Oh my goodness, Oh my goodness. Guess what I got to tell y'all. Guess what I have to tell you. America can't wait for Donald Trump to get in office January twenty first. And guess who's saying that. It ain't me, It's liberals in the state of California. I guess wildfire as would do that to you. Huh. You see how bad it is. I'm about to show you even more next on The Stephen A. Smith Show. What's Up? Everybody?
Welcome to this latest edition of The Stephen A. Smith Show, coming at you over the digital airways of YouTube and of course iHeartRadio. As always, I like to take a moment to thank and show gratitude to my subscribers. We've now eclipsed over one million subscribers. Actually, we're approaching one million, thirty thousand subscribers, which means we picked up over thirty
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Want to get that Straight Shooter book dot com To get yourself a copy of my New York Times best selling book. I got a lot of stuff to get into it, but everything pales in comparison to what I'm about to touch on. Okay, and we've got to get started here. We've got to get started with the sad news out of southern California and the wildfires that have devastated the region. At least ten people are dead this week, and more than ten thousand structures have been destroyed by
fires fueled by unprecedented wind blowing through several counties. Whole neighborhoods have been devastated by the Coastal Palisades fire, and official who say this could be the costliest fire in US history. All this while tens of thousands of residents have been forced to evacuate their homes and many have
already lost their houses altogether. Some high profile names who have lost their homes include actor Billy Crystal Head coach for the Los Angeles Lakers, coach JJ Reddick, star of Young and the Wrestless soap opera player Victor Newman, the One and Only Eric Braden, who I spoke to yesterday as well. Meanwhile, firefighting teams are expecting more wind and dry conditions to continue to complicate efforts into next week.
Police have detained a suspect allegedly responsible for starting one of the fires raging in Los Angeles, a homeless man in his thirties. But the biggest concern coming out of the fires are the questions around the city's fire budget. Records show the fire budget for this fiscal year was cut by more than seventeen and a half million dollars. Los Angeles Mey and Caaron Bass signed a budget seven months ago that went from eight hundred and thirty seven
million dollars to eight hundred and nineteen million dollars. However, the city council in November approved a four year, two hundred and three million dollar contract with the firefighters Union to helped boost wages and health benefits for staff drawing from the budget general fund. Mayor Bass was away in Ghana when the fire started. Take a look at this video from earlier this week when she was confronted by a reporter coming off a plane as she returned.
Do you owe citizens and apology for being absent while their homes were burning? Do you regret coming the fire department budget by millions of dollars? Mount of Mayor? Have you nothing to say today? That you absolutely nothing to say to the citizens today? Halon Mosk says that you're utterly incompetent. Are you considering your position, Madam Mayor? Have you absolutely nothing to say to the citizens today? You're
dealing with this disaster? No apology for them? Do you think you should have been visiting Ghana while this was unfolding?
Back home? That is beyond bad, That is utterly pathetic. You couldn't say not at this time. I'll have answers for you later. I just got back in. Once I huddle with my staff, once I huddle with my cabinet, we will be back and we will speak to the citizens of Los Angeles in the state of California. Can do that? Can do that? You see, this is the kind of stuff that annoys the living hell out of me.
Let me be very very clear, Karen Bass is responsible for the city of Los Angeles, not Los Angeles County. She doesn't She doesn't have to answer for those folks, Okay, And she's certainly not responsible for the wildfire that has engulfed the surrounding areas of Pacific Palisades, Malibu, et cetera. We get that part. That's a natural disaster. That's not
on her. What is on her is the apparent lack of a plan, the incompetence, the dereliction of duty because you knew two days in advance that the fires were coming, although you didn't know how severe it would be, and you decided to depart for Ghana. What the hell is going on in Ghana that you had to be gone when you knew that fires could engulf the city, if not the state. Where were you? Why were you there? What purpose did that serve to the citizens that you
were elected to govern over. So that's one thing when it comes to her. The other thing is Governor Gavin Newsom, it's a local issue. It's not really a state issue. Did you really try to pass the buck to local authorities instead of you? Did you try to do that?
It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. And just to get into somewhat of a history lesson, did you know that Donald Trump wanted to pump water from Canada into California when he was the president of the United States from twenty seventeen to twenty twenty one, and Gavin Newsom resisted? Did you know that? Did you know that Donald Trump had been speaking about the potential of such a disaster
taking place and was utterly ignored. I've got two quotes I'd like to show you from Donald Trump right now. Here's the first one. Take a look at this. The governor of California, Gavin Newsom, has done the terrible job of forest management. I told him from the first day we met that he must clean his forest floors, regardless of what his bosses the environmentalist demand of him. Must also do burns and cut fire stoppers every year. Is
the fire's rage in California burns. It is the same thing, and then he comes to the federal government for dollars for help. No more, get your act together, governor. You don't see close to the level of burn in other states. That was Donald Trump President Donald Trump on x slash Twitter in twenty nineteen. Fast forward nearly six years later.
Let's look at what Donald Trump had to say. Just a couple of days ago, Governor Gavin Newsom refused to sign a water restoration declaration put before him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water from excess rain and snow melt from the north to flow daily in the many parts of California, including the areas that are currently burning in a virtually apocalyptic way. He wanted to protect an essentially worthless fish, caught a smelt by giving
it less water. It didn't work, but didn't care about the people of California. Now the ultimate price is being paid. I will demand that this incompetent governor allow beautiful, clean, fresh water to flow into California. He is the blame for this. On top of it all, no water for fire hydrants, not firefighting planes, a true disaster, So firefighting planes, fire hydrants non existent, water and fire hydrants non existent.
We saw firefighters standing outside looking at homes burning, and when they were asked why they weren't doing anything, they said, we put the holes connected it to the fire hydrants. We turned it on and no water came out. No water was available. This in a state that's collected nearly two hundred and twenty one billion in taxpayer revenue, the
highest of any state in the Union. You got nine states in the United States of America, including New York, who shelled down in excess of one billion dollars for the migrant crisis. This is according to my leader. To my research, yet, California led the country with expenses of nearly thirty one billion dollars to take care of illegal
immigrants and their children, according to the Fair study. We're talking about one hundred and fifty nine million allocated by the federal government to the state of California through FEMA funding for funding to provide humanitarian services to non citizen migrants. You're talking about California being a sanctuary state since twenty seventeen. You're talking about California recently providing four billion per year in funding to extend taxpayer funded healthcare to an additional
seven hundred thousand undocumented immigrants. Scaling those courts up to one point nine million estimated totally in California results in rough total course of eleven billion dollars a year, the state having cut the lad or shifted forty seven billion to balance the budget in the year twenty twenty four alone. California is talking about cutting services or raising taxes even more so than the fourteen point four percent that they put on you right now, and you're trying to tell
me you don't have any water. No water. My personal belief is that the political career of Gavin Newsom is in peril, not flat out over. His presidential aspirations have been eviscerated. There is no way he overcomes this. No way. And in regards to Karen Bass to say nothing, you can come and speak out, but that video will live
in infamy. You had absolutely nothing to say, flying all away from God about a fifteen hour flight to Los Angeles, and you're telling me you couldn't answer reporter's question, no comment. We'll talk later, or let me huddle with my staff and we'll get back to You couldn't even think to say that nobody on your staff prepared you for what has been transpiring in California. Nobody gave you a warning the head's up. You didn't have anything to say, Ladies
and gentlemen. I'll never say that California is gonna turn red. But I guess if something was blue and transition into red, I guess the colors or something like that. I don't know, whatever the hell of color is, that's where it's gonna get aim towards. That's just the way it's gonna be. But that's enough for me. I want to get to my man, Kevin Fraser right now. Okay, because this man right here, Kevin Fraser, he'll be up next, works for
entertainment tonight, but he's covering the fires. He's a resident of the city of Los Angeles. He knows what the hell he's talking about. You see him daily hosting entertainment tonight. He has details about what's transpiring and what's being said and what's going on in the midst of these wildfires. We'll be right back with him in a moment. All right, everybody, please lend me your ears, because I've got an important
announcement to make. The NFL playoffs are here, college football is reaching its pinnacle, and we're right in the middle of the NBA season. So what all that action happened? The Stephen A. Smith Show wants to make sure you take advantage of it all. That's why we have partnered with Prize Picks, the best place to get real money action while watching your favorite sports. You see. With Prize Picks, you pick two or more of your favorite players, and then you simply select the more or less on the
projected stats for the game. Choose Bold Knicks's rushing yards, Kyrie's assist and Adam Fox's total time on the ice, all in the same entry. It takes just sixty seconds to make your picks and then you sit back and watch. So download the app today and use code that say he has to get fifty dollars instantly after you play your first five dollar lineup. Again, download the app and use code sas to get fifty dollars instantly after your first five dollar lineup. Prize Picks run your game. Now,
let's look at my winning picks today. I'm selecting from Saturday night's wild card game between the Steelers and Ravens in Baltimore. First up, we have Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson more or less than two hundred and eighteen and a half yards passing. It's Lamar Jackson as the Baltimore Raves, and I don't like the way the Pittsburgh Steelers look. I'm going with more, much to my depressive state. Next up, Ravens running back Derek Henry more or less than ninety
nine and a half yards of the ground. I gotta go with more on that te Why shouldn't. No, He's Derek Henry mster nineteen hundred plus yard Russia this year. The man's a man amongst boys. And I was there a few weeks ago in Baltimore watching the ruad all over the Steelers. Then why should I believe it's gonna be anything different? Now? I got to go with more. Next up, we've got Steelers quarterback Russell Wilson going more or less than two hundred and a zero point five
yards passing. With this one, I'm still gonna pick more, but Bailly, I don't expect the good game from Russell Wilson. I don't know if George Pickens is invested. Who knows what the hell's gonna happen. I'm praying I'm wrong because I want my Steelers to win. I just don't see it happening. It is what it is. But I'm gonna say he's gonna throw for more than two hundred yards. Okay, I'm gonna say that much, right, because I don't know how well they're gonna be able to run the football
against against Baltswow, They're gonna have to throw it. Finally, steal is receiving George Pickens more or less than fifty one and a half yards. I'll go with more as well, but only because it's fifty one and a half yards. I mean, show a damn posset. Show up, George Pickens. I mean, just Baul, do what you gotta do. You're the primary weapon for Russell Wilson. He needs you, Bro, he needs gotta show up and get it done. I'm gonna go with more on this one as well. Prize pects,
I love to say more. I hate saying less because when you say less, damn it, that don't vibe with prize picks. Who wants to put more money in all of our pockets. I'm going with more across the board. Joining me now is a longtime LA resident and friend of the program, one of my best friends in the world. You see him daily as the host of Entertainment Tonight. Please welcome back to the show, the one and only Kevin Fraser. First of all, Kevin Fraser, how are you? How are you and your family?
We are safe and we are sound, but there are so many families who are suffering.
Steven I just came.
Back from the fires and TV he does not really show you the depths of the devastation. And this isn't something that's going to be solved in a year or three years. It looks like an atomic bomb went on off in the Palisades area in Alta Dina. These places are destroyed, and these are folks who will need help for five seven years to come as they all try to rebuild.
Crystallize for us the kind of damage that you've witnessed with your own two eyes, and what people are saying to you about the damage they've witnessed.
Sure, what you see is literally standing in a neighborhood and you can see all the way across the neighborhood because every house is gone. And when I say every house is gone, the houses are ashes.
They have burned to the ground. And imagine this, Steve. We arrive there and.
We are starting to shoot stand ups, and by the time we're done stand ups, two more houses burned down. The fires were active, they were never under control while we were there, and so it is devastating to see that. And then it's devastating to see people return to their home. Like your good friend Eric Brayden. I can't put into words watching him, watching the tears roll down his face as he looked at his home of over thirty five
forty years. It was ashes and today and I know you were going to his son's premiere if it had happened here in La but it's not down because of the fires.
But he was pointing out the room where his son wrote.
Most of his new movie, and it's just tears just flowed as he thought about all that had.
Been built to give a personal insight, you know, because I don't think a lot of people realize how close he and I are. We're very close to the point that you saw that the house had burned down before he was notified, and you called me to get in touch with his son so his son can give him the information. So he didn't just go in there blind and all of a sudden see what he didn't think he would see, which is the house being burnt down. And he was devastated, to say the least. And his
son is flying back from London. And as it was flying back from London last night, as we speak, go ahead, keV golheada Steve.
I was gonna say that he didn't. You know, Eric's a tough old guy. He's been through everything, through World War Two and the rebuilding of his homeland in Germany.
He's been through cancer and so many other things.
So I don't think he thought that it would hit him like it did. And he said to me, he said, now I understand. I understand what people are going through when they come to their house and everything is gone because he didn't take that much with him. He didn't think the fires were gonna jump the canyon and come to his house. So everything is gone.
What are people in Los Angeles saying now? Are they
saying this is a natural disaster? Are they pointing the finger as I am at the politicians throughout the state of California, that's from Gavin Newsom on down to me and Karen Bass and others, it is an absolute travesty in the state, obviously in Los Angeles and the surrounding areas Pacific Palisades, Malibu, etc. What are they saying about their elected officials at this particular moment in time, and be specific as to what they're saying and why they're saying it.
Okay, Number one, people are scared.
They're terrified because there has never been anything like this before. And what happened the first day was basically a hurricane of fire and no one can prepare for that. No one can be ready for that. And you understand. But in the days coming, as more fires popped up and people began to question, how are these fires just popping up and can't just be And as they've seen with the fire out in Calabasas, they believe it was arson.
People are frustrated because the firefighters literally could not react fast enough to save homes.
Literally.
They they would come to one house, it's on fire, they try to stop it, they can't.
They've got to move on to the next house.
And people are like, why weren't the city and even the state more prepared for this? Now? Fingers were pointed immediately at Karen Bass she was out of town. There was that interview where she was coming home with a Sky with a reporter from Sky News who was asking her some very pointed questions. There is no way Karen Bass could have done anything, and that's the video of
the interview. There's no way she could have done anything about that hurricane that happened, those hundred miles an hour winds.
There is nothing she could have done about.
That could have spend. She could have she could have had some answers.
This is the one thing people now need help. They don't know where they're going. They don't know where their kids are going to school, they don't know where they're going to live.
There was already a housing shortage in Los Angeles.
Where are these people going to go?
The people in Altadena in the other fire, regular folks who don't have that celebrity money.
Where they're going? Where are they going to go?
They elected officials to help them take care of this situation. And I think that the concern is that there hasn't been a real direction laid of what is next?
How can we help? I saw Gavin Newsom yesterday.
I saw him.
I ran ran into him and ran out and jumped out of the car to talk to him, and he said, I can't talk. I'm on the phone with the President, and I understand that. But they have to fix this situation. They have to take care of these people, the people who had the faith to vote you in.
Now you must take care of your constitution.
Well, keV, here's my issue. You didn't elaborate extensively on firefighters saying there was no water. How do you not have enough water in the state of California. I'm wondering about that. And before we go further, I want to play.
I want to show you this quote that was put out by former President Donald Trump, soon to be president again come January twenty first with his inauguration, But in twenty nineteen, he put this quote on x slash Twitter quote, the governor of California, Gavin Newsom, has done the terrible job of forest management. I told him from the first day we met that he must clean his forest floors, regardless of what his bosses, the environmentalists demand of him.
Must also do burns and cut fire stoppers every year as the fires rage in California burns. It is the same thing. And then he comes to the federal government for help, meaning dollars no more. Get your act together, Governor. You don't see close to the level of burn in other states. That was Donald Trump. That was in twenty nineteen. Kevin, I want to play this quote for you right here. I want to show you this quote rather because it's incredibly important. I'm trying to find it here. I apologize.
I can't find it. I will in a second, but I wanted to know your thoughts. You saw it there, It is there, It is right there, yea, there is. Governor Gaven Newsom refused to sign the water Restoration Declaration put before him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water from excess rain and snow melt from the north to flow daily into many parts of California, including, okay, the areas that are currently burning in a virtually apocalyptic way.
He wanted to protect an essentially worthless fish caught a smelt by giving it less water. It didn't work, but didn't care about the people of California. Now the ultimate price is being paid. I will demand that this incompetent governor allowed beautiful, clean, fresh water to flow into California. He is the blame for this on top of it all, no water for fire hydrants, not firefighting planes. A true disaster.
And the only comeback that Gavin Newsom had on Anderson Cooper on CNN when Anderson Cooper a couple of days ago, was there are things that I want to say, but I can't. But it's a shame that he would politicize this. That's all the comeback that Gavin Newsom had. Go ahead, Kevin Floor is yours.
Steve, let me say this, okay, there are some points that are valid about California being prepared for the fire season or for fires each and every year. I will say again, the fire that burned down Palisades was a once in a lifetime anomaly of one hundred mile an hour winds and fire pushing it through a neighborhood. Now that being said, once it starts and once it happens, you have to call in the cavalry. It was one night basically where the entire Palisades burned down and they were gone.
But there has to.
Be a plan in place so that this doesn't happen again. We know we're in an area where the Santa Ana winds come through each and every year, and it was so heartbreaking to see the fires just jumping from.
House to house to house.
And the next day, while the fires were still burning, firefighters were there from all over the state. They did come, and they came from all over the state. But it was too late. It was too late. People's houses were gone. The California economy is one of the biggest in the world. Right if you put it up against other country, you could put it up against other countries, it would be
ranked very highly. But the problem is is that the little things are falling through the cracks, and this is one of those things that fell through the cracks and turned into armageddon. And now the rebuild and what California is gonna lose is what really worries me.
Well, it should worry you. You got no money. I'm looking at this right here, Kevin. Seventeen thousand acres have been burned.
Okay, it's more than that, now, see it's twenty acres.
It's more than.
Manhattan twenty twenty.
In Manhattan twenty eight, imagine all of Manhattan burning.
That's right. Number two. Officials ordered one hundred and thirty thousand to evacuate. That number is probably larger now, okay, large it's much larger than that. Now, more than four hundred and twenty thousand people are estimated to be without power. That's roughly the population of Minneapolis, and the largest city in Minnesota. One estimate puts damage in economic losses at anywhere from fifty two to fifty seven billion. But that
was yesterday. It could be more today. Sixty it's over sixty billion.
It's over sixty billion dollars, Steven, Let's not get this twisted.
This is a shit show.
It is an incredible nightmare of epic proportions. And Eric Braden said it best when he said, this looks like Germany after.
World War two.
Wow.
And now you have to rebuild in areas where some people don't even have insurance anymore, where their fire insurance was taken away.
And why was their fire insurance taken away? Why did the why did the insurance company take their fire insurance away?
Kevin, Listen, this is more of and let's understand something.
Whether it's it's it's the insurance industry as a whole. The insurance industry as a whole has been taking advantage of Americans for a long time, and they dropped people's fire insurance and by dropping their fire insurance because they were like, oh, you're in Pacific Palisades, You're never gonna burn, and we're gonna drop your insurre karrance and people said, okay, well we have to gamble. They gambled, and now look
at they're lost. These are multimillion dollar homes, and some of these homes are legacy homes with families that have kept them forever. And it's people's nest egg and how they're going to live their life, and now it's gone. So I say to Gavin Newsom, I say to Karen Bass, you now have to step up and you have to show leadership because I don't think and I voted for Karen Bass. I was excited for her to be the mayor of Los Angeles, and now I want to see her be the leader that we expect her to be.
Being that leader means you are going to have to take care of some people who are in dire straits.
You are a California resident, a homeowner. I have a place in California. I just rent it. I can get rid of it is on a month to month basis, to be specific. But let me throw this out at you. My Brother. Fiscal year twenty twenty three, this is the state of California collected the total of two hundred and twenty point fifty nine billion dollars US dollars in tax revenue, the highest of any state. You got nineteen different states in America who shelled out in excess of one billion
dollars for the migrant crisis. California led the country with expenses of nearly thirty one billion to take care of illegal immigrants and their children, according to the Fair study. So I'm looking at that, I'm looking at one hundred and fifty nine million allocated to the state of California by FEMA. I'm looking at the four billion a year in funding California recently exceededs received to extend tax taxpayer funded healthcare to an additional seven hundred thousand undocumented immigrants.
Then I'm thinking about Donald Trump coming into office as the president elect and the things he remembers that Gavin Newsom said up about him, the things he pointed out about the state that Gavin Newsom wouldn't listen to, and as a result, he's in this kind of quandary, this quagmire. What do you think is going to happen to the state of California based on those facts that I just gave you.
Well, Stephen, if all of those if Donald Trump really imposes his immigration initiatives, if he starts to round up people, there's gonna be no one here to really help to rebuild this city. Because understand that the Latino population.
Because we are in Mexico, basically.
The Latino population fuels this city. And don't get it twisted. And so that's a problem now, the immigration status of people and fixing the immigration laws, that is something that needs to be worked on, but it needs to be worked on in a collective way.
California is screwed right now.
You're right, there's an imbalance and that's up to the governor and the mayor to fix it. One of the things that people expected from Karen Bass is to fix the homeless situation.
It's a nightmare in la and.
It believed and by the way, the homeless population is according to statistics, is responsible for more than fifty percent of the fires in California.
And that is true, and that is true, and that is why we expected the mayor to start to fix that and the same problems that you're having in San Francisco you're having in Los Angeles. There is no doubt about it. But we expect them to fix them. That's why they're elected. And I think that now they are teetering on the edge of a recall. I would not be surprised if there was not a recall for Karen Bass.
There's already been a recall for Gavin Newsom. He survived, Yep, he survived that. I think he's got a little more a little less than two years left in office, of course, approximately twenty two twenty one to twenty two months to go for him. But you expect there to be a recall for me and Karen Bass after this.
I believe that there could be a recall.
And I also think that you know, this damage is Gavin Newsom's presidential aspirations. Wow, question they have. They have a chance to fix this and I and I was one of the people who believed that Gavin Newsom would make a fantastic Democratic nominee for the presidency.
I think that he is smart, he is a great orator.
He is has compassion, He really does believe in his constituents, and the way he governs is the way I would want someone to govern. V.
Now you've got to fix some things.
You're my brother. You know I love you, and you know we talk a lot. We disagree with me. I think he's done after this. I think he's done. Kevin. You cannot, you cannot look at it. This is a natural disase, I get, but it was exacerbated by clear incompetence or dereliction of duty, one of the two. When you combine that with it being a homeless individual that has been accused of stoking this fire, when you.
Consider starting the firing, starting the firing, calabasas, when you.
Consider the fact that it's a homeless issue that has now come to the forefront along with a migrant issue to some degree, because you're talking about money and funds and what's lacking and how that compromised what the firefighters could do. I don't know how you get over this, Calv.
I don't Okay, Well, hold on, Stein, hold on, hold on. I think there's a couple of things to clarify. Number one is that La City is one thing. La County is another thing. La County is where a lot of these fires have happened, not in La City, but La County, and so that is outside of Mayor Karen Bassas jurisdiction. She is La City, so we give her that and we give her a grace there. Also, we have to stand that the main fire that burned everything down was
a once in a lifetime anomaly. That being said, and also I think we need to point out that the budget that was cut for the fire department was administrative jobs, but money was also moved around. They did not lose they did not lose any firefighters. All that being said, the system is archaic. There wasn't enough water, and there weren't enough firefighters on the ground, and at one point it was too dangerous for those firefighters to be there when everything really really burned down.
The winds were just too chaotic.
Planes could not get up in the air, and that's why you saw it spread so quickly.
But my big.
Problem is when you are the mayor, come back with a plan. Come back and reassure me, because you know what, you're the parent. Be the parent, be the adult in the room, and show me that you have a plan and that we, your constituents, will be cared for.
That's what I want to hear. I haven't heard that yet.
I've heard a bunch of talk, but I haven't heard a plan, and I haven't heard saying that we're going. You know, in Hawaii they opened up some of the resorts for the people that were affected by the fires there so that they had somewhere to go immediately, because people were suffering, they needed a place to go. Where are you sending the people into la You can't just send them to a random gym and let me You can't send them.
To a random and let me stop you there, Let me stop you there, Kevin. Last question, yep, you have poor people. We know that. As unfortunate as it is for those who are affluent that have suffered losing their homes and the fires, we know they have the means to cover themselves. Some some we know they have the means to cover themselves. Poor people do not. Their homes have been burned, they've been displaced, and in a city like Los Angeles, in a state like California, this hemorrhaging money.
They don't have much and somehow, some way, all of this is true when you've collected over nearly two hundred and twenty one billion in tax revenue, the highest of any state in this country. keV I don't even know what to say anymore about these elected officials in California to meet the first order of businesses? How you gonna find someplace? You just talked about the home shortage, all right in California. Where the hell you're gonna take these people were gonna do?
But see, that's what I'm talking about. That's leadership.
That's when you are going to whether it's hotels and Airbnb right now is giving people free albums stays. But there are kids who are going to be out of school, they've lost everything, they don't have a place to go.
Where are you sending all these people? Where are they going to stay?
And that's why I'm what happened in a while in Lahina they literally took some of the resorts and said.
We're moving people into these resorts.
Got it?
And whether it's you start building, you know, whether you put people.
In mobile homes or whatever. You need to figure this out and I need to hear a plan from leadership.
Also, I just want to mention this because I think it's important to say, listen, in California, you pay.
A lot of taxes.
Hell yes, and you know what the people in Palisades, they paid a lot of damn taxes. That's going to be very interesting to see how this plays out, because those people who have been paying that boatload of taxes millions of dollars into the system are now the neediest in the state.
And by the way, they're the ones that put Gavin Newsom and people like Karen Bass in office.
That is a power source for the Democratic Party that Palisades area where you so not their money.
So now you realize you have Democrats who helped put them in office screaming about their level of incompetence and neglect and clamoring for Donald Trump to be back in office.
You realize that, right I don't know if they're clamoring for Donald Trump to be back in offic right now, clamoring for help right now? No no, no, no, no, no, no, no no no, because listen, Steve, Steve, Donald Trump is gonna go and round up folks once he starts this immigration suite. Who the hell's gonna build the houses, who's gonna build the houses, who's gonna help with the construction the people who are here that do the the mountain share of the labor in this city.
Are you ready for this or Latino.
Do you want my Latino? Do you want my answer?
Sure? I want to hear your answer.
He's going back up off for all of that because it's gonna make him look good that he utilized them to come to the rescue for the second largest state in the Union and hopes that it'll turn it red from blue. He's gonna put and if he pulls that off, the citizens of California gonna remember that. They're gonna look at the Democratic leadership and say, we've given y'all enough money and enough time. That's what I think is going to happen. I'm not with what. I don't care about it,
but it is politics right now. It is politics right now. That's why you clamoring for leadership. You ain't clamoring for leadership from the five chief You ain't clamoring for it for the head of the water Department. You ain't clamoring for it for anybody else. You're looking at the politicians and you're saying we need leadership from them. You a California resident, Ain't that what you're looking for? Yes?
Yet, listen, she got my vote, and she damn sure has my money. I live in the city. She has my money, Gavin has my money, so I feel like I have a right to call them out and say, what the hell are you gonna do?
And I need a plan.
And that's why it bothered me yesterday when I got out of my car and I said, hey, mister governor, can we talk to you for a second, And he said he could do on the phone with the president. I'm on the phone with the president. But that's a line he seemed to have told somebody else.
And they were lying when they asked. They said, I want to hear the call I want The woman said, I want to hear a call. I want to hit a call. And he says, I'm trying to get him on a fall right now. Well, you said you had him on the phone, and then he said, I'm trying to get him on the phone.
Stephen, I will wrap this up, say go ahead. Nothing will make me happier then Gavin Newsom and Karen Bass pulling it together and taking care of these people and riding the ship in Los Angeles and.
In the state of California. But if not, if not, then they gotta go.
They gotta go, you know what, they gotta go. I don't give a damn if they do. They after what I've seen last we day, they gotta go. I'm done. I'm done, Kevin. I'm done.
Sometimes there are Steve, Sometimes there are natural disasters.
You can't do a damn thing about.
When a hurricane hits your house down in South in Florida, what can you do?
Are you yelling at the politicians.
I'm not out there and stop the win, keV.
I'm not going off about the fires. The fires is not their fault. But when firefighters are standing there and saying there's not enough water in the fire, that's true. When when Donald Trump asked for water to be pumped from Canada into the LA system and Gavin Newsom opposed that, When you're hearing about environmentalists compelling him to protect smelt and little fish and salmon at the expense of LA citizens, of California citizens, Kevin, I don't need much else than that.
I just don't. Maybe you're nicer than me, Maybe I'm too cruel. I'm sick of it. I'm sick of it.
If you walk down any street in the Pali stage right now, you'd see that it is.
I understand being sick of it. If that was my house. I'd be sleeping at theirs.
Well, Eric's house is gone. That's my buddy. I'll be there to see him this week. My heart's broken for.
He will love to see him. He will love to see you because his heart is broken right now.
keV, Love you, bro, Appreciate you, my man. Be safe, say because I know you have been reporting on this stuff in healing all that here. Hey, I hope you wearing a mask and covering yourself with some degree. Okay, don't get sick on.
Me, Steve. I'm taking care of myself.
Love you. I disagree with Kevin on some of that, but all of his points are very, very valid, and I can't dismiss that. Before I go to commercial, I want to stay in politics because that's what I considered the wildfire situation to have regressed to politics. I want to stay right here in politics where Donald Trump once again made history. Today, the President elect was sentenced to a quote unconditional discharge end quote in a New York
Hushmany case. This makes him the first president to have been sentenced for a criminal conviction once he's sworn into office on January twentieth. The unconditional discharge allows Trump's conviction on thirty four counts of falsifying business records to stand with no further penalties such as jail time. The sentencing was allowed to proceed after the Supreme Court decided five to four yesterday to reject his requests to drop the proceeding.
The President elect said he thought it was a quote fair decision and refer to possible further appeals of the verdict. Trump did issue a quote, and he was basically calling it a witch hunt. Do we have that quote here? Here it is. This is the quote from the President elect of the United States, due to be sworn in on January twentieth, two thousand and twenty five. This is the quote from the president himself. The radical Democrats have
lost another pathetic, Unamerican witch hunt. There was never he said, which there is no case. There was never a case, and this whole scam needs to be dismissed. The real jury. The American people have spoken by re electing me with an overwhelming mandate. Today's event was a despicable charade, and now that it is over, we will appeal this hoax, which has no merit, and restore the trust of Americans and our once great system of justice. The idiocy of
the left never ceases to amaze me. He's not going to jail, you're not finding him. But you wanted to make a point of giving a sentence so his conviction would be on the record. Refusing evidently to recognize the fact that that's probably what God him elected. You engaged in law fare. You use the system to politicize it for your own means in going after him. We know this because of what you just did. The American people
voted for him. He is going to be the president of the United States, and a judge who Trump has clapped back at in the past, along with his daughter, who worked for democratic causes, decides that it's in the best interest of the American public to ensure and to the world, remind you to ensure that his conviction of as a felon, his conviction as a felon, remains on
the books. So it's important to you as the judge, and it's important to folks on the left that the world knows our president is a convict, and you think
that serves us as American people. Now, you have a point if he had lost the election, you'd have a point if it had kept him from running for reelection, but when both of those things had failed in very very flagrant fashion, knowing that in less than three weeks, this man, I'm sorry, in less than two weeks, this man is about to be sworn in as the forty seventh president of the United States, and you're preoccupied with
making sure he goes in as a convictor Fela. It just shows that he was right all along when he accused you of politicizing it because you can beat him in a fair election. That's all you did. You diminished your argument as liberals against him by prioritizing all of this pomp and circumstance, which absolutely at this moment in time means nothing. Not only is he going to be sworn in as the president of the United States, did y'all know that Trump, even as a convicted Fela, is
still allowed to vote. Other fellas who can't vote. It depends on the state, and it depends on their specific crimes. But he is still allowed to vote, according to my research, which I believe is on point. So he can still vote, he can still be the president, he can still pardon folks or grant clemency, he can still do all of these things come January twentieth, and you, as a judge voter, was important that everybody knows he's a convicted felon and it's a matter of recking.
Wow.
You just made his case for him, and you know what you did in the process, in all likelihoods, you assured that the Republicans win the midterms and you're probably going to elect JD. Vance as your next President of the United States in twenty twenty eight. All they gonna do is lean on this to show how far you were willing to go to take him down. Your idiots, not all not talking about democrats. I'm talking about the people who believe in that system, you idiots. You just
gave the Republicans four more years. Dummies. Everyone right now needs to stop what they're doing and listen up and listen good. With all the big time sports action that's happening each and every day, NFL games, NBA games, and the college football playoffs, Steven A. Smith Shire wants to make sure or you are taking advantage of all of it. That's why we partnered with Prize Picks, the largest fantasy sports platform in Older Land, to help you cash in
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five dollar lineup. Again, download the app cod say Yes to get fifty dollars instantly after your first five dollar lineup. Prospects run your game. Welcome back to the stephen A. Smith Show right here over the digital airways or YouTube, and of course I heard radio. I sound exhausted already, don't I don't. I that's because of what I know I'm about to deal with. He makes uh. He's made weekly appearances over the last few weeks. Y'all enjoy him. I don't know why, but I'm sure he has reasons
to to why you do. Nephewtism is what he calls this as in my nephew, Josh, welcome to the show again. What's up?
Could you have some energy in your voice when you when you the same way you you bringing out other people? Put some energy in your voice when you introduce it and I.
Get it better. Could you at least have the decency to sit up in the chair? Could you do that instead of I.
Feel like, you know, I feel like I'm in the wrong chair once again.
We'll sit your ass right there. Then you ain't getting up in no damp chair. Josh Smith, look at it? Do you see that card? Do you see the card? I ca ready that. Do you see that the Josh Smith? Because on the back of the car it's supposed to say Steven Ate Smith. He shut out Steve and put Josh. You see what I'm trying to say? You see what I gotta deal with that's very rude. You know, that's very rude.
So I'm not sure if it reflected yet. But a couple of nights ago the next one, and I was I was in the spot called Moods in Long Island, and I popped a bottle with the company.
Card, a bottle, a bottle of what it better be a bottle of water. Don Julie, I'm thirty six. How much did that cause?
I don't even check what's I'm using the card.
It's just you know, I was a big tip, too big tip. Pose. Let's go with the tweets before we get on out of here. Show me the tweet, please. First tweet is up uh at what is that?
At?
Time? Captails right, Steven A. Smith? Who are your top three US presidents of all time? Well, damn it, I don't know. I mean, hell, okay, I just don't know. I will tell you this though, two of them. Listen Barack Obama because he's a brother and he was classed personified and that's how I feel about him. And regardless of what the Republicans want to complain about, universal healthcare
is universal health care that I didn't get. Heal care for everybody, but millions of Americans didn't have health care. He helped pull that off, and I appreciate that. Plus he gave Donald Trump a decent economy, so we got to remember that Donald Trump didn't inherit a bad economy. So I look at those two things. Number one. Number two, I'm gonna think about Bill Clinton, but for reasons that
you may not like. In nineteen ninety four, when the Republicans took over the House led by Newt Gingrich, fiscal or responsibility ended up in Clinton departing with a surplus. We hadn't seen that from too many presidents in history. So I got to give credit where credit is due in regard to that. Although Clinton did have a lot to do with the Crime Bill and incarcerating a whole bunch of black men. So I take that back, okay,
with Hillary Clinton, which came back to haunting. When Hillary Clinton was running for office, I would tell you Ronald Reagan, all right, because I like the way Reagan governed, to be honest with you, So gonna go with Barack Obama. I'm gonna go with Ronald Reagan. And the I really really don't know, I really don't know it ain't gonna be Trump. It damn sure, ain't gonna be Biden, can't do Joe J. W. Bush, Abraham Lincoln. I mean, you know then he then he eradicated slavery or contributed to
the eradication of slavery. I gotta do my research on that. I don't know, but I'm inclined to go that route. Those are my three. I won't even ask you because you too damnit the rent my three?
What my three would be Barack Obama one because this is all about relatability. Barack Obama.
We know why.
Bill Clinton, me and him could relate for different reasons.
And Leon Rose, oh my god, Leon Rose for the nixt We're talking about the United States presidents.
No president that's in the United States. And Leon Rose is doing a great job. We're going to the finals this year.
Baby. Next tweet please at Nick Grantham for l right. Steve niy Smith, would you rather be in Dallas when it's noose or New York when there is a one hundred degree heat wave? New York because i can deal with the heat wave of New York and I'm familiar with the surroundings. I don't think stecks Texas can handle a blizzard, snow and all that suf I don't think you can handle that. That's my answer to of course, what Jordan, so what that's easy?
Would you rather see them in turtlenecks a bikinis.
Get the hell out of here. Last tweet give it to me at underscore KMD right, Stephen ack Smith. You take a dump, You take a dump, then shower, and your bathroom stinks while showering or shower, then dump to avoid the smell. I take a dump, and then I take a shower. I don't give a damn howard smells. At the end of the day. When I get in the shower and I'm wi and I'm I shouldn't off my filth and all of that stuff, the smell ain't gonna stay with me once I depart from the bathroom.
So I took a shower, I bathed in the whole bit, and then after that I get the hell up out of there. I'm not gonna take a shower and then stink up myself by taking the dump. It's the dump, then the shower, not the shower, then the dump. You're sorry as probably takes a shower and then dump and walks around stinking the rest of the day.
Well, well, I know I don't want to smell stephen A after neither with all the ozempic invitamins, he be popping right, So I'm.
Taking ose epic down. You're I'm taking those epic. That's what rich people take. That's what you are absolutely right though. Rich people do take that. Who don't go to the gym. People who do go to the gym don't need Olympic. They work it off. You wouldn't know anything about that because work and you are oxymorns and me they don't go together. Me and don't go together. I know, does it for me? Baby? That's it for my my my
episode of nephew tism. You see what I got to deal with that to my nephew Josh, To Kevin Frazier and the grew. Thank y'all so much for joining. I hope you all enjoyed the show. Have a wonderful weekend. I'll be back after the playoff week and take it easy. Piece of love.