Weekly Review With Clay and Buck - Hour 2 - Saving CA from Itself
2/14/202639 mincomplete
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0:33T's and C's apply. Welcome to today's edition of the Clay Travis and Buck Suxton
0:38Show Podcast. Welcome, everybody. Third hour of Clay and Buck gets going right now.
0:43And we are joined by Senator Haggerty.
0:47Mr. Senator, appreciate you being with us.
0:49Thank you so much for making the time.
0:52Thank you, Buck. It's always great to be with you, Clay.
0:54Good to see you both.
0:55All right. It would be great if you could walk us through a little bit
0:58here of what exactly is going on with the FCC, with Verizon.
1:06Verizon's got a probe about, well, your phone records.
1:11Take us through this because I don't think a lot of people know the back
1:14story and it's important stuff, but we need to educate ourselves here, including us here
1:20on the show, about exactly what you're facing here.
1:22So take us through this.
1:23Certainly, Buck. Well, if you go back to 2023, this is when the Biden administration
1:28weaponized every aspect of the government to try to block Donald Trump, to try to
1:34destroy his candidacy for president, to go after their political opponents.
1:37And it wasn't just President Trump.
1:39It was also his allies.
1:40So, no surprise, within days of President Trump announcing that he is running for president
1:46in the 2024 race, the Biden administration brings in Jack Smith initiating this program called
1:54Arctic Frost, where initially they go to Mar -a -Lago.
1:58The document search that they undertook there, that invasive process made for TV, again, trying
2:04to smear President Trump, trying to hurt him.
2:06And just days after that, Jack Smith's team requested the phone records for myself and
2:14several other U .S. senators, again, allies of President Trump, all of us Republicans.
2:19That's one thing that we had in common.
2:20But they went after our phone records, again, in an attempt to, I presume, go
2:26after President Trump's allies, go after President Trump's friends.
2:29They requested records for a number of days that were surrounding the January 6th incident
2:34back in 2021. Again, Jack Smith is looking for anything that he can do to
2:39discredit President Trump or his allies, I presume.
2:42The sad part is the Senate's process is constitutionally protected.
2:48We are not supposed to be invaded in this manner.
2:51And if we are, we're supposed to be informed of it.
2:53What happened was Verizon willfully, gladly handed over my phone records, even more information than
2:59was requested. And if you think about that, why would they have done this?
3:04As I dug into it further, I find out that Verizon's chief legal officer is
3:08a former staffer for one Henry Waxman, one of the most partisan Democrats from California
3:13to ever serve in the halls of the U .S.
3:15Congress. You've got this activist operating there in the halls of corporate America, more than
3:21willing to cooperate and collaborate with the Biden administration to try to harm Republicans and
3:26to try to harm President Trump, to coalesce around this strategy they call Arctic Frost
3:31to try to take down President Trump.
3:33And to see Verizon step up and do this and to see the, again, law
3:37enforcement weaponized in the way that it has been, absolutely terrible.
3:41I'm doing this so Verizon never does this to the American public.
3:45But if you think about it, if they would do this to a sitting senator,
3:48if Verizon would hand over our phone records without telling us, violate our due process,
3:52violate the Constitution, not put up any resistance because they have a political objective, I
3:56presume, if they're willing to do that to me, what would they do to the
4:01rest of their customers? And I have been a Verizon customer for decades.
4:04And for them to do this to me, I think, was just outrageous.
4:07But it would be even more so if they begin doing this broadly to the
4:10general public. And what we find out, Jack Smith just continues to pursue this sort
4:14of thing. And if corporations like Verizon decide to align with partisan actors like this,
4:21I think it's terrible for America.
4:23So I hope that the FCC will take this very seriously.
4:26Verizon certainly did not take it seriously.
4:29When I reached out to the CEO and the chief legal officer, I pretty much
4:33got ignored. They had some low -level person respond to me.
4:36They didn't even respond to me directly after multiple attempts to communicate with them.
4:40So now we'll see if the FCC has better results, again, dealing with partisan operatives
4:45in these large corporations. I don't think America needs this type of collaboration, this cooperation
4:51aimed at Republicans, aimed at taking us down.
4:55It doesn't stand in America.
4:57It's not going to stand.
4:58And I hope the American public will feel better after the FCC has had an
5:01opportunity to dig into this.
5:02We'll appreciate Senator Haggerty joining us, breaking down all of this information.
5:07He will be on the ballot in November in my home state of Tennessee.
5:11He has my support. You've done a great job, Senator.
5:14I know you'll be campaigning and spend a lot of time on the road this
5:18fall. Let me ask you this.
5:20You're talking about the FCC and the importance of just trying to...
5:25To have even -handed treatment, there's been a lot of discussion about the power of
5:31these big media companies, whether it's Verizon, whether it's Netflix.
5:35What do you think about this Netflix -Warner Brothers potential merger?
5:40How much attention have you paid to it?
5:42I know Netflix's CEO was on the Hill, I think, last week answering a lot
5:47of questions. Warner Brothers is trying to sell itself.
5:50Netflix is bidding. Paramount's bidding.
5:52For all of us out there that are in the media ecosystem, which is pretty
5:57much everybody, how concerned should we be about the streaming era and the amount of
6:02power that some of these companies are coming to garner?
6:07Well, I'm not going to try to get ahead of the determination, Clay.
6:10You're a great attorney. You understand all of this.
6:13But I would say America ought to be quite concerned.
6:15If you look at the consolidation of power here, if you look how the mainstream
6:17media has abused its position, how it's abused its authorities, how they cover things on
6:23a very one -sided basis, I think we ought to be asking some very serious
6:27questions here about the degree and the extent of control that might be the result
6:31of this type of merger.
6:33I'm certain that there will be a very thorough questioning that takes place, and I
6:36look forward to the results of that.
6:38But again, I'm not going to try to jump ahead and prejudge the conclusion, except
6:41to say I think that concerns are very well, very warranted.
6:47How do you think we're looking, Senator Hagerty, in the Senate going into this midterm
6:52election? This has to do with more of your possible future colleagues and which side
6:58will control the Senate more than something that is going to be phasing you.
7:03But do you have some sense as to what you think it's looking like?
7:07I'm sure it's going to matter a whole lot for the second half of the
7:10Trump administration. Certainly, Buck. Well, I think first and foremost, with respect to my own
7:15race, I'm taking this very seriously, running hard.
7:19I'll be all over the state, as Clay said.
7:21And I'm, again, garnering support.
7:24I feel like the people of Tennessee are supportive of me.
7:27I'm just going to make certain we have a strong, solid turnout at home.
7:31That way I can be more effective helping my colleagues around the country.
7:34And I'm optimistic about what we see around the country.
7:37We've got open seats that I think could be great possible pickups for us.
7:41Think about Michigan. Mike Rogers, a great candidate.
7:44He came extremely close in the last election two years ago.
7:48I'm pleased that he stepped up again.
7:50But, again, it was just several thousand votes that he lost by last time.
7:54I was with Mike this weekend.
7:55He is on message, ready to go.
7:58And I think the people of Michigan will see in Mike a real leader, somebody
8:02that's got great experience, and someone that would be a great addition to the United
8:05States Senate. If you look at other states that we want to maintain, I think
8:11Maine, North Carolina, these are always close states.
8:14But Susan Collins is a terrific campaigner.
8:17We'll be putting effort and support behind making certain that Susan maintains that seat in
8:23Maine. There's another opportunity in the Northeast, and that's New Hampshire.
8:27We see a real opportunity there with Senator Shaheen retiring New Hampshire, a very independent
8:34state. If you look at the rules there in New Hampshire, they have historically allowed
8:39what they call same -day registration of voting.
8:41This is what's used on campus.
8:43I was there campaigning for General Bulldog back in 2022, who ran and lost.
8:48The same day I was there campaigning, Elizabeth Warren was over on the campus at
8:52the University of New Hampshire, rousing up her students, probably kids from Massachusetts, showing them
8:58where to go to get the bus.
8:59They're going to take them down to the polling station.
9:02All they have to do is show their student ID.
9:04They can register and vote at that moment.
9:06This type of thing happened when Kelly Ayotte lost her seat.
9:0930 ,000 of those same -day ballots were cast, mainly by students, and Kelly loses
9:14by 1 ,200 votes. Those rules are being tightened up right now.
9:17I think we've got a great candidate.
9:19We have great candidate possibilities there.
9:23And John Snowden, who just came into the race, his name is well -known.
9:26I think we're going to have a real opportunity to pick up New Hampshire.
9:29You look at Georgia. John Ossoff, again, hard for me to believe that John Ossoff
9:35could be in a strong position in Georgia, given the nature of that state.
9:38I do not believe that Georgia is a blue state.
9:40Ossoff has voted along every liberal line since he's been in the United States Senate.
9:45So there's a possibility there.
9:47We've got a three -way primary going on in Georgia right now.
9:51We need to see how that evolves.
9:52But as soon as that primary is behind us, I think we've got another opportunity
9:55in Georgia. We need to make certain that we maintain North Carolina.
9:58That is a notoriously purple state.
10:01Tom Tillis is retiring. Michael Watley, the Republican candidate, I think will be very strong.
10:06Michael was the chairman of the RNC, the Republican National Committee.
10:09He understands campaigning. He understands the mechanics of this very well.
10:12And he's going to be a very good candidate, strong candidate.
10:15So I'm optimistic about what will happen there.
10:17In Iowa, we're watching that race closely.
10:19Joni Ernst is retiring. It's a state that I think we can carry.
10:23I think we'll be in good stead.
10:25But again, we can't take anything for granted.
10:27They say if you're not running unopposed, you should be running scared.
10:30And I think what we're going to be doing is running hard at every at
10:33every step. Senator Bill Haggerty with us.
10:35One big topic of conversation that many people on our show have been calling in
10:39and reacting to is voter ID and requiring it nationwide.
10:45It's overwhelmingly popular. White, black, Asian, Hispanic.
10:48Everybody's in favor of it.
10:49I saw one of your colleagues on the Democrat side, John Federer.
10:53come out in favor of it.
10:55I imagine the Republican Corps is all in favor of it.
10:59A lot of people just think it's crazy that there would not be a voter
11:03ID required to cast a ballot.
11:05What's going to happen there?
11:06And are you optimistic in terms of anything being able to happen?
11:11We know the filibuster is a major challenge.
11:13Well, it shouldn't be a challenge.
11:15Clay, if you think about it, this is a popular with more than 80 percent
11:20of the public here in America, more than 70 percent of Democrats agree that there
11:24should be voter ID presented because only citizens should be voting and you should be
11:28able to demonstrate that you are an American citizen to be able to exercise that
11:32right. Sadly, the Democrats are not even listening to their own base.
11:37This is all about power for them.
11:39They want to have the rules as loose as possible.
11:42If you saw what they tried back in 2021 with H .R .1, S .1,
11:46that major piece of legislation, the number one piece of legislation that they had was,
11:50again, to loosen all the voting rolls, to do away with voter ID, to register
11:5416 -year -olds to vote, to give the vote to felons in violation of the
11:5714th Amendment, to force U .S.
11:59taxpayers to pay 6x what their small -dollar contributions would be to help fund campaigns
12:05and actually allow their candidates to get a paycheck from these funds.
12:10That is where the Democrats want to go with this.
12:12What we would like to see as Republicans is just a solid fundamental baseline, and
12:16that is you have to be a citizen to vote.
12:18That doesn't mean that states can't set the time, the place, the method for voting
12:21that's provided for in the Constitution, but you should be a U .S.
12:24citizen. And that's something I've worked on with other legislation.
12:28Every Democrat has opposed me when I've tried to force the United States Census to
12:33count citizens and to only allow citizens to be utilized for the apportionment of congressional
12:38districts and electoral votes. The Democrats, all against it.
12:41Yeah, I want to hit that really quick here, and I appreciate you coming on.
12:44We're talking to Senator Bill Haggerty, who's running for re -election in the state of
12:47Tennessee. He's got my vote.
12:48He's done a fantastic job.
12:50You and I were texting about this.
12:51Verizon may know about those texts, by the way, since they've been hacking your phone.
12:57But the fact that we are counting illegal immigrants for purposes of House districts and
13:04also for the apportionment of electoral votes as a result, as you just laid out,
13:09is I think one of the great flaws of the way that our country is
13:13set up right now, and so few people still understand it.
13:17Are you optimistic the Supreme Court is going to eventually take this up?
13:21What in your mind should happen there?
13:23I certainly hope so, Clay, because I can't imagine the Founding Fathers wanted people that
13:28are visiting this country to be able to affect the allocation of congressional districts here,
13:33and therefore the allocation of electoral votes, to count illegal aliens, as happens.
13:38You think about California with millions of illegal aliens resident there.
13:43Those illegal aliens are being counted.
13:45California, therefore, has disproportionate power, if you will, and every one of those aliens, they
13:49don't even have to vote, but they're shifting representation, more congressional districts to that state
13:55at the expense of states like our own in Tennessee.
13:57Tennessee was very close on the cusp of getting another congressional seat.
14:01We didn't get one. What happens as these states set up, as they set up
14:08sanctuary cities, as they set up sanctuary states, why are they doing this?
14:12The incentive is because they want these people to be counted.
14:14They want these people to come to their states to backfill the departure of actual
14:18citizens. Think no further than how many people have left California to come to Tennessee,
14:22to Texas, to Florida, New Jersey, New York.
14:25These are all sanctuary states.
14:26Illinois, where the sanctuary city is located, in New York City, in Chicago, San Francisco,
14:30Los Angeles. They are backfilling with illegal aliens in order to maintain their congressional power
14:36and to retain the electoral votes that they have.
14:39Those votes should be moving to states that are growing like ours in Tennessee.
14:42Amen. We're being disenfranchised of a congressional seat based on these illegal immigrants being counted
14:49in Tennessee. It's having a real impact where you and I live.
14:52Thank you, Senator. Appreciate all the time, and we will talk to you again soon.
14:57Wonderful to be with Ophelia.
14:58Thank you. That's Senator Bill Haggerty of the great state of Tennessee, and that's a
15:02real tangible impact when you talk about, hey, we lost a congressional seat because they
15:07are counting, would have been a red seat here in Tennessee because they're counting illegal
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16:50T's and C's apply. Thanks to Senator Bill Haggerty, who just joined us.
16:54Steve Hilton's going to join us at the bottom of the hour.
16:57There are a bunch of stories out there relating to the Nancy Guthrie case.
17:04We updated you at the end of the hour, but in case you have not
17:07seen it, video has been released of the alleged kidnapper.
17:12They are asking for everybody's help on that.
17:14The videos are up at Clay and Buck.
17:17I believe at Buck Sexton, at Clay Travis.
17:19We have retweeted them. They've been shared by Cash Patel.
17:23In case you're wondering, as I was, how did they manage to get these videos
17:28when it was destroyed? Evidently, they were able to go back into, and I'm not
17:34a tech expert, certainly on how these work, but they were able to go back
17:38in and recover, even though this camera had been destroyed by an area where it
17:44had been held. So this is pretty good work by the FBI.
17:47Now, again, you're seeing the guy, as we talked about, Buck, fully clad in this,
17:53you know, he's covered his entire body.
17:55Very planned, maybe methodical in the sense of exactly what was intended here, but hopefully
18:03somebody might see something that draws their attention here.
18:08Yes, that is the hope that everybody has, and I know that they are devoting
18:11as many resources to this as they can.
18:14We're also going to come back here in a moment, speak to Steve Hilton about
18:17the situation in California. Another, not just a billionaire, you know, there's being worth a
18:22billion dollars, and then there's being worth, like, what is Zuckerberg worth a hundred billion
18:26or something? I mean, a hundred and fifty billion, something.
18:28He's a mega billionaire, and another one has moved.
18:33I mean, technically, he still has houses in a lot of places, but he's going
18:36to be a South Florida resident for tax purposes.
18:38Trust me on that one, or a Florida resident for tax purposes.
18:42And we'll talk to Steve Hilton about what that's doing to the state budgets there.
18:46And I want to tell you right now, I wasn't even planning this.
18:49You might be like, Buck, what is that liquid you are drinking?
18:51Clay, see what I'm holding up right here?
18:52Yeah, I see it right now.
18:54This is, this is, this Chad Mode from chalk with a little bit of OJ
18:59that I had left over from this morning.
19:01Look, it's delicious. What can I tell you?
19:03I am drinking Chad Mode currently in this clear glass.
19:07Usually, it's this nice blue color, but I mixed it in with the orange, and
19:10that's why it kind of looks like green.
19:11But the point is, it tastes yummy, and it gets me fired up, because after
19:16this, I'm going to be going to the gym, working on my health, my friends,
19:19down about 30 pounds. A lot of this is proper diet, exercise, supplementation altogether.
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20:00All right, we're joined by our friend Steve Hilton, who is running for governor of
20:05California. You all know him from his show on Fox News, and just from being
20:09a voice of sanity amidst the madness of the Golden State.
20:14Mr. Hilton, we have all kinds of questions for you today, but I need to
20:18start with this one because we talked about the top of the show.
20:21I got a new neighbor.
20:22I mean, his house is a lot bigger and more expensive than mine, and it's
20:25a couple miles down the road.
20:27But I have a new neighbor in Mark Zuckerberg, the latest mega billionaire to flee
20:31your home state. Gavin Newsom still not getting the message on this, apparently.
20:36It's unbelievable. By the way, I love the music intro as well.
20:39Smooth operator. I don't know.
20:41I kind of think that's kind of Newsom, but you know, I'll take it.
20:45Bit of Sade there to get us going.
20:47Look, it's just insane, isn't it?
20:49They just are working overtime to destroy everything that made California at once the greatest
20:57place on earth to start and raise a family, to start and run a business.
21:01They're just doing whatever they can.
21:02The latest insanity is this asset seizure scheme that the unions have come up with.
21:07They call it the billionaire's tax.
21:09It's basically insane, unconstitutional, totally un -American.
21:13But the threat of it, this threat before they get it on the ballot, which
21:18they're trying to do, has already caused $1 trillion of wealth to leave the state.
21:23So these geniuses who have put this forward in the name of we need more
21:27money for health care, that's the rationale.
21:30By the way, they'd have a lot more money for health care if they didn't
21:33have $20 billion a year spent on free health care for illegal immigrants, which I
21:37would stop as governor. Anyway, in the name of raising more money, they've already lost
21:41billions of dollars in tax revenue even before they enact this insanity as people are
21:47leaving the state. I mean, this is why Actually, I'm really confident we're going to
21:51do it this year. It's 20 years since a Republican was last elected statewide in
21:55California, but the insanity is so extreme now.
21:58The damage is so great.
21:59People are suffering so much.
22:01I really think we're going to vote for change this year, and I'm going to
22:04be, by the time we speak this time next year, I'll be the governor.
22:08I hope that that is correct, and I texted you because I was out in
22:12California for the past week, Los Angeles and San Francisco, Super Bowl going on.
22:16I know you've got something that you've put out that you're going to do for
22:20athletes out there. I'll get to that.
22:22But I think a lot of people are going to have some of these primaries
22:26sneak up on them. We're going to be down in Texas in March.
22:29I mean, I think voting in Texas starts next week for their primary.
22:34That's early voting. In fact, I know it does.
22:37But I believe the California primary is also early.
22:40It's in May, I think.
22:42You walk us through this, but it's not partisan, and basically two people, I think,
22:48advance. Tell us how this works because I was reading all about it, and it
22:52snuck up on me, and I said, oh, we need to have Steve on because
22:55I don't think a lot of Californians even are aware.
22:57I know you had the debate.
22:59You did great in it.
23:00But for people out there, what is the status of this race, and how does
23:03it work? So it's really important everyone understands this because the stakes are pretty high
23:08in two directions. If things go well, we beat the Democrats in their absolute stronghold,
23:16and that will send shockwaves through the modern left because so much of the nonsense
23:21the whole country has had to deal with, the gender extremism, the climate extremism.
23:26All this nonsense starts in California, and so it's a really big opportunity for the
23:30whole country. But it could go the wrong way because of the structure of this
23:35race, which is this top -two system, which is that the top -two finishers in
23:39the primary, regardless of party, go through.
23:41And right now, there's a possibility that you'll end up with two Democrats in the
23:47top two, which would be an absolute travesty.
23:50The reason for that is that you've got a new entrant into the race, the
23:54mayor of San Jose, who's picking up a lot of money from the tech community,
23:59and they're going to push him up there.
24:01And then one or other of the other two strong Democrats in the lead now,
24:05on their side, Eric Swalwell, if you can believe it, and Katie Porter, she's still
24:10in there, I know, but she's still there.
24:12One or other of those is going to emerge as the union -backed candidate.
24:16So there's a real possibility you will get two Democrats if, on the Republican side,
24:21the situation doesn't change, which is right now, you know, people look at the polls
24:26and say, this is great news.
24:27You've got two Republicans in the top two, myself and my main Republican challenger, Chad
24:34Bianco, the sheriff of Riverside County.
24:36And most of the polls for the last couple of months, one and two has
24:39been me and him. And people look at that and say, that's great.
24:41We'll have two Republicans in the top two.
24:43That is ridiculous. The Democrat machine will never let that happen.
24:46And so I argued very strongly in the first TV debate, which was last week,
24:51that we've got to get behind one Republican candidate.
24:55Otherwise, we'll get locked out.
24:57And I made the case that you can't have the other guy, Chad Bianco.
25:01For those who don't know, he's a sheriff in Riverside County.
25:04People like the sound of that.
25:06But actually, during the George Floyd protest, the riots and the BLM riots in 2020,
25:12this guy took a knee for BLM.
25:14He took a knee. And it's all there on video.
25:17Pictures are there. The video is there.
25:19We put it up on a website, blmbianco .org, if anyone doesn't believe what I'm
25:23saying. He has a whole story about how he was praying and whatever.
25:27And my argument is we can't go in to the election with a candidate with
25:31that much baggage. And so this is the time.
25:33We've got to get serious about this race.
25:35We've got to get behind a Republican candidate like myself.
25:39I've got the business experience, the government reform experience, the policy expertise.
25:44I'm experienced on the national stage.
25:46I won that debate massively.
25:49The audience poll had me winning at 66%.
25:52The nearest was another Democrat, 17%.
25:55It was me against six Democrats.
25:57The other Republican guy didn't show up.
25:59And I think this is our year.
26:00We can really do it if we just take this seriously, focus on the race,
26:04get behind one Republican. And I think we can beat these people after the disastrous
26:0816 years now of one -party rule.
26:12Speaking of that disaster, Steve, we're speaking to Steve Hilton, everybody.
26:14He is running, and he is serious about it, running for governor of California.
26:19Your state, which Clay and I both love, as much as we criticize the governance
26:23of it, we feel like it's under occupation.
26:26It's like under communist occupation, and we have to liberate it.
26:30But electricity bills, New York Post had this piece, spiked 39 % over six years.
26:38What the... Why? Well, what are they doing in your...
26:41Well, like... Because that really affects people that can't afford that kind of mad increase
26:47in their cost every month.
26:50Well, it comes from the same source as the other massive thing that's hurting working
26:53people and small businesses in particular, which is gas prices.
26:56So we have the highest gas prices in the country, including Hawaii, even though we
27:01have abundant oil reserves right here in California, higher gas prices than the middle...
27:06I mean, this morning, literally, we took a picture.
27:07We're going to put it out on social media later.
27:09Gas price in L .A.
27:10I'm right now in Pasadena speaking to you.
27:13$6 .91. $6 .91 gas.
27:16Bye. Bye. this morning in LA.
27:18So it's that you've got that going on.
27:20Electric bills, they've actually more than doubled in the last 10 years, and we have
27:24the highest electric bills in the country everywhere except Hawaii, both driven by their insane
27:30climate crusade, which is just forcing up the prices.
27:33You ask specifically about electric, the reason is they're forcing utilities to use solar and
27:41wind, which is incredibly expensive.
27:43The windmills are just a joke.
27:45The next scheme that they have is literally, I'm going to say it, and you
27:48will think I'm joking. They want floating windmills 20 miles off the coast of California,
27:55floating because the ocean is kind of deep that far out.
27:58These are 1 ,000 feet high.
27:59That's like the height of the Eiffel Tower.
28:01They want 10 ,000 floating Eiffel Towers off the coast.
28:05It's just insane. And they haven't been thinking about the cost of that.
28:07The solar farms, they claim are cheaper, but they don't count the fact that you
28:12need batteries to make solar work because the sun doesn't shine at night.
28:16So all this is driving up the cost.
28:18Meanwhile, we've got a fleet of gas -fired power stations in California that are being
28:24used 10 to 15 percent capacity.
28:26They are literally sitting there idle in favor of wind and solar.
28:31And also, we have abundant gas reserves in California that we could be using to
28:36generate electricity, but they won't do it because of their obsession with climate.
28:40It's totally insane. And the people that are being crushed, exactly as you said, are
28:45the people who can least afford this stuff.
28:47That's why I think we're going to, and I think the revolution is exactly the
28:50right analogy. That's what's going to happen this year.
28:52I often make that point.
28:53My show on Fox was called The Next Revolution.
28:55This year is going to be the California revolution because we just can't go on
28:59like this. We had Doug Bergam on the show yesterday, Interior Secretary, and I asked
29:04him directly because we get so many questions, and I just came back from California
29:07about the cost of energy and gas and everything else and how it's hitting people
29:12in their pocketbook. And you can just compare what you guys have to pay in
29:16California with much of the rest of the nation.
29:18And it's clear that there is a flawed energy ecosystem there.
29:22It's also clear there's a flawed tax system, Steve.
29:25And we're talking to Steve Hilton running for governor's Republican in California.
29:28The primary is soon. When you look at the tax situation, Buck just mentioned front
29:35page news, Wall Street Journal, Zuckerberg has become the latest billionaire to buy a home
29:39in a different state because of the tax situation there.
29:43You mentioned the Super Bowl was just played a couple days ago in San Francisco.
29:48There's actually a huge tax on people who come into the state of California to
29:54play sports. And it kind of cuts through the noise.
29:57And a lot of people are aware of it.
29:59Explain what you set out to do yesterday as part of your tax reform bill.
30:05You're also going to the highly skilled people who come into the state.
30:08Explain. Exactly. Well, we're just driving people away.
30:11So the first point I'd make is that, you know, we have the highest tax
30:14broadly, the highest taxes in the country and the worst results on everything.
30:18If you actually look at every single measure, we're 50th out of 50 states.
30:23It's not an exaggeration. It's incredible.
30:25We pay the most and we get the least.
30:27Then you dig into the specifics.
30:29Working people, you know, that's why the first line of my tax plan is to
30:33help workers in California, your first hundred grand tax free.
30:37Now, people may be listening around the country.
30:38It's a hundred grand. That's kind of high.
30:40Not in California. You've got at least six counties in California where a hundred grand
30:45is now the official poverty level because costs are so high.
30:48And yet you're paying nine percent tax even at a hundred grand.
30:52It's just ridiculous. Then you get into these specific ones like the athlete tax.
30:56Some people call it the jock tax, which is, you know, happens around the country,
30:59but it's totally punitive in California.
31:01And you have the specific case this year of Sam Donald who ended up losing
31:06money for winning the Super Bowl because of this ridiculous tax in California based on
31:11the number of days he was in the state.
31:14I mean, what are we trying to do?
31:15Just drive people away? Literally.
31:17That is the effect of all this.
31:19Their insatiable demand for more and more money for their bottomless money pit where we
31:24get the worst outcomes for all of this.
31:26It's got to stop. So I specifically said that's going to change next year.
31:30I mean, you already saw based on this particular situation with Sam that you've got
31:35former players saying as long as this stays the same, no more Super Bowls in
31:40California. Now, actually we're scheduled to have it next year as well in LA.
31:44And so I said very specifically, by the time the next Super Bowl comes around,
31:49I will be the governor and I will send in my first budget a proposal
31:54to end this whole scam because we cannot be in a situation where hardworking, talented
32:00people fear to come to California because it's going to cost them money.
32:05They're going to lose more than they make.
32:07That's what happened to Sam Donald this year because of our insane tax system.
32:10It's a perfect, it's a great story that broke because everyone can sort of see,
32:14it captures very clearly the insanity of our system.
32:18What is the truth of the budget as I see it, the projection for fiscal
32:23year 26, 27, I guess now is for California to only be, they'd say it's
32:30close to revenue neutral at like a, maybe a two or $3 billion deficit.
32:34Is that realistic? Okay. I had a feeling it was total BS.
32:39Let's just go through the numbers.
32:40So the first one, again, look, what's the context here?
32:42They've done it. nearly doubled the budget of the state of california in the last
32:47five years okay so the budget that gavin newsom just put forward was 350 349
32:54billion call it 350 billion dollars right five years ago it was 180 they've nearly
32:59doubled the budget and yet everything is worse homelessness worse school results worse the roads
33:05everything we literally have 50th out of 50 on all these measures across the country
33:10and things have got worse and yet they've spent twice as much money then you
33:13look at the actual budget deficit it's all a scam he actually went into this
33:18budget round with an 18 billion dollar deficit and of course the state can't run
33:23a deficit so they they've plugged the gap some of that was shifted around by
33:28moving things to future years so that it's just basically accounting tricks like paying people
33:34in you know the beginning of july and skipping a month so that you shift
33:39some spending into into the following fiscal year stuff like that and then the most
33:43egregious thing is taking money from the reserves right the rainy day fund as it's
33:48known which has been built up over the years that is specifically designed for when
33:52we're in a recession and revenues collapse and you need to keep programs going but
33:57they're stealing that money now our savings basically to plug the hole in this ballooning
34:02spending that is actually not even delivering results in fact the opposite is delivering worse
34:06results because it's all going i mean now we get to the whole question of
34:09fraud i mean i started this fraud tip line just at the you know when
34:14the minnesota scandal broke at the end of last year califraud .com from the tips
34:19coming in we made an estimate that we have 250 billion dollars cumulative of fraud
34:24just in the last five years or so in california 250 billion dollars and then
34:28i launched about 10 days ago a team that are going to really we launched
34:33our version of doge we call it cal doge the california department of government efficiency
34:37we've already unearthed just by using ai to go through the budget numbers we're going
34:41to have our first announcement this week specific numbers on fraud that we've uncovered last
34:46week we i publicized one of the tips that we're getting which is insane but
34:50totally in line with what you expect in california because of gavin newsom's 20 billion
34:55dollars free health care for illegal immigrants which i would stop you've now got mexican
35:00citizens living in mexico claiming health benefits in california posing as illegal immigrants so you've
35:07got fake illegal immigrants claiming health care money funded by california taxpayers it's just off
35:14the charts lunacy um last question for you as we go to break really quickly
35:19when do people start voting so it's just that it is may exactly as you
35:24said so the election is actually june the 2nd but the ballots go out because
35:28we have this ridiculous you know election month in california so really from the middle
35:32of april people really have to start you know keying in but the election is
35:36now you know i want us to get behind one republican candidate now seriously so
35:40that we can take the flight to the democrats and that's why anyone who wants
35:44to get involved or support me or spread the word this is the moment to
35:48do it my website is stevehiltonforgovernor .com follow me at stevehiltonx we can really do
35:53this it's going to be amazing when we kick these people out it's just going
35:57to be a fantastic revolution for the whole country as i say not just all
36:01of us in california well we want we want a tour of the governor's office
36:05or mansion or something in sacramento thank you thank you so much steve great to
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37:29c's apply closing up shop here thanks to steve hilton thanks to bill haggerty tomorrow
37:35we'll update you on nancy guthrie uh and the latest because hopefully we'll have some
37:40movement there we will also dive into some of the olympics questions we mentioned the
37:45epstein revelations we'll discuss that as well um and so all of that to come
37:53tomorrow we appreciate all of you who have spent your tuesday with us wednesday lots
37:59of stories to dive into we'll see you all then speaking truth and having fun
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