And we continue at one five in the afternoon on the John Phillips Show, Mister Randy Weggs across the Glass, John. It is election day. People have until eight o'clock to turn their ballots in, and as of about fifteen minutes ago, the latest update to the ballot Tracker, nineteen percent of Californians have cast their ballot. Early eighty percent of Californians either are going to vote today or most likely not going.
To do it.
And we have some breaking news regarding Los Angeles Congressman Jimmy Gomez. The House Ethics Committee is investigating Congressman Jimmy Gomez over sexual misconduct allegations. What's notable here is Jimmy Gomez was one of the campaign chairs of the former front runner in this governor's race, Eric Swallwell, it's not California, but this is a story that went all over the
place this weekend. Morris Katz, a top advisor to embattled Maine Senate candidate Graham Plattner, admitted in a blog post that he also sent explicit material to people in the past. Quote I've sent nudes and I've received nudes end quote. So this is the person that said that Platner was sending nudes, or at least sending explicit text, saying I also have done some nudes.
I think they're all doing it. What's Tom Steyer up to?
I sure hope he doesn't make the top two, because we're gonna get in trouble if we play this drop this much.
I'm Tom Steyer. I'm about to write the.
Team eight hundred two two two five two two two East jelphone number one eight hundred two two two five to two two two. Can you guess what I'm naming the twelve o'clock hour podcast.
I have an idea.
It is our pleasure to welcome our next guest to the program. He is a Republican political strategist too. You can follow on exit the Thomas Guide, John Thomas.
Welcome, Hey John, good to be with you.
So on election day here, as people are still standing in line, voting at voting centers up and down the state, filling out their ballots, taking it to the post office, getting it postmarked today, what is your read on the gubernatorial election?
Oh?
Gosh, well, first of all, what a wild ride it has been, and pretty pathetic, honestly that this is the best cast of Democratic characters that the Democratic Party in the state is blue as California could put up. But what I'm watching is, look, it appears to be Howvierbasara will take the top slot. That seems to be pretty safe at this point. He's kind of taken over for swallwell, and it appears as Steve Hilton will get into a
second place. But you know, depending upon the polling, depending on the turnout model you see, Tom Steier could be interchangeable for either of those two. So those are the things you know, I'm watching. And the other thing that's fascinating here, John, is that that moderate Democrats have no
appeal in a state like California. Matt Mahan came out with all this fanfare from the tech pros and those in northern California, and he's sitting at what three four percent in polling, even though he spent tens of millions of dollars.
It seems as if the Las Vegas odds makers have it at Besera over ninety percent, they have Hilton at seventy five percent, and they have Styre at what was at Randy twenty percent according to Calshi. Right now, Tom Steyer has a thirty four percent chance of it just went up to thirty five percent chance of advancing. What do you make of that? Why do you think Las Vegas and the people who are placing the bets have Steve Hilton so far above Tom Steyer in terms of the odds.
Well, I think that's a pretty safe bet actually, because typically in these kinds of contests you generally see coalescing where particular party kind of coalesces around one top candidate. And although Chad Bianco I like him, he's a good candidate, Steve Hilton really has become kind of the definitive Trump endorsed Republican in the state, and I think, look, he kind of checks all the boxes that the base would need to kind of get the joke here. Donald Trump
has repeatedly pronounced his endorsement. The Democrats have sent out mailers attacking Steve Hilton, but basically trying to attacking him to Republicans and coalesces his vote. And then, of course, I mean I can't I don't think I've gone a day or more that Steve Hilton hasn't been on a Fox News hit where you really can't say the.
Same for Chad Bianco.
So I think the bet on Hilton is that the Republicans kind of come home, they coalesce, which I think is safe. And you know, Sires again a little bit of a wildcard there, but I think.
It is pretty safe bet on Hilton at this point.
Let's just say that it is Besarah versus Hilton, that that is what the November ballot looks like. What do you think Hilton's chances are at winning that election?
You know, I struggle to see a pathway simply because stays like California are so hyper partisan and the numbers, you know, aren't really there for Republican However, there are a few kind of black Swan glimmers of hope here. One would be if you look at in terms of independent voters or no party preference. Actually, Steve Hilton is leading the field above the Sarah with independence, So people kind of who don't like the status quo, they're looking
for something else. Uh, So maybe there's an in there. And then I think the other wildcard is that Besarah gets caught up in some kind of Department of Justice handle. Uh and if that happens, all nets are off.
Who would be your first call to if you were Steve Hilton and you made it to the November ballot, would beat to Matt Mayhan asking for his endorsement.
Probably, yeah, Mayhan should. I mean, if he's intellectually honest, he he should get there.
You try to do that.
I think I would also go back to I'd go to places like you know, Jerry Brown, I'd go to Governor Schwarzenegger. You know, I try to coalesce statewide figures that were thought to be a little bit more moderate and try to get mods on your side.
Try to try to do that.
It's it's going to be tough because what you're going to see, John, because Sarah is thought to be the obvious winner. You're going to see a very quick coalescing of every local, state, and national Democratic figure that you can think off top of your head. They're all going to rally from Obama, Biden, Clinton, you know, just just the who's who's going to quickly coalesce around Bisera. So time is is short if you're Hilton. The other is you got to put together a war chest.
John.
If Hilton has a shot, I mean he's going to have to spend over one hundred million dollars and he could potentially do that if he catches fire and small donors across the country smell victory, it could be done.
But it's still very tough in to say, like.
California, newspapers across the nation are going to write the political obituary of Matt Mahon on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, some point in the future. What do you think those obits are going to say, why didn't it work?
I think I think they're going to say, probably got into late, couldn't excite enthusiasm, I didn't have.
You going to say he didn't have enough money.
You know, Porter's obviously already blaming stire for leaking videos out of I think Porter is going to, you know, blame misogyny, that it's just, you know, women can't get ahead in that state, which is ironic because wasn't a Kamala Harris who was a statewide elected official. And there's so many others. But I'm not sure that argument that
blame game really hass the sniff test. But I think what you're not going to see, John, I think the most telling you're not going to see the La Times and the Sacramento Bee in the New York Times talk about the truth, which is that the Democratic Party has shifted so extreme and so far left that they're really only interested in socialism and Trump arrangement, and those are really the two animating factors of the modern Democratic Party.
Do you think today is the last time we'll ever see Antonio Via goes his name on a ballot?
But that's a good question.
Statewide, yes, I don't think he can go statewide, But you know, lookal office. If he just had a thirst for serving on the Board of Supervisors, La City Council, I would be terribly shocked to see him run for those things. Now, maybe you could argue that's below his pay grade, but I get the sense that the man just wants to be relevant and he wants to serve. So done for statewide, done for probably national office, but but local.
I wouldn't count him out at this point.
Katie Porter has run for statewide office two times, two cycles in a row, and assuming the polls are correct, she will lose in the election today. Do you think she's done or do you think she finds another office.
To run for.
Boy, that's another good one. Well, I wish she were done for the sake of the country in Californians. I don't actually think she's done. I think this is her life's purpose. I think her ego is so large that really she will blame misogyny. It's anything but her fault. So I think you you're going to see her run again for some kind of state office down ticket, probably
attorney general I think is the most obvious fit. I mean, look John and these down ticket races particularly well particular statewide, but down the state wide ticket. The biggest hurdle for most of these races Secretary of state, attorney general, treasurer is simply name mighty creation. She has name I D So I think if she runs for a lesser office, she can be the only candidate with the most name
might and kind of slide in. Yet the other thing she could do is pivot to run for a local prosecutorial agency or board of supervisors in Orange County.
I have a.
Feeling she feels that's below her ego level. So I would bet, if you had a gun in my head, that she's going to run for attorney general and that social land.
She seems to really hate Tom Steyer, who she blames for producing that video that caused her campaign aim to implode. I kind of get the impression that that's just something in her life she's never going.
To get over.
I think Katie's known to hold grudges, particularly against men, the sense I've got there. But look, whether or not it was Styre who leaked it, that's that's the nature of these high profile races, is that if it's not going to be Stire, it's going to be one of your other opponents. So I think she needs get over it. If I were bounceling her, John, I'd say, look, this is a this is a sport. You entered the arena,
you're going to get smacked. Stop blaming If it wasn't Tire, be somebody else who leaked it, stop blaming others, and how about not screaming at your staff and try being a nice person.
That's the place to start.
One of the possibilities is that we could end up with Tom Steyer versus Javier or Bessira, an all Democratic top of the ticket Republican lockout. Does the Democratic Party want that or do they want one Democrat and one Republican so they can check the box and move on.
Oh, it'd be a nightmare. For the Democrats have two Dems at the top of the decade, because if you have a Democrat like the Sarah and then you have Hill, it kind of got just got to go through the motions. And you know, Bessara is what is considered by the establishment kind of a safe choice. And by the way, I think he's safe because it's not because he's competent.
I think he's a total idiot and useless. It's because he's manipulable, like special interests and unions in particular, the state can own him and tell him what they want to do, and that'll be doun. They won't be well run, but the money.
Will flow where it needs to flow for the interests.
The problem with the Stire Besarah matchup is the establishment Democrats do not want Tom Steyer to be to be the governor. And if Stire's in this race, I could see a scenario where Stire is the next governor. So no Democrats want this to be an R and a D for sure.
Let's move on to the LA mayor's race. Who do you think is going to get a ticket to move on in November?
Well, it appears to be obviously Karen Bath although amazingly. I mean, she is so badly damaged and weakened for an incumbent, it's really too bad. I think we haven't seen a stronger candidate kind of step up because I think that's been one of those cycles. She could have been defeated and then it appears to be Pratt. At this point, you know, we'll go to a runoff between the two of them, and then I think it again becomes more of a partisan game. At that point, again,
I struggle to see a path for Pratt. I give him kudos for throwing his hat in the ring. I think he's run a good race, but you know, I just see how you escape the mechanics that is La City in an R and D contest.
What do you make of him as a candidate, because I've had him on the show twice and I have been thoroughly impressed each time he's appeared on the program. Based on the email and the calls that we get, the audience seems to agree. He seems to have found lightning in a bottle in this race. I just don't know, given the politics of Los Angeles, if it'll be enough to win the seat, but he certainly has performed well to my eye, Well.
He's certainly outperformed where I thought he'd be when you first saw him get in, and he's really captured what I would say John is the most valuable thing in politics, which is he's authentic and he's credible when he delivers his message about erring to change LA, that LA's hit rock bottom, that it's incompetent. I believe that he believes them because he suffered the consequences he and his family did by having his home burned down, et cetera. So
that level of raw authenticity is so rare. Donald Trump had it, but you don't see it lot. And so he's captured that, and then he's poured terrooscene all over it to get more attention, and so far it's worked, and now he's early on. He kind of coalesced kind of the maggot influencers. He's a fixture on right wing media outlets. So I think the Republicans are kind of understanding that, and Pratt is trying to reach out beyond the base. I think it's just it's going to be
difficult for him. I think to beat to Bath simply,
I said, because of the partisan dynamics. I think the real long term coat tails of Pratt here is that if you're a reality celebrity or a celebrity and you're in a different state and you're watching this John as we go into the next presidential cycle, you may think, hey, you know what, I'm going to throw my hat in the ring and run because now Pratt has trailblazed the blueprint for people who are celebrities to get up enthusiasm and become viable political candidates.
Usually, when an incumbent is running for reelection, the focus of the news media is on the performance of the incumbent and not the challenger. This time around, in this race, most of the focus has been on Spencer. Pratt has been on things that he has done or said at some point in the past, on the character that he played on the television show whatever. The focus is on
him and not on Bess. Do you think that's because of media bias or do you think they're doing it because he's a more interesting person than her.
I think it's both, you know, Pratt, I mean, Karen is the most boring candidate you know. You can remember she really is a placeholder candidate. I mean she kind of checks the identity box that the Democratic candidate should. She had a when she was a member of Congress, I think she was one of the least remarkable members there. And as mayor, I mean, I really can't think of anything she's done. The only thing she's I can think
of things she's messed up or not done. But Pratt has kind of sucked all the oxygen out of the room because he's interesting. It is an interesting story that a reality show celebrity could potentially be the next mayor.
And then, of course, remember the local media doesn't want to fixate on how bad their favorite Democratic choice was because remember they also backed her over Rick Caruso last go around, and so of course they don't want to look like they were wrong in recommending people to vote for Bass over Crusoe.
Last question before you go.
Nancy Pelosi, the former Speaker of the House, announced that she is not running for reelection. She's retiring from public office. Scott Wiener, the state senator from San Francisco who generates a lot of attention, much of it negative, He announced that he was going to run for Congress before she said she was going to retire. She didn't like that clearly. Now she's endorsed Connie chan who is a liberal member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors who's running against
Scott Wiener. Why do you think Pelosi did that? Do you think it's still sour grapes from him announcing his candidacy before she retired. Do you think that she thinks he's too far to the left. What do you think is going on there?
Yeah, I don't think it's that she thinks he's too far to the left. I've dealt with this dynamic many times in my career, John, where a long time incumbent wants to feel that they're in control.
Of their successor.
So I really think that at the core of it is that she's upset that he pulled the trigger and ran for her seat without her blessing and her go ahead, and she's just kind of never, you know, never looked back.
And look.
The other thing is Weiener probably figured through the whether he can talk to her explicitly or her people, that he wasn't going to get her support. Otherwise he would have waited and probably you know, jen reflective kissed the ring in due time. But he decided to get out there, you know, fourhand to try to become a viable, viable contender. But uh yeah, I think really, at the core of it, it's a petty thing that Pelosi doesn't give a rip
about viability. She's just upset that she wasn't in charge of controlling who's going to take over her seat.
John Thomas, Republican political strategist. You can follow him on x at The Thomas Guide. And John, you're going to come back and join us later on in the week and go over all the results with us.
Yeah, I can't wait. And thanks for all your election coverage. Sean.
All right, John Thomas, everyone, thanks so much for stopping by. Eight hundred two two two five two two two is telephone number one eight hundred two two two five two two two. If you'd like to email the show, you can do so at Johnny don't Like show at gmail dot com. That's Johnny Don't Like Show at gmail dot com. And Randy, if you missed yesterday's interview with Spencer Pratt and you want to send it to people who are
voting in Los Angeles, that's easy to do. All you got to do is search for the John Phillips Show wherever you get your podcasts, and that could be the Apple podcast app. iHeart Spotify, search for the John Phillips Show, hit subscribe, you can download all the episodes.
You could do a Google on the YouTube.
You can get the free KABC app, the free KSFO app, or even the KMJ now app. Because we're on in the Central Valley Saturdays at noon, so many different ways to listen live to what we're doing every single day from noon to three. With the magic of streaming and with podcasts, you can share them with your friends, and you can listen to them on your time, and you can listen to them while you're doing something else. A lot of people listen to podcasts while they're at work.
Some people listen to podcasts while they're exercising. Some people might even listen to podcasts while they're on the couch watching heated rivalry with a big ol Martini.
Why do you have to watch porn in the living room?
And coming up later tonight, we're gonna be live in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Fresno. We're gonna be live and statewide from seven to nine pm with our election coverage. We will have all the rest else as they come in as the polls close at eight o'clock, everything that we can report will bring to you right then and there. John and I will be here, joined by Frank Motech of KABC and Philteresi of KATE MJ. We'll have some special guests on the phone as well, so stick with
us live statewide seven to nine. We'll be covering all the races, the LA mayors race, the congressional races, the ballot measures, and of course the governor's race between Javier Bessera, Steve Hilton and this guy.
I'm Tom Steyer. I'm about to ride the team, all right.
Speaking of which pleasure, it is our pleasure to welcome our next guest to the program. He is a Republican candidate for governor. You can get him online at goldentogether dot com and follow him on exit Steve Hilton X.
Steve Hilton, Welcome.
What is great to be with you. I'm very excited about your election night coverage. Are you going to get some food in and drinks so you're going to be staying there for the next month? What the risk while they finally count the votes? What do you think?
Oh, well, there's good. Definitely going to be no booze tonight because we're still governed by the FCC.
Oh my goodness. Well, let's know what kind of party is that we should come down to where we are at Huntington Beach.
All right, So it's looking good for you. The polls have you in the top too. Many of the polls and the betting markets have you as a heavy favorite tonight, a seventy five percent favorite of making the runoff. How do you feel going into today?
It's interesting. I do feel confident, John. I think we've really earned our spot there in the top two. We've been working very hard getting a lot of support. Feel the energy, just like you see with Spencer in LA I feel that all over the state, and I think it's mutually reinforcing. There's a sense that something's happening in California and people are looking to these two outsiders. Obviously,
we're very different in a very different race. I don't want to overstate the similarity, but we are too outside. It's never run for office before, coming into shake up a completely broken, corrupt and failed system, and there's an energy there and I feel good about that. However, you know, some of these poles have been very tight of late, and I don't know, I don't know which ones are right. Most of them, I'm still in the top two, some of them leading, some of them in the numbers two slot.
There was one pole over the weekend that had me number three, just to Tom Sire as one point behind Tom Sire And my attitude is that's the one I'm going to believe because we cannot take this for granted. Honestly, We've got a really good chance to kick out these Democrats in November. We've got everything going for us this year. We've got the fact that people are so done with all the chaos and the crime and the corruption, and
these fraud stories are driving people crazy. We pay so much in tax and then we find out what they're doing with our money, the gas prices, you know, just it's reached a point where people are just furious. And you see in the numbers fifty six percent of Californians think the state is going in the wrong direction and we need change. So that's our opportunity to win in November, as well as the fact that either of these Democrat
candidates or a disaster. You've got Javier Bassera, who you know, his own colleagues and the Biden administration thought was completely useless. I mean, how useless do you have to be if the Joe Biden team think you're incompetent. I mean, this guy is absolutely the living embodiment of more of the same. At a time when the California needs changed, all you've got Stayer who's just a total disaster, pandering to every
left wing group and activists and the unions. He's going even further to the left, even further in the direction the California says it doesn't want. So I think these are very beatable candidates. Plus we've got voter idea on the ballot in November that'll help us get a big turnout. In other words, it's a really golden opportunity this year. So let's not let it slip through our fingers by
being unfocused about this. The reality of this race. You've got three people pretty close going for two slots, and I just want to emphasize to everyone listening who hasn't yet voted, if you have still got in your mind the idea that somehow we could get two Republicans in the top two, we can. You know, Steve Hilton is going to be fine. He's kind of leading, and let's give our vote to Chad Bianco, so maybe we can get him in the top two and then we guarantee
the change. I understand that, but we're past that now. It's too late for that. He's too far behind. There's a point even debating how why. It's nothing personal. I like Chad, we get along, we agree on most things. It's not really about that anymore. It's just about the math. I hate that about this top two system, but that's the reality. There's only one candidate for change who's got the possibility of making into the top two, and that
is me. A vote for anybody else actually pushes us towards the calamity of two Democrats in the top two.
You mentioned the palls earlier. We also have real hard numbers in terms of what ballots have been returned from voters who have filled out their ballot and sent it in in twenty twenty two, at this point in the election, on the morning of election day, fifty four percent of the ballot's return we're Democratic, twenty seven percent, Republican nineteen
no party preference or third parties. This cycle, it's forty eight percent down thirty two percent Republican, twenty percent no party preference, are independent, meaning Democrats are underperforming by six percent, Republicans are overperforming by five percent, and independents are over performing by one percent compared to where things were in
twenty twenty two. What do you make of that and do you think that reflects what you're experiencing as you campaign up and down the state in terms of enthusiasm.
Yeah, exactly, I think that's exactly right. There's an excitement about the elections this year on the Republican side. I think it's a combination of the fact that I've been running around the state like a crazy person and campaigning in a way that no one has the governor for a long time, and of course Spencer in Los Angeles, he's had such a huge impact, and I think, as I said, it's mutually reinforcing. I go. I'm in LA a lot, obviously, because it's a huge part of the state.
I'm running statewide, but Los Angela's county is nearly a quarter of the vote, and it's very, very important. I've got a lot of big supporters, there lots of events in LA and there's a massive overlap with Spencer's supporters in La so I think there's something that is exciting the Republicans in this year's elections. Meanwhile, the Democrats are not excited about their choices, and that's why they've left
it a bit late. It doesn't mean they won't catch up and get out and vote in the remaining oles that we have until eight pm tonight, but I think it's a very positive sign that the enthusiasm seems to be much higher on our side.
It really goes to show you how neglecting to run a candidate for big city mayorships like Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Oakland hurts the Republican candidates up and down the ballot because you need to have enthusiasm in these big cities because those are your population centers exactly.
And look at the impact that he's had way beyond Los Angeles, not just in California, but across the country, and it shows you what you can do with good creative campaigning. It's an incredibly exciting model. And I think the point you make is exactly right, and it goes
back to something I've said for a long time. It's also something I law Ingram actually to someone who I was just speaking to about it last night on Fox makes this point that we cannot have this sort of sense of no go areas for Republicans where we just abandon places because we assume that there there's never going
to be any support there. That's really wrong. And actually it's typically the places that have been most run for by Democrats with most entrenched Democrat power, that most need the kind of common sense policies that Republicans would offer. So you could argue that we really need Republican candidates to fight hard in those places. And I think that this is a very important year from that point of view to remind us of that.
Right now, the Bisara campaign is calling on Tom Steyer to take down and ad that suggests that if Javier Besserra is the Democratic nominee, he could be indicted by the Feds. We know that his longtime chief of staff, John McCluskey is kind of deal with the Feds after he was being charged with corruption and tax evasion. We know that Dana Williamson, who was the chief of staff of Gavin Newsom, who has worked with Javier Bessera over
the years, is a very close trusted aid. She is also in the process of cutting a deal with the FEDS, as is a third confidant of Bessara's. What do you make of that ad and do you think that there is a chance that Bessarah could be indicted by the Feds?
Well, I do, and I made that point on the debate stage. I think it was the final debate. But what was interesting is when I said to Bessarah, I
laid out the facts of this case. I mean, I don't want to take up time going into it now, but it's pretty clear to me that this entire scheme that led to the federal indictments of Williamson and Shaw McCluskey was created in order that he Bessarah could take his guy Sean McCluskey with him to Washington, d C. When he was appointed to the federal administration by Joe Biden. That was the whole point of it. So the idea that he didn't know about it just stretches credulity to
the point where it breaks. And I pointed out on the debate stage, you shouldn't be in this race heavier, you should be preparing your criminal defense. And then Katie Porter weighed in and basically agreed with me, and she makes the same point. She said very clearly that you've got Dana Williamson in particular, who she thinks is very likely to have told as part of her plea deal the authorities that the Sarah knew. So I think Styer's got a fair point actually on this, But we'll see
what happens. I mean, it does feel as if Styre is but this and other things that he's doing and the enormous amounts of money he's spending do seem to be having an effect. I mean, he seems to be rising and catching up. And for example, a poll that the California Post did last week had me and Stire tied on twenty five percent and the Sarah Quando a
long way behind. So I've just seen a couple of posts on social media as well that from exit polling in Los Angeles late breaking, the Democrats are going overwhelmingly for Stiants. So I don't know. I mean, if I don't know whether this ad or his other stuff is working, it, certainly he's spent enough money on it.
Well.
That tweet was from Michael Trehillo, who is Vera Ragosa aided staffer who despises Javier Bsra, So I think there's a rivalry between those two camps going on. Let's talk about some of these stories about Bisera that have come
out in Politico. Former Biden administration officials have been planning hit pieces on him, saying that when he was in the Biden administration, he would show up to meetings completely unprepared, and when Biden would ask him questions at cabinet meetings, he frequently didn't have the answers to anything that he was asked, and that his performance was embarrassing. And Susan Rice and Michael Rosa, who worked for the first Lady
Jill Biden, they were certainly not impressed with him. I guess there are text message threads among a lot of Biden lums where they cannot believe that this guy is in a position where he has an opportunity to become the governor of California. We also know that the opinions of him coming from the House of Representatives, where he served for a very long time, are also low. We know that Nancy Pelosi doesn't like him, doesn't regard him
as being someone who is trustworthy. What do you make of the fact that the people who have worked with him the most through the years have such a low opinion of him.
Well, I think that that's going to translate into a low opinion of the voters if he's the candidate. I mean, as I keep putting it, he's a target rich environment. And let's just run through. I mean, we've already had the corruption case that we've discussed in terms of his basic competence and the opinions of those who know him best. I mean, there's going to be a lot more that came from. And the record at the HHS is a complete disaster the more you look at it. I'm for example,
let's just take a couple of examples. I mean, there's the famous one. Got a lot of airplay during the debates. Antonio Vierracosa particularly focused on this, and of course, you know it'll be an absolutely core part of the campaign against Besserah is this business of the migrant children. And the story is that he lost migrant children. I think
that underplays it. What actually happened was he had a large number of unaccompanied migrant children as part of Biden's open border disaster in his custody in the custody of his department, and the number eighty five thousand is often thrown around, the real number is much higher than that. In fact, the New York Times reporter who broke the original story and got a Pulitzer for it, updated her piece in line with the debates and just published a kind of, you know, a guide to what the story was.
She said, the total numbers two hundred and fifty thousand, and it wasn't that they lost them. It was much worse than that. But Sarah deliberately pushed these kids out of his custody into unvetted hands because he didn't want the optics of looking like he was as they accused President Trump of having kids in cages, that it was purely for pr and then he shoved these kids out. They went to unvetted locations, many of them, according to whistleblowers,
directly into the hands of child sex traffickers. Kids as young as five years old sex trafficked. I mean, these are really horrific stories, and they are the direct result not of his incompetence but his venality, the fact that he just wanted to look good and didn't want these kids in his custody. And then you've got the incompetence. On top of that, his total mismanagement of the pandemic in getting everything wrong, I mean the record. Then you've got on top of that the fact that this guy
in a state that wants change. As I mentioned earlier, fifty six percent of Californias think going in the wrong direction and need change. He's the living embodiment of more of the same. He's been a career politician in the California machine for thirty six years. He just the other day with Alex Michaelson on CNN had basically a repeat of Kamala Harris's disaster his moment on the view in her presidential campaign when she was asked, oh, is there
anything you'd have done differently? To Joe Biden, She's kind of looked in the air and said, oh, I can't you know, nothing comes to mind. Well, Pasarah had the same Alex Michaelson asked him, Look, you've got to state where you've got the highest poverty rate, highest on employment rate, highest cost of living. Things aren't going well. Is there anything you'd have done differently? What does Besara say? Well, it can't be that bad because lots of people are
still going to Disneyland. That was his answer. This guy's a complete joke. I think that if he is the candidate, we are going to be able to make a case against him that is unanswerable. He is absolutely not fit for this job because of his basic competence, his corruption, but probably more than anything else, it's just total inability to grasp the changes that are needed to get our state back on track.
Well, it's beyond that. He doesn't seem interested. He doesn't seem like any of these subjects. Yes, yeah, because when he's asked questions about it, he gives these nebulous answers that mean nothing. Well, we're going to roll up our sleeves and get the job done. Well, that means nothing.
Scrub it.
And that's another one that he likes to say. It seems to me that if he becomes the guy, if he becomes the Democratic nominee, they're going to run him the same way they ran Joe Biden for president.
They're going to keep him in the basement.
Yes, exactly. Funnily enough, in one of the debates, I remember looking I think at the Permanent College one. I just remember looking at him. He was next to me, and thinking, who does this guy remind me of? Just the way he talks in this ridiculous manner. I thought, that's it. He's Joe Biden. That's exactly who he is, I think. And you know, he perfectly sort of seems like a nice guy. I don't know quite why they didn't like him in the house. My interactions and interactions
with him have been perfectly plumbus. But he's just a sort of amiable nonentity like buys. Just think about a bind, just complete nonentity, got nothing to say, absolutely, no drive to improve anything, no interest in anything except their own position within the party machine, and pandering to the various groups that might help his career. That's what it's all about for him.
Steve Hilton, Republican candidate for governor. You can get him online at goldentogether dot com. You can follow him on X at Steve Hilton X.
Steve.
Good luck tonight, and if Las Vegas is right, you're going to be moving on in November. And let me tell you all right, that town was not built on losing.
Well, only only if people vote. You've got to go and vote for it if you want to change. Thank you, John, great to.
Be with you all right, Steve Hilton, everyone, thanks so much for stopping by, and Randy, we have one more hour and then we're coming back later on. We're here till three, and then I'm here from five to six on KABC, and then Johnny and I are live and statewide from seven to nine pm. All lection results as the polls close at eight o'clock, so tune in live on KABC, live on KSFO, and live on km Jay and Fresno