only by. the way did 85 new miles in his four. years. Uh little bloation there about. how much he actually accomplished. He. will say 458 because they retrofitted. existing fence. Fine. Um but it was. hardly a triumph in that. But I believe. in border security and I believe in the.
work these guys are doing every single. day and the lives they've saved. Uh our. counter narcotics efforts, our task. forces have been next level, not only. with National Guard and Border Patrol, but also with our California Highway. Patrol that are part of these larger. efforts throughout the state. Um, look, I'm a state with 39% of people uh that. are Latino. I'm a state where 27% of. people are foreign born. I represent a. majority minority state. We're the.
largest agricultural state. When people. say, "Well, he needs to understand the. heartland." Really? Really? Telling me. that governor of California has more. hunting jobs, more forestry jobs, and. more agriculture, ranching jobs than. anyone else in the country? Not even. close. California. Um, I'm also mindful of the. contributions of immigrants. Silicon. Valley, over half the unicorn companies in this. country are in my state, 57% and half of. those. are literally owned by immigrants. 42%.
of our startups in California, immigrants. from Silicon Valley to Central Valley, immigration, hospitality business. I'm. in construction workers. Come on, man. Going after these people at Home Depot, day laborers, taking kids or taking. parents from kids that don't have. criminal records. It's where I draw the. line. And so, California's got more to. lose than anyone else in this. And we've.
been the beneficiary uh of of of. immigrants. Um I'm with you on. criminals. 11,000. 11,000 plus we've turned over to ICE. since I've been governor. Fact. 11,000. We work with ICE. I work with. ICE with our sanctuary policy. We work. with ICE as it relates to the release of. dangerous and violent criminals. 11,000.
that we have notified and worked with. ICE to transfer and deport. >> You know, I'm a little more on the. middle on this than than most people. think. I got painted out to be like a. MAGA troll or something. Uh because a. lot of the people that I've interviewed, including Trump himself, and while I do. lean conservative, I am not that far. right. And so I I think there's a happy. medium here. And I'm and and I'm glad. you brought up the economic uh. repercussions of this because yes, you. know, I mean, I'm constructing, you.
know, we talked to breakfast. I'm. constructing a new studio that's been. delayed. you know, uh, a lot of I mean, I you know, restaurants are hurting, construction's hurting, a lot farming's. hurting. Like we, you know, we use those. people that they fill those jobs. They. just, it just, it is what it is. They. fill the jobs. Now, I think the border. has been a complete [ __ ] disaster. >> Agree with you. >> And totally, you know, but and so I. mean, how how would you like to see this. goes? I'll I'll I'll I'll hold my.
>> Look, you've been here 10 15 years. paying taxes. There's got to be a. pathway to figure that out. I know. everyone, oh, they're just saying that. so they all be, you know, vote Democrat. Well, that's no. Can we just dis just. abuse ourselves with that now, too? Look. how well Trump did with the Latino. community. >> Mhm. So, maybe that's a pathway for mega. to give. I don't It's not about. politics, man. It's about the fabric of. our community, all these mixed status. families. $8.5 billion dollars of tax. collection in California every year from.
undocument. So it's not insignificant backbone. I. mean it's half of our agriculture work. You care about farmers and ranchers. If. that's what you're like your number one. go-to commitment, then you sure as hell. care should care about their workers. um 41% of our construction workers, Texas and California have the highest. percentage of their construction workers. that would fill into that category. How. the hell do we rebuild Altadena and.
Palisades? We're going to need a peak. next year. We estimate about 70,000. workers without that workforce. Ain't. going to happen. You're struggling here. You imagine it peak there. So, I think. there needs to be a pathway for those. folks as we secure the border and we own. that issue. >> Do you feel that they're taking American. jobs? Uh, not when not in Tallery. County. Not when not in Ventura County. Uh, I don't know many people that want a. job out there in those packing. facilities.
>> I I don't see many people look like me. jumping at those jobs. I just don't. Maybe there's some exceptions. I haven't. seen the evidence of that. >> So, I understand what you're saying, but. you know, that is the that is the. narative. I mean, you had this just I I. thought one of the the most comical. things I've read in a long time and saw. was your new secretary of a saying, "Well, everyone on Medicaid can take. those jobs." That's the secretary of a. saying that. She said that literally. said, "We don't need migrants in this. country." Secretary. >> Medicaid can.
>> Yeah. people on Medicaid that will be. the workforce. It's it's uh it's not. even serious. Um but she seriously said. it and she said it with Christine and. others in the left and right. Um They're. not. You know, Trump recognized that. I. was down there in Oxnard, California. God is my witness. Couple days after he. nationalized, federalized the National. Guard over our objection. By the way, these were the heroes, 2500 of them that. were received like rock stars in LA in.
some of the most progressive districts. in the country. People with selfies. Their biggest problem was all the food. and water people were giving them, thanking them for being there during the. disaster and during our recovery. The. same ones now are being masked up and. now people are protesting. As we're dealing with that, I get a call. saying, "They're running raids in the. fields in Ventura County. Man, you got. to get up there." So, I left. got there.
a little late and they were showing me. videos with Blackhawks and and literally. agents running through the fields, middle of Ventura County, man. And I met. with six families. There was a. 16-year-old boy. He couldn't look at me. in the eyes at the end of the table. He's literally looking like this, just. tears running down his face. People tell. me their stories. And I said, "How you. doing, man?" He goes, "I'm fine." Speaks. perfect English. Was born here. He's. literally 16 years old in school still.
the last couple days of school. And I. said, "What's going on?" Every time he. tried to talk, he broke down. And so. someone said he lost his mom and dad. yesterday. I said, "What do you mean. lost them?" He says, "Well, they've. disappeared.". 20 plus years. They went to the field, drove together, were ripped out of the. car in the parking lot of the same place. they've gone for 20 plus years. Mom and. dad disappeared. He didn't even know how. to get back in the house. No family, nothing. Thank God he connected with.
someone from the school to connect him. to me and others. Didn't even know how. to clean his clothes or cook his food. The hell is that? But to his credit, a. day later, Trump said, "Oh, we need to. protect those people." Okay. Wow. Thank. you uh for saying it. But then his. actions continue to contradict it and. they continue to go out randomly on the. streets going after law- abiding. citizens, including American citizens, literal American citizens, people with. green cards. And I just to terrorize.
people. He was in MacArthur Park with. these National Guard, these heroes being. used as pawns for theater with again. damn Blackhawks overhead in the middle. of the day while kids were in soccer. camp. They didn't make one arrest. It. was a sign of cruelty. It was an. expression of cruelty just to be cruel. It's a weakness masquerading as strike, man. Like, what the hell's Trump doing? He's got 4,000 of your brothers and. sisters out there in American city. And.
by the way, 90% of them aren't doing a. damn thing, which means they're not at. home with their families. A lot of these. guys are police officers and. firefighters. They want to teach summer. school and they're sitting there in the. damn armories waiting for some [ __ ]. assignment so that he can look tough. Anyway, forgive me on this border. Goddamn right. And you know what? To the. extent we own this as a reaction to the. failure. that there may be some truth to that, but make what's happening right. And I.
just think we can find some balance. Ronald Reagan did it in 96 or ' 86, excuse me. I'm not saying you have to do. that pathway, that amnesty bill. There's. lessons learned, but come on. I mean, this country is a nation of immigrants. The economy is going to be wrecked. Not. just, and California is a tenpole of the. US economy. You want to mess with us, you're messing with the United States of. America. Self-sabotage. >> Mhm. >> And there is a way of addressing this. issue. Go after the criminals, man.
We're I'm all in. How do you determine. who's a criminal though when these when. a lot of these people don't have, you. know, any record? >> How do you determine that? >> Yeah. Well, on the basis obviously of of. arrests. Uh so you're right. I mean, we. don't know and we wouldn't know who's a. criminal that's that's not in our system. somewhere have been captured in that. system uh that has any particular. record. I mean, you have some people. with little traffic offenses, some. misdemeanor things, and and that's. categorized as a crime. Um, but for me.
it's dangerous people. It's felons. Uh, it's it's people that are convicted uh. and have served their time. By the way, I've vetoed two bills. I'm on the. opposite opin side of my legislature. Remember that it's constitution in. California, not just the constitutional. republic here in the United States. And. they've sent me two bills I've had to. veto where they didn't want me to. cooperate with ICE for these 11 plus. thousand people. I just think they're. wrong. My party's wrong on that. And I.
think that again is aided into the. conditions that Trump has exploited. politically and is exploiting now with. Steven Miller in a way that to me is. just so goddamn unamerican and is going. to create so much distrust with law. enforcement. These [ __ ] rock stars. with me today, CHP where people now just. looking at those guys differently. They. don't trust them now. People run around. with masks with no badge and no. identification. I mean, if someone came. up to me like that, I mean, I would get. into it. Like, who the hell are you? Am. I being kidnapped? Mhm. You know, I.
think I mean I interviewed Holman, you. know, a couple about a month ago or so. and and uh you know, one of the things. that he had mentioned and it made sense. to me was uh and I don't is Ventura. County just north of LA County. >> That's where we were. That's I was in. Oxnard in Ventura County. >> Now, he was saying that he told me that. they're just going after the criminals. >> It's [ __ ] Now, >> forgive me for listen. Yeah. What he did. say is is that sanctuary cities and I.
don't know if Ventura County has that or. not, but that that by. by being a sanctuary city and not. cooperating with ICE that it was it was. it was putting a tremendous amount of. danger on his on his on the border. patrol and and ICE. >> and and I mean I don't think there's any. arguing that. So, how how do I mean, how. do cities how does this [ __ ] work, man? Like, how do how how how can.
sanctuary cities work with the federal. government to sort through who should be. here and who shouldn't be? I. >> I to So, let me ackn I want to. acknowledge that point, his point. I. don't want to dismiss that out of hand. We have a state policy that's very. different than the local jurisdictions. Mhm. >> So what I described to you is the state. policy with the largest corrections. institution in the United States, CDCR. And that's why numerically there's no. governor can lay claim to coordinating.
at the state their state level uh with a. larger cohort of people uh that fall in. that category of dangerous and violent. uh with ICE. But at the local level, each each jurisdiction and their. conservative parts of the state, not. just liberal parts of the state. I mean, Rudy Giuliani was one of the biggest. proponents of sanctuary policy. Rudy. Giuliani, he said in many respects it. keeps people ha safe, healthy, uh, and. educated. Safe in the context that it. led to more trust for law enforcement.
If you're a witness of crime or a victim. of crime to come forward without fear of. deportation, created trust in the. community with law enforcement. more. educated because you're more likely to. send your kids to school, a young kid, without worrying about a crossing guard. turning you in and more healthy because. you're more likely to get a flu shot at. a community clinic without fear of. deportation. Giuliani. police chief's association in the past. supported in the past interesting.
sanctuary policy for the same reasons. around public safety and relational. trust with the community. That said, this is where I disagree and as mayor of. San Francisco, I got a lot of [ __ ] for. this. I inherited just as I inherited. sanctuary policy at the state um that. that the legislature wants to continue. to change. As mayor, I inherited. sanctuary policy when I got sworn in and. it was too permissive and I closed a. loophole as it relates to coordinating. with ICE upon arrest and people were.
pissed. When I left mayor's office, they. reversed that. No. >> So, I've been on this basis, but I. support the broader principle. That. said, I'm happy to advocate for. eliminating sanctuary policy. And the. reason it exists is because of the total. abject failure of the federal government. to do its [ __ ] job. It exists because they persist in. politicizing this. I mean, I want that. gang of eight back. I want the old Rubio. back. Had some [ __ ] courage. Thank.
you, Marco Rubio. and had a compromise. that he was promoting, bipartisan. compromise in the space. Let's go back. to the tenants of that deal and then you. could start to unwind sanctuary policy. It exists because of that failure. Uh. and so we can address Humeman's concerns. in that respect. Uh not a big fan of his. cuz he's not a big fan of mine. He. wanted my arrest which I thought was a. little uh blow tough guy. He's that guy.
That said, I was told to his credit that. he was a pretty thoughtful and good um. uh you know soldier in the before he got. this sort of performative job. My humble. perspective that apparently he was well. respected um in his older older roles. over there. So I I'll give him some. grace in that respect despite his desire. for my arrest. I mean what how does it. how do we solve it long term though? You. know, I mean, we see this [ __ ] and it's. just.
subject after subject and it gets. [ __ ] batted back and forth between. Republicans, Democrats over and over. again with the, you know, border being. one of them. But, you know, I don't see. anybody, and I maybe I'm missing, like I. said, I watch the news, but. I don't see anybody trying to fix. immigration. other than, you know, we're ripping the. border wall down. We're putting the. border wall up. We're going to shut the. border down. we're going to open the. [ __ ] border and and you know, but. there's no pathway. The pathway for.
immigrants to come into the country. legally is not changing. It's not been. streamlined. Nothing's been tuned to, you know, what we're dealing with today. And a lot of these people are I mean, I'll probably get blasted for saying. this, but I I I I see it first. I mean, the guy that built this studio. uh right here, this wasn't here before. He built it and came in on Easter. Sunday, worked his ass off, had him do. some stuff at other properties that I.
own. And now, the last time I talked to. him, he's got like 12 different crews. I. mean, he he has achieved the American. dream. He's a he's an extremely hard. worker. He does great work. I I mean, I. like I I love to see that because I've. seen so many Americans, not immigrant, Americans, say, "Oh, the. American dream's over. I can't buy a. home. I can't do this. I can't do that. And it's like. >> this dude sparely speaks English. Built. this, built that. Now he's got, you. know, multiple crews running and and.
he's doing amazing. And but you know. what what what pisses me off is like I. do think that we need these people in. this country. And I do think that. there's the economy is going to face. some consequences. I think it already. probably is. And so why why is nobody on. the right or the left trying to fix the. actual immigration polic? >> I think cuz the politics I mean we're. rewarded for bad behavior, man. I I. think the vast majority of folks in.
elected office are right where you are. I really I honestly believe that. I. think they were primarily where that. gang of eight was. Hell, I thought they. were where, you know, where the. Democratic party even was supporting. that bipartisan bill a year ago, which. included $650 million for the border. wall to reform the amnesty system. The. amnesty program in the United States is. broken, as you suggest. It needs to be. updated, but it's these guys have a some.
politics immigration is a border issue. when it's much more than a border issue. Mhm. >> And we have an obligation, I think, to. each other if we're going to knit this. country back together to own up to that. And I I I appreciate to see finally my. party move on some of more border. issues. Um, but we're going to need to. see some movement along the lines of. what Rubio and others were trying to. advance in that gang of eight to sort of. get back. And I don't even think it's. the center. I think it's just common.
sense. Um and and and look, Trump says. the right things on this. He wants first. round draft choices around the best. around the rest of the world. Love that, man. Let's get the best in the goddamn. right. You want to talk about AI, 50% of. the AI researchers are Chinese, man. >> Mhm. >> 50%. I mean, that's that back to California. secret sauce. It's an economic imperative diversity. I'm sorry. I know that offends some. people. There's a business case to be. made there. I know that's woke. That's.
me. That's a business guy talking me. I. know my customers and I know my. employees. I won't make a damn business. case for it. But I'll tell you, there's. a competitive case to be made. We're. toast if we can't get folks around the. rest of the world to compete in AI and. quantum and the next generation of. technology. We're [ __ ] from a national. security perspective. So, I pray we get. through this moment. Trump, you win. Fabulous. You got 5,000 troops. Go home. now. You got me. You own the lib. You. showed how tough you are. You've had the.
display of agarity from my perspective. or strength from your perspective of. MacArthur Park. Can we now just go back? You've arrested 3,000 people in the last. few months. Well done. Vast majority. apparently don't have criminal records. Um you made your point. A lot of people. are self-deporting. We're by the way. hearing a lot of that. Um and I guess. that's part of the point. Um you got all. this new money. Can we do it to be a. little more constructive and advance a. bill on amnesty and immigration reform? address those who've been here 10 years. paying taxes, 15, 20 years. And by the.
way, in California was a survey done, very reputable survey, 69%. of the undocs in my state have been in. the state over a decade. Interesting. you brought up I'm with you. I I would. love to bring in the best and the. brightest in the world especially within. the tech space because I also am it I. mean that's that's my number one thing. is everything that's going on between us.
and China. I think that's the in Taiwan. I think that's the most important thing. that we should be concentrating on from. a from a from a global standpoint. But. where I'm going with this is you had. mentioned 50% I think you said 50% of. the. >> 50% of the the the re the world's. researchers. And and by the way, I I. know a thing or two about this subject. cuz it's California, man. >> What separates our game from the game. played elsewhere is innovation, entrepreneurialism, more patents, more. engineers, more researchers, more Nobel. laureates in my state than any other. damn state. More Fortune 500 companies.
in my state than any other state. Look. that up. Cuz I know people are rolling. their eyes and say, "No, it's Texas.". You're wrong. >> It's true. I looked it up. >> And we're, by the way, a donor state. We. provided $83.1 billion more than we. received from the federal government. Texas took $71.1 billion. I'm not saying. that to bash Texas, but you know what? Pretty proud of my. goddamn state. >> Above our weight, man. >> But AI, >> can you repeat those numbers? >> $83.1 billion. We provided more to the.
federal government than we received in. the same year that Texas. received 71.1 billion billion more than. they provided to the federal government. >> You're net positive. >> Net positive. The nine out of 10 of the. donor states are Trump states. And I. don't mean that pjoratively Trump. Seven. of the 10 are Republican states, but. nine out of the 10 dependent states, welfare states are are Trump states. The. donor states disproportionately the blue. states. 71% of the country's GDP comes. from blue counties.
>> Mhm. >> These same crackup counties with all. these crazy liberals that can't get out. of their own goddamn way and the world's. come to an end. It's 71% of the economy, the goddamn country, man. I mean, I. think that's changing a little bit, but. before we get into that, I want to go. back to the Chinese the Chinese. I mean, there's a lot of corporate espionage and. just flat out espionage going on in the. tech space. >> Understand? >> And with with with with China stealing. our our patents, our techs, all of that. stuff. And so, how do you combat that? I. mean, if we're going to bring in the.
world's, you know, best and greatest AI. researchers and 50% of them are Chinese. and then we have to deal with all this. corporate espionage. I mean, how do you. navigate through that? >> So, just um. perspective, 32 of the top 50 companies. on the in the planet are in my state. 32. Nvidia just came out this week, $4. trillion market cap. Um, we've got I. mean, Elon's company's in California for. a reason because he couldn't compete. anywhere else in the AI space. He put.
his world's R&D headquarters back into. California. >> It's back. I thought he moved everything. to Boston. put the R&D headquarters back. at HP Enterprises old corporate. headquarters in PaloAlto because he. needed to get the superstar talent. >> You can actually Google there's a good. press conference with the two of us that. have known each other for 20 plus years. uh where we announced that together. It's to make a point. The reason Sam. Alman is quadrupled down on San. Francisco, he's like why the hell would. I move anywhere else, man? It's where.
the talent is. So the talent resides in. certain pockets in the globe and. California is sort of the dominant. player in the space and we have the best. and the brightest minds like Jensen. obviously Sam and others and you got all. the anthropic folks which are. fascinating they're an interesting part. of of the larger discussion and of. course Facebook and what they're doing. on the open source platform but as. relates to I think China and AI what. they're doing they have an open- source. model we are primarily more closed. source um that open source model wasn't.
just deep six. Um you've seen sort of. derivative companies that have come from. deep six because everybody's building. off that stack. The question is who's. going to win that damn race? Is it going. to be the American stack. like the dollar American dollar or is it. going to be stack coming out of China? >> And that's why this is perhaps the most. definitive race of our lifetime. And. that's why it's absolutely essential. that we have an immigration policy that.
encourages. the ability for folks to come to our. country to continue to make the. investments, not just in terms of. capital investments into new business, but also research and development. opportunities and develop patents and IP. in our country to the extent we can. compete as it relates to IP in China and. the issues around national security. And. on that issue, Trump 1.0 did some. important things. Biden built on that as.
it relates to some of the sanctions and. tariffs and some of the trading. restrictions for national security and. chips. And certainly Trump is building. off that again. And that I think starts. to answer your question. But man, both. sides, this is it, man. I mean, this is. this is going to define our future. And. I agree with you a thousand% as our eye. gets off the ball with all the quagmire. in the Middle East and everything going. on in Ukraine and Russia that China has.
the pos potential to clean our clock. That's why I'm a big EV guy. I know not. everybody is, but BYD EV company, it's. got a market cap that literally you look. at all the American automobile. manufacturers combined exceeds it. They're flooding the zone around the. world with EVs in Russia, in Europe, in. Brazil, in South America. They're. dominating the space. The technology. platforms that these cars provide, the.
AI components of that, the autonomous. autonomy that comes from that, they're. distin I mean GM's toast. Mary Bar sold. her soul. They literally seated to China one of. the next great economic opportunities. and that's in the space. Elon's always. understood that and thank God we've had. him. I've been as big a supporter of. Tesla. No one's been a bigger supporter. But China's clicking our clock on that.
and these technologies of the future if. we don't get our ass in gear and get. serious again about economic industrial. policy. Not just tariff policy, it's a. tool, but worker- centered industrial. policy, but immigration reform is. foundational in that respect. Sorry, I get all. these important topics, brother. >> They are. They're very important. Let's. take a quick break. When we come back, we'll pick up with uh your college.
>> Summer's here, and if you're anything. like me, you didn't spend the winter. just sitting around. You stayed sharp. and kept moving. And now it's time your. gear caught up. And that's why I want to. introduce you to ROA. I've been looking. for eyewear that can handle any. situation with performance and style. And let me tell you, these aren't your. average shades. I've tested them in the. real world from shooting to fishing to. off-roading, and they hold up. They're. lightweight, don't slide around on my.
face, and can take a hit without falling. apart. And the best part, they look. good. They're clean and modern. No. frrills here, just premium eyewear that. performs without compromise. That's. something that I respect. And that's. also why every time I head out the door, I reach for my ROA shades. ROA's based. in Austin, Texas. American designed, no. cut corners. The optics are crystal. clear, cutth through glare, and the fit.
stays comfortable all day long. Need a. prescription? They've got you covered. with both sunglasses and eyeglasses. Not. only does Roka have awesome shades, they. also have these that protect you against. blue light. I wear these every night. when I'm winding down for the day and I. still got to look at my phone or my. laptop or my iPad. It just helps you. wind down and get ready for bed. They. are a one-stop shop for eyewear that's.
built to handle whatever life throws at. you. ROA is the real deal. Ready to. upgrade your eyewear? Check them out for. yourself at roka.com and use code SRS. for 20% off sitewide at checkout. That's. roka.com. I got to tell you, Hexclad pans and. knives make cooking fun for me. Hexclad. gives you the performance of stainless. steel and the convenience of non-stick.
in one pan. They're dishwasher safe, oven safe, and simple to wipe clean. after use. Not to mention, the patented. hexagon design protects against. scratches even when using metal. utensils. And Hexclad products come with. a lifetime warranty. We use ours all of. the time and they are quality built and. durable. Don't forget, Hexclad also. makes incredible knives that are made of. 67 layers of Japanese Damascus steel for. a sharper edge that stays sharp longer.
for effortless slicing. For a limited. time only, our listeners get 10% off. your order with our exclusive link. Just. head to hexclad.com/srs. Support our show and check them out at h. e xc.com/srs. Make sure you let them know we sent you. Bonapetit let's eat with Hexclad's. revolutionary cookware. >> All right. >> By the way, you gave me a damn gun uh.
when we started the show. So, as we move. to part two, here's here's the bear. >> Oh, nice. >> Nice. Don't you be careful when you wear. that. You know, but that's a good. looking hat, though. >> Thank you. >> Legit. California bear. >> I love it. I love it. Thank you. >> You're welcome. I mean, I know it's not, you know, sidearm. >> Hey, that's all right. I got plenty of. those. So, I got plenty of sidearms. But, uh, I. want to move into your college. experience, but before that, we were. just on the topic of China. You met Je.
>> Yeah. >> A couple of different times. >> Yeah. Well, yeah. I had a couple. different times. Once in in California. and then, of course, over in Beijing. was a hell of an experience. I've been. to China for many, many years. It's. interesting, just people don't know. this. San Francisco, um, city I. represent as mayor, had the first. Shanghai sister city, the first sister. city relationship in the United States. and China was established in San. Francisco. And that that sister city was.
really important to the people of China. And so you have visitors all the time. coming to San Francisco to celebrate it. and there's a sister city committee. And. so as mayor, I would go back every. couple years. Uh we'd celebrate. milestones and moments and trade and. exchange and particularly on. environmental stewardship and the like. Um as governor, I hadn't gone. Of. course, co everything shut down, etc., but no governor had gone over there in. years and years and years. And I just. started to see things really starting to. fray. I mean, it was both parties. I.
mean, this is when there's bipartisan. consensus on something, that's when I. get a little more cynical about it and I. want to sort of stress test. When. everyone's rushing over there and. everyone's it's sort of sacrosanked that. it's that it's this, that's when I'm. like, hold on. And so, I wanted to. stress test that a little bit. And so I. reached out and I said, "Would you guys. be willing," particularly at a time when. we were sort of pulling back on the. world stage a little bit on on some. environmental issues, which I care. deeply about. I asked if they were. interested in updating some of ourus,
memorandum, understanding, and they. accepted, but she wasn't on the list. I. was going to meet at the subnational. level with other governors. I was going. to meet with the vice president. I was. going to meet with premier. I was going. to meet with other foreign dignitaries. Uh but I didn't expect to meet with. shei. We got there and uh immediately. sense this thing is organized at a whole. another level. Uh and four or five days. in started in Hong Kong. This was by the. way I took the uh flight from.
got into Israel, went to Cyprus, went to. Athens, landed in Hong Kong the next. day. Uh and then went to mainland China. for 6 days. This is for that same trip. And um four or five days later, I'm. starting to realize where's the traffic? I mean, they were shutting down. freeways. The experience was so curated. It was beyond surreal. And I started.
noticing every time you turn on the TV, I'm like, "Well, there's that guy from. California and how organized this was.". And it kind of led up to a meeting. They. said, "May or may not happen, but if. you're in Beijing in two days, uh, around this time, uh, we may make the. president available, um, and or vice. president." And so we made our way there. and, uh, they said, "Well, President, she will happily greet you. He's got 18. minutes tops. Um, at this time in. Beijing and and uh and and and we met uh.
I I made the diplomatic faux paw. Apparently, you're not supposed to. smile. So, there's a photo of us smiling. because I just have to be human. I can't. stand that pageantry of BS to me at the. end of the day. I mean, like human. beings, okay? I mean, we can disagree on. a million just like human beings. So, there's a smile and all of a sudden it. was and that that conversation went on. and on and on. We're talking about Kobe. Bryant. We're talking about Steph Curry. Uh we're I mean which I assure you was.
not on the agenda in this bilat. Um and. other very substantive things on Tibet. and the Weaguers and issues around human. rights. I actually had a detainee that I. specifically requested be released. Uh. that's a California and we talked about. fentanyl and precursor chemicals. Uh. they haven't, but it's interesting. there's some progress there. on the. fentanyl. It was very meaningful because. we had a substantive conversation about. fentinel and precursor chemicals and how. it was disproportionately impacting. border states, notably my state. We put.
a human face on that and we officially. uh it was sort of official invite to. come to the United States for the apex. summit uh that was being hosted in. California. Um and so it was from my. perspective an incredibly important trip. to show respect, open hand, not a closed. fist. and established, I thought, a. platform for the engagement that came. out of APEC a few weeks later uh with. President Biden. That was a successful.
meeting they had as well. And of course, all the foreign leaders uh that we. hosted that week. Uh as I said, divorce. is not an option. Um China's competitive. beyond words. They play by a different. set of rules. uh and we are going to. have to step up our game in profound. ways. But we can't just turn our back. and deny the existence uh or try to. stifle I think and stuff out their. existence either. I think it will happen.
at our own peril. I do not want to live. as I lived as a kid growing up in high. school and college in this cold war. mindset worried that I have to dump dump. you put my hand under a desk because I'm. worried about some nuclear weapon. I. don't want my kids to grow up like that. either. Mhm. Mhm. What What were the. discussions like about the fentanyl with. them? >> You know, was interesting. The most. substantive thing that came out of that. were conversations that we had quite. literally with the ambassador a couple. days later and some agreements that were. codified in the actual documents that.
were signed by President Biden a few. weeks later in the Bay Area uh when the. two of them met. And it was an. interesting acknowledgement of his. growing understanding. And again, everyone can roll their eyes, say he know exactly what he's doing. He's dumping he's they're intentionally. dumping all this in American streets, etc. But it was a not only recognition, it was an appreciation for how.
devastating and impactful the drug had. become in the United States. and he. acknowledged hearing it from a number of. other people and the fact that it was. overly emphasized in our meeting. particularly because of the impacts in. our state. Uh it was I thought for me. the most substantive part of this where. I can actually connect the dot to. followup to cause and effect. I don't. want to overstate it, >> but it certainly became there was a sort. of connection to what was said, what was.
done in between and what the president. signed mean Biden and President Xi a few. weeks later. uh hardly perfect. A lot of. enforcement questions, a lot of issues. as it relates to how they even enforce. uh some of those sort of you know. non-governmental actors and other bad. actors within their companies or country. as well as more sort of directly. connected actors that may or may not be. participating directly. What was your. impression of she?
Um, you know, was. you just when you see images on TV all. your like you see I mean I was in the. exact same place that everybody you see. those photos with all these folks and. these rooms are just outsiz and absurd. like an old Stalin type building or. London building. I mean it's like these. are just gigantic hallways you know with. the bands you know their thing red. carpet and it's like a 50 yard walk all. in all designed for power showcase.
intimidation. >> these grand rooms two giant seats um and. then people sitting on the side. everybody very stoic and serious um. everything's very formal and and I just. decided pattern interrupt came in smiled. told me not to smile. I'm like, "This is. not who I am, shook his hand, walked in, smiled, picture, and then I start talking right. We sit down, which was not the. protocol." And I just said, "I'm just,
you know, I've really had, you know, just was being human." And it broke a. little bit of ice. I don't want to look. I don't want to over I don't want to be. polyish about it, but you know, that. meeting went a lot longer than anyone. anticipated it going. was followed up. with subsequent meeting because we met. with the president again when he landed. in California and it's just it's about. it's about relationships man just at the. end of the day I mean and by the way I. compliment President Trump he talks. compl in complimentary terms about. President Xi I have a great relationship.
with the president we completely. disagree I'm going to tariff him on this. tariff him on that 145% 50% 25 we're. going to and I think you can have that. but you also have to have a foundational. relationship ship of trust and um and. and so that's the approach I take as it. relates to meeting with BB meeting with. any foreign leader um people we agree. with people they disagree with I I look. I think I admired what and now I'm. getting a lot of trouble with my party. even what Trump tried to do with Kim Jan. I mean love letters aside oh that's you.
know that just awkwardness. the fact that he was willing to try. continue to do what you done you'll get. what you got. >> and uh you know I I I don't begrudge. that kind of diplomacy. I didn't like how Trump and Putin. handled each other in that first press. conference where he basically took side. of his intelligence over the United. States intelligence. And I've never. understood the relationship between. Trump and Putin. And it raises as many. questions as the Epstein files does. And.
forgive me and I'm not s not suggesting. anything there except to say I don't. understand it. It's very curious to me. and I'm glad he's finally getting a. little tougher on the guy. uh what more. evidence do you need uh than what he's. doing in Ukraine right now? But um but I. I I think you know any new approach to. foreign policy is a good approach. because um you know we we've got we got. a lot of messes out there. >> Did you find them to be genuine? >> These guys are they're they're another. level of sort of tacticians. There's a.
precision. >> That's what I was going to ask if you. said yes. I was going to ask if you. thought it was it would. >> No. I mean, look, I I'm not George W. saying, you know, I saw into his soul or. something. You know, Putin, I mean, he's. [ __ ] KGB. Okay, come on. These guys. are these are I don't want to say. trained assassins in case of Putin, perhaps, literally. Uh. uh but uh yeah, I'm not naive, man. But. there's a precision. Everything is. there's an organized construct and it's.
it's top down. and every single meeting had a cadence. for eight days. It was all connected to. the final meeting talking points. everything. >> interesting. I mean these guys it's a. just a different discipline and that's. why you cannot underestimate. the power uh of their intentionality. and the seriousness to which we must win.
the AI race and the quantum race and we. must win the race for talent uh and. create conditions where we are the. essential player and that is a national. security issue as much as an economic. imperative. >> Do you think we're doing that? >> Not right now. >> You don't? >> I think we're vandalizing relationships, alliances. I think we're material approach to. everything. I think it's completely it's. not just unorthodox, which I appreciate.
I there's a strategy um and and you. know, uncertainty. Um but it's to me. it's uh it's it's impulse. I mean, I I. don't know. I think I think there are. I've been interviewing a lot of tech. people from your state, a lot of. innovators, uh, fascinating just genius. human beings. And you know, the one. thing that they are all excited about. about the Trump administration is. getting rid of some of the bureaucracy. so that people can innovate and not have.
to navigate so much around all the red. tape. And so it's. >> I appreciate that. >> It's nice to I appreciate that. It's. nice to see that and I think it's it's. motivating the next generation to become. innovators and it's it's it's it's I. think we're getting new new and and some. of the best innovators in the world. because of the motivation you know that. Musk is is is I mean he's revolutionized. it and and all these guys look up to him. and they all model their businesses.
after how he's modeled his and then. they're jumping in on you know to. his mission to Mars and Yeah. >> And uh it's it's fascinating. But yeah, the one thing that they all say is that. the Trump administration is getting rid. of a lot of the red tape to enable them. to become the innovators that they need. to be. I I I appreciate on one level. On. another level, that's come at a huge. price. What's that? The law of Don. If. you cross him, he'll cross you off the.
tariff exemption. Do his bidding. as long as you're doing his bidding, we'll let you play. I mean, that's just. that that's that changes the game. That's not free enterprise. That's a different system. And that's. what I'm very concerned about because. Tim Cook can make a call to Trump. He. gets exempted on the iPhones, but none of these small businesses in. South Carolina that I was with are. exempted because they can't make that. call. I don't know if that's good for an.
econom for sort of an entrepreneurial. ecosystem. >> Uh I think that's folks that could pay. to play. I think that's uh I think on. the tariff the exemptions are people. that you know make contributions. or contribute to the larger cause. literally or figuratively. I worry about. that. seen all my friends and half of. them were my friends, not half. threearters of the folks that were. standing there during the inaugural my. friends. Known them forever, decades.
>> Mhm. >> I'm pretty sure I know who you're. talking about. >> It was, you know, uh and uh they were. there. I mean, look, and no one's naive. Everyone's in a sort of transactional. mode at that level and you have to be. regardless of the administration. That. was something totally different, man. >> Mhm. >> That this is this is cronyism, not. capitalism. I'm worried about it. >> Yeah. You know, it's interesting is, you. know, I never meant to dive into. politics, but it, you know, I I watch. what a lot of these big guys do and they. they [ __ ] play it smart. They donate.
to both parties and then when they find. out who's got the majority lead, they. they that's when the big donation comes. and it's, you know, and and I didn't. realize that, you know, until actually. until this election cycle. I didn't. realize that. >> that's how the game. >> the game, you know, that's money and. politics, man. We don't even get to that. unless we publicly find it. To me, it's. explains more things in more ways on. more days about everything that's. goddamn wrong in this country. And now. it's just obscene. It's [ __ ] obscene. Elon, God bless him, could write a 300. goddamn million dollar check, start his.
own party now and can spend billions if. he wants. Limitlessness. >> Um, it's it's gross. >> What do you think about him starting his. own party? >> I think it's going nowhere. >> You think it's going nowhere? >> Because I don't think he's going to have. the Come on. You you think he's going to. take the time and energy to build a. grassroots movement over the course of. the next year, 2, 10, 20 years? That's. what will be required of it. >> I don't know, man. I mean, the guy's. built.
>> I know. >> He's impressive. He's an very. impressive, >> like I said, man. I mean, I I I I have. one of the first Teslas, literally the. first numbered Tesla, the first three. that came out. I was with Elon. And I. had an old TV show on current TV. Uh. don't even look it up. Elon and I. driving into the studio together uh with. the first Model S. Uh and we were. showing it off on the show. Um got the. one of the first Roadsters. I I've been. his biggest advocate and fan and. supporter for decades and decades. Um.
he's a different guy, man. Something's. changed. >> Why do something's changed? and and as a. consequence, I don't know that he is as. committed as it may appear to this cause. in particular, the third party. That's. my humble opinion. >> Interesting. I mean, why why would you So, you're. against a third party? >> I I'm all for it. I just don't think. Elon. >> You just don't think he'll. >> I just don't I think if his stated. intention is to pick off a few senators. and a few members of the House so he can.
leverage. >> party, that's one thing. That's not a. new party. That's just picking up a few. seats in a divided Congress. That's. interesting. That gives him outsized. power and influence. If it's about. building a grassroots party, we've seen. this from Ross Perau. We've seen this. with no labels. We've seen this in the. past. It just takes a lot of reps, man. That's bottom up. That's years and years. of organizing. That's not top down. You. don't buy that. You build that. That's. creating a movement. And that means you.
have to be on a mission. And it's as as. tough as it is to be on a mission to. Mars, man, the mission here on planet. Earth, building a new party with the. sort of duopoly of these two parties. >> I mean, you saw what happened here, you. know, when he was probably sitting right. here, RFK, uh, as it relates to just. trying to compete in the lane of our. party, uh, for a nomination. Uh, and how. difficult that was objectively for him. Um, these guys, you know, neither party. screws around in that respect. I mean, Trump completely I mean that that's a. different but he's a unique unique I.
mean this was he was sort of an invasive. species and took over the Republican. party. It's no longer it's a vestage of. itself. It's MAGA now. Um that was. unique. Uh but I don't see how Elon. ultimately will really break through. over the long period. I just think he's. too much going on, man. I mean it's he's. competing with some of the best and the. brightest for the best and the brightest. in AI. I mean in in many respects I. think they see this these guys as. competitors as zero sum the winners and.
losers in that space. That alone is. going to consume you. He's now merged X. with that organization fired the CEO or. she resigned of X. He's got SpaceX. He. wants to take public. >> which is an extraordinary company. Proud. of the support uh that he has provided. the people of our state and this. country. not just in terms of the. technology, but the resources and. investments he's made, the jobs, and of. course, he's got Tesla, which is on life. support, man. It's on life support. The.
brand has been destroyed. Now, both. parties can't stand it. >> And I just don't know how you then build. a party with all of that. That's devoid. of your personality. It becomes the Musk. party, not a third party. That's. difficult. >> Yeah. You know, I don't I don't know. I'd love to I I just think that the left. has gone so far left and the right has. gone so far right. It's it's you know. for the people that are kind of in the. middle or you know at least close to the. middle like like myself I mean it's just.
there's a large number of people that. don't feel like they're represented. properly. >> Totally agree and it's it's. >> no look I you know Ross Perau was a. phenom. I mean, thank you, Bill. Bill Clinton's. happiest person in the country to talk. about hero. and and and the consequences that I. mean, so it shows that lane. >> Mhm. >> You know, no question about that. And. and look, I mean, then all these. elections come down at least from a. national prism. It's, you know, it's. about those swing voters and swing.
states. It's about independence or at. least independently minded Democrats or. Republicans, if not literal. independents. And so I I I do agree. So. I get the I get the desire for that. I. just think building an actual the. apparatus of a new party just the. difficulty of getting on the ballots in. each state to build that party. >> It's an exercise of commitment, not. interest. >> Mhm. >> And I think within that is the. distinction success and failure. Interest versus commitment. I'm I'm.
doubtful he's that committed to it. I. think he's more interested in it. And. that's my sense. I may be wrong, but I. completely understand the common sense. you're bringing to it, which is a desire. to see something like that succeed so. it's more representative of all of us. and could pull the parties back into a. position of of some sort of commonwealth. or more community. >> Mhm. You got a you got a lot of [ __ ]. when G came to California. >> Yeah. And you know, the big narrative.
was and I tend to believe it is, you. know, we hear a lot about San Francisco. and the homelessness and. pooping on the road and all that kind of. stuff and and and it seemed like. all of that was cleaned up when she came. to town. >> Yeah. >> Is that true? >> Complete [ __ ]. >> That's complete [ __ ] uh the city, which by the way I'm no longer mayor, um. was organizing for dozens and dozens of.
foreign leaders, not just she, >> okay, >> to arrive for APEC. And the city over. the course of last year had finally. started to step up its game to address. what's happening on the streets and. sidewalks. And there was no question. when you have a major international. conference. that there was investments made to. prepare the city as any convention and. any city would. And so there was. certainly a lot of aggressive intention.
for weeks and weeks in preparation of. this major international. >> conference in San Francisco. So the city. led that effort. The state always. supports the efforts as we're doing for. the World Cup, as we're doing for the. Olympics, as we do for large. conventions, as we do for other. delegations that come in. But APEC uh. had dozens and dozens of leaders over. the course of an extended week, many in. the front end, many in the back end. But.
this notion, oh, it's just the Chinese. president coming in. And Nuome somehow. is the dictator magically has cleaned up. San Francisco, but he didn't care about. his own citizens was not even laughable. It was so absurd. Uh it's difficult to. even respond, but I saw that weaponized. particularly on with my friends on Fox. >> Mhm. What Why wouldn't the city want to. just clean it up for the for it. citizens? >> Well, they they were they were finally. getting their act together. And no. bigger critic of that than me. I was. coming down hard on the city. I mean,
I've I've been I mean, I've I've been. threatening to sue cities. I sued un. sued a number of cities in California on. housing issues, and homeless issues. I've been very aggressive. I've rejected. money. We're holding these guys more. accountable. But remember, I I run a. state larger than 21 state populations. combined. Hundreds and hundreds of. cities, independently elected boards of. supervisors, city councils, city. administrators, and mayors. And and so. as much as I would like to run every. city and dominate every block in terms. of my desire to see these tents and.
encampments cleaned up, I have to create. the conditions where we can leverage. state support and sanction better. behavior. And we're finally seeing some. real progress in that space. I'll just. give you a proof point. I mean, San. Francisco, I love everybody running. about crime, but you know, Speaker. Johnson's district has six times the. murder rate as Nancy Pelosy's district. doesn't really. >> Yeah. Well, I mean, why the hell is that. not on Night News every goddamn day? I. mean, you you you parts of Florida.
substantially higher homeless uh than. than parts of California. Like, California's homeless growth last year. was of unsheltered homeless was 0.45. It was it was close to 9% in Florida. I. mean, almost 10x. Well, I have that California has the. highest homeless population in the. country. >> since n since about 2000 2004. For 20. plus years, it's been the case. We had. the highest homeless count, 188,000. Uh.
in 2004, when I was mayor, Schwarzenegger was uh was was governor. And um we have the highest housing. costs. It's the original sin is housing. The supply demand imbalance. Econ 101. It's why we just passed the most. significant housing reforms in our. state's history just a few weeks ago. And I actually locked the budget. I said. there'll be no budget unless these. housing bills get passed. They wouldn't. have passed otherwise. And it was a huge. breakthrough on the regulatory side of. housing in California. What we call.
squa. It's been the issue that has. defined more of the problems in our. state than any other. And. >> how do you solve that? >> Well, we we're doing it with nimism has. been the number one problem. >> What is not? I don't know what this is. >> People not in my backyard. I'm good. Love my views. Love my backyard. Love my. community. Why are you building that. affordable housing down the block? Why. you doing two stories? Should just be. one story. Why you doing four stories? Should just be two. Well, that's going. to be more traffic. No, no, no. More. parking. Not in my backyard. Nimism. And.
we're shifting now to a Yimi mindset. Yes, in my backyard. in order to address. the supply and demand imbalance, the. abuse litigation, um lawfare, it's been our biggest damn. problem. People using SQA, which is. signed by Ronald Dan Reagan, uh which is. our environmental rules, and just. holding up projects for years and years. and years and years. And that has. significantly slowed down housing. construction in our state. And that's.
why you see these prices that continue. to go through the roof in California. By. the way, on the other side, you see. places like Austin where prices are. collapsing because they have an. overabundance of supply and that supply. demand as an a completely different set. of problems because there the regulatory. market's so permissive there uh that. they can tend to over supply during. times of growth. And so we're trying to. right size that and and I've signed 42. seeker reform bills. I've been playing.
in the margins, chipping away, pounding, pounding, pounding. And we finally, this. was sort of the holy grail. This was. what we were after all these years. The. politics never worked. This was a year. with an abundance agenda mindset. We. went, we delivered it. And I think it. will be the most significant thing. It's. happened in housing in decades. >> Yeah. You know, I found that I al it's. another thing I found interesting is, you know, we hear all this complaining. about how the palace age how the the the. reconstruction is has been held back. quite a bit and of course everything.
everything gets blamed on you, but that. was a policy that was put in by Ronald. Reagan. Correct. That you're actually. trying to undo. >> Yeah. SA I I I I reformed I literally. did an executive order suspending SQA. and suspending the Coastal Act. Neither. coastal act coastal act is I mean this. is where President Trump and I had some. interesting conversations because he. seems to know more much more about the. coastal commission than uh than than. many members of the damn coastal. commission themselves uh because of some.
experience he's had as a developer uh. working in California. But any developer. or anybody doing housing or any kind of. projects along the coast or even. proximate to the coast have to go. through another layer of bureaucracy. with our coastal commission. said, "By. the way, Elon and I, who've been going. at it, this is the one area we agreed, he sued the Coastal Commission on some. of SpaceX flights." And I said, I said, "I join him in that loss." I said, "I'm. all in suing our own state coastal. commission." Um, he was right to do.
that, and I hope he's successful because. what the commission did was wrong. and. they played politics with him uh on some. permitting issues that impacted uh space. launches out of California. disproportionately impacting SpaceX. It's a way of saying this. We got a lot. of clay layer men and we sort of stacked. up, you know, it's like, you know, coral. reefs over years and years and years and. we've just got to sort of break through. those regulatory thickets and Democrats.
need to own that space. I need to own it. and I've been I've been pounding on it. homelessness, housing, did the biggest. mental health bond in American history. Just got it passed. One year, got $3.3. billion out the door. Unprecedented. Changing all of our rules in order to. site 20 plus thousand new units of. mental health housing in California to. rebuild a broken mental health system. 1. billion for our veterans. We just got. that passed. But with it were all the. regulatory reforms. So the mindset is.
not just about spending money. The. mindset's now about performance. Highspeed rail in California, man. Goes. back three administrations. Everyone. thinks Newsome's high speed. Everything's new. I I get that. Um but I. carried the baton. We just did seek. reforms on highspeed rail two weeks ago. Finally moving in a different direction. We're finally laying track. Texas completely failed in their. highspeed rail system. They started. theirs one year after ours. It was 4x. over budget. They didn't lay one inch of. track. They couldn't procure any of the.
sites under eminent domain. Biggest delay for us was taking these. sites, 2,270. parcels. That way we to bring in. litigation. SQA delay. That's been the. challenge of our high speed realm. Now. we're on the other side of it. Of. course, Trump wants to kill it as we're. just starting to lay track. We built 50. structures already. >> How how many how much is it? I mean, where I'm going with this is I heard I I. can't remember who I interviewed, somebody in the tech space. They were.
talking about how much the highspeed. rail in California hit costs versus Elon. SpaceX program, which puts can put a. rocket into space every day. >> Yeah. Well, um 13.4 billion is the. answer. >> 13.4 billion. >> Well, 134.4 billion um for uh what will. be the nation's only highspeed rail. D. Santis is just wrong when he says he's. got the Bright Line as highspeed rail. It's it's a medium speed rail. It's not. by even international definition a.
highspeed rail. Uh and we've done 50. large structures size of three Golden. Gate bridges. Uh we have procured those. 2270 parcels. We're going to do the. first phase which is 119 miles. We're. doing in the fastest growing part of. California, Central Valley, disproportionately Trump voters, rural. part of our state to connect that part. of the state eventually to the rest of. the part of state, Silicon Valley, is. central valley and then the central. valley down to Los Angeles phase 119.
miles and that first phase of track. after all these other structures have. been done finally will start being laid. So, we're finally on the other side of. decades of lawfare litigation delay. And. again, I contrast that by what Texas. didn't do. If Texas is the great example. of knowhow, they didn't deliver on their highspeed. rail. They just abandoned it. Trump just. cut some federal funds from them that. got no attention.
Just like the murder rates in these. other red states that get no attention. seems to be the only attention on. housing, homelessness, crime problems, any issues, critiques, California. California. >> Mhm. >> derangement syndrome I argue. Is there I. mean with the homelessness problem I. mean it's so it sounds like you're. building affordable housing for them. I. mean is there. I feel bad for homeless people. I also. think that they need to be incentivized.
to get back to work. >> Yeah, >> that's where I think some of the. immigration stuff comes into play where. people are like, well, you know, we have. all these junkies and homeless people. and all this stuff that they don't want. to be they don't want to go back to work. because, you know, because. welfare, free housing, stuff like that. I mean, how do you incentivize the. homeless to to get a job, >> become productive in society, and get. back to work? >> So, let me give me I'll give you I won't.
even virtue signal by broadly describing. a response, but I'll tell you exactly. what I did as mayor of San Francisco, which saw a 33% decline in street. homelessness when I was mayor. Produced. real results. We initiated a program. called Care, Not Cash. We were providing. up to $400, 330, up to $400 of cash. every single month for county welfare. recipients. I converted the cash to. housing and guaranteed services. We saw. a significant decline in the case load. because people didn't want to access the.
services. They wanted to access the. cash. Every two weeks at the Kday. lenders, we saw a huge number of. overdoses. On the 1st and 15th of every. month, emergency rooms were overwhelmed. We were literally killing people by. handing out that cash. I was I mean this. is mayor of San Francisco. I did a. panhandling ordinance, anti- paneling or. aggressive pan handling around ATMs and. median strips. I did time manner and. place restrictions called a sit lie. ordinance that I got passed by the. voters when I was mayor. We were very.
aggressive in the spirit of what you. just described. Uh, I've been very. aggressive, including as governor, filing an amikas brief for the Supreme. Court to overturn the grant's past. decision that was used to limit our. ability to clean up encampments, a. Democratic governor for California. supporting a conservative lawsuit to a. conservative United States Supreme. Court, and we were successful in that. So now there's no excuse for cities to.
address encampment. But instead of just. playing whack-a-ole and throwing people. into another county, we do encampment. resolution grants, which means you have. to address the underlying issue in the. first place, provide the support and. services, then you move in to clean the. encampments. 100 plus million dollars uh. we put out in the last couple months in. that space, 700 million in the last. couple years in that space. We're. flooding the zone with a new court.
called Care Court, which allows for. people that have behavioral health. issues, that are self-medicating with. drug or alcohol addictions, people with. bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, paranoia, people that can't help. themselves, that need to be conserved, but want to do so in a way that still. protects their civil liberties. We. created a whole new system called Care. Court. Worked on this for three years. Over 2,000 people have already. participated in that. the mental health. service act reforms that we're doing. next level man and those go into effect. next July will be over a billion dollars.
every single year to address not just. homelessness in the context of. addressing one part of it which may be. someone's drug addiction or housing. insecurity but whole what we call whole. person care and integrating substance. abuse meaning alcohol drug addiction. mental health and housing together and. flooding the zone with annual. appropriations of a billion dollars a. here. So, counties have predictable. money plus the $6.38 billion in that. housing bond that I talked about that.
has zoning reforms that allow them to. actually site the housing. I'm doing everything I damn can, man. And I'm going in personally, you can I. mean, if anyone can look this up, just. Google me cleaning up damn encampments. all over, not just in San Francisco when. President Xi comes into town. for. literally years and years and years in. every city of San Francisco of my state. or many cities cleaning up encampments. when no one was coming into town in the. spirit of what you say for our citizens.
Um I've been grinding on this man. When. I came in there was no homeless. strategy, no homeless plan. Not a dollar. was invested by the state. When I was. mayor I never looked to Schwarzenegger. to solve the homeless problem in San. Francisco. No one criticized. Schwarzenegger. Sean Hannity wasn't. criticizing him every single damn night. Apparently the homeless problem became. my all Newsome's homeless problem. I. agree it is my responsibility and that's. why we provided unprecedented support. homeless strategy homeless plan hitting.
on all s uh cylinders and it's. accountability responsibility. It's not. just handouts. I want to see reforms. I. want to see these mayors do their job. state visions realize locally. I'm not. abdicating responsibility. I'm taking. it. And I agree with everyone that. criticizes every time they come into. this my state and they see these. encampments. They're right to criticize. that. Goddamn right. As they should be. criticized in Jacksonville, Florida, as. they should be outraged at what's.
happening in Austin, Texas, as they. were. I was driving through Nashville. last night and there were some parts of. town I'm like, "This is not unique. >> by any stretch. You had an 18.13%. increase in homelessness last year. In. California, it was just a few% three. 18.13%. Unsheltered.45. 9% in places like Florida. So, California is finally stabilizing. And I. got in it was 50% growth in the prior. four years when I became governor. It. was like this. And now we're finally.
starting to stabilize. And it's not good. enough. People are right to be critical, but don't think for a second it's that. we're neglecting uh to try to address. this issue. So, we're trying to solve it. and we're trying to do it head on. >> When it comes to, you know, the mental. health crisis that's going on, not not. just in California, across the nation, you know, we had had a off- camerara. discussion about psychedelics. >> Yeah. >> And and you know, a lot of the benefits, I mean, I'm I'm one of them. Haven't. drank for three years. It's like a light. switch when I did I began in Mexico. And.
I mean, you know, Stanford did some. studies on traumatic brain injury and. how traumatic brain injuries are just I. mean, the black spots in people's brain. are just disappearing. uh from from the use of Ibeane and and. and doing a a medically, you know, supervised. journey with Ibagane. I mean, and and we. saw what about a month ago, Texas did a. big a big push to. >> to their credit.
>> Yeah. Are you going to. >> We're all in. Look, we it's it's how we. land this and what you said was very. significant. Talk about medically. supervised and it's it's it's in that. where the policy debate. >> is occurring and how we can there's look. I I did the cannabis reform I I. mentioned earlier. >> and a lot of folks you know still have. strong opinions whether or not it was a. good idea, bad idea. We believed in a. regulatory market. we still haven't.
killed the black market. Uh and tax. issues create a lot of raw feelings. People feel like our taxes are still too. high even though they're lower in most. states and that black market persists. and there's still issues uh that we need. to address. So there's a little more. caution now if we look at the. psychedelics and look at more of a. permissive attitude or creating a. regulatory framework where you could see. more recreational as opposed to. medically supervised uses. So if we can. land the plan on the medically. supervised man all in and the anidotal.
evidence that I mean the actual science. coming back is one thing but I I cannot. tell you how many people have come to me. like I mean when I was talking to you. earlier I was just fascinated all these. proof points out there. >> of just lives radically changing. I. mean, it will it will cure an opiate. condition in 12 hours. Done. Because it. replenishes the receptors in your brain. that cause the cravings and. >> Yeah. As opposed to being on methodon. your rest of your life, man. >> Yeah. And and you know, so I I I look,
I've been out on harm reduction for. years and years and years. Uh but but. look, there's this, you know, you're. always looking for the holy grail and. but I'll tell you this seems to be for a. lot of folks, particularly in the vet. community. It's amazing the emotional. stories folks have come to me, come in. my office, and I'm like, you don't even. need to do it anymore. You've convinced. me. It's just now landing the plane on. exactly what the language looks like. The downside for me is I have a lot of. entrepreneurial friends. that are eager to get in this space.
>> I'll bet you do. >> And that that's where I'm I'm like that. that's a lot of those my Valley friends. And I'm like, okay. So, I just I'm I'm. cautious because I can see capitalism. move this in a very different direction. >> than where we want to move it. So, I'm. hopeful we'll get something meaningful. done in this space. >> Let's move into college. What'd you go. to college for? >> Santa Clara. And you'd be shocked as a. political science major, man. Barely got.
through though. Again, I'm, you know, there was no road scholar. Uh you're not. talking to one here. uh back to my 960. SAT. My mom, she she disputed that. She. said, "I think I got 980." It's one of. the two. Uh but I think she may have. been wrong. When someone discovers it, it will hardly be a gotcha moment. So, I'd rather share it uh with folks. Um. so, just look, it wasn't like I can't. compete like others. I had to find my. own path, man. And one thing with.
dyslexia is you you tend to be and it's. interesting some of my closest friends. people I admire the most from afar. people I've always admired and never. even knew why I admired them all have. dyslexia in common just tend to be a. little more creative and I remember. opening my first business when I opened. it out of college and it you know I. named it Plump Jack which like different. it was branded it was designed. differently and you know I took a. different look at how the business other. businesses like it were run and I was. willing to take risk. I had a failure.
award in my business where I awarded the. person who [ __ ] up the most. I mean, it became a huge thing. Like it was. >> You were rewarded the person that if you. didn't Yeah. So we and we'd have an. annual failure award with the biggest. screw- up every month and we'd parade. them on the stage and say January's [ __ ]. up with Bobby and it happened. By the. way, no [ __ ] Just very brief story. Uh so I have a little hotel up in in in. Lake Tahoe Squa Valley. Now it's called. Palisades. Uh but the squab alley and it. was called the time still around and I.
had this crazy night clerk you know. these night clerks you know people that. come in 11:00 allegedly stay up till 4. in 5 in the morning till the new crew. comes in and it's an old inn built in. 1960s or 59 for the 1960s Olympics for. the delegates of this of the winter. Olympics in in [ __ ] Valley. So it's an. old motel. So just imagine old motel, no. air conditioning. So in the summer, got. to keep the doors open, the windows. open. We have all these ponds outside. the mosquito problems all the time. And. this guy at night was getting complaints.
about the mosquitoes. And he was, you. know, night guy like, I'll tell him in. the morning. So one day he says, "Okay, I'm going actually try to fix this." Uh. so he he goes down and uh and he gets a. bunch of catfish. He buys him himself, his own money, and dumps him in the. ponds where all the mosquitoes were. being hatched. And I get a call at 4 in. the [ __ ] morning, I'll never forget. it, from Ludo, this guy, like old. Serbian guy who was our engineer. Never.
godamn heard from the guy. I'm I'm in. the Bay Area. I'm I'm far away. He. lights me up on the phone. I'm like, "Jesus Christ." Ludo's like, "Hey, Gavin, this is a goddamn disaster." I. said, "What's the problem?" He goes, "I. mean, this I said, "The place burned. down. What the hell happened, Ludo, man?" He's like, "No, no. There's. goddamn fish tails everywhere. Uh. there's there's fins. There's there's. eyeballs everywhere." I said, "What the. hell are you talking about?" He goes, "That [ __ ] guy." And I can't even. remember the kid's name now. That son of. a [ __ ] bought catfish. I said, "Who?
What? What the hell are you talking. about?" We said, "The goddamn raccoons. They went in and they had a feeding. frenzy and went down the hallways and. they were throwing the [ __ ] fish. everywhere." And he and I'm like, and I. start laughing. He's like, "Why the [ __ ]. are you laughing?" I said, "This is. amazing." I said, "I got to give that. guy a raise.". He said he's, you know, cuz he wanted. to, it was an initiative, man. He wanted. to solve a [ __ ] problem. >> Mhm. >> That's all I want, man. I want. ownership. I hate victimization. So, one.
thing about Trump I don't like blaming. everybody else. Take some goddamn. responsibility, man. You're not a. victim. You You have agency. You can. shape the future. Decisions, not. conditions. So the fact this guy tried. something he got the f I can remember I. gave him 500 bucks and I then I I sent. that around to all the other businesses. and then I'm like this is a great idea. I'm going to create a failure award and. my sister she took over the businesses. after I got in politics and she called. it magical moments. She didn't like the. frame. >> Magical moment. >> But I like I mean for me, you got.
dyslexia, man. It's moving from failure. to failure with enthusiasm, right? I. mean, that's Churchill's old line. Miss. 100% of the shots, you know, take, you. know, Gretzky. I mean, this this notion. of iteration. And I think if there's. anything defines me in politics is I'm. willing to iterate, willing to try. things, see what works. Got an. entrepreneurial mindset, not. ideological, open argument, interested. in evidence. Seriously. And you know, if. you got a better idea, I'm all for it, man. Let's go. And I think that business. background having dyslexia where you.
you're you're used to failing, you got. to be resilient, you've got a creative. energy because you recognize you can't. do what other people do. So you got to. look at things from a different angle, do things a little differently. That's a. superpower, man. And the thing that. great gift for me was I mentioned. earlier wanting to say thank you to my. mom, which I never got a chance to do, but I did by writing a children's book. uh called Ben and Emma's Big Hit. And it. was just a composite of me, Ben, number.
17, which I was as a kid, lefty in um. Joe Wagner Field, little little book. Um. that's about Ben's struggle with. reading. Um and above the door, there's. the a number of the door and the the. teacher's room, which is the date of my. mom's passing. And it's a composite of of a teacher uh. which was my mom sort of working her way. through my dyslexia. And it was a. picture book I did because I was looking.
for picture books with my kids that can. describe what dyslexia was and there. wasn't one. And so I decided to do my. own. And it was a way of thanking my. mother and also acknowledging the grace. which other parents are out there trying. to educate their kids. with the gift of. dyslexia at the same time. And there's a. letter at the back that literally is a. letter to my mom. >> Wow. >> Which was sort of a low, you know, um, which, you know, you can get emotional. I, you know, if I ever read it again, I'. I'd get emotional about. So, it's all.
those all those parents out there. struggling. All those kids that are sort. of they think they're stupid. They're. not stupid, man. They just learn their. brains are wired differently. And it's a. goddamn gift if you can just work your. way through it. But it's, you know, it's. the reason I still have all these. different anxieties in life, you know, cuz you're still that kid. >> Mhm. >> And uh but you know, that's it's helped. the businesses grow, man. That's the. only I I'm not a there's nothing. naturally gifted. I mean, I restaurants. and have a few hotels in the past. We.
have four wineries now. Plum jacko debt. Uh the 13th vineyard, which is the 13th. bonded vineyard in Napa. And I'm proud. of that, man. I know people say, "Oh, he's a wine guy. Elitus." Well, you know. what? [ __ ] you. I started with nothing. Got 13 investors. Borrowed five grand. from my dad, 7,500 bucks each. Just. grinding, man. I was the delivery. person, was a marketing person, got. bought all the wines, just struggling. Year and a half in, I finally was able.
to hire a full-time employee. Got lucky. with a little restaurant. I was. grinding, working the wine stop. The. restaurant was doing all the bookkeeping. and accounting. I mean, don't tell me. about P&Ls. Well, tell me how stressed. it is to see a tax increase or a small. business regulation. Took me almost two. years to open the wine store because of. [ __ ] regulations, a mop sink that I. had to put in a wine store where there. was no there was a carpet. I'm like, what am I going to mop? San Francisco. tough place to do. But so I I I get all. that and um I have passion for.
entrepreneurs, man. People that put. everything on the line for risks and. take all the risks and um you know, and. that's why co I get it. People are. saying, "Fuck you. you shuttle. I get. it, man. Including all my businesses. I. get it. Those and that's why I just, you. know, working through all that, understanding all that. It's uh that's. fair game for objective review critique, but I have real passion in that space, man. And uh and we'll continue to always. be that. I mean, you can't be pro job.
and anti- business, but businesses also. can't thrive in a world that's failing. So, my whole mindset is growth and. inclusion. And that's why I'm proud, man. I did the. highest minimum wage in the country. And. I know people say, "Well, you know, but. you goddamn states out there. 725. Come on." I mean, twothirds of red. states, $725. I provided $25 in the healthcare, highest in the country. $20 in fast. food. I know people are pissed at that, but you know, twothirds of these fast. food workers are not teenagers anymore.
>> Mhm. >> They're moms, man. It's full-time jobs. And I was proud to give them that that. wage increase. And yeah, burger's a few. cents more. I'm, you know, I get it. But. businesses can't thrive in a world. that's failing. And right now, the. halves and have nots. Why I hate this. big beautiful [ __ ] bill. There's the. biggest transfer of wealth in our. lifetime. Three and a half trillion. dollars of debt stacked on my kids, your. kids, our grandkids. All foring tax cuts. for vast majority of my billionaire. friends that don't even give a [ __ ]. Last thing they need was a tax cut.
Corporations that have never done. goddamn better. Market's never doing. better. The hell is this? And you're. cutting a million of people off. Medicaid. 3.4 million are going to lose it in my. state. Nothing about it's a betrayal. I. was in South Carolina. There five rural. hospitals. They're on the brink. I mean. those in Trump country, Pickkins, Cal in. Pickkins County, one of the most. conservative counties in the country has. had 25 more protesters than I did people. in the in the room the other night. And.
I'm like, man, do you know what this guy. just did to you? Come on, man. Uh, so I just, you know, for fiscal. discipline, we balance budgets. These. guys don't know how. I don't know what. the hell happened to that. But, uh, I. don't know. I've I'm gone off. But. business mindset, bottom line, college, that was I just wanted to get out. >> Mhm. >> Started right out. I was a delivery boy. uh for ProLab Orthotics, living with my mom. She moved out of her. room. So, I can have her 15 Rico Way,
the Marina District. And she's like, "You got to do something more than. deliver orthotics for a podiatrist. It's. not why you got a four-year degree." And. I'm like, "Yeah, I don't know what I'm. going to do." And then she said, "Why. don't you get this real estate license. and you can make show homes?" I'm like, "All right, Anony's School for Real. Estate." I was like, "Fine, I'll do. that." Got that part-time. And then got. a weird job downtown 9-to-f5, the. Shornstein Company. I lasted like nine. months. And then the my boss Craig. Edwards said, "Bro, you're just you're.
not a nineto-five guy." And he inspired. me to open the wine store and he helped. me negotiate it. My boss to get me out. of there. Uh not cuz he wanted to fire. me, but he's like, "Don't become me. You're sitting there smoking five, you. know, jugs of [ __ ] Mr. Coffee every. day, seven cigarettes, packs of. cigarettes." He's like, "You don't want. to become me. Oh, you got to get the. hell out of here. You're an. entrepreneur." I was like, "Man, I. appreciate that." Kind of gave me. confidence. And. >> so you started a wine store. >> Started a wine store and then the.
restaurant opportunity came and it was. goddamn 15 years. Just a huge hit. Sold. all the wine at retail because I had a. retail wine store. I'm like why would he. mark it up? So it was the best wine list. in the city. Cheapest prices. People. were like this is amazing. Got three and. a half out of four stars. Sky Arnold. Rossman was my chef. And everyone. thought I was a goddamn boy wonder. genius. So much so that Willie Brown, the mayor, said, "I'm gonna point you to. the parking traffic commission because I. was bitching about doing business in San. Francisco." The mop sink and everything. >> You were pissed because it it was a. $27,000 mop sink and a carpet.
>> I want the city to pay me back, [ __ ] God damn it. Yeah. >> And so that's what got you into. >> I was pissed. Yeah. You I'm trying to create jobs and. you're telling me I have to put a mop. sink for a carpeted business. The hell. am I mopping? Well, they said it's a. under the restaurant cut. I said, "Change the code." And Willie was I was. in the news yelling and screaming about. him and he called me up said, "I'm going. to make you part of the problem." He. said, "I'm going to shut you up, Newsome." I said, "What are you.
talking?" He goes, "You're the now next. president of the parking and traffic. commission.". >> What the hell is parking and traffic? >> Exactly. He said, "Chair." I remember he. said, "Chair." I'm like, "What the. hell's a chair?" Like, "I can sit in. them." And uh it's actually worse. He. told me I was going to shut me up by. making part of the film commission. And. I'm like, man, that's awesome. Film. commission 26. Have a restaurant and a. wine store. I'm the man. And now I'm. going to be in the film commission. Life. is good. Get down to be sworn in. That. son of a [ __ ] goes around the room.
There's like 12 people being sworn in. And he goes, "No, this [ __ ]. tack it." You know, Willie Brown's a. legend. Old I mean the best of the best. Just back old school politician. And he. talks like this. And he like news out. there bitching him out doing business. And now back to I'm gonna make him I'm. gonna shut him up. And I'm like, "Yeah, I'm going on the film commission." He. goes, "He's the next chair of the. parking." I'm like, and I literally had. a news reporter, Kownfor News. Goes, "What's your vision on parking traffic?". I'm like, I still there's like a VHS. tape tape out there. You want a hit.
piece on me? It's not the French Laundry. or sitting there with my ex-wife uh for. the bizarre magazine piece. It is this. piece of me trying to explain my vision. for parking in traffic at 26 27. That. was how I got in politics. Wow. >> But business, you know, entrepreneurialism, man, that's it. That's the That's when. I'm done with this stuff. That's. >> how did you develop the business? >> Just grind, man. Reading books, struggling to read, but reading books.
But Anita Ruddock, buddy shop, learning. about Southwest and its history. Richard. Branson inspired the hell out of me, man. It's why I was inspired by Elon. I. was spending time with Sergey and Larry. Google was the early days. What a time. to be mayor. It was a county s I became. county supervisor after parking in. traffic and it was right when all these. guys that are now brand names Travis. came along with an app. I ran that taxi. task force to fill out taxis and this. [ __ ] comes along with an app and. disrupts the entire taxi industry with. Uber. I mean I remember doing Twitter.
day with Ev and Biz and there was like. and they were so excited that I did. Twitter day and I give them a little. proclamation. There was like 10. employees. I still have a little Twitter. shirt. >> Wow. >> Um and I was like I'm like how you gonna. monetize this? This thing gonna be a I. always was like you guys. So I was like. this Twitter stuff and you know Jeremy. all these guys and starts doing reviews. differently and then but it was Larry. and Sergey and I'm like and you know I. got to know them really well and and. that's how I met Elon and and what a.
time man just like the golden age. which. was like Florence and you know you. imagine in the 1500s and the Renaissance. you know the Bay Area San Francisco and. late 90s early 2000s all these guys were. starting to form and there was a sense. of optimism and limitlessness uh with. technology at the time with we didn't. see the downsides the peril we only saw. the promise and uh we didn't really know. what we now know particularly platforms. like Facebook and and so it's uh it was.
a hell of a time man and just fed to. entrepreneur. I think they attract they. were attracted to my entrepreneurial. energy as as a mayor that was the pro. business small mayor small small. business mayor and I was certainly. attracted to their entrepreneurialism. energy and uh you know proud man that's. California that's at our best it's our. country that's why you got to nourish. that man you cannot take that for. granted. >> almost appointed to the film commission. >> yeah I could have been somebody the the.
Um, I mean, the adult film industry was kind. of born in California, correct? >> I think it was until I think we passed. some condom law and it basically killed. it. >> and it pushed it to Florida. >> Yeah. >> Was that you? >> No. Everything else is me, so I might as. well. Jesus Christ. >> Did you push it? >> No, that was before my time, I think. Was it? I think it was. I recall it was. Yeah, that's that would not have been an. issue that I uh Yeah. Again, I'm blamed.
for everything else. Let me double. check. I don't think that was. I haven't been in governor for that. long, man. It's only been six and a half. years. Feels like a lifetime. I'm. everyone's favorite pinñata now. >> Would you have done it? >> Done what? >> Would you have made that rule the condom. rule to push? >> Oh, I don't know. It's interesting. I uh. I get why I was you know I thought it. was a little earlier with sort of HIV. and AIDS and some of the concerns in. that space and we were sort of had some.
sort of flare-ups in that respect. Um. from a public health perspect I don't. know I honestly it's interesting like of. all questions man in a million years I. didn't expect to hear you ask that. question. >> I didn't expect to ask it but. >> so I mean I'm not trying to to to. deflect I just I want to hear it be. interesting to hear the debate on that. again. I think I think I just I think. that I mean. >> I told you I have little ones. You have. kids. >> The [ __ ] is so accessible. >> It's everywhere and it's it's it's.
>> ruining kids' minds and and and now. we're there you can find anything you. want to find out there on the internet. as far as sexuality and and and. >> and people model that. They think that's. what relationships are about. Mhm. >> And for our young men, man, we got a. crisis of masculinity, crisis with young. men. It's a big goddamn issue. Suicide. rates, deaths of despair. I mean, in. every category, our men are are just. getting crushed. And I'll tell you, as. Democrat, we better own that space, man.
I mean, if this was happening in any. other group, we'd be yelling and. screaming about it. It's interesting. And I'll tell you, to Trump's credit, he. was able to use that in many ways. politically to his advantage. And I. worry and I mean that's why I had. Charlie Kirk on my first podcast and. guys in this space that you know are are. really to me fascinating, interesting, successful in terms of their capacity to. communicate and organize and address. these concerns and these grievances. Uh.
as a Democrat in our party, we need to. really dive deeper to that. But as you. suggest, the issue around pornography is. part of that issues around. relationships. uh the lack of relationships. In fact, most of these kids, many of them not. even having any relation, sexual. relations with other women. Um they're. not they're so socially awkward and and. and so it's a it's a it's a real issue. and again it's a tough issue to talk. about cuz you know it's not you know.
child care, health care issues, etc. But. it's about the mental health of a whole. generation and we're losing these young. boys. It's a to me my wife did a. documentary called The Mask You Living. on this years and years ago uh way ahead. of his time and um and and I I. appreciate Richard Reeves. A lot of. interesting folks are are on this topic. again doing some really good work. Uh. Scott Galloway has been phenomenal on. this. Um and uh it's something that I I.
think my party really needs to address. and and that's a component part of it. >> What would you like to see happen? Well, look, I think you can't be what. you can't see. And I think for you see. it with teachers. I mean, vast majority. of kindergarten teachers, elementary. school, middle school teachers are. women. I mean, these young boys don't. even attach themselves to there's those. relationships, the mentorships. Big. brothers, this connection um that. support, they don't have it. Um the the.
gaps begin there. I think you really. have to start there. In fact, I got a. big executive order I'm about to put out. in this space that talks about actually. recruiting more men to the teaching. profession uh that highlight just the. glaring gaps as it relates to mental. health, substance abuse, high school. dropouts, college attainment. It will be 2 to1 in. a few years women compared to men. This. is serious stuff. And how that crisis.
manifests politically to me is also just. fascinating. You saw those young men. shift to Trump. Multicultural. >> It's not about white boys is across the. spectrum moving finding some identity. with Trump that I think is interesting. I think Democrats are quick to dismiss. that at our peril. And and so I I've. been trying to mine this on our podcast. trying to understand it, but also. realize I got a day job. What a gift. that I can actually do something about. it. And so we're going to a couple weeks.
announce a series of of reforms in the. space and really challenge people and. particularly Democratic leaders in. California to start focusing on the. needs of our young men. >> Do you know what the number one searched. thing in porn is? >> God, don't tell me, man. >> Incest. >> [ __ ] that. >> Brother does sister, brother does. stepmom, brother does mom. And then I. mean it's ripping families apart. >> Sick. Absolutely. making and it's making. [ __ ] that should not be normal normal.
And now you're seeing all these. problems. I mean, you know, there's a. large population of rape that's it's. from a a sibling or a father. >> Yeah, man. I mean, that's, >> you know, and I think that derives. directly from [ __ ] that's accessible on. the internet to kids. >> Ubiquitous. I mean, you you can Google. White House. I mean, I remember my son, no no [ __ ] Literally, he uh. he came to me. It wasn't it was it was. our house phone. He goes, "Dad, look at. this." And he was literally googling.
something related to the White House and. got this porn site cuz he had spelled it. wrong. And he was kind of ashamed like, "Brother, it's totally cool." He said, "You have no idea what you're about to. experience." Uh and that was just a. couple years ago. And I'm like, and I. remember my wife, she just she went she. she I wish she was sitting in this seat. cuz she you guys would have a. conversation for hours on this damn. topic. It's a big deal. >> Mhm. >> It's a big damn deal. And so I look, I. just social media generally, you know,
don't mess with our kids. You know, I. passed some pretty aggressive child. privacy laws, nationleading stuff. And. these are my friends. They're suing us. Like I'm I'm like I call them I call the. CEOs. I'm like the founders. What the. hell are you guys doing? Well, we're. making pro. I said, you're not making. progress, man. You know, you're with. your own goddamn kids. [ __ ] What. you're allowing them to do and see the. abuse. So, every time you even pass. these laws, they they litigate. They. often get thrown out. But this is it's.
serious stuff. What? And it goes to our. politics, too, man. We're just these. algorithms. >> Mhm. >> You know, every time I flip through. something now, I'm just seeing more of. it. And you're nothing but a mirror of. your consistent thoughts. Whatever you. focus on, you find more of. So people. that hate California, hate San. Francisco, seems like the only feed they. got is reinforcing that. So they can't. believe they're not right. When I say. they're murder rates are high, they like. [ __ ] I'm telling you, look at my. feed. Look at my feed. That's how we're. so goddamn divided. >> Mhm. I mean, speaking of sexuality and and.
divisiveness, I mean, I think one of the. things, and I don't think I know one of. the things in the last administration. that really divided people was. gender affirming care, LGBTQ. I also know that, you know, I I think. that I read it's in my outline that, you. know, one of the one of your proudest. achievements is samesex marriage. >> Yeah. Well, proud because uh it's about. love. It's about humanity, about people, about people that been together 50 plus.
years. The, you know, faith, love, devotion, constancy, the manifestation. of what marriage is supposed to be. about. >> And so, yeah, I I um I married 4,036. couples in the what we call the winter. of love in 2004. I mean, and I was. completely just, you know, crushed by my. own party, outraged by what I'd done. So, I assure you this was not. politically correct or just something, oh, you're from San Francisco. It was. not supported back then. >> Um, and I thought it was the right thing.
to do and I'm proud of that because I. saw the human face of mothers. Um, yeah, I just how many people, you know, if you. look back at those images in in San. Francisco in 2004, there wasn't one. image anyone could exploit. It was. literally doctors and lawyers and. fighter pilots and [ __ ] vets and real. goddamn people. And they came from 46. states in six countries for one month. just to be seen with their kids, with. their parents. The emotion, the.
intensity was beautiful, man. But you just made a point that's. important and it's a point that I want. to acknowledge that's really I I think. significant and that is when you get to. the issues around sports trans issues. that's now no longer about celebrating. your rights. It's about denying other. people theirs. Marriage equality was about everyone's.
right. your marriage was not diminished. >> because a couple that had been together. 30 years got married and happened to be. the same sex, >> but your child may not have that same. opportunity to get on the podium. >> if a trans athlete is competing for that. limited spot. And two years ago, that. came to me in a very different way. I. looked at it and I'll be canon with you. I looked at that issue and I said, "Boy, they're just exploiting this. It's a. handful of people. What the hell is. this? it's being weaponized. It was sort.
of the newest CRT thing. I was like, "Oh. god, here we go." We went off CRT. Everyone even forgot about that. And now. it's all about transports or banning. books or whatever it might be. It was. just another cultural issue. I remember. Donald Trump was saying, "I have no. problem with samesex restroom or. restrooms for, you know, Caitlyn Jenner. or whatever, what, you know, he's he was. he had no issue with this years a few. years ago when he was even running for. president. And I I didn't really think. about it in that respect either. I. didn't have an issue. I remember the. governor, Republican governor Utah said. it beautifully. He said, 'N never so.
much attention been focused on so few. people. That was Republican governor. Utah said that. And so that was my. prison to see the world until two years. ago there was a state track championship. and we had trans athlete that was. successful. and. there was a video of the girl that lost. and she was devastated and that video. went around everywhere and it was very. emotional. It was very real and you felt.
for the girl that she's not she's not. going to get to those state finals and. the finals were a few weeks away. There. was a lot of energy around it like. people are like pissed understandably. and I remember calling my team in I said. you know is there a comp what can we do. here like this is legit and we actually. there was Olympic someone that advises. the international Olympic committee who. happens to I think live in California. and they came in to say well what's the. right stage for a woman man is pre-.
puberty etc they said it's incredibly. nuanced incredibly difficult and I. remember just amazingly frustrated by. it. And the worst thing is the two girls. instead of us being able to figure it. out, they both dropped out. The trans. athlete and the girl that lost, they. both didn't even play the files. I'm. like, man, that wasn't fair. I said that. to my team. I remember at the time. saying it to my team. Then I started. showing up all my kids soccer games, everyone else. Every parent coming up. said it's so unfair. Like, whoa. like. everywhere I went, progressively minded.
people, not bigots, that are champions. of trans policy like I am, but didn't. like the sports. It's like, come on, man. You got to do something. And and I. just sat there sort of quietly trying to. figure this out. And my feelings were. well known by my staff. And I did this. podcast with Charlie Kirk and Charlie. was the first one. It was my first. podcast on on my new show. And Charlie. showed up and unsurprisingly he brought. it up and he said, "Tell me that's not.
fair." I said, "It's not fair. You're. right." And I said, "It's also not fair. that these people feel scapegoed and all. they want to do is just goddamn. survive." I didn't say goddamn, but I. said something along those lines. Well, I blew up. People were pissed. My party. was pissed. LGBTQ caucus. You know, I'll. never forget that meeting with my. friends, furious with me because I don't. think it's fair. It's not. The challenge. in California, and it's all over the. news the last 48 hours, and I got it.
with protests in South Carolina, is. there's a law that was signed by the. last governor, 2013 or 14. That is the law in the state of. California. There were two efforts a few. months ago to change it after I said it. wasn't fair. They didn't get out of. committee. We have a constitution. The governor. doesn't get to decide to change the law. by fiat. It has to be done with the. consent of the legislature. They didn't. move forward. So now, of course, Trump.
is having time of his life. And I assure. you he is because we've had. conversations on this topic. So I know. exactly. He says, "You got abortion. I. got this. He told me that my mother's. grave, politics, politics. And now he's suing and threatening us. and they're just and it's, you know, I'm. the poster child. Um, but I do think we. have to address that issue and I do. think the legislature should address. that issue, but with grace, with. humanity,
with respect to someone different than. yourself. And you know, I get the kids. I get all. that. I mean, it's comp that's it's. deeply emotional and complicated. But I. wish people wouldn't weaponize it the. way they do and demean people the way I. the way some people do. But because you. oppose sports does not make you a bigot, doesn't make you homophobic. Um, and my party needs to stop. >> Mhm. >> saying that there are certain people.
that cannot stand the community and you. know, that's different. But the vast. majority of the folks I come into. contact that think it's unfair are good. human beings and I think uh we should. treat them accordingly and we got to own. up to that. So, I went on a journey on. this and I I'm firm that I just it's not. fair. And we had another example just a. few weeks ago in California just. reinforced it, you know, triple jump and. it just, you know, just not and I'm. trying to figure out we they they we.
came up with some compromise. It's not. me. Something called the CIF in. California, which is independent of the. governor. But they they came up with. what they thought was a compromise, which was allowing two medals, but that. kind of pissed every, you know, it's a. >> it it workedish. Uh but it's not the answer to this. And. so we we got to address it because I. really worry about LGBTQ rights getting. rolled back. Even marriage support for. marriage equality is declining now. And. I think this issue is really they've.
been very effective weaponizing it, very. effectively expressing their anger about. it. Not even weaponizing, but legitimate. anger, people that disagree. And it's. hurting the broader movement. And as a. guy who's been a champion for the. movement, um, I hope we wake up to that. I think this is it's a it's a much. bigger issue than I fully appreciated a. few years ago. >> It is a handful of people. Yes, >> but that doesn't change the fact.
>> that it's not fair. >> Whether you're juggling tasks or trying. to stay clearheaded throughout the day, Ketone IQ delivers clean brain fuel that. can help you think sharper longer and. smoother. No caffeine, no crash, no. overstimulation. Thanks to the folks at. HVMN for sending me their Ketone IQ. product to try. I really like taking. Ketone IQ before I work out. It's not an. energy drink, but it gives me a ton of. energy. I wish I had this when I was on.
active duty. When I take it, I have more. endurance, but without the crash. Ketone. IQ uses ketone dial for a fast acting. natural slow release effect with no. artificial sweeteners or fillers. It. helps support high focus tasks by. directly powering neurons and. stabilizing cognitive output. And it's. military tested. Originally developed to. support elite cognitive performance in. the field. HVMN has an amazing offer.
just for my listeners. Visit. ketone.com/srs. for 30% off your subscription order. Plus, receive a free gift with your. second shipment. Fun surprises like a. free six-pack, Ketone IQ merch, and. more. These statements and products have. not been evaluated by the FDA. These. products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or. condition. If you're like me, health and wellness.
is extremely important to you. But how. do you know who to trust when it comes. to the supplement industry? We have all. these companies. They pop up every other. day. They're all selling snake oil. How. do you know who to trust? Well, here's. the most important question. Who wants to take the biggest, most. massive [ __ ] of your entire life? Bubs. is a company I've used and trusted for a. long time. They make great products,
have rigorous quality standards, and. they are a longtime supporter of this. show, and. they have the recipe for the biggest. [ __ ]. of your entire life. I love their. collagen peptides. This isn't just any. collagen. It is a benchmark of trust and. performance. It's crafted with integrity and backed.
by NSF for sports certification, giving. you their assurance of its purity and. potency. Bub's collagen peptides help. support your joints, help enhance. recovery, and help revitalize your hair. and skin. And yes, it will help you stay. regular. Bubs was founded in honor of. Navy Seal Glenn Bub Dhy. And every. product supports veterans with 10% of. all profits going to help military men.
and women transition back into civilian. life. And now for the recipe for the. biggest and best [ __ ] of your entire. life. Bub's collagen peptides mixed with. Bubs apple cider vinegar gummies and you. have a recipe for success. every day. Bub's Collagen Peptides. Bubs apple cider vinegar gummies. Ready.
to upgrade your life? Visit. bubsnaturals.com today and use promo. code shan for 20% off your order. bubsnaturals.com/shan. >> I mean, do you think that in your. opinion that the the whole. LGBTQ. agenda went a little too far on this? I. mean, in in my opinion, it went way too. far. And you know, I'm a person I don't. give a [ __ ] You want to get married?
Fine. Cool. >> Were you I'm curious and just out of. curiosity in 20 years ago, did you did. you feel that way about samesex. marriage? >> I mean, 20 years ago, I was 22 and in. the SEL team, so I didn't really care, you know, wasn't wasn't wasn't really on. my radar. But yeah, there there was. there was definitely a time that I was. against it. But it's, you know, I've. always been kind of a person that's, you. know, you do you, I'll do me. I don't. need to see it. You don't need to like. push it on me, I guess. I don't I don't.
even care if I see it, you know? It. doesn't it doesn't [ __ ] bother me. Not none of it really bothers me. >> It's when it's it's it's like I'm forced. >> to It just gets pushed in my face all. the time. All the companies turn into. rainbow flags. You know, we saw the the. the party at the White House, you know, what it two years ago, maybe maybe it. was last year. I can't remember. >> And you know, we have people showing.
their boobs on trans people showing. their boobs on the White House lawn. And, you know, I'm like, well, this. >> that one, but I I I could appreciate if. that was the case. Yeah. >> And and then, you know, and and the. major thing with that I hear the most is. is the kids, you know, and and and I. don't know if California is one. I know. Washington's one where, you know, the. state can come in and basically take. your kid if you're against gender. affirming care. >> There's some It's a Yeah, there's some. there's some nuance language and and. yeah, around that there about 21 states,
by the way, just on the on the. California is hardly again, it's not the. only one. >> back to California, but about 20 other. states, 21 states that tend to operate. in this space similarly with sort of. variance of along the same rules. And. obviously California is one of them. But. no, look, I I I didn't even mean to cut. you off except to say. there's no doubt this issue I thought it. played an out a very significant and. outsized role in the last election. I.
thought that and by the way, I told. Chris that and Susie when I was at the. White House, Susie Wilds, the chief of. staff and Chris who ran uh the campaign. and a lot of the media when I was over. at the White House earlier this year, um. we we had a conversation around the. trans issue which was fascinating. I. wish that one was recorded and and then. met with the president right after who. was in the middle of a press conference. as we were talking on the topic and. began a 90-minute meeting I had with him. in the oval talking about this very. issue where he said what I just said.
about you got abortion and I like come. on man it's not politics this is there's. human beings here but I I get it I get. the politics but it's also about human. beings but. that ad that trans had, you know, he's. she comm them, Trump's for you or. something. That was powerful. >> Mhm. >> And um and it was an unforced.
error of the Harris campaign, not to. push back on it. Um but they had little. move they few moves to push back because. it was what it was. uh that gender. affirming care uh was afforded under a. lawsuit when she was AG and part of the. settlement uh compelled uh that uh that. the state had to move forward to allow. for it and it was a circumstance with an. undock. um person that was incarcerated that got. the gender affirming care. everything.
about it just met the political moment. and the fact that she defended it on a. video only reinforced the vulnerability. and uh and so they kept running the ad. over and over and over again it was. incredibly impactful and uh and as just. again removing the humanity right versus. wrong the morality in either side. politically it is a major problem for. the Democratic party. >> what about for your values I mean is is. 8 years old too young Yeah. I mean,
look, I I. now that I have a nine-year-old just. became nine. Come on, man. I get it. So, those are legit. You know, it's it's. interesting just the issue of age. I. haven't. It's as I and as someone that's. been so focused on on equality. broadly, LGBT rights, particularly gay. marriage, >> the trans issue for me is also novel.
It's it's it's over the last few years. I'm trying to understand as much as. anyone else whole pronoun thing trying. to understand all of that. Well, you. know, that was like the hell I mean all. that stuff. I I get it. this all this. stuff started to collapse on us. I joked. with Charlie about Latin X. You know, I. remember walking into my staff. I used I. started using the word Latin X a few. times and then my chief of staff, who. happens to be Hispanic, goes, "Would you. shut up?" I'm like, "What?" She goes, "Who uses that word?" I said, "I don't.
know." She said, "My whole staff said, "Do not ever use that word again." I'm. like, "What's going on?" I was like, "Okay." And they literally sit I'll. never forget. I was like, "Whoa." we. were on this sort of Zoom conversation. and she I mean literally my Hispanic. team staff like shut up and so I'm like. we were all kind of like I never I mean. those meetings where my pronouns and. everyone goes across this all this was. sort of I think post George Floyd. postcoid we kind of came out and there. was obviously this rights movement post.
George Floyd which I you got to. understand I mean on the basis of what. occurred and all the social unrest and. there was a natural inclination then to. try to course correct but it was across. the spectrum of issues including. increasingly on the issues of how we. talk, communicate, how politically. correct and sensitive people started. becoming, use of language, pronouns, and. then issues around the trans community. and and uh and and this notion of gender. affirming care for children. That's. tough, man. and and the science on that.
I you know I've tried I haven't dove. that deep into it but you know I read. one report and then there's one that's. slightly contradictory and then they. said there's no contradictory here's. what the UK just came out with you're. full of [ __ ] it's absolutely. scientifically sound that it's. outrageous you know and so it's it's. intense and then I meet with families. literally meet with families saved my ch. child's life and they're thriving. I mean it's just I mean you can't serve. the country until you're 18, you can't.
buy a gun. You can't buy get alcohol. until you're 21. And I mean, to to make. that big of a decision as a as a kid, I. mean, you could also be destroying a lot. of lives as well. I mean, their brain. isn't even fully developed. >> You got Well, until 26 plus. Yeah. So, it's even further with the brain. Look, I I I come to this. very much I more openminded than I've. ever been. >> Mhm. more receptive because a lot of the. push back came from folks candidly that.
I didn't respect that never respected. the gay community period. >> Mhm. >> There are people who are opposed just. basic rights. >> that have been going after. So I, you. know, I think the natural inclination. was sort of dismiss. and now I recognize more fully and. deeply and I think the sports issue. really opened that door for me. the nuances in the space. That said, I. will take a backseat to no one in terms.
of anti-discrimination laws against the. community. >> I just don't. that's where I take a backseat to no. one. and I've signed some of the most. progressive legislation on that and I'm. proud of that. That that's who I am. Stand up for ideals and strike out. against injustice. And I think it's. injust to attack vulnerable communities. and discriminate against people. Um that. said, on the issue of children, this is. a tough tough issue. >> Do you think it's unjust to push.
Do you think it's unjust to push those. values on people that don't want that? Like where I'm going with this in. schools. >> Yeah. I don't know. I don't know who's pushing. I mean, I I. hear this all the time. Well, we're. people we're promoting. I mean, Donald. Trump says kids come school one day as a. boy and they come the next that. afternoon as a girl. I What the hell is. he talking about? >> Well, I mean, I'll tell you what he's I. don't know what he's talking about cuz. I'm not familiar with that conversation. or or when he said that. I mean, just. just here in Tennessee, for example, in.
I think it's Cookville, they had these. kids that showed up and they're called. Furbies or something and they're showing. up in school in a kennel, which, you. know, 10 years rolled back, you put your. kid in a kennel, you're going to [ __ ]. prison. Yeah. >> But, you know what I mean? And then. they're [ __ ] in a kitty litter box. And it's it's like. >> this is a little that's not a little too. far. This is too far. This is disrupting. the rest of the class. >> Yeah. I mean, that stuff like that's. absurd.
>> Come on. >> Mhm. >> And by the way, that's been so overhyped. and exploited. There's there's a few. instances of that, but and I've read. that I've seen that. I'm like, geez, you. think that stuff's happening every day. everywhere? Uh those are extreme. examples. And yeah, that's absurd. Couldn't agree more, man. Come on. Kennel, I mean, what cat litter? I turns. out most of that turns out most of it's. [ __ ] But if that occurred, that's. that's ridiculous. Like that's crazy. With perspect on Halloween,
>> that's what I think. I just I just. wanted to see. >> Oh, no. That's That's Come on. I mean, I. Yeah. I mean, that's stuff. I've seen. some of that stuff online. We tracked. some of that stuff down, even my own. state. And turns out a lot of that was. just [ __ ] And then it gets. weaponized, exploited, surround sound on. social media. And my friends Jesse. Waters and everyone at night running up. and down saying Democrats want to turn. their kids into furries. And now we got. to do some accommodations and. anti-discrimination uh for kids that. need cat litter in their cools. I mean, come on. They're red lines. That's one of them.
>> All right. >> God bless. >> Thank you. Thank you. I needed to hear. that. >> I needed to. uh I get caught in the surround sound. >> No, I and uh and and on the sports, we're going to have to figure that out, man. I just wish there was a space to do. it that's not this space. And in this space, you know, it's like. state of California to do a counter suit. against Trump on this cuz it's state law.
um on the issue of transports because. they're looking to defund the state with. congressionally appropriated dollars. over this, which is just it's political. theater. It's the weaponization of the. issue, but it's an issue I'd love to. resolve, but I need my legislature to. resolve it, >> and it can't just be done by an. executive order fiat. >> Uh, that's why we have a state. constitution longer than the US. Constitution. Um, and that's the.
conditions we're in in this country. right now, and Donald Trump's mastered. exploiting that. >> What do you think Trump's doing wrong. right now? Well, 5,000 damn military in the streets. of an American city. Sewing chaos, fear, and anxiety intentionally, purposely. ripping communities apart, taking kids, not even going to summer school now. because they're scared to death. Just. had the dasis down in San Bernardino say. you don't have to come to church. Not. even faith leaders now. Members of their. own congregations are scared to death to.
show up church. I mean, this is a ch the tariffs. I mean. this guy's there's a recklessness that. 50% on copper that's going to cost every. single person listening that just. happened pissed off cuz he has a guy. who's a buddy of his Bolsinaro in Brazil. I'll do 50% on that we have a trade. surplus with Brazil give me a goddamn. break theory of his case about onshoring. I mean it's just a it's a madness as an.
economic policy I get tariffs as a tool. but now they're just a political weapon. um so across the board. I think he's. he's been, you know, 90 deals in 90. days. There were two vague deals in 90. days. Keeps moving the goalpost. Um I. just I'm not impressed at all. We had. contraction in the economy in the first. quarter. His last quarter, last year, was 2.4% growth. Hell, the Biden. administration created 16.6 million. jobs. That's eight times more than the last.
three Republican administrations. combined. 1.9 million. You talk about jobs, by the way. You go. back to the end of the Cold War, I say. to Ronald Reagan's old office when he. was governor. The end of the Cold War in. 1989 until last year, there's been 52. million jobs created in America. 49. almost 50 million of them were created. under Democratic administrations. 96 plus% under Democratic. administration. The idea that we're. losing on the jobs issue is beyond me. And now we're seeing GDP contract. We're.
not seeing prices significantly decline. We've got significant reduction in trade. and port activity impacting my state. disproportionately. Got an immigration. policy that's going to impact workforce. and our global competitiveness with with. allies and trade policy. I mean, I'm not. impressed at all in this big beautiful. bill. I'm with Elon Musk on it. I think. he described it better than anybody. Mhm. I mean, I think that that the I. think the job numbers are a little bit.
botched. I mean, because also during. Biden's administration, you know, that. everybody went back to work after being. laid off and and fired for CO and so we. had as businesses reopened, that created. a lot of jobs and so that inflated the. numbers more than normal. >> Yeah. But we blew past the pre-andmic. numbers in 18 months and all the jobs. subsequent were net new jobs. I mean, we our GDP was the envy of the. world. We had the lowest uninsured rate.
in US history, the lowest black. unemployment in US history, lowest. unemployment for women in US history. I mean, we we an industrial policy with. the chips and science act that was about. bringing jobs back to the United States, disproportionately benefiting red. counties and red districts. I was in. South Carolina. the governor there last. year in the state of the state was. waxing on about the $2 billion. investment in South Carolina in an EV. company because of the IRA and uh and. the other investments the administration.
was making. I I uh I know people, you. know, the inflation scars were real. going from 9.1%. Uh but we were moving. in the right direction, basically stuck. right now. And you saw the Feds delaying. reducing in the Fed rate because of the. potential inflationary impacts in the. back end of these tariffs which haven't. been fully absorbed or felt. So I I've. just not been impressed and I was very. depressed about this big beautiful bill. which is apparently the big victory. And.
maybe the other victory was a sense of. strength that was expressed in the the. bombing in Iran. Uh I I I thought day. one we were going to solve Ukraine. Um. that ain't happening. the flip-flops on. the Patriot missiles and the defense. package to Ukraine. It's just a. masterclass in inconsistency andor. incompetency depending on perspective. Uh was that Pete who said no and now. Trump's saying yes dayto day. It just it. I'm not inspired. >> Well, Trump told me on my show when I. interviewed him that he would have that.
war wrapped up before he ever even took. office. >> That obviously did not happen. >> In politics, you're supposed to. underpromise and overd deliver. But so. you look at the promises made. I just. it's just an over. I just look I I'm the wrong guy to ask. when when I've got a city that feels. under siege in a state that he's just. trying to wreck. So how did that happen? Why do I mean we saw riots? I'm sure. they're probably overmbellished. uh you know in in LA you know when when.
>> understatement. >> with the ICE stuff that that happened. But I mean, come on, man. >> There are videos and lots of. >> Yeah, there were a bunch of [ __ ] on. that that ordered Whimos uh and they're. jumping up and down and there have been. hundreds and hundreds of arrests and. we're continuing to get the videos to. get subsequent arrests. There were. thousands of officers surrounding those. guys uh going to be moving in. Uh it. didn't need the National Guard to be. called in. The guy Trump trumpets the. National Guard coin and said, "We've.
solved forth." They hadn't even been. deployed. Come on. LAPD, mutual aid, 88 cities in. the county, mutual aid system, second to. none. One of the most. We have 616 LEAs, local law enforcement agencies in. California. There's few places more. robust. I've had a thousand CHP. I'm a. big champion. I was never one of those. defund police guys. Quite the contrary. I was the first mayor in San Francisco. history to meet minimum staffing of our. police officers. Point of pride in. intensity.
Have their back. We support these guys. They do an amazing job. CHP does an. amazing job supplementing and supporting. those efforts. You need the National. Guard. Those were our guys that were out. there uh yeah out there at every single. intersection uh during the fires. These. guys were exhausted and now they're. being told to mask up. I mean, they were. pul was no mask. I told you they're. getting selfies out there where they're. beloved in Santa Monica. Now, man, all. that reputational damage that's being. done as they're sitting there on horses. with American flags running through.
soccer fields scaring kids that are. playing soccer in the middle of the day. at a summer camp for what? Just. toughness. It's a weakness masquerading. as strength. That's what I don't like. about this son of a [ __ ] I don't. And. forgive me, I know he's the president of. United States. Forgive me, I didn't, you. know, I I Yeah, he calls me new scum. You know, come on. How do I explain that. to my kid now? Now he's got I have my. kids' friends calling my kids new scum. That I get cuz I was called that in. seventh grade but not by a 79year-old.
model better goddamn behavior man. Forgive the goddamn. Um. it's what I don't you ask what I don't. like about him. >> Is that resolved? It. >> it's it will be resolved when he look is. when it doesn't get any attention. then it will resolve itself. But what they're doing is testing the. boundaries. They knew we litigate. We. won at lower court, appellet court. We.
lost. We now are updating the. litigation. Uh we filed 27 plus lawsuits. against this guy. I didn't want to do. one. Honestly, I remember I did this. special session. I met him in the Oval. Office and I left the Oval Office right. at the end of the meeting with Trump. I. said, and we had a great conversation. No [ __ ] Great conversation. just. had a great conversation the night. before he put in the National Guard. Didn't give me any heads up. No heads up. >> No kidding. >> Not one [ __ ] word on the topic. He.
wanted We We talked about Eli. We talked. about everything but what was going on. in LA. He completely lied about that. conversation. Totally surprised me with. the National Guard. We were in contact. with his chief of staff, Susie Wilds, back and forth. Let's work this out. What do you need? I'm We've got. supplemental support. We had hundreds of. guys down there. We'll have hundreds. more. Obviously, we want to protect your. guys. Give me a break. Of course. Protect your folks. We don't interfere.
in federal law enforcement, federal. resources doing federal work. Never. have. That's not the state's role. Period. Full stop. Period. We're clear. about that. their responsibility to do. federal work. We will support. We're not. going to get in the way. You do that. I. just don't want you to co-op our guys. that are doing all kinds of other work. That's not their job. That's your job. And he decided to do this because. they're push they're testing it. They're. using this as a petri dish. They're. testing executive boundaries.
to see how far they can go across the. United States. >> Mhm. Now they're so resourced that. Donald Trump will have one of the. largest private armies in the world. >> Well, you know, that's that's what came. to my mind. And then, you know, I'm a. little torn on it. I mean, you know, all. I see I'm I'm I didn't go there. I. didn't see it for myself, but I mean on. social this the [ __ ] coming out on X. I. mean, it look [ __ ] horrible. Like. really dangerous. And so, but at the.
same time, I mean, when you do that, I. mean, there's I mean, we're skirting the. line of martial law here, you know, >> I'll get I'll get. >> probably get blasted for this by my. audience, but I mean, we're we're. treading a thin line here between. martial law and and states rights. >> and and it's something that I'm. concerned about because like you said, they're testing boundaries. How far is. this going to go? Where else are they. going to go? And and I I personally. think it's a real concern that that Let. me just tell you how absurd it got.
We had to protect the National Guard. >> Really, there surrounding the federal. building, which became the attractive. place to protest. >> Mhm. >> You're talking about a couple blocks, by. the way. >> I saw the map. >> Okay. In one of the largest counties in. one of the largest states in the world. Okay. Talk about a couple blocks. You. have thousands and thousands of police. surrounding the place. You could see in. the images you just see three blocks. you're like, "Oh my god, all of LA." I. was up there in helicopters. I was. driving around. I'm in the Reagan.
building, my office, literally a couple. blocks away. You don't even hear. anything. You don't even know what's. going on. And the National Guard are there, but. they can't engage. So, our guys are. arresting the protesters that are. protesting the guard. We're protecting. the guard. That's how absurd things got. >> [ __ ]. >> God is my witness. Literally. our CHP guys, these guys are a lot of. these guys are Trumpers, man. They love. this guy. >> All the law enforcement and they're. like, "What the [ __ ] is going on?" Like,
"Why? What is happening? All these. National Guard men and women, these. great kids." Like, I actually used to. work for that law enforcement agency. Now they got me doing this. Why the hell. I want to go back to work? Paramedics, firefighters. Trump took hundreds of. people off the lines, our rattlesnake. teams doing vegetation and forest. management to prepare for wildfire. season in his force. We were raking his. force. took hundreds of them off national. guard. I use the National Guard. I.
deploy them not just on the border and. doing counter narcotics, anti-fentyl. interdiction, but we use them to deal. with forest and vegetation management. with our conservation corps and others. Love these guys. Love these guys. told. you 2500 of them I deployed during the. fires. They were there before the fires. occurred in LA. I pre-eployed 110. engines pre-eployed. The National Guard. was part of the pre-eployment. All our. air assets brought them from Northern. California to Southern California. They. were part of that team integrated in.
Proud of these guys, man. And to see. these guys abused, hundreds of millions. of dollars wasted at Tax Brother. They're sitting there in armories and. then a few of them get to be paraded. around and they're like, "What the hell. are we being paraded? What are we doing. >> to run into a park when there wasn't one. damn arrest in MacArthur Park on the. sixth month anniversary of the fires. intentionally doing it the day of our. press conference just to rub it in. No. acknowledgement of the 40 30 people that. lost their lives in LA or his successful.
re recovery efforts. He's been our. partner. I complimented Donald Trump at. our press conference as he was sending. out our National Guard behind my back at. the same damn time. in this vulgar display of cruelty in. MacArthur Park. And I was saying thank. you to the US Army Corps. Thank you to. Lee Zelden in this historic debris. removal effort in six months. Unprecedented in US history, the fastest. debris removal ever. And this son of.
this this guy, president of United. States, decides not even acknowledge. that work that we partnered with him in, but sends these guys out to completely. terrify the community. So when does end, it's when he decides to end or we're. successful in court. And I'm going to. keep coming back hard. And you know, I'm. on the other side of this now. I I I as. I said, I had a great conversation with. them. We always do. I was out there in. the tarmac with him down there and. worked well with him during CO. Uh, back.
to if you're going to criticize. governors, you need to also criticize. the president on CO and um, and I want. to work with them, man. When it comes to. emergency preparedness and safety, I. was, you know, Hurricane Helen was why I. was in South Carolina. was talking about the recovery efforts. They're still not fully recovered. We. have to be there for each other. I want. to be there with the folks out there in. Texas, man. No politics. I can condition. aid. Greg Abage, get every goddamn. dollar you need. I mean, you're a.
13-year-old girl clutching the hands of. an 11year-old found dead down river, man. Oh, what age are my kids? >> Mhm. >> It's not politics. I don't care who's to blame right now, man. Find anyone that's alive. Let's. have that conversation. And if they need. aid, provide it. I send search and. rescue teams that Friday morning, sent. out, and said, "Whatever you need." I. was proud to support Speaker Johnson the. recovery in in the hurricanes in. Louisiana, but they want to condition in. California because they disagree with a.
water faucet or somewhere that he's made. up in water policy or saying I'm not. raking his forest. 57% of the forests in. California are federal. 3% are. California has spent $2 billion raking. all our forests. He's spending nothing. >> Interesting. I didn't know that. >> It's just a lot of crap. billions and. billions of dollars. We've 10xed our. investments in that space. 10xed it from. the day I got in the first executive. order I signed as governor of California. was around vegetation and forest.
management. Waved. squa again did an emergency order to. fasttrack these efforts. Unprecedented. investments in this space and he just. demagogues them. We have a big federal. fire on his land in CalFire. folks, the. ones that are the vast majority of the. incident command. And uh you know, he. just cut goddamn workforce at the US. Forest Service. >> Damn. So, I just look I just want a. little bit of you know, consistency, a. little less hypocrisy, a little less.
politics. Otherwise, he's fine to your. question. I mean, with those wildfires, you know, the the I did an interview on that with. Tim Sheihi, uh, senator out of Montana, and, you know, the the one one of the. things that the one thing that stuck. with me the most was him telling me. about houses that were burning down, that were next to next to ponds, next to. lakes, and that, you know, that the the.
Hilos that were carrying water, you. know, they fill up in lakes, dump it, >> could not dump, could not fill up their. tanks or their buckets or whatever the. hell they call them in those lakes. because of an endangered fish got in. Montana. >> No, this is in California. >> Oh, he's full of [ __ ]. >> He's full of [ __ ]. >> Full of [ __ ] Don't know what the hell. he's talking about. What crap? >> Just made up. That's so stupid. I can't. even believe he said that. I'm. embarrassed someone told him that. And. I'm sorry someone told him that and he.
had to repeat it. >> Well, Trump said it on Joe Rogan's. podcast. Yeah, he's Trump is it's it was. laughable. He said he sent water down. LA. He completely made it up. He was. trying to show me maps and convince me. at the Resolute desk uh in the Oval. Office. I started laughing. I said, "I. can't convince you." I said, "You. literally show you're making this up and. and I I don't know what else to tell. you." And then I finally said, "Okay, you win. You've solved for the problem. Uh you've made California abundant with. water again." I said, "Can we just stop. this nonsense?" It's like it's like when.
he said he had another conversation with. me. He never had. >> just made up. >> They were able to access those lakes and. ponds. And. >> I mean I got. dozens and dozens of these things and. they're rip they're pulling water and. running these figure8s, these goddamn. rock stars 247 using the assets that I. invested in as governor allowing us the. night drops 247. Yes. So are you do you think that they are. not. >> what [ __ ] do you think they're not.
by the way that that senator I'm sorry. senator boy that's embarrassing and I'm. sorry someone told you that and I guess. it was the president I would encourage. you to stress test what he says. >> Do you I mean when you're saying that. you're the one that's cleaning out the. federal forest and that's the federal. government's. >> hundreds and hundreds of millions of. dollars we've invested doing the work of. the federal government. 57% of the. states property is in federal hands. 3%. are in state hands. These fires, campfire, the most deadly in California, started in federal lands. And this guy.
comes in and talks about raking. And. he's serious about raking. He actually. believes in it's insane. It's like. actually, honestly, just think about. that. Raking the forest. >> If he's talking about forest and. vegetation management, he's talking. about defensible spaces. We have. significantly, I told you, 10xed the. investments in this space. I can't make. up for 100 years of Smokeoky the Bear in. suppression strategies that predate my. existence. But I can take responsibility. for historic investments in my state and.
moving heaven and earth and changing. rules and regulations that were slowing. that process down, including another. executive order I did a few months ago. on this topic. >> I mean, when he when he's talking about. raking the raking the forest, I mean, he's talking about getting the dead. debris. No, he's talking about raking. Sean, I'm just telling you, man. He c. after he said raking the forest. I was. down in the Woosey fire. I flew with him. in the Air Force One. Was with him in. the car. I was with him on Marine One.
Spent the day with him. Northern. California. Went to Southern California. He talked about, you know, Newsome needs. to rake the forest. And everyone kind of. laughed. He wasn't laughing. And he. called me. I'm not kidding. Couple days. later, I'll never forget. I was at my. house up in Pharaohs and presidents. I'm. like, "Hey." He goes, "Hey, do you. follow up on raking the forest?" He. says, "Oh, yes, sir, Mr. President. Um, we we're doing the vegetation forest. management." He goes, "No, raking the. forest." You got to call the president, I don't know, Finland or something. Can't even remember which. I said, "Well, I know." I I said, "No, we're.
definitely doing all the vegetation. matter." He said, "No, Raiki.". He when he says it, he's not kidding. I'm just telling you. Why aren't they. sending Why are they not sending federal. aid? >> Well, at least send some rakes. He hasn't even sent a damn rake. I may. make some hats, make America rake again. Sell some goddamn merchandise on my. podcast, not just yours. Thank you for. the gummies. >> You're welcome. There's red dye in.
those, by the way. >> Jesus. See, RFK Jr. and you. >> are saying it's going to be illegal, sir. >> Both of us. At least we agree on that, Bobby. Um uh so look I. when it comes to mercy preparedness and. management man just we got to get along. I mean we're the you billion-dollar. disasters I mean this bankrupt this. country and he wants to eliminate FEMA. He's you know he's certainly vandalized. Noah and the weather check. I don't know. if had any impact in in Texas. I don't. even want to go there at the moment. I.
think people eventually have to look at. that. Uh but but man in the west hots. are getting hotter, dries are getting. drier. Just objective facts. >> Mhm. you you you know there's no. Democratic or Republican thermometer, man. And and if you don't believe in. science, you got to believe your own. eyes. Towns being literally turned off. the map. Greenville, California, Grizzly. Fats, California. Uh obviously Campfire. and what happened in Paradise, California. It's serious. And we have. unprecedented resources. We have the. largest firefighting fleet, aerial.
firefighting fleet in the world, my my. state. I've invested unprecedented. dollars not just in vegetation forest. management. I'm doubled my state calf. fire budget. I mean it's there's no bigger I told you. I put 110 engines and pre-eployed them. I was on the fire in LA within hours as. governor of a of a of a county fire that. initiated on federal property. Multiple. fires that were occurring at the same. time. most of them on federal property.
where they initiated and we had 100 mph. wind rims attached to fire or a fire. attached to 100 mph winds. I was up. there in the hills with these guys and. we all turned around when my hair. literally burst on. There's a video of. it and they threw me in the car. Guy. hits my hair and throws me in the car. says [ __ ] out of here. And these guys, there's no hose in the world attached to. a thing that mattered at that point. It. was a life safety mission and that was. just a few hours in. Those were 60 70. mph gusts before it hit it peak at 100. All our helicopters had to be grounded.
All the the the big C130s we had down. there um grounded. and then these guys blamed I mean they. just blew us up. Contrast that to how. they're celebrating Texas. Why do you. think you're the target? >> Uh in some ways I'm humbled by it. Must. mean something. They're not, you know, but no, it's I'm definitely I'm one I'm. the favorite. I'm glad you're not. watching Fox cuz you'd be a little bored. with me. Uh.
it's 247, man. Uh I don't know. Uh I. mean, I appreciate if I can unite people. in some ways, but I I I just I don't I. don't I don't dislike those people. protesting me everywhere, man. They love. their families. They love their kids. We. all want to be protected, connected to. something bigger than ourselves. We all. want to be respected. >> Mhm. >> And man, I I I I don't want to talk. down. I don't talk down. I don't It's. not about you. I deeply I respect you, man. You care about Yeah. I care about.
this country. You care about this. country. I I told you I big Republican. family I married into. Love my. father-in-law. My guy's a rock star. Like what? He's a hero. Came from. nothing, man. Built this unbelievable. business. And he's the most amazing. father. had five kids, lost one his. oldest daughter to tragic accident, changed everything in his life, man of. values and principles and faith. Fact, he's the grandfather of my kids,
man. And he he live and die for this. [ __ ] country. Big gun owner, hunter. It's incredible role model. Uh, and he's. a Republican. God bless him, man. Good. We had different points of view. I don't. hate him. I don't think he hates me. Like some of my politics, we've had the. conversation we just had about Dread's. issues. It's tough. I get it. Uh but he. knows my heart. I know his. And I I. think, you know, man, that's that's that.
99.9% of people out there, good goddamn. people. And I just wish Trump would play. to that as opposed to, you know, feel. like the stars in Stripe, there's going. to be only 25 stars up there, 26. >> Mhm. He wants to eliminate the rest. He's deciding if you're blue or red if. you're just going to support disaster. aid. Man, I have 6 million Trump. supporters in my state. That's more. people than live in South Carolina. 6 million. I'm one of the reddest rural.
parts of the country. I live in that. district, by the way. There's Trump. signs right across my literally out I. drive out of my home right there. Big. ass Trump sign. Love I mean my neighbors man. >> Yeah. >> Defunding the police. >> No. Terrible. They just I mean what. idiots. 616 I mentioned local law. enforcement agencies. I think there was. six in California that had 80.
adjustments in their budget. All six. within 12 months had significantly. increased their damn budgets. I read. that the that the budget was cut. You. were cutting you were cutting I mean. >> not me opposite. >> wasn't you. >> I added a thousand my law enforcement is. California highway patrol I'm the. governor of California not the mayor of. California and you had cities that. decide their budget their own I mean you. have a lot of charter cities and there.
were a number of cities I said I at the. time was very vocal saying I do not. support defund the police and this is a. big mistake remember when I was mayor I. was moving in the opposite direction got. first time minimum from staffing. By the. way, San Francisco's never recovered on. the staffing levels. They have in terms. of historic crime reduction. However, even LA now is on pace to have the. lowest homicide rates in 60 years. They're down 20% year to date. The state. was down 11.9% last year, year to date, uh year-over-year. Um, I invested $1.1.
billion in vertical prosecution grants, in supporting DAs, uh, supporting. police, uh, retail theft, most. comprehensive retail theft, organized. retail theft laws that we know of in the. country. That's not my word. That was. the head of the retail association. saying that it was a model for the rest. of the nation. There's a lot of. mythology because there are some mayors. that have a very different point of view. than the governor. And there were some mayors, most of them. are no longer mayors.
that moved in that year after Floyd to. mostly modestly. cut their budgets and immediately. regretted that. >> or the new mayors came in and fixed. that. But the state has significantly. increased that support and anyone who. says otherwise doesn't come with the. facts, they come with opinion. >> Did you say we need to reimag. the way police? I said the idea of. looking at how we address policing in.
modern construct, particularly as it. relates to issues of social policy, where police officers are increasingly. becoming paramedics, addressing issues. on the streets and sidewalks like. encampments and homelessness, where. we're pulling people off for neeation, and two cops are sitting there getting. overtime wondering why the hell they're. not back out on the street waiting in. the emergency room to transport the guy. once he comes after the ER I said. absolutely that's an area that we should.
look at and we did do police reforms and. we worked with our law enforcement. agencies they agreed to a number of them. disagree with a few as it relates to. koratic holds and some other things and. we adjusted some of those rules. and to me that was I don't I mean pro. police I mean all my guys make the same. point we can't stand the bad apples. these sons of [ __ ] make us all look. bad. >> Mhm. >> And um so yeah, but I never I just think.
every it really hurt this notion that. the Democratic Party defund defund like. [ __ ] you. Never said that. >> Well, where did where did the where did. the law come in? What is the law? You. can steal up to $900 and something. dollars worth of goods. >> Well, you can steal 2500 in Texas. >> You can steal 2500 in Texas. I mean, there's something to this because. >> I agree. Went to California. You go to. Walgreens, everything's locked up. Can't. even buy a damn thing of deodorant. without it. >> Yeah, it's California has the 10th.
toughest threshold in America. >> There is something up into that 10th. toughest. This is a This is not even in dispute. It's just a fundamental facts. You can. steal up to $950 in California. That is. true before it's a felony. You can steal. up to $2500 in Texas before it's a. felony. Texas is weaker. It's the. weakest in the country. >> Oh [ __ ]. >> There are 40 states where you can steal.
even more than in California. >> 40. >> 40. We're number 10 toughest. 10th. toughest. It got made. I mean I I love I just sat. there and the press got so goddamn lazy. on this. It wasn't even just right-wing. media saying this. It was even just what. thoughtful press saying, well, you know, the 950. I'm like, really? It's a little. more complicated than that. Um, but 10th. toughest in America. It's a fact. Look. it up. I know people are out there going.
[ __ ] and doing and before you send a. little thing on YouTube saying he's full. of [ __ ] Look it up. 10 toughest. Don't. embarrass yourself by posting that. >> You tried to fix that, didn't you? I was. the one wanting to fix and reform our. retail theft issues and work with the. retail association of grocerers and did. a package of 12 bills. And I also did a. a a crime package three years prior. anticipating I was like guys pay. attention to my legislature. I'm like,
"Guys, we're not paying attention. What's going on?" Right after COVID and. we started to see, you're right, quality. of life stuff. Streets, encampments, like come on. And what was happening, organized retail theft, these were. organized operations going on third. party platforms, selling all this stuff. for half price. You may have even bought. something going, "Wow, what a deal." Not. knowing that this was part of these. rings. and we started to build support for a. new approach. And these grants, these.
vertical prosecution grants have been a. big part of the success. CHP ran these. task forces with local DA sheriffs. Mass. majority of these sheriffs can't stand. me, wanted to recall me. They got. they're on the seventh recall against me. as we speak. One went to the ballot, you. may recall that Trump and others. supported. Gingri, who I just was on my. podcast, supported, still had him on my. podcast. Um and uh and because. we were slower to act than we should. have, there was a ballot initiative.
to address the issue that purported to. address the issue as a retail theft. issue when in fact it disproportionately. is a drug issue, possession of drugs. And I fear that that will send us set us. backwards and it does not um push us. forward. So I opposed it. Public. overwhelmingly supported it. I was on. the wrong side politically. But I think. on the substance I was on the right. side. And you're seeing crime even.
before that's gone in effect. Just went. in effect in January or late last year, late last very late last year. But the. crime rates are dropping across the. spectrum in every category except arson. last year. And we're seeing backto-back. years. This year even faster, even. predating uh this initiative. But they. never changed the threshold of $950. because they knew it was attempt. toughest. They used it as a talking. point even though they knew they were. full of [ __ ]. >> Wow. That's how effective narrative is.
But they're right about organized retail. theft. They're right about these punks. coming in and smashing and grabbing. Every single one of those sons of. [ __ ] should be arrested. I've been. saying that consistently. You I'm a. merchant, man. You smash my window. No, no, no, no. I don't care about your. childhood. I care about my damn. deductible and my insurance rates. How. dare you? You've violated me. It's not. even the money, too. I mean, you create. a vulnerability, man. You're hurting the. community. >> You got to get arrest. So, I'm I'm for.
accountability. Period. Full stop. Yes. Um but I just think u and so I we we. recognize we need to do more in retail. theft. That's why the package of 11 12. bills. Um but on drug policy, I have a. different point of view. I just I don't. want to go back to the war on drugs. I. don't want to go back to the 1980s. And. uh good people can disagree. Uh I just. have strong opinions on that. >> Why are why I mean let's move into some. good stuff now. You know the Silicon. Valley and and all the tech giants are.
there. >> It's amazing. >> All the innovators are there. >> All the talent is there. I mean. >> that's what these guys say that. interview too. They they go there. because that's where the talent is. How. why is so much talent drawn to that. area? >> We've had a formula for success. It's. not by accident. It's not even a. complicated formula. >> What is the formula? >> Um, best research and development. We're 18%. of the world's R&D, the world's R&D. >> Wow.
>> China and Germany are slightly above as. nations 21 and 22%. California at 18%. So pushing out the. boundaries. That's why we have more. patents, more venture capital, more. scientists, engineers and researchers. than any other place. We have conveyor. belt for talent, education, UC, CSUs, Caltech, the ecosystem around Stanford, man, come on, second to none. Connected. to the R&D, Lawrence, Livermore Lab, Cindy and others that are partnerships. I mean, the all the stuff in the quantum.
space, partnerships with Google, we just. announced in Southern California. I. mean, this is where the f future happens. there first. where America's coming. attraction every way, shape, or form, good and bad. By the way, housing prices. are an issue now all across the country. Homelessness is growing everywhere else. much faster than even California. Now, number three, back to this notion of. first round draft choices. We had an. immigration policy where we were able to. get the first round draft choices. because people felt included, seen, heard. It's a majority minority state.
You go around Silicon Valley, man, you. could be in India, you could be in. China, you could be in Taiwan, man, you. could be anywhere. You just feel at. home. You look around like it's amazing. Just feel included. You feel heard. You. feel respected and connected. And number. four, um, infrastructure. I mean, we. built out the kind of infrastructure in. 50s and 60s. We dominated the space and. big issue for us. So, we neglected that. and I put out $180 billion 10-year uh uh. plan on infrastructure investments, the.
most in California history because we. frankly neglected a lot of but it was. part of what made California great. That. that water system that Trump loves to. hate was designed it was one of the. great feats of the world in the 50s and. 60s and it allowed water to move. It. allowed valleys, Silicon Valley and the. Central Valley to see that water flow. and the state grow and thrive. And so in. all of these areas, California sort of. maintained that built the middle class. And I think in in so many ways that. formula needs to be reinvigorated.
And I think that formula also is a nerd. to the the the country's benefit because. the world in many respects, California's. competing against us. You know, I was. talking. get out a little out of school, but one. of the things Trump actually because I. may have been I let me forgive me. I may. have misled you a little bit when Trump. called me right before he nationalized. or federalized the guard though. I said. he didn't want to talk about LA. He did. in this case about the film tax credit. He wanted to talk about tariffing films.
I said it's just a terrible idea. What. the hell you tariff Hollywood? I said. everything's a damn tariff to you. I. said I said I'm doing a film tax credit. He goes, "Well, you're losing. everything." I said, "You're 100% right. World we invented is competing against. us." That's what I told him. And that's. why I doubled the film tax credit. just. signed that bill last week, literally. just announced at Hollywood. We rested. on our laurels. We put up our feet. And. I think you could say that about our. country as well, but notably about. California in certain areas. So what I'm. trying to do in the last few years of my.
administration is really reinvigorate. You got to invest in your lead. If you. want to do well in the future, you got. to invest in the future. And I recognize. now, and I think co really sobered us. up. We had a year and a half there where. people were going to Austin, people were. flying out here. You started that in the. interview. I appreciate that. And that. was a big wakeup call, man. But how many. people are now moving back? Like I have. all these fancy friends of mine, engineer people like, nah, I'm cool with. Miami. I'm going to keep my house, but. we're coming back home. Glad we didn't.
sell it. Same thing with Austin. That's. why Elon, you know, that's that. I mean, you if you're not in AI right now, you. you ain't even in the game. And if you. ain't in California, you ain't in AI. And so it's it's kind of exciting, but. same time that's why higher education, with all due respect, Mr. President, is. not an establishment plot. It's foundational the nation's future. and our ability to compete. Yes, it. needs to be reformed. I'm I'm with you. on reform, but you don't gut the NIH and.
NSF. in the process of advancing reform. I. mean, these guys are reckless. You ask. me what I don't like about them. It's. all this stuff. And Elon understands. that. Right. That's why I was so. disappointed by some of the Doge stuff. taking a sledgehammer stuff as opposed. to a scalpel when he understands he's. the biggest beneficiary of that. By the. way, biggest contributor to his success. was California. It was our regulations. that created Tesla. Had we not done the. tailpipe emission regulation, he would. not had the certainty of investment.
>> And it was our tax policy that flooded. him with billions and billions of. dollars of subsidies. That guy was losing money but making. money reselling tax credits. >> Wow. >> That was what a gift it was for him. I. mean, he's a bloody genius. I'm with. you, man. And we were going at it on a. bunch of stuff, but I admire the hell. out of his entrepreneurialism. But I'm. very proud of my state for making the. investments in that company. It's one of. the world's most extraordinary success. stories. And I'm proud he's created this.
whole space. I'm just again worried that. we're going to completely get our asses. kicked by China and we're going to. regret it and we're going to never get. it back. Same with clean energy, man. What? What? We're raising the prices for. average utilities by eliminating all. these damn green energy tax cuts. That's. what Elon said. He was right. We're. doubling down on the past on subsidizing. coal and more oil and gas and. eliminating investments in the future, which is cheaper, greener, more abundant. energy. >> Speaking of energy, I mean, you know, I.
hear about the rolling blackouts in. California and stuff. I'm curious what. what are your thoughts on nuclear? I. extended the life of the last remaining. nuclear plant in California. Took a lot. of [ __ ] So that's where my position on. it. >> You're pro- nuclear. >> I was the guy who kept the lights on. because I extended the life of about. nine almost 9 and a half% of our base. load in California with the last. remaining nuclear plant. And um and I. think it is absolutely critical uh. moving forward if we're going to help. decarbonize and change. It's the only.
way only path I see to get us where. we're going to need to go. Um, and. >> man, you got some great innovators. working on it over there. I just had Isa. Isaiah Taylor on. He's making the the. the mini nuclear reactors. We had Scott. Nolan on talking about enriched uranium. Look, it's the challenge is it's a. generational thing. >> Mhm. three mile island sort of. generation that sees this in that. perspective. And then you got this next. generation, this tech generation that. sees AI and data centers and sees energy.
consumption going through the roof, sees. a transition or the duck curve and. issues around battery storage maybe not. getting to the scale it needs to be with. solar and wind uh and needing to. accelerate that transition. and they see. nuclear uh as a a significant part of. getting us to where we all need to go. both economically, national security, and from an environment. So, I I see. just win-winwin with the new technology, safety protocols, and standards. So, no,
I I'm there. And look, the blackouts in. Texas have been significantly worse in. California, and they're getting better because. they're investing in the future. batteries. Our largest power plant in California is. installed batteries. Second largest. jurisdiction in the world, China and. California. Been a point of pride. I had 770 megawws. when I became governor. It's over 15,700. now. I'm very proud of the work we've. done in that space. And that's allowed. us to capture. We're running the fourth. largest economy at 100% green energy for.
the majority of this year. Think about. that. fourth large economy in the world. has run at 100% renewable energy for the. majority of this calendar year. Don't. tell me we can't do this in the future. Absolutely. And by the way, these are. cheaper. Battery batteries are expensive. on the front end. Once we figure that. out, cost curve continues to come down. in the storage side. But solar and wind, man, it's more competitive. Well, I.
mean, I don't I don't. I disagree with you and agree with you. on some aspects. I mean, we just had. another guy on that was um what is it? He's he's building satellites in space. that are going to beam solar energy into. >> All right. Well, there's always that. blast, man. I love the innovators. There's fusion in California, too. We're. leading fusion. >> Really? I mean, California is the only. one we're the closest in the world. >> Wow. >> Happened right in our backyard in our. state.
Well, you're right. I mean, look, on the. other side of this is unbelievable. innovation, but if we don't continue to. push out the boundaries of that. innovation, man, if we're just doubling. down on coal, I get it. But like. literally doubling down on coal, >> I think that's. >> we're going to get our ass kicked. >> Yeah. >> By the innovators around the world, it's. just a simple question of just where do. you want to I mean, we are we going to. dominate the future or are we going to. double down and try to recreate this. 17th, 18th damn century? I I'm just with. I think Elon's sort of I I thought it.
was great. I thought it was I know it. was such a far and all my friends like. it was a vulgar display of sort of. corrupt capitalism the manifestation of. crony capitalism see the fire sale of. Tesla is there with Elon and Trump at. the same time I was sitting there. telling my friends man this is what. we've been at I said you guys should. shut up we've been saying we needed this. the whole time man we need this to not. just be a green movement this is about. competition this is about national. security and now Trump is advancing that.
it's helping us by promoting the. technology and Teslas are going, "Damn, look at this." I was like, "This is. good, man. Now it's all come crashing. down and everyone's pissed at goddamn. Elon." Uh, but I u No, I I just think. batteries batteries are the future. Solar just were there. Um, you already. the dominant under the Biden. administration. We were never more. energy independent. It's just a fact. We're doing 13.4 billion barrels a day. In 2024, we peaked. in terms of our energy independence. Uh.
Trump continues in that path. He's. hardly creating that path. Biden. administration, we were leading in. renewables and in oil and gas. I kind of. like that approach more than the let's. eliminate. the green energy transition and just. continue to dominate in oil and gas. I. think that's just a major strategic. mistake. >> I mean, you're concerned about China. I'm concerned about China. Does it. concern you that the majority of the. solar, you know, solar panels, windmills. are all produced in China?
>> Yeah. Well, now it's not even it's it's. over. We just we're killing a damn. industry here. What the There was a. chance with the IRA. There was a chance. with the infrastructure bill that had a. component part uh for green energy. There was a chance when the biggest. beneficiaries were red states and rural. parts of those states that were seeing. the benefit of these green energy. investments. I gave you an example of a. specific example, two billion just in. the backyard here in S in South. Carolina. And now, I mean, they just. locked this stuff down, man,
>> to pay for tax cuts. >> and settle our kids with $3 and half. trillion dollars of debt so they can cut. health care to rural communities across. the country and cut food for kids in. schools, by the way, and vets. that are Medicaid. vets families. Medicaid four plus million. breaks my heart man I mean the vandalism. was just done to this country and uh and. they know better and they just couldn't. do better because failure was not an.
option. >> I mean I know the narrative is you know. drives pretty much everything and I mean. it's just [ __ ] it's hard to it's hard to. know what to believe I mean even with. the with the was it last winter when. Texas went out they had the blackouts. and all these people were freezing to. death down there they blamed it on. They. blamed it on green energy. What it was. was. >> it was the oil and gas that's created. the narrative because the gas froze in. the [ __ ] pipes and they blamed they. blamed wind and solar. >> I'm going to personally ask for a clip.
of what you just said. >> I can't take it, man. Because I say it, no one believes it. What you just said. is goddamn fact. California modest little blackouts for a. few minutes. There was two days. It was. peak a couple years back. It was a big. wakeup call and I extended the life of. some of our older gas plants and peers. and that's when I said enough enrolled I. enrolled because I don't want to get. work with the legislature said guys. we're keeping this nuclear plant up. let's wake up if we're going to have a. transition we have to have a just. transition I'm dealing with that with. refineries closing in my state we got to.
own that we got to address that and we. are as a crisis in the making if we. don't address it we've got to be sober. about the transition. but Texas. To their credit, the markets. have moved their transition, not their. regulation. They're actually addressing it by moving. down the path that California was on as. it relates to installed batteries and. more renewables that are more resilient. than the old fossil fuel infrastructure. that they had. They've had significantly.
worse blackouts in Texas. Again, not a. fact you get on Fox News. You'd think. it's only California. back to China. A. >> lot of people are concerned about all. the Chinese that are buying up US land. Is that how much is that happening in. >> I don't It's funny. I I I've seen some. of that. I know Sarah and others. Arkansas, we're bing, you know, of. course, any opportunity for my friend.
Dantis to flex on that stuff. Um I just. haven't seen that level. And by the way, you know, we have 150% larger egg print. than any other state. So the largest. manufacturing state I told you. So in. that respect, I look from the. manufacturing infrastructure. I look at. the industrial infrastructure. I look at. the land amass. I see more investments. from Saudi Arabia in many respects which. are more interested than me in looking. at water issues and water rights there. Some other stuff that's happening with. foreign ownership. So I just haven't. seen it at that level. I remember we had.
a little bit of scare in the 80s. I. remember China, Japan is buying. everything up, you know, and the Biden. Rockefeller Center. I don't I think it. was literal or figured that and I and. then we went a little through that with. China, but we're not I'm not necessarily. seeing that in my state. And I'm not. seeing at the scale that other governors. are stating. I see it as virtue signaling. and I do see a lot of conspiracies in. this place in my state around all these.
rumors that always seem to pop up around. military bases of Chinese ownership. moving in and in every instance it's. turned out to be completely bogus but. man oh man it drives the narratives for. weeks and weeks and weeks and last year. we had a perfect example of that that if. I was watching some of these networks. and I literally started being convinced. I'm like, "Come on, guys. Must be true. Look at everybody's saying it." And. we're finding out these shell companies. turn out to be some folks from Silicon. Valley, not from China.
>> No [ __ ]. >> Yeah. So, I mean, you look at it case by. case, but I'm, you know, I one should be. concerned about. Look at the Confucious. There's a lot of Look, there's a lot of. stuff. I mean, no one's I'm not naive. Again, I come from San Francisco and. we've been at this longer than anyone. else in terms of those relationships. And there's been, you know, Senator. Feinstein or had a key member of her. staff. No one's not no one's naive, by. the way. We're doing the same damn thing. over there. It doesn't excuse it. I. mean, we're, you know, I mean, you. understand that better than anybody. Um,
the world you've been living in. Um, but. um but there no doubt, man. This is this. is it. This is the moment. And I again, I don't begrudge other people's success. I say that also as a Democrat. I'm not. one of those Democrats that want to tear. other people down. Um, and I'm not one. of those people believe everybody should. have some automatic outcome [ __ ]. opportunity. Uh, but at the end of the. day, it's about, as you said, that young. entrepreneur that's hustling, barely. speaks English, man. That's just like. you get emotional around that, man. It. is the American dream and it's still.
alive and well if you want to work your. ass off. >> Same time, a lot of people start behind. They're not they don't just let they're. not just left behind. And I also think. we have to recognize that. And that's. why we have to make targeted. investments. we have to do things that. do acknowledge that. Um, so everyone has. an opportunity. But as it relates to. other countries, as it relates to other. people, I don't begrudge success. I. admire it, man. Success leaves clues. And uh, the power of emulation. So, I.
want to learn from folks. That's why I. sat down with Charlie Kirk and Steve. Bannon. That's why I'm meeting with. people that disagree with me, can't. stand me, quite literally hate me. Like, literally hate me. Say it still even. after I interview them because I want to. learn from them. And what did you learn? >> The Steve Bannon interview was. fascinating to me. I thought I was. listening to Bernie Sanders. It It was wild, man. Just was.
his sort of his ability to connect from. populist narrative and understand that. his deep understanding the emotional. attachment to industrial policy in the. heartland. this connection to class, elitism, his understanding of that, his. willingness to break out of the mold and. promote higher taxes on the wealthy. I. joke with him. I said, "Steve, you sound. like a you sound like me with a. progressive tax policy in California.". I said, "Aren't, by the way, California.
is not a high tax state. We have the. highest tax rate. We're not a high tax. state.". >> What does that mean? That means 1% and I. have evidence is not 99%. 1% pay the highest tax rate, but 80% of. Californians pay about average taxes. 40% of Californians pay lower taxes than. they do in Texas and Florida. Texas and. Florida tax their lowest wage earners.
more than we do our highest wage. earners. So, who's the high tax state? Is it California or is it Texas? If your only constituency are rich. people, then I understand we're a high. tax state. My point is Bannon was actually making. the case and as you know was part of the. debate with Trump in this new bill that. and and Trump showed an openness which. would have killed the Democratic party. Best damn thing Trump did for the.
Democrats is not taking Bannon's advice. on tax policy. He would have gutted us. We have the right talking point because. it's right and it's politically popular. that he's given away the largest. transfer of wealth in US history by. giving away billions and billions of. dollars of tax cuts to the richest as. he's cutting programs to the poor. that. would have been taken away if Bannon's. tax policies went in effect where we. would have had more intense cuts to the.
middle class taxes and working folks and. increased modestly taxes to the rich. I. was fascinated by that to hear that from. Bannon on the podcast. I didn't come on. to talk about January 6. I think he's. full of [ __ ] on that. That's well. established and Trump's completely full. of [ __ ] on that um from my humble. perspective. But um Charlie Kirk, man, guy's just crush. That son of a [ __ ] is. in every goddamn campus, progressive. parts of the country. Hundreds and. hundreds of people coming out, takes on.
anyone on on a debate, uh is organizing, hustling. We're. sitting here bitching, complaining. This. guy's just working it. And you know, and. I admire that. Democrats should learn. something about I can't I don't agree. with them on nine out of 10 damn issues. And uh. and I just I think it's important. I. mean, I even had Dr. Phil on for. Christ's sake, you know, and two weeks. later he was out there as they're doing.
raids in my backyard with the National. Guard. Like, come on, Phil. Oh, man. He. was embedded as the, you know, the. Heraldo of his time or something. Uh I. told you the Maha stuff. I mean, I I. just I learned from these guys. >> Mhm. >> And uh I just I you know, it's like you, man. I'm learning from you. Appreciate. you. Appreciate your service, man. >> Thank you. >> Next level. The stuff that you've. experienced, it's in your brain. Relationships. makes you patriotic, man. Love this.
country. Thank you. Sacrifice, not just. service. >> What do you think the Democrat party is. getting wrong? >> That we're not talking like that a. little bit more. God damn. you know, got to show our. pride and patriotism a little bit more, not be shy about it, you know, celebrate. this goddamn country. And I think one of. the problems with the Democratic party. is we're so good at celebrating, as Bill. Clinton would say, our interesting. differences. and we forgotten about focusing on our.
common humanity, what binds us together. And so we celebrate all this, but we. don't celebrate what unites us. United. States of America. These enduring. principles of our founding fathers. taking the best of Greek democracy and. the Roman Republic. Three independent. co-equal branches of government, the. rule of law. What a gift. They were. imperfect, but man, what a goddamn gift. to this country about to celebrate 250th. anniversary. So this notion of Yeah. And.
the lexicon of Clinton, community and. opportunity, but back to responsibility. and that's your service and sacrifice. And I think all of us have a. responsibility in that respect. It's why. I believe in um I absolutely am. committed to universal national service. That's back to my SAR Shrivever thing. Peace Corps. I have the largest. California is the largest service corp. in America. >> Yeah, I've read that. >> twice. It's bigger than the Peace Corp. Spiritual, man. Republican, Democrat, I.
don't give a [ __ ] Black, white, first. gener. I don't just people [ __ ]. common cause. >> What is What is it? Is it the Cal Did. you call it the Cal? >> Yeah, it's California volunteers and. it's just different cores. It's college. core. We do. This was the biggest, not. biggest, but I thought it was a big. mistake of the Biden administration when. we did those student loans and we asked. for nothing in return. >> Mhm. >> To give them back. I was like, what? In California, we asked we we'll do. $10,000 grant to college, but I want 450.
hours of service in your community. You. decide, man. >> That's a good goal. And I thought it I. thought we should attach that. I just again responsibility, not just. opportunity. Um, so I think Democrats. can do better than I. >> actually [ __ ] love to hear that. I. like that a lot. >> You got to earn it. >> Yeah. God damn it. I've never enjoyed. anything I've been given, but hell, I've. enjoyed every goddamn thing I've earned.
Seriously, it means something different. to me. >> Treat it like that. Treat it like I earn. it. You give away. I remember I know. there's a mayoral canon wants to do free. public I you'll treat it like it's free. man I had an opportunity to do that was. mayor they they we did analysis said we. can you know we could justify doing free. public transit I said no no got to have. some skin in the game man. for you. good for you. >> no I think Democrats need to find a. little bit more I think we just need to.
emphasize certain things more. deemphasize other things more. Man, don't dial it up on some of these issues. that are so, you know, that have created. these culture wars. Just dial this down. You don't have to back away. Good people. can disagree. They can vehemently I I. was in no [ __ ] last night at an. event in Nashville. Members of the trans. community came up to me pissed about. obviously uh the thing. And but but I. said still, you know, I still have your. back. It's what we're it's like and the. point being uh well I know there's.
broader points I'm trying to make except. to say we need to scale back some of the. things we emphasize and start to invest. more energy in things that we support. but people don't believe it because. we're not expressing it. We're not. showing it as much as we should. >> I mean I think you could say the same. about the Republican party. The thing. is, I mean, h how would that even come. to fruition? Because, you know, when. when the when the mainstream media.
creates the narrative on, you know, on. both sides, it's it's cuz it's the same. issues over and over and over again. And. it's if you don't talk about those. issues or if you talk about something. else that that is important, then you. population finds that boring. >> Yeah. >> Because it's not at the forefront of the. media cycle. Man, I I I'll give you. example. Right after Trump won, it. wasn't intentional. It happened to be. wildly coincidental, but it was also. very opportunistic. I had just finished. a three-year process to do a career.
master plan for California. California. has an infamous higher education master. plan that created the three systems, the. finest university system in the country, which is our community college, our. CSUs, and the the fabled 10 campus UC's. And I decided to do one for career. education. And it was about taking the skills that. you learned in the military. And if you. wanted to extend that academically, you. wouldn't have to take all the basic. courses in a community college or a CSU. That your skills mean something and they.
were automatically then credits towards. your degree. So you didn't have to waste. time with those basic courses because. you already had that skill. >> So using your resume to connect with. opportunities for lifelong learning uh. did with apprenticeships etc. as well. And we require we took hundreds and. hundreds of positions in state. government say you don't have to have a. damn four-year degree for this [ __ ]. You don't even have a two-year degree. You just have to have the skill set. So. we we did a civil service reform and I. rolled that out in nine counties, all.
red counties and Trump counties right. after Trump won. And literally. press after a couple days was like. they're just rolling their damn eyes. And I kept seeing all this the same. press saying we need to focus on why we. lost this election. We need to connect. to rural parts uh of our country. Democrats need to spend time in rural. part. We need to focus on people that. are not getting four-year degrees. And. all it was about was transports. cuz Trump said something that flared up.
and everybody rushed over there and oh. news when in doubt but Newsome social. and here I am just grinding county after. county after county rolling out details. of a plan. We had 10,000 people worked. on it. No [ __ ] Actually 10,000. But. hundreds of millions of dollars. So it. wasn't just a plan sits on the desk. It. was grants going out. It was a. community-led process. And uh again, people are born damn interested in these. cultural issues. >> Yeah. >> And just blow up and it consumes us. And. then people start thinking that's all.
we're talking about because I'm. responding to something I disagree with. Wasn't I wasn't even having a press. conference on it. I'm just saying I I. call [ __ ] on that. I think that's. wrong to talk or demean someone like. that or good people on whatever topic. So that's. this uh we we're getting our ass kicked. on there. Dannis was very effective. That's why I ended up doing that debate. with him. God help us with with Hannity. It's a two against one debate which is. fine. So I went on with Sean and did an. hour and a half interview with him. Started going on Fox went on Newsmax. Um.
trying to meet people where they are, man. Hanging with you. I don't know. I'm. just trying iteration entrepreneur in. me. I got no I I have no particular. insight on all this [ __ ] and just. >> Well, this isn't a debate. This is just. a discussion. >> Yeah. >> So, yeah. >> Like to see more of this, which. hopefully this interview helps. But. >> yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's I think people. there's sort of blood sport. Take. everybody down. Own the lib.
Same thing. Trump. I mean, look, Trump. and I that I ain't timid, brother. I'm. flooding the zone. I'm hitting back on. Trump. I mean, I'm not screwing. I mean, I'm like all in on that. Um, same time if he called, pick up the call. phone, I bet if I called him right, literally right now, he'd pick it up. No. [ __ ]. I think that's healthy at the end of the. day. >> I do, too. I got a personal question for. you. >> Jesus Christ. >> Boxers,
>> I got to ask. I've always wondered this. >> What's that, man? >> How did your ex-wife wind up with Trump. Jr.? Beyonce. >> How do you go from Gavin Newsome. >> I know to Trump. >> first lady of San Francisco. >> Crazy right she was always. >> Yeah it's [ __ ] crazy. No, she's she. always had a prosecutotorial mindset and. a great immigrant dad from Ireland was. sort of a rock star back to sort of. bootstraps, great guy, huge supporter of. mine. Um, till the day he passed away.
Um, and just always have my back even. after the divorce. And uh, and so and. she lost her mom early and he he kind of. shaped her and shaped her up. I mean, had to toughen her up, man. You're on. your own. We're on our own. And she. always sort of had that sort of mindset. And again, as a prosecutor, a. prosecutorial mindset. So, she leaned in. that direction. Um, definitely more. progressive moderate values. Um, and I. don't mean this as a pjorative. I don't. mean this as a cheap shot. Nope. It's.
not considered. But when Roger Als hired. her to go on Fox, just changed. I think. in some ways, if you go on Fox, you have. to put a mask on and your face grows. into it. Otherwise, you're not going to last on. Fox. And that was sort of my sense. But her. face grew into it. Meaning she became in. many respects really started, you know, she was a real believer in Trump when. she was on the five. I remember talking. to Trump in the Oval. Um he brought her. up cuz she's been appointed as.
ambassador or has been appointed. It's. about to be confirmed and he brought her. up out of nowhere. We're sitting there. and he said she was my biggest supporter. back then. And I mean he was he was very. loyal in that respect which I. appreciated and she has certainly in. return been loyal to him and that sort. of developed trust with the family and. long-windingly I guess the relationship. with Junior. But man, you know you that's uh well uh. I wish he drank cuz we'd have a few. beers and talk more cuz I ain't going to.
get in trouble talking about any more of. this goddamn stuff. This is this is the. uncomfortable version of Newsome as he. squiggles around you. Well, we're wrapping up the interview. and so I just have one question left for. you. As a father of four. >> Yeah. >> What do you What advice do you have for. fathers? >> Uh we got to step up, man. I mean, women just Yeah. There's a My. wife did a a documentary called Fair.
Game. Basically just talks about roles. of gender. not not from a cheap shot, not trying to tear down men, not all. that [ __ ] uh, but just the. responsibilities that are placed on. women uh, in the household in. particular. And they there's actually a. card game they have. And it says, "Who. who who does the dishes? Who walks the. dog? Who's doing the birthday presents? Uh who's uh scheduling uh the kids for.
playdates? Uh who's and and you do the. cards and you finish and the stack is. here with my wife and I had like three. or four cars, man. And I swear to God, the game starts with you estimating. quietly what percentage of the household. working." I'm like, "Okay, I know it's. not 50, but man, it's like 45. [ __ ] at the end. is down to like. three. 3% 97 is a three. So for all the. 3enters out there as dads, we got to. step our [ __ ] up. I'm serious, man. You.
we all [ __ ] and complain about the. stuff we have to deal with. Imagine. being a hardworking goddamn mom dealing. with our [ __ ] We come home acting like. we're all like emotionally stressed and. we need to be listened to and hugged and. heard. Um so I got a rockstar wife, man. I'm so blessed. And four of the most, you know, I know everyone says this. about their kids, but man, still my. little dutchy 9 years old. When I was uh. I'll end on this, man. The coolest thing. I swear to God. I this if there's a.
photo I asked you when I came in here, man, what would what would you take? There was a fire. Um I probably take. this and I hope they put it in if when I. pass they put that photo. uh when I. first um when I got sworn in as governor. uh and I'm in the middle of my damn. speech and my little boy is he's three. or three years old or something and he's. got a little passing in his thing. He's. on my wife's lap and he just jumps off. her as I'm speaking runs to the podium. as I'm giving my inaugural speech and.
he's literally people are laughing. He's. standing there. I am reading the tele. I'm terrified, right? I can't read the. teleprompter. So I'm like I have to. concentrate. I can't even look at him. cuz I'm then I'm just going to be this. is a disaster. And then I'm like looking. and he's hugging me. He's grabbing me. and I couldn't help but I just picked. him up and I put him in my arms, man. Pacifier. And he puts his head down and. tries to fall asleep. >> Oh man. >> And I finished the [ __ ] speech, man. I didn't finish the entire thing, but I. kept speaking. No one remembers a.
goddamn word I said. I don't remember. what I said, but everyone felt something. and it was just love, man. Kids, [ __ ]. life. And I swear again, you know, I'm. the future goddamn exgovernor and. there'll be someone else to beat the. [ __ ] out of. Uh, you know, tear someone. else down and [ __ ] and complain. But, um, that's all that matters, man. It's. all that matters. >> That's beautiful. I love that. I love. that. If you had three guests that you want to. see on the show, who would they be?
>> My show. >> On my show, >> [ __ ] Not my show. Well, you got. to come on my show now. >> I will. I'll come on your show. >> I'm ready. >> I will fly my ass to California. >> Yeah, that's right. You got to do it in. person, you son of a [ __ ]. >> I don't do Zooms. >> Good. I'm with you. >> I've only done one with Dantis and it. didn't go great. Never doing it again. >> Yeah. I'm glad we're not talking about. Ron, but uh I wish him luck, though. He's a father. Um, three guests for you.
>> I wonder just, you know, I swear I I. would be a hell of a thing to see a guy. like you with Joe Biden. I know that's. insane. >> I would love to do it. >> Dead serious, man. >> I would love to do it. >> He's a I'm just telling you and I'll. take this to my grave as well. I know I. get a lot of [ __ ] and I know it's. politically correct as Democrats kind of. turn their back on him. He's a good and. decent man. I know we can criticize him. for this or that or other things, but I. think you'd find that just as an. interpersonal just in a way that would. surprise you. And I think honestly, no.
[ __ ] surprise your guest, even if. you disagree with him on 100 [ __ ]. issues. As a father, I've had some. really amazing conversations with him, uh, talking about his kids and, um, you. know, that's that it's, you know, anyway, I think that'd be a hell of a. guest. Oh, uh, Jesus Christ, man. You've. had everybody else. I was going to You. couldn't even go to Trump now cuz you. already had him on. Who else should you. get on? >> Maybe you can connect me with Xi. >> Well, that would be a hell of an Now. you're talking. Uh I mean, he'll be.
coming out soon, right? Mara logo for a. second visit. I don't know. >> Is he? >> Well, I mean, they're going to get. together sometime this year or if not. late this year, early next year. Maybe. Trump flies out there. Um but he'll. eventually get back out here. That'd be. a hell of an interview. Kim John is the. the go that's your guess, brother. All right. >> I mean, he's got a new resort out there, North Korea. You really want to visit. it. >> Right on. Well, Gavin, >> good to see you. >> Like I said, I really appreciate you.
coming and um just being totally honest. A lot of my opinions about you have. changed and and. thank you for coming. >> I'm grateful to you, man. Thank you so. much. I appreciate it. [Music]. [Music]. No matter where you're watching Shawn. Ryan show from, if you get anything out. of this, please like, comment, subscribe, and most importantly, share.
this everywhere you possibly can. And if. you're feeling extra generous, please. leave us a review on Apple and Spotify. podcasts.
