The Torrance Shooter and the Governor's Race

[00:00:01] A man from Torrance, California tried to assassinate the President and other administration officials this past weekend at the White House Correspondents Dinner. We're going to talk about his background, him being from California. We're going to talk about also all these gun control laws that I guess should have stopped him and why no one even reported on it. We're also going to talk about the six gubernatorial candidates who showed up at a debate last week. We're going to review some of their answers, give you some of our commentary,

[00:00:28] and we're going to get started with that right now. Welcome to California Underground. Let's get into it. What's going on everybody? Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the California Underground.

[00:00:56] Sincere apologies for the late, late start at 9pm because we had mic issues. I knocked over something and just knowing computers, they just all screwed up. So, apologies to everyone. Let me bring in my co-host, the best, the fastest researcher in the West, Camille. Thank you, Camille, for waiting through my mic problems. We figured it out after an hour.

[00:01:23] I probably should have figured this out beforehand. So, to all the people who hung out and waited for us. Thank you. Look at that. People are already in the chat waiting for us. Thank you so much. We started way later than we usually do, but we didn't want to jump on here with bad tech or bad microphones and stuff like that and give you bad quality and then everyone would be like, ugh, the quality sounds so horrible. We don't want to be in here. So, anyway.

[00:01:53] I know I'm yawning. I'm good. How are you? I'm really tired. She's like, alright, I just wanted to check in and I'm out of here. It's like reality TV time. No, I'm just kidding. You're like, I decided to get comfortable and watch reality TV. How are you doing tonight? I'm good. Good. How are you? I'm good. Again, let's get started. We've already kept everyone waiting as long as possible. So, let's just jump right into our first story, which is California adjacent.

[00:02:21] It's not necessarily a California centric story, but it is a national story and it's something that when there is a national story that involves California, we always want to comment on it because it comes from that angle. There was the assassination attempt on President Trump and the administration at the White House Correspondents' Dinner that happened this past weekend.

[00:02:46] It was Saturday night. I was making dinner and my wife gasped and said, somebody tried to shoot the president again. I was like, again? Someone tried to assassinate the president again? Turn on the news, watch what happened. All the news came out pretty quickly. I feel like we got answers to all this pretty quickly. Who it was? What happened? I mean, I still have a lot of questions about what happened. How did he get so close?

[00:03:14] Why was the checkpoint that close to the actual event? Why? It seemed like when you watch the video, it looked like the, um, it looked like the secret service were kind of asleep at the wheel. Like he ran right past them and they were all like, well, like they all got kind of caught off guard. I don't know. It seemed all very weird how it all happened. Clumsily, this guy was obviously not a professional assassin. Um, definitely a lone wolf.

[00:03:44] Uh, what were your initial thoughts when you heard this story breaking? Well, as far as like what you said is like the checkpoint and seem like, uh, service secret service was kind of like sleeping at the wheel. So I just want to go back to, I think it was 2023 when you and I were at the convention that, um, Trump was at, obviously he was currently not the president, but it was, so the GOP convention, it was in the end of September, 2023, I believe was the date.

[00:04:13] And there was Vivek Ramaswamy, Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump who were all running for president. And, um, I, you came later in the day, but because I had, we were media for this event. Um, so we got to be in the room with all these candidates and, um, I had my camera had brought like my professional camera to the event. And if you were media and had anything that you were going to be bringing in the room, you had to check in between like five 30 AM and 6 AM.

[00:04:42] You had to check your equipment and literally leave it there. So, um, I had gotten to the hotel that early and went in the room, dropped off my stuff. And then, um, I went back, our friend Tamika, she was staying at the hotel and she had like, she'd arrived the night before. So I was hanging out in her room until, cause I, I had a room for like that night. I hadn't checked in yet. So I was hanging out in her room and we were looking out her window and literally there was like secret service with their bomb sniffing dogs.

[00:05:10] There was, um, like police presence, secret service presence everywhere in the hotel. We had to kind of like, at some point we were all just like told to just like a wait in our rooms while they literally did like all the testing and everything, like going around, just doing all the searches. And then when we actually, if you recall, when we actually went in the room, we all waited in this massive line and went through metal detectors. And then once you were in the room, they would let you in and out.

[00:05:39] Um, like I remember leaving the room once to go to the bathroom or something. And I believe that they had taken the metal detectors down, but it was, things were kind of like roped off. So I'm sure they had already like secured those bathrooms and everything. So I just like went out and went to the bathroom and came back in and a secret service man, like let me in and out. But, um, there was no additional check after that. So, okay, sorry. This is my initial thoughts are, oh, there's really long story.

[00:06:04] My point is like, he was obviously not the president at the time, but he was a former president and they had major, major security going on. And so just understanding how that event went down, I'm trying to figure out how this man was able to like bring in, cause he had a few weapons on him, right? There was a few guns. And so the, like, okay.

[00:06:32] So he was able to get down there with a couple of guns and I don't know how they take it down this checkpoint. I, I don't, the metal detectors and everything. I'm just, again, the president, you, you would just think everything would be more secure than what we saw. And what we saw was crazy security. So, so yeah, that was odd to me. Yeah, it was a conspiracy theory. Sorry.

[00:06:59] I just want to emphasize that I'm not saying this was like a fake stage event or anything like that. I just, to your point, it did seem like security was laxed. Yeah. Especially for a president and the administration, you think there was, J.D. Vance was there. Trump was there. There were other people who were there, part of the administration. So there were a lot of people. I mean, Dr. Oz was there. I saw him as well.

[00:07:26] But there were plenty of people who were there and big names. And like you said, he was a former president. Then there was a ton of security. He's the actual president now, first lady, vice president, a whole bunch of people involved. And it did seem like he was able to get really close. But again, not the point of tonight's episode to kind of go over the conspiracy theories and put our tinfoil hats on. Those were just some of my initial thoughts.

[00:07:53] But I did want to kind of talk about this gentleman, Cole Allen Thomas or Cole Thomas Allen. Is that Cole Thomas Allen? So what we know about his background. So this is from CBS News. So I'm charging through the metal detectors. He purchased the shotgun used in Saturday shooting in August 2025, according to two law enforcement sources. He also owned another semi-automatic pistol purchased in 2023.

[00:08:22] He lived in Los Angeles, ended up in Torrance. He went to Caltech in 2017. His teacher said, quote, he was a very good student indeed, always sitting in the first row of my class, paying attention and frequently emailing me with coursework questions. Soft spoken, very polite, good fellow. I'm very shocked to see the news.

[00:08:43] His teacher went on to say that they described Allen as, quote, entirely normal and friendly in their interactions and that they expressed profound shock when they heard he was the suspect in the attack. He was also part of a group called the Wide Awakes and attended a No Kings protest in California. And he donated $25 to PAC Act Blue for Kamala Harris's presidential campaign. You know, just California guy. I mean, unassuming to a lot of people.

[00:09:15] His manifesto was a little bit, I don't know, it was a little odd. He was kind of making light of everything that was about to happen. He said, basically, next time you see me, I might be in like critical condition. Very odd that he sent this out to a lot of people. The one thing I wanted to focus in on, because I'm sure everyone at this point has heard the stories and they've watched enough of this news, is what happened?

[00:09:44] Like, so this is from Al Jazeera and say what you will about Al Jazeera. This is news. This is news.

[00:10:21] Because we all know California is no fan of guns. I know that's shocking news for people who are tuning in. Yeah. California is no fan of gun rights here and the Second Amendment. So I had to look this up. And indeed, California does have red flag laws. And I am not in support of red flag laws. I'm not advocating that red flag laws should have been used here or in support of it.

[00:10:50] But I guess the real irony here is that if California is a state with red flag laws as a way for gun control, and a lot of people close to him were kind of getting curious about it, and they supposedly, according to that Al Jazeera article, raised concerns about him, knowing that he owned a pistol and a shotgun. And his family members said he went to the range a lot.

[00:11:17] He was practicing and training for whatever. And that there was these suspicions. What happened? I guess that's the question I have. And if it was brought up to LAPD or any sort of law enforcement, shouldn't that have been where California's gun control laws stepped in and stopped someone like this guy?

[00:11:47] Like this Cole Thomas Allen? Cole Allen Thomas? I keep getting his name backwards. He said Cole Thomas Allen. So I found that interesting. What are your thoughts on that? Yeah. No, I agree. That is really interesting that if we have laws in place that are supposed to prevent things like this from happening, then why were they not used? And I thought I had read that they did, somebody in the family,

[00:12:16] even multiple people in the family had gone to some form of law enforcement with concerns. Because there was like a, I guess there was a couple things that I thought. So they actually did raise concerns to somebody in some authoritarian position. Not authoritarian, sorry. A position of authority to have done something. A position of authority. Sorry. And it's late.

[00:12:44] So what is the point of laws, which, I mean, this is California for you. We do have so many laws. Even they're the left's own laws. It's just, they just get ignored. I mean, it's bizarre. It's really, it's really bizarre. So this is from CBS News that says, After the attempted attack, Allen's sister told investigators that he often used radical rhetoric, sometimes talking about doing something to fix perceived problems in society, federal law and White House officials told CBS News.

[00:13:13] So he was speaking like a radical prior to this. And again, I just come back to this idea of, okay, if California's gun laws and gun control laws are supposed to stop potential killers and assassins and stuff like this, why did it not work? And if they raised concerns with law enforcement, why were things not done? And that's, I mean, that's a question we can pose. I don't know why none of this happened.

[00:13:41] I'm sure maybe we'll find out. Well, somebody in the chat said, ironically, they took James O'Keefe's guns in Florida. Of all places, Florida. Yeah. It's not like James O'Keefe was making radical statements about killing, administrate or fixing society's problems. So it is, it is definitely odd that nothing happened here and that he was able to get within 50 yards of the president with a handgun and a shotgun.

[00:14:10] Some people were joking that he did the Naruto run, the Naruto speed run. It looked, I don't know, the whole video looked weird to me, the way he ran past all the Secret Service and caught them off guard. But anyway, I guess that's the angle that I wanted to bring up. But that's not really the whole story tonight.

[00:14:29] But being where we are a California political podcast and we focus from a California angle, that was the one thing that I grabbed onto was we have these gun laws that California says we absolutely need. We need these gun laws to protect people. And then you have red flag laws, which I find unconstitutional, didn't stop a would-be assassin of the president of the United States. So. Something I thought was interesting. Okay.

[00:14:58] I looked this up and if anyone knows differently, feel free to correct me. But I did a search to find out which politicians called for gun control after this attempt. Only two. Okay. Okay. Jamie Raskin. A Maryland Democrat. Congress. And then, and then I have a screenshot. Pennsylvania State Rep.

[00:15:28] Malcolm Kenyatta. A Democrat. Former Democrat. National Committee Vice Chair. Posted on X. Anyway. Yes. That's what Grok told me. Because I asked how many or which Democrat politicians called for gun control after this third assassination attempt. And then like, they're like after April 25th, you know, two politicians. So those two. Interesting.

[00:15:57] Yeah. That's crazy that it's only, it was only two out of you. Again, if that's wrong, please feel free to correct me. That's just telling you what Grok told me. That is really interesting. That is really interesting that an attempted assassination attempt of President Trump only has two people out of all of Congress calling for gun control laws. I guess when it comes to gun control laws.

[00:16:26] I guess when it comes to gun control laws that could stop someone from assassinating Donald Trump, I guess they're not really that concerned. Right. But that's disturbing. That is disturbing. I would 100% be against, like, I wouldn't have wanted, like, I didn't vote for Barack Obama. I didn't vote for Joe Biden. And I 100% would not want them assassinated. Like, that's really disturbing. No, I agree with that sentiment. I don't want anybody who, I would have never wished harm on any president, no matter how much I disagreed with him.

[00:16:54] I never wished that they would get harmed or hurt or mortally wounded. You can disagree with people politically, but it doesn't mean you should go out and harm them. First thing I also thought when they said he was from California was, my immediate first thought was, so he must have drove from California, D.C. because there's no way he would have gotten on a plane with those firearms. Then it turned out, I guess he got on a train. So be careful on trains.

[00:17:24] That's another thing you can take away from this is that there's, if you ever get on a train anywhere, like, if I take the train from San Diego to L.A., they call it the coaster. There's no security. Like, you just walk right onto a train. No one's checking your bags or going through metal detectors or anything. You literally just walk through and walk right onto a train. So keep that in mind next time you're on a train, that there's absolutely no security of scanning who has what on a train.

[00:17:55] So a lot of questions about how this happened. It's scary. It's scary that there's people who get this close, considering there's been so many attempts on President Trump already and that this guy got this close. But I also think there is a, I think there, and I want to preface this and say, there's definitely a component to, well, how do I say this? The funny, it's not funny.

[00:18:25] The ironic thing is that after Butler, the media all kind of said, we need to tone down the rhetoric. You know, it shouldn't have gotten this close. We almost got, like, he almost, he missed assassination by a couple of inches. And so they all came out and said, okay, we need to tone down the rhetoric. And it seemed like almost two months later, like, the rhetoric just got amped up again.

[00:18:53] And when you keep calling someone literally Hitler over and over and over again, and that he's a fascist and he's an authoritarian and he does all these horrible things, sooner or later, if you keep telling people that he's literally Hitler, I mean, you start to make the moral equivalency of, well, if you were in the 1930s and you had the possibility of assassinating Hitler, would you assassinate Hitler?

[00:19:17] And I guess that's what some people are starting to think when you keep calling him Hitler over and over and over again is, what am I, I'm going to take some action. And that's what this individual did. And unassuming individual, based on what everybody said, is that they were shocked by the fact that this all came about. Yeah. Will you excuse me for a moment? You just carry on. I'm so sorry. Yeah, go ahead. So those are my original thoughts about what happened.

[00:19:47] Everybody in the comments. Thank you again, everybody, for hanging out with us and waiting while I figured out what the heck was going on with my mic. I was watching some of the debate from Pomona College. We're going to have to follow that or come up. There were some highlights from this debate tonight. We didn't have time to pull clips from it tonight because it kind of went on at seven right before we were supposed to go on at eight.

[00:20:11] Um, tonight's debate, gubernatorial debate, I found was very spicy from what I saw. And some of the moderators were pushing back. I don't know if anybody watched it. If you have any thoughts about it, you can put that in the comments. The second moderator was definitely more feisty in terms of pushing back on a lot of the candidates. Again, we're going to have to cover this more next week. There's going to be a lot to cover. Over the next couple of weeks, we've got six weeks until the primary.

[00:20:41] June 2nd is when we are having the primary. Make sure you vote in the primary. It's so important that you remember that you have to vote in the primary. Um, so this is really ramping up for the final stretch of who's going to be in the gubernatorial election, the general election coming up, uh, in November. And another thing that's coming up in November, I just released a short video about it on Instagram. It's also on YouTube clips over at California Underground News.

[00:21:07] If you didn't see already, they buried deep within the billionaire's tax. And I'll touch upon this really quickly because I think this is important for everyone. Now, that they buried deep within the bill, page 26.

[00:21:25] If you look, there is a provision that says legislative authority, which allows for the legislature by a simple two thirds roll call vote to amend the billionaire's tax after it's already been voted. So this is how it would work is that if the billionaire's tax passes this proposition and becomes a constitutional amendment, they say it is a one time tax. It is one time temporary tax.

[00:21:54] That's how they're selling it. Oh, it's a one time tax. It's a one. We're just going after 5% of the billionaires, the uber rich, which is not true. That is completely a lie because buried deep within the initiative is this legislative authority, which allows the legislature to change and amend it as long as it's within the purpose and stated goal of the billionaire's tax. What does that mean?

[00:22:21] That means anything that would help fund Medi-Cal or Medi-Cal, healthcare, public education. If the legislature finds that they need to amend the bill or the tax act to further those goals, they will. So you think it's a one time tax. And in fact, the legislature is giving themselves a ton of power for in the future. They can change their mind and go, actually, net worth for us now is not a billion dollars.

[00:22:51] Now net worth is anybody above a million dollars. And if you own a house in California, most likely your net worth is going to exceed $1 million. I'm just saying that because I want this. I think everybody knew that. I think everybody who knows and follows California politics knows. There's never such thing as a temporary or one time tax.

[00:23:16] That is one of the most idiotic things to think that, yeah, it's only going to be one time thing. They're only going to do it this one time. Luckily, I think it's caught on now. And I think there's enough people who are raising the alarm on it. And hopefully the people who have the funds to run campaign ads and inform everybody will go ahead and let people know about it. So I wanted to bring that up really quickly. That was a developing story from yesterday.

[00:23:44] Posted a video this morning on Instagram in California Underground News. So you can go check it out. But that's basically the recitation of that. Can you hear me? Yeah, you're fine. Okay. We discussed this a few episodes back. I'm sorry. Like all of my cameras are all off. We talked about this exactly. And, you know, I had made that joke post about the.

[00:24:12] That I forget what the name of that little poem is about. First, they came for the and I made it the California edition. Like first, they came for the billionaires and they came for the multimillionaires. And we talked about how they were going to, you know, you're a billionaire by assets. And I was, you know, we talked about once the billionaires all leave California, then they're going to come for the millionaires who are going to be by assets. I've owned my home for 10 weeks. We closed actually 10 years. 10 years. We closed 10 years ago today. 10 weeks. Congratulations.

[00:24:42] 10 weeks. I didn't notice. So 10 years ago today, we actually closed on the house that I live in now. And mortgage rates were really low back then. Interest rates. Yeah, we're good. And in Orange County. And my home is definitely worth seven figures at this point. And so, um, I'm sorry. Cause I don't, I'm not like saying that braggingly.

[00:25:07] 10 years in, in Orange County, we've, and we've got like a half an acre and a pool and a single story, 3000 square foot home. So it's, you know, you, you can't like, we wouldn't build a Ford this home today if we were trying to buy it in no way. But, um, and that's so concerning because we don't have that money. Like I don't have a million dollars by any means. I don't have half a million dollars, you know, but we have the asset.

[00:25:35] And so that is so alarming and that y'all, we got to get out and vote against this. And just think that that needs to be that we're just going to hammer. I think I had done a video. I think it's on this channel actually about breaking down the billionaire's tax. Um, and if you look at the language of the billionaire's tax, it includes everything.

[00:26:00] So it includes all real estate holdings, all corporate holdings, anything in your trust or estate plan. Basically anything you could possibly own claim to is part of your net worth that California calculates to figure out whether you're a billionaire and taxes at 5%. And they're taxing you on stuff that is not liquid assets.

[00:26:22] So if you own, let's say you're a billionaire who owns a small percentage in a luxury high rise, because that's what you do. You invest in luxury high rises. Your portfolio is very expansive, it's very diverse. And you own a share here, share there. Now all of a sudden, how are you, you got to sell your share of a building, which is complicated.

[00:26:49] You have to share, sell your share of a corporation, which is also not easy to do. Basically, they're asking you to liquefy all of your investments just to pay the state if that's what they're going after. And they're going to, very, very kindly, they're going to give you five years to pay off whatever you owe under this act.

[00:27:16] I mean, it's just like, it's just insane to me that someone thought that this was a good idea. Well, SEIU thought this was a good idea, and they're one of the biggest unions in California. And they endorsed, who did they endorse for governor? Did they endorse Tom Steyer? I don't know if they've endorsed it, because they did endorse Swalwell, but I don't know if they've endorsed someone new.

[00:27:42] I may have been confusing them, because the teachers union had endorsed Swalwell and then quickly switched to Steyer. Like, slow your roll. You don't have the best discernment. But maybe SEIU hasn't endorsed anyone new. I don't know if they have endorsed anyone. I know that Bernie Sanders PAC, our revolution, endorsed Tom Steyer.

[00:28:07] So our revolution, which was no more billionaires, endorsed Tom Steyer, who is a billionaire. We hate white billionaires, unless they're running for governor. Yeah, we hate old white billionaires, except if there are old white billionaires, and then we're fine with it. I don't know. Politics is crazy in that sense that whenever it comes down to power, they'll drop their principles in a flash.

[00:28:34] Anyway, the point of what I'm trying to say is the billionaire's tax is not a one-time tax. It's not a temporary tax. Absolutely. They are trying to backdoor a tax that they can have in perpetuity. I imagine they will use it to try and chip away at Prop 13 if you are someone who owns property.

[00:28:53] I 100% believe that if this passes and you give them this power, this legislative authority, that they will start chipping away at what makes Prop 13 and protecting your property taxes. They will go after that. That will be the next thing because it all is under this umbrella of as long as part of the purpose, the stated purpose of this billionaire's tax, which is to fund basically 80% of the general fund of California.

[00:29:19] Because it's crazy to think that we spend 50% on public education, about 30% on health care. So what does the other 20% go to? Your guess is as good as mine. But we spend a lot on those two things. And if you're saying we're going to do this so we can fund 80% of the general fund, they're going to find reasons to tax you so they can fund 80% of the general fund. That train of nowhere ain't going to build itself. Yeah, definitely is not.

[00:29:49] We should have put that on the ballot. We should have put an initiative on the ballot to end funding for the high-speed rail. Why didn't we do that? Sorry, that's way off track. We got voter ID. I think that's a good start. So, all right. Carl DeMille got that. We have to give him credit. Governors. Governors.

[00:30:16] Speaking of Tom Steyer and gubernatorial candidates, there was a debate last week like we were talking about. There was a debate tonight in Pomona College. I was invited to go and be part of media. I guess we're media now. Camille, we're the media. We have been, though. I opened up with a story. We had media passes at that GOP event with Trump. I was very flattered that someone reached out.

[00:30:45] Someone very nice reached out and said, you know, we'd like to invite you to be part of the media pool for the gubernatorial debate. And I said, that's very nice. And then I looked up how far Pomona College is for me. And I said, that's really far, especially for a school night. It's a little far for me to go all the way up there. I do have a day job. So I can't just get up and go to Pomona College whenever I want. So there was a debate last week. And we're going to watch a little bit of the recap. And we can comment and give our thoughts on it.

[00:31:13] I hope this is the longer clip that I picked. And then there's also the infamous homeless grades. So let's see if this is the correct clip. Mr. Bianco, if you do not finish in the top two on June 2nd, will you endorse your party's nominee? 15 seconds. The only person people who are hurting California are Democrats. It is not Donald Trump. They keep saying Donald Trump because Democrat policies are a dismal failure in California.

[00:31:43] They have nothing to point to. If I'm not going to support my opponent because it's going to be he and I going to November. If so. Okay. Thank you very much. Mr. Hilton, if you do not finish in the top two on June 2nd, will you endorse your party's nominee? Yes. Yes, I will. Because we've had 16 years of one party rule by these Democrats. It's given us the highest poverty rate, the highest unemployment rate, the highest cost of living in America.

[00:32:12] It is obviously desperately time for change in California. It's time for some balance in our system. We have to elect a Republican as governor this year. Ms. Porter, you've acknowledged that your interactions with an aide and with a reporter captured on videos which went viral were, in your words, a bad look and that you could have done better. What have you done to address those concerns?

[00:32:38] And as a person who frequently speaks about being a parent on the campaign trail, what would you tell your own kids if they ever faced a boss like that? You have 60 seconds. Ms. Porter, I apologized that day to that staffer four years ago and I took responsibility then and I have taken responsibility since. You're going to have to take her word for it that she apologized to that staffer on that day four years ago.

[00:33:06] So, if you don't know what she's referring to, it is the infamous get the F out of my shot where she's yelling at one of the staffers. So, that's what she's talking about. Maybe she, but we're going to have to take our word for it that she actually apologized. She said, I mean, they quoted wrong. But they asked, when they asked the question, they said, you acknowledged that it was a bad look. But, yeah, it was a bad look, of course.

[00:33:36] But was it a bad moment? Or was it a normal moment for you, Katie? Yeah. I mean, it's a bad look if you don't know that's Katie Porter behind the scenes. Sure. And we've seen, this isn't the only time we've seen Katie Porter fly off the handle. So, it was kind of that week of the, it was Julie Watts who actually moderated the debate that happened tonight in Pomona College. She was awesome because she was calling everybody out.

[00:34:04] She pressed Katie Porter and Katie Porter lost her cool and like I said, this interview's over and left. So, this isn't the first time we've seen Katie Porter lose her cool. And then that video came out where she told her staffer to get the F out of her shot. So, that's a good point. It was a bad look for people who know or want to vote for Katie Porter. But was it a normal moment for Katie Porter? I think it's probably a pretty regular moment for Katie Porter.

[00:34:35] Just ask her ex-husband who got hot mashed potatoes dumped on his head. Exactly. That it was not the right way to treat someone. And that is a big contrast to what we have seen other candidates do when they have been called out for misconduct. I'm proud that that staffer on that video and I continue to work together for four years. I want to know who she's referring to. Right? I mean, if she's referring to Eric Swalwell...

[00:35:05] I mean, if she's referring to Eric Swalwell, I'm pretty sure he got called out in multitudes by everybody. And he had to drop out and his whole career was over in like three days. I don't know who else she's referring to. What's her point, though, of anybody? Like, this question is to you, Katie. You messed up and we're asking you, what are you doing to take responsibility and accountability for this?

[00:35:33] And, you know, what about your children working for somebody like this? And then she just wants to be like, but other people will... Okay, but we're not talking about other people. And this is your moment to prove to us why you are a good leader. But, okay. Yeah, she just pointed the finger at everybody else. Without naming names, she just said, well, when other people who got called out for bad behavior... It's like, okay, but who are you referring? I'm going to ask you a question. Not right now. Okay.

[00:36:02] But after I realized after tonight's debate that I watched, which I know we're not going to really discuss that debate because you haven't even watched it yet. But I realized Katie Porter is not my least favorite Democrat on the stage. But anyway, I'm not going to ask you the question now. But that was like a realization I had because as much as she drives me crazy and when she starts talking, I want to walk away. I realized she's not my least favorite. So anyway, carry on. Interesting.

[00:36:33] ...for four years following that incident, and it speaks to how I addressed it. Mr. Becerra, you were chair of the Democratic Caucus when Eric Swalwell was elected to Congress. You said in a recent interview that, quote, many of us heard the rumors. What rumors did you hear? And should you have pursued the rumors as a member of Democratic leadership? You have 60 seconds. Thanks, Nikki. Yeah, you hear rumors all the time about all sorts of things. Rumors are not facts. And the...

[00:37:02] Like what? Would you care to elaborate, Mr. Becerra? I would read that book. What rumors do you hear as the chair of the Democratic Ethics Caucus or committee? Huh. And you don't think it's worth looking into if the rumors start to mount and become more and more? Hmm. Interesting.

[00:37:33] Hmm. And the caucus, the Democratic caucus is not a place that adjudicates those things. It's law enforcement that does. If someone had come forward, we could then have investigations. I say that as the former attorney general for the state of California. When I was attorney general, we did go after sex trafficking. We did go after those who abuse of young women and take advantage of them. We did. So just to clarify, he's the chair of the Democratic...

[00:37:59] He was the chair of the Democratic Ethics Caucus. And he heard a lot of rumors and nobody looked into anything. So what's the point of this ethics caucus if nobody's going to look into any claims of impropriety? Or maybe bring it up to law enforcement or investigate? So what's the point of even having a caucus?

[00:38:24] Because if the only thing you can do is wait until law enforcement gets involved, I'm not sure what you... What is the purpose of your... Yeah. What is the purpose of the red flag laws in California? What is the purpose of the homelessness suspending accountability? What is the purpose of so many of these... What is the purpose? These agencies that the far left have created to do nothing.

[00:38:55] It is to look good. That's basically what it is. It's a title to look good. It's money laundering. And notice he pivoted right away as if, you know, he knew that there was rumors, but he said, well, it's not something we would look into. But when I was attorney general... Yeah, we know. Okay. So when you were attorney general, fine, whatever. But when you were the chair of the Democratic Ethics Caucus and you heard all these rumors about Eric Swalwell,

[00:39:26] you did nothing. That's your answer. Your answer is you did nothing. Because I bet if you're the chair of the Democratic Ethics Caucus, and for that matter, I mean, there's Republicans too. I'm sure there's a whole bunch of weird stuff and horrible stuff that goes on in D.C. That's like what Swalwell does. I doubt he's the only person who does this. Absolutely. So... Absolutely. So I think it's just that... I don't think these powerful positions create these monsters.

[00:39:55] I think monsters want powerful positions so they can continue to do what they're doing, but easier. Does that make sense? I truly don't think that Swalwell rose to his position and then all of a sudden became the sick monster. I think he was a sick monster. I realize that he's innocent until proven guilty or whatever.

[00:40:19] But I think that he continued to climb the ranks because it was like, oh, I can get away with more stuff. I can get... Like, oh, I'm protected here. I'm in a position of power here. I can get into more of this disturbing stuff because who's going to question me? Who's going to take me down? Certainly not the chair of the Democratic Ethics Caucus.

[00:40:46] No, because they probably hear rumors all the time and they're just like, whatever. That's what we do here in D.C. Somebody made a comment about Katie Porter that she apologized to the staffer after pouring hot mashed potatoes on her head medieval style. She apologized for throwing hot mashed potatoes on her head. Okay, back to Katie Porter real quick.

[00:41:11] If when she was talking about, like, unlike other people, like, well, wouldn't she want Eric to come out and, like, apologize to these women like an apology is going to do anything? Yeah. They're all kind of doing non-answers. And that's why I like tonight's debate. From what I caught from tonight's debate, I like that the moderators would not let them skate on talking points.

[00:41:39] That was especially the second one. Julie Watts nailed it in the sense of, like, no, no, no, no, we're not pivoting to Donald Trump. She made a comment about how Donald Trump was brought up a thousand times in her interviews with them and in the debates. And she said, if you keep mentioning Donald Trump, I'm going to ban mention of it. You can't talk about Donald Trump. So a lot of these are talking points that they just have rehearsed.

[00:42:05] And you could see that some people got a little flustered when they actually got called out and called to the mat of like, okay, well, explain that. Like, so this is what you stand for. Okay, got it. So it's a no. Got it. Okay. All right, let's keep going.

[00:42:41] Again, I thought this was the party of Believe All Women, right? Isn't this the party of Believe All Women, hashtag Me Too? Like, wasn't, isn't that enough under their old standards of Me Too and Believe All Women that if there's rumors and women who are saying, hey, Eric Swal was doing these horrible things. Maybe you guys should look into it or report it. I don't know. Wasn't that your whole standard? I don't know. Five years ago. Was it five years ago?

[00:43:11] Five, six years ago? I can't remember. Was it before pre-COVID or post-COVID? Was it 2018? I think it was 2018. Okay. So pre-COVID 2018, we're talking about eight years ago. That was your whole thing. Yeah, I don't know for sure. Yeah. I think it was pre-COVID. Anybody in the chat let me know when Me Too was. I think it was. But the point is, it was all Me Too, Believe All Women.

[00:43:34] And now all of a sudden you have someone like Xavier Becerra who's up there saying, well, in today's world, we do these allegations based on facts. We ignore the rumors. And innocent until proven guilty. Okay. That wasn't your line eight years ago. So when did this change? When did it change? Did it change because there was Eric Swalwell and a Democrat was there? Just asking.

[00:44:04] That's not the way we do it in America. We have to have the facts. Rumors are one thing. But getting the facts really gets you to move. And let me just applaud those courageous survivors who stood up and told America what the truth was. And today, Eric Swalwell is facing accountability. There are 187,000 people experiencing homelessness in the state right now.

[00:44:27] In a recent Inside California Politics poll, 86% of those surveyed believe the homeless problem has stayed the same or is getting worse. We want to ask a question about Governor Newsom's performance on homelessness. What letter grade would you give him on handling the issue? I would probably give him a B on homelessness. I don't think this has been an easy problem to solve, but I do give him a lot of credit for calling attention to the problem.

[00:44:54] I'll give him a B on care court and prop one and many of the important initiatives that he championed where I've been proud to stand with him. I'm going to give us all, though, a D on implementation. I would say that you'll see a pattern that none of the Democrats are going to call out Gavin Newsom for the fact that he has utterly failed on homelessness.

[00:45:23] Give him a B on care court and a B on the implementation of prop one, which was six billion dollars in bonds that. Now, over a year later. Nothing's been done. I don't want to keep cross promoting. There is a video on California Underground News, the other channel where I broke this all down about how. It's been over a year, a couple of years.

[00:45:51] And yeah, nothing's been done. They haven't built anything under prop one. There's been absolutely no progress. So for the approval of six billion dollars in bonds, eight billion dollars in bonds. Nothing's been done under prop one. There's been no shelters built. Nothing's happened. So don't know where that money went. And then the implementation of care court. I mean, look into care court. It started as this bold initiative.

[00:46:21] And how many people have they helped? Not as many. It doesn't have the teeth that it needs to have to get people off the street. It doesn't have the power to help people. It's basically a suggestive procedure. And in fact, a lot of parents, sadly, look at care court and go. It didn't do what they expected it to do. They were hoping that it would be able to help their children and get them into some sort of facility that can help their mental illnesses. It hasn't done any of that.

[00:46:48] So to give him a B on care court in prop one. And then all of a sudden I say, well, I'll give us all a D for implementation because we haven't implemented. Okay, well, let's go down the line. You as mayor, Matt Mahan. Sure, you can take blame because you are a mayor. Xavier Becerra was head of health and human services for how many years? Four years. Bad Bianco sheriff. It's not his job.

[00:47:19] Steve Hilton had no power to do anything. I don't know. Tom Steyer is not a public official. Katie Porter was sort of in Congress for a little bit. So who's this D that he's giving it to up and down the stage? Anyway, what are your comments? Oh, I just like what you said. You can continue the video. Okay, let's keep going and see what other grades that they gave everybody.

[00:47:48] I would say that the governor has made efforts. We've seen him come down to Los Angeles, actually go out and try to clean some of the streets. On effort, I would give him an A. Here's what I would do that's different, though. I would focus on accountability. So I'd give the governor a B- on this. And I want to start with a simple statement, which is no one gets well on the street. What I would do is make sure to keep as many people off the street. And if they're on the street, to get them off as fast as possible.

[00:48:18] Just learned the failure. Is that a brilliant new idea? There's too many people on the street. And what I would do is get them off the street as quickly as possible. Tom Steyer is the biggest idiot on that stage. And I keep saying that he is the stupidest person on this stage. And then I said that about tonight's debate, too, where they had two additional people. So this debate that we're watching, six people, Tom Steyer, biggest idiot on the stage.

[00:48:46] Tonight's debate, eight people, Tom Steyer, biggest idiot on the stage. Like, there's too many people living on the street. Yes, everybody knows that. Everybody knows that. What we need to do is get them off the street as quickly as possible. That's what I would do different. Oh, my God, Tom, you are so stupid. I'd edit myself there. Yes. Yes, I don't disagree with you, Tom. What are you going to do? What's the plan?

[00:49:17] That's his plan, though. Get them off the street as quickly as possible. That's the plan, you guys. This is the shorter abridged recap. In the longer version, you can go find it. In the longer version, his answer is that he would give everybody a place to live. He would give every homeless person a room with a key and a roof, which is not work. When I was eight years old, I would have said the same thing, too.

[00:49:44] I wish for all homeless people to have room to live in, and that's what I would give them. When you're playing with your friends and you're talking about, oh, my gosh, if I found a million dollars, because you're eight and you think a million dollars can save the world, and you're like, I would cure world hunger. Yeah, me too, Tom. I would also give everyone a place to stay. I'm sorry he's an idiot. His answer about housing first, housing first does not work.

[00:50:14] It doesn't work in California because it's so expensive to build housing in California at the cost it is. That's a whole separate issue of how expensive it is to build housing in California. And then your solution is because even though housing is really expensive to build in California, what we're going to do is we're going to build housing for every homeless person. That's what we're going to do.

[00:50:39] That's a pie-in-the-sky solution of how you're going to fix homelessness is give everyone a house and give everyone a room. And it hasn't worked out in California. We've tried housing first. We've tried it. It has not worked. So that's his longer answer. You can go see it on YouTube, but that's his solution is, well, we need to give everybody a room and a key and a door and they should be off the street. Wow. Really groundbreaking stuff here, Tom. It's amazing.

[00:51:06] Did you bring this type of ingenuity when you were a how you became a billionaire? Because I'm starting to see how you became a billionaire. He inspires me because I realized after watching this debate, if he is that stupid and can become a billionaire, there's hope for me to become a millionaire. I'm still figuring it out. It just goes to show you, there's not that much big of an intelligence gap between most people and billionaires.

[00:51:35] So Tom Starr inspires all of us that we can all be billionaires one day. All right, let's keep going. Of the failure of the California education system, too, if we can't even realistically assign grades to failure. It is an absolute dismal failure. And anyone that says it's not is fooling themselves or trying to fool voters. I'd love to be in your class, Katie, if you get a B for what Gavin Newsom's done on homelessness. My goodness. Of course, it's an F. It shames our state, the situation with homelessness.

[00:52:04] Ms. Porter, same question. For those who are listening on audio, I apologize. But those who are watching right now, can we all just take a look at the fact that Tom Starr has stupid shoes on? Did you notice that? Can we just all know somebody in his camp said, hey, Tom, I got an idea. Let's make you a 67 year old white man. Try and look more relatable by throwing white sneakers on you for a debate.

[00:52:34] Everybody else is. Dressed. They got shoes on. Nice dress shoes. Even if you don't have a tie on. You got Chad Bianco's got cowboy boots. Hilton's got dress shoes. Everyone's got dress shoes. Tom Starr's got stupid shoes on that like. To go with his stupid brain. I am not apologizing for this. Like, I don't care how mean I sound. That man is stupid. Yeah, I don't. I'm sorry. It's really superficial to pick on that, that he has stupid shoes.

[00:53:03] Um, but it's one of those things of like, it gives you an idea of who is behind him at like advising him about his campaign. Hey, Tom, why don't you put these stupid shoes on? You'll really look cool, man. You'll, you'll connect with the voters that way. It's like. No one's buying that. As you give everyone a room. Everyone a room and stupid shoes. Do you believe that English proficiency, uh, language proficiency should be strictly enforced for truck drivers? You have 60 seconds.

[00:53:30] I would absolutely fight the Trump administration because the job of the California governor is to protect Californians. It doesn't answer the question. It doesn't answer the question. The question is, would you require English proficiency for truck drivers in California? For those that don't know, California issued a bunch of driver's license CDLs to people who were not proficient in English.

[00:54:00] There's a lot of questions about whether or not people were tutoring them to help them get these driver's license. And then you have them on the road and they can't understand signs and there's collisions and people died. And her first answer is I would absolutely fight the Trump administration. Not the fact that there are truck drivers on the road here in California that could run a family off the road because they don't understand the signs in English. That's Katie Porter.

[00:54:30] I don't think she can go one answer without. As far as we know, this isn't a national issue. This is a California issue because the few truck drivers that this happened with have all been California and then couldn't speak English and couldn't understand the signs. And then she turns it into a fight against Trump.

[00:54:56] We're going to if it means fighting against Trump to keep dangerous truck drivers on our highways that puts Californians in danger, then that's what Katie Porter is willing to do. She's willing to put it's like Shrek where Lord Farquaad says, you know, some of you may die, but it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make. That's Katie Porter. Some of you may die with these dangerous truckers out there, but to fight Trump, that's a sacrifice I'm willing to.

[00:55:24] Californians and right now that includes protecting them from Donald Trump. Protecting Californians also includes enforcing traffic laws. And we've seen sometimes a need for oversight in California. For example, we have seen that the Department of Motor Vehicles was not enforcing rules around DUIs and drivers who had convictions for that.

[00:55:44] I am stunned that Mr. Bianco would say to black and brown Californians and immigrants who are being terrorized and racially profiled that you have to get over racism. It's not something that you get over. It's something that you fight. And if he doesn't understand the importance of that, he has no business representing a state with the diversity of California. Ms. Porter, thank you very much. Mr. Bianco, I'll give you 15 seconds to respond. Yeah, again, that's not even close to what I said.

[00:56:10] What I said is we're Californians and I'm speaking for them, especially from law enforcement. When I deal with persons of color every single day, Californians are absolutely sick and tired of our politicians making race the basis of everything. It is not. And this racial divide that they are pushing between law enforcement and the public or Democrat and Republican absolutely has to stop. And I'm telling you, we are sick of it. Okay.

[00:56:40] So that was a little taste of last week's gubernatorial debate. I'm excited to pull clips from this week's. This week's was good. It was very fiery. And hopefully next week my microphone works so we can get on the air actually at our normal time. Any final thoughts before we log off for tonight about the debate or anything? Let me see if there's any comments.

[00:57:07] I'm sure that I had thoughts that left when I fell asleep. No, I'm just kidding. No, I'm still going with Tom Steyer's an idiot. Oh, here's my question. My question that I had for you. Although you still haven't watched fully tonight's debate yet, but of the Democrat candidates, if you can choose your number one favorite.

[00:57:35] And I realize it's not your favorite, but like choose the, if you had to choose one of them to be our governor. Unto your head. Like who's, you don't have to, yeah, like under your head, but you don't have to like rate them all. But I want to know who would be your number one and then your worst. So like if you had to choose one to be our governor and if you could choose one that will definitely not be our governor. Gosh. Okay. Gun to my head.

[00:58:04] Let's say it's like gun to me and my wife's head. Like you have to pick one Democrat. You can't vote for anybody else. It has to be a Democrat. I feel like. You're literally choosing the Democrat for our state. It's up to you. That mayhem might be the okayest. Of all of them. I think. Not Tom Steyer. Last is tough. I think it's harder to pick who I would definitely not want to be.

[00:58:35] Katie Porter, I think would be awful because I think she would just make her whole administration about fighting Trump and just not care about Californians. And if you attacked her, she would just make it a sexist thing and say like, oh, you're attacking the first female California governor. Tom Steyer would be pretty bad, though. I think I saw I read something that Gavin Newsom said Tom Steyer that you actually agree with Gavin Newsom on something. I think he's a Tom Steyer is too incompetent and all over the place to be governor of California. No.

[00:59:05] That's the report. I do agree with Newsom on something because Tom Steyer is stupid. The man is stupid. Like, watch that debate. Watch tonight's debate. That man is stupid. He's not very bright. Yeah, he's not a good politician. I'm not even being articulate on this, which is making me sound stupid. But again, for all those people who are watching right now are listening, I only say Matt Mahan because it's the hypothetical is gun to your head. You have to pick someone. You have to pick a Democrat.

[00:59:35] It would probably be Matt Mahan because I think he looks the most moderate. I think I agree with you. He said some dumb things and I certainly don't agree with everything he says, but he has actually accomplished some things. I feel like he's maybe the least arrogant of them. Like, maybe he's still young enough that he hasn't developed the ego that they have.

[00:59:59] And, um, like, I feel like maybe he's like moldable because he's still like, he would want to please the people and not just the Democrats. I feel like he would like listen, like people would get in his ears because he'd be like, oh, oh, I need to. Okay. Like, I don't know. I feel like he could be like moldable, which is not necessarily the best treat that we want in a governor.

[01:00:21] But if you have to pick from that lineup, it's like, okay, let's get him in there so that we can at least like get some things, you know, maybe he'd be a little more moderate. I think mostly because he's probably the most moderate. He kind of came out tough on crime and homelessness. And he's also run a fairly large city. So he has some executive experience. Katie Porter. I mean, look at what happened with LA.

[01:00:50] Like a congresswoman went to run a big city. And now you're asking a congresswoman to run the entire state. Not going so well in LA. Karen Bass not doing a great job. Tom Steyer. He's kind of an idiot. I think it's just an ego thing for him. He wants to be governor. Xavier Becerra, I think, would just be another corporatist, Newsom, Hillary Clinton stooge and do whatever the national party wants him to do.

[01:01:20] So, yeah, probably Matt Mahan, unfortunately. If it got into my head, that's who I'd pick. Does that answer your question? Someone's going to clip this and say. Someone's going to clip this and be like, Phil from California Underground says he supports Matt Mahan. So, don't clip this. My apologies for asking the question. Who was your answer? Matt Mahan, too, as well?

[01:01:48] Well, I think that he, again, if I absolutely had to choose, I think I would go with him. Um, I'm going with Tom Steyer. He's just the biggest idiot. I can't believe people support him. Like, the fact that he was, like, growing in the polls. I just, why? Who? You guys? I don't. I get that people have different beliefs and values and morals than I do.

[01:02:16] I completely understand that. And that there's going to be, you know, people, people follow. They want Democrat policies. Like, okay, that's fine. You are who you are. But I don't understand wanting an absolute idiot in charge of the state. Like, oh my gosh. I don't understand not seeing how big of an idiot he is.

[01:02:39] Like, that's worrisome for me that people, if he, oh my gosh, Lord help us if he goes to the general. Just. Well, it's going to be tight. Whoever ends up, it's going to be a nail biter on June 2nd. So mark your calendars June 2nd. A lot of people in the chat love Chad Bianco. That wasn't the hypothetical we were playing, but a lot of people like Chad Bianco. That's okay. I mean, sure.

[01:03:07] Let us know who you support for governor. All right. Wait, I'm going to say, because I'm like, I'm going to emphasize this every week until June 2nd. We're like five weeks away from the primaries. We're about a week, 10 days out from receiving mail-in ballots. And that means that the people are going to start mailing them back. They're going to be dropped off. There's going to be drop off locations. We're literally like less than two weeks away from starting to vote. Do not sleep on the primaries.

[01:03:39] There are other candidates who didn't qualify for tonight's debate or last week's debate. There are no party preference candidates. There are other Republicans. There's other Democrats. Be sure to read, you know, your mailers have come. If not, it's online at your local registrar. You just Google it. You can read it up on all the candidates. Again, governor is not the only thing that's going to be on the ballot. Your local elections matter.

[01:04:04] We've got Congress, which is all crazy now after Prop 50 passing. So be sure that you know which district you fall into and who's running for your district. And then, of course, there's Assembly, State Senate, and who knows about like what your local, if your city is possibly doing any elections. And just please, please get out and vote. There's still time to get your friends to register to vote. If you have any children that have recently turned 18, there's time.

[01:04:35] So I have an 18-year-old niece who was just hired at a coffee shop. And she texted today in our group chat. She's like, wait, there's no tax on tips, right? And I said, not in California. And I'm like, please be sure that you're voting. I'm sure she is. But, you know, we're voting in a few weeks. Tell all your friends. She's a senior in high school. Tell all your friends. Get out there and vote. Because California chose to not follow that federal enforcement of no tax on tips.

[01:05:03] And so just who you vote for matters. Vote like your paycheck depends on it. Vote like your single mother neighbor's paycheck depends on it. Because often it does. Because it does. Yeah. Primary is important because too many times I hear so many people complaining by the time they get to November. They go, I don't like anybody who's on the ballot. I don't know. This is all stupid. I'm not voting for anybody. That's all.

[01:05:30] It's like, well, who ends up on the ballot in November has a lot to do with how you show up in June. So just keep that in mind. All right. We've got five weeks. We'll be covering a lot of these gubernatorial debates. A lot of stuff coming up, as always. It's going to be a busy year.

[01:05:53] So again, thank you everyone for hanging out with us and waiting up for your hour late again, microphone issues. I didn't want to come on here and do cheap audio through my AirPods or something like that. So thank you everyone for hanging out with us tonight. We will be back next Tuesday, probably covering the gubernatorial debate from this week and whatever other stories we need to talk about. So the best thing you can do is make sure you like, share, subscribe, review.

[01:06:22] All of that stuff helps with the algorithm, helps more people find us. And the best thing you can do that is 100% free to support the show is let someone know about it. Tell them to join you on Tuesday nights at 8 p.m. Join us in the chat and we will see you on the next one. Later, everybody. Bye.