The Audacity of Pope

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At SimplySafe.com/curcut, there's no safe, like SimplySafe. Cost-in-Lost-Test-in-Al-Shopify.de. Welcome to Podsafe America. I'm John Favre. I'm John Love it. I'm Tommy Ditor. On today's show, we'll talk about JD Vance's global face plant from Budapest to Islamabad. Trump's new ploy to reopen the Strait of Formus by blockading it. His new war with the Holy Father,

and his blasphemous depiction of himself as an AI Jesus. That's that for a sense. This fucking stupid era. Then we'll get into the big news in the California governor's race as horrific sexual assault allegations and Eric Swallwell's campaign in his time in Congress. We'll also talk about the latest encouraging sign for Democrats Senate hopes for some good news in there. Then, love it. It's done with our

pal Nithia Ram in the L.A. City Council member who launched a last-minute surprise challenge to Karen Bass about why she's running from mayor on a very yeem-be platform. That's that. Quick reminder, please consider becoming a crooked media subscriber if you haven't already so that you don't miss out on any of the great content we're putting out there for our friends of the pod. Subscribers get our new extra episode of Podsafe America, called Podsafe

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We're past 50,000 now. And so, just want to thank all you guys for who signed up. And we'll ask a couple of weeks to put us over the top there. Now we're going to, now we've got to get to 100. Yeah, let's go. Let's pick up the pace here. Let's pick up the pace. 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 straight-of-formu's and might resume military strikes according to the Wall Street Journal. The 21 hours of direct talks between the U.S. and around broke down over some minor stuff like the fate of Iran's nuclear program, control of the straight-of-formu's, nothing big. Vance, who is just absolutely crushing his audition as future world leader, sandwiched a quick statement about the failure of the talks in between stumping for

Hungarian loser Victor 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 is Llamabad. 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 agreement and I think it'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 there. You tried that again on Fox today, it was like everyone's talking about what went badly, but not what went well. Right,

but I think it's like I'm, you know, no, it's talking about how it's the first time I think since

why did that happen? Because you bombed the shit out of them and now they're holding the

global economy hostage? That's just, it's um, it's not good news if you've had talks and then the bad news is that the talks failed and so far as it's not good news if your plane flies almost all the way to your destination and then your crashes. Just that mountain at the end. It's right. In puts outputs. How other than that, how was the play? Yeah. Kind of a situation. Anyway. Well, well, well, Vance was in Islamabad trying to negotiate and failing. Donald Trump was

monitoring the situation with his secretary of state and other important figures. Let's take a look. So there's Donald Trump and Miami hitting on USC fighters. It goes on. He tells a guy he's hot like two or three times. He is hot. I'm glad he's confident. Nice to see a kind of non-toxic version of masculinity on this play. A man hitting my or another man being attractive without resorting to, you know, sexual

“and UNDO. That's how I feel. That's how I feel about it in the middle of a high stakes negotiation”

over the future. We'll be wrestling match. One thing for Donald Trump to be there, which is

bad enough, but we don't expect much of Donald Trump. Very weird that the secretary of state and national security adviser. And national security adviser, and I realize he's from Florida, but like just just hanging out with hanging out with Trump and Miami at a UFC fight. You got to get anything better to do, Marco? It's ridiculous. Why isn't Rubio a part of these talks? Why isn't he leading the talks? Probably because he wants to stay out of it. Well, too much. Yeah, he wants Islamabad news.

Yeah, things are on from Islamabad, which is not the worst. He's like, remember, I'm the guy who got maduro. Yeah, the famous closeer, Marco Rubio. I did that other war. 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 it was Trump did. But why do you guys think JD Vance, the closer, as he's known to no one?

Couldn't get it done in Islamabad. Tell me. Three problems as far as I can tell. One, both sides seem to think or at least say they're winning to trust and then three major substantive

“differences, especially the straighter who moves in Iran's nuclear program. I think in terms of”

like the who's winning question, obviously the U.S. is winning every military battle as we often do, but we are losing the broader economic war and the Iranians know that they can just kind of weight it out and continue to increase the economic pressure. And then on trust, I mean the U.S. we don't trust the Iranians, but the Iranians don't trust Trump for good reason. He pulled out of the JCPOA and then we and Israel have bombed them the last time we've been having talks.

So there's been a lot of goodwill. Literally kills the people that we talk to some. Literally kill the negotiators often. That's not cool. And use the negotiation as a pretext to do a surprise to do more bombing. Yeah. And then the substance like Trump wants the straighter or moves open. The Iranians want to de facto control it in charge of fee. And then the nuclear program, the U.S. position was reportedly end all nuclear enrichment, dismantle

enrichment facilities and handover the highly enriching him stockpile. And taking that position going into the talks was doomed to fail because Iranians repeatedly rejected those positions and asserted they're right to peaceful civilian nuclear enrichment. It sounds like they might have proposed a middle ground that was a 20-year halt on enrichment activities which is interesting.

So we were always told the JCPOA was really awful because there was a 10-year sunset and now they

proposed a 20-year sunset. But we also, if they took it, they could say, well we're double to the Obama deal. Exactly. But the Iranians, we've all seen their 10-point wishlist. It's like control the straighter or moves sanctions relief. Get the U.S. bases closing down in the middle east. So I think the Iranians think Trump's going to get bored of this. He's going to taco. He's going to give up. And meanwhile, the Iranians are like, we literally have nowhere else to go.

So see you next time. Love it. Trump did say right as the negotiation for 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?

Like, I was struggling with this just like watching all this unfold. 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 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 like, oh, you didn't resolve this intractable situation in 21 hours. Of course, you didn't.

Oh, people have walked away. But they're going to maybe re-approach the negotiating table.

“Like, that's how these law. Super dealer. Right. Like, it doesn't matter.”

You're not trying to get to like a clean, like least least term for you roll it all in on the front end. Like, it's a complicated negotiation. There should be kind of complexities to take time to unwind. Like, oh, it's a stalemate. Wait, we're back on. And now we're blockading. Like,

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 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 deal with all just to me, seems like maybe it'll work. But it's an admission against interest. In New York Times, hopefully reminded us of what Trump said during one of those Easter events a couple of weeks ago about JD Vance going. He said, if it doesn't happen, I'm blaming JD Vance. If it does happen, I'm taking full credit. Honestly, like, that's where he's great. I'm in

completely look. I look as, as I say to the team at Love Iter leave it, I cannot fail. I can only be failed. And I kind of respect that ethos from Trump. Double fail, though, from JD Vance after after his little rally in Budapest. Yeah, didn't know. And he said that on Fox News, he was like, look, we can read polls. We didn't think that Victor was going to run away with it. He's not

first named basis with them. He's like, but you know, sometimes you just do what's right,

which is stumping for an authoritarian and he's, yeah, if I slap the crowd and he's

“in Europe. Also, remember a couple of weeks ago when I think it's Scott Basin said, we're jujitsuing”

around by lifting sanctions on him to increase the blood of blood. Yeah, how about the block saving the straight ourselves? Well, let's talk about the blockade. Trump announced it shortly after Vance's bad news announcement, which the military then had to explain is not a blockade of all ships entering or leaving the straight of four moves 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 tons of questions about what all of this actually means. It's two BB's. Even Israel's like, are they helping with the blockade? No, but they're like, go for it. We like it. Kierstermers like, we're not getting dry. Sure, you know, tons of questions about what all this actually means, which Trump attempted to answer on Monday morning. In the most natural setting, a precedent where a self-described door-dash

grandma knocked on the door of the oval to deliver the president McDonald's. Here's how it went. Do you think that men should play in women's voice? I really don't have an opinion on that. You don't. I'll bet you do. I'm here about the tax on tips. Yes, you say pizza. You're really nice. Would you like to do a little news conference with me? This is not the nicest people. They're not nice like you. You know that, right? I'll do whatever you ask me to do search.

A ran will not have a nuclear weapon and we're going to get the dust back. We'll get it back either. We'll get it back from them or we'll take it. If your anticipation is the president that other countries will assist in this effort to blockade your own and those other countries are going to also. We don't need other countries, frankly. Is your threat coming for stills? Yeah. 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? Like, hey sir, here's your McDonald's. What do you think about men playing women's sports? It's like, I don't know, but I can you just, I have to take a picture of this in front of the door. So I'm not really about it. I don't want to 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 door to ask grandma. It's so I'm sorry. It's a very dystopian kind of sad concept. This poor woman

being just like forced to do delivery. I don't know. Maybe she enjoys it. Hopefully, but he may be sad. The whole thing may be sad. If you told, just you sort of shake someone away in 2011 and you're like Donald Trump's going to be president. He's pretending he's Jesus and accepting McDonald's delivered it to the old office wall, talking about blockading the straight-up

“of my movies. But what are that to joke? That's a 30 rock thing. What the fuck you talking about?”

No one believes that. That's not possible. Well, so what is happening with the straight-up forum who's right now in this enabled blockade? Anything getting through? What's happening? So it sounds like where the US is going to 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-Aranian ports will not be stopped. So basically the way this works is there's like 15

US warships in place. The US Abraham Lincoln is the aircraft carrier that's kind of like the base of operations. They have these navy amphibious assault ships that will deal with introductions and boarding along with helicopter assets. And then you got the big ass guided missile destroyers, which will like, you know, block things and push them in one direction. The other and also do missile defense because they have all the missile defense systems on them.

Then there's some sort of like mind-sweeping and mind-hunting operations that'll happen. And so the question I have is, is the US going to be providing escorts to all the friendly ships, because the average rate, the average number of ships through the straight before this was 130 a day. That's a lot of ships. That's a lot of escorts. And this is risky even during the ceasefire because like there's apparently the Iranians have lost contact with all their sea-based landmines,

We don't know where we put them. You never know where they put them. We kind of did it under pressure.

“Yeah, with some IRGC guy might fire off a rocket or a drone. But if the conflict restart,”

it's like, I don't really see how this works because 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 straight while they're getting fired at. Yeah. So you have also trump threatening to blow up ships, the way that they've blown up ships and the drug ships in Venezuela, that's obviously indefensible in war crimes, but those are at least ostensibly other claims that they're talking

about ships that have drugs on them. This is just about commercial vessels that they're not threatening to blow up. Well, then on top of that, I think the threat was for like because Iranian, the Iranian navy has been destroyed according to President, but that if ships are going through

like small, their smaller ships or their drones could still launch attacks. So those are the ships

that they want. Well, they're multiple things. 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, which I looked at. I have no, he's completely unclear and the military has been clarifying it. We have no idea what he fucking means. We don't know

“how this is going to be implemented. I hope that that's what he means, but it's not clear that if a ship”

is not listening to a military body. Right. Like who knows? And then the other part of it is are we now saying that that we're going to have the US military board ships that may be hostile. Like this is also something that sets up a possibility of a whole 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. It 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 some incident that took place on the seas. Like it's just a it's a dangerous thing to be pursuing without really understanding why. He's known to be a bit imprecise in his language. The military said it was what the latter thing you said which is that for the blockade it's about them stopping and trying to board any vessel. Of course that

does raise the question like what is someone does in the heavens when it's a Chinese vessel that's trying to bring oil to Iran or an Indian vessel like what are in the Chinese said work coming.

We have contracts and we're going to go get that oil. And by the way like the problem is once you

start operating the street or remove it's 21 miles that it's like sort of the narrowest choke point. But the Iranians can fire missiles and drones from like anywhere along their coast and you're reaction time to respond to that with the missile defense is nothing so this is getting real risky. And just so people understand like the purpose of the blockade because I don't know if I explained it. By the block by having a blockade of all Iranian ports the idea is Iran like has to get

get its oil exported out to people who are buying it through all of its ports and if it can't do that then Iran's going to lose like billions and billions of dollars and that is and obviously that is how they get most of their months like half their I think oil and gas revenue is right this straight stood straight and so if you're blocking all the Iranian ports there can't get anything in

“can't get anything out and that's how 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 you know the rest of the world in the oil prices around the rest of the world depend on Iranian oil to some extent so in the short term it's also going to raise oil prices for everyone else as well as squeezing around itself and the question is like will can the Iranians take the pain more than the rest of the world and and us here in the United States were 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 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 they're what they're 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 people are upset all right it's crazy and that 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 and make the promises and give them what they want on on nukes and I guess reopen the straight

and then maybe lift economic sanctions for the Iranians as well and that's that's the that's the JD events Donald Trump view of this the dust is what he gave Justin Trudeau before he went off to Brennan or sorry Quchell so I'm on the desert do you hear JD bands hate he's talking about the the nuclear material and Brett bear and he knows of course that it's called in Richard Rainey and when he understands all this but he has to go as some people call it dust one person

is a blockade do you could I guess it chokes off the ability to have revenue to run the government

“but yeah the idea that people are going to rise up again like the RGCS all the weapons the”

decision militias all the weapons Iranian people have nothing well the other and you've been bombing them the history of blockades is it usually hurts the people more than it hurts the regime but that's directed towards I will say also just and on top of that I do think on some on some level it is about making the pain make the pain felt outside of Iran to to make other people feels that they're kind of dragged into this conflict of course the Chinese press for 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 spice things um here he is talking to Maria Bartiromo on Sunday morning so a lot of people are lucky yeah you know that's called yeah they have it that they're talking to that does that you start just like a hundred grand you come

out they they cut up your nose despite your face and you're done it'll fill her a lot of filled they're not you would do a lot of a term let us let us spite it faces that spit it spit it anyway let's play the club you do you believe the price of oil and gas will be lower before the midterm elections I hope so I mean I think shall it could be it could be or the shame or maybe a little bit higher that is a full range the full of cool range is at some way did someone tell

Maria Bartiromo 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 out for no fucking reason you have to”

mic on your shirt you don't have to shout she's crazy she's like a real boomer with just the TV on constantly and when you walk in it it's also just like the idea that like the Iranian regime is posting these sort of like uh Confucius like sings about revenge like lowering their head and saying before embarking on a campaign of revenge dig too great it's more than I can take for these people I will say that along with some Lego movies yeah they they got us with the other of which are

game fire got us you know that was tough that was just for sure great lyrics um I was talking to someone today who who does uh it works in organization that does a ton of polling and research on Trump and US politics whenever 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 it like 43% approval always right like moved a little

around butler moved a little around Alex pretty 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 presidency 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 you said earlier he seems to think that he's like oh whatever 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 going to put upward pressure on all the prices here it's like it's going to hurt

it's already hurt it has not like the real pain hasn't hit yet unfortunately like an in all of the energy 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 uh a hit to the entire enterprise yep it like the whole thing could collapse like the whole political pressure 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 the parliament speaker uh gallabap that um uh negotiated with JD events he said soon he'll be nostalgic for four to five dollar yes uh that's he's been saying also on the Iranian point I know something that 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 this river removes there's something like 130 million barrels kind of sitting in anchor in various places so it current prices that is 18 billion dollars uh so that's a nice little cushion for them you know it'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 time table it's own decision

making uh did not refill the strategic yeah petroleum reserve ahead of uh Trump launching only six don't resentful it's almost as if BB and Pete Higgs F uh persuaded Trump that this would be faster and easier than it actually was yeah if it's like as advanced we were watching vansor before we came in here and he made he said you know look 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

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 peak right now and there's no hope that they're gonna 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 price increases than they are even to job losses and within the realm of price increases there's nothing the people are more sensitive to than gas and they have eyeballs and they see them everywhere you

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generations to come so trump was also asked with door dash 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 the 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 60 minute segment Sunday night where the three most

powerful american cardinals uh who are close with the american pope spoke bluntly about the churches issues with trump on war in 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 thank you i meet you it's like it's like they're on some debate stage in i_a_a_ and he's like

you are soft on crime you are soft on nukes also pope leo and all of a sudden acts of rock but we are weak in ten week on crime weak on nuclear weapons and uh in wrong for american friends with the tax abroad that was the president in my name yeah i just i just talked to acts today about uh um it's just wild so i yeah i was trying to let you know the pope and then suddenly it's so i could you know i was about and a rabbi and a priest walking to a bar in Chicago you know

if you ever had ham no if you ever had sex no oh you got to try ham you know i did ask the

oh that's right but i guess they didn't what he said they didn't meet in Chicago he's so um anyway he also wore the trump also worn the holy father to quote get his act together okay uh and he took credit for leo's selection is the supreme pontiff of the universal church that is that is trumps doing um uh for good measure trump also posted an ai image of himself as jesus healing the sick truly uh like did you just say like no but yes he really did

it's what i mean i would love to just we should have done a whole we could do like a whole video on just uh going through the actual the image is the actual image because it is it's an ai sloppy image for sure there's a lot and there's a lot of confusing things in there but what you really need to know trump jesus healing us a sick man and bed who looks at us for jump on it or jeffry abs to you could also maybe yeah maybe even more jeffry abs to you and i thought it was

jeffry abs to you and i just had a look at divorce also looks like there's like a demon behind him and there's some g_i_j_s_ and ninja turtle maybe yeah like a ninja definitely anyway um no

so the pontiff was was asked about all of this on sunday night uh here's what he said

i have no fear either the trump administration nor speaking up loudly upon the message and the

“gospel and and the that's what i believe i am called to do what the church is called to do”

blessed are the peacemakers i do not look at my roles being political politician i don't want to get into it to make with him i don't think that the message that the gospel is meant to be abused in the way that some people are doing too many innocent people are he filled and i think someone has to stand up and say there's a better way to do this the quote was also asked directly about the post and he did say that um true social was an ironic name for the plentiful

not wrong i love just just a pope and just just shacago english it's so i'm so strange

surprising first american pope truly america yeah it's also never um do you think he

flies business i thought to say well kind of oh he cares about uh the least among us what's he flying but i was looking plain what's he flying the kidney him and his heart's his pork marxist pope popcs in excess on piker and and tell the one he burn it burn it he is he right behind him uh here's what trump had to say for himself when he was with

“door-gramma which is what he calls him on him i think he's very weak on crime and other things”

so i'm not i mean he but he went public i'm just responding to pop Leo there's nothing to apologize for he's wrong and the other thing is he didn't like what we're doing with respect to a ran well it wasn't to picture it was me i i did trust it and i thought it was me as a doctor and had to do with red crosses a red cross working there which we support i just heard about it and i said how did they come up with that it's supposed to be me as a doctor

making people better and i do make people better and make people a lot better such a funny lie so many dogs just a health care provider dressed as Jesus a humble it's it's one of those lives of like why why why does anyone even have a time on it anyone with eyes knows that it's an even jadey jadey vans was asked about it when we were watching pox just now what what a couple answers from him on this first of all he said um the whole thing was not newsworthy

the president of the states pixie 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 jadey vans said it wasn't newsworthy uh he said that up the a_i_ jesus trump was just joking so wasn't it wasn't meant to be a doctor yeah he's got no jadey vans he's joking and people don't get trump 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 precessions 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 yeah not like not the war not the policies of the most powerful

nation on earth as routines to war which is that i guess you mean like what like just

“no divorces and the rhythm method like it's just basically all they want that's what they want”

so we're feeling that he said that and i was i was like i think about the even before he said that is is to to jadey vans 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 it's a and what popular 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

then anything uh related to abortion or sexual orientation or any of the other uh personal morality issues that the there become political in the united states okay it's time it's a coin it's over look at this okay yeah time it's a quote I'm like yeah yeah bad yeah the um i'm Protestant not since uh Henry the 8th has a divorce slob so the Pope the Pope had overstepped his bound but at least he didn't at least uh at least Henry the 8th did Barry Ann Bolin on a golf course you know i'm saying

smart fight to pick yeah let me tell you we've talked about was it about trump picking fight with uh muslims which he has obviously there was the whole muslim band in the united you know also in the united states especially attacked muslims in the united states um he has talked about uh dual loyalty and it said plenty of anti submitting things about jews in the united states there's 20 20% of the country are Catholic in the united states of America that much yes it is there's

there's an over 50 million Catholics in the united states there's a lot of Catholics it does

“politically this feels worse i mean remember this is not his first big fight with a pope”

remember he did about Pope Francis if and when the Vatican is attacked by ISIS which is everyone knows his ISIS is ultimate trophy oh my god 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 the well one this one feels bad though politically just like first one it's like mood music like things are a little rocky for trump especially with this far right

followers like i don't know if you and Dan covered the op-ed the length screen attacking me Megan Kelly uh Tucker Carlson candid so when's Alex Jones from last week i read it allowed yeah so he jumps biggest supporters are not in the mood to defend him and it also comes right after the um the easter tweet where you've handed a lot more Christians by uh tweeting close the fucking straight in place praise aula on easter yeah he if he offended Christians and muslims

and one tweet all over the i started a little holy war there um and then you know it isn't an american pope which is like what do you do when dude yeah he posted a picture himself as the pope in may of last year and i i do think that like he said she'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 sees kind of tough in glossary but it just seems sort of sweaty and so he's getting

attacked from like people that would it previously have never said a word about something like this

and would have done what vanced it and say oh he's just kidding around that's our president that's our big boy but instead they're actually saying what they think about it yeah like if you guys listen to the full 45 minute um Tucker Carlson monologue attacking the easter tweet that led into a broader erong critique it actually started by pointing out the 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 either

i missed that and it really it built to an argument basically that trump thinks he's god and his thinks he has god like powers in 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 and he was asked this and a press event the other day like people they surf you'll think you're crazy what yeah and my view on that is um he's been like this forever yeah yeah i just i listen 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 minute segment is what obviously that is what set him off and then reporting like this um but it is worth watching everyone norodonl uh does a pretty great job talking to uh the three cardinals the archbishop of Washington chicago in New York and i mean they they they accused the White House of gamification of warfare calling the administration's videos uh the snuff videos a sickening quote where de-cardinal cubic uh we're dehumanizing the victims

of war by turning the suffering of people in the killing of children and our own soldiers in or entertainment um cardinal tubing called ice a lawless organizations that 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 it 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 a bastion like because they are bastion empathy and compassion and grace and and banning abortion which he kind of already gave them so we're on the other side that's a pretty big win and now they're

“turning on him the side note not as important interesting the sixty minutes aired that piece given”

all the concern that's very wise would be spiking anything kind of critical trump so i guess good

didn't i made it through only good i spoke the story yes they broke the story about uh them saying that they're gonna get the papacy back to avignon yeah so like on on the politics of this i mean

he deleted it but he overturned rovers his way 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 like you know the cake artist who won't make a LGBT like wedding cake or whatever it was like there's people on true social saying this is desecration trump is the anti-Christ trump thinks he's got i've heard from people who

who would like they have mag relatives who were like this was it there we're done this is because

it's it's 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 one deep on it's pretty blasphemous yeah you know and it is it's very trump too because with his lamb and Judaism like there's like Catholicism has a head of the church and so there is someone there is like 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 that politician like they're just as bad as everyone else we're all the same we're all bad and so it's he 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 if you

Trump could maybe like but go on the road to kanoza and then walk all the way to the castle and then take issues 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

“leading the holy Roman empire and it's good to do empire what about that i think that's a good idea”

that's really good to do see at 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 lampadusa which is the Italian island where tens of thousands of migrants have landed and on their way to Europe and you know nor asked if that was symbolic and yeah yeah of course well no they've great spritz is there so yeah because on the coast on the it's on the water the water's really

so you're here to get curly and it's like what a contrast with you know john Donald Trump celebrating July 4th with what he's gonna do it but all of like literal violence like UFC matches and he's me while welcoming migrants to the shore which is what you know this is one of the cardinal said which is the stature liberty supposed to represent also tougher uh advances I became Catholic booktorne yeah big time yeah my it's like I say my road was going to

“like the road home or since taking the long road back to catholicism so I only know about catholicism”

up to the reformation to hand if my memory of uh AP European history cuts off it's a it is a tough it's the it's gonna really ruin the booktorne yeah it's it's uh what is it called uh communion wrote about communion finding my way back to faith he found his way back oh yeah how many books about themselves is that I'm gonna write Jesus Christ yes what do you do many already in the P.B. but

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compare life insurance quotes from top companies and see how much you could save that's policy genius.com/cricket all right let's get to the big development here in the California governor's race Eric Swallwell who is 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 Swallwell raping her in a New York hotel room after a

night of heavy drinking in 2024 the women spoke to the San Francisco Chronicle in CNN in the Manhattan district attorney's office has now opened a criminal investigation into the allegations Swallwell was initially defiant but after losing most of his endorsements he ended his campaign on Sunday night writing an statement on ex 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 Swallwell also resigned from congress. What are your reactions about the news and in general it's secondary but just the audacity to run for governor knowing that this was out there.

“Yeah I mean it's it was shocking I mean I think there are a lot of rumors about Eric Swallwell kind of”

being one of the younger members of congress who would go to bars get too drunk can I was

staffers maybe threatenedize with them and inappropriate ways but nothing I'd never had 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 and could see jail time and then shortly after the Manhattan District Attorney announced an investigation so I you know it's horrible I'm glad the Democratic Party moved quickly to push him out 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 Swallwell was issuing these denials that that that 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 sure 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 for for governor because you can't even say oh he I mean because it's like this is not like I don't know what stories people tell themselves but he's not the first person to have terrible skeletons in their closet and still believe that they could do whatever they want and keep rising and be brazen and be brazenly ambitious and right up to the end like the video he recorded reportedly at some billionaire donors home in Beverly Hills like

his staff wasn't around where he like refused to drop out and said he was going to stay in it it's like the the woman who came forward on this she if you read this scene and story in the San Francisco Chronicle story like she has text messages to a friend saying that she was sexually assaulted by Irxwall saying exactly what happened like right after it happened in 2024 she had told multiple family members partner at the time and then you have three other women having similar

saying similar things the woman who alleges the sexual assault also like got tested for had a pregnancy test and test for STDs and had the person at the lab for Senator and note that said like you're a survivor hanging there I mean just like there's so much lot of it and to like read that story is Eric's wall well into like see the ones in just be like I'm in a film a video being like fuck it I'm I'm hanging in here and then his his lawyer gave this insane tagging the victim

interview with Alex Michaelson 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 TV yeah we've seen like a lot I I also just like there's a story I think”

people tell themselves that oh like I've been you know I look I've stepped outside of my marriage and I've

had been unfaithful but I've never done anything like like I've never been heard anybody I've never

never really I mean it's always consensual always consensual and then you these stories come out whether it's 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 assaults people yeah and there was a story in I think of the times about you know it's indicative like this whole

things indicative of how what a shit show the California governor's race has been and people were like clamoring to get behind some kind of candidate because comrade and ron and padea didn't run

in so there were rumors some of the rumors like that you were just saying something that like you know maybe you'd been inappropriate and people kept going to him and saying like any truth 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're like okay I guess he's he's saying absolutely not nothing is going to come out you know mag is been after me for a while wouldn't they have

surfaced this already like well there was also this thing where you know there was a report that cash betell was gonna put the you know this I have saw on from the FBI on swallowing 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 it led to maybe more second chances for him but then

also I was thinking back to that weird video he released with his wife or their like walking and saying a monka and it's like his wife like endorses his candidacy and we're like what is this what is the context and it's just like so clear that that was really running these controversies by the way as we were recording CNN some others reporting that in battle GOP Reptony Gonzalez announces he's standing down from Congress so it's another absolute scumbag on the Republican side yeah so

people know like the the swall well thing brought up these other have members who they all thought that they maybe would try to expel together so there's swall well Gonzalez who didn't have an affair with the staff for who later committed suicide um democrat Sheila uh turfless 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 yeah and so now swall well has resigned Gonzalez has said he's going to resign retired tomorrow and so now I don't know if the vote will go forward on turfless McCormick and Mills or the whole thing will get dropped but wow that's a lot about the house just to come yeah when we go someone doesn't think that let's get them all together let's expel them all

yeah it's a fact that there's such a um it's like the Santos was basically the first person

expelled since what like uh Reconstruction yeah and with that it was like oh well let's so obvious

“that you should have this person removed because it's just so brazen and there's so many examples”

but the idea there's something so like look I glad swall wells resigning all these other people should be resigned and expelled uh but there's something so ugly about like oh we have to do it in pairs because we're only going to enforce our ethics in a bipartisan way which tells you that actually what you need is some kind of a standard or process at the end of winter 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 what I get why and sometimes people face these expulsion votes they say like well we need we need either the house ethics committee to have completed investigation and find the person guilty through the house ethics committee or like an actual criminal conviction outside the some kind of legal determinants because you do want that because otherwise then it's going to start saying you did this you did this expelled right

like the dentiary standard and like and by the way like I'm glad too that there was a genuine reporting that dug it like because there were like random posts on social media like oh swallows a creep and some of like this is just a hit piece this is by the opponent then it's impossible to know it's hard to tell we're just trying we don't care about that right and so I'm thankfully someone that these women came forward yeah 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 it you kind of you know journalists like outlets sort of putting in the resources to

“go and kind of run these things down which ultimately I think is why it was able to successfully”

make this story break through and get him to resign so let's say what happens now in the California governor's race we can do um you know JD van's good news bad news bad news is this bad news um that guy uh good news is I feel like the lockout fears are over at this point I don't know I think it can provide them we can get that but yeah well let's talk about it because I think um I think now that Trump has trump has jumped into endorsed defaulting swall wells out yep so now you have

California's roughly 60 40 state Democrats Republicans so you have two Republicans splitting the 40 but one endorsed by Donald Trump and then now you have Tom Stier Katie Porter and then I guess you know Matt Mayan from is the Mayor of San Jose Javier Bersera former AG and Biden administration

cabinet member and Antonio Burego is a former mayor of L.A. sort of buying for you know the third

spot yeah what do you guys think well so most of the people I've talked to in the California political world since the swallowing news um think that this race will go down to on the Democratic side at Stier versus Katie Porter um Katie Porter's campaign has said I think to political today that they in their internal polls they get half of swall wells vote Stier's team I think said they

much she raises or how hard she campaigns in the next couple weeks like it's going to be

impossible to match the 120 million that Stier has already spent and the prom for Stier is

spent 120 million and he's still kind of stocking up yeah he was spending millions attacking swallow which at this point means he has set that money which is wasted 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 Mayan who may get like a ton of money from a bunch of tech industry billionaires already has may get ton more and maybe that'll move the needle the prom for him is that like California's

so big we have what 10 media markets they're all expensive even spending 20 million is like not going to get you that much so you know that's the assumption of where this will touch out of the good news for all of us is everyone's in the field right now with polls campaigns

“media organizations packs hopefully we'll get some new data I think the scary scenario is a”

situation where you have Mayan Porter and Stier all splitting the demo 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 into the DGA comes in and elevates Steve Hilton further in some way to ensure that it's a Republican Democrat general election but we'll see yeah and the chat and the reason that it seems unlikely that there's going to be a lockout now is if you've got

so Bacera Virgosa and Mayan have like maybe in one or two polls one of them has hit five you know one's gotten the more than five right so say you generously give all the candidates who aren't

Porter and Stier 15 percent that still is 45 percent between Stier and Porter and divided by

two is as long as they're over 20 neither Chad Bianco or Steve Hilton is getting over 20 percent because it's you know it's 40 percent of the voters or Republicans in California yeah the argument for this kind of all of the redundant to Porter is Stier has spent whatever it is over 100 million

“dollars he's gotten to wherever he's gotten billions of impressions and and he's sort of stuck”

where he is Katie Porter hasn't really spent anything but she's been 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 Swallow money go doesn't make sense for Dakota Tom Stier he's a fucking billionaire so like bear map man maybe maybe but we're like like some of them some of them but like because he's a Batman man 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 or surrounding one that campaign now again he's got some similar issue of Stier he's jumping the race later but a lot of money spent and still sitting around four 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 wall wall or now something and you go to them more kind of like they're not going to go to the other traditional them in the race I don't know

we'll say but it does seem like a ten-moment for Katie Porter to like spend some money and try to figure out how to like kind of bump herself up I'm sure she's been waiting because she's so outgunned by Stier so it's like it's like some point in this environment where attention matters most and people barely watch ads like I do think finding a moment to capture attention is more important in some ways than how it is Tom Stier has found out and then spending a whole bunch of money and

it's a challenge in a statewide race especially a state is because 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 going to be tuning into those debates you hope so but I don't know as we have formed tomorrow night

“which will be the first time I think they've all been together and to comment on Swallwell and”

do you think that will be a newsmaking thing and we'll see something coming up there luckily there's lots of better news for Democrats to focus on on Monday the cook political report shifted it's outlook for several key Senate races in Democrats direction North Carolina in Georgia this is wild from toss up to lean Democrat Ohio from lean Republican to toss up and Nebraska from solid Republican to lean Republican in Iowa a survey commissioned by a Democratic group gave Iowa

state auditor Rob Sand and eight point lead in the governor's race while the same poll has Republicans holding only a narrow lead in the Senate race where there are two strong Democrats in

the tough primary over in Alaska Mary Peltola raised almost nine million dollars in the first

three months of the year quadruple 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 to have been underrated by now. Might have been underrated. I yeah I just sort of picturing an eye atola come 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

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 strategy of war and and like gas prices are through the roof and now it needs to be rated according to what's happened it's been overtaken by events like it was

the Senate is not just in play but like we have a real real chance of taking it.

Yeah I mean I've long felt pretty optimistic about North Carolina and Georgia just because like those are great candidates in states that are genuinely swinging. Ohio and Iowa tough states in

“2024 I think Trump won Ohio by 11 points when Iowa by 13 points some big headwinds but Ohio”

we got shared brown just by the best candidate we could ask for he's the winner primary but he's gonna win the primary and then in Iowa we will not have a candidate until June 2nd I interviewed Josh Turek a couple weeks ago folks want to listen to that we're out to Zach Walls to try to get him on soon too but Iowa Democrats have a really strong candidate at the top of this I get in Rob San who is reportedly up eight points Randy Fiends throws his opponent is not that popular I got

a lot of baggage and between like high gas prices high fertilizer prices and then tariffs Trump is on 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 these candidates 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 because they basically think we'll pick up one to three when he'd for

and so there must be kind of main North Carolina and then either Ohio or Alaska or Iowa 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 is I think Texas is still being Republican and they're ranking it from remember”

correctly I would also like to see like part of this too like like how who does gas prices hit obviously geographically it's going to hit you know states where people are driving a longer distance or driving bigger cars like I would bet if you looked at like who are the kinds of people that were kind of soft Trump voters and are now open to voting for a Democrat it's going to be people that they're not driving Teslas they're driving 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 where we're on yeah and it's not just gas it'll be you know supply shortages and the cost of other the immune inflation is still problem so it's going to be a big problem and then the argument that why are we spending ex billions on bombs to drop on schools on Iran when we could be spending and anything else here like polls through the roof and everyone's

going to be able to use them right like we do we find how much this blockade is going to cost us okay billions Trump was Trump right before the election in Hungary was promising like economic help for hungry if they elect Victor Orban which he's on so many time like Bernie if the Argentinian being for Argentinian bailout like he keeps doing that it's the same reason election interference then JD bands goes over there it's like the

bureaucrats and 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 since then he wasn't doing it to win he was doing it because they're friends he was doing it to help a friend all right if you don't love JD events at his Victor Orban you don't deserve him the most corrupt person I'm going to

figure over finally before we get to love its interview with nithia ramen one more quick item for you

well plenty of political leaders from liberal democracies all over the world posted statement 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 54 year old was spotted in a backwards hat with girlfriend Katy Perry and 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 policies" the do you say there were there there is this picture is in raging this picture is in raging to me he looks so vital young and happy he looks he looks he looks half his age look maybe there's hope for 54 I guess I just like for me all Coachella is is a great weekend where the traffic is less in our left and like there's the former prime minister just living his best

fucking life like that there's like also a video that's come up to on screen yeah he's like what are you doing what are you doing what are you doing um I was talking to Canadian friends today who said Trudeau is getting shit and can it up I'm trying to take your friends kind of like yeah go on it's not sorry yeah because he pushed for a plastic cup and in Canada and as you can see

“there he's got a red so look up on that's why he was getting shit that's one of the reasons”

people are also making fun of him for wearing like relaxed clothes with you expect him to be in like a blue suit what are we talking about it I do like the backwards hat I'm enjoying some Which Chinese food and uh, yeah. I guess I like Trudeau. He was on Pasey the world. Check out Pasey the world. Subscribe anywhere you get your share. I guess my advice to him would be like post about Coachella or post about the Hungarian elections. Don't you both? I'm sorry. And you think he needs your advice. He's dating a he's dating a pop star at Coachella. We're fucking here. He's crushing it. He's living. He's living. He's doing great.

It is a very relatable situation. We've all been there. Oh, no. We got to do some work. Oh, yeah.

We're looking at Twitter. Here we are in a fun time. We're at a draft at a convention speech from Vegas. He's done it all. Was he just there to see Bieber? Or was 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 get all the you know, she's Katy Perry. She's Katy Perry. Yeah. Imagine you're tripping balls in for a porta potting. Just to do. How many of those are these boxes? I bet that's the good passes. Oh, definitely. But he's got to pee. You got to pee.

You got to pee. And that's the thing. We all got to pee.

“Bernie was a Coachella last year, right? But he spoke. Remember that? Yeah.”

Yeah. I think it was he opened for Scrillex. I'm kind of my reference is again. So I'm like, wow. So nice. I was a bear naked lady. We'll be seeing you at 54. I did see him. Who is a few all comes in there? Not Wilka. We'll be around. We'll be around. We'll be around. We'll be around. Yeah.

Hey, buddy, ailments. It's Coach at down the road. No, no, no. It's next weekend. Actually, she actually started out with a band called No Doubt. All right. It looks fun. I wish I was there. No. Yeah. We're just jealous. That's it. For sure. Quite. Very sure.

For sure. Anyway, when we come back, love it talks to Nithia Rahman about her race for L.A. There. [ Music ] Pods of America is brought to you by Zipper Cruder. Did you know that the average employer has to sort through roughly 250 resumes per job opening? Talk about time consuming. Well, if you're hiring here's the good news.

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And now you can try it for free at zippercruder.com/cricket. Meet your match on Zipper Cruder. [MUSIC] Joining me in studio, she's a city council member and candidate for mayor of Los Angeles. Nithya Rahman, welcome to Potsay of America.

>> Thank you so much for having me. >> We have a lot to get through. I'm going to go pretty quickly. I also do want to disclose that I've been a supporter of yours for a long time. But I was really excited to see you jump in the race.

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. >> You had endorsed Karen Bass for mayor. >> Yes.

>> 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 against her? >> Well, the endorsement request had come months prior.

So I just want to be very clear about that. It wasn't like an overnight change of time. 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 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 the city hall needs to be doing things differently in order to address our biggest problems. That we weren't even going to have that conversation. I mean, it made me crazy. It made me absolutely crazy. And so finally in the last couple of days I seriously considered running and then on the very last day through my hat in the ring.

So 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. 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. That definitely had some kind of impacts from the fires, the year prior and from or 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, 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 independent expenditure committees of campaign funding here in LA. And so we signed that contract. We knew that we would be hundreds of millions of dollars in the whole as a result.

And then exactly as everyone knew, we ended last year with a billion dollar budget deficit and 1,600 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 street light. We haven't paved a single mile of street this entire fiscal year because we don't have the money. We're filling fewer pot holes because we have the trucks to fill pot holes, but we can't pay for the drivers to fill pot holes.

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. 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 feel beholden to these groups. Even if they're supportive of making sure public employees receive good benefits and good 100%. 100% and I think you can offer, I think we 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 the 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 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. Can you talk about what happened with the convention center? I think this is a good example. There is a proposal to expand the convention center because you just tell people what happened, how much it's going to cost and 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 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 balloon significantly.

That would mean that we were going to be paying out a hundred million dollars 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 streetlights. And 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 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, I know, I represent a district right now that is very vocal about their views.

So, relatively, you know, one of the relatively wealthier districts, and they know how to get in touch with city hall in the 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 to, like, how many years would it take to build this convention center?”

It's going to take a couple of years. 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 happening, but we need to get to Olympics readiness. And then we're going to kind of put walls around the remaining parts of the convention center. They're still under construction. Then we're going to have the events there and then afterwards we'll finish the project. And that's going to have six billion dollars with debt service.

Yes, yes, yes, yes. Yeah, yes, yes. All the cost plus the borrowing and all the rest is going to cost $36 billion. 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 for the next 30 years.

And the revenues will never cover the costs.

So, this is terrific. Love that for us. All right. Sorry. So, how does it get to the point where a small group of people, Democrats or, or, you know, left associated people are all coming together to make these decisions. Not Republicans that are causing these problems. It's not Donald Trump.

“It's, this is a problem generated by, 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 a good governing. You know, 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 I think it is, 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 the face and say to them, you trust me. I'm going to address really complex issues, like affordability. I'm going to 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 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 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 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. 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 meeting so that 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, like, which is housing. I actually interviewed Zoron Mamdoni about this when he was running in New York. That he had actually evolved somebody that was associated with the DSA, the Socialist, the Democratic Socialist, that he had come to see the importance of not just like rent control and measures to control the cost of housing, public housing, but also market rate housing.

I think you've had a similar evolution. Can you talk about what is standing in the way right now of Los Angeles building enough housing supply to meet the need? Yeah, I mean, I think I definitely had that same movement. 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 kind of what people talked about needing here in LA.

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 '80s, there was an anti-manhattanization movement that downzone, that reduced the capacity to build more housing along every major boulevard and thoroughfare that reduced capacity to build multi-family housing across the entire city, leading to what estimates, what is an estimated shortfall of something like 500,000 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 change would be getting the city out of the way.

So that we actually have capacity to build more housing, building more density, particularly near our major transit corridors, building more gentle density like duplexes and triplexes, even in some single family neighbourhoods 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 an application for a new housing unit coming in and when it is actually approved.”

The timelines for proving housing are double even triple what other jurisdictions are which leads to significantly less housing being produced and by the way.

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.

The more projects that got 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. 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 fires in the palaces in Altadina there was this sense even from the mayor that like we're going to make this process faster we're going to make it work better.

Of the 4100 that have applied for permits rebuild 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's happening. Well, I think it is leadership. I think it is a I think the mayor here in the city of Los Angeles has. 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 direction 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. So 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 our key issues for this city.

“We need a deputy mayor for housing, but you know that position has been left empty for I think in an exclusively long time.”

So we're in this crisis in housing we've lost 54,000 people in the county. Now Los Angeles past something that's called ULA it's the mansion tax people would know it. And I actually supported the mansion tax so I thought okay like I don't think it was it was written in a stupid way by people who seem honestly mathematically illiterate. But it put a tax on houses over 5 million and then a bigger tax on houses over 10 million and if that 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 multi family housing because that was so.

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

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 L.A. city versus L.A. County.

I like how he's producing more housing we're producing less San Diego which is facing the same macro economic conditions that we are is actually increasing permits while L.A. has seen a 25% drop in permits. I mean to me the evidence was very clear that this was impacting multi family 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 U.L. 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 do as a supporter of U.L. 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,

that is making Los Angeles into a place of less opportunity.

“Secondly, I think both 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 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 going to come from it. If the council had already endorsed Karen Bass before you decided to run, I think all stuck with their endorsements, but I assume behind the scenes others on the council are as frustrated as you are.

“You have to have also been somebody that endorsed Karen Bass, but was unhappy.”

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 don't want to betray my private conversations. I still have relationships with people on the council that I'm working with and whatever happens in the selection. Either outcome, I will need to work with them going forward as well. But I will say that, you know, I rocked 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 the lack of leadership on issues, and I think that's the most perplexing thing here in LA, which I think Angelina 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 Angelina'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 don't think I'm the only one. I really don't. So I want to ask you about MacArthur Park. There's a beautiful park in the middle of the city. If you go there right now, we drove there right now. It's middle of the day. You would see basically it can open air drug market. And the mayor and the police, they set up chain link fences on the sidewalks around the park. They're blocking off. They're not coordinating anything in. They are, it's 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. 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 do they take until MacArthur Park is a place that safe for families? Is it a, I don't, I personally like, look, I can be told why I'm wrong. But the idea that it's a six month problem is 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?

Because I think it takes repeated engagement and presence in that location to address long standing 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.

“And you have to address very obvious 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, pushing with all your might on that issue, I do think that you can make some real improvements there. You know, we have had in Council District 4 where I've been engaged, we don't have anything that resembles that scale of crisis, but we did have very large encampments, very, very large encampments, 30, 40 people that were there when I first got elected. So 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, you know,

I've 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 that 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, because 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 employee's union or maybe advocates for, for the unhoused, you know, Gavin Newsom is almost taken as a given in some quarters that Gavin Newsom was performatively cruel in the way that he wanted to clear encampments.

“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 going to be aggressive about doing that."”

Like, is part of the job of mayor making decisions that are humane, that are reflective of like our values as progresses, but at the same time, like,

sometimes the advocates are going to be out there protesting if you do need to clear an encampment 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 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, 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, you know, street homelessness significantly in my district, 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 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're on the council, you supported what would become mayor masses of signature policy to address homelessness was a $300 million program to get people off the streets.

The city spent about about $259,000 per person housed 40% of the participants more than 2,000 people ended up back on the streets. What went wrong with that program and like, what does it tell you about how you do it differently?

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. The kind of effort that it was where you, again, was renting hotel in motel rooms and using those as shelter to go to encampments and get off for 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 years before the mayor came into office.”

We've done it in Venice. 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 were 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. For me, that kind of an encampment resolution focus response is really important. The issue becomes 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 $80,000 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 $100,000 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 loss that shows us where beds are vacant, where our permanent supportive housing units are available.

And through that work, I've actually, you know, brought people 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 moving into a permanent supportive housing unit, whether it is coming into self-sufficiency, getting a job, being able to actually live independently.

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, despite pushing within the city to create oversight to create responsibility here. All right, a couple final questions. Look, I realize that as mayor of LA, the Middle East has very little to do with your portfolio.

But you've been hit from the left for not speaking out enough about Gaza, you also 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 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 how you feel about it?”

Well, I have spoken about the issue in the past. I called for a ceasefire introduced a ceasefire resolution 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 been deeply disturbed by what I have seen at the same time in my role as city council member. And what I imagine in my role as mayor would be the impacts on people here and kind of the knock on effects from what's happening in the Middle East.

I think have to be also the focus of our work here 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 the 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 just over the film industry briefly. There's so much to talk about. So LA, we had only 19,000 on location film and TV production days. That's a 16% decrease from 2024. That's a lowest number of production days ever recorded outside of COVID.

Yeah, you know, one of the big things that I think we need to be doing is making it easier to film here. And there have been some efforts that are making their way through the council around kind of reducing restrictions on how production happens on reducing costs for production. That's how improving how film LA works. These have been moving I think all too slowly. 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, 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.

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 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 move to to build their dreams to work in the film industry, I think that's, that's the kind of engagement that I want to see, I haven't been seeing that kind of engagement happening, that's what I would want to do if I were Mayor.”

Oh, I mean, 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. What's going on if the arc light is nuts? Yeah, let's go talk to that property owner. Okay, all right, it made some progress today. Yeah, all right, thank you.

“If you're on, thank you so much for being here, good luck in your race, and I'll be at the arc light open.”

All right, we're done. Thank you.

Thank you. [Music] That's our show for today. Thanks to Nithya Ramen for coming on. Dan and I will be back with a new show on Friday. [Music]

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Also, please consider leaving us a review that helps boost this episode and everything we do here, Craig. Podshaven America is a crooked media production. Our producer is Saul Rubin. Our associate producer is Faris Safari. Austin Fisher is our senior producer.

Rechurnland is our executive editor. Adrian Hill is our head of News and Politics. Jordan Canter is our sound engineer with audio support from Kyle Segland and Charlotte Landis. Matt DeGroat is our head of production. Naomi Sengel is our executive assistant. Thanks to our digital team, Elijah Cone, Haley Jones, Ben Havkot, Mia Kalman,

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