Are you a Californian who feels like your views on politics in California are not popular? Do you feel like no one will agree with you? Feels like when you meet someone who does agree you are part of a secret underground club of people who think like you? Then join us on the California Underground Podcast to hear others who share your views and solutions to save our beautiful state. On this episode, we are joined by Assemblyman James Gallagher. A vocal opponent of Governor Newsom and fighter for constitutional rights in Sacramento, we sit down and discuss topics ranging from parental rights to fentanyl to protecting your Second Amendment rights. This episode was recorded on 8.1.23
*The California Underground Podcast is dedicated to discussing California politics from a place of sanity and rationality.*
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If. What's going on, everybody?
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Thanks for tuning into another episode of the California
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Underground Podcast. I'm your host, Phil.
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As always, with me is my trusty cohost, the best and fastest
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researcher in the West Camille. And tonight we have a very
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special guest, Assemblyman James Gallagher.
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If you're aware of anything going on in California politics,
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you know who this guy is. He was one of the most vocal and
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outspoken critics of Gavin Newsom during the COVID
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pandemic. Him and Kevin Kiley took him to
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court and fought him there. Just a warrior up there in
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Sacramento. We need about 12 more or 20
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more. New James Gallagher's in
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Sacramento, in my opinion. So James, the Honorable James
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Gallagher, welcome to the show. Thank you for joining us
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tonight. Well, hey, great to be with you,
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Phil and Camille. I'm glad we finally made this
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work out. I know last time I had some
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technical difficulties, but I told you I would get those
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worked out and it looks like we're good.
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So glad to be with you guys tonight.
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Thank you so much for being here.
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We're so excited. Yeah, we got the technical
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difficulties worked out, coming in loud and clear.
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So for the small amount of people who have no idea who you
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are, why don't you give us a little introduction about
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yourself, where you're from and how you got into politics?
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Yeah, sure. So.
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Well, I'm a husband and father. I've been married to my wife,
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Jana, for 20 years. We have five children and I got
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2 girls, teenagers and and then three boys.
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Twins were last. They're they're they're six.
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So we got a we got a crew and and you know, I mean that's a
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big reason why I do what I do is I'm, I'm a 6th generation
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Californian. I mean I love this state.
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It's been you know really good to my family and you know this
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was the land of opportunity for for my ancestors.
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And you know I've I've seen increasingly as I've grown up
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how it's losing that, you know, and especially now today as I'm
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in the Assembly, you know, fighting battles you know,
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against policies that I just think are really damaging and
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just taking away the luster of this of this great state And and
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for that next generation, you know, for my kids for for years.
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You know, I think a lot of people are going, man, is is
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California going to be, you know a place where they can prosper?
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And increasingly of that answer, it looks pretty looks pretty
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bleak. So it was a big reason why I got
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involved in in politics. I'd say I've always kind of been
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interested, you know, growing up I was, yeah, I guess I was
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probably that that kid that you know loved history and civics.
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I'm proud that I got the Constitution Award when I was in
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8th grade and you know took that on into into college and and
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stayed pretty active. I went to BC Berkeley and was
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really involved with the college Republicans there and
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conservative politics you know. And when I got my education and
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came back, started, you know, working in my hometown, decided
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to get involved, ran for local government first I was on the
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Board of Supervisors in Sutter County and then decided to, you
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know, take on Sacramento and and run for assembly.
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So I've been doing that role now for about 9 years, going into my
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9th year in the Assembly now. And last year I became our
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Republican leader in the in the Assembly.
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So, you know, I'm trying to bring things back, win seats.
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You know, I really want to turn the tide here in California and
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just make things better. One thing I Sorry.
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I was going to say I'm. Stuck yet?
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The College Republican group at Berkeley, like I was like, is
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that an oxymoron that exists? Sorry.
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Yeah, it does. I mean, that's that's a great
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question. It's, you know, it's funny, like
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Berkeley's actually always had a pretty good, you know, over the
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years it's had like a pretty good College Republicans group.
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When I got there, it wasn't very strong, but there was a group of
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us that, you know, just got more active.
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And I mean by the time we we graduated there was about 300
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members. Those weren't all active
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members, but we had you know we had built up the club and and
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started a conservative magazine on campus.
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And it's kind of continued since.
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I mean you know Berkeley, you know generally has one of the
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better CR clubs and I think they they kind of, you know, that's
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where you kind of you cut your teeth, right.
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Because you're you're battling you're on the front lines of you
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know battling radical progressivism, you know on the
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Berkeley campus. And so it always has kind of had
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a a pretty decent, you know, strong student group on campus.
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That was actually funny, Camille.
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That was actually going to be my question was like, you know,
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being in Berkeley and being part of the College Republicans, it
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probably does help sharpen your your ability to argue.
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I found that out in law school. When you're in the minority, law
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school is very left-leaning. If you're conservative and you
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stand up in law school and you say I'm conservative, you're
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going to get a lot of people shouting at you.
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So you better be able to like. Come with your A game when it
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comes to making your point and making your argument.
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Yeah, that's true, man. I mean, I think the two things I
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learned, you know, from, you know, from Berkeley was, you
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know, you know, one, just, you know, how to, you know, hone
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your arguments and and really, you know, make your case against
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what is kind of the, you know, established liberal
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progressivism on campus. But the other thing I'm kind of
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amazed about is like the things that we thought were pretty
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radical at Berkeley are starting to become more mainstream.
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And we're starting to see them, you know, statewide and they're
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coming into our politics. There's Bills Gate introduced
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that, you know, I was like, man, that's that's just a crazy
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Berkeley thing. Well, now, you know, with the
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way things have gone, we're seeing more and more of that try
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to get, you know, pushed in, you know, that agenda getting pushed
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into the mainstream. Yeah.
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And I, I kind of want to go back a little bit Speaking of making
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your case, I want to talk a little bit about you taking the
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Newsome administration to court during the COVID year, because I
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feel like that really catapulted you and Kevin Kiley into the
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limelight as these conservative warriors in California take us.
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Talk a little bit about that. Like what where did you guys
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decide? Like let's take them to court
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and then. What was that experience like?
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How much blowback did you get? How much support did you get
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while you were doing that? Yeah, well, you know, we had
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come back actually into session. So this was probably in like
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the, you know, may time frame of 2020, we had actually come back
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into session. You know, the, the legislature
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came back from, you know, essentially being back in their
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districts. And we were seeing like the
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governor just do these executive orders like left and right that
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I'm looking at, I'm going that's that's lawmaking.
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You know, you're making law at a whole cloth or you're modifying
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and changing existing statute. And you know, and me that went
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back to that 8th grade, you know, constitution.
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And I'm like, man, you cannot do that.
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This is a very simple, you know, separation of powers issue.
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And I always said that from the beginning, I go, look, this is a
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simple, straightforward case. It's Constitution 101.
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The governor can't make law. So I was actually sitting in my
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law office and I drafted up the complaint.
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I just I started drafting it right then he had just issued
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the executive order you know calling for all mail ballot
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elections and also changing a lot of things about election law
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that people didn't even think about like allowing you to you
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know have a polling place in a bar.
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You know different things like that that he just made you know
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wholesale changes to. So I started drafting the
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complaint put it together and then I said man I'm going to
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need some help doing this. You know you know who who would
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who would be great, you know to have as a as a partner in this.
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And I immediately thought of Kevin Kiley.
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I called him you know that that day I said, hey man, I got this
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thing drafted up. What do you want to do?
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What do you want to go on this, you know, law partners on this
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particular case, you know, Co counsel and he's like
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absolutely. So like the next day, you know,
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we got everything ready and went over and filed it in Sutter
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County Court together and sort of the rest is history.
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And. And what was the, you guys took
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him to trial or what was the result of that?
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Yeah. So the first thing we did is we
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actually went and got a temporary restraining order.
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So we did what's called an ex parte application where we went
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into the court and said, look, you know, it's very clear he's
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not allowed to do this. We want you to issue a
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restraining order stopping him from, you know, executing this
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order and we got it. So I think we were one of the
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first to get a, a temporary restraining order in COVID
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during COVID against, you know, this abuse of executive power.
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He, he and the Attorney General's office immediately
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appealed and they went to the Third District Court of Appeals,
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which we found was not a great venue for us.
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Most of the judges there are appointed.
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They're actually either former councils, 2 governors or served
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under governors, and then they're appointed by governors.
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You know, they weren't all appointed by Gavin Newsom, but
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you know, governors over time. And so there's, I would say
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there's very much a bias towards executive power.
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They overturned the restraining order and then we went into the
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main case and so that went to trial ultimately in in in
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October of 2020, which was kind of amazing in itself.
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We were able to kind of we were expecting them to try to delay
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this as long as possible. But we were able to kind of get
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this on a fast track and get a trial date and we won that and
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we were so a trial we we made our case.
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And you know I always say when it was the only judge who was
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actually elected by the people and not appointed.
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You know we won in Sutter County Superior Court and it was a
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great decision. You know Judge Sarah Heckman you
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know I encourage anybody to read and we can get that out there
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for folks. But it it goes into the
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fundamental principles and law of separation of powers and said
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look the governor did not have authority to to modify to change
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existing statute. So that was a big win.
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And we and the other great thing is we show up to the courthouse.
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And I to this day, I'm just I was it's an amazing memory of
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just coming out of that courthouse and having just a
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bunch of people there in support, you know and people
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that were praying for us and people that were, you know just
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there to help give us that support.
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And so many people that we I think in our minds we were just
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like this is the right thing to do is what we have to do.
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It's not right. But the other thing we heard
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from so many people was hey, thank you for doing this.
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Like we're so glad that somebody is finally standing up against
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us that we were doing something that so many people felt in
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their hearts and wanted to try and do something about but just
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felt helpless about. And and I think we gave a lot of
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people hope And then there was so many other things that
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happened. You know, then some parents
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groups are going after on the schools issue and and I think it
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really turned into a movement that you know, was really great,
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you know, for for California and for bringing people together to
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say look enough is enough and we can't allow, you know, this to
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happen, you know, in our constitutional Republic.
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No, I think that's actually a perfect segue into our next
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topic in regards to standing up and saying enough is enough.
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We were talking a little bit about parental issues and people
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kind of pushing back on a lot of these issues we talked about
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last week on the episode. You're seeing more of this
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parental push back, especially like Temecula Chino Valley.
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Of what's going on in schools and this idea that the school
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administrators and teachers know better than the parents and they
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want to kind of step in and be a wall and keep secrets from
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parents. What's been going on in
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Sacramento and what are your efforts regarding that from a
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legislative standpoint? Yeah.
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So I think, I mean, first, it's been amazing to see, you know,
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this movement of parents and I gave all the credit to them.
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You know, I mean, these these groups that have formed really
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across the state and they're just, you know, they're everyday
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many of the women, you know, that are just saying, look,
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we're tired of what we were seeing in the schools.
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You know, kind of pushing either a world curriculum, you know, or
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I mean during COVID shutting down for far too long and
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keeping their kids at home, the mental health issues we were
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seeing with kids. And sort of this army of parents
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started showing up school boards and saying, look, you know,
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we're going to now we're going to pay attention.
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We've been, we've been asleep, but now we're going to pay
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attention and we're going to make sure that our kids are
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getting what they need and that they're getting an accurate
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education, that they're getting real history, not woke history.
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And and to stop these agendas that are, you know, that people
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have seen are being pushed, you know, a radical transgender
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agenda that's being pushed. So, you know, earlier this year
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there were actually several lawsuits, but one high profile
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one was in Chico in my in my district where a parent found
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out that the school was actually started transitioning, you know,
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her daughter at school and never told her at all.
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And so she brought a lawsuit against Chico Unified and said,
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look, this is a violation of my constitutional rights.
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Actually, Harvey Dylan, who you guys probably know, you know,
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was doing the lawsuit for, was her attorney.
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And as we looked into this, we found that, you know, again,
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kind of going back to what we're talking about, there is no
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statute on the books in California that mandates schools
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not tell parents about their kid wanting to use a different
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bathroom or or a different pronoun at school.
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There's it doesn't exist but school.
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But the California Department of Education was actually issuing
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guidances to the school district saying this.
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You are required by law to do this.
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This is the guidance. You should do this.
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And if a kid tells you at school that they are transgender or
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that they want to use a different, you know, bathroom or
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they want to use different facilities, different pronouns,
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you do not tell the parents. So this was a, you know, it was
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a total underground regulation has no basis in law.
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And they were telling school districts to do this, including
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Chico. So Bill, Billy Salie, you know,
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my caucus member, Assembly member, you know, from
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Riverside, he actually ran a bill and I coauthored it to say,
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look this, it should be mandatory that you tell parents.
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I mean, this is just among a whole host of other issues that
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you should tell parents about. If some if their kid is
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struggling at school, if they're being bullied, if they're having
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mental health issues, involve the parent, that should be the
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default, you know, unless there's some issue of abuse, you
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know, of course, right. But, you know, the default
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should be that you inform parents.
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So we ran that bill and we actually, we couldn't even get a
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hearing. It was it's AB 1314.
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We couldn't get a hearing in the Education committee because the
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chairman, Al Meritsucci, issued a letter saying if I hear this
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bill, I would be giving a platform for hate.
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That's what he said, completely ridiculous.
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So it's like, hey, man, we're representing the voices of
00:16:15
common sense, reasonable parents around the state who are saying
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we should be involved. You can't exclude us.
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And so, you know, we've been pushing, you know, to change the
00:16:25
level. We couldn't even get a hearing.
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Now school districts, you know, and the first one being, you
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know, Chino actually have now issued their own policy doing
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just that saying we're not going to, we're going to, we're not
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going to follow this, you know, underground regulation.
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You know, there is no law saying that we can't tell parents and
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we're going to tell parents. And so we're and we're
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encouraging other school districts around the state.
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I'm encouraging school districts in my district to adopt the same
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policy and fight back, you know, against, you know, what is
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really an overreach of government.
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Yeah, Newport Mesa, which is Orange County, tried to pass a
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big similar. It failed.
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I'm surprised. Newport's primarily
00:17:06
conservative. I think Costa Mesa it's bigger
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and so. This the split district there, I
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think that's probably the reason why it failed, unfortunately.
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So I think it's so interesting that we live in a society that
00:17:18
supposedly we are innocent until proven guilty, but yet
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California is authoring all these bills that is making
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parents guilty before they they've even done anything.
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We're all abusive. We're, you know, we're
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negligent. We don't know what we're doing
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and the state needs to take care of our kids because we're all
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guilty of abuse and don't know what's best for our children.
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Just right. And I mean there's a bill right
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now, a B957 that along those lines that in a custody dispute,
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you know when they're when a court's determining custody and
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as parents are going through a divorce that this, this bill
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would provide that that the court consider whether or not
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the parent affirms the, the the child's gender identity and make
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that like a factor for the court to determine an issue in
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custody. So like if if you're a parent
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who says, you know, look I want to work through this issue with
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my if my kids going through gender dysphoria, I want to work
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through this issue, you know, mental health therapy, all those
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things. But I don't want to affirm that
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because look I, you know, I don't think that's what's best
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for them to affirm them, you know, in their in their chosen
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gender identity. Because look like with a lot of
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things, kids don't really know, you know who they are and and
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they're still working through those issues in adolescence, you
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know, this would penalize that parent.
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So a parent that's like lovingly trying to address the issues of
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their child in a custody dispute would actually, you know, have a
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mark against them for not being the parent that affirms.
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You know, that's wrong. You know, and it's and it's sort
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of like trying to stack the deck against, you know, parents for
00:19:02
having a different viewpoint. And and that's what we saw.
00:19:04
Like even when we introduced that bill and they wouldn't hear
00:19:06
it. It's like if you have a
00:19:07
different viewpoint, shut up. You can't even talk.
00:19:10
Yeah, shut down. Where is that one at it?
00:19:14
So that bill is coming. I think it's in the Senate right
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now and will be voted on by the full body of the Senate.
00:19:24
And then if it passes there, it's going to come over to the
00:19:27
Assembly again. So on this kind of last month of
00:19:30
session that's coming up, you know, that's one we're going to
00:19:32
see on our side, you know, and then also the other one that's,
00:19:38
you know, that's got a lot of attention.
00:19:39
And that was the issue in Temecula with the school
00:19:43
district down there is trying to force textbooks, you know, you
00:19:47
know, woke test textbooks on school districts, you know, and
00:19:51
the governor talks all this game about, you know, people are
00:19:53
banning books. He wants to force books, you
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know, force you to teach only certain things.
00:19:59
He wants to force an agenda and ideology on all school districts
00:20:03
instead of letting local school districts make those decisions
00:20:06
on what their curriculum is going to be, what textbooks
00:20:09
they're going to use. As has has always been the case
00:20:13
and should be the case that this should be a local control issue
00:20:17
up to the school districts in their communities to determine.
00:20:21
Should most things be left up to local government?
00:20:24
But I almost wonder, like, has Gavin even gone to that
00:20:28
district? Does he come down here?
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I mean, he's up there in Sacramento or he's in the other
00:20:32
red states. But I was trying to use the
00:20:35
Temecula, you know. Exactly.
00:20:38
I mean, he, no, he's never been there.
00:20:40
And he's trying to use this issue, you know, to further his
00:20:44
own political ambitions. He thinks it's something that,
00:20:47
you know, he can motivate his base on.
00:20:49
We all know he's running for president.
00:20:51
I mean, it's so obvious that, you know, he doesn't care about
00:20:54
his own state because it's a dumpster fire, you know,
00:20:57
homelessness, crime rising, you know, mental illness, you know,
00:21:01
people on the streets that are open drug use.
00:21:04
I mean, there's nothing that he can tell of on his record in
00:21:07
California that's positive. So he tries to play in these
00:21:11
cultural wars and this is kind of latest one where he's like,
00:21:14
I'm going to just buy the textbooks, You know, I'm going
00:21:17
to buy the textbooks for them and I'm going to charge them and
00:21:19
I'm going to find them. You know and you know whether
00:21:23
you like it or not, like the same old Gavin, right?
00:21:27
But just trying to get attention, not actually trying
00:21:29
to understand the issue there, which is actually much more
00:21:33
nuanced. I was enjoying kind of using the
00:21:38
left words against them that past week where Gavin was kind
00:21:41
of sticking his nose into stuff and overriding local officials
00:21:44
saying that Gavin Newsom is a threat to our democracy because.
00:21:49
He's basically saying I'm King Sovereign.
00:21:52
You have, you have to listen to me.
00:21:53
You guys can't have local officials, You can't have your
00:21:55
local control. It doesn't matter.
00:21:58
Everything should come down from Sacramento.
00:22:00
So it's interesting. They like to claim that
00:22:03
everything's a threat to democracy that threatens them.
00:22:06
But when they actually threaten democracy, no, it's all fine as
00:22:09
long as it pushes their own agenda.
00:22:12
Yeah, I mean, isn't that rich coming from this guy, right,
00:22:15
With all the mandates that he did, executive orders, bypassing
00:22:18
democratic processes, you know, totally bypassing the
00:22:23
legislature. And then, you know, this is the
00:22:27
guy who we voted on the death penalty twice with direct
00:22:30
democracy, with everybody voting on it.
00:22:33
And the people have upheld the death penalty twice in recent
00:22:37
history. And this guy decided, hey, I
00:22:40
don't really care what? You know, the democracy thinks
00:22:43
in California I'm going to end the death penalty by Fiat.
00:22:48
I mean, this guy has no business talking about democracy, you
00:22:52
know, and civil rights that he steps on that he stepped on, you
00:22:55
know, throughout COVID and and then continue to use his
00:22:58
executive powers, you know, even after the emergency was long
00:23:02
over, you know, to, you know, to step on and tread on people's
00:23:07
rights, I mean so. Yeah, he has no business talking
00:23:10
about that. It's laughable.
00:23:12
The problem is the guy's got such a bully pulpit and he's
00:23:17
he's so great at spinning things is that you know he's able to
00:23:21
get out there and and get his message out there and and there
00:23:25
hasn't been a lot of questioning.
00:23:26
I'd say more recently media is starting to kind of push back on
00:23:28
him and question him, but he's kind of had free reign to do
00:23:32
that for a while. Real quick, I want to kind of.
00:23:36
Dive into that a little deeper, but someone in the chat just
00:23:38
said my son's step sister moved to North Carolina to get her
00:23:41
daughter away from teachers trying to transition her at
00:23:44
school here in California. I think it was Citrus Heights
00:23:47
School, Middle School, so someone in the chat personally
00:23:51
knows that this is happening in schools.
00:23:54
It's crazy. I mean, look, this is that's the
00:23:56
fundamental thing here, man is do you believe that school
00:24:01
officials should be able to transition your kids?
00:24:04
At school, without you knowing about it and to keep it secret
00:24:07
from you. Absolutely not.
00:24:09
And I think overwhelmingly people agree with with that
00:24:12
sentiment. You know, they want to try and
00:24:15
make it about, oh man, you are trying to, you know, go after
00:24:18
transgender youth. You know that you're trying to
00:24:20
discriminate. You're taking away their privacy
00:24:22
rights. No, what it fundamentally is
00:24:24
about is that parents are in control of their kids education,
00:24:28
of their upbringing, of their healthcare, their mental health.
00:24:32
They're in control, not the school.
00:24:34
Not some agenda that comes out of Sacramento.
00:24:38
You know not some assemblyman like Corey Jackson who's trying
00:24:43
to push this kind of stuff you know in the in the assembly and
00:24:46
and and force you know his view of of how things should be on
00:24:50
all schools. Like look it's that it's the
00:24:52
parents parents get to make those decisions and they should
00:24:55
be in fundamentally in control. And I think, you know as this
00:24:58
issue goes into November and it and it's talked about in the
00:25:01
election. I think it's going to be a very
00:25:04
compelling issue and I think it will help swing a lot of of
00:25:08
districts, you know, depending on, hey, are you going to be
00:25:11
with the parents you know or are you with, you know, the
00:25:15
government in this radical agenda?
00:25:18
Yeah, I definitely think it's, you know, you're in Sacramento
00:25:22
and and before I get to this next point, if you're in the
00:25:24
chat or you're watching, make sure you ask your questions or
00:25:27
comments to the Assemblyman. I think you see these bills
00:25:32
coming out and I wonder behind the scenes how many, you know,
00:25:37
Republicans are all most likely on the same page.
00:25:40
But I'm wondering how many Democrats there are who wants
00:25:43
this kind of, you know, the rubber meets the road.
00:25:46
Are they going to back this when they know it's such a third rail
00:25:50
of politics right now and they're going to get massive
00:25:53
pushback? What's your kind of take on,
00:25:55
what's the temperature of Sacramento about these bills?
00:25:59
Yeah, I mean, that's kind of what I'm hoping for, you know,
00:26:01
is that I think that there's a lot of these, you know, I think
00:26:04
there's a lot of parents speaking up.
00:26:06
I think there's a lot of constituents contacting their
00:26:09
Assembly member and talking about these issues and and also
00:26:13
a lot of other issues like, you know, what are you doing to
00:26:15
address the fentanyl crisis that's killing our kids, right?
00:26:18
What are you doing about crime, which is rampant, and
00:26:21
everybody's experiencing it and it sort of puts a lot of these
00:26:24
Democrats. You know, it helps keep them
00:26:27
honest. It keeps them accountable.
00:26:29
So how are you going to vote on these issues?
00:26:31
And however you vote, you are going to be held accountable
00:26:34
come November. And I think as this pressure
00:26:37
builds, I am at least hopeful that we'll see, you know, many
00:26:41
Democrats kind of come over and and and either vote against
00:26:45
these bills or maybe just abstain from them, which could
00:26:49
ultimately help stop, you know, some of these bad bills from
00:26:52
actually get, you know, gaining passage.
00:26:55
And becoming law. Going off that topic of
00:26:59
fentanyl, you've been doing a lot of work on fentanyl.
00:27:02
Why don't you tell us what's going on in terms of fentanyl?
00:27:05
You're kind of battle legislatively with that?
00:27:09
Yeah, I mean, this is another one that just is like, it
00:27:11
boggles the mind. We have a serious crisis on our
00:27:16
hands. We have for at least the past
00:27:18
3-4 years with fentanyl. I mean, it's killing our kids.
00:27:22
We have kids that. You know, take a pill that they
00:27:24
think is maybe a Percocet, it ends up having, it ends up being
00:27:28
fentanyl laced. They take one pill and they die.
00:27:32
You know, we're seeing it on our streets.
00:27:34
You know, people dying on the streets from fentanyl overdoses,
00:27:38
you know, over 100 a week now I believe it's what it is that
00:27:42
we're seeing. And, you know, I would say like
00:27:46
for the last few years, Republicans have been trying to
00:27:47
push bills. You know, to try and get more
00:27:51
penalties on dealers, on the, you know, the people who are
00:27:54
peddling this poison. And then this year we've had
00:27:58
Democrats who've actually stepped up and even introduced
00:28:00
bills, you know, one being Alexandra's law, which would
00:28:06
have. It's really simple.
00:28:08
This is a very simple and should be very common sense Bill if
00:28:11
you've actually already dealt fentanyl laced pills and you
00:28:16
killed someone. Then you get what's called a
00:28:19
Watson advisement that, hey, if you do this again, you could be
00:28:23
charged with murder, right? So this is the same like, hey,
00:28:26
if the second time you go and do this, you could then be charged
00:28:30
with murder and that's all it is.
00:28:32
It's an advisement. And then it.
00:28:33
And then it allows the prosecutor to do that.
00:28:35
That bill couldn't even get out of Senate Public Safety.
00:28:38
It was, it was a Democratic author, Tom Unberg.
00:28:42
It had 21. Coauthors in the Senate, which
00:28:46
means it has a majority support in the Senate.
00:28:50
And this public safety committee in the Senate wouldn't pass it
00:28:53
out. So it got stopped in its tracks.
00:28:56
And we've just seen this time and time again these public
00:28:58
safety committees, like last week, that's been 14.
00:29:01
That's been 14. So some child trafficking.
00:29:04
You know, like, are you kidding? I mean it was like the same
00:29:06
terms like second time. Right.
00:29:10
Yeah, again, like something that's very like are we going to
00:29:12
go after the perpetrators of crime who are doing horrendous
00:29:16
things to our kids, trafficking and slaving kids and selling
00:29:20
them for sex or you know, or killing people with these
00:29:24
fentanyl ace pills? Why can't you bring yourself?
00:29:27
And the the the great thing is it's finally getting the
00:29:29
exposure that it's needed. I would say these guys have been
00:29:32
doing this for at least the last 10 years, like killing bills
00:29:36
that should should pass that are good public safety measures.
00:29:40
And it's all because of this radical view that they have
00:29:42
which is there should be no new penalties for crime.
00:29:45
We have too many people in prison and we should let
00:29:46
everybody out, you know, with with really no rehabilitation
00:29:51
whatsoever and think that we're just going to talk these people
00:29:55
into like you know not committing crimes anymore.
00:29:58
That's their view. They really believe that and so
00:30:01
and they've had you know the power and and they've.
00:30:05
Push these policies through and now we're seeing the results of
00:30:08
them. You have people getting out who
00:30:09
are committing crime, atrocious crimes against people, mass
00:30:13
shootings, and it's all because of this policy.
00:30:17
But now it's finally getting exposure and people are seeing,
00:30:20
you know, that the emperor has no clothes here, right?
00:30:22
And and I think that's going to make a difference.
00:30:25
You know, the people are going to say, look, we're tired of
00:30:26
that. We need real public safety.
00:30:31
We need common sense measures. And so we've been able to, I
00:30:34
think we've been able to really expose that.
00:30:37
We've gotten some measures through, you know, this year,
00:30:41
but the big one on fentanyl is like we need real penalty for
00:30:44
the dealers. So if you're found with a bunch
00:30:47
of pills, fentanyl, lace pills, there should be real serious
00:30:51
penalties so that you can't be victimizing people anymore.
00:30:57
Yeah, that's that's definitely in that.
00:31:00
Umbrella of like kitchen table politics that I think that
00:31:03
California Republicans can really grab a hold of in terms
00:31:05
of parental rights, public safety.
00:31:09
And Democrats are just failing right now.
00:31:11
And I I think they've gone down this road of being loose on
00:31:16
crime and and being the compassion party that says,
00:31:20
well, we got to be soft on crime and soft on the criminals, but
00:31:24
now it's like come home to roost.
00:31:27
And you see it in San Francisco, you see it in Oakland, you see
00:31:29
these cities being absolutely overrun.
00:31:32
I mean it's like a Batman movie, like the it's just gotten so bad
00:31:35
with crime that it's you just look at and go it's exactly like
00:31:39
Gotham City. I mean you see this stuff and
00:31:41
you go, these cities have collapsed under the weight of
00:31:44
crime. I mean London Breed is like.
00:31:48
She's trying her best to get her hands around it now, but it's
00:31:51
like a too little, too late. She was soft.
00:31:53
On crime fighter right now, she's like, yeah, we're gonna go
00:31:56
after there. We're gonna get tough on people
00:31:58
and like, well, hey, man, like, you created this situation.
00:32:00
Exactly. Pretty much everything.
00:32:02
Yeah, you they not realize this? Your policies did this.
00:32:08
What happened by the way to all the Wasn't there this like big
00:32:11
offensive or the front of like there's gonna be CHP and
00:32:15
National Guard and like? Just coordinated effort.
00:32:18
I haven't heard anything about that.
00:32:20
Is that another Newsome public publicity stunt where he had
00:32:23
like, I'm gonna bring in all these different organizations
00:32:26
and law enforcement to clean up San Francisco, and I haven't
00:32:28
seen any of it, So Newsome's gonna fly it as Batman?
00:32:33
Not at all. Yeah.
00:32:34
I mean, I saw he made that big announcement and then you see
00:32:37
like, well, what actually happened.
00:32:38
I was actually thinking about actually going out on the street
00:32:41
and like doing some video like. Hey, you guys seeing CHP or
00:32:44
they've been cracking heads around here or what?
00:32:47
Like you know, I was in San Francisco not too long ago and I
00:32:52
didn't really see any evidence of it, man.
00:32:54
Like there was, I saw the open air drug drug sites, you know,
00:32:59
these cartel type folks, I can't remember.
00:33:02
You know, there's been stories about that these people are
00:33:04
actually, you know, committing bold burglaries and and theft on
00:33:08
the street and they're kind of been left to just kind of run
00:33:11
rampant. I guess they're, you know,
00:33:12
London Breed is talking about cracking down on those these
00:33:15
kind of, you know, cartel like groups.
00:33:18
But I didn't, I certainly didn't see any evidence of this big
00:33:22
crack crackdown and we're still seeing overdose deaths every day
00:33:26
in San Francisco. And again, it's a natural result
00:33:31
of their policies, which have decriminalized, you know, drugs,
00:33:35
decriminalized crime and really had no.
00:33:39
And no penalties or accountability if you're
00:33:42
victimizing people, you know, it's the other one in the Bay
00:33:47
are this terrible, like Asian hate, you know, like people
00:33:50
walking up to elderly Asian people and just punching them in
00:33:53
the face, you know, you know, this is it's, it's rampant
00:33:57
because there's no accountability for crime.
00:33:59
And a lot of the Asian community in the Bay Area has really been,
00:34:02
you know, voicing this, like going to town halls and will
00:34:06
somebody do something about this?
00:34:09
You know they have a woke DA there.
00:34:11
Pamela Price again doesn't prosecute crime, doesn't believe
00:34:15
in prosecuting crime. They had an infinite boy who was
00:34:20
killed by cross gunfire you know in in the area and there's still
00:34:26
has been really no result no no real action on that.
00:34:30
So a lot of the, you know, the Asian community, API community
00:34:33
is saying, look what are you doing to actually?
00:34:36
You know, stop this ramp at hate crime that's going on, you know,
00:34:40
in our communities. And because of this radical
00:34:42
worldview that they have, they're not seeing the results.
00:34:46
But again, I think we're seeing the, I think we're seeing a
00:34:49
counterstroke, you know, where people are rising up and saying
00:34:52
enough is enough. Pamela Price who I believe is
00:34:57
facing a recall right now. So power of the recall to get
00:35:00
rid of some of these woke DA soft on crime.
00:35:05
As the leader of the Republican Assembly caucus, is there a lot
00:35:10
of talk in terms of strategy and reaching out to voters in
00:35:14
California about a lot of these kitchen table issues and kind of
00:35:18
saying like, look, here's our solution.
00:35:20
We're we're completely different than Democrats.
00:35:22
We're not just doing Democrat light like we have bolder.
00:35:27
These are conservative solutions and like, we're going to go
00:35:30
after these kitchen table politics or kitchen table
00:35:32
issues, I should say. Yes.
00:35:35
And so I mean this when I came in as leader last year, so it
00:35:38
was in February. The big thing I said is like
00:35:41
guys, we got to go on the offensive.
00:35:43
You know, like we we we've always been on you know the
00:35:46
defensive on our heels like responding what the Democrats
00:35:50
are doing. We have to start saying hey here
00:35:52
let's put things out there that we want to do and make them be
00:35:55
the ones that say no. And so you probably saw that
00:35:58
started with the gas tax suspension we're saying look.
00:36:02
Repeal the gas tax. Right now we have $100 billion
00:36:05
surplus. People are struggling to pay at
00:36:08
the pump. The least we could do is take
00:36:10
the tax off of it, which would have saved everybody instantly,
00:36:13
you know, on on gas money. And so we we pushed that and the
00:36:18
Democrats said no, you know, they continually voted against
00:36:21
it. And we and we use that as an
00:36:24
issue of, I think, a very strong issue with voters to say, look,
00:36:27
they don't want to give you relief.
00:36:30
Gavin came out and said we're going to have you rebate checks,
00:36:32
right? And I think people laughed at
00:36:34
that and they couldn't even get you the rebate checks out.
00:36:37
It took forever to get them get them out to people.
00:36:39
And when they were they were very small and didn't really
00:36:43
hardly put a dent in what they were paying.
00:36:45
And at the pump, my. Wife actually.
00:36:48
She actually found a rebate check, like I was going through
00:36:51
a stack of papers and I was cleaning the office and I look
00:36:53
and I go. Honey, do you, you know, you
00:36:55
have one of these, like, stimulus cards or whatever she
00:36:58
got. She goes, oh, I thought this was
00:36:59
like a scam or something. And I was like, no.
00:37:02
And I looked it up and I was like, yeah, this is legit.
00:37:04
It was like, so we got the $200.00.
00:37:06
We didn't spend it on gas, so we took ourselves out for a nice
00:37:10
date night. Thank you, Gavin Newsom.
00:37:12
But yeah, talking about. Going on the offensive laundry,
00:37:16
though, right? So.
00:37:18
Now, I mean, I think we'd we'd get through one appetizer.
00:37:20
That's probably about all we could get through at The French
00:37:22
Laundry. But then again, I'm not best
00:37:24
friends with the oil and gas industry lobbyist.
00:37:27
Like, whatever is it Richard Kenny?
00:37:30
Is that his name? His Gavin's good buddy?
00:37:33
But besides the point, that is like, so refreshing to hear this
00:37:37
idea of going on the offensive, because anybody who's listening
00:37:40
to me talk about this and ramble on it for a long time.
00:37:44
I've been saying this about California Republicans for a
00:37:46
long time, and Camille could probably attest to this.
00:37:49
You have to go on the offensive because you have to frame the
00:37:52
argument and make Democrats argue in your frame.
00:37:56
And when you're always reactionary, you're arguing in
00:37:58
their frame. And when that happens, you're
00:38:01
going to lose 9 times out of 10. So when you set up the argument,
00:38:05
Democrats are going to lose because you've already set the
00:38:08
argument, you've set the tone of what it's going to be about.
00:38:11
So that exactly with like the gas tax?
00:38:13
You took the offensive and said, look, you're getting taxed, you
00:38:17
need relief. It's already expensive.
00:38:19
Make the Democrats argue that point back.
00:38:21
And I thought that, you know, that's a great, refreshing move
00:38:23
to see California Republicans do.
00:38:26
Yeah, exactly. I mean that is that's exactly
00:38:28
what we have been doing. The other, so more broadly we we
00:38:32
announced this thing called the California Promise and we put
00:38:36
the other, hey, here are the list of proposals that you know
00:38:38
that we would do and and we kind of broke it down into some
00:38:40
categories like here's what we would do to actually cut your
00:38:43
costs like affordability issues, right.
00:38:46
Here's what we would do on homelessness.
00:38:48
You know, instead of having this enablement strategy, we would
00:38:51
have an empowerment strategy. Get people off the street, get
00:38:54
them in the services and treatment.
00:38:56
If they want it right. But otherwise, like we need to
00:38:59
start enforcing on encampments, right?
00:39:01
We shouldn't have encampments next to schools, next to child
00:39:03
care centers. And we had a bill that actually
00:39:07
did that and and ran that bill and made them be the ones to say
00:39:11
no right. Then on crime and public safety,
00:39:15
we say, hey, here's the things we would do to hold criminals
00:39:17
accountable. We would get rid of these, these
00:39:19
emergency credits, you know, these credits that let people
00:39:22
get out of prison. You know, years before their
00:39:25
sentence is up, reverse that policy and say no, you actually
00:39:30
have to show us that you're rehabilitated.
00:39:31
You're actually doing things to change, you know, your mindset
00:39:35
and your way of life. And so we put out like, hey,
00:39:38
here's here's our alternative policies.
00:39:40
We ran bills along those front. And then then this year, like,
00:39:44
you know, the fentanyl, we've run fentanyl bills.
00:39:46
They've said no. So we've exposed that and showed
00:39:48
them, you know, for who they are.
00:39:51
That's B14. You know, you guys don't want
00:39:53
to. You guys don't want to crack
00:39:54
down on, you know, child traffickers okay.
00:39:57
Well everybody needs to know that And and we'll take this
00:40:00
into November and we'll take our case to the voters and let them
00:40:04
decide. And I and I think, you know, the
00:40:06
more we can do that, you know, to your point, the more we can
00:40:09
really show just how radical they are and how they are saying
00:40:11
no and how they're the ones that are really in the way of, you
00:40:16
know, good policy. You know, the more that I think
00:40:19
we're going to be successful at the ballot box.
00:40:23
Yeah, and it's in my mind, at least in my humble opinion, I
00:40:27
think voters vote for things rather so much then against
00:40:31
things. And I think when they're they're
00:40:33
thinking about the their lives in these kitchen table issues,
00:40:36
they want to vote for a solution, not just a party that
00:40:39
goes well, We're not Democrats, OK, Well that doesn't mean
00:40:42
anything that you're not Democrats.
00:40:43
The Democrats are promising XY&Z.
00:40:46
Whether they can actually get it done or not or just blowing
00:40:48
smoke, it's it's something. So I think it's, it's got to be
00:40:52
more substantive where they there is that this is what we're
00:40:56
going to do and this is our substantive answer to that.
00:41:00
So. Right.
00:41:01
Yeah. I mean, you can't just be that.
00:41:03
You can't be the one saying, hey, I just don't like what the
00:41:05
Democrats are doing, right. Like, yeah, which there's
00:41:08
plenty, there's plenty of material there, right.
00:41:10
There's plenty of things that they're failing that.
00:41:12
But then you have to show, hey, what would you do differently?
00:41:15
And I think that's what, you know, voters are looking for.
00:41:18
So that's what we're trying to provide.
00:41:20
Yeah, I point out the issue, but give me your solution.
00:41:24
I think the other thing we battled too is, you know, a lot
00:41:26
of times like mainstream media, it's hard to get our message in
00:41:30
there, right? Because it's like, like I said,
00:41:32
Gavin's got the bully pulpit. They almost, he does a press
00:41:35
conference. It always gets covered.
00:41:38
You know the Democrats kind of have the advantage there.
00:41:42
And so we've just really tried to push like how can we get our
00:41:45
message out, how do we get earned media.
00:41:47
But then also how do we get, you know get our message out in
00:41:49
alternative media. You know, so you know talking to
00:41:52
folks like yourselves on you know on podcasts on you know
00:41:57
social media like really trying to we we've we've certainly
00:41:59
bumped up and boosted our messaging on different forms of
00:42:03
social media just to try and make sure that we can get that
00:42:06
message out because that is a challenge.
00:42:08
I mean it is a challenge when you're in the in the minority
00:42:11
party, but it's something that I put an emphasis on because look,
00:42:16
if they don't know what you're doing, if people don't hear what
00:42:18
you're doing, they don't know what you're doing, then it
00:42:20
didn't happen, right. And we don't want to be in that
00:42:23
situation. So I appreciate you guys, you
00:42:26
know, for really covering a lot of these different topics and
00:42:29
you've got a huge following and it helps get you know people
00:42:33
information that they may not otherwise hear.
00:42:37
Thank you. We appreciate that.
00:42:38
Thank you. One bill that I I specifically
00:42:41
want to talk about we talked about before is SB-2, which is
00:42:46
regarding concealed carry. And California has been doing
00:42:50
their darndest to basically outlaw concealed carry.
00:42:53
And as a concealed carry holder this worries me because they're
00:42:59
they just don't believe anybody should defend themselves with a
00:43:02
gun. Even when crime is rampant all
00:43:04
over California, you shouldn't be able to protect yourself.
00:43:07
Tell us a little bit about that, cuz I know a lot of our
00:43:09
listeners are Second Amendment supporters.
00:43:13
Yeah, well, let me let me start with this background, man, which
00:43:15
is like it was two years ago. We had a shooting near blocks
00:43:23
from the Capitol, mass shooting, basically gang related, you
00:43:27
know, gang related. This guy had a weapon he was not
00:43:32
supposed to have. He was a felon who was not
00:43:35
supposed to have a firearm, but he had a history of stealing
00:43:39
weapons, stealing guns, modifying them, you know,
00:43:43
throughout his history. And of course he did it again.
00:43:46
He got he he actually also got out of prison.
00:43:48
He was supposed to do 10 years for domestic, like serious
00:43:51
domestic violence against his girlfriend.
00:43:55
He got out of four years because of the automatic credits.
00:43:58
This guy gets out on the street, shoots up downtown Sacramento,
00:44:01
kills five people. That's the problem.
00:44:05
And we're seeing that and across the state, man, like that
00:44:08
happened in the Bay Area, you know, a few months back, two
00:44:11
drive by shootings. And they never want to talk
00:44:13
about that, right? Instead, they go after like,
00:44:15
well, hey, let's talk about concealed carry people.
00:44:18
OK, let's talk about them. There's been exactly 1 homicide
00:44:22
involving a CCW holder in the last 10 years.
00:44:25
One, meanwhile, most of the time, the MO for these shootings
00:44:31
is criminals that have a criminal past.
00:44:33
They're not supposed to have guns.
00:44:35
They're they're prohibited from having guns, but they have them
00:44:38
and rob Bonta. And the Department of Justice
00:44:41
has done very little to get guns out of their hands.
00:44:44
Instead, he wants to make this his big thing.
00:44:47
Right. Let's go after concealed carry
00:44:50
holders who are law abiding citizens who are literally going
00:44:53
to their sheriff and getting a permit, you know, so that they
00:44:57
can, you know, conceal carry, you know, let's go after them.
00:45:00
And it's also, it also arises out of the Supreme Court case,
00:45:03
right, Because this US Supreme Court said, hey, you can't do
00:45:07
this stuff, man. You can't have these, you know,
00:45:10
very arbitrary rules that infringe on people's Second
00:45:13
Amendment rights. So in the aftermath of that
00:45:17
case, they're trying to push this bill to 1 consolidate and
00:45:21
say, hey, the rules are going to be uniform in every county and
00:45:25
you got to go through all these, this whole rigmarole to actually
00:45:27
get the permit to carry and then establish all these places where
00:45:35
you will not be allowed to conceal carry.
00:45:37
It's pretty much they've named pretty much every public place
00:45:41
possible so that you essentially could not carry in almost any
00:45:45
place, you know, including churches, you know, and you
00:45:51
know, so look there's there's some big constitutional issues
00:45:53
with this, but they're trying to push this legislation this year.
00:45:57
And I just think it's completely misguided because CCW holders
00:46:00
are not the problem and that is that's a fact.
00:46:04
And and moreover you are infringing on people's
00:46:08
constitutional rights who who often need to carry guns to
00:46:11
protect themselves from the dangerous criminals that you
00:46:13
guys, the Democrats, have let out onto our streets and are you
00:46:18
know, you know, are victimizing people on the street and
00:46:21
victimizing businesses. You know if you're in a church,
00:46:25
I mean I know of churches where you know the ushers carry and
00:46:30
they carry because you know, we've had incidents of people
00:46:32
coming in and shoot and trying to shoot up churches and they
00:46:35
want to be able to defend themselves and and they are law
00:46:39
abiding citizens and they should have the right to do so.
00:46:41
And so to me it's just it's completely frustrating.
00:46:44
It is it is misguided. We we managed to stop that bill
00:46:48
last year. I think it's going to be a fight
00:46:50
this year to stop it because they only need a majority this
00:46:53
year. They were trying to pass it on
00:46:56
an urgency basis last year, so they needed 2/3.
00:47:00
Now they're just going to do it as a as a regular bill, not an
00:47:03
urgency measure. And so it's probably going to
00:47:08
get out. I hate to say it's probably
00:47:10
going to get out and we're going to need to take it to court, in
00:47:13
which the good news is we've had some success in the courts at
00:47:17
overturning these type of unconstitutional laws.
00:47:21
What always baffles me is. It's illegal to murder.
00:47:24
I mean, it's already that's illegal to murder.
00:47:28
And so then these people go and murder and then they go to
00:47:31
prison for a day and they, you know, let them out the slap on
00:47:33
the wrist and don't do that again.
00:47:35
And then they act shocked when it happens again.
00:47:38
And then they're like, oh, gosh, people are shooting people.
00:47:40
We should pass more laws so that those that have literally gone
00:47:43
through training and background checks and extensive stuff for
00:47:47
like, what, a year, fully 18 months to get your CCW, like,
00:47:52
oh, they're the problem, not the person that already murdered
00:47:55
someone that we released from jail with a slap on their
00:47:57
wrists. They're not the problem.
00:47:59
So you know this law that you know don't murder people in cold
00:48:03
blood, That's. That that's not good enough.
00:48:06
We just need to make sure that law abiding citizens can't
00:48:09
protect themselves against the crazy murders that we refuse to
00:48:12
keep in jail. Exactly, man.
00:48:16
I mean, and that's, you know, and that again, it just goes
00:48:18
back to that same story when there's no accountability for
00:48:20
crime and you have no, look, they no joke.
00:48:25
Couple years ago, they took away the sentencing enhancement for
00:48:28
using a gun in the Commission of a crime.
00:48:31
They took that away. You know, it was, it was a
00:48:33
mandatory, like sentencing enhancement if you used a gun in
00:48:36
the Commission of the crime. These same Democrats took that
00:48:39
away. So who's responsible for gun
00:48:42
violence in California? It's the Democrats.
00:48:46
You know, they're the ones that don't want to punish those who
00:48:48
are actually victimizing people with guns on our streets.
00:48:53
And you know, it's not CCW holders, you know, so you know,
00:48:56
I'm going to be fighting, you know, with everything I can to
00:48:58
stop SB-2 from moving forward and if not, like I think we need
00:49:06
to take it to the courts as we have been able to do and get it
00:49:09
overturned there. I think the most ironic story
00:49:12
was when Karen Bass had her guns stolen from her safe, right?
00:49:17
Unbelievable, right? Yeah, I also wanted to, I was, I
00:49:22
don't know if it ever came out like, hey, did you have those,
00:49:24
you know, properly locked up, you know, and all this because
00:49:27
they always emphasize that too. Like, oh, people aren't really
00:49:29
storing their guns properly. Like, did she?
00:49:32
Yeah. I don't know if that ever really
00:49:33
came out. But literally that is the
00:49:36
problem. You know, as you know, these
00:49:39
aren't people doing this are not going, you know, most often
00:49:43
they're not people that are going to the gun shop and going
00:49:46
through all the process and everything.
00:49:48
It's people stealing weapons on the streets or buying them on
00:49:52
the black market. And that's really where the
00:49:55
focus, you know, should be on. Yeah, I mean it's such a tough
00:50:00
hurdle and even here in San Diego that like is actually
00:50:05
pretty good on CCW. Shout out to gun owners of San
00:50:08
Diego did an incredible job actually pushing for LAX CCW or
00:50:15
easier CCW. You have to go through the whole
00:50:17
process. I mean, it's background checks.
00:50:19
You have to go through the Sheriff's Department and like
00:50:21
then you have like 8 hours of training and it's not easy.
00:50:23
And then they even right now before a bill, like if
00:50:27
hypothetically SB-2 gets passed, there's so many regulations you
00:50:32
have to learn, OK, you can't take it here, You can't take it
00:50:34
here. You can't take it into a bar.
00:50:35
You can take it into a restaurant that has a bar like.
00:50:38
So you have to constantly be thinking OKI have to follow all
00:50:42
of these regulations and restrictions.
00:50:46
So I'm abiding by the law and I'm very careful because I don't
00:50:49
want to get my Second Amendment right taken away.
00:50:52
So yeah, and it's always the most law abiding citizens who
00:50:55
end up getting their CCW and following the laws and then
00:50:59
they're penalizing the CCW who follow the law to a tee and not
00:51:04
the criminals who show up anywhere with a gun.
00:51:07
They don't care about restrictions on where you can
00:51:09
and cannot carry. Have like tracking devices on
00:51:12
your gun so they know where it is at all times.
00:51:15
I shouldn't give any ideas. I mean, they keep coming up with
00:51:19
new, new bills. But you know, the bottom line is
00:51:21
they passed a lot of bills, you know, over the years.
00:51:25
And yet I point out, you know, gun crimes are on the rise.
00:51:29
California right now has a trend of 44 mass shootings a year.
00:51:34
You know, now they'll say, hey, you know, we we are better than
00:51:38
other states, Okay. But you still have a pretty
00:51:40
serious problem and you know, maybe you need to think about
00:51:44
maybe it's not, you know, these gun laws, it's it's the criminal
00:51:48
and it's like going after, you know, and having, you know,
00:51:50
accountability. So, and I and I think more and
00:51:54
more people are waking up to that as well.
00:51:59
I wanted to return to this topic and I just wanted to see if
00:52:01
there's a sense in Sacramento in the legislature about.
00:52:08
Whether there's a growing sense that Newsom really is running
00:52:12
for president because on on this program we absolutely believe
00:52:15
he's running for president. But I don't know what happens in
00:52:18
the halls of Sacramento if that's the feeling or those the
00:52:22
whispers or. Yeah man.
00:52:25
Like I'll say like there's a lot of Democrats who may not come
00:52:28
out and say it publicly but they are frustrated with Newsom and
00:52:33
and their frustration is really like hey this guy is only about
00:52:36
himself Like you know he's he's always just trying to get
00:52:40
pressed for himself you know and doesn't really work with the
00:52:46
legislature even Democrats on you know trying to get you know,
00:52:52
good policy established. He's he's all about Gavin and
00:52:56
his agenda. Right.
00:52:58
And and I think it's been increasingly more obvious that,
00:53:01
like, he's not paying attention to the state.
00:53:04
He's not being really serious about policy issues.
00:53:06
The only time he does is when he uses it for a press conference
00:53:09
and an announcement. So you saw that on
00:53:11
infrastructure, right? He's doing these bills to
00:53:15
streamline infrastructure and we're going to remove the
00:53:17
barriers. Yeah.
00:53:18
Well man, you've been governor, you know, for, you know, going
00:53:21
on six years now and haven't even built any new water storage
00:53:27
even though we passed a bond in 2014.
00:53:31
You could have done a lot of things.
00:53:32
But now he announces it just so cuz cuz he doesn't want to look
00:53:35
bad. Right.
00:53:38
And and we got embarrassed on SB14 right.
00:53:41
When people are saying, man, why aren't?
00:53:43
Why isn't, you know, your legislature passing a bill doing
00:53:47
with, you know, child traffickers and immediately he
00:53:51
starts, you know, going out to, Oh, yeah, I've talked to Shannon
00:53:53
Grove and I'm trying to make sure this passes because he
00:53:57
knows it hurts his presidential ambitions.
00:53:59
And and so look, I think it's very clear what he's trying to
00:54:03
do is either set himself up for when Joe Biden gets pushed out
00:54:07
so that he can be the candidate in in this year's presidential
00:54:11
or if not, he's helping establish himself for 2028.
00:54:15
Either way, like he's he is definitely, every day Gavin
00:54:19
Newsom looks in the mirror in the morning and as he puts in
00:54:22
the jail, he thinks that's the next president of the United
00:54:27
States. You know, I mean, there's no
00:54:28
doubt about it, and it's but the the frustrating thing is there's
00:54:33
nothing wrong with having ambition.
00:54:36
But when you are following that to the detriment of your own
00:54:40
state and not taking care of the real problems facing your state,
00:54:44
homelessness, crime, fentanyl, you're not really making any
00:54:49
real inroads on those issues. That's a travesty and it needs
00:54:54
to be called out more. Hopefully it will.
00:54:57
And if this guy gets out there and I still say man, if this guy
00:55:00
runs for president, I don't see anybody in the Midwest and the
00:55:04
Rust Belt, you know and these blue collar states saying yeah,
00:55:08
that's what I want is you know, the California, you know, you
00:55:13
know what does he call it the California for all They
00:55:17
definitely don't want that. They don't want what he's
00:55:19
selling I think in other states. So I think he'd have a real hard
00:55:22
time, but he definitely, you know, it's pretty clear he's
00:55:26
trying to set himself up to run for president, I imagine.
00:55:29
My dog is very barky, sorry. That's fine.
00:55:34
I imagine he's like Patrick Bateman, an American psycho
00:55:37
blowing kisses to himself and winking at himself while he's
00:55:40
getting ready every morning. Like here's the next president
00:55:44
calling himself. Well, you know, I wouldn't be
00:55:48
the first person who compared him to Patrick Bateman from
00:55:50
American Psycho, so. Just standing on the pond, the
00:55:54
shoulders of giants. So we're coming up on the hour
00:55:57
now. And I want to give you like the
00:56:00
last word in terms of like what your goals are in assembly right
00:56:04
now and as assembly leader and you know, let the listeners know
00:56:08
what you're working on and how that you can, how they can
00:56:11
support you in all this and keep in touch.
00:56:16
Well, I think the thing I'd say, man, is we're closing here is I
00:56:19
think we're at a turning point, you know, in California.
00:56:23
And the stakes are pretty high. You know, like we have to start
00:56:28
shifting if we want to see, you know, the California that that
00:56:31
we've always loved and known. And you know, when it comes to
00:56:35
our education, our kids are not reading at grade level.
00:56:38
We've got to reform education in the state and make it work for
00:56:41
kids #1 and empower parents. We have got to turn the the tide
00:56:47
on crime. It's out of control.
00:56:49
We need to start making crime illegal again, as my friend
00:56:54
Kevin Kiley coined last year. And look, we need to really do
00:56:59
something about homelessness is, you know, like this enablement
00:57:01
strategy lets people do drugs and camp out on the streets.
00:57:05
It is is so flawed and it has destroyed our cities, you know,
00:57:09
So we have an opportunity to change that.
00:57:11
And what I would say is like, I think for a long time people
00:57:13
have been voting Democrat. Maybe that's the cool thing to
00:57:16
do. You know, maybe people have just
00:57:19
had a you know, a bad taste in their mouth about Republicans.
00:57:24
But it's time to change the state.
00:57:26
And Republicans are the ones who are trying to you know, who have
00:57:29
the ideas and the and to change this around and to have you know
00:57:32
real solutions to these problems.
00:57:35
And so I just want you know take a look at us, man and and help
00:57:38
our candidates get across the finish line.
00:57:40
We have good Republican candidates that are running in
00:57:42
every assembly district in this state.
00:57:46
And I would just really encourage people, hey, stay
00:57:49
involved. I know a lot of your listeners,
00:57:50
man, they're engaged. They're staying involved in
00:57:52
their local school districts and, you know, local
00:57:55
governments, but stay engaged. But then also like get out there
00:57:59
and help us, you know, you know, win some seats because you,
00:58:02
unless you win elections, you can't change, you can't change
00:58:05
policy, right. You can't govern and and check
00:58:09
out, you know, our California promise.
00:58:11
We put things out there so they can go to the website, which is
00:58:15
a SMRC dot org slash California promise.
00:58:21
If you check out that website, that's that kind of shows some
00:58:24
of the things we've been working on.
00:58:27
And you know, look, we're just going to keep working hard.
00:58:29
We're going to keep trying to put put our message out there
00:58:31
and like I said, go on the offensive, talk about the things
00:58:35
that we want to do and make the Democrats say no and hold them
00:58:38
accountable in November. Awesome.
00:58:42
So where can people find you and follow you for to keep up with
00:58:46
you? So I'm on Twitter, you know, so
00:58:49
you can find me on Twitter. Also Facebook, Instagram.
00:58:54
And I could send another thing on all the different handles
00:58:57
there, but you can look me up. So Assemblyman James Gallagher,
00:59:00
you know, on any of those social media links you can find me.
00:59:07
And and then I also have like you know, my own website that's,
00:59:10
you know, talking about some of the stuff I'm doing in terms of
00:59:12
bills and legislation as well. But yeah, I mean, definitely
00:59:17
follow us, you know, and follow my colleagues, you know, in your
00:59:21
districts, you know, you have different Republicans
00:59:23
potentially representing you, follow what they're doing as
00:59:26
well. And let's just keep the, you
00:59:29
know, stay engaged, stay engaged, don't give up on
00:59:33
California, because I do think we're at a place where we can
00:59:36
start turning the tide here and getting back to a, you know, a
00:59:40
reasonable middle in this state. Can I ask one question?
00:59:45
Sure. What would you say to California
00:59:48
voters who are discouraged and believe their vote doesn't
00:59:51
matter? How would you encourage them?
00:59:55
Well, I mean, the easiest way to make that a reality is to not
00:59:58
vote, right? Is to give up on the process
01:00:01
altogether. I mean, if you don't vote, then
01:00:04
there's no way we'll change it, right?
01:00:06
And so I I hear that a lot from folks and I get it, man.
01:00:09
There's there's different issues that make people frustrated.
01:00:12
Or feel like, man, am I really going to make a difference and
01:00:14
state so blue. But as more and more people are
01:00:18
waking up and I'm telling you people and people in the, you
01:00:22
know, in the center, independents and Democrats are
01:00:24
starting to say, man, we've had enough.
01:00:26
And if we all band together and we all vote and try to make
01:00:30
change, like I believe it's going to happen.
01:00:32
So don't give up hope, stay engaged.
01:00:36
This is a big, you know, big cycle here, 2024, where we can
01:00:41
make some change. And I would just say hang in
01:00:43
there, stay engaged and definitely do whatever you do,
01:00:47
make sure you get out and vote. You know, don't be, don't be
01:00:51
part of, you know, you know, sort of that you don't want to
01:00:56
wake up and say, hey man, I I didn't even vote.
01:00:58
I didn't even try to change things.
01:01:02
That's the only sure way that things will never change, right?
01:01:07
I noticed you haven't gotten used to calling it X yet and not
01:01:09
Twitter. Cuz I still call it Twitter.
01:01:13
That was so weird. I mean it did confuse me just
01:01:16
the other day. Like cuz I was like where is the
01:01:17
Twitter? I mean where is the Twitter?
01:01:19
The app on my phone. Yeah my app I was like and then
01:01:24
my actually my son's like hey dude it's X it's like didn't you
01:01:29
know that it changed? I didn't know.
01:01:31
I actually didn't. So yeah, so X.
01:01:34
You can find me on X. Yeah, I keep looking for it and
01:01:37
I'm like, I'm looking for the iconic blue and white bird.
01:01:40
And then I'm like, where is my Twitter app?
01:01:42
And it's just the black X I'm like it.
01:01:45
Was it hasn't updated, Yeah, but that I actually was going to
01:01:47
bring that up a few minutes ago. We were talking about San
01:01:50
Francisco, like of all their issues.
01:01:52
Apparently the big X on the building was their big
01:01:55
complaint. It's like there's homeless
01:01:57
people blocking your view of the X, but OK, right.
01:02:01
Hey, there's people over there like smoking crack right in the
01:02:05
street. Yeah.
01:02:08
X is. I mean, but you're worried about
01:02:09
an X, Yeah. Absolutely.
01:02:12
Well, James, thank you for coming on.
01:02:15
As always, the door is open. There's, I mean there was a ton
01:02:17
of stuff we could have talked about tonight and we couldn't
01:02:19
get to all of it in hours. So the door is open whenever you
01:02:21
want to come back on and talk more welcome you back anytime.
01:02:26
So thank you for coming on. We'll do it again.
01:02:29
Yeah, technical difficulties. No, none happened tonight.
01:02:32
So we're we're good there. Loud and clear.
01:02:35
Yeah. As I end every show, best way to
01:02:40
support this show for free is to share it with a friend, message
01:02:44
it, post it on X if that's what you go like to call it,
01:02:48
Facebook, all that stuff, share it with anybody.
01:02:51
So make sure you like, share, subscribe, review, all of that
01:02:54
stuff. And yeah, we'll see you on the
01:02:57
next one. Have a good night, everybody,
01:03:00
SMS Srikanth.