The Audacity of Pope

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On today's show, we'll talk about J.D. Vance's global face plant from Budapest to Islamabad, Trump's new ploy to reopen the Strait of Hormuz by blockading it, his new war with the Holy Father, and his blasphemous depiction of himself as an AI Jesus. How's that for a sentence? This fucking what a stupid era.

Then we'll get into the big news in the California governor's race as horrific sexual assault allegations end Eric Swalwell's campaign in his time in Congress. We'll also talk about the latest encouraging sign for Democrats Senate hope. Gotta throw some good news in there, right? Then Love It sits down with our pal Nithya Raman, the LA City Council member who launched a last minute surprise challenge to Karen Bass about why she's running for mayor on a very yimby platform. Hm. How's that? Yeah.

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Uh all right, let's get to the news. J.D. Vance and his New York real estate duo did such a bang up job negotiating with the Iranians in Islamabad this weekend that Trump has ordered a naval blockade of all Iranian ports in the Strait of Hormuz. and might resume military strikes, according to the Wall Street Journal. The twenty-one hours of direct talks between the US and Iran broke down over some eh minor stuff like the uh fate of Iran's nuclear program, control of the Strait of Hormuz.

Nothing big. Uh, Vance, who is just absolutely crushing uh his audition as future world leader. sandwiched a a quick statement about the failure of the talks in between stumping for Hungarian loser Viktor Orban, and watching silently as the moral and spiritual leader of his church was insulted and attacked by his boss, the president.

Here's Vance in Islamabad. We've had a number of substantive discussions with the Iranians. That's the good news. The bad news is that we have not reached an agreement, and I think that's bad news for Iran much more than it's bad news for the United States of America. It's quite a good news, bad news. Uh Right.

You know, no one's talking about how it's the first time I think since the Iranian regime took power that we sat down for face to face talks. It's like, yeah, why did that happen? Because you bombed the shit out of them and now they're holding the global economy hostage. It's um It's not good news if you've had talks and then the bad news is that the talks failed, insofar as it's not good news if your plane flies almost all the way to your destination and then crashes.

It's just that mountain at the end. Right. Inputs, outputs. How other than that, how is the play? Yeah kind of a situation. Uh anyway, well while while Vance was in Islamabad uh trying to negotiate and failing, uh Donald Trump was monitoring the situation uh with his Secretary of State and other important figures. Let's take a look. You look so good. But two good looking fighters. You are subfighter. Thank you, man. So there's Donald Trump in Miami hitting on US C fighters.

It goes on. He tells that guy he's hot like two or three times. He is hot. I'm glad he's confident. Nice nice to see a kind of non toxic version of masculinity on display. A man can admire another man being attractive without a Resorting to You know, sexual innuendo. That's how I feel. Mm-hmm. That's how I feel about it in the middle of a high-stakes negotiation over the future. Boil your wrestling match.

One thing for Donald Trump to be there, uh, which is bad enough, but we don't expect much of Donald Trump. Very weird that the Secretary of State. And national security. And national security advisor, and I realize he's from Florida, but like just his hanging out with hanging out with Trump in Miami at a UFC fight, you gonna get anything better to do, Marco? That's ridiculous. Why isn't Rubio a part of these talks? Why isn't he leaving the? Probably'cause he wants to stay out of it.

A lot too much Islamabad. And he's like, yeah. Things are going from Islam about to Islam worse. He's like remember I'm the guy who got Maduro. Yeah. I did that other war.

Uh so Trump claimed Monday morning that actually the Iranians just asked for another round of negotiations. So who knows? Fans didn't seem quite as forward leaning on that during the Fox interview as as Trump did. Uh But um why do you guys think JD Vance, uh the closer, as he's known to no one, um Couldn't get it done in uh in Islamabad, Tommy.

Uh I three problems as far as I can tell. One, uh both sides seem to think or at least say they are winning, two, trust, and then three just major major substantive differences, especially the Straight or Humus and Iran's nuclear program.

I think in terms of like the who's winning question, obviously the US is winning every military battle as we often do, but we are losing the broader economic war. Uh and the Iranians know that they can just kinda wait it out and continue to increase the economic pressure.

And then on trust, I mean the US we don't trust the Iranians, but the Iranians don't trust Trump for good reason. He pulled out of the JCPOA and then uh we and Israel have bombed them the last time we've been having talks, so there's not a lot of goodwill. Literally kills the people that we talk to sometimes.

Do more bombing. Yeah. And then the substance like Trump wants the Strait of Hormoes open, the Iranians want to de facto control it and charge a fee. And then the nuclear program Um the US position was reportedly end all nuclear enrichment, dismantle uh enrichment facilities and hand over the highly enriched uranium stockpile.

And taking that position going into the talks was doomed to fail because Iran has repeatedly rejected those um those positions and asserted their rights to peaceful civilian nuclear enrichment. Um, it sounds like they might have proposed a middle ground that was a twenty year halt on enrichment activities, which is interesting because we were always told the JCPOA was really awful because there was a 10 year sunset. Now they proposed a 20 year sunset. Um but we

Obviously, so if they took it they could say, Well, we doubled the Obama deal. Exactly. But the Iranians, we've all seen their ten point wish list. It's like Control the Strait of Hamous, sanctions relief, get the US bases, close them down in the Middle East. So um I think the Iranians think Trump's gonna get bored of this. He's gonna taco, he's gonna give up. And meanwhile, the Iranians are like, we literally have nowhere else to go. So see you next time.

Uh love it Trump did say, um, right as the negotiations were about to happen, the Iranians don't seem to realize they have no cards other than a short term extortion of the world by using international waterways. The only reason they are alive today is to negotiate. Regardless of what happens, we win. We've totally defeated that country. Do you think that set the negotiations up for success?

I like I was struggling with this just like watching all this unfold, like, okay, so Vance is going to Islamabad for high stakes negotiations. Oh no, the negotiations have fallen apart and now we're doing a blockade. But wait, the no the negotiations are back on and it's all in like we're allowing like Trump's attention span to like describe what's happening and and like

Oh, you didn't resolve this intractable situation in twenty-one hours? Of course you didn't. Oh, people have walked away, but then are gonna maybe reapproach the negotiating table. Like that's how these So Subaru dealer. Two years to get the open. Right. You're not trying to get to like a a a a clean like lease lease terms where you roll it all in on the front end. Like it's a complicated negotiation. There should be kind of complexities that take time.

To unwind, like, oh, it's a stalemate. Wait, we're back on. And now we're blockading. Like, I don't know, like who knows what the actual like strategic logic is of a blockade. But if anything, it just shows that clearly they feel as though

They need a deal that's better than what Obama got out of Iran. But because we fought a war, we have created all these conditions that if that require us to give on all these other things. They have to be in some way compensated or the consequences of the war have to be dealt with.

And so what do you have to do to get to a better deal? You have to find some other place to ratchet up to pressure and make it harder for Iran to walk away from a deal. All just to me seems like maybe it'll work, but it's an admission against interest. The New York Times helpfully reminded us of uh what Trump said during one of those Easter events a couple of weeks ago about J. D. Vance going. He said, If it doesn't happen, I'm blaming J D Vance. If it does happen, I'm taking full credit

Honestly, like that's where he's great. I know. I completely look I look as as as I say to the team at Love It or Leave It, I cannot fail, I can only be failed, and I kind of respect that ethos from Trump. D a double fail though from JD Vance uh after after his little rally in Budapest. Yeah. It didn't cost a while for it.

And he said that on on Fox News. He was like, Look, we d we can read polls. We didn't think that Victor was gonna run away with it. He's on a first name basis with them. He's like, But you know, sometimes you just do what's right, which is stumping for an authoritarian in Eastern Europe, I guess.

Also, remember a couple of weeks ago when uh I think it was Scott Besson said we were jujitsuing Iran by lifting sanctions on them to increase global supply. Yeah, what about the city? Now we're blockading the strait ourselves.

Well let's talk about the blockade. Uh Trump announced it shortly after Vance's uh bad news announcement, which uh the military then had to explain is not a blockade of all ships entering or leaving the Strait of Hormuz, as Trump initially said, but a blockade of Iranian ports. Trump also said that other countries would be joining us, but once again that hasn't happened yet either, though Israel approves. Uh tons of questions about what all of this actually means I was like... Two BBs.

Even Israel's like, are they helping with the blockade? No, but they're like, Go for it. We like it. Keir Starmer's like, We're not getting dry. Um tons of questions about what all this actually means, which Trump attempted to answer on Monday morning in the most natural setting. A press event where a self-described DoorDash Grandma knocked on the door of the oval to deliver the president McDonalds. Here's how it went. Do you think that men should play in women's sports?

I really don't have another pin. Субтитры сделал DimaTorzok You don't, I'll bet you do. Yeah, but Thank you. Well you're really nice. Would you like to do a little news conference with me? These are not the nicest people. They're not nice like you. You know that, right? I'll do whatever you ask me to do, sir. Iran will not have a nuclear weapon and we're gonna get the dust back. We'll get it back either. We'll get it back from them or we'll take it. Your anticipation, Mr. President.

Countries will Yeah, other countries are gonna also Countries. We don't need other countries, frankly. Does your threat from before still stand? Yeah, I don't want to comment on that, but it won't be pleasant for them, let me put it that way. Worst delivery ever. Can you imagine like, hey sir, here's your McDonald's. What do you think about men playing women's sports? He's like I I don't know but I can you you just I have to take a picture of this in front of the door.

So I'm I'm not really wanna I don't wanna talk about trans, but I do need to take a picture of this so just for the app to get this through the app. Press conference? Fuck, this guy won't DoorDash Grandma is sorry, sorry, like uh it's a very dystopian, kind of sad concept, this poor woman being just like Forced to do deliveries? I don't know. Maybe she enjoys it. Hopefully but it made me sad. The whole thing made me sad.

You told just you you sort of shake someone awake in two thousand eleven and you're like, Donald Trump's gonna be president, he's pretending he's Jesus and accepting McDonald's delivery at the Oval Office while uh talking about blockading the straight up hard moves. You're like, What are that's a joke? That's a thirty rock thing. What the fuck are you talking about? No one believes that. It's not possible.

Well, so what is happening with the with the s with the Strait of Hormuz right now in this naval blockade? Anything getting through? What's happening? So it sounds like where the US is gonna blockade all Iranian ports and then Iranian linked ships, not just flagships, but ones that US Intel says are Iranian ships. I think ships going to non Iranian ports will not be stopped. So

Basically, the way this works is there's like 15 US warships in place. Uh the US Abraham Lincoln is the aircraft carrier. That's kind of like the base of operations. They have these um Navy amphibious assault ships that will deal like with interdictions and boarding along with helicopter assets. And then you got the big ass guided missile destroyers, which we'll like.

you know, block things and push them in one direction or the other and also do missile defense because they have all the um missile defense systems on them, then there's some sort of like mind sweeping and mind hunting operations that'll happen. And so the the question I have is Is the US going to be providing escorts to all the friendly ships? Because the average

The average number of ships through the strait before this was a hundred and thirty a day. That's a lot of ships. That's a lot of escorts. Um and this is risky even during the ceasefire'cause like there's apparently the Iranians have lost. Landmines? Not landmines. They're naval mines that are in the street or homoos. Where we put it. You know what they put'em, you never know like what?

Yeah, with some IRGC guy might fire off a a rocket or a drone. But if the conflict restarts, like I don't really see how this works because like it's not just about the US being able to defend the ships, it's commercial shipping owners and captains being willing to go through the strait while they're getting fired at. Yeah, i so you have also Trump threatening to blow up ships the way that they've blown up ships in the the drug ships in Venezuela.

That's obviously indefensible in war crimes, but those are at least ostensibly or their claim is that they're talking about ships that have drugs on them. This is just about commercial vessels that they're now threatening to blow up as well. Then on top of that, like

Think I think the threat was for like because Iranian the Iranian Navy uh has been destroyed accord according to uh president, but that like if um ships are going through like small their smaller ships or their drones could still launch attacks. Yeah. Well, there's I mean, he said multiple things. That's one thing he said. He was talking about the small attack ships. He also made a separate point about going after any ships that try to violate the blockade.

I look I hope that he I have no he's he's completely unclear and the military's been clarifying it. We have no idea what he fucking means. We don't know how this is gonna be uh implemented. I hope that that's what he means, but it's not clear that if a ship is Uh uh not listening to a US. Right. Like who knows? And then the other part of it is

Are we now saying that that we're gonna have the the US military board ships that may be hostile? Like this is also something that sets up a possibility of a whole t bunch of horrible contingencies.

Troops being grabbed, people getting hurt, people dying in accidents, because boarding a ship in the fucking sea that doesn't want to be boarded is a complicated endeavor. Like who knows where this is going? It's all like it all puts him in a position if he wants to escalate and resume bombing and claim it's because of uh some uh uh incident that took place on the seas. Like it's just a it's a dangerous thing to be pursuing without really understanding why we're doing it.

Yeah, he's known to be uh a bit imprecise in his language. The military said it was what what the latter thing you said, which is that uh For the blockade, it's about them stopping and trying to board any vessel. Of course, that does raise the question like What happens when it's a Chinese vessel that's trying to uh bring oil to Iran or an Indian vessel? Like what are w

And the Chinese said, We're coming. Right. We have contracts and we're gonna go get that oil. And by the way, like the problem is once you start operating the straight over moves, it's twenty one miles that it's like sort of uh the The narrowest choke point. But the Iranians can fire missiles and drones from like anywhere along their coast. And your reaction time to respond to that with missile defense is nothing. So this is getting real risky.

And just so people understand like the purpose of the blockade,'cause I don't know if I explained it. Um by block by having a blockade of all uh Iranian ports, the idea is Iran like has to get ri get its oil exported uh out to the people who are buying it, um, through all of its ports. And if it can't do that, then Iran's gonna lose like billions and billions of dollars. And that is and obviously that is how they get most of their It's like half their I think oil and gas revenue is through the

Straits. It's through the straits. And and if so if you're blocking all the Iranian ports, they can't get anything in, can't get anything out, and that's how um it it also, by the way, like It could continue to squeeze the Iranian economy, but it's also going to raise oil prices everywhere else because

the or you know, the rest of the world, uh and the the oil prices uh around the rest of the world depend on um Iranian oil to some extent. So in the in the short term it's also gonna raise oil prices for everyone else as well as squeezing uh around itself. And the question is like, will um can the Iranians uh take the pain more than the rest of the world and and us here in the United States, uh, who are very sensitive to higher gas prices. And so far they've shown yes.

What are you trying to get out of a deal? that Iran is not currently willing to give you, but that they will give you after two to three to four to five weeks of pressure from a blockade. And like we just don't know. Maybe may maybe that is known to them. Maybe they have some sense of what they're trying to achieve, but nothing public has made clear what their what the like what the point of this pressure is, other than just to get to some sort of a deal, I guess.

Yeah, it seems like their idea is squeeze the Iranian economy even more so that either suddenly there is a popular uprising because now we're not bombing them anymore and people are so upset. Right. It's crazy crazy. And that uh and so this will and then the leadership will say, okay, let's just make the deal and let's give up Let's give up the dust.

And uh and make the promises and give them what they want on on nukes and I guess op reopen the strait and then maybe lift economic sanctions for the Iranians as well. And that's that's the that's the JD Vance Donald Trump view of this. The dust is what he gave Justin Trudeau before he went off to Burning Man. Or uh sorry, Coachella. Is that not that's it wrong?

Did you hear JD Vance say, um he's talking about uh the the nuclear material on repair and he knows of course that it's called enriched uranium. Like he understands all this, but he has to go as some people call it, dust. Yeah, one person. One person calls it dust, you fucking idiot. And this whole idea that right, it there is a question of like what does the blockade do? the ability f to have revenue to

Run the government. But yeah, the idea that people are gonna rise up again, like the IRGC has all the weapons, the besieged militia has all the weapons, the Iranian people have nothing. Well the other and you've been bombing them. There's a history of blockades is it usually hurts the people more than it hurts the regime that that's directed towards.

I would also say also just and on top of that, I do think on some on some level it is about making the pain uh making the pain felt outside of Iran too, to make other people uh feel as though they were um kind of dragged into this conflict. Force the Chinese to pressure them or something, yeah.

Spokesman for Iran responded to the blockade on Monday by calling it an attack on the global economy and asking, is it ever worthwhile to cut off one's nose to spite one's face? Trump doesn't seem too bothered by it. He's a fan of cutting off his nose to spite his face. Um here he is talking to Maria Bardaromo on Sunday morning. Yeah. A lot of fish. Durham spited faces spite. Spit it. Do you believe the price of oil and gas will be lower before the midterm election?

I hope so. I mean I think so. It could be, it could be or the same or maybe a little bit higher. Can I just say It's so funny. Before It's the full range. At some point did someone tell Maria Bardoroma, Hey, you know, we can attach a love to your shirt and you can speak naturally. She's no boom across the room and I'll keep shouting at it for no fucking reason. You can have to shout. It's crazy.

She's like a real boomer with just the T V on constantly and when you walk into the I also just like I the the idea that like the Iranian regime is posting these sort of like um uh uh uh Confucius like sayings about revenge, like lowering their head and saying before embarking on a campaign of revenge. Dig two graves. It's more than I can take from these people. I will say that. Along with some Lego movies. They they got us with the Lego game. Got us. For sure.

Um, I was talking to someone today who who does uh works in an organization that does a ton of polling and research on Trump and US politics and whatever, and they have consistently, like on a weekly basis. And he said this is the first time Trump's approval has moved significantly in years, literally. It was like as we've all seen public polls, rock solid at like forty three percent approval.

Always, right? It like moved a little around Butler, moved a little around the Alex Predi shooting. Now it is in a straight line that is going down, and it looks like Joe Biden's approval a month after the Afghanistan withdrawal, which we all remember, essentially ended his president. And so maybe it'll come back, but it just seems like the the energy shock is just getting started. Oil prices are back up.

Uh and Trump seems to think, as you said earlier, he seems to think that he's like, ah, whatever, we j we drill our own oil. You know, we'll be fine here. Uh it's a global market. And then the Financial Times today uh had a report out where it said that US crude exports will be up about a third this month and demand from Asia is also increasing. So that's gonna put upward pressure on all the prices here. It's like it it's gonna hurt.

It also has already hurt. It has not like the real pain hasn't hit yet. Unfortunately analysts keep saying this. And we're getting very close to that point where it's like you can look at the oil futures all you want, but like the actual physical manifestation of the oil futures is about to hit. Um, and I remember when we were in the White House, uh, David Plough would always say, gas prices?

are a a a hit to the entire enterprise. Yep. It like the whole thing could collapse. Like the whole political project could collapse on gas prices. And that's when they went up like, I don't know, a dime, five cents here and there. This is I mean... You know, uh the uh the Parliament speaker, uh Galabath that um uh negotiated with JD Vance, he said soon you'll be nostalgic for four to five dollar gas. Uh as he's been

Also on the on the Iranian point, I know uh someone I was talking to today reminded me that Iran um prepared for this by taking a bunch of oil and placed it in tankers outside of the Stray Oharmuz. They have something like a hundred and thirty million barrels. Kind of sitting an anchor in various places. So at current prices, that is$18 billion. So that's a nice little cushion for the

You know what's funny about that is that they prepared for this. Yeah. But um the United States, which is the one that launched the war on its own timetable, its own decision making, uh, did not refill the strategic petroleum reserve ahead of uh Trump launching the. Only sixty percent full.

It's almost as if Bibi and Pete Hegseth uh uh persuaded Trump that this would be faster and easier than it actually was. Yeah, if it's looking like'cause at Vance we were watching Vanceer before we came in here and he made he said, uh, you know, look, uh obviously gas prices being up is bad, but

We were we had such a low benchmark and we were doing so good and it's not nearly as bad as it was under Biden. And it is true there was a moment during the Biden administration where gas prices shot up to uh higher than they are now, I think five dollars on average, so higher in in in more expensive places.

Um and that I think actually was the rising of prices, including gas prices, into the Afghan withdrawal that probably were the one-two punch that kept Biden below uh in the low approval for the rest of his presidency. Uh but right now, today, gas prices are higher than they ever were after that. Right now. And there's no hope that they're gonna or at least we don't expect them to go down between now and the election. So it's just not true.

Voters historically more sensitive to price increases than they are even to job losses. And within the realm of price increases, there's nothing that people are more sensitive to than gas. And they have eyeballs and they see them everywhere. They are posted. Pod Save America is brought to you by Uplift Desk. You know, John, Tommy, and I share an office and we all switch to Uplift Desk. And I'll be honest, I was skeptical.

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Remain a vibrant resource for our economy and a vital sanctuary for our environment for generations to come. So Trump was also asked, uh, with DoorDash Grandma by his side whether he regretted the holy war he's decided to launch against the Catholic Church, the world's largest Christian denomination that includes more than 50 million Americans.

The background here is that Pope Leo has been speaking out with increasing frequency about the church's opposition to Trump's brutal treatment of immigrants and his war of choice in Iran, which reportedly led to a meeting where a Pentagon official allegedly berated the Pope's outgoing ambassador to the U.S.

Always a good thing. Uh it also led to a sixty minute segment Sunday night where the three most powerful American cardinals, uh, who were close with the American Pope, spoke bluntly about the church's issues with Trump on war and immigration. Uh the president

was watching uh sixty minutes, uh, because right afterwards he posted a lengthy tirade that read in part, quote, Pope Leo is weak on crime is a sentence that I will think about. It it was like I was shocked, but I also couldn't stop laughing, thinking about it. Well David Axelrod. Weak on crime, weak on nuclear weapons, and uh and wrong for America. With David Axelrod. Yeah. Talk I I just talked to Axe today about it. Um it seems wild. Yeah, I'm trying to get like a

Like a you know a rabbi and a a rabbi and a priest walk into a bar in Chicago, you know? Have you ever had have you ever had ham? No. Have you ever had sex? No. Oh, you gotta try ham. You know? I did ask ask axe if he brought um if he brought the Pope uh Manny's as a as like an interfaith offering. Oh that's

But I guess they didn't meet in Chicago. They didn't meet in Chicago. Anyway, uh he also war uh the Trump also warned the Holy Father to quote get his act together. Okay. Uh and he tr and he took credit for Leo's selection. As the supreme pontiff of the universal church. That is that is Trump's doing. Um For good measure, Trump also posted an AI image of himself as Jesus healing the sick. Did you just say like no? But yes, he really did.

It's why I mean I would love to just uh we should have done a whole we could do like a whole video on just uh going through the actual Actual image'cause it is it's an AI slop image for sure. Yeah. A lot in there. There's a lot of confusing things in there. But what you really need to know, Trump, Jesus, healing a s a sick man in bed who could pass for Joe Biden. Jeffrey Epson. Yeah, even more Jeff. I thought it was Jeffrey Epstein. I just look a divorce

It also looks like there's like a demon behind him and maybe some G.I. Joe's. I thought they saw a ninja turtle maybe. Like a ninja, definitely. Anyway. Um so uh the the pontiff was was asked about all of this on Sunday night. Uh here's what he said. I have no fear, neither the Trump administration nor speaking out loudly about the message and the gospel. And and that's what I believe I am called to do, what the church is called to do. Blessed are the peace be.

I do not look at my role as being political or politician. I I don't want to get into a debate with him. I don't think that the message of the gospel is meant to be abused in the way that some people are doing. Too many innocent people are ethyl and I think someone has to stand up and say there's a better way to put this. The Pope was also asked uh directly about the post and uh he did say that um Truth Social was an ironic name for the Not wrong.

I love just just a pope in just just Chicago English. It's so uh it's so strange. Surprising. The first American Pope, truly American. Yeah. Do we think he I thought to say what kind of oh he cares about uh the least among us, what's he flying? What's it? Just give it a little bit. エメロサ!エメロサ! Marxist. Pope. Pope sitting next to some piker in in Delta One. Uh here's what Trump had to say for himself when he was with DoorDash Grandma. Which is what he calls Melania.

Yeah. I think he's very weak on crime. and other things. So I'm not I mean he m he went public. I'm just responding to Pope Leo. There's nothing to apologize for. He's wrong. Uh the other thing is he didn't like what we're doing with respect to Iran. Did you post that picture of yourself depicted as Jesus Christ? Well it wasn't depiction. It was me. I I did first it and I thought it was me as a doctor.

and had to do with Red Cross as a Red Cross worker there which we support. I just heard about it and I said, how do they come up with that? It's supposed to be me as a doctor making people better. And I do make people better. I make people uh a lot better. That's such a funny lie. So many doctors. Just a healthcare provider.

Dressed as Jesus. It's it's one of those lies that I'm like, why why does anyone even spend time on it? Anyone with eyes knows that it's not even JD J D Vance was asked about it when we were watching Fox just now. What what a couple answers from him on this. First of all, he said um the whole thing was not newsworthy. Uh the president of the United States.

picks a very public fight, attacking the Pope, the Bishop of Rome, as weak on crime and weak on nuclear, and warns him to get his act together. JD Vance says it wasn't newsworthy. Uh he said that of the AI Jesus, Trump was just joking. so it wasn't meant to be a doctor Yeah, he's got a good thing.

And people don't get Trump's sense of humor. And it's good that he posts his own stuff on social media and then it doesn't go through a filter of, you know, press assistants and people who work for him and everything else, because it's good that he speaks directly to people. He also said that uh the Vatican should stick to matters of morality.

Not the policies of the most powerful nation on earth as it retains to war, which is like I guess you mean like what? Like just no divorces in the rhythm method? Like it's just basically all that they want. It's so revealing that he said that. And I was I was like I was thinking about this even before he said that is is is to to J D Vance and to a lot of the right wing

Catholics and especially evangelical Christians in this country, issues of morality are issues of personal morality. And so that is why for so long they have been focused on abortion and sexual orientation. And what Pope Leo and Pope Francis before him have revealed is that the core of Catholic social teaching is about matters of war and peace, is about

preferential option for the poor is about treating immigrants with dignity and respect and valuing life. And I think Um, that is all more explicitly mentioned in the Bible and the New Testament and from Jesus' mouth than anything uh related to abortion or sexual orientation or any of the other uh personal morality issues that the that have become political in the United States. Thomas Aquinas over here. I'm like yeah, AI bad. Yeah. The uh I'm Protestant.

Not since uh Henry VIII has a divorce slob. Felt that the Pope the Pope had overstepped his bound, but at least he didn't b at least uh at least Henry VIII didn't bury Anne Boleyn on a golf course. Yeah. you know what i'm saying? Yeah.

We're talking about Trump picking fight with uh uh Muslims, which he has, obviously. There was the whole Muslim ban in the United you know, also in the United States. He's very viciously attacked Muslims in the United States. Um talked about uh dual loyalty and has said plenty of anti-Semitic things about Jews in the United States. Twenty twenty percent of the country are Catholic in the United States of America. Is it that much? Wow.

I know that. And over fifty million Catholics in the United States. So there's a lot of Catholics. There's a lot of Catholics. Yeah, it does politically this feels worse. I mean, remember, this is not his first big flight fight with a Pope. Remember, he tweeted about Pope Francis. If and when the Vatican is attacked by Isis, which as everyone knows is ISIS's ultimate trophy. Oh my god.

I can promise you that the Pope would have only wished and prayed that Donald Trump would have been president because this would not have happened. Remember that one? I forgot about it that's a wild one. This one feels bad though politically. Just like first of all, just like mood music. Like things are a little rocky for Trump, especially with his far right followers. Like

I I don't know if you and Dan covered the op ed length screed attacking Meg Megan Kelly, uh Tucker Carlson, Candace Owen, Dallas Jones from last week's. Yeah. Trump's biggest supporters are not in the mood to defend him and it also comes right after the um the Easter tweet where he offended a lot more Christians by uh tweeting close the fucking straight and place praise Allah on Easter. Yeah, he he offended Christians and Muslims in one tweet.

Over the I started a little holy war there. Um, and then, you know, it is an American Pope. It's just like, what are you doing, dude? Yeah, he posted a picture of himself as the Pope in May of last year and I I do think that like he said Sh he's done moment like you said with Francis, he's done this before. I actually think he's just doing it at a time in which he actually no longer seems kind of tough and blustery, but it just seems sort of sweaty.

And so he's getting attacked from like peop people that would previously have never said a word about something like this and would have done what Vance did and say, oh, he was just kidding around. That's our president. That's our big boy. But instead they're actually saying what they think.

Yeah, like I if you guys listened to the full forty five minute um Tucker Carlson monologue attacking the Easter tweet that led into a broader Iran critique, it actually started by pointing out that Trump did not put his hand on the Bible when he was sworn into office. I hadn't realized that. I didn't realize that. Yeah, I miss that. And it really it built to an argument basically that Trump thinks he's got.

And is thinks he has godlike powers uh and that that is wrong and evil. Um and it's also it's kind of like kicking up a debate again about whether Trump is mentally well. I mean, he was asked this at a press event the other day. Like people, hey sir, people think you're crazy. What do you think? And my view on that is um he's been like this forever. Yeah. Yeah, I just I listen. It it didn't make sense when I saw it as a kid, but as I get older, stupid is as stupid does.

You know? I think he I think watching the 60 Minutes segment is what obviously that is what set him off and there's been reportings like this. Um but it is worth Watching everyone, Nora O'Donnell uh does a pretty great job talking to uh the three cardinals, the uh Archbishop of Washington, Chicago, and New York. And I mean, they w they accused the White House of gamification of warfare, calling the administration's videos um

Uh the the snuff videos uh sickening. Um quote we're deh Cardinal Kubic, uh we're dehumanizing the victims of war by turning the suffering of people and the killing of children and our own soldiers into entertainment.

Um, Cardinal Tobin called ICE a lawless organizations. They they hide their identities to terrify people. I mean, it was just it went on and on and on. And I think that for Trump, when he hears that, he's like, Oh, this is a personal attack, and I get to I get to hit back just like anything else. But it's like What they are revealing is that it's not just Trump's own personal morality, but like his entire political agenda is incompatible with not just.

Christian Christianity and Catholic social teaching, but like most of the world's major religions. Because it is like based in like'cause they are based in empathy and compassion and grace. And and banning abortion, which he kind of already gave them. So we're on the other side. He gave them a pretty big win, and now they're turning on.

The side note, not as important. Interesting that sixty minutes aired that piece, given all the concern that Barry Weiss would be spiking anything kind of c critical of Trump. So I guess good that that made it through. Anthony Christ broke this story. Yes. He broke the story about uh them saying that they're gonna get the papacy back to Avignon. Yeah.

Okay. So like it on the on the politics of this, I mean, I don't know if it'll do lasting damage. Like I a lot of Catholics might be like, Yeah, it was weird. He deleted it, but he overturned Roe versus Wade. So like we're good. But it is interesting, I think, that once again

the anger and the criticism falls into the character values bucket. This isn't like he didn't give us the tax credit or let us like be mean to the the you know, the cake artist who won't make a LGBT like wedding cake or whatever. It was like There's people on Truth Social saying this is desecration. Trump is the Antichrist. Trump thinks he's God.

I've heard from people who who like they have mag relatives who are like, this was it. This they were done. This was'cause it's not it's the the the extremely political types who like their first issue even more than their Catholicism is abortion is one thing, like you were saying. But I think for most Catholics, when you start attacking the Pope like that and then you put yourself as AI Jesus, like that is a pretty

It's it's pretty bunch. It's pretty blasphemous. Yeah. You know? And it is it's very Trump too, because with Islam and Judaism, like there's like Ca Catholicism has a head of the church. And so there is someone, there is like a a person who can be a threat to Donald Trump, who is a moral leader around the world. He's not used to that. Yeah. He's used to just being like, see, that per that politician, like They're just as bad as everyone else.

Look, not the first not the first leader also just to think that like, Oh, what could the Pope do? He doesn't have any armies or anything. The uh I do wonder if maybe could you know Trump could maybe like go on the road to Kenosa and then walk all the way to the castle and then take his shoes off and then beat on the doors for a few days until the Pope lets him in and then he can apologize and then the Pope would absolve him and then he could go back to um

Uh leading the Holy Roman Empire. Empire. What about that? I think that's a good idea. That's really good. Did you see uh the other interesting thing before we move off on the on the CBS on the sixty minutes thing is that the Pope is has decided to spend the Fourth of July in Lampedusa, um, uh which is the Italian island where uh tens of thousands of migrants have landed. And um on their way to Europe and you know, Nora asked if that was symbolic and they were like, Yeah, of course.

No, no, they have great spritzes there. It's beautiful because it's on the coast. It's on the it's on the the waters the water's really chill on that side of it. Your hair doesn't get curly. And it it's like what a contrast with, you know, J Donald Trump celebrating July fourth with what he's gonna do. It's bac and all of like literal violence, like UFC matches.

And he's m meanwhile welcoming migrants to the shore, which is what you know, this as as one of the cardinals said, which is what the Statue of Liberty is supposed to represent. Yeah. Yeah. My it's he's like I say, he's my road. What's it called like the road home or so it's taking the long road back to back to Catholicism. Know about Catholicism up to the Reformation. It's a it is a t it's the it's gonna really ruin the book tour for Gan. It's uh what is it called? Uh Yeah. Yeah.

Oh communion finding my way back to faith. He found his way back. Yeah. How many books about themselves is that guy gonna write? Jesus Christ. Pod Save America is brought to you by Mill. I never thought I'd be excited about food scraps. I did. Until we got a mill at the office kitchen. It's changed how we manage food waste here at Cricket HQ. Mill is the odorless, effortless, fully automated food recycler, potato peels, avocado pits, chicken bones, even dairy.

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All right, let's get to the big development here in the California governor's race. Eric Swalwell, who was one of the leading candidates, has dropped out. after four women accused the congressman of sexual misconduct, including a former staffer who has offered a detailed and corroborated account of Swalwell raping her in a New York hotel room after a night of heavy drinking in 2024.

Uh the women spoke to the San Francisco Chronicle and CNN uh in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office has now opened a criminal investigation into the allegations. Swalwell was initially defiant, but after losing most of his endorsements, he ended his campaign on Sunday night, writing in a statement on X that he was, quote, deeply sorry for mistakes in judgment, and that he quote, will fight the serious false allegations that have been made.

Just before we recorded, Swalwell also resigned from Congress. Um what are your reactions to both the news and in general, uh it's secondary, but just the audacity to run for governor, knowing that this was evident. Yeah, I mean it it it was shocking. I mean I think there were a lot of rumors about Eric Swalwell kind of being

uh a one of the younger members of Congress who would go to bars, get too drunk, hang out with staffers, maybe fraternize with them in inappropriate ways, but nothing I had never heard anything like this. No. So I read that CNN story and I thought he should drop out of the race, he should resign from Congress, then he should

hire a criminal defense attorney because there's a damn good chance that guy gets prosecuted, uh, and could see jail time and then shortly after, uh, the Manhattan district attorney announced an investigation. So Um I I you know, it's horrible. I'm glad the Democratic Party moved quickly to to push him out. It's a nice it's a contrast with how the Republicans operate and the Tony Gonzalez to Trump to many in between, but it's despicable.

Yeah, it was at first Swabo was issuing these denials that's that that that sort of reference to mistakes in judgment, but that oh he'd never done NDAs and had never been members of staff and then those were I think disproven or at least there was reporting that showed that those weren't true. So then those statements sort of change.

Hard to get into the mind of somebody that would have this in their past and think that they could run uh for for governor, uh, because you can't even say, Oh, he I mean because uh it's like this is not um Like I I don't know what stories people tell themselves, but he's not the first person uh to have terrible skeletons in their closet and still believe that they could do whatever they want and keep rising and be brazen and le brazenly And

right up till the end, like the video he recorded, uh, reportedly at some billionaire donors home uh in Beverly Hills, like his staff wasn't around, um, where he like refused to drop out and said he was gonna stay in it. It's like The the woman who came forward on this, um, she if you read the CNN story in the San Francisco Chronicle story, like she has text messages to fr a friend

um saying that she was sexually assaulted by Eric Swalwell, saying exactly what happened, like right after it happened in twenty twenty four. She had told multiple family members, her partner at the time, And then you have three other women having similar saying similar things. The woman who um alleges uh the sexual assault also like got tested for uh had a pregnancy test and tested for STDs and had the person at the lab. Send her a note that said like you're a survivor, hang in there. Yeah.

lot of every and to like read that story as Eric Swalwell and to like see the other ones and just be like, I'm gonna film a video being like, fuck it. I'm uh I'm hanging in here. And then his his lawyer gave this insane Attacking. Interview uh with Alex Michelson on CNN and Alex did a great job, but it was just like it was so hard to watch because he just was like sitting there not giving any answers on anything. It's like why did you even go on T V? Yeah.

Sociopathic. We've seen like a lot. I I also just like there's a story I think people tell themselves that oh, like I'm I've been, you know, I've looked I've stepped outside of my marriage and I've had been unfaithful, but I've never done anything like m like I've never been hurt anybody. I've never really I'm just always consensual, always consensual and then

You we've seen over and over the powerful men that they truly like cannot either they are in denial themselves or just lie in perpetuity, but they cannot accept that what they've done is not just been unfaithful, but actually been like you know sexually assaulted. Yeah. And there was a story in I think it was the Times about, you know, it's indic like this whole thing was indicative of

how um what a shit show the California governor's race has been and people were like clamoring to get behind some kind of candidate because Kamala didn't run and Padilla didn't run. And so Swalwell comes and then they're all like, okay, this is our guy, this is our guy. Starting.

There were rumors, some of the rumors like that you were just saying, Tommy, that like, you know, maybe he'd been inappropriate and people kept going to him and saying, like, any truth to this? And they said that his denials and his categorical denials, even in private, like one on one before endorsements were like

So intense that they were like, okay, I guess he's he's saying absolutely not, nothing's gonna come out. You know, MAG has been after me for a while. Wouldn't they have surfaced this already? Like

there was also this thing where, you know, there was a report that Cash Patel was gonna put the you know, the s eye of Sauron from the FBI on Swalwell and like inappropriately release investigative files. So I think there was There was also I think legitimate concern that maybe like the Trump administration was going to use the power of the government in some inappropriate way to target him, which right, like I think led to maybe

m more second chances for him. But then also I was thinking back to that weird video he released with his wife where they're like walking in Santa Monica and it's like his wife like endorses his candidacy and we're like,

I'm like, what is this? What is the context? And it's just like so clear that that that was front running these um controversies. By the way, as we were recording uh CNN and some others reporting that uh in battle, GOP rep Tony Gonzalez announces he's stepping down from Congress. So it's another absolute Scumbag on the Republican side.

Yeah, so people know like the the Swalwell thing brought up um these other House members who um they all thought that they maybe would try to expel together. So there was Swalwell, Gonzalez. who had had an affair with the staffer who later committed suicide. Um, Democrat Sheila uh Churfilis McCormick, who the House Ethics Committee found guilty of stealing COVID relief funds for her campaign.

Republican Corey Mills, who's under investigation for committing campaign fraud and sexual misconduct and domestic violence. Um and so now Swalwell has resigned, uh Gonzalez uh has said he's going to resign or retire tomorrow.

And so now I don't know if the vote will go forward on um Turfulus McCormick and Mills or if the whole thing will get dropped. But um wow. Says a lot about the house just to cut what are we doing. It's like, oh someone did something bad. Let's get'em all together. Let's expel'em all.

Yeah, it's a f there's such a um'cause like Santos was basically the first person expelled since what? Like uh Reconstruction. And with that it was like, oh well well it's so obvious that you should have this person removed'cause it's just so brazen and there's so many examples. But the idea there's something so like look I glad Swalwell's resigning, all these other people should be resigned and and expelled.

Uh but there's something so ugly about like, oh, we have to do it in pairs'cause we're only gonna enforce our ethics in a bipartisan way, which tells you that actually what you need is some kind of a a standard or process at the end of which there's a there's a way in which you say, All right. This is this standard has been met, we will vote to expel. That won't be kind of abused or politicized or ignored by either side.

Yeah. And it is why I get why when sometimes people face these expulsion votes, they say like, Well, we need we need either the House Ethics Committee to have completed an investigation and find the person guilty through the House Ethics Committee or like an actual criminal conviction outside It's some kind of legal determination. 'Cause you do want that because otherwise then everyone's gonna start saying, Oh, you did this, you did this, expel the right? Like but Evidentiary standards.

And like and by the way, like I'm glad too that there was like genuine reporting that dug in like cause there were like random posts on social media that were like, Oh, Swallwell's a creep, and someone's like, This is just a hit piece, this is by the opponents, and it's impossible to know. It's hard to tell. We're just trying, we don't know. You can't go by that. Right. and so I'm Thankfully someone th these women came forward.

And so it sort of like was a combination of Like people kind of drumming this up online, including people sort of outside of traditional journalism, and then it getting kind of a kind of, you know, journalistic outlets kind of putting in the resources to go and kind of run these things down, which ultimately I think is why um it was able to successfully make the story break through and get him to resign.

So let's talk about what happens now in the uh California governor's race. We can do um, you know, JD Vance, good news, bad news. Bad news is m this. Uh good news is I feel like the lockout fears are over at this point. Uh I don't know. I they kinda kind of revive them. We can get to that, but Well let's talk about it because I think um I think now that Trump has Trump has jumped in to endorse Steve Hilton, Swalwell's out.

So now you have um California's roughly sixty-forty state, Democrats, Republicans. So you have two Republicans splitting the forty, um, but one endorsed by Donald Trump. And then now you have Tom Steyer, Katie Porter, and then I guess, you know, um Matt uh Mahan from is the the mayor of San Jose, Javier Bressera.

um the former uh A. G and uh Biden administration uh cabinet member and uh Antonio Varragosa, former mayor of LA, sort of vying for um, you know, the third spot. Yeah. What do you guys think? So most of the people I've talked to in in the California political world since the Swallow News, um, think that this race will go down to on the Democratic side, Steyer versus Katie Border.

Um, Katie Porter's campaign has said, I think the Politico today that they in their internal polls, they get half of Swalwell's vote. Steyr's team, I think, said they get a quarter of Swalwell's vote. So we'll see. Um the problem for Katie Porter is no matter how

much she raises or how hard she campaigns in the next couple of weeks, like it's gonna be impossible to match the hundred and twenty million that Steyr has already spent. And the problem for Steyer is he spent a hundred and twenty million and he's still kind of stuck in this He was spending millions attacking Swallwall, which at this point means he has set that money was just.

Yeah. And so the most of the candidates, as you said, are polling significantly lower than those two. The X factor seems to be Matt Mahan, who may get like a ton of money from. a bunch of tech industry billionaires already has, but maybe a ton more. And maybe that'll move the needle. The problem for him is that like California's so big. We have what, ten media markets, they're all expensive. Even spending twenty million is like not gonna get you that much. So

You know, that's the assumption of where this will sess out. Now the good news for all of us is Everyone's in the field right now with polls, like campaigns, media organizations, PACs. Hopefully we'll get some new data. I think the the scary scenario is a situation where you have Mahan, Porter, and Steyer all splitting the dem vote. Then you could see a Steve Hilton, Chad Bianco.

lockout scenario, it is very unlikely. It is more likely, I think, that the Democratic Party comes in or the D GA comes in and elevates Steve Hilton further in some way to ensure that it's a uh Republican Democrat general election, but we'll see. Yeah, and the chat and the reason that it seems unlikely that there's gonna be a lockout now is if you've got so Becerra, Virgosa, and Mahan have like

Maybe in one or two polls one of them has has hit five. No one's gotten to more than five, right? So say you generously give all the candidates who aren't Porter and Steyr 15%. That still is forty five percent um between Steyr and uh Porter. And divided by two is as long as they're over twenty, neither Chad Bianco or Steve Hilton is getting over twenty percent because it's uh you know, it's forty percent of the voters are Republicans in California.

Yeah, the argument for this kind of all kind of redounding to Porter is Steyer has spent whatever it is over a hundred million dollars. He's gotten to wherever he's gotten. He's gotten billions of impressions and and he's sort of stuck where he is. Katie Porter hasn't really spent anything. Like she's spent very little on ads. And I hope that this would be an opportunity to go spend that money. And so

For before you even get to where the voters go, like where does Swalwell money go? Doesn't make sense for it to go to Tom Steyer, he's a fucking billionaire. So like Yeah. May maybe, maybe. But or like like some of them. Some of them, but like

'Cause he's a Bat Mahan is like very like a lot of the a lot of the tech focused people, you know, so he's got a lot of money uh or surranging on that campaign. Now again, he's got some similar issue with Steyer, he's jumped in the race later but a lot of money spent and still sitting around four or five percent.

I feel like I don't know, maybe who we'll see. But like the idea that there's a bunch of people that were behind Eric's Walwell are now suddenly gonna go to them we're kind of like they're not gonna go to the other traditional dem in the race. I don't know. We'll see. But uh it does seem like it's a moment for Katie Porter to like spend some money and try to figure out how to like kind of bump herself up. I I'm sure she's been waiting because she's so outgunned by Steyr.

Like At some point in this environment where attention matters most and uh people barely watch ads, like I do think finding a moment to capture attention is more important in some ways than how much Tom Steyer has found out, yeah, and then spending a whole bunch of money.

And it's a challenge in a statewide race, especially a state as big as California, because you have a huge state, so you have a huge fucking audience, but everyone's talking about national politics all the time. And we have a couple big debates coming up. And do we think California voters are all gonna be tuning into those debates? You hope so, but I don't know.

But do we have a forum tomorrow night, which will be the first time I think they've all been together and to comment on Swalwall? And I do think that will be a news making thing and we'll see something coming out of there. Uh luckily there's lots of better news for Democrats to focus on. On Monday, the Cook Political Report shifted its outlook for several key Senate races in Democrats' direction. North Carolina and Georgia, this is wild, from toss-up to lean Democrats.

Uh Ohio from Lean Republican to Tossup. And Nebraska, from solid Republican to lean Republican. In Iowa, a survey commissioned by a Democratic group gave Iowa State Auditor Rob Sand an eight-point lead in the governor's race, um, while the same poll only has Republicans holding only a narrow lead in the Senate race.

um where there are two strong Democrats and a tough primary. Over in Alaska, Mary Paltola raised almost nine million dollars in the first three months of the year, quadrupled the amount raised by Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan, probably the most money ever raised in that state. Um Do you guys think the Democrats' chance of taking back the Senate has been underrated? I feel like it might be underrated by now.

I yeah, I've just sort of picturing an Iotola coming to the microphone the day after the election and saying, We didn't set out to change the American regime but the regime did change. Ha ha ha. It's interesting to think about. Yeah, I don't know if it's underrated other than it was rated correctly and then we launched a stuff.

Events like it was maybe a toss-up when get gas was$3 a gallon. If it's five or six dollars a gallon, suddenly the Senate is not just in play, but like we have a real, real chance. Yeah, I mean I I've long felt pretty optimistic about North Carolina and Georgia, just because like those are great candidates in states that are genuinely swingy. Ohio and Iowa, tough states in twenty twenty four. I think uh Trump won Ohio by eleven points, won Iowa by thirteen points.

Some big headwinds. But Ohio, we got Sherid Brown. He's probably the best candidate we could ask for. He's to win the primary, but he's gonna win the primary. And then in Iowa, we will not have a candidate until June second. Um I interviewed Josh Turrick a couple weeks ago. Folks wanna listen to that.

Uh we're out to Zach Wallace to try to get him on soon too. But the Iowa Democrats have a really strong candidate at the top of the ticket and Rob Sand, who is reportedly up eight points. Randy Fienstra's his opponent. He's not that popular. Got a lot of baggage. And between like high gas prices, high fertilizer prices, and then tariffs, Trump has done everything he can to piss off farmers and fuck over Iowa's economy. So there's just like there's just a lot of You know, tailwinds for the other.

We should know that Cook, in the same breath as moving those races, also still doesn't think the Democrats are favored to win the Senate,'cause they basically think we'll pick up one to three. We need four. And so there must be counting Maine, um North Carolina and then either Ohio or Alaska or Iowa. Um and not

Two of the three. Now, we also I think Texas is a good chance too, but they don't they don't rate Texas as I think Texas is still lean Republican in their ranking, if I'm remembering correctly. I would also like to see

Part of this too, like like how d who does gas prices hit? Obviously geographically it's it's it's gonna hit, you know, states where people are driving a longer distance or driving bigger cars. Like I like I I would bet if you looked at like who are the kinds of people that were kind of soft Trump voters.

uh and are now open to voting for a Democrat. It's gonna be people that they're not driving Teslas, they're driving like SUVs and they find Democrats talking about these issues pretty annoying, but they're pretty fucking pissed about how expensive gas is because we went to war. Yeah. And it's not just gas, it'll be, you know, supply shortages and the cost of other the I mean inflation is still a problem.

So it's gonna be a big problem. And then the argument that why are we spending X billions on bombs to drop on schools in Iran when we could be spending it on anything else here, like pulls through the roof and everyone's gonna be able to use that. Right, like wait till we find out how much this blockade is gonna cost us today. Trump was Trump right before the uh election in Hungary was promising like economic help for Hungary if they elect Victor Oregon. Which he's done so many times.

The beef, the Argentinian beef. Artinian bailout. Like he keeps doing that to insane brazen election interference. Then JD Vance goes over there and it's like the bureaucrats in Brussels tried to interfere in your election. I won't, but also vote for Victor Orban. But I'm not here to say like what are you doing, you absolute loser? It's insane. Um

He wasn't doing it to win. He was doing it because they're friends. That's right. He was doing it to help a friend. All right. If you don't love JD Vance at his Victor Orban, you don't deserve him. The most corrupt person ever if you draw one. Uh, finally, before we get to Lovett's interview with Nithya Raman, one more quick item for you. Um, well plenty of political leaders from liberal democracies all over the world posted statements celebrating Victor Orban's defeat over the weekend.

One in particular caught our eye from former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, not because of what he posted, but where he seemingly posted it from. Coachella. where the fifty four year old was spotted in a backwards hat with girlfriend Katy Perry in a series of viral photos, which drew this comment from Twitter user at the departed rat, quote, When you're faded and need to squint one eye to type, but you're trying to tweet about Hungarian politics. Ha ha. Do we have to do that?

There w there it is. This picture is enraging. This picture is enraging to me. He looks so vital, young and happy. He looks like that. He looks half his age. Maybe there's hope for fifty four. I guess. I just like I for me all Coachella is is a great weekend where the traffic is less in L A. And like there's the former prime minister just living his best fucking life. I think that there's like also a video that's come up too on the screen.

Yeah. And he's like, What are you doing? What are you doing? What are you doing? What are you doing? Um I was talking to a Canadian friend today who said Trudeau's getting shit in Canada. Friends of Canada too. Do you have friends in Canada? Lots of friends in Canada. Uh because he put I promise I'm from Canada. push for a plastic cup band in Canada and as you can see there he's got a red solo cup on it. Why he was getting shit.

One of the reasons. People are also making fun of him for wearing like relaxed clothes. What do you expect him to be in like a a blue? Yeah, like a sis suit. What are we talking about here? I'm just enjoying some with Chinese food in the I guess I like Trudeau. He was on Pod Save the World. Check out Pod Save the World. Subscribe anywhere you get your podcast. Um I guess my advice to him would be like post about Coachella or post about the Hungarian elections. Don't do both. I'm sorry.

He is dating a pop star at Coachella. We're fucking here. Crushing it. He's living. He's he's living his he's living the most divorced dad life, but He's doing great. He's got a he's got he's he's posting about Victor Orban throwing back a ketamine lozenge. He's crushing it. It is a very relatable. Oh no, we gotta do some work. We're looking at Twitter. Here we are in a fun time. Dra drafted a convention speech from Vegas. Done it all? Beaver.

Or is that just a coincidence? A lot of the reporting connected them because they're both Canadian. I mean she's there, so I'm sure she was just there to see everyone and got all the you know. Katie Perry. Yeah. Imagine you're tripping balls, waiting for a porta potty and Justin you're like Justin Trudeau. I bet he has artist passes. I bet he has the good passes. Oh definitely. But he's still got a P. Bernie was at Coachella. Oh last year? Right. Yeah, it was he opened for Skrillex.

Nice. I was uh Yeah. We'll be seeing you we'll be seeing you at fifty four. I did say a four year old. Not Wilco. Yeah. Yeah. Hey old man stagecoaches down the road. That's next weekend. She actually started out with a band called No Doubt. It looked fun. I wish I was there. We're just jealous, that's it. Sure, quite sure. Anyway, uh when we come back, Love It talks to Nithya Raman about her race for LA Mayor.

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Lot to get through. I'm gonna go pretty quickly. I also do want to disclose that I've been a supporter of yours for a long time. Um, but I uh was really excited to see you jump in the race. Uh, not just because you're you, but because I thought Los Angeles deserved a big, contentious, hard fought mayoral campaign and we were about to not have one. Yes. Uh You had endorsed Caramba's for me. Yeah.

Yes. Uh she was a political ally of yours. Then literally in the hours before the noon deadline you decided to run. What happened in the month between endorsing your former political ally and deciding to run again? Well the endorsement request had come months prior. Um so I just want to be very clear about that. It wasn't like an overnight change of heart.

But I will say that I had been getting really frustrated with the way that things had been going in the city and in the way that things had been going in City Hall on so many of the issues that I really cared about. on housing and housing production and the cost of housing, the extraordinary cost of housing here in Los Angeles.

I felt like The city was actually fighting against state mandates to build housing, the city was fighting affordable housing, and we didn't have any clear direction or urgency around the issue at all, on issues like homelessness, where

People were demanding accountability. That is possible, absolutely possible, to deliver things that I have actually made progress on in my own district and in my limited way as the chair of the committee. We were just not doing on a system-wide level and we didn't feel any urgency around it. And I feel like that lack of urgency was everywhere in every issue that I cared about. And I kept trying to push back against it and kept hitting a wall.

And I think I got increasingly frustrated and I'm not a traditional politician in that this is what I want to be doing for the rest of my life. I actually didn't even really think that I would ever run for office, but I really care about Los Angeles.

and the idea, exactly like you said, of having a mayoral election where we weren't even talking about the fact that LA is struggling right now, that a lot of people feel like it's moving in the wrong direction, that that City Hall needs to be doing things differently in order to Address our biggest problems that we weren't even gonna have that conversation.

I mean, it made me crazy. It made me absolutely crazy. And so finally in the last couple of days, I s seriously considered running. And then on the very last day, threw my hat in the ring. So let's let's talk about what's wrong with Los Angeles, which will be would be too long of a conversation to have. But stepping back, the city of LA has a budget of around 14 billion dollars. Yet we can't fix sidewalks, repave streets, we don't plant trees, we can't replace the bulbs in our street lamps.

Why, in the richest state in the country, in the fourth largest economy in the world, is Los Angeles such a basket case? You know, I think a lot of it has to do with really poor fiscal management here at the city. We are making decisions that undermine our capacity to be able to deliver basic essential services for our residents. And I think that's a shame because it is, again, it's completely possible to do it. We last year had a billion-dollar budget deficit.

definitely had um some kind of uh impacts from the fires the year prior um and from or the uh a few months prior and from heightened liability claims that are impacting a lot of municipalities across the country. But the biggest issue was that we signed unsustainably large contracts.

Uh, beginning with the police union, which is one of the biggest players in local politics, we signed an enormous contract with them that everybody at City Hall knew would lead to hundreds of millions of dollars of shortfall. And yet we signed it anyway because the mayor and many other city hall leaders I voted against it, many other city hall leaders knew that the police union is the major player in local elections. They're the biggest funders of

uh independent expenditure committees of of campaign funding here in LA. And so he signed that contract. We knew that we would be hundreds of millions of dollars in the hole as a result, and then exactly as everyone knew, we ended last year with a billion dollar budget deficit and a thousand six hundred layoffs on the table. And because that happened, we are now in a situation where we have 30,000 streetlights off across the city of Los Angeles and an average repair time of a year.

to fix a streetlight. We haven't paved a single mile of street this entire fiscal year because we don't have the money. We're filling fewer potholes because we have the trucks to fill potholes, but we can't pay for the drivers to fill potholes. We are doing everything worse than we could. And now we're going back to residents and asking them to pay more in order to deliver these essential services. So you would if you were to become mayor, you would inherit these contracts.

Uh how do you fix it? How do we dig ourselves out of this hole? And how do you do it when it's not just the mayor that's kind of making these decisions, but also the city council and other people that uh feel beholden to these groups, even if they're supportive of making sure public employees receive good benefits and good pay.

percent, a hundred percent. And I think you can offer um I think we had can have a vision for Los Angeles where we are paying public sector employees what they deserve, giving them raises to be able to live in this city that is so extraordinarily expensive. but also negotiate adequately in order to make sure that we're also delivering basic services.

And that inability to negotiate, that's what we're losing in a system which is so insular here in in LA, where the people who are really constituents of City Hall politics are a very small group, as opposed to all of the residents of the city of Los Angeles for whom the decisions being made in City Hall really matter. Yeah, can you talk about what happened with

the convention center. So I I think this is a good example. Yeah. There was a proposal to expand the convention center. Can you just tell people what happened, how much it's going to cost, and and and what what happened there?

Yeah, so there's been a proposal being kicked around for actually a decade to expand the convention center. We have a convention center in downtown LA. It is pretty old. It's smaller than other convention centers. And there's been kind of a discussion to see whether we should expand it and and and brighten it up.

Suddenly, just a few months after we had a billion-dollar budget deficit, the convention center was back on the table. And by this time, the costs had ballooned significantly. Now the cost of that rebuilding that convention center with uh debt service we're gonna be close to six billion dollars. Six billion dollars.

that would mean that we were gonna be paying out a hundred million dollars uh uh annually out of our general fund. Those are our discretionary dollars that we use for providing basic services here in LA, everything from public safety to street life.

And Uh that proposal was pushed through very, very quickly, despite the fact that we are in a fiscal crisis, despite the fact that we have the Olympics coming up, despite the fact that that local and economic headwinds are very, very uncertain here in Los Angeles because a small cluster of downtown businesses who fund local elections really wanted to push it forward. And

For me, you know, I represent a district right now that is very vocal about their views. It's a relatively uh it's a w you know one of the relatively wealthier districts and they know how to get in touch with City Hall when they care. I didn't hear from any of my constituents saying that they wanted this project to move forward. That's very unusual for big decisions in front of the city. How long would the project take too? Like how how many years would it take to build this convention?

It's gonna take a couple of years. Um and what is interesting about it is that we actually have Olympics events that are scheduled to happen at the convention center. And so in order to make sure that the Olympics events are happening, what we have to do is to move the project forward until it gets to Olympics readiness. It won't be done by the time the Olympics are are happening, but we need to get to Olympics readiness.

And then we're gonna kind of put walls around the remaining parts of the conventions that are there still under construction. Then we're gonna have the events there, and then afterwards we'll finish the project. And that's gonna cost six billion dollars. With debt service, yes. So the including all the cost plus the borrowing and all the rest is gonna cost the city six billion dollars. And and how long would it take us to make back that six billion dollars?

Uh we're I mean, we're going to be paying the debt for that uh for the next thirty years. And the revenues will never cover the costs. I mean this is Love that for us. All right, sorry. Uh so how does it get to the point where a small group of people, Democrats or or d you know, left associated people all coming together

to make these decisions. It's not Republicans that are are causing these problems. It's not uh uh Donald Trump. It's this is a problem generated by exc the only thing between us and solving these problems is Democrats. Right. And so for like people that maybe aren't from Los Angeles and see this like What have you learned being in the city council about what it takes to get a group of people that are maybe ideologically aligned to care about just the basics of of good governance?

You know, I I don't know the answer to that, to be honest with you, because that is not what we have right now here in Los Angeles. So I don't know what the solution for actually caring about good governance is. Except that uh I think it is uh it is absolutely necessary at this moment. To me here to live in the city, to think about the fact that I have to look my constituents.

in in the face and say to them, You trust me, I'm gonna address really complex issues like affordability. I'm gonna address really complex issues like homelessness, but I can't fix your street light for a year.

And just trust me, I got this. That felt unacceptable to me. That felt like an absurd situation to be in with my constituents. And that is really what had what pushed me into running and you know, at this time, I had actually been so frustrated with the way that things were going that I had started to lose hope. in in in how things could get better here in Los Angeles. And I think in the context of a federal environment where I feel relatively helpless and hopeless as well.

feeling that locally has also been really, really uh, you know, um, frustrating. But I will say that since I started the campaign and since I've been going out and talking to communities about these decisions and talking about how the city can do better, how we can achieve all of the goals that we want to set out to achieve if we're honest with our constituents, if we're open, if we're transparent.

Um, and if we really work towards good outcomes, I really do feel like people are excited by that message. People are getting enthusiastic, people are organizing their own meetings so that they I can meet their friends. Like it is a message that. is getting a lot of positive reception, which is really exciting. So let's talk about one of the key challenges for LA, which is housing. I actually interviewed Zoran Mamdani about this when he was running in New York.

uh that he had actually evolved as somebody that was associated with the the the DSA, the socialists, Democratic Socialist, that he had come to see the importance of not just Uh like rent control and measures to control the cost of housing, public housing, but also uh market rate housing. I think you've had a similar evolution. Uh can you talk about uh What is standing in the way right now of Los Angeles building enough housing supply to meet the need? Yeah.

I I I definitely had that same um movement. I I was very focused on affordable housing when I first started my first race, building more affordable housing, building more shelter, making sure that we were building uh kind of um what uh needing here in LA. But as I was in office and I started getting calls from constituents who were struggling with their rents, I realized these were often people who would never qualify for affordable housing, but they had no choice.

but to live in a unit with a terrible landlord in terrible conditions because there was simply nothing else available to them here in Los Angeles. And LA is a city where there has been an active anti-housing movement that has shaped our local politics for decades. In the eighties there was an anti Manhattanization movement.

that downzoned, that reduced the capacity to build more housing along every major boulevard and thoroughfare, that reduced capacity to build multifamily housing across the entire city, leading to what estimates what is an estimated shortfall of something like five hundred thousand units here in the city of Los Angeles right now. But I think we can actually fix it. There are ways in which the city of Los Angeles can build more. A huge uh change would be getting the city out of the way.

uh rezoning so that we actually have capacity to build more housing, building more density, particularly near m our major transit corridors, building more gentle density like uh duplexes and triplexes, even in some single family neighborhoods that can be more walkable, that are near transit. I think that's a key change that we need to make. We need to get the city out of the way. We have enormous red tape.

standing between uh an application for a new housing unit coming in and when it is actually approved. And our timelines for approving housing are double, even triple what other jurisdictions are, which leads to Significantly less housing being produced and by the way, um more expensive housing being produced because the longer you have to sit and wait for your permits to come, the more expensive that housing becomes ultimately.

And the fewer projects that get started because the people building those projects know they have to be able to make money on the end when there's going to be a huge delay. Yeah, I also wanted to say that we really have a culture in City in City Hall where delay and denial are kind of rewarded and saying yes is not. And I think we have to completely flip that around. We have to build a city where saying yes is the goal of our housing processes, not the opposite. And that is a culture shift.

That has to happen at every level of the bureaucracy. It has to be enabled and undergirded by technology that allows cooperation between departments. And it has to be rewarded at the highest levels of government. And that's really what I think needs to happen. Yeah, like after the the fires in the palisades in Altadina.

There was this sense even from the mayor that like, we're gonna make this process faster, we're gonna make it work better. Uh of the 4,100 that have applied for permits rebuild, uh less fewer than half have been approved, only 34 homes. have been built. So even when there is an impetus, even when there seems to be an understanding that we need to move faster, it's not happening. Is that a technical problem of the rules? Is that leadership? Is that the mayor not like what what's happening?

Well I think it is leadership. I think it is a I think it the mayor here in the city of Los Angeles has uh while it is a weaker mayor system than in other places, we the mayor has the capacity to hire and fire every department head.

And that means that the mayor has the capacity to determine the priorities of every department. They're getting motions and legislative efforts from the council members to push them in a thousand different directions. The mayor is the one that departments respond to. And so it is up to the mayor. To set housing production and permitting timelines as a priority. She can set deadlines for by when these things have to happen. You can appoint leadership.

That is responsive to those goals. You can create metrics through which you can hold department heads accountable. And if they meet those goals, you can reward them. And if they don't meet those goals, you should replace them. That is not happening here in the city of Los Angeles at all, across all of the departments that are involved in the housing production process.

Also, we haven't had a deputy mayor of housing for almost two years in a city where the cost of housing and housing production and rebuilding are key issues for This city, we need a deputy mayor for housing, but you know, that position has been left empty for I think an inexcusably long time. So we're in this crisis in housing. We've lost fifty four thousand people in the county.

Now, Los Angeles passed something that's called ULA. It's the Mansion Tax. Yes, people would know it. And I actually supported the Mansion Tax because I thought, okay, like I don't think it was the it was written in a stupid way by people who seem honestly like mathematically illiterate.

Uh but it put uh a tax on houses over five million and then a bigger tax on houses, I believe, over ten million. And I thought all things considered, better to have it than not have it. I didn't understand when I voted for it, honestly, that it also applied to multifamily housing because that was so

I it wouldn't even have occurred to me that it would do something so fucking stupid. Truly, I feel stupid that I voted for it. I would have voted no. Uh you tried to fix it and you say, hey, we'll keep the mansion tax, but we won't apply this to new multifamily housing because all the evidence says that multifamily housing is being stopped and this is counterproductive. And yet the council doesn't do it. Right.

It I what is the like it was enraging. I am mad sitting here. It doesn't what is the logic of it? How do you how how do you show up with these people and not like what what is stopping them from doing that? Like sputtering to a stop so fucking stupid. Why didn't they support what you were trying to do?

Well, I mean I think because people A, people don't believe the evidence. So there's there I mean I I was very convinced by the evidence. There were real differences in LA City versus LA County. LA County is producing more housing, we're producing less. San Diego, which is facing the same macroeconomic conditions that we are, is actually increasing permits while

LA has seen a twenty five percent drop in permits. I mean, to me the evidence was very clear that this was impacting multifamily housing production. I think there's two things that are happening here that are preventing more robust action from being taken on issues that are obviously addressing housing production. One is that there is significant pushback from, again, those same kind of insider groups that have huge sway in City Hall, both the ULA coalition,

that I worked with very closely to try and negotiate a pathway forward. I was talking to them for many, many months to say, because I too was a supporter of ULA, I really value the money that it provides to the city for rent relief and other things. And so I worked very closely with them to say, hey, can we craft an exemption that allows for this much needed housing to be built here?

Ultimately we just were not able to come to an agreement on what that would look like. And I got extremely frustrated because to me, this is the single most important issue that is you know hampering our future resiliency. That is making Los Angeles into a place of less opportunity. Secondly, I think both um labor groups that funded the effort also were not on board with making any changes. And so with nonprofits and with labor groups that had supported the effort not making any changes without

a a real push from the mayor and from other leadership to really move this forward, this effort died. It is now going through a committee process, but I'm not sure what is gonna come come from it. So I think more than half the council had already endorsed.

Karen Bass before you decided to run. They've I think all stuck with their endorsements. But I assume behind the scenes others on the council are as frustrated as you are. You happen to have also been somebody that endorsed Karen Bass but was unhappy. Uh are you hearing from them privately that they actually want you to win, but they're afraid to say so publicly?

Well, I look, I I don't wanna betray my private conversations. I still have relationships with people on the council that I'm working with. And, you know, whatever happens in this election, either outcome I will need to work with them going forward as well. But I will say that, you know, I've I interact with a lot of local political figures here, not just people on the council, but across the entire region. And I think there have been a lot of questions about

Kind of the lack of leadership on issues. And I think that's the most perplexing thing here in in LA, which y I think Angelinos can feel on the streets, which is just like a There's a rudderlessness. There's just a lack of Pushing. There's a lack of urgency on the things that I feel really urgent about and that I think residents of the city feel really urgent about.

There's a lack of just kind of being out there and fighting. Like Angelino's need a fighter at a moment when things feel really bleak here. And to not have that fighter in City Hall, to not have that person really articulating a vision of how things could change, whether it's on the cost of housing, whether it's on our transit and safety infrastructure for our streets, whether it's on homelessness, whether it's on ice, whatever it is.

We're just missing that kind of that leadership here in the city. And this is an incredible place. This is an incredible place. It deserves that kind of leadership. It deserves that kind of vision. It deserves someone pushing with all of their might to push it in the right direction. And I just I know I felt that absence and I d I don't think I'm the only one. I really don't.

So I wanna ask you about MacArthur Park. So there's a beautiful park in the middle of the city. Yeah. If you go there right now, if we drove there right now, it's the middle of the day, you would see basically like an open air drug market and the mayor and the police They they set up chain link fences uh on the sidewalks around the park.

They're blocking off, they're not cordoning anything in. They are it's i it's hard to believe that this is the solution. They have built boxes of chain link fence to close the sidewalk so that people do not use those spaces. To sell drugs. This was touted as a temporary solution. M years it has been devolving. There was a plan for like about$27 million, try to beautify the park over a long period of time. You're the mayor of Los Angeles.

How long does it take until MacArthur Park is a place that's safe for families? Is it a I I don't I personally like look, I I can be told why I'm wrong, but The idea that it's a six month problem as opposed to a one-month problem, two-week problem to really kind of make the place safe again, like what what would you do and how long do you think it takes? Yeah. with real attention to make a place like that Reflective of the kind of city we think Los Angeles.

Yeah, I think I think it would take six months to a year to change it. Um, because I think it takes repeated engagement and presence in that location to address longstanding issues. And I think you have to address both the homelessness crisis that is on the streets, you have to address the mental health issues that are out there, uh, and you have to address very obvious uh criminal activity that's happening there, drug dealing and other kinds of things for which you need police presence there.

dealing with really ugly issues that are out there that require their attention, investigation, and arrests. And I think if you do both of those things, if you are really, again, robustly engaged. Um, pushing with all your might on that issue. I do think that you can make some real improvements there. Uh, I n you know, we have had.

in council district four where I've I've been engaged. Um we don't have anything that resembles that scale of crisis, but we did have very large encampments, very, very large encampments, thirty, forty people that were there when I first got elected. And each of those, addressing each of those, took that kind of effort. We were able to offer shelter services, housing.

And really push on the system to be able to address issues. There were cases where we had to work a much longer time to address people who had severe mental health issues. who, uh, you know, despite repeated engagement, even arrests that came about from their own behavior, would end up right back in the same place. That requires engaging with the Department of Mental Health. That requires engaging with mental health clinicians.

It takes time, but again, with time and effort, progress can happen. And I think the key, the missing link here, the thing that I keep articulating over and over again, is that you have to put in the time and the urgency and the leadership and the focus. on these things that can actually push things in the right direction. And it has to be sustained over time. Yeah, like'cause what I what I'm hearing too is like a lot of this is

Pushing back even at times on your own constituencies, whether it's a public employees union or maybe advocates for uh uh like for for uh the unhoused. You know, g Gavin Newsom it's almost taken as a given in some quarters that Gavin Newsom was performatively cruel in the way that he wanted to clear encampments. Uh but at the same time, I imagine most

even Democrats in California would say, Oh, that's what I want. I want someone who's gonna be aggressive about doing that. Like is part of the job of mayor making decisions that are humane, that are reflective of like our our values as as progressives, but at the same time, like sometimes the advocates are going to be out there protesting if you do need to clear an encambent, or sometimes you are going to have to go against a labor union, even if you broadly support unions.

I think that for me, like on the issue of encampments uh or the issue of homelessness overall, to me I think it is And actually let me take a step back. Whether whatever issue that we're talking about here here in the city of Los Angeles. I think the issue for me as a person who is deeply progressive is someone who believes in the power of government to do good things and to make our lives better.

My goal is to ensure that you as a resident of Los Angeles and every resident of Los Angeles feels like the government is working for them and that they can, they can palpably feel the positive presence of government in their lives.

And I think you have to do what it takes in order to deliver those results. On homelessness, I happen to believe that, um for the for kind of the encampments that I've dealt with in my district, housing, shelter, services focused work has been what has reduced homelessness significantly in m in, you know, street homelessness significantly in my district at almost every encampment.

that we've worked in. And that is the work that I would be doing is create that system of sustained effort to generate results. on reducing street homelessness, on addressing mental health issues, on making our streets

safer, cleaner, brighter, fixing street lights, whatever it is, you have to push on these issues. And I think that that is really I think for me my governing principle as a as an elected representative and as someone who is a very proud progressive is like I want people to feel like the government is working for them. When you were on the council, you supported what would become Mayor Bass's sort of signature

policy to address homelessness. It was a$300 million program to get people off the streets. Uh the city uh spent about a about two hundred and fifty nine thousand dollars per person housed. Uh forty percent of the Participants, more than 2,000 people, ended up back on the streets. What went wrong uh uh with that program and like what does it tell you about how you do it differently? So initially I thought the kind of the emergency response

uh of the Inside Safe program was necessary for LA. There we had a we uh I also supported declaring a state of emergency on homelessness. I think street homelessness is a crisis. It is an emergency and we should respond to it at that scale. And the kind of effort that it was where you again, you it was renting hotel and motel rooms.

And using those as shelter to go to encampments and get offer that shelter and then moving an entire encampment off the streets. That's called encampment resolution. It's not unique to Inside Safe. It's something that I've done in my district. In fact, we did it uh, you know, m years before uh the mayor came into office. Um, we've done it in in Venice. It's it's been pioneered across the city and it's very effective by really focusing encampment by encampment.

and offering real shelter to people that we're able to actually move people indoors and then clear those encampments and then those areas stay clear because you've actually addressed the reason why people are on the street in the first place.

So to me, that kind of an encampment resolution focused response is really important. The issue becomes is when the intervention that you're using is enormously expensive and you're not doing the work to ensure that you are making it into a fiscally sustainable response. So inside safe motel rooms cost an average of over eighty thousand dollars.

per person or per room per person per year, and people are staying in them for an average of a year. And sometimes they're costing as much as a hundred thousand dollars per person per year. That is an enormously expensive intervention that I think was appropriate as an emergency intervention, but needs to be made into a real fiscally sustainable system. that actually can respond to the crisis on our streets with the dollars that we have.

because this is not sustainable. And so to me, I want to build that system. I've actually in the city generated data about the performance of our homelessness investments for the first time, working with Lhasa that shows us where beds are vacant.

where our permanent sportive housing units are available. And through that work, I've actually re you know, brought people uh into these beds, filled every bed, filled every unit. We need to be building a system which is cost less per person, but is actually working better at actually bringing people indoors, filling every bed, filling every resource, and then doing the work when they're in those units and those shelter beds.

To get them the case management, they need to transition to whatever is their next step, whether it's reunification with family, whether it is um moving into a permanent sportive housing unit, whether it is coming into self-sufficiency, getting a job, being able to actually live independently, these are all things that the system can do.

But you have to design that system. You need to make sure that there is leadership there and resources to create that system, to make sure that people are moving through it into safety and to permanent housing appropriately. But that kind of work. Is not happening right now, despite pushing within the city to create oversight, to create responsibility here. All right, couple final questions. Look, I I realize that as Mayor Valley, um

the Middle East has very little to do with your portfolio. Um, but you've been hit from the left for not speaking out enough about Gaza. You also uh would be running to be the mayor of a city with a very big Jewish population that is deeply concerned about the way in which uh anti Zionism bleeds into anti Semitism. What do you view like your role is in speaking about this issue? And what do you think people in Los Angeles should know about?

Well, you know, I I have spoken about so spoken up about the issue in the past. I I called for a ceasefire, introduced a ceasefire resolution in in city council. I've called what's happening there, which is incredibly horrific to witness what's happening in Gaza. I've called it a genocide and, you know, I've I've been deeply disturbed by what I have seen.

At the same time, in my role as city council member and I what I imagine in my role as mayor would be the impacts on people. Um here and and what kind of the the knock-on effects from what's happening in the Middle East, I think have to be also the focus of our work here uh in the city. So in my district, we've had increases in really horrifying incidents of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.

And I've had to respond to both of those. And as mayor, I would need to do more of that. I would need to ensure that this city is a place where people are able to express their political opinions freely, where people are able to express their First Amendment rights. But that they are not victims of anti Semitism and Islamophobia. And when those happen, we have to speak up about it. We have to make sure that this is a place that's safe for everyone.

I'm gonna start with the film industry briefly. There's so much to talk about. I know. So LA, uh, we had uh uh only 19,000 on-location film and TV production days. Uh that's a 16% decrease from 2024. That's the lowest number of production days ever recorded outside of COVID. Uh what would you do as mayor to bring production jobs back to this city uh that Mayor Bass hasn't been able to do?

Yeah, you know, one of the big things that I think we need to be doing is making it easier to film here. Um, and there have been some efforts that are making their way through the council um around kind of reducing restrictions on how production happens, on reducing costs for production, how improving how film LA works.

These have been moving, I think, all too slowly. Yeah. Um, there's no reason why through executive directive these fixes can't be made immediately and that the bureaucracy that's standing in the way of people producing here, actually making films here. um cannot be eased more quickly by a mayor who is deeply focused on this issue. But I think there's more that can be done. You know, last year we had a conversation about a tax credit that increased.

You know, I wanted to see more advocacy from our mayor for a tax credit that would have no cap and that would be guaranteed a decade into the future, right? That's the kind of uh system that studios are looking for as they're thinking about where to invest. And LA should be the loudest advocate. The leadership of LA should be the loudest advocate for the kind of tax credit system that other states are putting into place. And

actually getting production moving there, like in New Jersey. We should be advocating for that same system here. Okay, Sacramento may not listen, but the leadership of Los Angeles should be fighting as hard as they can to make sure that that tax credit system is put into place.

I would also say that, you know, I think we need to be really engaging with studios. We need to be engaging with companies that are headquartered here and saying to them, what do we need to do to make sure that you're shooting here? What do we need to do to make sure that we are having production stay here?

How can we make sure that this industry, which is so central to Los Angeles, so central to Los Angeles, stays in Los Angeles? How can we make sure that the incredible talent that we have across this city can work here? a place that they moved to to build their dreams, to work in the film industry. And I think that's that's the kind of engagement that I wanna see. I haven't been seeing that kind of engagement happening and that's what I would want to do if I were mayor.

Oh, and then can you reopen the arc light? Oh, I don't know if I can. I would love to figure out why it's closed for so long. Coming on at the archive. Yeah, let's go talk to that property owner. Okay. All right. Made some progress too. Yeah. All right. Thank you. Ity Raman, thank you so much for being here. Good luck in your race. I hope we get the arc light open. All right. We're done. Thank you. Thank you.

That's our show for today. Thanks to Nithya Raman for coming on. Dan and I will be back with a new show on Friday. If you want to listen to PodSave America ad-free and get access to exclusive podcasts, go to Cricket.com slash friends to subscribe on Supercast, Substack, YouTube, or Apple Podcasts.

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