The Audacity of Pope
2026-04-14 09:55:00 • 1:44:38
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Welcome to Potsade for America. I'm John Favre. I'm John Love it. I'm Tommy Geetor.
On today's show, we'll talk about JD Vance's global face plant from Budapest to Islamabad.
Trump's new ploy to reopen the straight of Hormuz by blockading it. His new war with the
Holy Father and his blasphemous depiction of himself as an AI Jesus. That's that for a sentence.
This fucking stupid era. Then we'll get into the big news in the California
governor's race as horrific sexual assault allegations and Eric Swalwell's campaign in his time
in Congress. We'll also talk about the latest encouraging sign for Democrats Senate hopes.
Got to throw some good news in there. Right? Then Love It sits down with our pal Nithya
Rahman, the LA City Council member who launched a last minute surprise challenge to Karen Bass
about why she's running for mayor on a very Yimbi platform. How's that? Yeah.
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want to thank all you guys for who signed up in the last couple of weeks to put us over the top
there. Now we're going to now we got to get to 100. Yeah, let's go. Let's pick up the pace here.
Let's pick up the pace. All right, let's get to the news. J.D. Vance and his New York real estate duo
did such a bang up job negotiating with the Iranians in Islamabad this weekend that Trump has ordered
a naval blockade of all Iranian ports in the straight of Hormuz and might resume military strikes
according to the Wall Street Journal. The 21 hours of direct talks between the US and Iran broke
down over some minor stuff like the fate of Iran's nuclear program control of the straight of Hormuz.
Nothing big. Vance who is just absolutely crushing his audition as future world leader sandwiched
a quick statement about the failure of the talks in between stumping for Hungarian loser Victor
Orban and watching silently as the moreland spiritual leader of his church was insulted and
attacked by his boss, the president. Here's Vance in Islamabad. We've had a number of substantive
discussions with the Iranians. That's the good news. The bad news is that we have not reached
the agreement and I think that's bad news for Iran much more than it's bad news for the United
States of America. It's quite a good news bad news there. You tried that again on Fox today. It was
everyone's talking about what went badly but not what went well. The best thing is I don't know if
I was like he was like um you know no one's talking about how it's the first time I think since the
Iranian regime took power that we sat down for face-to-face talks. It's like yeah why did that happen
because you bombed the shit out of them and now they're holding the global economy hostage?
I don't know. It's not good news if you've had talks and then the bad news is that talks failed
and so far as it's not good news if your plane flies almost all the way to your destination and then
crashes. Just that mountain at the end. Right. Inputs outputs. How other than that how's the play?
Yeah kind of a situation. Anyway well well Vance was in Islamabad trying to negotiate and failing.
Donald Trump was monitoring the situation with his secretary of state and other important figures.
Let's take a look.
Hi I'll give you a hot deal and it's so good. But too good looking to be a fighter. You are some fighter.
Thank you man. Thank you so.
So there's Donald Trump and Miami hitting on USC fighters.
It goes on. He tells the guy he's hot like two or three times.
He is hot. I'm glad he's confident. Nice. I see a kind of non-toxic version of masculinity on
display. A man getting my or another man being attractive without resorting to you know sexual
innuendo. That's how I feel. That's how I feel about it in the middle of a high stakes negotiation
over the future of the world.
The wrestling match.
One thing for Donald Trump to be there which is bad enough but we don't expect much of Donald
Trump. Very weird that the secretary of state and national security adviser and national security
adviser and I realize he's from Florida but like just hanging out with hanging out with Trump
and Miami at a UFC fight. You got to get anything better to do Marco.
It's ridiculous. Why isn't Rubio a part of these talks? Why isn't he leaving the talks?
Probably because he wants to stay out of it. Well too much Islamabad news.
He's like yeah things are going from Islamabad to Islamabad worse.
He's like remember I'm the guy who got my Duro.
The famous closer Marco Rubio. I did that other war.
So Trump claimed Monday morning that actually the Iranians just asked for another round of
negotiations. So who knows? Fans didn't seem quite as forward leaning on that during the Fox
interview as Trump did. But why do you guys think JD Vance the closer as he's known to no one?
Couldn't get it done in Islamabad Tommy.
Three problems as far as I can tell. One, both sides seem to think or at least say they're
winning two trust and then three major substantive differences especially the straighter who moves
in Iran's nuclear program. I think in terms of like the who's winning question obviously the US
is winning every military battle as we often do but we are losing the broader economic war
and the Iranians know that they can just kind of wait it out and continue to increase the
economic pressure. And then on trust I mean the US we don't trust the Iranians but the Iranians
don't trust Trump for good reason. He pulled out of the JCPOA and then we in Israel have bombed
them the last time we've been having talks so there's not a lot of goodwill.
Literally kills the people that we talk to.
Literally killed the negotiators often that's not cool.
And using negotiation as a pretext to do a surprise to do more bombing.
Yeah and then the substance like Trump wants the straight hormones open the Iranians want to
de facto control it and charge a fee. And then the nuclear program the US position was reportedly
end all nuclear enrichment dismantle enrichment facilities and hand over the highly enriched
uranium stockpile. And taking that position going into the talks was doomed to fail because
Iran has repeatedly rejected those positions and asserted their right to peaceful civilian nuclear
enrichment. It sounds like they might have proposed a middle ground that was a 20 year halt
on enrichment activities which is interesting because we were always told the JCPOA was really
awful because there was a 10 year sunset now they proposed a 20 year sunset.
Obviously so if they took it they could say well we doubled the Obama deal.
Exactly but the Iranians we've all seen their 10 point wish list it's like control the
straight or remove sanctions relief get the US bases close them down in the Middle East.
So I think the Iranians think Trump's going to get bored of this he's going to taco he's going
to give up and meanwhile the Iranians are like we literally have nowhere else to go so see you
next time. Love it Trump did say right as the negotiation for about to happen.
The Iranians don't seem to realize they have no cards other than a short term extortion of
the world by using international waterways. The only reason they are alive today is to negotiate
regardless of what happens we win we've totally defeated that country. Do you think that set the
negotiations up for success? Like I was struggling with this just like watching all this unfold like okay
so Vance is going to Islamabad for high stakes negotiations. Oh no the negotiations have fallen
apart and now we're doing a blockade but wait the you know the negotiations are back on and it's
all in like we're allowing like Trump's attention span to like describe what's happening and and like
oh you didn't resolve this intractable situation in 21 hours of course you didn't.
Oh people have walked away but then are going to maybe re-approach the negotiating table like
that's how these law super dealer right like it's like a 20 years to get the Obama away 18 to 20
months right you're not right you're not trying to get to like a a a clean like least least terms where
you roll it all in on the front end like it's a complicated negotiation there should be kind of
complexities to take time to unwind like oh it's a stalemate wait we're back on and now we're
blockading like I don't know like who knows what the actual strategic logic is of a blockade but
if anything it just shows that clearly they feel as though they need a deal that's better than what
Obama got out of Iran but because we fought a war we have created all these conditions that
that require us to give on all these other things they have to be in some way compensated or the
consequences of the war have to be dealt with and so what do you have to do to get to a better deal
you have to find some other place to ratchet up to pressure and make it harder for Iran to walk
away from deal with all just to me seems like maybe it'll work but it's an admission against interest.
The New York Times helpfully reminded us of what Trump said during one of those Easter events a
couple weeks ago about JD Vance going he said if it doesn't happen I'm blaming JD Vance if it
does happen I'm taking full credit. Honestly like that's where he's great. I completely look I look
as as as I say to the team at Love to Leave It I cannot fail I can only be failed and I kind of
respect that ethos from Trump. Double fail though from JD Vance after after his little rally in Budapest
yeah didn't this love and he said that on on Fox News he was like look we we can read polls we
didn't think that Victor was gonna run away with it he's not a first name basis with them he's
like but you know sometimes you just do what's right which is stumping for an authoritarian and
Eastern Europe. Yeah but he's a kleptocrat in Eastern Europe. Also remember a couple weeks ago when
I think it was Scott Besson said we're jujitsuing Iran by lifting sanctions on him to increase
God of supply. Yeah. Now we're blockcaving the straight ourselves. Well let's talk about the blockade
Trump announced it shortly after Vance's bad news announcement which the military then had to
explain is not a blockade of all ships entering more leaving the straight of Hormuz as Trump initially
said but a blockade of Iranian ports. Trump also said that other countries would be joining us but
once again that hasn't happened yet either though Israel approves tons of questions about what all
of this actually means. Yes. It's two babies. Even Israel's like are they helping with the blockade?
No but they're like go for it. We like it. Kirstaarmers like we're not getting dragged. Sure
you are. Tons of questions about what all this actually means which Trump attempted to answer on
Monday morning in the most natural setting. A press event where a self-described door-dash grandma
knocked on the door of the oval to deliver the president McDonald's. Here's how it went.
Do you think that men should play in women's sports? I really don't have an opinion on that.
You don't. I'll bet you do. I'm here about. You're tax on tips. Yeah. You say pizza. Well you're really
nice. Would you like to do a little news conference with me? These are not the nicest people.
They're not nice like you. You know that right? I'll do whatever you ask me to do sirs.
Iran will not have a nuclear weapon and we're going to get the dust back. We'll get it back
either. We'll get it back from them or we'll take it. Your anticipation is the president that other
countries will assist in this effort to blockade Iran in those states. Yeah other countries are going
to also. We don't need other countries frankly. Is your threat from before still stands? Yeah I
don't want to comment on that but it won't be pleasant for them. Let me put it that way.
Worst delivery ever. Can you imagine like, hey sir here's your McDonald's. What do you think
about men playing women's sports? He's like I don't know but can you just I have to take a picture
of this in front of the door. So I'm not really going to I don't want to talk about trends but I do
need to take a picture of this so just for the app to get this through the app. Press conference
fuck. Sky will door dash grandma is so I'm sorry like it's a very dystopian kind of sad concept
this poor woman being just like forced to do delivery. I don't know. Maybe she enjoys it.
The whole hopefully the name he said the whole thing name said if you told just you sort of shake
someone awake in 2011 and you're like Donald Trump's going to be president. He's pretending he's
Jesus and accepting McDonald's delivery to the over-loss office while talking about blockading the
straight up movies. You're like what are that's a joke that's a 30 rock thing with a fucky talking
no one believes that's not possible. Well so what is happening with the with the
with the straight-of-form moves right now in the Snavel blockade anything getting through what's
happening. So it sounds like where the US is going to block eight all Iranian ports and then
Iranian linked ships not just flagships but ones that US intel says are Iranian ships. I think
ships going to non-Auronian ports will not be stopped. So basically the way this works is there's
like 15 US warships in place. The US Abraham Lincoln is the aircraft carrier that's kind of like
the base of operations. They have these Navy and Fibius assault ships that will deal like with
interdictions and boarding along with helicopter assets and then you got the big ass guided missile
destroyers which will like you know block things and push them in one direction the other and also
do missile defense because they have all the missile defense systems on them. Then there's some sort
of like minesweeping and mind hunting operations that'll happen. And so the question I have is
is the US going to be providing escorts to all the friendly ships because the average the average
number of ships through the straight before this was 130 a day. That's a lot of ships. That's a lot
of escorts. And this is risky even during the ceasefire because like there's apparently the
Iranians have lost contact with all their sea-based land mines not land mines. They're naval mines
that are in the straight-of-form moves they can't account for that. We don't know where we put them.
You know they put them you never know. We kind of did it under pressure. Yeah with some IRGC
guy might fire off a rocket or a drone but if the conflict restarts like I don't really see how
this works because like it's not just about the US being able to defend the ships it's commercial
shipping owners and captains being willing to go through the straight while they're getting fired at.
Yeah so you have also Trump threatening to blow up ships the way that they've blown up ships and
the drug ships in Venezuela that's obviously indefensible in war crimes but those are at least
ostensibly other claims that they're talking about ships that have drugs on them. This is just
about commercial vessels that they're now threatening to blow up as well then on top of that like what
I think the threat was for like because Iranian the Iranian navy has been destroyed
according to the president but that like if ships are going through like small they're smaller
ships or their drones could still launch attacks. Yeah so those are the ships that they were
multiple I mean he said multiple things that's one thing he said he was talking about the small
attack ships he also made a separate point about going after any ships that try to violate the
blockade which I look I hope that he's completely unclear and the military has been clarifying it
we have no idea what he fucking means we don't know how this is going to be implemented I hope
that that's what he means but it's not clear that if a ship is not listening to a US right like who
knows and then the other part of it great is are we now saying that that we're going to have the
the US military board ships that may be hostile like this is also something that sets up a
possibility of a whole bunch of horrible contingencies troops being grabbed people getting hurt people
dying in accidents because boarding a ship in the fucking sea that doesn't want to be boarded
as a complicated endeavor like who knows where this is going it's all like it all puts him in a
position if he wants to escalate and resume bombing and claim it's because of some incident that
took place on the seas like it's just a it's a dangerous thing to be pursuing without really
understanding why he's known to be a bit imprecise in his language the military said it was what
the latter thing you said which is that for the blockade it's about them stopping and trying to
board any vessel of course that does raise the question like what happens when it's a Chinese
vessel that's trying to bring oil to Iran or an Indian vessel like what are what are we
when the Chinese said we're coming right have contracts and we're going to go get that oil and by
the way like the problem is once you start operating the street or who moves it's 21 miles at it's
like sort of the the narrowest choke point but the Iranians can fire missiles and drones from
like anywhere along their coast and your reaction time to respond to that when the
missile defense is nothing so this is getting real risky and just so people understand like the
purpose of the blockade because I don't know explain it by block by having a blockade of all
Iranian ports the idea is Iran like has to get get its oil exported out to people who are buying it
through all of its ports and if it can't do that then Iran's going to lose like billions and
billions of dollars and that is and obviously that is how they get most of their money half their
I think oil and gas revenue is right those straights through the straights and if so you're
if you're blocking all the Iranian ports there can't get anything in can't get anything out and
that's how it also by the way like it could continue to squeeze the Iranian economy but it's also
going to raise oil prices everywhere else because the you know the rest of the world and the oil
prices around the rest of the world depend on Iranian oil to some extent so in the in the short
term it's also going to raise oil prices for everyone else as well as squeezing around itself
and the question is like will can the Iranians take the pain more than the rest of the world and
us here in the United States were very sensitive to higher gas prices and so far they've shown yes
what are you trying to get out of a deal that Iran is not currently willing to give you but that
they will give you after two to three to four to five weeks of pressure from a blockade and like
we just don't know maybe maybe that is known to them maybe they have some sense of what they're
trying to achieve but nothing public has made clear what they're what the like what the point
of this pressure is other than just to get to some sort of a deal I guess yeah it seems like their
idea is squeeze the Iranian economy even more so that either suddenly there is a popular uprising
because now we're not bombing them anymore and people are crazy and that and so this will and
the leadership will say okay let's just make the deal and let's give up let's give up the dust
and and make the promises and give them what they want on on nukes and I guess open the
straight and then maybe lift economic sanctions for the Iranians as well and that's that's the that's
the JD Vance Donald Trump view of this the dust is what he gave Justin Trudeau before he went
off to Bernie miss or sorry Quattel so I don't know that's wrong do you hear JD Vance hey um he's
talking about the the nuclear material I'm rep air and he knows of course that it's called in
rich uranium like he understands all this but he has to go as some people call it dust one person
one person calls it dust you fucking idiot it's not so idea that right there is a question like what
does the blockade do I guess it chokes off the ability to have revenue to run the government but
yeah the idea of the people are going to rise up again like the rgc has all the weapons the besiege
militia has all the weapons uranium people have nothing well the other and you're bombing them
it's a history of blockades is it usually hurts the people more than it hurts the regime but
that's directed towards how else they also just and on top of that I do think on some on some level
it is about making the pain make the pain felt outside of Iran too to make other people
feels that they're kind of dragged into this conflict yeah of course they're trying to pressure them
or something yeah yeah spokesman for around responded to the blockade on Monday by calling it an
attack on the global economy and asking is it ever worthwhile to cut off one's nose to spite one's
face Trump doesn't seem too bothered by it he's a fan of cutting off his nose to spice face
here he is talking to Maria Bartiromo on Sunday morning so a lot of people marluck up
yeah you know that that's called yeah they have a that doctor that does that you start just like
a hundred grand you come out they they cut up your nose they spiked your face and you're done
it'll filler a lot of fill them what do you do a lot of a germ let us let us spite it faces
yeah spats but spitted spitted anyway let's play the club you put it
do you believe the price of oil and gas will be lower before the midterm elections
I hope so I mean I think so it could be could be you're the same or maybe a little bit higher
so fun that is a full rain the full rain she's at some point did someone tell Maria Bartiromo hey
you know we can attach a love to your shirt and you can speak naturally she's no no boom across
the room and I'll keep shouting out for no fucking reason you to mic on your shirt you don't have
to shout it's crazy she's just she's like a real boomer with just the tv on constantly and when
you walk into the house also just like I the idea that like the Iranian regime is posting these sort of
like a Confucius like saying about revenge like lowering their head and saying before embarking
on a campaign of revenge dig two graves it's more than I can take from these people I will say that
along with some Lego movies yeah they got us with the Lego
got us I was talking to someone today who who does I worked an organization that does a ton of
polling and research on Trump and US politics and whatever and they have consistently like on a weekly
basis and he said this is the first time Trump's approval has moved significantly in years literally
it was like as we've all seen public polls rock solid at like 43% approval always right like move
to little around butler move to little around Alex pretty shooting now it is in a straight line that
is going down and it looks like Joe Biden's approval a month after the Afghanistan withdrawal which
we all remember essentially ended his presidency and so maybe it'll come back but it just seems like
the the energy shock is just getting started oil prices are back up and Trump seems to think
he said earlier he seems to think that he's like ah whatever we we drill our own oil you know we'll
be fine here it's a global market and then the financial times today I had a report out where
it said that US crude exports will be up about a third this month and demand from Asia is also
increasing so that's going to put upward pressure on all the prices here it's like it's going to
hurt it also it has not like the real pain hasn't hit yet on for like an all of the energy analysts
keep saying this and we're getting very close to that point where it's like you can look at the oil
futures all you want but like the actual physical manifestation of the oil futures is about to hit
and I remember when we were in the White House uh David Plough would always say gas prices are
a hit to the entire enterprise yep like the whole thing could collapse like the whole political
project of collapse on gas prices and that's when they went up like I don't know a dime five cents
here and there this is I mean you know the the parliament speaker uh galabaph that uh negotiated
with JD Vance he said soon he'll be nostalgic for four to five dollar gas uh he's been saying also
on the Iranian point I know some of us talking to today reminded me that Iran um prepared for this by
taking a bunch of oil and placed it in tankers outside of the straight-over removes they have
something like 130 million barrels kind of sitting in anchor in various places so at current prices
that is 18 billion dollars uh so that's a nice little cushion for that you know it's funny about
that is that they prepared for this yeah but um the United States which is the one that launched the
war on its own timetable its own decision making uh did not refill the strategic petroleum reserve
ahead of uh trump launches only 60 percent full it's almost as if bebe and ptexeth uh
persuaded trump that this would be faster and easier than it actually was yeah if it's something
like a vans we were watching vans right before we came in here and he made he said uh you know look
obviously gas prices being up is bad but we were we had such a low benchmark you know we were doing
so good and it's not nearly as bad as it was under Biden and it is true there was a moment during
the Biden administration where gas prices shot up to higher than they are now I think five dollars
on average so higher in in more expensive places um and that I think actually was the rising of
prices including gas prices into the afghan withdrawal that probably were the one two punch that kept
Biden below uh in the low approval for the rest of its presidency uh but right now today gas prices
are higher than they ever were after that peak right now and there's no hope that they're going to
release we don't expect them to go down between now and the election so it's just not true
voters historically more sensitive price increases than they are even two job losses
and within the realm of price increases there is nothing that people are more sensitive to
than gas and they have eyeballs and they see them everywhere you they are posted
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so trump was also asked with door dash grandma by his side whether he regretted the holy war he's
decided to launch against the Catholic church the world's largest Christian denomination that
includes more than 50 million americans the background here is that pope leo has been speaking
out with increasing frequency about the church's opposition to trump's brutal treatment of immigrants
and his war of choice in aron which reportedly led to a meeting where a Pentagon official allegedly
berated the pope's outgoing ambassador to the u s always a good thing it also led to a 60 minute
segment sunday night where the three most powerful american cardinals uh who were close with the
american pope spoke bluntly about the church's issues with trump on war in immigration uh the
president was watching uh sixty minutes uh because right afterwards he posted a lengthy tirade
that read in part quote pope leo is weak on crime is a sentence that i will think about it was like
i was shocked but i also couldn't stop laughing thank you uh me too it's like it's like it's like
there on some debate stage in iowa and he's like you are soft on crime you were soft on nukes also
pope leo and that would take an axel ride pope leo weak on crime weak on nuclear weapons
and uh and wrong for america and friends with david axelrod that was the first thing you
said i was gonna mention my name yeah i just talked to accident about um it seems wild
so yeah i was trying to leave the pope and then suddenly it's uh like a you know i have to
arab i in a arab i in a priest walk into a bar in chicago you know if you ever had have
ham no if you ever had sex no oh you got to try ham you know i did ask ask axi if he brought
if he brought the pope mannis as a as like an interfaith offering oh that's nice but i guess they
didn't what he said they didn't meet in chicago anyway he also wore the trump also warned the holy
father to quote get his act together okay uh any true and he took credit for leo's selection
as the supreme pontiff of the universal church that is that is trump's doing um
it's about the why for good measure trump also posted an a i image of himself as jesus healing the sick
truly uh like did you just say like no but yes he really did it's what i mean i would love to just
we should have done a whole we could do like a whole video on just uh going through the actual
the images the actual image because it is it's an a i slop image for sure slot in there there's a lot
and there's a lot of confusing things in there but what you really need to know trump jesus healing
us a sick man in bed who looks for johrodden or jeffrey absentee also maybe yeah maybe even more
Jeffrey absentee i thought it was Jeffrey absentee and i just look at divorce also looks like there's
like a demon behind him and maybe some g i jose i thought i saw ninja turtle maybe yeah like a ninja
definitely anyway um so the pontiff was was asked about all of this on sunday night uh here's
what he said i have no fear neither the trump administration nor speaking up loudly about
nervousness in the gospel and and that's what i believe i am called to do what the church is called to do
plus that other peacemakers i do not look at my roles being political politician i don't want to get
into it to make with him i don't think that the message of the gospel is meant to be abused in the
way that some people are doing too many innocent people are refill and i think someone has to stand
up and say there's a better way to put this the pope was also asked i directly about the post and
he did say that um truth social was an ironic name for the platform not wrong i love just just a
pope and just just Chicago English it's so it's so strange surprising first american pope truly
american yeah it's awesome um do you think he flies business i thought to say what kind of oh he
cares about uh the least among us what's he flying so i was looking playing what's he flying to get
in the air he was a he was a marxist pro woke marxist pope popes in exos on piker and and dealt the one
in bernie bernie and see right behind him uh here's what trump had to say for himself when he was with
door dash grandma which is what he calls him on him i think he's very weak on crime and other things
so i'm not i mean he but he went public i'm just responding to pope Leo there's nothing to apologize
for he's wrong and the other thing is he didn't like what we're doing with respect to a ram
he's supposed to have picked your own yourself to pick it as Jesus Christ it wasn't to picture it it was
me i i did trust it and i thought it was me as a doctor and had to do with red cross as a red
cross working there which we support i just heard about it and i said how did they come up with that
it's supposed to be me as a doctor making people better and i do make people better i make people
a lot better such a funny lie so many doctors just a health care provider dressed as Jesus a humble
it's one of those lies i'm like why why does anyone even spend time on it anyone with eyes
yeah it's even jade jade advanced was asked about it when we were watching pox just now
what what a couple answers from him on this first of all he said um the whole thing was not news
worthy um uh the president of the United States picks a very public fight attacking the pope the
bishop of Rome as week on crime and week on nuclear and warns him to get his act together jade
advanced as it wasn't newsworthy uh he said that of the a i jesus trump was just joking so it wasn't
it wasn't meant to be a doctor yeah he's joking he was joking he's yeah yeah people don't get
trump sense of humor and it's good that he posts his own stuff on social media and then it doesn't
go through a filter of you know press assistants and people who work for him and everything else
because it's good that he speaks directly to people he also said that uh the vatican should stick
to matters of morality yeah not the part not the policies of the most powerful nation under
as it retains to war which i guess you mean like what like just no divorces in the rhythm method
like it's just basically all that they want that's what they want so revealing that he's said that
and i was like i was thinking about this even before he said that is is two to jade
advanced and to a lot of the right wing Catholics and especially evangelical Christians in this
country issues of morality are issues of personal morality and so that is why for so long they
have been focused on abortion and sexual orientation and so and what Pope Leo and Pope Francis
before him have revealed is that the core of Catholic social teaching is about matters of war
is about preferential option for the poor is about treating immigrants with dignity and respect
and valuing life and i think that is all more explicitly mentioned in the bible and the new
testament and from jesus mouth than anything related to abortion or sexual orientation or any of
the other uh personal morality issues that the that have become political in the united states
look it's Thomas Aquinas over here look at this guy yeah time it's a quinoa
why he's already talking about the uh it's like i'm like yeah i bad yeah the uh i'm Protestant
not since uh Henry the eighth has a divorce slob that is the Pope the Pope had overstepped his
bound but at least he didn't at least uh at least Henry the eighth did barrienne bollin on a golf
course you know i'm saying uh what do you think smart fight to pick let me tell you let me tell
you we've talked about we talked about trump picking fight with uh muslims which he has obviously
there was the old muslim band yeah in the you know also in the united states he's viciously
attacked muslims in the united states um he has talked about dual loyalty and it said plenty of
anti-submitting things about Jews in the united states there's 20 20% of the country are Catholic
in the united states of america much yes it is there's there's a there's a there's a
over 50 million Catholics in the united states there's a lot of Catholics there's a lot of Catholics
it does politically this feels worse i mean remember this is not his first big fight fight with a pope
remember he's doing it about Pope Francis if and when the Vatican is attacked by ISIS which is
everyone knows his ISIS is ultimate trophy oh my god i can promise you that the pope would have only
wished and prayed that Donald trump would have been president because this would not have happened
remember that one i forgot about the loud one this one feels bad though politically just like
first of all it's like mood music like things are a little rocky for trump especially with this far
right follower like i don't know if you and dan covered the op ed the length screen attacking me
megan kelly uh tucker karlson candid so and thou shones from last week i read it aloud yeah so
the trump's biggest supporters are not in the mood to defend him and it also comes right after the
um the easter tweet where you've added a lot more christians um by us tweeting close the fucking
straight and plays praise a la on easter yeah he he offended christians and muslims in one tweet all
over the i started a little holy word there um and then you know it isn't american pope it's just
like what are you doing dude yeah he posted a picture himself as the pope in may of last year and i
i do think that like he said she's done moment like you said with france as he's done this before i
actually think he's just doing at a time in which he actually no longer seems kind of tough in
blustery but it just seems sort of sweaty and so he's getting attacked from like people that would
it previously have never said a word about some of this and would have done what vans did and say
oh he was just kidding around that's our president that's our big boy but instead they're actually
saying what they think about it yeah like i if you guys listen to the full 45 minute um
tucker karlson monologue attacking the easter tweet that led into a broader a wrong critique it
actually started by pointing out the trump did not put his hand on the bible when he was sworn into
office i hadn't realized that i didn't realize that either i miss that or it really it built to an
argument basically that trump thinks he's god and his thinks he has godlike powers and that that
is wrong and evil um and it's also it's kind of like kicking up a debate again about whether
trump is mentally well and he was asked this at a press event the other day like people they surf
you'll think you're crazy what do you think yeah in my view on that is um he's been like this forever
yeah yeah i just i listen it didn't make sense when i saw it as a kid but as i get older stupid is as
stupid does you know i think he i think watching the 60 minute segment is what obviously that is what
set him off and it's been reporting like this um but it is worth watching everyone noro donald
does a pretty great job talking to the three cardinals the archbishop of washington
chicago in new york and i mean they they accused the white house of gamification of warfare
calling the administration's videos um the snuff videos a sickening um quote where de cardinal
kubich were dehumanizing the victims of war by turning the suffering of people and the killing
of children in our own soldiers in their entertainment um cardinal tobin called ice a lot less
organizations that they hide their identities to terrify people i mean it was just it went on
and on and on and i think that for trump when he hears that he's like oh this is a personal attack and
i get to i get to hit back just like anything else but it's like what they are revealing is that
it's not just trump's own personal morality but like his entire political agenda is incompatible
with not just christian Christianity and Catholic social teaching but like most of the world's major
religions yeah because it is like a baston like because they are based in empathy and compassion and
grace and and and banning abortion which he kind of already gave them so like sort of we're on
the other side that's pretty big win and now they're turning on him the side note not as important
interesting the 60 minutes air that piece given all the concern that's very wise would be spiking
anything kind of critical of trump so i guess good that that made it through and we've broke the
story yes broke the story about uh them saying that they're going to get the papacy back to
avion yeah so like on the politics of this i mean i don't know if it'll do lasting damage like
a lot of catholics might be like yeah i was weird he deleted it but he overturned rovers his way
so like we're good but it is interesting i think that once again the anger and the criticism falls
into the character values bucket this isn't like he didn't give us the tax credit or let us like
be mean to the you know the cake artist who won't make a lgbt like wedding cake or whatever it was
there's people on true social saying this is desecration trump is the anti-Christ trump thinks he's
god i've heard from people who who would like they have mag relatives who are like this was it
this they were done yeah this was because it's not it's the the the extremely political
types who like their first issue even more than their catholicism is abortion is one thing like
you were saying but i think for most catholics when you start attacking the pope like that and then
you put yourself as a i jesus like that is a pretty it's it's pretty bunch it's pretty blasphemous
yeah you know and it is it's very trump too because with islam and Judaism like there's like
catholicism has a head of the church and so there is someone there is like a person who can
be a threat to Donald trump who is a moral leader around the world he's not used to that yeah he's
used to just being like see that that politician like they're just as bad as everyone else we're all
the same we're all bad and so it's he look not the first not the first leader also just to think
that like oh what could the pope do he doesn't have any armies or anything the uh i do wonder if
maybe you could you know trump could maybe like like go on the road to kinoza and then walk all the
way to the castle and then take his shoes off and then beat on the doors for a few days until the
pope lets him in and then he can apologize and then the pope would absolve him and then he could go
back to um uh leading the holy Roman empire that's good to do empire what about that i think that's a
good idea that's really good did you see the other interesting thing before we move off on the
on the cbs on the 60 minutes thing is that the pope is has decided to spend the fourth of july in
lamp edusa um uh which is the Italian island where uh tens of thousands of migrants have landed
and um on their way to europe and you know nor asked if that was symbolic and they're like yeah yeah
yeah of course well no no they've great spritzes there right
that's the island because on the coast on the it's on the the waters the rudders really start to
on that side you're hearing it curly and it it's like what a contrast with you know
john donald trump celebrating july 4th with what he's gonna do with the black and all of like
literal violence like ufc matches and he's meanwhile welcoming migrants to the shore which is what
you know this as one of the cardinal side which is the statual liberty supposed to represent
also tough for uh vances i became catholic booktour yeah big time yeah my it's like i say my road
was like the road home or so taking the long road back to catholicism sorry i only know about
catholicism up to the reformation that's where the end of my memory of uh ap European history cuts off
it is a it's it's gonna really ruin the book tour for jenny vans it's uh what is it called
communion road to the community finding my way back to faith he found his way back
the only books about themselves as a kagan right jesus christ that's what too many are ready
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much you could save that's policy genius dot calm slash cricket all right let's get to the big
development here in the california governor's race erick swallwell who is one of the leading candidates
has dropped out after four women accused the congressman of sexual misconduct including a former
staffer who is offered a detailed and corroborated account of swallwell raping her in a new york hotel
room after a night of heavy drinking in twenty twenty four the women spoke to the san francisco chronicle
and cnn and the man hadn't district attorney's office has now opened a criminal investigation into
the allegations swallwell was initially defiant but after losing most of his endorsements he ended
his campaign on sunday night writing in a statement on x that he was quote deeply sorry for mistakes
in judgment and that he quote will fight the serious false allegations that have been made
just before we recorded swallwell also resigned from congress um what are your reactions about the
news and in general uh it's secondary but just the audacity to run for governor knowing that this
was out there yeah i mean it it was shocking i mean i think there are a lot of rumors about air
swallwell kind of being uh a one of the younger members of congress who would go to bars get to
drunk hang out with staffers maybe fraternize with them in inappropriate ways but nothing i'd never
heard anything like this no so i read that scene and so i thought he should drop out of the race he
should resign from congress then he should hire a criminal defense attorney because there's a
damn good chance that guy gets prosecuted uh and could see jail time and then shortly after
the man hadn't district attorney announced an investigation so um i you know it's horrible i'm glad
the democratic party moved quickly to to push him out it's a nice it's a contrast with how the
republicans operate and the toning of dollars to trump to many in between but it's despicable yeah it
was at first swallwell was issuing these denials that's that that sort of reference to mistakes in
judgment but that oh he'd never done nva's and it had never been members of staff and then
those were i think disproven or at least there was reporting that showed that those weren't true
so then those statements sort of change hard to get into the mind of somebody that would have
this in their past and think that they could run uh for for governor uh because you can't even say
oh he i mean because it's like this is not um like i don't know what stories people tell
themselves but he's not the first person uh to have terrible skeletons in their closet and still
believe that they could do whatever they want and keep rising and be brazen and be brazenly ambitious
and right up to the end like the video he recorded uh reportedly at some billionaire donors
in Beverly Hills like his staff wasn't around um where he like refused to drop out and said he
was gonna stay in it it's like the the the woman who came forward on this um she if you read this
in an answer in the San Francisco Chronicle story like she has text messages to a friend um saying
that she was sexually assaulted by arcs well well saying exactly what happened like right after
it happened in 2024 she had told multiple family members her partner at the time and then you have
three other women having similar saying similar things the woman who uh alleges uh the sexual assault
also like got tested for uh had a pregnancy test and test for STDs and had the person at the lab
for senator and note that said like you're a survivor hanging there i mean just like there's there's
so much a lot of it a lot of every driver and to like read that story as Eric Swalwell and to like see
the ones and just be like i'm in a film a video being like fuck it i'm uh i'm hanging in here and then
his his lawyer gave this insane tagging the victim's interview uh with Alex Michelson on CNN and
Alex did a great job but it was just like it was so hard to watch because he just was like sitting
there not giving any answers on anything it's like why did you even go on TV yeah we've seen like a
lot i i also just like there's a story i think people tell themselves that oh like i'm i've been you
know i've looked i've stepped outside of my marriage and i've had been unfaithful but i've never done
anything like like i've never been heard anybody i've never read i'm always consensual always
consensual and then these stories come out whether it's you we've seen over and over the powerful
men that they truly like cannot either they are indenisable themselves or just lie in perpetuity
but they cannot accept that what they've done is not just been unfaithful but actually been like
you know sexually assaulted people yeah and there was a story in i think of the times about you
know it's in dick it like this whole thing was indicative of how um what it should show the
California governor's race has been and people were like clamoring to get behind some kind of
candidate because comlet didn't run and padea didn't run and so swell well comes and then they're
all like okay this is our guys our guys just starting in solving their rumors some of the rumors
like that you were just saying to me that like you know maybe you'd been the appropriate and
people kept going to him and saying like any truth this and they said that his denials and his
categorical denials even in private like one-on-one before endorsements were like so intense that
they're like okay i guess he's he's saying absolutely not nothing's going to come out you know
mag has been after me for a while wouldn't they have surfaced this already like well there was
also this thing where you know there was a report that cash betel was going to put the you know
this i have saran from the FBI on sual well and like inappropriately release investigative file so
i think there was there was also i think legitimate concern that maybe like the trump administration
was going to use the power of the government in some inappropriate way to target him which right
like i think it led to maybe more second chances for him but then also i was thinking back to
that weird video he released with his wife where they're like walking in sanamanka and it's like
his wife like endorses his candidacy and we're like what is this what is the context and it's
just like so clear that that was front running these controversies by the way as we were recording
scene and some others reporting that in battle gop raptony canzalis announces he's stepping down
from congress so it's another absolute scumbag on the republican side yeah so people know like the
the sual well thing brought up these other house members who they all thought that they maybe
would try to expel together so there's sual well canzalis who didn't have an affair with the staff
or who later committed suicide democrat sheela uh church eliz macormick who the house ethics committee
found guilty of stealing covid relief funds for her campaign republican cori mills who's under
investigation for committing campaign fraud and sexual misconduct in domestic violence yeah um and so
now sual well has resigned uh gonzalez uh has said he's going to resign retire tomorrow and so now
i don't know if the vote will go forward on um turfilis macormick and mills or the whole thing will
get dropped but um wow so there's a lot about the house just to come yeah when we do like oh someone
does something bad let's get them all together let's expel them all yeah it's if i did there's such a
um because like the santo's was basically the first person expelled since what like uh reconstruction
yeah and with that it was like oh well well it's so obvious that you should have this person removed
because it's so brazen and there's so many examples but yeah did there's something so like look
i i'm glad sual well is resigning all these other people should be resigned and expelled uh but there's
something so ugly about like oh we have to do it in pairs because we're only gonna
enforce our ethics in a bipartisan way which tells you that actually what you need is some kind of a
standard or process at the end of which there's a there's a there's a way in which you say all right
this is this standard has been met we will vote to expel that won't be kind of abused or politicized
or ignored by either side yeah and it is what i get why and sometimes people face these expulsion
votes they say like well we need we need either the house ethics committee to have completed investigation
and find the person guilty through the house ethics committee or like an actual criminal conviction
it's some kind of legal determination right because you do want that because otherwise
then everyone's gonna start saying or you did this you did this expelled right like but evidentiary
standard and like and by the way like i'm glad too that there was a genuine reporting that
again like because there were like random posts on social media like oh sual well is a creep and
someone like this is just a hit piece this is by the opponents and it's impossible to know like we're
just trying we don't you can't go by that right and so i'm thankfully someone that these women came
forward yeah i sort of like was a combination of like people kind of drumming this up online
including people sort of outside of traditional journalism and then it getting kind of a kind of
you know journalistic outlets sort of putting in the resources to go and kind of run these things
down which ultimately i think is why um it was able to successfully make the story break through and
get him to resign so let's say about happens now in the uh california governor's race we can do um
you know jade advance good news bad news bad news is this is that news uh good news is i feel like
the lockout fears are over at this point yeah i don't know i think i just kind of revived them we
can get that but yeah well let's talk about it because i think um i think now that trump has
trump has jumped into endorsedief hilton swallwells out yep so now you have uh california's roughly
60 40 state democrats republicans so you have two republicans splitting the 40 um but one endorsed
by donald trump and then now you have tom styer katey porter and then i guess you know um
matt mayhem from is the mayor of san josey javier brisara um the former uh ag and uh
bi administration cabinet member and uh in tonio viorgosa former mayor of la sort of buying for
um you know that third spot yeah what do you guys think well so most of the people i've talked to
in the california political world since the swallwell news um think that this race will go down to
on the democratic side styer versus katey porter um katey porter's campaign has said i think the
politico today that they in their internal polls they get half of swallwells vote styer's team i think
said they get a quarter of swallwells vote so we'll see um the problem for katey porter is no
matter how much she raises or how hard she campaigns in the next couple weeks like it's going to be
impossible to match the hundred and twenty million that styer has already spent and the problem for
styer is he spent 120 million right and he's still kind of stuck in the scene he was spending millions
attacking swallwell which at this point means he has set that money was wasted yeah and so the
most of the candidates as you said are polling significantly lower than those two the x factor
seems to be matt mayhem who may get like a ton of money from a bunch of tech industry billionaires
already has make up ton more and maybe that'll move the needle the problem for him is that like
california so big we have what ten media markets they're all expensive even spending 20 million
is like not going to get you that much so you know that's the assumption of where this will
such that the good news for all of us is everyone's in the field right now with polls like campaigns
media organizations packs hopefully we'll get some new data i think the scary scenarios a situation
where you have mayhem porter and styer all splitting the dem vote then you could see a steve hilton
chad vionco lockout scenario it is very unlikely it is more likely i think that the democratic party
comes into the d g a comes in and elevate steve hilton further in some way to ensure that it's a
republican democrat general election but we'll see yeah and the chat and the reason that it seems
unlikely that there's going to be a lockout now is if you've got so basera veer goesa and mayhem have
maybe in one or two polls one of them has has hit five no one's gotten the more than five right so
say you generously give all the candidates who aren't porter and styer 15 percent that still is
45 percent between styer and porter and divided by two is as long as they're over 20
neither chad vionco or steve hilton is getting over 20 percent because it's you know it's 40
percent of the voters are republican the california yeah the argument for this kind of all we're
downing to porter is styer has spent whatever it is over a hundred million dollars he's gotten to
wherever he's gotten he's gotten billions of impressions and and he's sort of stuck where he is
kate porter hasn't really spent anything like she's been very little on ads and i hope that this
would be an opportunity to go spend that money and so for before you even get to where the voters go
like where does swallwell money go doesn't make sense for to go to tom styer he's a fucking billion
air so like where we met me and maybe maybe but we're like like some of them some of them but like
because he's a madman is like very like a lot of the out of the tech focused people you know so he's
got a lot of money uh or so rank on that campaign now again he's got some similar issue with styer he's
jumping the race later but a lot of money spent and still sitting around four five percent i feel like
i don't know maybe who we'll see but like the idea that there's a bunch of people that were behind
irx wallwell or now suddenly you go to them were kind of like they're not going to go to the other
traditional them in the race i don't know we'll see but uh it doesn't like it's a moment for
kate porter to like spend some money and try to figure out how to like kind of bump herself up i
i'm sure she's been waiting because she's so outgunned by styer it's also it's like
at some point in this environment where attention matters most and uh people barely watch ads like
i do think finding a moment to capture attention is more important in some ways than hum it's tom styer
has found out yeah i've been spending a whole bunch of money and it's a challenge in a state
wide race especially a state is because california because you have a huge state so you have a huge
fucking audience but everyone's talking about national politics all the time and we have a couple
big debates coming up and do we think california voters are all gonna be tuning into those debates
you'd hope so but i don't know is we informed tomorrow night which will be the first time i think
they've all been together and to comment on swallwall and i do think that will be a newsmaking thing
and we'll see something come out there uh luckily there's lots of better news for democrats to
focus on on monday the quick political report shifted its outlook for several key senate races
in democrats direction north carolina in georgia this is wild from toss up to lean democrat uh ohio
from lean republican to toss up and nabrasca from solid republican to lean republican in iowa a survey
commissioned by a democratic group gave ios state auditor rob sand and eight point lead in the
governor's race uh while the same poll has republicans holding only a narrow lead in the senate
race um where there are two strong democrats and a tough primary over in alaska marie peltola raised
almost nine million dollars in the first three months of the year quadruple the amount raised by
republican incumbent dan solven probably the most money ever raised in that state um
do you think the democrats chance of taking back the senate has been underrated i feel like it might
be to have been underrated by now might have been underrated i yeah i just sort of picturing an
a tolla coming to the microphone the day after the election and saying we didn't set out to change
the american regime but the regime did change it's interesting to think about yeah i don't know
if it's underrated other than it was rated correctly and then we launched a stop a war and and hit
like gas prices are through the roof and now it needs to be rated according to what's happened
it's been overtaken by events like it was maybe a toss up when gas was three dollars a gallon if
it's five or six dollars a gallon suddenly the senate is not just in play but like we have a real
real chance of taking it yeah i mean i've long felt pretty optimistic about north carolina
and georgia just because like those are great candidates in states that are genuinely swinging
ohio and iowa tough states in 2024 i think uh trump won ohio by eleven points when iowa by thirteen
points some big headwinds but ohio we get shared brown it's probably the best candidate we could
ask for he's the win of primary but he's gonna win the primary and then in iowa we will not
have a candidate until june second um i interviewed josh turic a couple weeks ago folks want to listen
to that uh we're out to zack walsh to try to get him on soon too but iowa democrats have a really
strong candidate at the top of the ticket and robsand who is reportedly up eight points randie
fiends goes his opponent is not that popular i got a lot of baggage and between like high gas prices
high fertilizer prices and then tariffs trump is done everything he can to piss off farmers and
fuck over iowa's economy so there's just like there's just a lot of you know tailwinds for these
candidates we should know that cook in the same breath is moving those races also still doesn't
think the democrats are favored to win the senate because they basically think we'll pick up
one to three we need four and so there must be kind of main um north carolina and then either
ohio or elasco or iowa um and not two of the three now we also i think texas is a good chance too
but they don't they don't write texas i think texas is still lean republican and they're ranking if
remembering correctly i would also like to see like part of this too like like how who does gas prices
hit obviously geographically it's it's gonna hit you know states where people are driving a longer
distance or driving bigger cars like i i would bet if you looked at like who are the kinds of people
that were kind of soft trump voters uh and are now open to voting for a democrat it's going to be
people that they're not driving testless they're driving like SUVs and they find democrats talking
about these issues pretty annoying but they're pretty fucking pissed about how expensive gas is
because we went to one around yeah and it's not just gas it'll be you know supply shortages and
the cost of other i mean inflation is still problem so it can be a big problem and then the argument
that why are we spending x billions on bombs to drop on schools in a run when we could be spending
on anything else here like pulls through the roof and everyone's gonna be able to use that
right like wait do we find out how much this blockade is gonna cost us a day billions trump was
right before the uh election in hungry was promising like economic help for hungry if they elect victor
orban which he's done so many times like right underneath the Argentinian beef for artinian bailout
like he keeps doing that the same praise in election interference then JD Vance goes over there
it's like the bureaucrats and Brussels tried to interfere in your election i won't but also
vote for victor orban but i'm not here to say like what are you doing absolute loser since then um
he wasn't doing it to win he was doing it because they're friends that's right he was doing it to
help a friend all right if you don't love JD Vance at his victor orban you don't deserve him
the most corrupt person ever if you're going uh finally before we get to love its interview with
nithya ramen one more quick item for you um well plenty of political leaders from liberal democracies
all over the world posted statements celebrating victor orbans defeat over the weekend one in particular
caught our eye from former canadian prime minister justin trudeau not because of what he posted
but where he seemingly posted it from coachella where the 54 year old was spotted in a backwards hat
with girlfriend Katie Perry in a series of viral photos which drew this comment from twitter
user at the departed rat quote when you're faded and need to squint one eye to type but you're
trying to tweet about hongarian politics the do we have the picture there with it there it is
this picture is in raging this picture is in raging to me he looks so vital young and happy he
looks the four he looks he looks half his age look maybe there's hope for 54 i i guess i just like
i for me all coachella is is a great weekend where the traffic is less in l and like there's the
former prime minister just living his best fucking life i like that there's like also a video that's
come up to on screen yeah he's like what are you doing what are you doing what are you doing what
are you doing i was talking to canadian friend today who said trudeau is getting shit in canada
i think i have to say your friends kind of thoughts of friends can i get the one
he's sorry there's something up there go from camp uh because he put a promise on from canada
he pushed for a plastic cup and in canada and as you can see there he's got a red solo cup and that's
why he was getting shit that's one of the reasons people are also making fun of him for wearing like
relaxed clothes what do you expect him to be in like a blue yeah like a suit
what are we talking about it i do like the backwards hat yeah i'm enjoying some with chinese food and uh
yeah i guess i like trudeau he was on pottafe the world check out pottafe the world
you subscribe anywhere you get your podcast um i guess my advice to him would be like post about
coachella or post about the hungarian elections don't do both i'm sorry it and you think he needs your
advice yes he's dating a he's dating a he's dating a pop star at coachella we're fucking here he's
crushing it he's living he's living he's living he's doing great he's doing great he's got he's got
he's he's posting about victor orbans throwing back a ketamine loss and he's crushing it it is a
very relatable situation we've all we've all been there oh no we gotta do some work out
oh yeah we're looking at we're looking at twitter here we are in a fun time we've drafted a
convention speech from vegas done it all was he just there to see beaver or is that just a coincidence
a lot of the reporting connected them because they're both canadian i mean she's there so i'm sure
she was just there to see everyone and go to all the you know she's Katy Perry but she's Katy Perry
yeah imagine you're tripping balls waiting for a porta-podding Justin you're like just judo
everybody has artists like this i bet he has the good passes oh definitely but he still got a pee
he's got a pee you got and that's a thing we all got a pee burning was it coachella last year
right but he spoke um remember that yeah yeah it was i think it was he opened for scrillex
that's that's my references are getting so i'm like wow
so old nice good guys i was a bear naked lady
you see in you i'm seeing you at 54 with your hat backers who is a fuel
conscious there not welcome are you feeling your arms was we's
yeah hey buddy ale man stage coaches down the road no no it's next weekend actually she actually
started out with a band called no doubt all right it was fun i wish i was there that's yeah
we're just jealous that's for sure for sure for sure anyway uh when we come back love it talks to
nithia ramen about her race for elay mayor
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Joining me in studio she's a city council member and candidate for mayor of Los Angeles,
Nithya Rahman, Woklynapot, Save America. Thank you so much for having me. We have a lot to get
through. I'm going to go pretty quickly. I also do want to disclose that I've been a supporter of yours
for a long time but I was really excited to see you jump in the race not just because you're you but
because I thought Los Angeles deserved a big contentious hard fought mayoral campaign and we were
about to not have one. You had endorsed Karen Bass for mayor. She was a political ally of yours
then literally in the hours before the noon deadline you decided to run. What happened in the
month between endorsing your former political ally and deciding to run against her? Well the endorsement
request had come months prior so I just want to be very clear about that. It wasn't like an overnight
change of heart. But I will say that I had been getting really frustrated with the way that things had
been going in the city and in the way that things had been going in city hall on so many of the issues
that I really cared about on housing and housing production and the cost of housing, the extraordinary
cost of housing here in Los Angeles. I felt like the city was actually fighting against state mandates
to build housing. The city was fighting affordable housing and we didn't have any clear direction or
urgency around the issue at all on issues like homelessness where people were demanding accountability
that is possible, absolutely possible to deliver things that I have actually made progress on in my
own district and in my limited way as the chair of the committee. We were just not doing on a system
wide level and we didn't feel any urgency around it. I feel like that lack of urgency was everywhere
in every issue that I cared about and I kept trying to push back against it and kept hitting a wall.
I think I got increasingly frustrated and I'm not a traditional politician in that this is what I
want to be doing for the rest of my life. I actually didn't even really think that I would ever run
for office but I really care about Los Angeles and the idea exactly like you said of having a
mayoral election where we weren't even talking about the fact that LA is struggling right now,
that a lot of people feel like it's moving in the wrong direction. That city hall needs to be doing
things differently in order to address our biggest problems that we weren't even going to have that
conversation. I mean, it made me crazy. It made me absolutely crazy and so finally in the last
couple of days I seriously considered running and then on the very last day through my hat and the ring.
So let's talk about what's wrong with Los Angeles which would be too long of a conversation to have
but stepping back, the city of LA has a budget of around $14 billion yet we can't fix sidewalks,
repave streets, we don't plant trees, we can't replace the bulbs in our street lamps. Why in the
richest state in the country, in the fourth largest economy in the world is Los Angeles such a basket
you know I think a lot of it has to do with really poor fiscal management here at the city. We
are making decisions that undermine our capacity to be able to deliver basic essential services for
our residents and I think that's a shame because it is again it's completely possible to do it.
We last year had a billion dollar budget deficit that definitely had some kind of impacts from
the fires, the year prior and from or a few months prior and from heightened liability claims
that are impacting a lot of municipalities across the country. But the biggest issue was that
we signed unsustainably large contracts beginning with the police union which is one of the
biggest players in local politics. We signed an enormous contract with them that everybody at
City Hall knew would lead to hundreds of millions of dollars of shortfall and yet we signed it
anyway because the mayor and many other City Hall leaders I voted against it. Many other City Hall
leaders knew that the police union is the major player in local elections. They're the biggest
funders of independent expenditure committees of campaign funding here in LA and so we signed that
contract. We knew that we would be hundreds of millions of dollars in the whole as a result and
then exactly as everyone knew we ended last year with a billion dollar budget deficit and a
thousand six hundred layoffs on the table and because that happened we are now in a situation where
we have 30,000 streetlights off across the city of Los Angeles and an average repair time of a year
to fix a streetlight. We haven't paved a single mile of street this entire fiscal year because
we don't have the money we're filling fewer potholes because we have the trucks to fill potholes but
we can't pay for the drivers to fill potholes. We are doing everything worse than we could and now
we're going back to residents and asking them to pay more in order to deliver these essential
services. So you would if you were to become mayor you would inherit these contracts. How do you
fix it? How do we dig ourselves out of this hole and how do you do it when it's not just the mayor
that's kind of making these decisions but also the city council and other people that feel
beholden to these groups even if they are supportive of making sure public employees receive
good benefits and good benefits. 100% and I think you can offer I think we can have a vision for
Los Angeles where we are paying public sector employees what they deserve giving them raises to
be able to live in this city that is so extraordinarily expensive but also negotiate adequately
in order to make sure that we're also delivering basic services and that inability to negotiate
that's what we're losing in a system which is so insular here in in LA where the people who are
really constituents of city hall politics are a very small group as opposed to all of the residents
of the city of Los Angeles for whom the decisions being made in city hall really matter. Can you
talk about what happened with the convention center? Yes. I think this is a good example. There
was a proposal to expand the convention center. Can you just tell people what happened? How much
it's going to cost and what happened there? Yeah. So there's been a proposal being kicked around
for actually a decade to expand the convention center. We have a convention center in downtown LA.
It is pretty old. It's smaller than other convention centers and there's been kind of a
discussion to see whether we should expand it and brighten it up. Suddenly just a few months
after we had a billion dollar budget deficit the convention center was back on the table and by
this time the costs had ballooned significantly. Now the cost of that rebuilding that convention center
with debt service we're going to be close to six billion dollars. That would mean that we were
going to be paying out a hundred million dollars annually out of our general front. Those are
our discretionary dollars that we use for providing basic services here in LA, everything from
public safety to streetlights. That proposal was pushed through very, very quickly despite the
fact that we are in a fiscal crisis despite the fact that we have the Olympics coming up despite
the fact that local and economic headwinds are very, very uncertain here in Los Angeles because
a small cluster of downtown businesses who fund local elections really wanted to push it forward.
And for me, I represent a district right now that is very vocal about their views. So relatively,
it's one of the relatively wealthier districts and they know how to get in touch with City Hall
and they care. I didn't hear from any of my constituents saying that they wanted this project
to move forward. That's very unusual for big decisions in front of the city.
How long would the project take to? How many years would it take to build this convention center?
It's going to take a couple of years and what is interesting about it is that we actually have
Olympics events that are scheduled to happen at the convention center. And so in order to make
sure that the Olympics events are happening, what we have to do is to move the project forward
until it gets to Olympics readiness. It won't be done by the time the Olympics are happening,
but we need to get to Olympics readiness and then we're going to kind of put walls around the
remaining parts of the convention center that are still under construction. Then we're going to have
the events there and then afterwards we'll finish the project. And that's going to have $6 billion
with debt service. With debt service. Yes. All the cost plus the borrowing and all the rest
going to cost City $6 billion. And how long would it take us to make back that $6 billion?
Oh, we're, I mean, we are going to be paying the debt for that for the next 30 years.
And the revenues will never cover the costs. I mean, this is terrific.
Love that for us. All right. I'm sorry. So how does it get to the point where a small group of
people, Democrats or, or you know, left associated people are all coming together to make these
decisions, not Republicans that are causing these problems. It's not Donald Trump. This is a problem
generated by the only thing between us and solving these problems is Democrats. And so for like
people that maybe aren't from Los Angeles and see this, like what have you learned being in the
City Council about what it takes to get a group of people that are maybe ideologically aligned
to care about just the basics of good governing? You know, I don't know the answer to that,
to be honest with you, because that is not what we have right now here in Los Angeles. So I don't
know what the solution for actually caring about good governance is except that I think it is,
it is absolutely necessary at this moment. To me here, to live in the city, to think about the fact
that I have to look my constituents in the face and say to them, you trust me. I'm going to address
really complex issues like affordability. I'm going to address really complex issues like
homelessness, but I can't fix your street light for a year and just trust me. I got this. That
felt unacceptable to me. That felt like an absurd situation to be in with my constituents.
And that is really what had, what pushed me into running in, you know, at this time, I had actually
been so frustrated with the way that things were going that I had started to lose hope in
how things could get better here in Los Angeles. And I think in the context of a federal environment
where I feel relatively helpless and hopeless as well, feeling that locally has also been really,
frustrating. But I will say that since I started the campaign and since I've been going out and
talking to communities about these decisions and talking about how the city can do better, how we can
achieve all of the goals that we want to set out to achieve if we're honest with our constituents,
if we're open, if we're transparent. And if we really work towards good outcomes, I really do feel
like people are excited by that message. People are getting enthusiastic. People are organizing their
own meetings so that I can meet their friends. Like it is a message that is getting a lot of positive
reception, which is really exciting. So let's talk about one of the key challenges for LA, which
is housing. I actually interviewed, so Ron Mamdani about this when he was running in New York,
that he had actually evolved as somebody that was associated with the DSA, the Socialist,
Democratic Socialist, that he had come to see the importance of not just like rent control and
measures to control the cost of housing, public housing, but also market rate housing. I think
you've had a similar evolution. Can you talk about what is standing in the way right now
of Los Angeles building enough housing supply to meet the need? Yeah, I mean, I think I definitely
had that same movement. I was very focused on affordable housing when I first started my first race,
building more affordable housing, building more shelter, making sure that we were building kind of
what people talked about needing here in LA. But as I was in office and I started getting calls
from constituents who were struggling with their rents, I realized these were often people who
would never qualify for affordable housing, but they had no choice but to live in a unit with a
terrible landlord in terrible conditions because there was simply nothing else available to them
here in Los Angeles. LA is a city where there has been an active anti-housing movement that has
shaped our local politics for decades. In the 80s, there was an anti-manhattanization movement
that down-zoned, that reduced the capacity to build more housing along every major boulevard and
thoroughfare, that reduced capacity to build multi-family housing across the entire city,
leading to what estimates, what is an estimated shortfall of something like 500,000 units here.
In the city of Los Angeles right now. But I think we can actually fix it. There are ways in which
the city of Los Angeles can build more. A huge change would be getting the city out of the way,
rezoning so that we actually have capacity to build more housing, building more density, particularly
near our major transit corridors, building more gentle density like duplexes and triplexes,
even in some single-family neighborhoods that can be more walkable that are near transit. I think
that's a key change that we need to make. We need to get the city out of the way. We have enormous
red tape standing between an application for a new housing unit coming in and when it is actually
approved and our timelines for approving housing are double even triple what other jurisdictions are,
which leads to significantly less housing being produced. And by the way, more expensive housing
being produced because the longer you have to sit and wait for your permits to come, the more
expensive that housing becomes ultimately. And the fewer projects that get started because the
people building those projects know they have to be able to make money on the end when there's
going to be a huge delay. Yeah, I also wanted to say that we really have a culture in city,
in city hall, where delay and denial are kind of rewarded and saying yes is not. And I think we
have to completely flip that around. We have to build a city where saying yes is the goal of our
housing processes, not the opposite. And that is a culture shift that has to happen at every level
of the bureaucracy. It has to be enabled and undergirded by technology that allows cooperation
between departments. And it has to be rewarded at the highest levels of government. And that's really
what I think needs to happen. Yeah, like after the fires and the palisades in Altadena,
there was this sense even from the mayor that like we're going to make this process faster. We're
going to make it work better of the 4,100 that have applied for permits to rebuild less fewer than
half have been approved. Only 34 homes have been built. So even when there is impetus, even when
there seems to be an understanding that we need to move faster, it's not happening. Is that a
technical problem of the rules? Is that leadership? Is that the mayor not like what's happening?
Well, I think it is leadership. I think it is a I think the mayor here in the city of Los Angeles
has, while it is a weaker mayor system than in other places, we the mayor has the capacity
to hire and fire every department head. And that means that the mayor has the capacity to determine
the priorities of every department. They're getting motions and legislative efforts from the council
members to push them in a thousand different direction. The mayor is the one that departments
respond to. And so it is up to the mayor to set housing production and permitting timelines
as a priority. She can set deadlines for by when these things have to happen. You can appoint
leadership that is responsive to those goals. You can create metrics through which you can hold
department heads accountable. And if they meet those goals, you can reward them. And if they don't
meet those goals, you should replace them. That is not happening here in the city of Los Angeles
at all across all of the departments that are involved in the housing production process.
Also, we haven't had a deputy mayor of housing for almost two years. In a city where the cost
of housing and housing production and rebuilding are key issues for this city, we need a deputy mayor
for housing. But that position has been left empty for I think an inexcusably long time.
So we're in this crisis in housing. We've lost 54,000 people in the county. Now, Los Angeles
passed something that's called ULA. It's the match and tax. Yes. People would know it. And I actually
supported the match and tax. So I thought, okay, I don't think it was written in a stupid way by
people who seem, honestly, mathematically illiterate. But it put tax on houses over 5 million and then
a bigger tax on houses that would be over 10 million. And I thought all things considered better to
have it than not have it. I didn't understand when I voted for it, honestly. That it also applied
to multi-family housing. Because that was so, I wouldn't even have occurred to me that I would do
something so fucking stupid. Truly, I feel stupid that I voted for. I would have voted no.
You tried to fix it. And you say, hey, we'll keep the match and tax. But we won't apply this
to new multi-family housing. Because all the evidence says that multi-family housing is being stopped
and this is counterproductive. And yet, the council doesn't do it. Right.
What is the, like, it was in rage. I'm mad sitting here. It doesn't. What is the logic of it? How do
you, how do you show up with these people and not, like, what is stopping them from doing them?
Like, sputtering to a stop. It's so fucking stupid. Why didn't they support what you were trying to do?
Well, I mean, I think because people, A, people don't believe the evidence. So there's,
there, I mean, I was very convinced by the evidence. There were real differences in
LA City versus LA County. LA County is producing more housing. We're producing less. San Diego,
which is facing the same macroeconomic conditions that we are is actually increasing permits. While
LA has seen a 25% drop in permits. I mean, to me, the evidence was very clear that this was
impacting multi-family housing production. I think there's two things that are happening here
that are preventing more robust action from being taken on issues that are obviously addressing
housing production. One is that there is significant pushback from, again, those same kind of insider
groups that have huge sway in City Hall, both the ULA coalition that I worked with very closely
to try and negotiate a pathway forward. I was talking to them for many, many months to say,
because I too as a supporter of ULA, I really value the money that it provides to the city for
rent relief and other things. And so I worked very closely with them to say, hey, can we craft
an exemption that allows for this much needed housing to be built here? Ultimately, we just were
not able to come to an agreement on what that would look like. And I got extremely frustrated,
because to me, this is the single most important issue that is, you know, hampering our future
resiliency, that is making Los Angeles into a place of less opportunity. Secondly, I think both
labor groups that funded the effort also were not on board with making any changes. And so with
nonprofits and with labor groups that had supported the effort not making any changes without
a real push from the mayor and from other leadership to really move this forward, this effort
died. It is now going through a committee process, but I'm not sure what is going to come from it.
So I think more than half the council had already endorsed Karen Bass before you decided to run.
They've, I think, all stuck with their endorsements, but I assume behind the scenes,
others on the council are as frustrated as you are. You have to have also been somebody that
endorsed Karen Bass, but was unhappy. Are you hearing from them privately that they actually want
you to win, but they're afraid to say so publicly? Well, I look, I don't want to betray my private
conversations. I still have relationships with people on the council that I'm working with and
you know, whatever happens in this election, either outcome, I will need to work with them going
forward as well. But I will say that, you know, I interact with a lot of local political figures here,
not just people on the council, but across the entire region. And I think there have been a lot of
questions about kind of the lack of leadership on issues. And I think that's the most perplexing
thing here in, in LA, which I think Angelino's can feel on the streets, which is just like a,
there's a rudderlessness. There's just a lack of pushing. There's a lack of urgency on the things
that I feel really urgent about. And that I think residents of the city feel really urgent about.
There's a lack of just kind of being out there and fighting like Angelino's need a fighter at a
moment when things feel really bleak here. And to not have that fighter in City Hall, to not have
that person really articulating a vision of how things could change, whether it's on the cost of
housing, whether it's on our transit and safety infrastructure for our streets, whether it's on
homelessness, whether it's on ice, whatever it is, we're just missing that kind of that leadership
here in the city. And this is an incredible place. This is an incredible place. It deserves that
kind of leadership. It deserves that kind of vision. It deserves someone pushing with all of their
might to push it in the right direction. And I just, I know I felt that absence and I don't
think I'm the only one. I really don't. So I want to ask you about MacArthur Park. This is a
beautiful park in the middle of the city. Yeah. If you go there right now, we drove there right now
to the middle of the day, you would see basically it can open air drug market. And the mayor and the
police, they set up chain link fences on the sidewalks around the park. They're blocking off,
they're not coordinating anything in there. It's hard to believe that this is the solution. They
have built boxes of chain link fence to close the sidewalk so that people do not use those spaces
to sell drugs. This was touted as a temporary solution. Years it has been evolving. There was a plan
for like about $27 million trying to beautify the park over a long period of time. You're the mayor
of Los Angeles. How long do they take until MacArthur Park is a place that's safe for families?
Is it a I don't I personally like look, I can be told why I'm wrong, but the idea that it's a
six month problem as opposed to a one month problem, two week problem to really kind of make the
place safe again. Like what would you do and how long do you think it takes? Yeah. With real
attention to make a place like that reflective of the kind of city we think Los Angeles should be.
Yeah, I think I think it would take six months to a year to change it because I think it takes
repeated engagement and presence in that location to address longstanding issues. And I think you
have to address both the homelessness crisis that is on the streets. You have to address the mental
health issues that are out there. And you have to address very obvious criminal activity that's
happening there drug dealing and other kinds of things for which you need police presence there.
Dealing with really ugly issues that are out there that require their attention investigation
and arrests. And I think if you do both of those things, if you are really again robustly engaged
pushing with all your might on that issue, I do think that you can make some real improvements there.
I, you know, we have had in council district four where I've been engaged. We don't have anything that
resembles that scale of crisis, but we did have very large encampments, very, very large encampments,
30, 40 people that were there when I first got elected. And each of those addressing each of those
took that kind of effort. We were able to offer shelter services housing and really push on the
system to be able to address issues. There were cases where we had to work a much longer time
to address people who had severe mental health issues who, you know, despite repeated engagement,
even arrests that came about from their own behavior would end up right back in the same place.
That requires engaging with the Department of Mental Health. That requires engaging with mental
health clinicians. It takes time, but again, with time and effort progress can happen. And I think
the key that missing link here, the thing that I keep articulating over and over again, is that you
have to put in the time and the urgency and the leadership and the focus on these things that can
actually push things in the right direction. And it has to be sustained over time.
Yeah, like because what I, what I'm hearing too is like a lot of this is pushing back even at times
on your own constituencies, whether it's a public employees union or maybe advocates for the on-house.
You know, Gavin Newsom is almost taken as a given in some quarters that Gavin Newsom was
performatively cruel in the way that he wanted to clear encampments. But at the same time, I imagine
most, even Democrats in California would say, oh, that's what I want. I want someone who's going
to be aggressive about doing that is part of the job of mayor making decisions that are humane
that are reflective of like our values as progressives. But at the same time, like sometimes the
advocates are going to be out there protesting if you do need to clear an encampment or sometimes
you are going to have to go against a labor union even if you broadly support unions.
I think that for me, like on the issue of encampments or the issue of homelessness overall,
to me, I think it is, and actually let me take a step back, whether whatever issue that we're talking
about here in the city of Los Angeles, I think the issue for me as a person who is deeply progressive
is someone who believes in the power of government to do good things and to make our lives better.
My goal is to ensure that you as a resident of Los Angeles and every resident of Los Angeles
feels like the government is working for them and that they can palpably feel the positive
presence of government in their lives. And I think you have to do what it takes in order to
deliver those results. On homelessness, I happen to believe that for the, for kind of the encampments
that I've dealt with in my district, housing, shelter services focused work has been what has
reduced homelessness significantly in, you know, street homelessness significantly in my district
at almost every encampment that we've worked in. And that is the work that I would be doing is
create that system of sustained effort to generate results on reducing street homelessness,
on addressing mental health issues, on making our streets safer, cleaner, brighter, fixing
streetlights, whatever it is, you have to push on these issues. And I think that, that is really,
I think for me, my governing principle as an elected representative and as someone who is a very
proud progressive is like, I want people to feel like the government is working for them.
When you're on the council, you supported what would become mayor-bassist of signature policy
to address homelessness? It was a $300 million program to get people off the streets.
The city spent about about $259,000 per person housed. 40% of the participants, more than 2,000 people,
ended up back on the streets. What went wrong with that program? And like, what does it tell you about
how you do it differently? So initially, I thought the kind of the emergency response of the inside
safe program was necessary for LA. We had a, we, I also supported declaring a state of emergency
on homelessness. I think street homelessness is a crisis. It is an emergency and we should respond
to it at that scale. And the kind of effort that it was where you, again, you was renting hotel
and motel rooms and using those as shelter to go to encampments and get off for that shelter and
then moving an entire encampment off the streets. That's called encampment resolution. It's not
unique to inside safe. It's something that I've done in my district. In fact, we did it, you know,
years before the mayor came into office. We've done it in Venice. It's been pioneered across the
city and it's very effective by really focusing encampment by encampment and offering real shelter
to people that were able to actually move people indoors and then clear those encampments and then
those areas stay clear because you've actually addressed the reason why people are on the street
in the first place. So to me, that kind of encampment resolution focus response is really important.
The issue becomes when the intervention that you're using is enormously expensive and you're not
doing the work to ensure that you are making it into a fiscally sustainable response. So inside
safe motel rooms cost an average of over $80,000 per person per room per person per year and people
are staying in them for an average of a year and sometimes they're costing as much as $100,000
per person per year. That is an enormously expensive intervention that I think was appropriate as
an emergency intervention, but needs to be made into a real fiscally sustainable system that
actually can respond to the crisis on our streets with the dollars that we have because this is not
sustainable. And so to me, I want to build that system. I have actually in the city generated
data about the performance of our homelessness investments for the first time working with
LASA that shows us where beds are vacant, where our permanent supportive housing units are available,
and through that work, I've actually brought people into these beds, filled every bed, filled every
unit. We need to be building a system which is cost less per person, but is actually working better
at actually bringing people indoors, filling every bed, filling every resource, and then doing the
work when they're in those units and those shelter beds to get them the case management they need to
transition to whatever is their next step, whether it's reunification with family, whether it is
moving into a permanent supportive housing unit, whether it is coming into self-sufficiency,
getting a job, being able to actually live independently. These are all things that the system can do,
but you have to design that system. You need to make sure that there is leadership there and
resources to create that system, to make sure that people are moving through it into safety and
to permanent housing appropriately, but that kind of work is not happening right now, despite
pushing within the city to create oversight, to create responsibility here.
All right, a couple final questions. Look, I realize that as Mayor Velae, the Middle East has very
little to do with your portfolio, but you've been hit from the left for not speaking out enough
about Gaza. You also would be running to be the mayor of a city with a very big Jewish population
that is deeply concerned about the way in which anti-Nanism leads into anti-Semitism. What do you view
like your role is in speaking about this issue and what do you think people in Los Angeles should
know about how you feel about it? Well, I have spoken about the issue in the past. I called for
a ceasefire, introduced a ceasefire resolution in city council. I've called what's happening there,
which is incredibly horrific to witness what's happening in Gaza. I've called it a genocide, and
I've been deeply disturbed by what I have seen at the same time in my role as city council member,
and what I imagine in my role as mayor would be the impacts on people here and kind of the
knock-on effects from what's happening in the Middle East, I think have to be also the focus of our work
here in the city. So in my district, we've had increases in really horrifying incidents of anti-Semitism
and Islamophobia, and I've had to respond to both of those. And as mayor, I would need to do more
of that. I would need to ensure that the city is a place where people are able to express their
political opinions freely, where people are able to express their First Amendment rights,
but that they are not victims of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, and when those happen,
we have to speak up about it. We have to make sure that this is a place that's safe for everyone.
One's over the film industry briefly. There's so much to talk about. So L.A., we had only 19,000
on-location film and TV production days. That's a 16% decrease from 2024. That's the lowest number
of production days ever recorded outside of COVID. What would you do as mayor to bring production
jobs back to this city that mayor bass hasn't been able to do? Yeah, one of the big things that I
think we need to be doing is making it easier to film here. And there have been some efforts that are
making their way through the council around kind of reducing restrictions on how production happens,
on reducing costs for production, how improving how film L.A. works. These have been moving, I think,
all too slowly. There's no reason why through executive directive these fixes can't be made
immediately and that the bureaucracy that's standing in the way of people producing here,
actually making films here, cannot be eased more quickly by a mayor who is deeply focused on this
issue. But I think there's more that can be done. Last year we had a conversation about a tax
credit that increased. I wanted to see more advocacy from our mayor for a tax credit that would
have no cap and that would be guaranteed a decade into the future. That's the kind of
system that studios are looking for as they're thinking about where to invest. And L.A. should be the
loudest advocate, the leadership of L.A. should be the loudest advocate for the kind of tax credit
system that other states are putting into place and actually getting production moving there,
like in New Jersey. We should be advocating for that same system here. Okay, Sacramento may not listen,
but the leadership of Los Angeles should be fighting as hard as they can to make sure that that
tax credit system is put into place. I would also say that, you know, I think we need to be really
engaging with studios. We need to be engaging with companies that are headquartered here and saying
to them, what do we need to do to make sure that you're shooting here? What do we need to do to make
sure that we are having production stay here? How can we make sure that this industry, which is so
central to Los Angeles, so central to Los Angeles stays in Los Angeles? How can we make sure that
the incredible talent that we have across the city can work here, a place that they move to to
build their dreams to work in the film industry? I think that's the kind of engagement that I
want to see. I haven't been seeing that kind of engagement happening. That's what I would want to do
if I were mayor. Oh, and then can you reopen the air flight? Oh, I don't know if I can. I would love
to figure out why it's closed for so long. What's going on with the air flight? It's nuts. Yeah,
let's go talk to that property owner. Okay. All right. Made some progress today. Yeah. All right. Thank you.
If you're on and thank you so much for being here. Good luck in your race. I hope you're
at the air flight open. All right. We're done. Thank you. Thank you.
That's our show for today. Thanks to Nithia Rahman for coming on. Dan and I will be back with
a new show on Friday.
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