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 Joe Patterson of the 5th Assembly District. We discuss his battle against fentanyl, protecting parental rights, pregnancy centers, and his open and honest Twitter feed.
This episode was recorded on 8.10.23
*The California Underground Podcast is dedicated to discussing California politics from a place of sanity and rationality.*
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00:00:03
If. What's going on?
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Everybody? Thanks for tuning to another
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episode of the California Underground Podcast.
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I am your host, Phil, and as always, is with me as my trusty
00:00:34
coast, the best and fastest researcher in the West.
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And tonight we have a very special guest, the assemblyman
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from the 5th District, Joe Patterson.
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Or as he goes, but on Twitter, Patter Dude.
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Which I kind of like Patter dude as a handle for a politician.
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We're going to talk about your Twitter stuff in a bit.
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But Joe, welcome to the show. How are you doing tonight?
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Oh great, living the dream, you know I'm going to stand my life.
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Oh, do we? Do we lose me already?
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Yes, just just for a second. OK, where did you guys lose me?
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Just an introduction. Oh, introduction, yeah, I said.
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It was the best day of my life. Oh, excellent.
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All right, so anyway, starting from the top, this is the thing
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about live show. Sometimes this happens.
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Not a big deal. As always, I'm your host.
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Phil Trusty. Cohost.
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Special guest tonight, Joe Patterson.
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Or as he goes on Twitter, patter dude.
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And we're going to talk about Twitter in a little bit.
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Joe, how are you doing tonight? Good.
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Best. Like I said, best day of my
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life. Just my bunch of my kids are out
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at sports and any of them at any moment could best in the room,
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you know fully clothed not clothed.
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I don't, I don't really know. That's.
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Why are they? I've I've got a 10 year old, 8
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year old, five year old and two year old.
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The five and two year old are sleeping, but the ten and
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eight-year old are, you know, still up.
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All right. That's fine.
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I have a little dog and she likes to bark it.
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Whatever passes by on a bicycle or rollerblades or a skateboard
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or whatever, so there's a chance you might kind of chime in.
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So, Joe, for anybody who doesn't know who you are, why don't you
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tell people a little bit about yourself, how you got into
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politics and all that? Yeah, I'm.
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Well, I, the Fifth Assembly District, used to be largely
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represented by Kevin Kiley, who's now in Congress.
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And before this, I was on the Rockland City Council, which is
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in Placer County. And I didn't really intend to
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run for this seat, but it was always the very last maps,
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actually, all the maps, all of the maps by the redistricting
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Commission had me in the same seat as Josh Hoover.
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And so I was never really thinking about running or
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anything. And now all of a sudden the very
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last minute separated out Fulsome from the rest of the
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district. And you know, so then just one
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thing led to another and here I am.
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But yeah, you don't have a small business.
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And I was the mayor of Rockland and I used to work in the
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legislature, actually actually used to work for a legislator
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representing Orange County at the time.
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So kind of understand the building a little bit but I
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didn't really ever involved in elective office and then I just
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something in my town. I'd only lived in Rockland for
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two years and things were kind of shady out here in my opinion.
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And so I did kind of this opposition to something as just
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no ordinary Joe. And then the next year I ended
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up running for City Council and here I am.
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One thing led to another. So but yeah, it's been it's been
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crazy. Eight months in the legislature,
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9 months and it's been that place is crazy.
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It's crazy. So it's starting off real local
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and then making your way up to Sacramento.
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What's the biggest difference between local and Sacramento?
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How much time do we have? Well, on the local level, people
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are normal. My City Council members like a
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volunteer job and you know, you run in the competitive nature.
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You want to beat the other people, but really you're trying
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to make your community better, at least in a place like
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Rockland. I can't say about, you know, in
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in places like Orange County and LA, everything's big and
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political and stuff like that. But I mean in a suburb like
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Rockland, it's really just because you, you know, don't
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want your kids walking through homeless people or something
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like that, which is why you run. And but on the state level, it's
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it's insane. I, I, I mean, I don't have
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enough time to talk. We don't have enough time to
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talk about this. But the one thing that is the
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craziest about when I was an when I was a intern and then a
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staff from the legislature, there were 32 Republicans and 48
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Democrats. Now there are 18 Republicans and
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62 Democrats, but which is fine, whatever.
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I mean, I wish we had a lot more Republicans.
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But the thing that is very interesting, and I tell people
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this all the time, I mean, even when I'm talking to groups of
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Republicans, Democrats, you know, any other party is that in
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the Capitol is not the same kind of Democrat that you see, you
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know, out in the wild. My mom is a Democrat.
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My mom is a Democrat. And a lot of my I live in
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California. Most people I know are
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Democrats. You know, outside of Plaster
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County, it is. That is not what we see in the
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Capitol. It is not, it is not the same
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thing. It is the extreme, the most
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extreme you possibly get. I'm not characterizing any
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individual legislator. I'm just saying as a collection
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of people, it is so extreme. And on the city level, it is not
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that way. I mean, we're really here to,
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you know, try to make your community better.
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I always wonder that, and I feel like I've asked several people
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who work in Sacramento, several assembly members who've come on.
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Sort of how like Democrats in California, like, you're saying,
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like, out in the wild, you can have coffee with them, you could
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talk to them. It seems rational.
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You can all kind of commiserate that the homeless has gotten out
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of control, Crime is out of control.
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But then you look at, like, the Twitter feeds of some people in
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Sacramento, and you just wonder, like, what planet are you on?
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Like, there's a couple that come to mind.
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You know, Alex Lee, who I still think lives in his mom's
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basement, is definitely one of them.
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Who I just look at and go I I don't know if you live in
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reality, man, but there's a couple others.
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Scott Weiner's another one. That's one of our favorite
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legislature legislators up there in Sacramento.
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But yeah, is it that bad that it just seems like they're a
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caricature of Democrats and like Bay Area Democrats, You know,
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it's interesting. I actually, on a one-on-one
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basis, I get along quite well with a lot of these Democrats.
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I mean, I'll just give you an example.
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Like Alex Lee, I probably don't agree with him on the majority.
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I mean, we are like 2 completely different people, you know, like
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I'm a, you know, 41 year old married man with four kids
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living in the suburbs, right. He lives in the Bay Area and
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just his policies are way different on a one-on-one basis,
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you know, I mean, he's not a bad guy.
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We have conversations. Things are kind of normal.
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And then it's just interesting. And I I, you know, when I think
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about the Capitol, he is not the person that comes to mind of how
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crazy things are in Sacramento. He's just not one of those.
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I'm not saying I agree with stuff that he does.
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I'm just saying he's not in that.
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You know this is what crazy is going on here.
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He's he has a lot of different ideas.
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I think he kind of is more along the socialist route of of like
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for example, he supports social housing.
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I don't support social housing. But if you actually talk to him
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about it, if you have a conversation with him about like
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how do you support the government coming in and
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building housing, he's like, well, we do it for roads, why
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wouldn't we do it for housing? And then you say okay, I know
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okay. I see what you're saying.
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I see what where you're coming from.
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I don't philosophically agree with that, but I kind of get
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where he's coming from. So we have a in the Capitol, we
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have something called a members lounge.
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When you go chat with these people, you know anybody,
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Republicans, Democrats, and you, you go out there and you're
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like, Oh yeah, what's going on? Let's have our Diet Coke,
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whatever. And then you get out on the
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Assembly floor and you're like, whoa, that was not the person I
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was just talking to. That is.
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And they probably say that about me, too.
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Honestly, I'm just that's kind of the environment that we're
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in. And I do think there is a lot of
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virtue signaling. Just generally like you said,
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you go on Twitter feeds, I probably do it too.
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But you go on Twitter feeds and you're like, oh, this person's
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at this protest, this person's doing this or whatever.
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Well, what are you actually doing to, you know, move this
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data along or solve some of these problems we actually have?
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I really don't care personally if you know, person's at a
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protest or a picket line or something like that, it might be
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important to their constituencies.
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But I actually am much more concerned about crime and
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homelessness and water storage and all these other things.
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So it's weird we don't really talk about those things.
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I try to, but it's just weird that those never really come up,
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you know, I. Think those are our favorite
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subjects. Well probably any one of those
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subjects we can talk all day long on.
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I mean it's it's but we don't talk about them in the
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legislature and we have 2000 bills, over 2000 bills and I
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mean we don't some of them touch on homelessness, some of them
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touch on this. I mean what are we doing to
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bring down utility rates or something like that.
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I mean it's it's not even, it's like we don't even talk about
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it. It's so crazy and we don't get
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to set the agenda as Republicans we don't get to set that agenda.
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I mean, we could push it, say we need to do this, we'll bring
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hostile amendments on the floor, but, you know, get shut down.
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I think it's going back to what Alex Lee said.
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It's kind of scary if he thinks, well, government builds roads,
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so they should build housing. Has he seen California roads?
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So I can only imagine what California government housing
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would look like. But in in terms of those like
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topics that I think need to be discussed, what are some of the,
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what's the number one issue you've been working on in the
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legislature right now? Well, the thing that I've had
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success with is legislation around fentanyl and I've had
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some success and not surprising to you because I know you follow
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this, I haven't had some success on one of the components, but
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I'm the only Republican to get something out of the Assembly
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Public Safety Committee that deals with fentanyl.
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So we are making some progress in that.
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I just got a bill signed by the governor on that I had a
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neighbor that fentanyl poisoning when I was on the Rockland City
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Council and so it kind of, I didn't know anything about it
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until then. So I have four pieces of
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legislation, but the one piece we can't get out of the
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legislature, which you guys know this already but has to do with
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accountability. I mean the only bill to get out
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of the Assembly Public Safety Committee regarding fentanyl's
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you have to have enough doses to kill 500 people 500
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people you have to have a kilo you know so it's it's just so
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obscene that place and but so I had a piece to basically allow
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people to be charged with murder if they are know the risks
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they're Alexander's law. I may have heard about that.
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But if you know the risks, you continue to sell the drug
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anyways and traffic, it's actually only after.
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Actually under current law you can be charged with murder, but
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it's if you've been warned, you get arrested.
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My bill would say you have to warn them that they can be
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charged with murder after they're arrested and if they do
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it a second time then they can be charged with murder.
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So or make it clear they can be charged with murder.
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So that one died in committee on a party line vote.
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I mean it's totally unsurprising but we're going to keep pushing
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it. So I've been working a lot on
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fentanyl. We have all sorts of issues on
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early release of inmates, sexually violent predators, you
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know, just public safety issues in general.
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I mean, human trafficking, gun violence, gun violence is
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another one. Anybody who says Republicans
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don't care about gun violence don't follow what's happening in
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the legislature. We actually propose bills all
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the time and they die in committee because it's not
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whatever the Democrats want to do.
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But I'll give you an example. The very right wing publication
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called the San Francisco Chronicle, you all know that
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about the very right wing publication.
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Yes, exactly. They I had a piece of
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legislation up that would make domestic violence violent,
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felony domestic violence a violent felony.
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That sounds weird, but right now felony domestic violence is
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eligible for early release. But if it was actually a violent
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felony, it would not be eligible for early release and would
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actually be a strikable offense. These are the worst kinds of
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domestic violence. This is punching a woman in the
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face nonstop dragging her, you know, serious injuries outside
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of gunshot wounds. Gunshot wounds are are violent
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felonies. But so I wanted to make felony
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domestic violence a violent felony.
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So the San Francisco Chronicle writes a piece saying, hey,
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Democrats should support this piece of legislation because 2/3
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of all mass shooters have a background in domestic violence.
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And so the Chronicle pick was the one that picked up and they
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said, hey look, this is a way to stop mass shootings in
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California. In fact, we had a case in
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Sacramento where a guy was released early from prison after
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just beating up his his partner really bad, driving around by
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her hair, punching her in the face in the car, really bad
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situation. So he got sense in 10 years, got
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out in five years and within three months when killed 6
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people in a mass shooting in downtown Sacramento.
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And so I've used this as an example of, hey, if this guy was
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in prison, these six people would still be alive.
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And they said, well, how do you know he wouldn't have done it in
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10 years? Well, I don't know.
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I mean, I can't predict the future, but I know these six
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people would still be alive right now.
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And so even the San Francisco Chronicle was like, this is a
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reasonable bill, you know, but Democrats still killed it.
00:15:12
So. So I would say public safety,
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fentanyl. We also have some parental
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rights legislation, a lot of things like that.
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I'm I'm pretty big into parental rights, is is a major issue for
00:15:27
me? Do you know off the top of your
00:15:30
head, California fentanyl death rates per day, per month, per
00:15:34
year, Anything? It's 110 people a week.
00:15:39
But I will tell you this, more people die of fentanyl than gun
00:15:44
violence. I mean this, they don't want to
00:15:47
talk about the actual issues in California.
00:15:51
They don't want to talk about that because it's not
00:15:54
politically expedient. I mean, everybody thinks and
00:15:57
look, gun violence is a serious issue, but they only want their
00:16:00
solutions, by the way, which is take guns away from people.
00:16:03
By the way, CCW holders don't commit murders in California,
00:16:08
just doesn't happen. But they want to make it more
00:16:10
difficult for people to have. They only want their solutions,
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they don't want these other solutions.
00:16:15
But more people are dying of fentanyl than are dying of of
00:16:19
gun violence. I just, I hate to keep going
00:16:22
back to COVID, but I think about all those commercials about how
00:16:25
you killed Grandma because you left your house, you weren't
00:16:29
essential. You, you know, we're going to
00:16:32
crack down on stay in your home and don't go out and curfews,
00:16:35
but we're not going to do anything about fentanyl that is
00:16:38
killing children. You know, it's, you know, I have
00:16:44
4 kids and to see fentanyl started spiking during the
00:16:49
shutdowns and it's not going down by the way.
00:16:51
But during the pandemic and during school shutdowns and all
00:16:56
these issues, mental health issues were spiking.
00:16:58
And it all started around. Then it really started spiking
00:17:03
and it's it's a sad thing to say, but again, they don't want
00:17:06
to talk about that because then they have to actually accept,
00:17:09
hey, maybe we did the wrong thing, right?
00:17:13
Right is I also have 4 kids. Is fentanyl an issue that you
00:17:19
might have to work with the federal government on because of
00:17:22
if it's coming across the border?
00:17:27
Look, all a lot of the issues I'm getting out of the
00:17:31
legislature I think will help prevent people from dying of
00:17:36
fentanyl because they know about it or there's our treatment,
00:17:40
there's treatment out there. But at the end of the day, if
00:17:43
this, if this stuff doesn't stop, I mean, the DEA, Joe
00:17:47
Biden's DEA, says this stuff is coming in from Mexico, from
00:17:51
China, right. So it's not like it's some, you
00:17:55
know, vast right wing conspiracy that we say that.
00:17:58
Like they even say that. But yeah, we have to secure the
00:18:01
border. But every day I was just on
00:18:02
Twitter yesterday and I saw some congressman from Texas talk
00:18:07
about how cruel Texas is. Border policy is.
00:18:11
You know, it's like, man, maybe they don't want lethal drugs
00:18:14
coming into our country, you know?
00:18:16
So it's just crazy. I mean, yes, he has to do
00:18:19
something about the border. I mean, the border is insane.
00:18:21
It's crazy. Why?
00:18:24
I mean, maybe this is a bigger philosophical question, but why
00:18:28
do you think Democrats just don't want to tackle these bills
00:18:33
and these issues? I mean, you have the San
00:18:34
Francisco Chronicle. Like you said, very right wing
00:18:38
obviously pro Trump MAGA supporting newspaper.
00:18:41
If you anybody knows it out there, why are why are Democrats
00:18:46
not even taking cues from the San Francisco Chronicle?
00:18:49
I mean like maybe we should start supporting this stuff and
00:18:52
maybe our voters would like us to get a little bit tougher on
00:18:55
crime. I mean, how many videos do I
00:18:58
have to see on Instagram of Louis Vuitton being?
00:19:02
Robbed or what? Was the new one in Glendale that
00:19:04
just got robbed? A very fancy place, but it's
00:19:06
just constant videos of like crime and public safety issues.
00:19:10
Why are they just not interested in tackling it?
00:19:16
There are philosophical differences on prison.
00:19:19
I mean, California just changed. Well, there's legislation right
00:19:23
now to change the definition of prison from being, you know,
00:19:28
place where you pay for your crimes to a place where you are
00:19:37
rehabilitated. They're they're literally
00:19:40
changing the definition of what a prison is supposed to do.
00:19:44
And I get that, look 90 some odd percent of people will
00:19:47
eventually get out of prison. So you have to be, you have to
00:19:51
rehabilitate people that are in prison.
00:19:54
But just yesterday, this just happened.
00:19:56
Yesterday a guy who raped a 14 year old girl in my county. 14
00:20:03
year old girl. And before that had molested
00:20:06
another child. So two disgusting convictions,
00:20:10
which people can argue you should get more than maybe a
00:20:14
lengthy prison sentence for doing stuff like that.
00:20:18
He got sentenced to I think 32 years and so now he's up after
00:20:23
16 years. This guy's eligible for early
00:20:26
release. You know, and so how is it so?
00:20:31
I just don't think the public understands.
00:20:32
This is a proposition 57, by the way.
00:20:34
I just don't think the public understands and it's not their
00:20:39
fault. But I mean, it's the way things
00:20:40
are characterized that we're just trying to put people in
00:20:43
prison. You are damn right.
00:20:46
I have no problem with the guy who raped and molested children
00:20:51
spending the rest of their lives in prison forever.
00:20:56
That is absolutely they are not. They should not be eligible for
00:20:58
release. But I look, I'm we're not
00:21:00
talking about locking up somebody who, you know, is using
00:21:04
drugs or whatever and really needs help.
00:21:06
We're talking about can we just keep people in prison who are,
00:21:09
you know, like, I don't know, child rapists.
00:21:12
It seems pretty reasonable. Yeah, I have 0 tolerance for
00:21:16
that. And I I mean, I guess especially
00:21:19
as parents, I'm sure we. We both, you know, it's a little
00:21:23
more, you look at your own child and you're like thinking that
00:21:25
could be my kid and I won't. I don't want to get anyone in
00:21:30
trouble here, so I won't say what I would do if that person
00:21:32
was released from prison. But that's, you know, it's just
00:21:35
someone hurt my kid. No, you don't.
00:21:39
You don't have to say what you would do if somebody hurt your
00:21:42
kid like that, but you can say that maybe we should expand the
00:21:47
list of capital punishment crimes for people that rape and
00:21:54
molest children. Yeah, my wife has a pretty
00:21:58
radical punishment, but I we don't want to get kicked off
00:22:01
YouTube, so. After.
00:22:04
After we could talk about it, yeah.
00:22:07
So you talked about Public Safety Committee and one of the
00:22:12
biggest controversies involving minors was SB14, which caused a
00:22:19
national. Hubbub over what?
00:22:23
What happened? And we had asked Josh Hoover for
00:22:26
his kind of take on it. But why don't you give us your
00:22:29
take on what it was going on, what your view was during that
00:22:33
whole kind of fiasco, What was going on?
00:22:37
Sure. Will that legislation that I was
00:22:39
talking about on gun violence that the Chronicle, you know,
00:22:44
that very extreme mega paper endorsed it also, it actually
00:22:49
included making violent crimes for three different types of
00:22:54
crimes. One was all sexual assaults, one
00:22:58
was domestic violence and the third one was human trafficking,
00:23:04
child human trafficking for the purposes of of sex.
00:23:08
And so they already killed that bill.
00:23:13
But I didn't make a lot of noise about the human trafficking
00:23:16
component because I, Shannon Grove has really been a leader
00:23:19
in this. And I didn't want to sort of
00:23:21
take her spotlight. So I didn't work that angle at
00:23:26
the time. But this is, this was actually
00:23:28
the second time that Democrats killed it initially.
00:23:32
And it took Governor Newsom. I mean, Governor Newsom, I
00:23:37
disagree with all the time, but he's no dummy.
00:23:40
He's no dummy. He knows the public thinks it's
00:23:44
absolutely ridiculous that human trafficking of children is not a
00:23:49
serious crime. So.
00:23:51
And if it wasn't for, you know, the pressure that Republicans
00:23:55
were putting on because papers started saying like, what is
00:23:58
this all about? You know, the media?
00:23:59
What is this all about? Like you said, national media?
00:24:01
How is this not a serious felony?
00:24:04
You could traffic children for devious purposes and get out in
00:24:10
half your sentence and because of Proposition 57, so.
00:24:16
But you know what's crazy about SP14 also is it's it's not the
00:24:21
first time you do it. It's not the first time.
00:24:24
So it's actually the second time you've done it.
00:24:26
So, so this is a person with a consistent track record of
00:24:31
trafficking children and Democrats couldn't even go for
00:24:34
that. So it was only because of public
00:24:38
pressure. And I think obviously that
00:24:40
caused the governor to do it. I mean, the governor reads the
00:24:42
paper, The governor is very influenced by what shows up in
00:24:46
the media. And there have been other issues
00:24:49
that I've worked on where it's been a similar type of response.
00:24:52
But but you know, when the governor comes out, who, you
00:24:56
know, obviously is not a Republican and he says, like,
00:24:58
yeah, I think this should, you know, be a problem.
00:25:00
But this is how extremist places I go.
00:25:03
I go to speak at events on a daily basis and I don't know if
00:25:08
these people are Republicans or Democrats.
00:25:10
And I talk, I say, hey guys, this is how extreme Sacramento
00:25:13
is. I use this as the example to
00:25:15
show how extreme Sacramento is. They could not even classify
00:25:20
this as a serious felony. And when I say that, I'm
00:25:24
actually surprised the people in the audience who don't know
00:25:26
that, who do not know that. So I think it's up to us, up to
00:25:31
you, up to us to educate people that this is how extreme
00:25:34
Sacramento is. And I think that's the only way
00:25:37
Republicans pick up seats, frankly.
00:25:41
That's baffling to be. I needn't, sorry.
00:25:44
No, go ahead. Come on.
00:25:46
I just know that the second offense, it should be the first
00:25:49
offense, but they're they were bothered by the 2nd.
00:25:53
But what do they want 3rd, 4th, 5th?
00:25:55
Nothing obviously. The the chair of that committee
00:25:59
just philosophically does not believe in incarceration.
00:26:03
He does not believe in it. I mean he, I think.
00:26:07
Who is this? You can name him.
00:26:11
No, it's not. I don't really like to use their
00:26:14
names, but it's Reggie Jones, Sawyer, and he says it in
00:26:18
committee. He says it in the nicest way
00:26:21
possible. But he has a different world
00:26:23
view. I think it's fine to to look at,
00:26:26
hey, look, he, he has a different world view.
00:26:28
He represents LA and he's got a different world view on.
00:26:33
Look, prisons used to be overcrowded and people used to
00:26:36
be sent to prisons for things that are, you know, you
00:26:39
shouldn't go to prison for that long period.
00:26:42
I mean, look, I don't want a person going to prison for 20
00:26:46
years because they're selling pot.
00:26:47
I'm not condoning selling pot. I'm just saying there's probably
00:26:51
other things we can do than drop 70 grand a year incarcerating
00:26:53
this person. So.
00:26:56
So I get that perspective and I've been to a lot of prisons.
00:26:58
I went to prisons when there was overcrowding and people were
00:27:01
sleeping in gyms and three high bunks.
00:27:04
And so I under in a way I get that perspective.
00:27:07
But the solution isn't to just release people and the solution
00:27:10
isn't to just let you know these people who are trafficking
00:27:15
children, just let them you know go free.
00:27:18
It's crazy. It's it's just I actually met.
00:27:21
This is what makes me so mad. I was there.
00:27:24
I went to the hearing did the press conference thing.
00:27:27
This lady comes up to me and she said hey I'm so and so I'm
00:27:30
actually constituent of yours and I was like hey you know so
00:27:33
nice to meet you. She was trafficked it, not in my
00:27:38
district, but she she lives in my district now she's she's, I
00:27:42
don't know, she's maybe 30s or 40s or something, but she was
00:27:45
trafficked and so she showed up at the hearing to testify in
00:27:49
support of this bill. A senator from LA County had
00:27:53
tweeted not about her but said Dannon Grove and who else?
00:27:58
Oh, Heath Flora, My colleague Heath Flora are using human
00:28:03
trafficking victims as pawns to push, you know, right wing,
00:28:08
extreme stuff. I can't.
00:28:09
I can't. That's a paraphrase.
00:28:11
It's not exactly what it said, but how dare you tell me that
00:28:17
this lady who I had just met, if you were to ask her, she said,
00:28:20
Oh no, I came down to the Capitol.
00:28:22
This is really important to me. This is really important to me
00:28:25
because this happened to me and these people need to spend a lot
00:28:28
of time in prison, so how dare them even say that we're using
00:28:33
victims as pawns? Give me a break.
00:28:36
It's just so disgusting. I I mean, somebody from LA
00:28:42
County probably should worry about what's going on at home
00:28:46
anyway in that area because right, it's just right.
00:28:49
But I mean, I guess the philosophy lines up with what's
00:28:52
going on in LA County, because LA County is an absolute war
00:28:55
zone I wanted. I was literally there a week
00:28:59
ago. I was sorry I keep interrupting
00:29:01
you. I was texting Phyllis.
00:29:02
I'm driving into LA, I'm in Orange County driving in LA and
00:29:04
I'm like, I cannot stand coming here.
00:29:07
I I have nothing against the people.
00:29:10
I I just can't stay in LA. I'm, I'm down in San Diego and
00:29:15
San Diego and LA. We're just two completely
00:29:16
different worlds. And I feel like Orange County is
00:29:19
like a close brethren to us. Like we kind of get along Orange
00:29:22
County in San Diego and then we both look at La and we're like,
00:29:26
look LA, we we were talking about last week how when you're
00:29:29
driving up the five, you know you've crossed over into LA
00:29:33
County when you go from like these.
00:29:36
This big, beautiful, well maintained Hwy. with lots of
00:29:39
lanes and it's all nice and then all of a sudden you cross in and
00:29:43
then it goes from like 5 lanes to two lanes and it's all under
00:29:48
construction and it's just rundown warehouses and you go
00:29:50
up. We're in LA County.
00:29:53
You know, it's funny you say that, cuz I actually went down
00:29:57
to San Diego probably like six or seven months ago or
00:30:00
something. I was driving through and it's,
00:30:02
oh, Orange County, oh LA, oh, San Diego.
00:30:06
You know, it's just so clear. It's so obvious, the
00:30:08
differences. It's crazy.
00:30:10
I When I exited the freeway, I kid you not like the two lanes
00:30:14
you know to exit the middle line.
00:30:17
There was a person sitting in a chair on the middle line of the
00:30:22
freeway exit and. Luckily there's traffic and so
00:30:27
people are slower anyway. But should it be a less
00:30:32
trafficky moment and someone exits quickly, that man could be
00:30:36
killed instantly. And this is LA and that's not
00:30:40
okay that like, I was so devastated.
00:30:44
I almost cried like I was just like this is that's just one
00:30:49
person of how many hundreds, thousands in LA that like they
00:30:53
need help. And I I don't know.
00:30:59
We're not doing anything for the homeless or mental health.
00:31:01
I mean, I know there's some people are slowly chipping away
00:31:03
here and there, but it's a big, big issue now.
00:31:09
You had brought up a Twitter spat, and I tell people that
00:31:15
you're a really good Twitter follower or a good Twitter
00:31:19
follow you. You tweeted a couple days ago.
00:31:24
That I got a chuckle out of, if you don't mind me reading it.
00:31:28
Is that okay? Yeah, of course.
00:31:31
I mean, it's already out there on the public anyway in Twitter,
00:31:33
so. Or X, whatever you want to call
00:31:36
Xing. X whatever you do.
00:31:39
It's Sacramento airport is building a quote stunning $140
00:31:43
million pedestrian walkway to go from concourse to terminal.
00:31:47
At some point, folks need to think about how to use tax
00:31:50
dollars appropriately. No one goes to airports to enjoy
00:31:53
stunning walkways. In fact people want to get out
00:31:57
ASAP and then you retweet it under at the existing but not
00:32:01
open walkway. Must not be stunning enough.
00:32:05
The reason I love that and also you kind of call that yourself
00:32:08
for the typo. But that's fine, we read it the
00:32:10
correct way. The reason I love that is
00:32:14
because I think on Twitter you have such an honest voice and it
00:32:19
it's kind of refreshing. To hear a politician just speak
00:32:23
honestly, like what's on your mind, not hold back, put some
00:32:27
sarcasm into it, make it funny, make it relatable.
00:32:32
Has that just always been you on Twitter?
00:32:34
And when you became assemblyman, did you just decide I'm going to
00:32:37
continue being honest and stuff like that?
00:32:41
What's your kind of strategy with that voice on Twitter?
00:32:46
Yeah, I mean, Twitter is I just get, I don't, I don't have
00:32:50
enough capacity in my life to be, you know, fake or think
00:32:55
about every consequence of everything I say when I open my
00:32:59
mouth and when I ran before I ran for office, I was kind of
00:33:04
like that anyways, that I kind of said people.
00:33:08
I mean, honestly, it's, I get it.
00:33:09
It's not everybody's cup of tea. I mean, people want me to be
00:33:13
more refined or not so offensive or whatever.
00:33:17
But I mean, just just stop. I think people want to hear.
00:33:23
I think the people reason why people like Donald Trump is and
00:33:26
not that I'm trying to be like Donald Trump.
00:33:28
I'm just saying the reason why he appeals to people is because
00:33:33
he says whatever, whatever he wants to come out of his mouth,
00:33:36
he's going to say it right now. Look, I don't sometimes I think
00:33:41
you make some missteps there, but I make missteps too, you
00:33:44
know, and I think that that's fine.
00:33:46
That kind of like comes with the program, you know.
00:33:48
But I just think Twitter is an amazing tool.
00:33:52
I get quoted all the time and papers and and using new sources
00:33:57
because I think it's an amazing tool.
00:33:59
Look my constituents may or may not I know the plaster County
00:34:03
Democratic Party just probably screenshots every tweet I do and
00:34:06
just waiting for something someday.
00:34:08
But, but I think it's an amazing tool to communicate with the
00:34:14
public about, especially the press and the capital community
00:34:19
about what you're thinking. And it has gotten me some help.
00:34:21
I'm telling you every, every lobbyist or every legislator I
00:34:25
talked to talks about Twitter. And there was actually a hearing
00:34:29
probably about six months ago that I thought was a complete
00:34:32
fraud. I mean, they didn't have, it was
00:34:35
a joint committee and it didn't have any perspectives on the
00:34:40
public safety side of things. And so I just started kind of
00:34:45
tweeting crazy about it. Like this is so disgusting.
00:34:48
I can't believe, you know, I'm not even going to show up
00:34:50
tomorrow. And the chair of the committee
00:34:52
actually called me and he said, hey, hey man, I'm sorry.
00:34:55
This is kind of what's going on. I will call so and so to be
00:34:58
there. And so they did, you know, they
00:35:00
actually called whoever to be there.
00:35:02
So I have to be careful in a way because I do know that people
00:35:06
are watching it. And so I don't want to be overly
00:35:08
cavalier and but but there are some things and I'm going to
00:35:13
give you an example of something that's coming up.
00:35:16
Republican women staff members make fractionally what
00:35:22
Democratic staff members make males males.
00:35:28
So if you're a so Democrats like to tell you equity, equity
00:35:32
equity, well you're paying your staff a lot more and I'm, I
00:35:36
can't wait till these numbers come out.
00:35:38
I'm waiting for the. I know when they're going to
00:35:39
come out. But but, you know, so I I
00:35:43
tweeted something about that. I tweeted about this.
00:35:47
Republican women make less than their male Democratic
00:35:50
counterparts. And I got a call from somebody,
00:35:54
I won't say who, but I got a call from somebody disappointed
00:35:57
that I had tweeted that out there.
00:35:59
You know, like, hey, can we have a meeting about this?
00:36:01
It's like, no, how about fix the problem?
00:36:03
How about fix it, You know. So I'm sorry that it offends
00:36:07
you, but it is what it is, you know.
00:36:11
Well, I think it's just very refreshing.
00:36:14
And I I think when it comes to the California Republicans, it
00:36:19
it it almost is a good idea to just kind of be honest and be
00:36:23
brash. Because playing the same like
00:36:28
political game as everyone expects you to to have the
00:36:32
really well manicured talking points and all that stuff that
00:36:36
just kind of like washes over people.
00:36:38
It's it hasn't worked and I think.
00:36:40
The California Republican Party is slowly becoming more and more
00:36:43
of a minority party and losing and losing people that at a
00:36:48
certain point you gotta go, well, something's not working
00:36:50
here. We got to get, we got to try
00:36:52
something different. So I think it's just very
00:36:54
refreshing to see someone just have an honest voice that you
00:37:00
can say this is a real person and I actually agree with what
00:37:03
they're saying, So I appreciate that.
00:37:07
Well, well, I I appreciate that a lot.
00:37:10
I will say I did think about, you know, when I was in, I
00:37:15
actually have not talked about this, but it's just between us.
00:37:18
So I think we're good. But I I always wondered when I
00:37:23
was on the campaign like some some crazy picture from college
00:37:27
is going to come out or something, you know.
00:37:30
And then I started thinking like what's the worst?
00:37:33
I mean, you know, me having a drink at a bar or something.
00:37:36
I mean, good Lord, if somebody came here like, Oh my gosh, I
00:37:39
got this picture of you, You know, you're drinking, you know,
00:37:43
whiskey at a bar or something like, OK, guys, sorry I went to
00:37:46
college, you know? And yeah, I'm not a perfect guy.
00:37:50
I had some drinks in college, like 99.9% of people.
00:37:55
But now I'm a grown adult with four kids and a wife and I got a
00:37:59
job and you know, you don't want to vote for me because, you
00:38:03
know, I did what everybody else did.
00:38:05
I guess it is what it is. That's.
00:38:06
I don't think people are like that.
00:38:08
I don't think society's gotten to the point to where they want
00:38:11
to elected these pristine people with no, you know, I don't know,
00:38:17
I didn't inhale. I mean, how much goodness, how
00:38:20
much how much pain did Bill Clinton go through to tell
00:38:26
people he didn't inhale? I mean, good Lord, like just.
00:38:31
Just just stop it. Yeah, just shed the pretenses.
00:38:36
Hey, that's not the only he didn't do, though.
00:38:39
True. That's a whole different
00:38:41
conversation, not related to California, yeah.
00:38:46
So we had James Gallagher on last week, and we were talking
00:38:48
about how California Republicans in Sacramento now are doing a
00:38:52
better job of kind of like framing the argument and coming
00:38:55
out with your own policies and solutions.
00:38:58
Before, as opposed to being reactionary to a lot of Democrat
00:39:03
policies, because when you are reactionary, you're not getting
00:39:07
your word out. But if you create the policy and
00:39:10
you put it out there, make the Democrats argue against it, like
00:39:13
a lot of these public safety bills, there's a lot of chance
00:39:16
for sort of electoral momentum. Is that something that you're
00:39:21
working on is trying to get that?
00:39:24
I guess the California promise was what you guys are calling
00:39:26
it, getting those solutions out there.
00:39:28
Yeah, I'm a big supporter of James.
00:39:33
He actually went to high school with my wife, so I didn't know
00:39:39
him back in the day. But yeah, it's it was a small
00:39:44
town where he went to high school in a small town, but so
00:39:48
everybody kind of knew each other.
00:39:49
But he's just genuinely a good person.
00:39:52
But he's also very thoughtful in the sense of we've been hearing
00:39:55
forever Republicans just can't be the party of no.
00:39:58
So he became leader, got through elections and then he, he put
00:40:03
together our policy shop and everything and said, hey, let's
00:40:06
put together, let's go on the offense.
00:40:09
The problem is, is a lot of these bills don't really see the
00:40:12
light of day. I mean if it's not.
00:40:15
Sort of a popular topic on something.
00:40:19
Then people won't even know that we're proposing it.
00:40:21
But I do have on a regular basis, I will have a Democrat in
00:40:27
my county who's who doesn't like me say, well, what are you doing
00:40:31
about homelessness? What are you doing?
00:40:34
Well, actually go to California. Promise.
00:40:35
We have an entire package of bills that we rolled out.
00:40:39
But by the way, the chairs of your committees, your party
00:40:43
wouldn't even give us hearings on the bill.
00:40:46
I mean that it's like a dictatorship over there.
00:40:49
So they're kind of smart in a way where they where they they
00:40:54
just shut us down. So we can't even can't even talk
00:40:57
about the issue at all. And so our message doesn't get
00:41:01
out there, but we do have solutions on homelessness, on
00:41:04
gun violence, on crime, all of these things.
00:41:09
And I think it's really smart that we keep doing that and we,
00:41:11
we shove it in the faces. By the way, we have press
00:41:14
conferences on it. Fentanyl, we've had press
00:41:16
conferences, gun violence, we've had press conferences, all of
00:41:21
these things we've done. And I think James has been doing
00:41:24
a really good job. I mean, I've like, I actually
00:41:26
used to work for a Republican leader from San Diego County.
00:41:29
Actually, I used to work for a Republican leader.
00:41:31
And he was a great guy, great man, very honorable.
00:41:36
So I have seen a lot of Republican leaders.
00:41:38
I was a staff person when Kevin McCarthy was the Republican
00:41:43
leader in the Assembly. Actually, James Gallagher is
00:41:47
he's got he, he's he's he's very special.
00:41:50
I mean he's he's got it. He knows what we need to do to
00:41:54
pick up votes. But with the way redistricting
00:41:57
works and and all that stuff, I mean it's it is hard out there.
00:42:00
But I do think if I were to tell Californians something, it would
00:42:04
be in my view, California Republican Assembly, our
00:42:08
Assembly members, the people that were recruiting, the people
00:42:10
that were putting out there, whether you're Republican or
00:42:13
Democrat, you will definitely identify with the policies that
00:42:17
we're putting forward more than you will identify with the
00:42:20
Democratic policies. There might be some issues like,
00:42:23
for example, I'm pro-life, so maybe you don't agree with me on
00:42:27
those issues. But I'm not in there.
00:42:30
I'm, I'm actually not in there trying to ban abortion right
00:42:34
now. I'm actually trying to get out
00:42:36
there and say, hey, there are other options out there.
00:42:39
You know, with these pregnancy centers, there are other options
00:42:43
out there. There are other services.
00:42:45
So I'm trying to sort of push issues like that.
00:42:48
So look, we might not agree on on that issue, but I want to
00:42:53
hear where you're at. Let's come with a solution.
00:42:55
But Democrats are just like, hey, we're we're not going to
00:42:59
solve homelessness. We're just going to throw 20
00:43:01
billion at it. Oh, retail theft, no big deal.
00:43:03
Like, we don't want to send people to prison.
00:43:06
If they're doing that, that's no big deal.
00:43:07
It's like they're not solving the issues.
00:43:09
It's so extreme. And people can read more about
00:43:13
the the California Isn't our website for the California
00:43:16
Promise. Yeah, I think it's called
00:43:20
California promise.com or something.
00:43:23
You can. Double check it, I'm not exactly
00:43:24
sure it is. You know, if you want to ask
00:43:27
your question that I so rudely cut you off.
00:43:31
On the now, I cut you off on the pro-life issue.
00:43:34
You know, with, like you said, you're not out there trying to
00:43:36
ban abortion, but you're trying to acknowledge that there's
00:43:39
these crisis centers that, you know, there are options
00:43:42
available. Meanwhile, we've literally got
00:43:43
this California website where they're like, report the crisis
00:43:47
pregnancy centers. You know, they're liars.
00:43:49
We need to get them shut down. And it's that's absolutely
00:43:52
horrific to me. Meanwhile, whether you're
00:43:55
pro-life or not, we're throwing so much taxpayer money at
00:44:00
abortion because women feel like they don't have an option.
00:44:03
It's like let them know that there is an option.
00:44:04
Let's, you know, we could actually save some of the funds
00:44:08
and allocate them elsewhere if if we're like allowing these
00:44:11
women to go to these, Not that we're not allowing them, but,
00:44:13
you know, we're trying to shut them down.
00:44:15
We're trying to make them unknown.
00:44:16
We're trying to say abortion is the only answer here and and
00:44:21
women believe that they do like I'm.
00:44:24
Constantly surprised at even friends that I grew up with in
00:44:28
California who a lot of them voted Democrat for years and
00:44:31
then one day found out what abortion really was.
00:44:34
And they were like, wait, I'm against that?
00:44:36
And I'm like, how? How did you not know?
00:44:38
And I don't mean that any condescendingly.
00:44:41
It's just amazing to me what people don't understand, what
00:44:44
they don't know. And so they go along with it
00:44:45
because they think it's no big deal.
00:44:47
And then one day they actually figure out, they learn what it
00:44:50
is and they're like, hold on, hold on.
00:44:52
And I have had so many friends females.
00:44:54
We're like wait, I don't believe in that And they and they've
00:44:57
switched parties over it. Yeah, I'm I'm a big believer
00:45:02
that I don't necessarily think, I don't think the best way to
00:45:09
protect the unborn is necessarily a law.
00:45:13
You actually have to give people knowledge that there are other
00:45:18
things out there that you can do.
00:45:20
For example, I'm a huge, huge supporter of safe surrender.
00:45:26
If you are unable to care for your child, we have to allow you
00:45:31
to do what's best for the child. And so a fire department, you
00:45:35
know, you can safely surrender a child that you can't care for at
00:45:39
a fire department. And I look, that's not the best
00:45:41
solution for everybody. But I think we have to
00:45:45
acknowledge that that we have to do what's best for the children
00:45:49
and then also on these pregnancy centers, the thing that drives
00:45:52
me nuts. Again, I'm not, you know, I
00:45:54
haven't. I just think it's so
00:45:56
hypocritical to be out there and say, hey, abortion, abortion is
00:46:02
it. Abortion is it.
00:46:03
There are other services out there that one of the pregnancy
00:46:06
centers around my district during the pandemic, Planned
00:46:10
Parenthood, was shut down, shut down.
00:46:12
So there were no ultrasounds. When women would want to get an
00:46:15
ultrasound to confirm a pregnancy or whatever, they saw
00:46:18
something like 400 women that went into Planned Parenthood
00:46:23
thinking about possible abortion and like 3/4 of them ended up
00:46:30
getting their ultrasounds at a pregnancy center and choosing to
00:46:34
have the baby. And by the way, the pregnancy
00:46:37
center will provide services. And I think we get so wrapped up
00:46:41
because Elizabeth Warren in Massachusetts is talking about
00:46:45
what pregnancy centers do nationwide or whatever.
00:46:48
In California, the one in my district and and in other areas
00:46:52
that I'm familiar with and they are licensed health clinics,
00:46:55
They are not lying to you. It is unlawful for them to lie
00:46:58
to you. If you go to their website right
00:47:00
now they say we don't perform abortions.
00:47:03
But yes, they philosophically believe that life is a good
00:47:07
thing. Why would we not?
00:47:09
Why would we try to stop that option?
00:47:11
You're telling me Planned Parenthood is the only option
00:47:14
out there for people. It's crazy.
00:47:16
And by the way, now you're getting me going on something.
00:47:20
Now you're getting me going. I sit on the privacy committee.
00:47:23
I'm the vice chair of the privacy committee and they we
00:47:26
mostly deal with tech issues which are super important.
00:47:30
But the Planned Parenthood sponsors legislation all the
00:47:34
time on privacy of people having abortions.
00:47:37
And I'll tell you something, I'm philosophically supportive of
00:47:40
that if I don't think the government or anybody else
00:47:44
should ever know that you should never force somebody to say
00:47:47
whatever you did on a health basis or not.
00:47:50
And that includes by the way is I don't support abortion but if
00:47:55
you have an abortion, like it is not the government's business
00:47:58
and it's not my business. So they but they bring forward
00:48:02
legislation. I remember there was this one
00:48:03
that said that they would basically withhold the companies
00:48:08
that knew that you were having an abortion because they track
00:48:11
where you're going or whatever that they couldn't disclose it
00:48:14
to anybody else like your law enforcement from other states.
00:48:19
And I wasn't the the issue wasn't so much the bill.
00:48:23
The problem was that it's already current law in
00:48:25
California. They can't do that.
00:48:26
It's already current law. But they sponsored this bill
00:48:29
because it's a grift, because they want to be able to raise
00:48:32
money and say, hey, we sponsored this bill, we're doing these
00:48:35
things to help your privacy and all that kind of stuff.
00:48:38
It's like it's already covered under the law, but it's a total
00:48:41
grift. It's a scam.
00:48:43
And I just you know the lies that they tell.
00:48:47
We had a in health committee. They call pregnancy centers,
00:48:50
fake health clinics, fake doctors.
00:48:52
And I just. I just lost my mind on them.
00:48:55
It's on video. It's on YouTube.
00:48:57
It's on my YouTube where I'm saying how dare you call
00:49:00
licensed doctors fake and licensed medical clinics fake.
00:49:05
And I'm just, I'm tired of it. I'm tired of their lies.
00:49:10
Thank you for listening to my rant.
00:49:13
Yeah, no problem. I'm with you on it.
00:49:17
Yeah, it's it's I I was always, I was always kind of the
00:49:23
libertarian viewpoint of like that.
00:49:27
You know, I I was like, whatever, it's your choice.
00:49:30
It's freedom. We can do whatever we want.
00:49:32
But ever since I got married, my wife and I are trying to have
00:49:35
kids, and I think we've realized that life is a precious thing.
00:49:42
To have it, it's not, it's not just an A given.
00:49:46
So when people are so callous about it, it gets me upset.
00:49:51
It gets me kind of riled up as well.
00:49:53
So I understand the passion, that's for sure.
00:49:59
But yeah, I want to end on a little bit more of a lighter
00:50:02
note. What's your prediction for the
00:50:07
Newsome DeSantis debate? Who do you think is going to
00:50:10
come out on top? Well, I do think somebody asked
00:50:20
me one time, do you think Gavin Newsom has redeeming qualities?
00:50:24
And by the way, not. I don't disagree with everything
00:50:28
he does. I mean, I pay attention to what
00:50:31
he does and like, for example, thank God he came out behind
00:50:36
that sex trafficking bill, right.
00:50:38
I mean so he does make the right decisions in some case but he
00:50:42
what his big thing is he is no dummy.
00:50:45
He is smart he he knows what's up and so but then again Ron
00:50:53
DeSantis, I mean the guy where'd he go like Harvard and Yale or
00:50:57
something I mean and then he was in the military by the way he
00:50:59
served our country. I think he was in the.
00:51:01
Jack or something. This guy's.
00:51:04
Yeah, he's, he's no slouch. I mean, so I think if I were to
00:51:10
guess, I think Gavin Newsom is really good at sort of numbers
00:51:14
and facts and remembering them and being able to go off the
00:51:18
cuff. I think if he can always focus
00:51:22
on that, he's gonna do really good.
00:51:23
But I think Ron DeSantis is I'm totally biased by the way.
00:51:27
I'm obviously biased, but I think he's going to be able to
00:51:29
hold his own. And I think people are
00:51:31
underestimating him. I think he's going to know
00:51:33
facts. He's going to be able to say
00:51:34
what California did wrong during the pandemic.
00:51:37
You know, he's going to be able to talk about how their
00:51:39
education system is, is is doing better than ours down here,
00:51:44
unfortunately. I wish ours was doing better,
00:51:46
but I think, I don't know if there's going to be a winner out
00:51:50
of it, but I am so excited. I will pay for it, put it on
00:51:53
Payperview and I will pay for it and give all the money to
00:51:56
charity. I can't believe they actually
00:51:59
decide they're they're going to do it.
00:52:00
I mean, Newsome's sort of been calling to Santas out for a
00:52:03
while now. So my theory is to, and I don't
00:52:08
want to get too far into presidential politics, here's my
00:52:11
theory of why they're doing this and why they both agreed.
00:52:15
It's not because they just said this is good for our national
00:52:20
political debate, for us to go at it.
00:52:24
I think they're both benefiting from this.
00:52:26
They both saw an opportunity. You're around politicians all
00:52:29
the time. I'm sure you understand
00:52:31
politicians are always looking for an angle.
00:52:35
I think they both have an angle. I think Newsom obviously is
00:52:38
floating himself as a national figure to run for president.
00:52:42
If he does really well against De Santis, everyone will be
00:52:44
like, Oh my gosh, why is this guy not running?
00:52:46
He should be running over Joe Biden.
00:52:49
And I think De Santis needs to do it because he kind of needs
00:52:52
to inject a little life in his campaign right now.
00:52:54
I think he's he didn't have the big kind of heavyweight knockout
00:52:58
that we were all expecting against Trump.
00:53:00
So I think it's it's mostly just for their own political benefit,
00:53:05
although it's going to be fun. I mean, it's just fun to see two
00:53:08
big national figures go at it in a debate, even though they're
00:53:12
not acting. We're hoping to do a watch party
00:53:15
here. Just a little plug.
00:53:16
Yes, we'll be. Oh, great.
00:53:18
Well, I'm. We'll be doing a watch party
00:53:20
with the drinking game. So, OK, well, I'll just bring my
00:53:25
water, cuz I just drink water these days, right.
00:53:28
That's fine. But yeah, I think Ron De Santis,
00:53:34
I mean, yeah, I mean you can use that.
00:53:37
It's it's higher risk for him. I think Gavin Newsom is.
00:53:41
I mean, the uptick is obviously higher for him.
00:53:43
But Gavin Newsom, if you talk to Democrats in other states, I
00:53:48
mean, I don't know why, but I think they love the guy.
00:53:51
They're kind of enamored. He does have that sort of
00:53:53
presence around there. But I think if Ron De Santis can
00:53:58
put some life into the campaign, some more life, and show that he
00:54:03
can hold his own against, against, against him, it's going
00:54:06
to be really great, really great, so.
00:54:10
Yeah, it's, it's once we saw the date we were like, OK, we're
00:54:13
definitely doing a live stream to.
00:54:15
To watch it so anybody who's listening right now.
00:54:17
Wait, have they? It was November 8th or 10th.
00:54:20
Have they nailed that specifically down?
00:54:23
Not yet. I don't know.
00:54:25
Aren't they fighting over something now?
00:54:26
I thought I saw something the other day that somebody's trying
00:54:30
to change the terms or something like that.
00:54:32
I mean, I'll be so disappointed if they back out because of some
00:54:35
petty thing about like they just can't get over it or resolve it.
00:54:39
But we're coming up on the end of an hour.
00:54:43
It's already flown by so fast. Is there any final message you
00:54:47
want to leave with the listeners?
00:54:49
And then also where can people go find you?
00:54:52
Obviously patter dude on Twitter or X whatever people are calling
00:54:55
it now. I highly suggest you follow Joe
00:54:57
on Twitter. It's entertaining.
00:54:59
He's got great takes like we were talking about.
00:55:01
But yeah, what are some final thoughts and where people can
00:55:03
come find you and support you and and just know more about
00:55:07
you? Well, I think it's really
00:55:10
important that Republicans, look, I've been in sort of party
00:55:15
politics for a while and I used to be a delegate for the party
00:55:19
was still in technically. But you know, we're going to
00:55:22
have our fight. We got to have our fights,
00:55:24
whether you're with Trump, whether you're with DeSantis,
00:55:26
whether you like this issue, whether you're pro-choice,
00:55:29
pro-life, whatever it is. But we have to come together
00:55:35
because what's going on right now with the other side, the
00:55:39
extremism in Sacramento is not coming from not coming from
00:55:43
Republicans. It's not coming from
00:55:45
Republicans. And so I think people got to
00:55:48
stick with the program. And you know, I think if you
00:55:51
have an idea or you have issues that you think Republicans
00:55:53
should be pushing, I mean, hit up your legislators, hit me up,
00:55:57
tag me on Twitter or whatever. You know, we can take those
00:56:00
things. But do not abandon the party.
00:56:03
If you're disappointed with it, stay with it.
00:56:06
You know, and and I think that that's that's really important.
00:56:10
I'm actually going to be doing outreach.
00:56:11
The people who left the party in my district, why not?
00:56:15
Look, hey, this is what we're about.
00:56:16
This is what we're trying to do. These are some of the things
00:56:18
that we're seeing. So I think we got a lot of
00:56:21
promise, a lot of things going on.
00:56:23
But we can't allow California Democrats have this super duper
00:56:27
majority and just run us over. And all these ideas don't get
00:56:30
the light of day. Agreed number one priority chip
00:56:33
away at the supermajority. It's got to be step one, as
00:56:38
opposed to what people think. They always think, like
00:56:40
California's going to flip red in one election cycle.
00:56:44
Not going to happen. But you can.
00:56:46
You can chip away. The supermajority makes a big
00:56:48
difference. All right, so Patter dude.
00:56:51
On Twitter, anywhere else people find can find you or support
00:56:54
you. Or just know Learn more about
00:56:56
you. Same on Instagram, Patter dude.
00:57:00
And someday I can give the story about why it's patter, dude.
00:57:05
I get made fun of all the time, by the way.
00:57:07
Patter. There we go.
00:57:09
Can you hear me? Got your back?
00:57:10
OK, sorry about that. So patter dude on Twitter.
00:57:12
No problem. Anyways, it's patter dude on
00:57:13
Instagram too, but I would love the followers on Twitter and
00:57:17
let's let's keep kicking butt and thanks for having me on.
00:57:21
I appreciate it. Joe, thanks for coming on.
00:57:26
As always, the door is open if you want to come back on.
00:57:28
And we talked about before the show that there's plenty of
00:57:31
things we could talk about. It could probably go on for
00:57:33
hours and hours, so. In that case, I take that as an
00:57:36
implicit You want to come back and be on the show again, so the
00:57:39
door is open whenever you want to come back on and to anyone
00:57:43
listening to the show, Best way you can support this show, share
00:57:46
it with someone, message them, throw it up on Twitter, slash X
00:57:49
or whatever you want to call it. And yeah, make sure you like,
00:57:53
share, subscribe all that stuff for this video, comment
00:57:56
afterwards for the algorithm and we'll see you on the next one.
00:58:00
Night everybody.

