Joe Biden Haunts The DNC

obviously right now we are in The Narrative of Queen carela carrying everything before her can do no wrong cruising to Victory Etc but there is time for one more turn I think one more major turn of the narrative and we may just see it hello everyone welcome to the Steve Hilton show it is Monday August the 19th that's when I'm taping is the first day of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago and guess what it's Biden's big day but you know what's happening they can't wait to see the back of him so he's going to get all the glory and the praise all this amazing selfless hero who lay down his career for the good of the party in the country what absolute rubbish they know it's rubbish we all know it's rubbish he had to be drag kicking and screaming out of there they can't wait to see the back of him so can the rest of the country not wait to see the back of him because he was such a total disaster but this whole thing captures the complete schizophrenia at the heart of this convention and at the heart of this whole campaign that we're now in the midst of which is they can't decide where they stand on this Biden Harris transition because on the one hand they're saying that this is the carrying the torch you know Biden's passing the torch to KLA Harris she's carrying the torch now and it's the Biden agenda and if you look at the platform that's been adopted it literally still talks about and it's amazingly incompetent by the way you can't quite believe this is um where they've landed but it's absolutely true they the platform literally has his name in it Joe Biden and talks about Biden's second term and all of this the actual platform they they couldn't even get their act together to just sort of delete the word Biden and replace it with Harris amazing anyway so on the one hand they're saying this is Biden you know second term effectively and and the and the most clear articulation of that came um from Susan Rice and here's the quote Cara Harris has been an integral architect and executor of the policies of the Biden Harris Administration so on the one hand this is all just continuity no change at all continuity she's just steaming ahead right the co-pilot has taken over and it's no change um you the same policies same direction um because of course she was the architect and executor of the policies of the Biden Harris Administration now it's just the Harris Wall's Administration but it's going to be the same basically same platform same name in the platform Etc that's that's one argument that they're making and I don't quite understand why they're even even making that argument because the verdict on the the policies of the Biden Harris Administration is entirely negative I mean they seem to have failed on every single issue um there's nothing where the voters give them credit for having had any kind of success so why they want to keep saying this when they no longer need to because Biden's gone he's in the rearview mirror um after the first night and he's literally you know leaving town um I don't quite understand but still they they're trying to make out that there's no change on the other hand the whole point of switching them out was to project a message of change because when you have a situation in The Wider electorate which is that which is what we have which is that people think by you know more people think that the country is headed in the wrong direction and therefore it is a change election and so that favors Trump who's been out of power then of course they want to the Democrats want to also take on the mantle of the change that the country needs and and invest that in Carla Harris so on the one hand they're saying no no change the hand other hand saying yeah big change carel Harris big change and so they're trying to convey this sense of her new agenda and how she's totally different and she's got a new policy agenda and she's not using the same language and he talked about democracy and now she talk about freedom and and all the rest of it and of course most importantly for them trying to distance her from the Biden Harris Administration they don't talk about the Biden Harris Administration in fact Harris when she's talking about the Biden Harris Administration pretends that she's nothing to do with it she literally talks about to day one that's in her speeches day one as if she hadn't been there for the last you know thousand plus days of the administration which she was allegedly an integral architect and executor of no no no sorry that was someone else and so as I I put on you know in response to what Susan Rice's quote I said well but here's C Harris's quote if she could if you could imagine these words coming yes I was an integral architect and executor of the policy of the Biden Harris Administration except on inflation the Border crime Afghanistan everything else she's trying to distance herself and so you saw that speech last week going into the convention her economic speech her economic plan we'll get to that in a minute the total Calamity that that was what a revealing moment that was her first real foray into policy we'll get to that in the next section but the notable part of that speech was how she was just this basically could have been a trump speech her criticism of everything that went wrong in the Biden harit Administration that everything's too high and everything costs so much and prices are high and it's still the groceries are a nightmare and housing is a nightmare and it's all such a nightmare for people she kept saying as if she had nothing to do with it so this is the thing they can't resolve they haven't figured it out and we it'll be interesting to see how this plays out during the course of the convention but this but the central contradiction will remain because she is trying to suggest that she is the change at the same time um as having been right there and owning the record of the past four years and again it's not just Susan Rice that says it when when she was trying to brag about how important she was to the administration carela Harris herself would say yes I was there at the heart specifically on Afghanistan she was asked you know were you the last person in the room when he made that decision yes I was she said very proudly owning that decision on Afghanistan which of course was the most calamitous foreign policy security policy decision and implementation that anyone can remember which led directly to all the other catastrophes we've seen that have that have led to this world in chaos Putin and Ukraine Iran and its proxies and Israel and so on but she proudly owned it when it suited her now she's trying to distance herself and it just doesn't compute and at the end of the day my experience with elections is in you have to have a message that makes sense that actually is believable and right now what they're putting out there is just not believable it's not coherent it's not consistent it is contradictory it is schizophrenic that is the Dilemma that they have now of course they can get away with it because they have the media totally covering for them and that is the real theme we've seen there's probably no more ludicrous an example of the media kind of you know covering for uh than this amazing thing that I just read deep in a New York Times front page story in this suay times and yes I'm oldfashioned and I get the actual newspaper and I look at it we just got back from vacation and so I'm pouring over the newspapers and I read this long story it's on the starts on the front page of the Sunday Times Sunday New York Times and it goes in and I read the whole thing and often in these in these long stories you find some amazing gem I often found this When I Was preparing for my um Fox News show on Sundays and you'd find these things tucked away and because they never ever want to embarrass the Democrats and they're always covering for them often they completely Miss and here was a classic example so in this long story about car it's a sort of you know almost like a profile about car Harris's Rise um and how she got to this point it's kind of you know preview to the convention and and they talked to various people including Ron Clan so Ron Clan was the chief of staff Biden's Chief of Staff Biden's going a right-hand person for years uh when he was vice president and so on absolutely Central to the whole Biden presidency this is an actual quote from Ron clan we were all United behind the idea she KL Harris should be successful we just didn't find the path to do it what he's basically saying she's a failure as Vice President we were all United behind the idea she should' be successful we just didn't find the path to do it to me that is an absolute bombshell admission Ron CA admits that she didn't succeed as vice president but guess what the headline of this article was in the New York Times amazing I'll read you the headline this is from the print edition it's different online if you you know people checking up on me this is the uh print edition headline inside the asent of a VP quietly making her mark That's the headline I mean honestly if you need any further proof that they're all part of the KLA Harris campaign it's just completely one 100% propaganda media pushing her through um and and the question will be will that last until the election my view is that there is still time between now and the election even though we have this ridiculous uh situation now where there's no election in the way that we used to have it we have totally different elections depending where you live in the country because you have early voting in different states at different times so people are actually voting and participating in completely different elections with different information for example Pennsylvania crucial State um everyone agrees that she can't possibly win without it or at least that was the that was the thinking until very recently crucial part of the Battleground they start voting in less than 30 days they actually the voting in Pennsylvania will begin after the debate that's scheduled on September the 10th but before September the 18th When Donald Trump is due to be his sentences due to be handed down for the ridiculous New York prosecution the brag prosecution that's supposed to happen on September the 18th after people have started voting so the whole thing is ridiculous but the point I wanted to end with is that even though we don't know exactly you know we can't be not like there's one election day and everyone has the same information going into it there is still time even though there's not much time there is still time for The Narrative around this election to change so obviously right now we are in the narrative of you know Queen carela carrying everything before her can do no wrong cruising to Victory Etc that's the that's the kind of vibe that's the narrative right now but there is time for one more turn I think one more major turn of the narrative and we may just see it and who knows and the term will be this actually it turns out she's just as bad as everyone thought she's just as bad as the Democrats thought which is the reason they were still sticking with with Biden almost Till The Bitter End because they thought well he's bad but she would be even worse until very recently that's what everyone in the Democratic party and the media and all the rest of them that's what they were saying and there is still time I believe for that narrative to emerge and dominate going into the election we'll see if it happens um I think what could prompt it to happen is what we're going to be talking about in the next segment which is her total cluelessness on domestic and international policy um that I think could be the thing that prompts another turn of the narrative don't bet on it the media is absolutely in the tank for her but we'll see she's going to have a good week this week There's no question the convention will be a Love Fest for Carla Harris in the convention center and more broadly in the media but then there's still time for things to change before election day it is not over yet not by long way all right so as I just mentioned I think that the real vulnerability for Carmel Harris is exactly the same thing that caused the collapse of of her campaign the last time she ran for president in 2020 which is policy that's where she fell apart back then it was over Healthcare where she made these promises and clearly didn't either didn't understand the consequences of the policies she was throwing out there or um did understand but under questioning retreated and reversed and got herself into such a model that the whole thing seemed shambolic and chaotic and created an impression of total cluelessness on policy that's what did for her the last time around and judging by her first policy intervention this time around it could be the same thing that does for her campaign uh in 2024 just as it did last time because this speech which was build as her great economic plan was just a complete shambles as we just mentioned it was it was and and the Trump campaign by the way did this job pretty effectively they clipped bits of it and turned it effectively into a trump campaign ad all her observations about how bad life is under the policies that she's just been implementing as part of the Biden Harris Administration complaining about how everything's too expensive and so on so first of all there's that that political own goal as it were but when you actually look at the policy content here it is just ridiculous the big pledge that they tried to put out there in advance was this pledge of three million new homes 25 Grand down payment assistance funded by the taxpayer for firsttime buyers now she's on the right track in terms of the issue so from that point of view strategically this was a smart choice no question about it um and I make this argument here particularly in California it is the number one issue house the housing crisis certainly that we have in California is the foundation issue it's the number one reason people are leaving California it is connected to every other issue whether that is homelessness or the cost of living generally because housing is such a high proportion of everyone's expenses it's connected to um things like family formation people thinking well I'm not going to have kids if I can't afford a home to raise them in it's connected to family breakup where people have to move miles away from where their parents are U so grandparents don't get to see their kids and they don't can't get to help with child care and so on it's even connected to issues like you know schools um where you if if people who going to be teachers in schools in public schools can't afford to live anywhere near where the schools are you're not going to get the best people so there's just so many ramifications from the fact that housing is just completely disastrously out of reach for people so she's on the right track in terms of focusing on this issue but the actual policy my goodness first of all this these these numbers that they throw out there the record is not exactly reassuring three million homes she's going to build well let's have a look at some of the other things that she's promised in the past and again I put this out on social media $42 billion to give millions that was the that was the pril millions of Americans high-speed Broadband what's the number of people that were actually connected out of the millions that were promised zero literally zero another one $7 billion for a nationwide Network do you remember this one of EV charging state stations how many were actually installed seven7 billion for seven charging stations there are thousands of new school bus remember the one of her famous carela word salad things was about school buses and how she loves electric school buses I think that's when she started talking about ven diagrams or whatever so that was5 billion for thousands of new school buses they delivered 60 so when she talks about 3 million new homes it's not exactly credible secondly when you actually dig into the policy reason that we have this housing crisis it's exactly the opposite of what she's talking about she's talking about subsidizing the construction of the new homes with tax breaks or goodness knows what but the reason that we don't have the housing that we need the number one reason is all these regulations and lawsuits that block housing from being built and as we've talked about endlessly in the California context guess who's behind most of these lawsuits that block housing her donors the unions is she doing anything that about that in her plan no so this is a completely empty promise um and the 25 grand for firsttime buyers again it's a classic example of a promise that sounds great but actually when you dig into it um as many observers have pointed out more likely than anything else it's just going to increase the price so it'll make no difference um because everyone knows that there's all these people with 25 grand extra to uh be able to pay towards the cost of a home so it's just clueless in terms of how a market economy works works and speaking of which the the part that I think you know really caused for a lot of damage was this suggestion and they keep denying now that because it's been a disaster that it was in the speech in the first place of price controls price controls which she called it she she said it was going to be anti-price gouging in a little bit of a Market that operates in as competitive a way as possible you end up with shortages and in the end higher costs so you see that right now in California where they try to fix prices in exactly the way she talks about for insurance where they where the insurance commission in California repeatedly stepped in to stop insurance companies from raising rates fix controlling prices which sounds good the government will stop prices from going up well guess where We've Ended up in California if you want to insurance for your car or your house you basically can't big insurers one after the another just leaving the state saying sorry we're not doing this anymore we can't operate under these circumstances the idea that the government can come in and control prices and for whatever they say about that's not what she really meant of course it was the impression she was trying to convey that that was the whole point of the speech and that's the whole point of this intervention she was trying to suggest that she the head of the feder the executive branch of the federal government would stop prices going up that was the point she was trying to make but when it's pointed out to her and her team that this has always ended in complete disaster and it is the symbol of um far-left Socialist Communist regimes their attempt to completely manage a market economy this way and it always ends in disaster and shortages and lines around the block um for basic items in a grocery store and so on when when actual oper ators in grocery stores keep pointing out like then the reason that our prices are going up we have tiny margins we're not exactly ripping people off you know we make 2% margins basically um is because of all these other factors all these other policies of the Biden Harris Administration that have made it impossible to to to produce things at a decent uh cost because the regulations are so high in particular the climate regulations that raise the cost of energy and that's the main input into industry's costs um and so none of this is addressed by this really dumb policy idea of the federal government controlling prices and that is that is the impression she was trying to give and that's why I think this could be the Achilles heel because it's a classic example of someone who doesn't really understand and hasn't thought through the implications someone came to her she said let's do something when inflation's a vulnerability I me I've been through this process I've been involved in campaigns for years and I've I understand how it works and I'm not saying I always had a good record but I've seen enough to see how it it's gone wrong and when it goes right and I've been I've often got it wrong um but you learn from your mistakes and this is someone who clearly hasn't done it enough to learn from mistakes and so they're making it up as they go along so this is the calculation it's like well we've got a problem with inflation it's a big vulnerability for us we need to say something about inflation we can't uh in any way criticize what actually what the policies that we implemented were that drove the inflation the massive increase in public spending we can't talk about that so we have to make up something new so they call it price gouging just like Gavin Nome here in California goes on about the oil company's price gouging which is the reason that gas prices are the highest in America no it's because you've increased the tax you're the price gouger in Chief and you've increased the regulations that make it so much more expensive expensive to produce gas in California and it's exactly the same now on the national level their policies have increased everyone's costs so now they're turning around and saying we're going to go after price gougers but they're the price gougers they're stupid policies of course they can't say any of that so they have to say well what we're going to do is we're going to stop prices being unfairly raised and yes there's all sorts of you know get out Clauses they can point to and say well it wasn't really Cara Harris sitting in an office you know writing the number that prices can increase by uh it's the FTC getting involved if there's an anti-competitive situation blah blah blah right yes they can point to all of that but the impression they wanted to give the voters was that yes she would stop prices going up rather than and offering any kind of thought out long-term plan for addressing either the housing crisis which is very real or the cost of living crisis which is also very real because they've been driven by their own policy and they can't admit that so they come out with these gimmicks and the ultimate validation of that analysis is not anything I would say but the fact that even in this media honeymoon the media threw up all over this policy speech including the Washington Post that literally said instead of serious answers to serious problems it's a bunch of gimmicks and so as we look beyond the convention it's going to be a Cara Fest of course but then in the days and weeks after the convention this is the area I think that could be the real vulnerability the policy cluelessness that has been revealed every time carela Harris has run for president and this time judging by the first outing is no exception it's California Corner time and I just mangled my introduction which we can't do so I have to do it all again uh you didn't hear the first part cuz we were able to edit things but we can't when we're live on air with my guest today Jen horn I mean if you just if you did what I just did I mean it'd be all over right you know what happens I just do I just laugh and go you know what the hamster fell off the wheel in fact I think last week I usually say on Thursdays it's practice Friday and I believe I said it was practice Thursday which would made it Wednesday and so that was just all wrong but sometimes you just have to laugh at yourself you know it's all you can do with live radio quite quite a lot of the time for me anyway yeah not just sometimes laugh or cry Steve laugh or cry exactly all right so let's get to the the the actually well I said let's get to the news but there's some real news that you made on your show where I'm a guest let's remember am 870 the morning answer Southern California right across California actually I meet people on the road the whole time so I love listening to you with Jen and Grant on Friday morning I'm there every Friday morning you had a very interesting guest who may is well known to uh listeners of this show as well and in fact will be joining us very soon on this show for a future episode very soon um but tell us what happened yeah so uh you know one of the very I think actually probably the most important thing that's going to be on the ballot of people living in Los Angeles is the LA County District Attorney's race to replace George gasone and you may remember back to the primary there were a lot of people I think over 10 in this race and the primary to replace gasone many people in his office now I had endorsed Jonathan hatami at the time a lot of people in Southern California did uh but George gasone went on to win in first place in second place was Nathan Hawkman who we've watched he's had quite the career in California he was a a federal prosecutor he ran for the Attorney General's position and he really went in and cleaned up and came in second and I thought all right well I'm putting all my my support anything I can to help Nathan hawman because George gasone has got to go and truly I still feel that way today George gasone has got to go Mickey Mouse would do a better job than George gone is doing but um one of the things that had come up and Nathan has been a regular guest on our program the morning answer um ever since he won the Primary in before and he explained why he Cho changed his party he was a republican now he's an independent and Steve he gave the best answer that I could hope for he said I changed from being a republican to an independent because I want to reflect the independence of the prosecutor's office the prosecutor should not be political and I'm paraphrasing here but this is essentially what he said to us he said the office of the prosecutor should not be political you should be independent-minded and I wanted to tell people and ensure that they would know that I would operate the office in that way and I thought dang that's a good answer I mean you can't really draft a better answer right for changing parties and so away we went well Nathan Hawkman was on our local Fox affiliate Channel 11 last I think it was Wednesday or Thursday and he was asked by Alex Michaelson if he was ready to off offer an endorsement in the presidential race now I was expecting to hear the same kind of answer that he was going to maintain his independence but instead he came out and said he fully endorsed kamla Harris and Tim wals and he said he had to support the prosecutor not the convicted felon wow wow that's the I mean that's the real K Harris you know talking point like 100% that's and that's kind of what Disturbed me because to be honest with you I didn't think that Nathan Hawkman was a trump supporter I I've heard him say before he's voted for Biden I think one of his close personal friends is Adam ship so I was under no like Grand Illusion that he was a trump supporter and despite the fact that I am a trump supporter I don't need candidates to swear allegiance to president Trump I need them to gain my trust for the job that they're doing right that's very important and so when he was so clear with with us on the morning answer about being independent and then came out with the full throated endorsement of kamla Harris and not only that but talked about how great she was for California and then went on to use the talking point about the convicted felon I was like what's going on here so to his credit we reached out and he came on with us the next morning and I give him a lot of credit for that because I was I didn't want him to think we were ambushing him I said the first thing what we're leading with is this endorsement of KL Harrison he came on knowing that and he basically explained that he hadn't changed and that he was still lined up with most of what we were doing you know what most conservatives wanted 99% of the time and he tried to say he had always said that he was voting for Biden um but I think what what troubled me is that it wasn't the qu that wasn't the question the question that Alex Michaels and the host had asked is are you making an endorsement and my problem is that he said yes I don't think I'd want him making an endorsement for Trump I I just think that if you are so intent on saying that you're the independent then be independent the other issue is that and a lot of people feel this way steveen I've talked to former Sheriff Alex vowa we've talked to you know people that we know prosecutors in his office a lot of them are struggling with the endorsement of kamla Harris because she was involved with the bailouts of the riers in Minneapolis that Wall's wife had said that she liked to smell the burning rubber as his City and his State burned down after those riots um you want a prosecutor to be able to work with law enforcement and there was something about that really full throw an endorsement that I think maybe might compromise that now I at this point I think I will still vote for Nathan Hawkman because I cannot bring myself to vote for George gasone and I think leaving it blank is a cop out but I'm struggling right now um his polling however looks absolutely incredible he's at 45% um versus 20% for George gasone but there are still 35% of undecided voters out there this time this poll was just released this week actually maybe today as we talk and so I think there are still some voters who are undecided um but it for all intents and purposes it seems that he's got this in the bag and so I I asked him if that was really why he made this huge endorsement of kamla Harris um he said no it was always in his heart I asked him if he had had contact with the kamla Harris campaign if he was thinking about leaving La to go work for her no he said he wasn't going to do that the other piece of news that I was happy to hear um is that a lot of people had said that he was flip-flopping on the amendment to Prop 47 which is hugely important for us in California and that's prop 36 he actually endorsed prop 36 on my program and said that he would support it and that he felt that it wasn't going to go far enough um so that is important but it is still really it's hard for me to think that what we struggle with in California are all things that kamla Harris and Gavin Newsome gave us and so and George gasone for that matter in Los Angeles and so it's very hard for me to understand why you would endorse someone who endorsed your opponent and who really stands in stark contrast to what the people of California want to see in terms of fighting crime and kind of turning the state around and getting it back on the right path so it was definitely a an insane week weekend as well with all the Fallout but it was a definite enlightening chat um certainly my co-host you know Grant stinchfield he um he's goes hard and he asked Nathan whether or not he would prosecute president Trump which I thought was an interesting question and he didn't really give an answer to that but it definitely wasn't a a no so well it's an interesting to learn well I I listen to that you know that's why I'm so happy that we could have this conversation now you know quickly following up on it because I listened to that conversation I thought Grant made a very fair point which was okay if you're literally using as your justification for this endorsement the convicted felon Point that's you know to most people who are you know not kind of extreme partisan Democrats it's a toal Al bogus and fake prosecution um like convicted felon but convicted in a completely political partisan attack that should a case that should never have been brought and by the way it's not just Republicans say that you know I always go back to this the CNN legal analyst wrote this absolutely devastating piece about how the Alvin brag prosecution should never have been brought and would never have been brought unless it was a part of a political campaign to get Donald Trump and so Grant's question which is would you have brought that case because he literally the same position as is Da they're running he's running for the same position and so it's a completely fair question and I didn't in the clip that I heard I didn't hear an answer no he did not give an answer he said he'd have to look at the evidence and so Grant said well we all know what the evidence was we all watched the trial I mean we watched it all unfold like most of us know what was going on so he never really answered that question and and I think it's it's important to note because again California is one of those places Los Angeles certainly is one of those places where president Trump is not on on track to win and so he can't be a factor in every local race but I think this was important when you use the talking point convicted felon when even people who aren't Trump supporters say you know what there were definitely politics at play I mean I know some people are happy to see it but I think fair-minded people even those who aren't voting for president Trump say this doesn't seem like exactly the right move to to push against him is the calculation that to win he needs Democrats who hate Trump to vote for him and therefore it's that's that's what's going on here because because it would have been easier wouldn't it have been easier just to say to stick to the independent line and then you don't annoy anyone well and I think that was the safe play and so I don't know if this polling that he probably had you know he had an inkling of it I'm sure they have inter polling so maybe he thinks well it doesn't matter if I irritate conservative voters because either they're going to vote for me anyway because they can't stomach voting for George gasone or maybe I can afford to lose them because it's more important to go after the Democrats I guess but I actually think Steve Grant and I were talking about this on our program this morning that he's probably I would imagine going to get elected as an independent and I would imagine he's probably going to soon turn to a Democrat I would imagine that maybe he changes his party preference again because if he wants to stay in the prosecutor's office and he said that he would that if he's killing it that he's gonna stay and run again in four years that was his word those were his words if I'm killing it if oh no crushing it if I'm crushing it then I'll stay and run again for four more years um he's probably going to need some support behind him and he's not going to want to be challenged by a powerful Democrat I would imagine he's probably going to go into the DA's office and then probably change his party preference even though it's a nonpartisan office he'll maybe give a wink and a nod to get the Democrat money behind him in the coming four years it may be a play for the long maybe the long game rather than the short game Well you certainly got a lot of really uh useful information including the support for prop 36 which is reassuring because over the you're right this I we just got back from vacation over the weekend I was checking back on everything this was a big part of what I was seeing and and the Fallout from your interview um and then I also saw our friend Jen van was saying that he you know she had heard that in some forums and some events he'd been you know lukewarm on Prop 36 and so on so it was good to hear a strong endorsement of that yeah I think and that was actually the piece of our interview that Alex Michelson actually sent out as well at Fox because there had been some Rumblings that he wasn't going to support prop 36 so now he's on the record saying that he will and let's hope that's right because we do need to get something going in California right I mean we've got it this this doesn't go far enough but at least it's a it's a path of right direction of course well um as I mentioned at the beginning we have Nathan h on this show very soon so ask him all over again as if he's not sick about talk about this for now all right one one more story before we go um we've just finished the Paris Olympics and Karen bass was in Paris as the mayor um of the next host city which will be Los Angeles right here in in in our home state and in your home City and so she was there and of course they were all trumpeting as they usually do you know like the first black woman to receive the flag and okay great you know but actually substantively uh she's starting to tell us what she imagines what's her vision for the Los Angeles Olympics tell us a little bit about that Steve I'm worried that this might be a disaster waiting to happen I don't know okay so first of all just to re because you know every Olympics they try to outg Green each other have you noticed this like yes the athletes for the Paris Olympics you probably saw this they didn't want to have real air conditioning so they like froze pipes on the floor so that the poor athletes are like clutching to cool and then they also wanted to make sure that there was no meat well halfway through I think there was a coup and the athletes were like no we need eggs we need meat we need protein these are these are the things we need to continue to perform so they had to bring in I think it was like 400 pounds of like animal proteins you know as far as cheese and eggs and and meat goes so Karen bass says you know of course when we come to La we want to have all of the green stuff in place so she pledged it was going to be a car-free Olympics Steve in LA in LA and mind you those of you not familiar with LA the venues for the Olympic events are all over the place they're going to have beach volleyball at the beach they're going to have events in downtown they're going to have events in Englewood by Sofi Stadium the athletes are going to be staying at UCLA these are not like walkable distances so they're going to need to have some sort of Transportation so they say that they're going to have electric buses that are going to be able to come and and take people around and God love them if that's true if they can make it work that'll be fantastic but it is a very big and so symbolic of what California does right no more cars you have to be out of your cars by 2035 yet they don't have a real plan that's what's happening here they don't have a real plan to get people around but we know we don't like cars so there they go and the other little piece of this which I thought was funny is that everybody knows we have a huge homeless problem in Los Angeles and now San Francisco they're actually busing homeless people down to LA because we'll take them and so one of the things that has been going around is what they're going to do with the homeless people because God knows they'll still be here in 2028 probably more of them and so Karen bass just this week said that she is not going to be busing so she'll bust athletes around but she's not going to bust the homeless people anywhere so you tell me what they're going to do are they going to let the people living on the streets stay there are they going to make them are they going to clean it up like they did in San Francisco when President she came to town and now BOS is on the record saying she's not busing these people anywhere so what are we it's just so hilarious I mean look we'll see I mean the thing first of all I just have to say so it's 2028 four years from now Olympics every four years of course um one thing that just comes to mind is like when we saw Gavin yome he was out doing his part sunlasses picking up a tire and then going back to his Mansion we I I haven't got the energy to get but the um but the thing that I will say is that he because he keeps throwing out these brilliant quotes that are just such a hostage to Fortune there's a they keep piling up and this one was actually the strongest yet which is people I think I'm quoting exactly people can I put it on Twitter on Steve Hilton X you can check out the exact quote um and it was people are done if we don't have this fixed we don't deserve to be in power okay yeah that is one to store away so we don't deserve to be in power yes we totally agree with that it's like he every once in a while he hits sanity doesn't he every once in a while it's like what he's done there with the the the railway thefts and it's like what is what's going on it's a third world country yeah you've been in charge of it um so they so we don't deserve to be in power so if they haven't fixed it I mean he's talking about in the next two years I think in terms of his timeline and this is two two years beyond that so uh you know that he's really saying we we're going to have this whole problem fixed but there's nothing that's being done um because they haven't got the right policies again we haven't got time to get into that I've got a lot to say about that we've talked about on this show in fact from Golden together we have in the one of our forthcoming policy documents is a real plan to fix the homelessness crisis but what's interesting about this is that they keep you know Karen bass has been very strong in saying we're not going along with the Nome plan we're not we're not getting people we've got her plan which was safe inside was that right or safe inside which is tell and and so it's been almost total failure I mean the numbers have been tiny uh the people have actually been and and generally the perception is you just move from one place to another because they're not really solving the problem and so it is a massive issue and and to say oh well we're not we're just going to sort of not we're going to leave it there I mean that's just it's going to be so humiliating I cannot believe that's going to happen I mean obviously surely we're going to see what they did for Xi Jinping in San Francisco and there's going to be this sort of massive cleanup you know a couple of weeks beforehand we would hope I mean and that's what should happen I mean I'm just wanting to benefit in Los Angeles from some of the stuff that they're going to do for the Olympics but like for a couple of weeks can we prove that we can do it and she's like No And even the LA County Board of Supervisors you know are fighting Gavin Nome right now about removing homeless people because it's inhumane so we'll see what these people do but you should see the memes going around about some of the Olympic events and some of the um homeless people who might be participating alongside the athletes okay I will check that out I'm sure AI is pretty wonderful okay the other thing that's brilliant is that I mean just on this issue I just reminds me I just heard this morning there was a story about he going back to the buses right and and just their sense of priorities like okay is that what really is the priority you know like this kind of thing when we have crime and homelessness and all this so they there's they PL I don't know if you've seen this they're doing something to get cars out of Hollywood Boulevard and they're going to make the sidewalks wider perfect no cars so you can have you know pavement cafes and all this kind have you been to Hollywood buard lately they're literally talking about the fa the Walk of Fame it is an absolute nightmare some of these videos you see the could of absolute degradation of of California and Los Angeles they're literally on Hollywood Boulevard I mean that's what's the shame of it and they're talking about let's have pavement cafes who's going to be sitting at the tables homeless people you know like with the cup of a espresso not going to happen in West Hollywood they're they installed all these bike Lanes but now the homeless encampments have spread from the sidewalks into the bike lane so they have all these bicycle people who are getting hurt because they're hitting all the junk coming off into the encampments and now they're getting hit into the street so all those bike lanes are gone which would be the same thing if they try to widen the sidewalks it's just making no sense this is they have no clue and so they keep they they sort of blindly as if they're pretending that these problems that have been there for you know decades now just don't exist and they can go on with their schemes that you know may be good or bad who but like just fix the real problem first then we can talk about all of this anyway we'll see exactly um Jen thank you so much for being with us you're too sane Steve you're too sane for this date thank you we'll see you very soon all right joining us for candidate Corner today I'm so excited to welcome Leticia Castillo um running for State Assembly District 58 is that right that is correct fantastic thank you for doing this um uh as usual with with these segments where we're introducing our great candidates to our wider audience I'd just love to to start by asking you to just tell us a little bit about yourself and your District um why why you're in in this race um and uh what you're hoping to achieve thank you so much first of all for having me on the show and giving me the opportunity to let more people know who I am so my district is assembly district 58 that covers two C's Riverside County and sber nardino County it covers all of Kupa Valley Eastville Corona Riverside in Riverside County and then it crosses county lines in the City of Grand Terrace and San Bernardino County so it's a pretty big district and it was uh tweaked back in 22 and so it is a open seat it is a state Target seat meaning that we have the opportunity right now to flip this seat and considering that I got nearly 4 49% of the vote in the primary we looking to deliver a victory in November amazing that's F that's so close you nearly nearly the 50% wonderful um so but but in terms of the district I mean that's pretty much what we think of as the Inland Empire isn't it correct Inland Empire that is correct that's you okay so tell us about your story what brought you to this point um your background and and how you got involved um I wasn't really involved to politics it was I was one of those people like o politics right um I started to kind of pay attention a little bit more back in 2016 probably around the time Trump first ran right before I used to work during the election Cycles I ran the show at the precincts when it was still precincts before they did voting centers and I always felt I was doing my part by doing that right and then Trump ran and I didn't know much about him I just knew he was the guy that would tell people you're fired on TV right right and and I started to kind of pay attention to the stuff he was saying and I was like okay I like that I like that you know and that's what kind of got me involved a little bit more paying attention and probably getting really involved was probably around the new some Rec call maybe what was that 21 I started to kind of research you know my party has to meet somewhere you know because I've always been a Republican and a conservative and so I started to look where my party meets and I start started to attend meetings and whatnot and the next thing you know um here I am running for office you know I feel like um it's a calling from God because it's something I did pray about I just felt like I needed to do more not just sit around and not do anything I do have five grandchildren and of course my grandchildren and everyone else's kids and grandkids are the reason why I'm in this fight right now I was at service on Sunday and part of the message was God calls us out of our comfort zone into the battlefield and I just felt like that was the message I needed to hear that day my background is mental health so I am a dual licensed psychotherapist and I do work u in mental health but I stepped away from my County job back in January to kind of focus more on my race and I started Private Practice in order to be able to do that so you have more flexibility correct yeah so this is is this your first time running for anything I ran in 22 that was the first time I ran I got in the in the race two days before the deadline I did not make it past the primary but you know I continued to work you know from that day forward until now I haven't stopped when I didn't make it I helped other candidates the state candidates the local candidates I continued to work to help other candidates get in and so my race has been going on since then and so that was for for the same I know you said there have been some changes but roughly the same district the you ran for assembly in 22 yeah pretty much there's just a couple areas that were taken out but yeah it was the same district because that's when it changed that was the first year that it changed right that's fantastic and so you've gone from that to basically being the I mean for you you must have been the leader obviously you know you w basically the primary yes yes although one of my opponents say she was the winner I'm like no I was the winner of the primary so what about your family back ground so I'm a first generation American and my family came from Mexico my dad came to the United States through the baset program the um Farm laborers program and back in what the 1950s and so um my three oldest siblings were actually born in Deana but the last three we were born here in the US um my dad came over um to work that he always said this is the land of opportunity we my sister and I we always say like we can't even imagine him not saying anything different that's all we heard right this is the land of opportunity everyone has the same opportunities it's up to each individual person what they do with that and so we grew up believing and knowing that and you know to this day it's the same thing you know everybody has the same opportunities it's each individual person who determines that exactly I mean that's exactly what I always focus on which is you know I'm an immigrant too you know and my parents were immigrants to the UK from Hungary so that's that immigrant story of embracing the opportunities in a Land of freedom I just think is such a universal message and it's so optimistic and positive yeah and here you know I think of it as we we we use the phrase all the time but it really means something the California Dream you here you work hard and you build a life for yourself and that sounds like that's what you've you've all been doing and so tell tell me one thing that's interesting just because you you specifically mentioned Trump I'm sure you've had this question many times and you you know you interest Trump sort of got you more fired up in terms of getting involved and and you you hear from the left the whole time they say well uh look at what he said about specifically about Mexicans um in 2015 when he launched and and and and so I just would love you to speak to that because you you know you you're in a better place to address that than anyone yeah so when people say something like that I think okay if that doesn't if you don't fall in that category then how come you're upset about it you know I I just feel like you know if you're in this country if you're an American he was talking about illegals and people coming over that sometimes you know like we're seeing right now they're emptying jails they're emptying prisons in different countries and where are those people coming straight in through the border with no um no background no background checks no anything and so they're coming into this country so I just usually tell people well it doesn't affect you do you fall in that category if it doesn't then why are you so upset about it exactly and that's and that's why I think it's so interesting you see just and I think on the left they can't understand Mexican Latino support for Trump they just can't understand it but it's growing isn't it is that I mean and that must be a big part of your campaign um absolutely I see it um on a regular basis where the support is growing one I've been out there knocking on doors when I talked to people they say they didn't pay attention before but they're paying attention now because they see that they were better under Trump than they are under the current Administration and regardless on what the news tries to tell people they say we're not you know they're trying to tell you don't believe your eyes and don't believe your wallet but they're like no we're not believing that we're not falling for that and so when someone like myself comes along and I speak Spanish and I'm able to communicate in the the language they kind of pay attention a little bit more and they start to listen um I always say that you can't understand what you don't know but the minute you someone explains it to you now you can start to understand those things that you didn't know before because you can't say I don't know anymore now you know now you start to understand where we're at and why we're where we're at you know my uncle lives in um Mexico and my mom and just came back and he loves Trump he always says I wish I had become a citizen so I could have voted for him right and so I find it interesting that even him being out out in Mexico because once he retired he went back to Mexico but he says um you know he doesn't give up you know no matter what they try to do to him he just keeps going you know and he says that in Spanish and he says if he can understand it and see it like there's a lot more people that can understand and see it let's just get into the campaign and and and a bit more you know bit deeper on what you've just been saying so what are the things what are the messages and the policy areas that you find yourself talking about the most in particular to that Community yeah well now think about Safety and Security right our communities are not safe um you know and everyone wants to live regardless on where you live right everyone wants to have safety in their own Community regardless on whether you live in a really nice neighborhood or a a a not so nice neighborhood you know because I live in one of the lower um class neighborhoods right and so but we all want safety regardless on where we live and and those that's one of the things he did is he made sure we were safe he made sure that the Border was you know people were being FedEd coming through you know there is a a legal way to do it we just can't it's unsustainable letting just the O border be open and everyone coming through that's one of the main things right now and especially like you know not being able to afford stuff it's kind of like people are coming over they're getting all this free stuff but who's paying for the taxpayers so you got the border and the impact on safety what are the other things that you find yourself talking about um parental rights education the quality of Education parents rights being taken away within this full system um you know there's just so many I I can't even express how many different issues there is you know when I went to the RNC I did a couple of interviews outside and some of the uh interviewers they said oh well if who do you want it to be if it's not Biden do you want it to be haris I just told them you know it doesn't matter who it is because their policies are good and everybody knows it and everybody can see and so it doesn't matter who sits who who they put there because it's going to be the same policies that do not work so you in California you hear a lot um people say well yeah obviously things aren't working right we everyone can see that you have the homelessness and the crime and the taxes are so high and all this you every we we we have the housing cost everything um but even though people can see we need a change they can't quite bring themselves to vote Republican because the brand Republican is just not not for me do you encounter that and how do you respond to it one of the things is you know and I'll go back to you can't understand what you don't know right so in the Hispanic Community they're used to listening to the Spanish media right the Spanish news and all they pump out is the Republicans are bad you know it's always those Republicans so someone like myself comes along and starts talking to them and hey I'm a regular person just like you I stepped up because what's going on what's coming down from Sacramento is affecting me and I know it's affecting my community so I'm a fighter you know I'm out there I'm going to do it I'm going to be your voice and so once they start listening to me they say you know if it wasn't coming from you I wouldn't be listening but what you're saying makes sense and I get it and so I've had them tell me keep doing what you're doing keep talking to more people because just like we didn't know there's more people out there that don't know and we would have voted differently had you not told us and you need to make sure you talk to other people so every time I talk to groups I tell them well now that you know I need you to do me a favor and go tell five more people 10 more people because that's how more people understand where do you talk to people when you say the groups what just describe a little bit for those who haven't done campaigns I think it's just very interesting to hear some details of what it's actually like and where you're going right so I'm doing things a little bit differently right I just kind of feel like okay some of the stuff that's been done doesn't work we haven't picked up seats we lose seats and so mind doing things a little bit different I feel most comfortable within my community and I'm going into the overlooked communities you know people who never have anyone come in like maybe Democrats don't go there because they think okay we got that area Republicans still go because oh that's a Democrat area those are the communities I'm going into so I'm targeting those people I'm going to no matter where I'm at whether it's at the swap meet whether it's at the community um park with you know families having stuff going on you know I'm always talking to people whether it's someone who has a business that says hey my workers are um Latino males come over here I'm going to do a a taco truck at lunchtime I want you to come talk to them because you know they need to know what's going on and you know those are type of of situations where I put myself in and be and and I'm able to reach more people Target people who might have never gotten involved or listen to anything and now I'm being able to reach those individuals that need to hear that and need to get involved and what can you promise them realistically because we all know the numb I mean look I I always make this point that California is much more Republican than people think and if you look at Statewide elections it's like you know 40% plus and I'm sure there's many more if we had you know like there's there's ways of you know I'm very confident that we can win in California Statewide but it's also true that if you look at the legislature the assembly right now 62 Democrats 18 Republicans so even if you win your race you know you're still going to have this very very big gap with the Democrats what can you promise people that you will actually do well you know for me one of the things is that I say is you know the makeup of the legislator right which a lot of people don't even know that and I tell them it starts by voting those people out you can't continue to reward people who don't have our best interests right and so my thing is going to be going up there and being able to communicate to the people um because I'll be there being able to communicate what's going on what they're doing right I'm not want to keep my mouth closed I'm want to let it you know what's going on and how come and once people start to understand and see that like okay does know because she is up there you know they kind of U Bank on the fact that there isn't anyone who speaks Spanish who can get that message out to people and that's one of the things that they do I can and I will do that I think that's really important because it seems to me that the Democrats they feel it feels like they've got so arrogant because they assume that it's just going to they have their own it's going to be all their own way forever yeah like nothing's ever going to change and there's never a challenge and that's why we have these policies that go more and more extreme yeah when I do talk to people and and they say well why don't they tell us this stuff and I tell them if they told you that you wouldn't vote for them and that's what they want they only care about power they don't care about you or me and that's why I'm running and you know that's one of the things that capses people it really uh my message resonates with people because like I said I'm just a regular person I was comfortable in my career I didn't have to do this but I stepped out of my comfort zone to be able to be that voice for the people who need it and what I mean how's it been I mean emotionally just as a person this whole new role and you're much more out there and people can criticize you how's that felt to you um I'm okay with it you know um I I'm I'm rough behind in the ear you know how they say I'm a little rough on the side so um I grew up and um you know I'm from what do they say I'm from Corona right and so I don't know they say we're a little bit rough over here so stuff like that just doesn't bother me you know that's why I said I'm the perfect person to run I'm not scared about I'm not scared of them I'm not worried about them for me I'm doing this for the people for the right reasons and I know that that's going to be shown in the November election what do you want people to know um anything that you haven't said yet that you want people to understand about you and your race so I've always said that it's going to take the Latino vote to really vote their values right and it's going to take the church to stand up and vote for individuals who have their same values and I get it where the church might have been silent for so long because maybe there's um candidates who run who really don't have their same values like you know and and I get it they're reserving I'm not going to give my vote away to someone who doesn't believe in this and that I want the church to know I want the Christians to know I have those same values I am a Christian I am Pro I Am pro family I am Pro all those things that you believe you know in scripture and I am the candidate so I'm asking you to go out and vote if you haven't voted before go out and vote because it's a big percentage of people who go to church who believe in God that do not vote I am your your candidate please vote and vote for me let's make some changes in the state and what is the role with the churches do you actually go in and the church and the pastors you know how does that all work yeah so what I started doing last year at the beginning of last year around February I started visiting different churches within my district um just so that they can get to know who I am they can um you know understand who I am if they have questions um just I mean and there's a lot of different churches right but I just feel when I say I feel it's going to take the church to stand up and and vote I think a lot of them just feel like I'm not going to give my vote we to someone who you know doesn't believe in God or or or whatnot and so you know that's why I say you know I am the candidate I am the one who has those same values the one who is going to um be the vessel for God up in the legislator who's your Democrat opponent my Democrat opponent is um Clarissa Cervantes um she sits on the Riverside City Council and just to kind of touch on that you know because I'm big on safety I support law enforcement and whatnot so a couple weeks ago which was riversite City's National Night Out Chief Larry Gonzalez from Riverside Police Department went to the city council and asked them to support prop 36 he asked them to support it and 6 to one it was six to one that supported it my opponent is the only one who didn't support it so that should tell you that wow he doesn't care about the safety of the community or the people you know in the community I don't understand this Democrat um I mean I hear what they say about prop 36 and they say oh it's going to take us back you hear Gavin yome saying it the whole time it'll take us back to mass incarceration and whatever it's just ridiculous no one thinks that and when you look at and actually many of us think that prop 36 doesn't go far enough in terms of changing you know reversing the Damage Done from Prop 47 and 57 these other things um but it's interesting that they they're really sticking to this some of these Democrats they really are I mean it's amazing that they want to get on the wrong side of of an issue like that right you know at a time where people want just safety businesses want to be able to survive and not be robbed on a regular basis I mean that's all they're asking for 36 prop 36 moves it in the right direction of course it needs a lot more it actually need Prop 47 just needs to be repealed actually but at least prop 36 gets it moving in the right direction right direction and I can't understand any why anyone wouldn't support it it's crazy it really is I think it's going to be I mean look we're just getting into the real campaign season now after Labor Day that's typically when we get a lot of attention on all of this I think it's going to be a real problem for them um latisa thank you so much it's been great talking to you I hope to be able to meet in person and I'm just really thrilled that it seems to be going so well so good luck to you thank you for being with us today thank you so much for having me all right so I don't know what you want to call this off I end with something I want to get off my chest something I want to complain about this is kind of a complaint but not really because it was actually positive but it didn't really feel positive at the time so as I've mentioned I was away last week just got back from uh Kawai um one of the uh islands of Hawaii of course we love Hawaii um go there every year for Thanksgiving you may have heard me talk about that before basically I always had this vision of Hawaii as this incredibly glamorous and exciting place I watched Hawaii 5 and whatever TV shows and I just always was you know in love with the idea of Hawaii back in England and you'd never go to Hawaii from England because it's so far like it's you know it's already 12 hours from England and the flight to get to the West Coast and then you got another five and a half hours so You' never do that no one really goes to Hawaii from England for vacations it's just it's just too far of a distance and so uh when we moved here 12 years ago I was really excited about the chance to go to Hawaii and we went our first year um and then in fact we've gone every year so that's become our Thanksgiving thing and some years uh we go in the summertime as well for for a week or so which we just did and we went to Kawai we we go to the different Islands we've got to know them really well and so we we tend to be pretty active uh as a family two teenage Sons you know so we're out and about this year we brought um each son brought one of their friends so we had like four teenage boys very active and so here's the thing what one of them chose this hike uh for us to do on you know pretty much at the beginning and and it's we were staying in hanay if people know kawhai it's beautiful it's this idilic Bay on the North Shore of Kawai very famous um it's actually the place that's referred to in that kids song Puff the Magic Dragon so it's lovely and you know people normally go there and hang out and have a mellow time uh on the beach or whatever learn to surf eat Shave Ice Etc no not us we go on this hike up this hill you can actually see it from the back of where we were staying this this you know this Ridge with these Peaks and he said that's where we're going to that Peak and it starts off fine the first kind of you know hour or so is you know there's other people and you get to this beautiful you know viewing platform uh we have an amazing view fantastic but then you keep going the you know we're doing the full hike to this peak it's not really the the final Peak but it's the first kind of the jaggedy uh volcanic mountains and so you go up there and it just gets worse and worse and the trail gets more and more obscure and difficult to find and it just became an I got to say an absolute nightmare um you know I'm sort of reasonably fit I'm not particularly athletic but you know I try my best it just was so hard and it got to the point where you're you know for like half an hour on end it's the trail is just like it's not even a trail like you're you're you know you're basically having to climb up there's not a rock face but like this sort of section of rock and it's all covered in you know mud because it's been raining you and you've got these ropes and you're pulling yourself up on ropes and then you get a little rest and then there's the next rope climb to do and it's just so unbelievably exhausting and I remember Rachel and my wife we would joke sometimes about these you know you you you read hikes that you can do and um they give a kind of guideline for um how long it's going to take and we would always joke about well that's for people who are just sort of you know they're not fit like us and we'll do it in half the time and and often that's the case we ters do these things quickly this hike was supposed to be 4 hours I tell you I finished it in seven seven hours by the time I got down CU coming down was even worse you're completely exhausted okay I put a picture of it on X you can find the photo it is amazing when you get to the top this incredible view so there is a kind of a reward and a sense of satisfaction that you got to the top but it was so hard getting up there and coming down was like was even worse like coming down because you know it's just harder and you don't want to slip or damage your ankle or your knee and and it just went on and on and we slightly ran out of water not completely but you know to the point where I was like really thirsty and you I got to the end I thought why did we do this but of course the reason is because it's a great adventure and then with the I'm going to now use a I think this isn't you know um a moment when we can throw in a carala ISM appropriately uh the significance of the passage of time highly significant with something like this because in the moment it's like oh my God this nightmare can't believe we've done this um but with the passage of time uh it becomes something that actually becomes more and more positive I do tend to look back my wife wiiz tells me with rose tinted spectacles and remember everything positively and even now like it's a week on and it feels like maybe it wasn't as as bad as I thought but it it kind of was actually and so I don't know it's not a hike that I would recommend in fact when we looked it up afterwards in in the book that we always use it literally described this the second part that we did not the first part which most people did the second part as um I can't really like nasty dangerous and death defying and must be missed at all costs well we didn't miss it we did it um I don't know if it's good or bad but that was like one of our uh main memories of our lovely week in Hawaii I'll let you know about the next one all right that's all for our show this week hope you enjoyed it make sure you check out the Big Ideas Book Club we've got another really great episode if you enjoyed the episode the other week looking at homelessness and uh the real reasons why this homelessness crisis is just so out of control there's a part two to that conversation that you can check out and I think you'll find it as informative as I did and of course make sure you come back here for the next episode of The Steve Hilton show follow us on Apple YouTube wherever you get your podcast we'll see you soon [Music]