Episode 230 - Convention Wrap Up, New Senator, McCarthy Out, and Omar Navarro in Jail

[00:00:00] If you're a California conservative, a libertarian, a moderate Democrat, believe in common sense

[00:00:11] or just the sane person, this is the political podcast for you. It's the California Underground

[00:00:17] Podcast. What's going on everybody? Thanks for tuning

[00:00:28] into another episode of the California Underground Podcast. I'm your host Phil and as always

[00:00:33] with me my trusty co-host, the best and fastest researcher in the West Camille. Your

[00:00:38] research skills were actually put to the test this past, I guess, a couple days with one

[00:00:43] of the topics we're going to talk about the new senator.

[00:00:45] Oh, I do. Do I pass?

[00:00:47] Yeah. So you know that's why it's great to have an amazing researcher on the show to

[00:00:53] find all this stuff about her and we're going to talk a little bit about that. We've

[00:00:58] got a whole bunch of stuff to talk about tonight. Like it's just like you said, the

[00:01:03] news wouldn't stop newsing today. It's just like...

[00:01:06] I'm going to make that trend now. Newsing.

[00:01:08] Yeah, that was a pretty good phrase. It just seemed like it was one story after another.

[00:01:13] We had not originally planned on talking about Speaker McCarthy but that happened today.

[00:01:21] That's a historic thing. I don't know how many speakers have actually been vacated from

[00:01:24] the House of Representatives.

[00:01:26] What? First?

[00:01:28] Yeah, it might be the first. Republicans love to make history and this time they

[00:01:35] made history in the wrong way. We're also going to talk about California GOP convention,

[00:01:39] which we were at. We had a live stream. We'll give our quick rundown on thoughts about that.

[00:01:46] And then as well as one of our old friends, Omar Navarro, is he in jail? I believe he's

[00:01:53] in jail right now or is he not in jail? I don't want to get sued for saying he's

[00:01:58] in jail when he's not in jail.

[00:01:59] I know he's been indicted on federal campaign finance laws, but I don't know if he's actually

[00:02:05] in jail right now. But we're going to talk about that just a little bit.

[00:02:08] So we have a lot to cover today. So let's start off with the convention.

[00:02:16] Do you want to go first or shall I? Who wants to go first?

[00:02:20] You go ahead.

[00:02:23] Anybody who might follow this show knows this was our first live stream on the road.

[00:02:29] I'm not going to lie, we did have technical difficulties. Shout out to Anthony

[00:02:32] Kibasa who came in and saved our neck. He was there as well doing live stream.

[00:02:37] So he's much more, I guess, familiar and comfortable with the idea of doing shows

[00:02:43] out on the road and out live. But once we got that figured out, we had like,

[00:02:48] I would say a solid two hours of live stream where it was just

[00:02:53] guest after guest after guest. And it was like, I don't know if it was like

[00:02:58] people really want to be on the podcast. I know some people did like James

[00:03:02] Gallagher stopped by loves the show. He wanted to come back on.

[00:03:06] We got Senator Brian Dolly back on.

[00:03:08] We tried to get future Senator Megan Dolly to come on as she was busy.

[00:03:12] She was being pulled in different directions.

[00:03:15] But I think it's like also candidates saw a microphone and saw

[00:03:18] people getting interviewed and they were like, I want to be on this show.

[00:03:21] But thank you to everybody.

[00:03:22] There are some great people that we met and made connections with.

[00:03:26] Some people running for Congress, some people running for state senate.

[00:03:30] So if you want to go check that out, that's going to be that is already

[00:03:33] up on YouTube the full two hours that I'm talking about after the technical difficulties.

[00:03:40] I think it, you know what? Yeah, we had our bumps, but I would say

[00:03:44] I think it turned out really well.

[00:03:45] And I think a lot of people really appreciated it.

[00:03:49] And I'm looking forward to going back in spring for the convention.

[00:03:55] Hopefully they announced the date soon.

[00:03:57] That way I can put it in my calendar and not make other plans like I did this past weekend.

[00:04:02] But that was my initial thought.

[00:04:05] We also saw Trump, we saw President Trump.

[00:04:09] My parents are big Trump fans.

[00:04:11] The first question they asked when I saw, I talked to them on Monday.

[00:04:14] I FaceTimed them.

[00:04:16] They said, well, how was it?

[00:04:18] And I said the best way to describe President Trump when you go see him live

[00:04:21] is he's like a rock show.

[00:04:24] It literally is like there's so much energy in the crowd.

[00:04:29] When you go see President Trump speak live, it was literally like a rock show.

[00:04:35] And the fact that he filled up the biggest room, sold out seats.

[00:04:39] And then you look at, I mean, we didn't actually go see Ron DeSantis,

[00:04:43] but we saw the room that Ron DeSantis was going to speak in.

[00:04:46] It was barely a third of the size of Donald Trump's room and it was sold out.

[00:04:51] But he was on fire.

[00:04:55] If you get a chance to find like a video of that speech,

[00:04:59] I thought he did a great job.

[00:05:01] He was he was on fire.

[00:05:02] He was making jokes.

[00:05:03] He was riffing.

[00:05:05] But yeah, those are my thoughts.

[00:05:07] I was only there Friday, but you were there Saturday and also Sunday as well.

[00:05:12] So you have a little bit more on the ground input than I do.

[00:05:16] Well, Friday was fun.

[00:05:18] I know I kept saying I was exhausted.

[00:05:20] I was exhausted.

[00:05:22] So I apologize for anyone on the desk.

[00:05:24] Go back and watch the video.

[00:05:25] I'm like, I'm tired.

[00:05:26] I'm tired. What's happening?

[00:05:30] I had to be there at 6 a.m.

[00:05:32] because we were media.

[00:05:33] And so to take my camera in, we had to have my camera in by 6 a.m.

[00:05:38] for the Secret Service because they had like dogs there and everything.

[00:05:41] Like, I mean, there was we saw police everywhere, Secret Service,

[00:05:45] everywhere, all the dogs.

[00:05:46] And then as we mentioned on the live stream, Trump was like an

[00:05:50] start what an hour and a half late.

[00:05:53] And yet people.

[00:05:56] I didn't feel like people in the room were restless.

[00:05:59] They were just excited to be there.

[00:06:01] And the excitement just kept building as opposed to when you get tired

[00:06:05] and worn out and you're like done because these fair people

[00:06:07] that waited in the security line for an hour or two.

[00:06:09] And then they came in and they're still in the room waiting and waiting for him.

[00:06:13] And instead of you don't start to hear like people getting grumbling,

[00:06:16] they're getting up and doing their their chance and their dances

[00:06:20] and their Congo lines and just all kinds of fun all excited to be there.

[00:06:26] And and then, of course, he shows up and the people just would not stop.

[00:06:30] Everything he says, they're standing up at their cheering

[00:06:33] and they're shouting and they're just, you know, totally with him.

[00:06:36] And so, yeah, we saw the Rhonda Santas line and it was

[00:06:41] well, it was a sold out room much smaller.

[00:06:43] There was not the same energy at all.

[00:06:46] You know, we were right there because it was right across from us

[00:06:48] where they were lining up and so we were seeing it happen.

[00:06:51] And it was just like people just got in line and you know,

[00:06:54] just going to the next thing.

[00:06:55] Whereas with Trump, it was just a totally different.

[00:06:58] And I have never seen him alive before either.

[00:07:00] So that definitely to see that comparison and see how it was.

[00:07:05] You can't deny that he's not the front runner by a whole lot.

[00:07:09] And you know, you didn't see anybody there wearing.

[00:07:13] Well, did I send you the picture?

[00:07:14] One woman had her nails done with Trump's face on her thumbs.

[00:07:17] I saw that. Yeah.

[00:07:18] Like I doubt there was anyone there without for anybody and the other candidate.

[00:07:24] You know, they're you don't have these groups in their matching

[00:07:27] DeSantis clothing.

[00:07:29] No, I don't think anyone's getting their nails done with Ron DeSantis

[00:07:32] his face on them.

[00:07:33] And I mean, I didn't check everyone's nails, but I just I don't think that happened.

[00:07:39] So yeah, it's

[00:07:42] it's when you're there in person and you see the energy that these candidates

[00:07:47] garner. And again, I was only there Friday, so I really only have one comparison.

[00:07:53] It just does make it look like that, you know, Trump is right now.

[00:07:57] He's like Major League Baseball and the rest of the candidates are like

[00:08:00] double A baseball.

[00:08:02] Like it just feels like they're not even the same.

[00:08:04] Like Tim Scott was there as well.

[00:08:07] We were live streaming.

[00:08:08] We didn't get to go in and see him.

[00:08:10] I think it's been lying for him.

[00:08:12] I didn't even happen.

[00:08:14] I didn't hear any buzz about him.

[00:08:16] I mean, this is a sitting US senator and people were just like,

[00:08:20] meh, you know, Trump's over and then it cleared out in the press

[00:08:24] also cleared up.

[00:08:25] Trump ended like three, which is when Tim Scott was supposed to start.

[00:08:29] So it's possible that people just immediately went to the next room.

[00:08:32] Maybe they even stayed in that room for Tim Scott.

[00:08:34] I'm not sure.

[00:08:36] So it's possible that transition.

[00:08:39] Yeah. Yeah, because we were busy getting all our stuff and getting ready.

[00:08:43] But you know, there wasn't a lot of buzz around Tim Scott.

[00:08:47] DeSantis, there was the line.

[00:08:49] The funny thing is the press.

[00:08:52] Now, we were sitting back in the press pool and everyone was there.

[00:08:57] So there was CNN.

[00:08:59] There was, you know, the Chronicle.

[00:09:00] There was all that, you know, name everybody.

[00:09:02] Everybody was there to see President Trump and huge press area.

[00:09:07] We were sitting next to some girls who were from Germany,

[00:09:10] like they German media had sent them.

[00:09:13] So it was like international news that Trump was at this convention

[00:09:17] as soon as he left, as soon as that event was over, all the press was gone.

[00:09:20] Like they didn't care about the rest of convention.

[00:09:23] So, you know, it was like the biggest attraction left

[00:09:28] right at the beginning.

[00:09:30] He was there and then he was gone.

[00:09:31] And then that was like in the rest of convention happened.

[00:09:35] Did you do you went and saw Vivek the next day?

[00:09:37] Didn't you? Yes, I didn't stay for the whole thing.

[00:09:40] But yes, I did go and see Vivek.

[00:09:43] And so I didn't see I didn't see DeSantis.

[00:09:45] I didn't see Tim Scott.

[00:09:47] You know, we had to go through metal detectors for Trump.

[00:09:51] And they took all that down before Trump left.

[00:09:53] So no one like anyone that bought tickets, those other events didn't

[00:09:58] didn't have to go through all that.

[00:10:02] I initially liked Vivek a lot.

[00:10:04] I had high hopes for him.

[00:10:06] And I don't want to I want to be careful with what I say.

[00:10:10] I think he's still likable, but here's a I felt like he was speaking

[00:10:14] to Gen Z and Gen Z was not in the room.

[00:10:18] And it was very much like, know your audience.

[00:10:20] They're not here.

[00:10:22] And he starts out with he's like, I'm going to get real guys.

[00:10:26] We're just we're going to get real. OK.

[00:10:29] I just we don't have time.

[00:10:30] I don't mean today. I just mean in general.

[00:10:31] We just don't have time for all this other nonsense.

[00:10:33] And my consultants tell me don't do this, but we're just going to get real.

[00:10:37] And I'm like these 60 and 70 year old people like you lost them.

[00:10:42] Yeah, you lost them.

[00:10:43] But I did talk to on voting Sunday morning at the session,

[00:10:47] some delegates said that they went to see Vivek as well.

[00:10:50] And someone said I every time I see him, I like him a little bit more.

[00:10:54] And I said, oh, really? I feel the opposite.

[00:10:56] And she said, yeah, but I'm not voted for him.

[00:10:57] I'm definitely voting for Trump.

[00:11:00] And I think that's the general attitude is like people like to send

[00:11:04] to Santas and Scott and Ramiswamy for various reasons,

[00:11:07] but they're not going to vote for.

[00:11:10] Now, now when they when you put them all up against each other,

[00:11:13] I think President Trump is the clear winner out of that whole group.

[00:11:17] And for those who've never been to a convention before,

[00:11:20] like you're saying it does make sense that you have to know your audience.

[00:11:23] You're not going to get a very large young audience at these conventions.

[00:11:29] It's mostly because it's very cost prohibitive.

[00:11:31] And we talked about that at dinner on Friday night.

[00:11:34] We were like, what could what could we do to get more people to go to these conventions?

[00:11:40] Probably bringing the price down would help, you know, maybe like a certain age group

[00:11:45] like making it more affordable if you're between 18 and 21 or something.

[00:11:50] Like maybe it's $50 for the whole weekend that you get to go and see a convention.

[00:11:56] But right now it's expensive to go.

[00:11:58] I mean, between hotel rooms, which are over $100 a night

[00:12:03] and then you have to do the $120 a ticket, it adds up.

[00:12:07] So you're not getting a lot of young people at these conventions.

[00:12:09] You're getting a lot of people who have been going to these conventions for a long time.

[00:12:13] Speaking of, you know, creatures that are always at these conventions,

[00:12:18] we had the privilege of sitting next to our good friend and we didn't plan it this way.

[00:12:23] Not at all. It just happened this way.

[00:12:25] Maybe the karma God saw it this way.

[00:12:29] We were sitting right next to Kogo radio with our good friend Carl DeMio.

[00:12:32] And if you remember, we had a whole episode on Carl DeMio.

[00:12:37] He has never spoken to me to my face.

[00:12:40] But through the grapevine of gossip that is the political world,

[00:12:44] I know he does not like me.

[00:12:46] He thinks I'm just some crazy person on Twitter doing a podcast.

[00:12:50] So it was kind of satisfying to sit right next to him and have a podcast

[00:12:54] and have people like James Gallagher and Senator Brian Dahlion.

[00:12:58] And he had to see that.

[00:12:59] And yeah, he didn't say anything to us while we were there.

[00:13:05] So I'm sure he wasn't happy looking up and seeing California Underground

[00:13:09] podcast right next to his booth.

[00:13:11] So he did his radio show.

[00:13:14] Yeah, it was I hope at spring we're sitting next to each other again.

[00:13:18] That would be amazing.

[00:13:20] Hopefully we can make that happen.

[00:13:22] But yeah, I think oh, and the one last thing

[00:13:27] we can touch upon really quick because we have these other topics I want to get to.

[00:13:31] You were there for the voting.

[00:13:33] There is this whole controversy about old platform versus new platform.

[00:13:37] Yes. And the old platform one.

[00:13:41] Tell us a little bit about what happened there.

[00:13:44] I guess the last time they voted on a new platform was 2019

[00:13:47] and they had sent out a draft of a new verbiage that they wanted to update

[00:13:51] the platform with.

[00:13:53] And it was several pages along, but there was big controversy going around

[00:13:56] about what is what is a family and marriage.

[00:14:00] And the previous platform defines

[00:14:03] marriages between a man and a woman.

[00:14:05] And the new platform removed that wording.

[00:14:08] The new sorry, it's not the new platform, the draft removed that wording

[00:14:13] and says thing about a family unit, but didn't specify what a family unit was.

[00:14:17] So for a month or so, we've been, you know, seeing the post and getting tagged

[00:14:22] and they were planning protests.

[00:14:25] Don't don't adopt this new platform.

[00:14:27] There was even assigned the petition to read off the old platform.

[00:14:32] And so that's been like a huge controversy.

[00:14:35] One of the bombers about that was that that wasn't the only thing being updated.

[00:14:38] There was a there was a lot of other things

[00:14:41] about the platform and what we believe and about the state that were being

[00:14:44] updated in a new draft.

[00:14:47] And what I didn't understand until I went to convention is that then

[00:14:51] there was actually a meeting on Saturday where they had this

[00:14:55] like the platform committee had this meeting and it turned out

[00:14:58] they threw out the draft on Saturday.

[00:15:01] So we weren't even voting on it on Sunday.

[00:15:03] We were not voting in a new draft, a new platform.

[00:15:06] We simply voted on whether or not to read off to the 2019 platform.

[00:15:12] If we didn't read off the 2019 platform, then they would have six months

[00:15:17] to come up with a new draft that would then be voted on at next convention.

[00:15:22] But the new that we the old platform was read

[00:15:25] off to it by like 70 percent. Yes.

[00:15:27] And so I suppose next convention, someone's allowed to bring this up

[00:15:32] and say we would like to vote on a new platform and should it pass

[00:15:35] and they have six months and then we vote on it in a year from now.

[00:15:39] But in other words, there's not going to be any changes for at least a year

[00:15:41] to the platform. Yeah.

[00:15:44] And that's definitely an issue.

[00:15:46] I mean, people were people were up in arms.

[00:15:51] And I think, yeah, when you get bombarded with all the emails

[00:15:55] about what's going one way or another and the people who want

[00:15:59] the new platform are saying we need a new platform to keep up with sort

[00:16:02] of the changing times.

[00:16:03] And I, you know, I read the new platform.

[00:16:07] I didn't think there was anything that stood out to me.

[00:16:10] I know a lot of more social conservatives were very upset by the new platform.

[00:16:15] They kind of picked some things apart about it.

[00:16:19] I know that we were choking about one of the myths was does President

[00:16:23] Trump approve of the new platform?

[00:16:24] I don't think President Trump really cares what the California GOP convention

[00:16:28] or GOP convention is platform is.

[00:16:33] That was a legit concern of people.

[00:16:35] They were like, well, does President Trump approve?

[00:16:37] And it's like, okay, or so what?

[00:16:40] Why is that a big deal?

[00:16:43] So I know what they were trying to do, which was probably to kind of.

[00:16:47] And the old platform, it's a difference between like, I think

[00:16:49] there's like three pages of the new platform and the old platform is like

[00:16:53] 14 pages, like it's so long and it's convoluted.

[00:16:57] And for those who don't really understand, like, why is this a big issue?

[00:17:00] Is it kind of helps direct candidates and those who are in the party

[00:17:05] of like, what does the California GOP stand for?

[00:17:08] Like, you know, if you want to be endorsed by the California GOP,

[00:17:11] do you are you in line with their platform?

[00:17:15] You know, it has kind of a cascading effect.

[00:17:17] Of course, you're not bound by it.

[00:17:19] Like if you're a Republican in California, you don't have to

[00:17:21] like swear an oath to uphold this platform.

[00:17:26] But just as a party, it says, OK, this is what we stand for.

[00:17:29] And this is what we believe in.

[00:17:32] You know, I think the new platform was a little bit more focused on

[00:17:35] kitchen table issues, energy, water, crime, all of that stuff.

[00:17:43] And that's that's, you know, that's the controversy that happened

[00:17:47] this past convention.

[00:17:49] Like you said, I don't know if they're going to try it again,

[00:17:51] try and get a new platform adopted.

[00:17:55] But we'll see the social conservatives, I think, won out this time.

[00:17:59] They didn't want to give in on the old platform.

[00:18:01] So we'll say maybe they'll bring it up at the next convention.

[00:18:06] But that was really the big drama of this past convention.

[00:18:09] Any other drama or feedback from this past convention?

[00:18:14] So that was, you know, we're both delegates, but we messed up

[00:18:18] and we were in Sacramento for the last one.

[00:18:20] So we didn't get to see the voting and we both had early flights

[00:18:23] out Sunday morning when we should have been voting.

[00:18:27] I shouldn't say that here, but yeah, we messed up.

[00:18:29] So that was the first time obviously that I got to see the voting

[00:18:31] and and finally see the way that it works.

[00:18:34] I know that there's a lot of like concerns that there's cheating

[00:18:38] with proxy voting.

[00:18:39] When you see how it goes down, there's no way that there's people.

[00:18:44] There's no way anyone's paying off enough voters, proxy voters

[00:18:49] to sway any sort of vote in the way it goes down.

[00:18:52] And so any controversy that you have heard from, you know, endorsing candidates,

[00:18:57] I just I called BS on that.

[00:19:00] It's just not it's not possible the way it all goes down.

[00:19:03] I was your proxy voter, so I had, you know, control of your vote

[00:19:08] not paid and.

[00:19:11] And there's just there's I think 1400 delegates.

[00:19:14] They're not necessarily all present and people can only hold a

[00:19:18] max of their their little machine plus two other proxies.

[00:19:22] And you just there's no way to just go around and pay off

[00:19:26] all these people to try to sway a vote.

[00:19:30] One person proposed the California GOP endorsing Trump.

[00:19:36] And that was.

[00:19:38] So we got to vote on whether or not we were going to endorse

[00:19:42] and then we voted no to endorse.

[00:19:45] So people got up, you know, two people get up to say they get two minutes

[00:19:48] each to say why they want to endorse them.

[00:19:50] Two people get up and say why we shouldn't endorse them and then we all vote.

[00:19:54] So that didn't happen.

[00:19:56] So the California GOP is not endorsing Trump.

[00:19:59] Someone brought up the point that, you know, we don't want to

[00:20:05] dissuade like other Republicans from getting out to vote just because

[00:20:08] they're, you know, the party has endorsed one candidate.

[00:20:11] We need to get them to go and vote for for everything.

[00:20:15] And so we don't we want to get everyone out to vote.

[00:20:18] And mostly it was peaceful.

[00:20:21] There is a few little moments where people, you know, will boo or cheer,

[00:20:26] get a little out of hand and then the chairwoman just come on Patterson

[00:20:29] kind of, you know, calls order and people settle down quite quickly

[00:20:33] and it carries on.

[00:20:35] That's about it.

[00:20:37] Yeah, I mean, endorsing Trump this early, there's still a primary to be run.

[00:20:43] So it's kind of weird that they want to already jump ahead.

[00:20:47] Next convention will be interesting if you're in the Bay Area and you can check it out.

[00:20:52] It's where they will be doing all the endorsements for 2024.

[00:20:56] So there will be a ton of candidates who are going to be running around,

[00:21:00] which is great for us.

[00:21:02] If when we go do our live stream, we don't know if we'll be doing Friday

[00:21:06] and Saturday, we'll figure that out the logistics.

[00:21:09] But we'll probably be there the whole weekend.

[00:21:12] And there's going to be a lot of candidates.

[00:21:14] Sure.

[00:21:15] Before sure, we're going to put I mean, we're traveling up there,

[00:21:18] so we're going to make it make it a whole weekend.

[00:21:20] But yeah, it's going to be a lot of people running around to get endorsements

[00:21:23] from the party. It's going to be a lot of people, you know,

[00:21:26] I imagine what we're going to have to like set up a sign up sheet this time

[00:21:31] of like because people were just literally waiting in line

[00:21:34] and I had never even heard of some of these people who just kind of stepped up

[00:21:37] and I was like running out and like, hey, we got to bring so and so back.

[00:21:42] And yeah, so we will do a little bit better this time.

[00:21:46] But I imagine that because there's going to be so many candidates

[00:21:49] and it'll be endorsement time that we'll probably have to have

[00:21:53] a little bit more organization of like, hey, you know,

[00:21:55] there's a sign up sheet like you have to get on the sheet

[00:21:57] and like we have to kind of like, you know,

[00:22:00] you can't just run up to the table and be like,

[00:22:01] Hey, can I be on the podcast now?

[00:22:03] Because otherwise who knows who's going to walk up

[00:22:06] and what they're going to start saying and stuff like that.

[00:22:08] So, but we got lucky this time.

[00:22:11] Everyone who came on was very nice and you know, very knowledgeable.

[00:22:14] There wasn't any, any crazies talking about like,

[00:22:18] you know, there was somebody who dropped off a pamphlet

[00:22:21] about the Clucucks clan being embedded in the corrections

[00:22:24] to facility or something like that.

[00:22:26] And I don't know.

[00:22:28] You get characters at convention.

[00:22:30] I will say that if nothing else,

[00:22:31] you do get characters at convention.

[00:22:33] But anyway, speaking of the biggest news that has broken

[00:22:37] in California that has really made national news,

[00:22:40] we have a new senator.

[00:22:44] And you know, you would think that if you're going to pick somebody

[00:22:48] to be senator to pick to replace at least for now,

[00:22:53] the late Diane Feinstein who was in her Senate seat for 80 years.

[00:22:59] I think that's about the approximate time she was in her seat.

[00:23:02] Right.

[00:23:02] She was 10.

[00:23:03] Sounds accurate.

[00:23:04] 70 or 80.

[00:23:06] I think she voted on the authorization of World War II.

[00:23:10] But you would think somebody who is actually,

[00:23:12] you know, to replace her who Diane Feinstein was a lifelong

[00:23:17] San Francisco native, California bred through and through,

[00:23:23] you would go out and pick somebody who was a prominent California.

[00:23:28] Would you not?

[00:23:30] You would think.

[00:23:31] You would think.

[00:23:31] Maybe someone, you know, with some experience in California politics.

[00:23:36] Someone who would be a good representation of someone who

[00:23:39] maybe lives here.

[00:23:40] Someone who maybe lives here.

[00:23:40] The people in California.

[00:23:41] Is registered.

[00:23:42] Someone who lives here.

[00:23:43] Yeah.

[00:23:45] I mean, I feel like those are basic requirements for a senator

[00:23:48] of an entire state, especially as big as California.

[00:23:53] No.

[00:23:53] Instead, we got at this point, everyone knows we're talking about La Fonza,

[00:23:57] is that right?

[00:23:58] Yeah.

[00:23:58] La Fonza Butler.

[00:24:01] Senator La Fonza Butler.

[00:24:03] I'm sorry.

[00:24:04] The honorable Senator La Fonza Butler of Maryland

[00:24:10] is now.

[00:24:12] Okay.

[00:24:12] I'm sorry.

[00:24:13] That's like the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim or something.

[00:24:17] Yes, exactly.

[00:24:19] It's yeah.

[00:24:19] She's she's the angels of senators now.

[00:24:23] She's saying she's from California when she's really not.

[00:24:28] Yes.

[00:24:28] And for all the people who are trying to do the little actually a fact check,

[00:24:33] she has a place in California.

[00:24:35] Yeah, actually we are in fact check too.

[00:24:37] The fact check is you did the research.

[00:24:40] So why don't you explain why her place in California is not really her place in California?

[00:24:48] Sure.

[00:24:48] So she has a place in California in LA and she I have access to the California voting system.

[00:24:57] Because of what we do and who we know.

[00:25:00] And with our PAC that's kind of dormant right now.

[00:25:02] I actually have access to every California voter.

[00:25:05] I can look up by name by address lots of little details.

[00:25:08] And I know how they voted in prior elections and how they're rated as far as if they are like a weak Democrat or Democrat, all that.

[00:25:17] Her name is not in the California system.

[00:25:20] And I don't have access to other states.

[00:25:22] I pulled up the address over home because of course I can find addresses.

[00:25:26] Don't worry. I'm not stalking anyone or doxing anyone, but I found the address of her home and searched by address.

[00:25:33] And neither her or her partner registered to vote there.

[00:25:36] And someone else is who is much older than them.

[00:25:40] And there's only one person registered to vote there and I couldn't find any affiliation between that person.

[00:25:46] And Lafondes Butler or her partner.

[00:25:49] And then I did find that the house that they own was listed for rent.

[00:25:54] So we know it was was rented out.

[00:25:55] So they have a renter in there who obviously switched their voting address to that address as you do.

[00:26:01] And then I texted the person who I got that I have this access to all this data from

[00:26:09] and he said, yes, I did the same thing and I don't have access to other states,

[00:26:13] but I called in some favors and she is definitely registered to vote in Maryland.

[00:26:19] So she is not a California resident or California voter.

[00:26:24] And the one thing that was interesting that you brought up and this is what a lot of people like who are

[00:26:31] doing the actually fact check, she has a place in LA

[00:26:35] is that it's not like she does her work in Maryland because she's a DC insider.

[00:26:41] And then she kind of comes back to LA and does her thing and she lives in LA part time of the year.

[00:26:47] If she's renting, that means she has no intent of ever coming back to California.

[00:26:52] Right. At least not anytime soon.

[00:26:56] Right. So if that's not even like a second residence where she can be like, well,

[00:27:01] I go back and forth between California and Maryland and a lot of I saw a lot of people say that

[00:27:06] like online and Twitter and all the comments of well, a lot of people, senators and congressmen

[00:27:12] and all that they all have second homes in DC and then go back and forth.

[00:27:16] That was my initial thought. I mean it was like I thought, oh, you know, I'll check this out.

[00:27:22] Yeah. But now we know that she has no intention of actually living there.

[00:27:26] She doesn't go back and forth between those and that's her primary residence,

[00:27:31] her only residence is in Maryland.

[00:27:35] And the FEC report that I sent you, she worked until today.

[00:27:40] She was the president of Emily's List.

[00:27:43] And so if you look up FEC payments, disbursements, she's paid on there.

[00:27:48] And her most recent payment is, hold on. I just had it a second ago.

[00:27:55] August 31st, I believe. But now did I just close it? No, there it is.

[00:27:59] Okay. August 31st and her mailing address for her payment is Maryland.

[00:28:06] So that's where she's receiving her paycheck.

[00:28:09] You want to say?

[00:28:09] Yeah. And we calculated what her paycheck is, right?

[00:28:13] She makes like about $400,000 a year from this Emily's List.

[00:28:16] It's like half that. That was half that.

[00:28:19] It was like $400,000 in two years that she had made.

[00:28:22] Got it. Okay.

[00:28:25] And it's still a pretty sizable chunk of change from what is supposed to be a non-profit.

[00:28:31] Yeah.

[00:28:31] And there's something that's wrong with making money?

[00:28:35] No. If you run a good non-profit, you can make money.

[00:28:39] But I think it's the issue of there's a lot of layers to what's wrong here.

[00:28:47] And I think it's important that it's not just a Republican talking point

[00:28:54] that this new senator is not even from California, that she lives in Maryland.

[00:29:00] No, it's constitutional.

[00:29:03] Like it's in the Constitution.

[00:29:05] You have to be a citizen of the United States 30 years or older.

[00:29:09] And a citizen in the state in which you are Senator Ford.

[00:29:15] Yeah. And they really fudged the, I guess the rules on this because she already got sworn in

[00:29:20] and they were like, oh, we'll re-register really quickly.

[00:29:23] And I guess Secretary of State expedited that and said, oh, don't worry.

[00:29:25] We'll re-register at you at this address.

[00:29:28] A dress that you don't live at or plan on living at, but okay, whatever.

[00:29:33] Your renters.

[00:29:33] Yes, we're doing proxy addresses now too.

[00:29:35] Yeah. I mean, I guess if you own property in another state, you can just say, well,

[00:29:40] I live at this property even though there's tenants there and I'm going to vote at that state.

[00:29:44] I mean, that seems really, that doesn't seem very ethical.

[00:29:49] I also saw an article that it's not like she grew up in California

[00:29:54] and then she eventually went off to Maryland.

[00:29:57] She grew up, she is a Mississippi native.

[00:30:00] I'm not even sure how much time we spent here.

[00:30:03] And she was a graduate of Jackson State University.

[00:30:06] She's a native of Magnolia, Mississippi and graduate of Jackson State University.

[00:30:10] So she arrived in California around 2009 and then left around, I'm trying to say 2011,

[00:30:19] I think like not that long after she went to DC.

[00:30:22] So she hasn't spent a lot of time here.

[00:30:25] Now granted, I'm not technically a native Californian.

[00:30:30] Okay. I'm not from here.

[00:30:32] Camille, you're from here.

[00:30:33] You're a native Californian.

[00:30:35] So you have more claim to saying you're a native Californian.

[00:30:38] But at least in my lifetime, I think I'm at the point now or roughly I've spent more time

[00:30:43] in California in my life than I have in New Jersey.

[00:30:47] So I think so.

[00:30:49] I think I've spent more time, yeah, about at that point where I've spent more time in

[00:30:54] California. I've lived here longer.

[00:30:56] So I guess that makes me actually a Californian.

[00:30:59] But if you grew up in Mississippi, you're a Mississippi native, went to Jackson State University,

[00:31:06] showed up in California in 2009, was here for a little bit and then went off to Maryland

[00:31:11] after several years and you've been a Maryland resident this whole time.

[00:31:17] I don't know how you can claim or defend this lady's even close to being a California

[00:31:23] resident or anyone who could possibly represent Californians and pretend she's a native Californian.

[00:31:29] She's not.

[00:31:30] She's a political pick because of her connections, because of what she's done for the Democratic

[00:31:35] Party, because of how much money she's raised.

[00:31:38] All of this is because of her political connections.

[00:31:40] This is not because she was the most qualified.

[00:31:44] It wasn't because she was the person that they said, oh, this will be the best caretaker.

[00:31:49] I think it was Alex Michelson who floated the theory of like, well, why don't they just ask

[00:31:56] Barbara Boxer to be the interim senator?

[00:31:59] She has no desire to run again.

[00:32:02] She has the experience of being a senator.

[00:32:05] She can be senator.

[00:32:06] We know she's from here and that would be the end of it.

[00:32:09] But this pick is so bad that even the San Francisco Chronicle is going to be a

[00:32:19] calling this a political blunder for Gavin Newsom.

[00:32:22] And it's pretty bad when the San Francisco Chronicle writes an opinion piece and says,

[00:32:26] this is a political blunder for Gavin Newsom.

[00:32:31] What are your thoughts?

[00:32:32] Yeah.

[00:32:34] Now she also said as of Saturday because he got Diane, finds Diane died Friday morning.

[00:32:40] And here we are just five days later.

[00:32:43] As of Saturday, LaFonza didn't even know she was being considered.

[00:32:47] So that allegedly, so that's weird in itself too to make such a big decision in a matter of hours.

[00:32:56] And just like, okay, I'm going to do this.

[00:32:59] That's a serious position to be taking on.

[00:33:02] That's kind of scary.

[00:33:04] And then we don't know how long Gavin hadn't thinking about it.

[00:33:08] I mean, he had to have been considering that this was going to happen.

[00:33:10] We've been all, you know, he's been interviewed about this.

[00:33:13] We've been talking about this.

[00:33:14] What's happening?

[00:33:15] Obviously, Diane, you know, her daughter had power of attorney.

[00:33:18] She just was not doing well and then this happened.

[00:33:24] So we know that she had worked with Kamala Harris, I guess helping with her campaign.

[00:33:32] And then I think she did some stuff with Newsom too.

[00:33:34] And so it does feel like it was almost just like a favor.

[00:33:38] Yeah.

[00:33:39] He scratched my back.

[00:33:40] So here you go.

[00:33:41] I'm going to, and you know, just we had just talked about this two weeks ago maybe where

[00:33:47] when we did the Gavin Newsom interview where he did talk about,

[00:33:53] he didn't want to have to replace Diane Feinstein.

[00:33:55] He was talking about, I hope that I don't have to make that decision.

[00:33:57] And at this point, all of these candidates have been campaigning for so long and we're so close

[00:34:04] that it wouldn't be fair to put someone in this position.

[00:34:07] And then, and then he did.

[00:34:11] Yeah.

[00:34:11] I mean, he obviously had a, even though he didn't want to do it,

[00:34:14] he had a short list of people that he wanted to appoint.

[00:34:16] Well, right.

[00:34:17] He had to be a black woman.

[00:34:20] Yeah.

[00:34:20] And again, it's sort of the Democratic Party right now is the, well, it stems from the fact

[00:34:29] that Democratic voters were upset that when Kamala Harris vacated to become Vice President,

[00:34:35] that he appointed Alex Padilla and California voters were like, wait, we're upset because

[00:34:40] we voted for Kamala Harris.

[00:34:41] And now you're putting a Hispanic male in there, which was history on its own.

[00:34:48] I think it was the first Hispanic male from California to become Senator.

[00:34:52] But that was where that promise came from.

[00:34:56] But again, you look at like, okay, his only qualifications were one that you were a

[00:35:01] black female.

[00:35:03] And then there was a bonus because she's also part of the LGBTQ community.

[00:35:09] Then that's a bonus so that they get to say, oh, it's history in the make gain and all this.

[00:35:15] But then you look at like, okay, let's peek behind the curtain real quick and see like, well,

[00:35:19] what are your qualifications?

[00:35:20] What makes you the right person to be Senator?

[00:35:23] And more and more stuff keeps coming out.

[00:35:26] It seems like every single day she wrote, she was a character witness for

[00:35:32] oh gosh, he was a city councilman in LA.

[00:35:36] And like she came out in support of them and said, he's like this great guy and really respected him.

[00:35:41] And then he was ousted from LA City Council for violating ethics.

[00:35:45] So, you know, poor judge of character there.

[00:35:49] So more stuff seems to keep coming out.

[00:35:51] And again, it's not just a Republican talking point.

[00:35:54] Like it started off as people saying, well, it's a Republican talking point.

[00:35:57] Who cares if she lives in Maryland?

[00:35:59] Now, you have reporters across the spectrum who are finding more and more stuff

[00:36:04] and going wait a second, this doesn't really add up.

[00:36:06] Why did Gavin Newsom pick?

[00:36:08] Well, we know why he picked her, but was she the most qualified for the job?

[00:36:14] And clearly it was just because she checked those two boxes,

[00:36:18] the fact that she raises enough money for the Democratic Party

[00:36:22] so she gets that favor.

[00:36:24] She was a union backer so she gets that favor because she raised a lot of money

[00:36:28] for unions and was a union activist.

[00:36:33] Yeah, and she was also part of a consulting firm for Gavin Newsom.

[00:36:37] So when you look at like, well, what's her ties to California and Gavin Newsom?

[00:36:42] It all just leads to she's been a party activist

[00:36:47] and a party apparatus for a long time.

[00:36:51] And like you said, it feels more like a political favor of like, well,

[00:36:55] you've done really well.

[00:36:56] Let's make you senator for a year.

[00:36:58] You can scratch that off your bucket list and be like,

[00:37:01] I got to be senator for a year.

[00:37:02] That's really cool.

[00:37:04] Although there hasn't been a firm answer whether she's not going to run again,

[00:37:09] which I think to the chagrin of, let's see, it's Katie Porter, Adam Schiff,

[00:37:15] and Barbara Lee who are the kind of front runners.

[00:37:19] And Barbara Lee was someone who was really, really upset with this appointment

[00:37:23] because she is a black female and she felt like she could have been picked as a congresswoman.

[00:37:30] Now I can see where there would be a whole lot of drama there had she been picked.

[00:37:36] Oh, absolutely.

[00:37:38] Because she would have been incumbent.

[00:37:41] Right, she would have been the incumbent and then Adam Schiff and Katie Porter would have

[00:37:43] been like, hold up, hold up.

[00:37:45] Why were we looked over?

[00:37:47] And then they're, you know.

[00:37:48] Yeah.

[00:37:49] And then would it be possible for Katie Porter and Adam Schiff to say,

[00:37:53] you only picked her because of her race and not because she's the most qualified and you kind

[00:37:59] of handed her the election anyway after we've been working so hard to raise money?

[00:38:06] Yeah, it's just all around.

[00:38:09] I think it's been kind of agreed upon that this was not a great pick.

[00:38:18] And I think it's going to, I think it's going to follow her.

[00:38:21] I see all the comments people are like, doesn't even live here.

[00:38:24] She doesn't go.

[00:38:25] I saw the mean girls meme where it was like, you know, where she doesn't even go here.

[00:38:29] That was a funny one.

[00:38:32] So it all around it's not a great look for Gavin Newsom.

[00:38:38] Do you think he's thinking about La Fonza as his VP pick for 2020?

[00:38:43] Maybe if she's around that long.

[00:38:46] I honestly think she'll be around now.

[00:38:49] I don't necessarily in office, but she'll be around for.

[00:38:51] Oh, she'll be around.

[00:38:52] I don't know what to do.

[00:38:54] Right.

[00:38:57] Yeah, I think maybe could she possibly?

[00:39:01] Sure.

[00:39:02] She would be the first openly gay vice president if that were the thing.

[00:39:07] You know, because that's a huge historic and black to be huge.

[00:39:13] Yeah, I mean, I guess that's all that really matters.

[00:39:17] Nobody really cares about whether you're qualified to actually do the job.

[00:39:20] It's more about what box you can check.

[00:39:23] Weakening of her uses an office or anything.

[00:39:25] So yeah, that's true.

[00:39:28] And they're they're toting him around.

[00:39:31] Yeah, maybe maybe she could be a future VP pick.

[00:39:36] I think there's going to be a lot of turmoil for Democrats.

[00:39:43] Seeing if she decides to run or not.

[00:39:46] And if she decides to run because she's like, you know what?

[00:39:51] This being a whole senator thing is pretty sweet.

[00:39:53] I could be a senator the rest of my life and she goes, this is pretty cool.

[00:39:58] I don't want to give it up.

[00:40:01] It's going to be an interesting race next year.

[00:40:03] It's going to be spicy.

[00:40:05] And it will back, you know, blow back on Gavin in a way because

[00:40:09] she was only supposed to be a caretaker.

[00:40:11] She's always supposed to do one year.

[00:40:14] But if she ends up going along and around, then, you know, I'm reading this article right now.

[00:40:20] Ballots are dropped March 5th for the primary, leaving just a narrow window

[00:40:26] for Butler to raise money in a state where statewide campaign

[00:40:30] cash easily costs $20 million or more.

[00:40:33] She does have connections though.

[00:40:35] Yeah, they got a lot of powerful connections.

[00:40:39] So if anyone knows how to raise money, it'll probably be her.

[00:40:43] So we shall see.

[00:40:44] But for now, I'd like to congratulate Maryland for setting history

[00:40:50] by having the first ever three senators in United States history.

[00:40:53] That's pretty incredible for such a small state, you know?

[00:40:58] There's, you know what they say, there's no small states.

[00:41:01] Only small people.

[00:41:05] All right.

[00:41:05] Next topic.

[00:41:07] What should we pivot to after this?

[00:41:09] Well, let's pivot to this.

[00:41:10] Speaking of more congressional drama.

[00:41:16] This came down today and I will admit, I just watched it on news.

[00:41:21] I didn't really get to see all the details.

[00:41:23] But in a historic vote, I think it was 216 and 210,

[00:41:28] Kevin McCarthy was vacated as Speaker of the House.

[00:41:35] This is based on the fact that there is all this turmoil in the Republican Party.

[00:41:39] There are hardcore Republicans, I would guess you'd say, like the faction of like Matt Gates,

[00:41:46] Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, who agreed after if we go back in time,

[00:41:52] getting the way back machine.

[00:41:54] If you remember, it was a contentious election to even get Kevin McCarthy to become Speaker.

[00:42:02] So people don't remember that there was a lot of contention.

[00:42:07] There was a lot of deals made.

[00:42:08] How many votes?

[00:42:10] How many votes?

[00:42:12] Was it like 20 votes or is it like over 20 votes?

[00:42:16] It was so many.

[00:42:17] It was so insane the amount of votes that they actually had to go through.

[00:42:21] But it took, the way they got these, you know, this little small band over to vote for Kevin

[00:42:27] McCarthy is they held him, held his feet to the fire and they said,

[00:42:32] you have to do all these things and you have to promise you're going to do these

[00:42:35] things and you're going to do these things and you're going to help reduce the size of the budget

[00:42:37] and you're not just going to vote for pork spending.

[00:42:42] And well, they wanted to come to a resolution because government is going to is,

[00:42:46] I guess it is now shut down technically shut down.

[00:42:50] Is it okay?

[00:42:52] I'm cold.

[00:42:54] My life hasn't changed.

[00:42:54] Apologies.

[00:42:55] Apologies again, because we focus more on California state local, but federal is important as well.

[00:43:01] And they were going to pass a resolution to basically continue the spending like crazy in DC.

[00:43:06] And I think it was Matt Gates who said, okay, well, and then I'm going to file this motion to

[00:43:09] vacate because you haven't helped your promise, which is how I view this whole story.

[00:43:14] Here we are.

[00:43:14] They had to vote today.

[00:43:17] Motion to vacate.

[00:43:18] Matt Gates walked up on the House floor filed it.

[00:43:21] Did they support it?

[00:43:22] Yep.

[00:43:23] Democrats and those handful of Republicans 216 voted to vacate.

[00:43:28] Kevin McCarthy is no longer speaker.

[00:43:30] There's no speaker at the house right now while we're in a government shutdown.

[00:43:34] So that's what's going on in Congress.

[00:43:39] Just another day.

[00:43:41] No big deal.

[00:43:41] Just another day.

[00:43:45] My initial thoughts, because I had again, I, you know, this happened like later this

[00:43:48] afternoon, I haven't really had a chance to look too much into it.

[00:43:52] My initial thoughts are this.

[00:43:55] Kevin McCarthy, if you knew you made this deal with this handful of Republicans who warned you

[00:44:02] that if you go back on these promises, I'm going to file a motion to vacate and we'll get rid of

[00:44:07] you.

[00:44:08] You shouldn't act surprised when you go back on your promise.

[00:44:11] Right.

[00:44:12] And the people who threatened to vacate you actually end up vacating you.

[00:44:20] So I think it's important to be aware of the fact that you're not going to

[00:44:24] vacate.

[00:44:28] So in my mind, I don't fault them for doing it, like standing firm to your guns and maybe their

[00:44:34] ludicrous demands, maybe they're ludicrous conditions.

[00:44:38] But I kind of have to applaud Matt Gaetz and all this for at least sticking to their

[00:44:43] own guns and their own principles because there's so many times politicians get into

[00:44:47] Congress and once they get in, they get so squishy on a lot of these things that they

[00:44:52] They they say, you know, I'm going to come in and I'm going to do this and I'm going to cut the budget and we're going to cut spending.

[00:45:00] And then as soon as they get into Congress, they just rubber stamp like every budget that comes through doesn't matter if it's one trillion or two trillion or five trillion.

[00:45:07] Like they just rubber stamp everything.

[00:45:09] Yeah.

[00:45:10] So there has to be a little bit more accountability.

[00:45:14] Um, and what's the old saying that, you know, Republicans are just Democrats driving the speed limit.

[00:45:22] Like at this point, not all Republicans are not all Republicans.

[00:45:28] A lot of congressional Republicans are basically Democrats driving with driving the speed limit.

[00:45:34] Um, so yeah, that's that's where we're at.

[00:45:37] He could always run again.

[00:45:39] He says he won't.

[00:45:41] He says he's not going to.

[00:45:42] Okay.

[00:45:44] That's a new development I did not hear about.

[00:45:47] I'm torn on this.

[00:45:49] Okay.

[00:45:50] I'm not a McCarthy fan, sympathizer whatsoever.

[00:45:53] And, um, and I'm definitely pro like you've heard me scream it and shouted a million times, hold their feet to the fire, hold them accountable.

[00:46:02] You know, once they get in, if they get elected, we, we hold them to what they said, we hold them to why we elected them in the first place.

[00:46:09] And so I definitely props to Matt Gates and the others for doing exactly that.

[00:46:15] But we are also, you know, we're facing this shutdown and here we Republicans, we just keep losing and we keep losing and we somehow can't seem to get our act together and work together while the Democrats are so organized and they're just doing their thing.

[00:46:30] And it's like, this is why we keep losing.

[00:46:33] But McCarthy broke his promise.

[00:46:35] So the, I guess you could just put all the responsibility on him all blame on him.

[00:46:40] Like, well, you, you've did this to yourself and to us.

[00:46:43] So good.

[00:46:44] You should be ousted.

[00:46:45] Yeah.

[00:46:47] I hear a lot of people say, well, Democrats, there's never happened to Democrats because they are in lockstep with each other.

[00:46:53] And then yeah, there's, there is some, you know, there is some truth to that.

[00:46:58] There is some value in the fact of like, yeah, Democrats always are in lockstep.

[00:47:03] They always agree with each other.

[00:47:04] Not necessarily.

[00:47:06] I would say there's troublemakers, you know, at least when it comes to like the Democratic establishment,

[00:47:12] there are troublemakers.

[00:47:13] I mean, they had issues with the squad for a while.

[00:47:17] Like the squad was pushing for more and more progressive stuff.

[00:47:21] I would say Bernie Sanders, but Bernie Sanders is just, you know, he's a party loyalist.

[00:47:25] He plays the part really well that he's like this outsider and stuff.

[00:47:28] But in reality, he's just an establishment guy.

[00:47:32] But, you know, there is something we said about Republicans who hold their

[00:47:36] feats of fire and say, like, look, you keep promising voters.

[00:47:39] You're going to get in there and you're going to cut the budget and you're going

[00:47:42] to cut spending, you're really going to like get aggressive about this.

[00:47:46] And then like the minute the opportunity shows up, you automatically fold.

[00:47:51] Yeah, I mean, I give him credit for actually pulling the trigger and saying

[00:47:56] like, I'm going to do something that, you know, is not popular with my party.

[00:47:59] I'm sure the establishment hates Matt Gaetz at this point.

[00:48:04] I'm sure a lot of people hate Matt Gaetz at this point because of what he did.

[00:48:08] But at least he said, here are my conditions to vote to support you for a speaker.

[00:48:16] However, if you violate these conditions, then I'm going to follow through on this

[00:48:20] this motion, which he did.

[00:48:25] And I had a point that I was going to say, and now it just completely escaped me about.

[00:48:31] And, you know, the thing is also I was thinking about this today,

[00:48:34] incremental game.

[00:48:36] The you're not going to get the person who's going to ride in on a white

[00:48:40] horse and save the day, you're not going to get the one person who's elected

[00:48:44] and then, OK, roll movie credits happy and happy ever after happy ending.

[00:48:49] Politics and our system is designed this way to be all about incremental

[00:48:56] change little by little.

[00:48:58] And I think the frustration with a lot of Republicans

[00:49:02] is Democrats have made incremental change slowly, but surely they've moved

[00:49:08] the center farther and farther left.

[00:49:11] And that's over years, you know, Democrats 30 years ago were just

[00:49:16] hey, we're out for the little guy.

[00:49:17] We're pro union.

[00:49:18] We're pro worker.

[00:49:19] We think the government should help in, you know, a little small instances.

[00:49:23] But we also think yeah.

[00:49:26] Yeah, basically they were Republicans 30 years ago.

[00:49:28] They were they were still like, hey, we support all small businesses.

[00:49:31] But slowly, but surely they kind of crept farther and farther and farther left.

[00:49:37] Republicans, I feel like that people are frustrated

[00:49:41] with especially with congressional Republicans and big name Republicans

[00:49:45] because it's been like 30 years.

[00:49:49] Of no incremental change.

[00:49:52] And like they've just kind of stayed in one spot and they haven't done anything.

[00:49:56] They all they all go to Congress.

[00:49:58] Oh, we're going to cut the budget.

[00:49:59] We're going to do this.

[00:50:00] We're going to do that.

[00:50:01] You know, you know, you hear Mike Pence on the debate stage.

[00:50:04] Oh, you know, I was one of the only conservatives to help cut spending

[00:50:07] and this that and the other thing.

[00:50:09] Um, you know, Ron Paul brought this up a lot, which is

[00:50:14] the trick that Republicans do establishment Republicans

[00:50:18] is they'll say, oh, we're going to do tax cuts.

[00:50:22] But in reality, it's tax shifting.

[00:50:24] It's not tax cuts.

[00:50:25] It's tax shifting.

[00:50:26] They'll cut taxes over here.

[00:50:30] But they will still also raise taxes over here to make up for the loss over here.

[00:50:34] And we saw that with the Trump tax cuts as well, that they cut taxes.

[00:50:40] But at the same time, they also raised taxes in a whole bunch of areas.

[00:50:44] So it feels like you're not really doing anything.

[00:50:46] You're not cutting taxes.

[00:50:47] You're just moving it around.

[00:50:49] And maybe voters are getting really upset with Republicans

[00:50:52] because nothing is really changing while they promise

[00:50:55] they're going to go make incremental or big changes.

[00:50:58] Nothing ever changes.

[00:51:00] They never make big, bold policy movements.

[00:51:03] They never make these big moves to really cut taxes and to really cut spending

[00:51:08] and to really break down the size of the federal government.

[00:51:12] So it's been like 30 years of these built up incremental changes

[00:51:15] that haven't happened for Republican voters.

[00:51:18] And then you get people, I guess you get candidates like Trump

[00:51:22] who come in, make these huge promises

[00:51:26] of, yes, we've been waiting for this for 30 years.

[00:51:30] That's why I want to support you.

[00:51:31] I don't want another Republican in there who's going to make incremental change.

[00:51:36] I want someone who's going to go in and be a wrecking ball.

[00:51:40] So I think that's that's part of the frustration

[00:51:43] with a lot of Republican voters right now.

[00:51:45] And to your point,

[00:51:48] you know, Speaker McCarthy kind of did this to himself.

[00:51:51] He agreed that he was going to get tough on this stuff

[00:51:54] and that he was going to make big changes.

[00:51:57] And then he did it.

[00:51:58] He turned back into a pumpkin.

[00:52:00] You know, when they were doing the voting, like there was

[00:52:03] was it Marjoriton agreed and Matt Gates like went up and basically like,

[00:52:06] we're like, oh, there's like about to be a fight.

[00:52:08] Like they were like exchanging words like they were basically

[00:52:11] we don't know exactly what we said, but something was said about

[00:52:14] we are not voting for you until you promise X, Y and Z.

[00:52:17] And so yeah.

[00:52:20] And yeah, there's that famous picture of like Matt Gates

[00:52:23] was like point eight and Kevin McCarthy like walks back up the aisle

[00:52:26] and they're like screaming at each other about this.

[00:52:31] And I think like, sorry, Kevin, but you know, you.

[00:52:37] You wanted to be the head of a Republican party that's changing.

[00:52:40] And you went back to being like an establishment guy.

[00:52:45] And you couldn't play by those rules anymore.

[00:52:48] So that's my thoughts on it.

[00:52:51] So now you're telling me right now he's not running again.

[00:52:54] I thought he was going to run again.

[00:52:58] We'll see you first and update real quick.

[00:53:02] OK, but yeah, I think.

[00:53:07] It'll be interesting to see who ends up being speaker this time.

[00:53:13] I like, oh gosh, is it Bryson?

[00:53:19] Donald Bryson or something?

[00:53:20] Is that I will not seek to run again.

[00:53:23] First speaker of the house.

[00:53:25] Kevin McCarthy, Kevin McCarthy.

[00:53:29] I want to look up something real quick.

[00:53:32] Has a check me.

[00:53:33] Just kidding.

[00:53:34] As a speaker of the house ever been removed.

[00:53:37] Of course, it's the first thing.

[00:53:38] Yes, the first time it ever really happened.

[00:53:40] So this week was just full of firsts.

[00:53:43] It was full of firsts.

[00:53:44] We we got our first black and openly gay senator.

[00:53:48] And we got our president.

[00:53:50] Now, Maryland got three senators.

[00:53:53] And and yeah, Speaker of the House was vacated.

[00:53:58] So it'll be interesting to see.

[00:54:03] You know, I think they're also this is kind of reminding

[00:54:07] of what they're doing with like the Libertarian Party,

[00:54:10] which is really interesting.

[00:54:12] This is kind of off topic of Kevin McCarthy.

[00:54:14] But the Libertarian Party is doing this more in like.

[00:54:18] I think they're doing in the Lauren Boebert's district.

[00:54:21] So basically, Lauren Boebert got into Congress and she said,

[00:54:27] I'm going to pass all these bills to end the Fed and the ATF

[00:54:30] and all this stuff.

[00:54:32] She hasn't done any of that.

[00:54:33] She hasn't passed.

[00:54:35] Tried to get any of those bills passed or do anything.

[00:54:37] Many jokes right now.

[00:54:41] About all this about the border just go ahead.

[00:54:45] We try to keep this PG rated.

[00:54:47] Yeah, keeping it PG.

[00:54:50] So she went in with all these promises.

[00:54:52] She said she was going to do all these things like ending the Fed

[00:54:56] and all these federal agencies.

[00:54:57] She hasn't done anything.

[00:54:58] She hasn't really cut any spending or anything like that.

[00:55:01] So the Libertarian Party of Colorado said, OK, well,

[00:55:06] you promised you would get these things and we wouldn't

[00:55:10] put a Libertarian candidate on the ballot.

[00:55:12] Basically, like saying, we'll hold the Libertarian candidate back

[00:55:14] and we'll show support for you.

[00:55:17] Now, because she's broken those promises,

[00:55:20] there's a Libertarian candidate running against her in that congressional seat,

[00:55:23] which will ultimately knock her out because it was a very close election.

[00:55:31] Is it a great strategy?

[00:55:33] Well, you get more Democrats in Congress, but same sort of kind of idea

[00:55:39] of you're holding these Republicans' feet to the fire and saying, look,

[00:55:42] you wanted to be big and bold and make all these changes.

[00:55:45] If you don't do it, we can get rid of you really easily.

[00:55:48] So. Well.

[00:55:51] We will we shall see where it goes from here if

[00:55:54] this little faction has any more power.

[00:55:57] OK, last topic speaking of Congress.

[00:56:02] Our good buddy, Omar Navarra, who we did a video on.

[00:56:07] Well, you researched I did the video.

[00:56:12] I forget way back in.

[00:56:14] I'm going to look this up in 22.

[00:56:17] February of 2022.

[00:56:19] So that was a big week.

[00:56:22] It was a big week for what happened in February.

[00:56:24] Well, I remember you saying I'm going to release this video

[00:56:27] because we had just found out that we won our lawsuit.

[00:56:30] You're like someone to release this video before we put out the news.

[00:56:34] Right. Yes, I do remember that.

[00:56:39] I'm trying to pull up so people can see it for themselves.

[00:56:43] But if you want to give people an idea of what we're talking about

[00:56:46] while I'm doing that.

[00:56:47] So Omar Navarra ran, I forget the district number,

[00:56:54] but against Maxine Water, Ali County in California,

[00:56:59] multiple times, starting 2016, 2018.

[00:57:04] And.

[00:57:06] People started to kind of call him out as a possible grifter

[00:57:10] and question his campaign finances.

[00:57:12] And then I guess we just finally,

[00:57:16] I think I just took it up on myself.

[00:57:17] You said I'm going to do this.

[00:57:18] I'm going to research this and I was like, OK,

[00:57:21] let me see what I can find.

[00:57:23] And so I had fun with it.

[00:57:25] Are you there? I feel like you're frozen.

[00:57:27] Oh, no, you're not. OK.

[00:57:28] I'm just I'm looking at the video.

[00:57:30] OK, so are you ready?

[00:57:33] You just stopped me whatever you're ready.

[00:57:36] Basically, I want a lot of time.

[00:57:38] I mean, we really, you know, we really researched it.

[00:57:42] All of our eyes.

[00:57:44] That's the one thing we will warn you about out there.

[00:57:48] If you're a grifter,

[00:57:50] we do our research because we know

[00:57:57] what Camille has been on the receiving end of a lawsuit

[00:58:00] and, you know, representing and defending the lawsuit.

[00:58:03] Winning end.

[00:58:05] And yes, yeah.

[00:58:05] So we're well versed in the idea of defamation.

[00:58:09] What is defamation regarding a public figure?

[00:58:13] I'm going to pull up this screen share right now, because I'm not going to play the video.

[00:58:18] I just want to show people

[00:58:20] like that this video does actually exist.

[00:58:23] You can go watch it.

[00:58:23] The name of it is Omar Navarro, professional candidate.

[00:58:27] I froze it on this screen specifically

[00:58:32] because this is one of the charges that we found.

[00:58:37] It was an Asian supermarket in Torrance, California.

[00:58:43] And if you look around, there's nothing there outside of the supermarket.

[00:58:47] But if you look at his disbursements, which we did and we show in the video,

[00:58:52] he lists it as a gasoline.

[00:58:55] So there is a gas station in that parking lot.

[00:58:58] I think it may be even owned by the supermarket, but it's two separate addresses.

[00:59:02] Right.

[00:59:03] And in 2020, who the heck was paying a one time fee of three hundred and thirty

[00:59:08] dollars to fill up their gas tank?

[00:59:10] It's I have a big old like it's not suburban, but it's like a suburban

[00:59:13] Liyuan XL.

[00:59:15] And I'm still not paying three hundred and thirty dollars

[00:59:18] to fill it up one time today.

[00:59:21] Yeah. Price at almost seven dollars a gallon.

[00:59:25] Yeah, I mean, even my Jeep at, you know, we filled it up at Costco.

[00:59:30] It was still not anywhere close to three hundred dollars.

[00:59:33] I mean, would a motor home cost that money?

[00:59:35] Yeah, I know he didn't have a motor home, but would a motor home?

[00:59:38] I don't even think a motor home would be quite that much, maybe close.

[00:59:42] It was a whole bunch of things.

[00:59:43] And if you're really that interested, I encourage you to go watch it

[00:59:48] because everything that he's being indicted on.

[00:59:52] I don't know if it's everything in terms of like what we found.

[00:59:56] I feel like I need to call them because of what the there are some

[00:59:58] things that you didn't list that I discovered.

[01:00:01] And I feel like I need to call them and be like, well, if you actually check

[01:00:04] this theater on this day.

[01:00:05] So I started just looking at like there is he had a fundraising event.

[01:00:10] I want to say the Zappos Theater don't hold me like don't quote me on that.

[01:00:13] It could have been a different theater.

[01:00:16] He listed as a fundraising event and then it turned out

[01:00:19] and it was like three hundred and fifty dollars or something two times.

[01:00:23] And it was like fundraising fees.

[01:00:25] There was a Britney Spears concert there the whole week.

[01:00:29] And and then I was even going through looking at his tagged photos

[01:00:34] on Instagram and on Facebook, Twitter and stuff like that.

[01:00:38] And it would be like a group that he didn't necessarily take the photo

[01:00:43] or say anything about what I found.

[01:00:45] You know, he was tagged in it and some will be like, oh, happy birthday.

[01:00:48] We celebrated at Sushi and sure enough, there was it was in Vegas

[01:00:52] and there was a charge on this campaign finances for that restaurant

[01:00:54] for that sushi restaurant where he you know.

[01:00:58] And then in all these days at the Bologio and I understand you're running

[01:01:01] for Congress, you do fundraisers and going to different areas.

[01:01:04] You you would there's occasional events, but he spent a lot,

[01:01:08] a lot of time and money in Las Vegas.

[01:01:11] And then yeah, you know, prior to running for Congress,

[01:01:15] he had he had been arrested for stalking his his girlfriend,

[01:01:19] his ex-girlfriend.

[01:01:20] She had a restraining order against him and he had like a tracking on her car.

[01:01:23] He was showing up at her place.

[01:01:24] Maybe it was even his ex-wife.

[01:01:26] Maybe it was both. I don't I don't remember.

[01:01:28] There was a whole lot of that going on.

[01:01:30] And I think he even initially started running while he was in prison.

[01:01:34] And so it is not uncommon on on any anyone in running for a big office.

[01:01:39] It is not uncommon for them to hire an attorney, you know,

[01:01:43] to meet the retainer journey for consulting stuff or legal

[01:01:47] because just legal stuff comes up.

[01:01:48] But there was all these attorney payments on there.

[01:01:51] And then when I looked at that specific attorney, they didn't do anything.

[01:01:54] Nothing was listed on their website as far as political strategies stuff.

[01:01:58] And so then I Googled his name with that attorney and sure enough found photos of

[01:02:03] it was his defense attorney for his prison thing with his his old drama with his ex.

[01:02:10] It was, you know, it was a defense, a criminal defense attorney

[01:02:12] who had nothing to do with he was paying his bill off of camping finances.

[01:02:17] People were donating to him and he was turning around.

[01:02:19] And then there was what like

[01:02:21] dozens, dozens of charges for El Pueblo and Chipotle for about $12 each.

[01:02:26] That's not a meeting.

[01:02:27] It's not you're not having a campaign meeting at El Pueblo

[01:02:30] Go home paying $12.

[01:02:31] That was him eating.

[01:02:34] And then even the gas stations that he there was like two gas stations

[01:02:38] that he did frequent that had seemed to have actual, you know, gas price

[01:02:42] charges on it, but they were right around his home, which told me

[01:02:45] he wasn't actually really going anywhere campaigning.

[01:02:46] He was just hanging out around home and going to this gas station

[01:02:49] and probably getting like beer and Doritos and gas.

[01:02:52] And then we knew he was paying his mom again, that's not illegal.

[01:02:56] But I kind of joked he's probably paying her rent.

[01:02:59] And now they've found out that she was cashed the checks

[01:03:02] and just giving it back to him deposit.

[01:03:05] They keep deposit into his personal account or something.

[01:03:07] It's a lot.

[01:03:08] And one of the things are he also paid himself a salary, which again,

[01:03:12] is not illegal.

[01:03:13] It is odd though to pay a salary to run for Congress.

[01:03:18] And considering he's claims that he's a small business owner

[01:03:21] and I could never find anything that he owned ever.

[01:03:24] Yeah, and he he ran three times.

[01:03:28] Is that correct?

[01:03:30] Four times so many times.

[01:03:32] That's why I titled the video was he's a professional candidate

[01:03:35] because I was his job for a while was he was just constantly running

[01:03:38] for this seat.

[01:03:40] And and for some reason it was like if you ran against Maxine waters,

[01:03:47] you got a lot of money because people hate or dislike.

[01:03:50] I shouldn't say hate.

[01:03:51] A lot of people are right.

[01:03:53] The Republican Party does not like Maxine waters.

[01:03:56] So the idea if there's a bold Republican who stands up

[01:04:01] against Maxine waters, people are going to dump money into this race

[01:04:04] because they're like, oh, we need someone who's going to oust Maxine waters.

[01:04:07] Newsflash, no one's ousting Maxine waters.

[01:04:10] She gets like 80 percent of the vote every single time.

[01:04:13] You're not coming close to even winning that race.

[01:04:16] She's going to be there forever.

[01:04:18] Yeah, they barely they just have to barely they don't even have to campaign.

[01:04:23] They just have to put their name on the ballot and they're going to win every single time.

[01:04:28] And that's one way you can tell like, honestly, if that should be a red flag

[01:04:33] right away and for long time listeners of this show, we've talked about this before.

[01:04:38] But for new listeners, one red flag you should look at.

[01:04:43] And this is not true in all cases.

[01:04:45] There are people who have, you know, good motivations.

[01:04:49] But if someone's running a campaign in a district that is not winnable,

[01:04:54] not closely winnable like it's 80 percent Democrat, they get 80 percent

[01:04:58] of the vote every single time, you're not cracking 80 percent of the vote.

[01:05:03] There's a good chance that person's not a serious candidate

[01:05:07] because if they were a serious candidate, they'd already look at the political landscape and say.

[01:05:12] You know, if I run in this race, I'm going to absolutely slaughtered

[01:05:16] and I'm just going to waste people's time and money.

[01:05:19] Serious candidates will look at a district and say,

[01:05:22] yeah, this isn't within five or six points.

[01:05:24] I believe I can actually take this seat.

[01:05:27] Those are serious candidates.

[01:05:28] They they know what they're looking at.

[01:05:32] But Omar Navarro, Joe Collins, they both ran Maxine Waters District

[01:05:37] both got slaughtered, but both raised a ton of money.

[01:05:41] I mean, Joe Collins made what like how many millions of dollars did

[01:05:45] Joe Collins raise from one arsenal media?

[01:05:49] It was unbelievable, like ten million dollars or something like.

[01:05:52] I wouldn't remember it as a lot.

[01:05:54] You mean the same thing with like Kim Klasek,

[01:05:57] like she ran in that district in Baltimore.

[01:05:59] Again, it was like 80 percent Democrat and people were like, oh, no,

[01:06:02] we need to change things.

[01:06:03] And we, you know, how are people ever going to be competitive

[01:06:05] if they don't fight in these districts?

[01:06:08] Because those aren't the districts you should be dumping money into.

[01:06:11] There's competitive districts where you can flip seats and make change

[01:06:15] and bump your numbers up.

[01:06:18] Not these districts, though.

[01:06:19] These are not happening anytime soon until you actually get boots

[01:06:23] on the ground and change voters mentality there and change voter registration.

[01:06:27] But until that happens, it's a fool's errand to run in these districts.

[01:06:32] And that's usually the biggest red flag is if you're running in these districts

[01:06:37] that have no chance.

[01:06:40] That's usually the first sign that they're not really a serious candidate.

[01:06:43] And, you know, we've done videos on Joe Collins.

[01:06:45] We did a video on Kim Klasek.

[01:06:48] You look at all their dispersion, all their disbursements

[01:06:51] and all their spending and all that stuff.

[01:06:53] They all raise questions and they're all kind of shady.

[01:06:56] So, you know, again, we do our homework.

[01:07:00] We don't put this stuff out there unless we've done our homework

[01:07:02] and double checked.

[01:07:04] And then we even pointed out last year,

[01:07:07] he moved to Florida right within days of losing the election.

[01:07:12] He moved before the election was over, remember?

[01:07:17] I thought it was like that week.

[01:07:19] It's like the next day he was gone.

[01:07:22] But he had a few minutes.

[01:07:24] The vote, I think the election hadn't even been over yet.

[01:07:29] And he was already in the election.

[01:07:31] Yeah, he knew it was over and he already moved to Florida.

[01:07:35] So he knew he was going to lose.

[01:07:38] But he still asked you for money up until election day.

[01:07:41] He was still begging people for money.

[01:07:44] Probably to help, you know, with the U-Haul expenses

[01:07:48] of moving to Florida.

[01:07:50] There was something else.

[01:07:52] You know, he claims all this is because they're coming after

[01:07:55] people who support Trump.

[01:07:58] So he's like, you know, I'm not going to be able to move

[01:08:01] so he does have to go find me going so that you can help him.

[01:08:04] Because he so he isn't jail or I'm not sure where exactly,

[01:08:07] but he is in jail right now.

[01:08:09] Right. You said he had a live the other night.

[01:08:14] His fiance was on the live,

[01:08:17] but on a phone call with him so we could hear him calling from jail.

[01:08:22] Yeah, I think he's blocked me everywhere.

[01:08:24] So I wasn't able to watch that live.

[01:08:27] Um, so I know it, but

[01:08:32] yeah, you can still donate to Omar Navarro and his go fund me.

[01:08:36] So best of luck to Omar Navarro and his legal troubles.

[01:08:40] More all the story, don't use campaigns to grift people

[01:08:43] and take their hard earned money to use it for your own personal expenses.

[01:08:47] Reach out to represent him.

[01:08:49] No, absolutely not.

[01:08:53] Yes, unfortunately I'm not barred in that federal district.

[01:08:57] So sorry, Omar, you're going to have to find somebody else.

[01:09:02] Not that I'd represent you anyway.

[01:09:05] Might be a conflict of interest.

[01:09:07] Anyway, I think we covered a whole bunch of stories tonight.

[01:09:10] This was definitely a news like mashup tonight,

[01:09:12] but there was a lot of stuff to get to.

[01:09:14] We are the news.

[01:09:15] We are. I felt like, yeah, we're like the whole.

[01:09:18] We had our hour long news show.

[01:09:20] Um, I will be out of town for a little bit.

[01:09:26] Nothing bad, just traveling.

[01:09:29] So this will be my last podcast for a couple of weeks.

[01:09:31] I don't know if Camille plans on taking over the show while I'm gone.

[01:09:36] See, she will let people know somehow, some way.

[01:09:43] Yeah. So just stay tuned.

[01:09:45] If you, if it seems like we're gone for a couple of weeks,

[01:09:49] do not fret. We'll be back in a couple of weeks.

[01:09:51] I know the next date will definitely be.

[01:09:54] I'm not looking at calendar right now.

[01:09:56] I'm looking off somewhere like I'm looking at a calendar.

[01:09:59] I don't even know, so let me know.

[01:10:02] The 24th is the next day.

[01:10:05] We will be back to 24th, both of us together.

[01:10:08] So far away.

[01:10:09] OK, I know it doesn't feel, it feels like really, really far away,

[01:10:12] but we'll be back.

[01:10:13] Um, and we, you know, the good thing about convention was

[01:10:16] we made a lot more connections.

[01:10:18] More guests are going to be coming on to the show.

[01:10:22] 2024 is right around the corner.

[01:10:25] There's going to be a whole bunch more guests who are going to be

[01:10:27] want to be on the show.

[01:10:30] Yeah, so I'm going to end the year strong and

[01:10:35] do you want to give anybody any preview of what you might be doing?

[01:10:38] Because I don't even know what you're doing.

[01:10:39] I don't know what I'm doing.

[01:10:40] And so I'm sorry.

[01:10:41] I don't have no teaser or anything.

[01:10:44] We'll see.

[01:10:45] We'll see if I get my act together.

[01:10:47] No teaser.

[01:10:48] No teaser.

[01:10:48] Besides taking over say goodbye to Phil.

[01:10:51] It was good knowing you.

[01:10:53] See, I'm saying I'll be back to 20.

[01:10:55] I'm saying I'll be back to 24th, but you're like in the back of your mind.

[01:10:59] You're like, yeah, will you be back to 24th?

[01:11:01] We'll see.

[01:11:02] I mean, you may be back in your home on the 24th.

[01:11:06] I don't know if you'll be back on this podcast on the 24th.

[01:11:08] So good luck with that.

[01:11:11] All right.

[01:11:12] With that said, let's wrap up this episode.

[01:11:15] Same way we always wrap up every episode.

[01:11:17] If you like this, make sure you like, share, subscribe, review,

[01:11:20] leave a comment.

[01:11:21] It's good for the algorithm on YouTube and on rumble.

[01:11:25] Best way to support this show

[01:11:27] that is absolutely free.

[01:11:28] It doesn't cost you anything is to share it with somebody who loves

[01:11:30] California politics and wants to discuss more about it or learn more about it.

[01:11:35] And with that said, we will see you all in the next one.

[01:11:39] Have a good night, everybody later.

[01:11:53] Thank you for listening to another episode of California Underground.

[01:11:56] If you like what you heard, remember to subscribe, like and review it

[01:11:59] and follow California Underground on social media for updates as to when

[01:12:03] new episodes are available.