California In Crisis

00:00 - Speaker 1 Real Life presents the Jack Hibbs podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim truth, equip the saints and impact our culture. 00:09 - Speaker 2 Hey, I'm going to be sitting down with Steve Hilton. He's running for governor of California. Why in the world should you vote for Steve Hilton? Well, if you stay tuned, he's going to give you some good reasons why you should. 00:21 - Speaker 1 Let's go why you should. Let's go one of those five-star ratings. To us, that's like saying amen or yes. Then that rating will encourage others to listen. Now open your hearts to what God's Word has to say to you. Here is Jack Hibbs. 00:55 - Speaker 2 So, Steve Hilton, we're sitting down again and we've had some opportunities to talk about why in the world would you want to run for governor in California? Most people are people with logic and reason are leaving California politics. What's wrong with you, Steve Hilton? 01:14 - Speaker 3 Oh, my goodness, that's. There's a. We don't even have the time to get into a real answer to that question, let's diagnose this. There's a lot of people that will have very interesting answers to that. First of all, can I just say what a joy it is to be back with you, Jack. 01:24 - Speaker 2 Yes, same. 01:26 - Speaker 3 Ever since we first sat down, I've got to know you better and better and better, and I just want to say thank you, thank you For your friendship, your support. 01:32 You give me such strength every time I see you. So, look, I think it's just very simple actually. I think it kind of takes an outsider to see this, because, remember that my people, you know, know from my accent. I was born in England, but my parents are Hungarian and they fled communism in Hungary and then they moved to England and so I was born in a free country, but a country that was in rapid decline because of socialism. And so when we moved here with my wife and my sons in 2012, to me it was moving to what should be the ultimate expression of freedom and opportunity and everything's amazing about America. That's California. 02:12 And as the years went by, I realized that actually that promise of California is being broken and this state is not delivering that opportunity of the California dream that it once represented. 02:26 And when I thought about all the things that I've done in my life, whether that's starting and running companies back in England and here in California, working at the highest level of a government I was senior advisor to the prime minister, david Cameron, in the UK, and I was really there, you know, helping to implement our domestic policy reform program, and then more recently, as people know me from Fox News and elsewhere, with a media platform and an ability to reach people. 02:51 Putting all that together, I thought you know what? I've got an opportunity to try and do something to restore California to its glory. If you've got the opportunity and you've been given so many opportunities by this amazing state in this magnificent country if you've got the opportunity, in a way that is a responsibility, you actually have to do this. And the more I thought about it, that was the position I came to that I've just got to try to restore California to its glory. And the more I see on the road campaigning now, since the last time we met, I've been out there traveling the state, thousands of people coming to our events Republicans, democrats, independents just the energy for change in this state is huge. I know we can do this. 03:39 - Speaker 2 I believe that if the California registered voter just the registered voter as it is today not new registration that we hope to get if they listened to what you're saying and removed their emotions out of the equation and voted, for example, I'm thinking, Steve, that you would win hands down if, for example, the gun owners of California, if the gun owners the registered, I'm thinking, Steve, that you would win hands down if, for example, the gun owners of California, if the gun owners the registered I'm talking legal everybody I know we're living, we're not far from LA right now, where there's probably more people illegally having guns than those who legally have guns, but at any given time anywhere in California, people don't realize that there are more people armed in California legally than any other state. 04:24 People don't realize that there are more people armed in California legally than any other state and people don't know this. There's over 9 million 9 million people in the state of California that have concealed weapons carry permit. That being said, we understand that somewhere around 1.8, 2 million of them voted. That's ridiculous. Come on, if you're a gun owner. If all 9 million of us would vote for Steve Hilton, you would sweep California. 04:54 - Speaker 3 Yes, there's no question about that you would sweep it. 05:02 I'm not going to actually which is that, our moral values and our precious principles of what it means to be an American being turned upside down here in California by this one party rule, by these extreme Democrats. Because basically, where we've ended up in California is that if you do the right thing you're punished and if you do the wrong thing you're rewarded. Let's look at that through the gun issue. So right now, our gun rights in California are being bit by bit chipped away, responsible legal gun owners hassled and harassed all the time. They're trying to chip away at those rights, which is, by the way, so precious and important for us as Americans and I understand that deeply as someone who's come from a different culture. To me, it's so symbolic of everything that's wonderful about America this idea of self-reliance, that we're not going to depend on the government or some external authority to protect what's most precious to us our family and our property. We stand up for ourselves, that we're not going to allow the government to disarm the population so that they have free reign to impose tyranny and authoritarianism and dictatorship. No, this is America. That doesn't happen here, and so that's so precious. It's been so undermined by what's happening. 06:22 Look what the Democrats are doing in California. It really came to a head when you saw some legislation that was put forward a couple of years ago by our friend, bill Asseili, who's now US Attorney for the Central District. President Trump quite rightly took him from where he was doing such fantastic work in the Assembly and he's doing an even more amazing job for all of us now in this new role. But he put forward a bill not that long ago on gun violence and gun crime. Now look at the lectures we get endlessly from the Democrats about gun violence and how much they care about this subject. 06:58 Well, bill put forward a bill which was very clear that if you carry a gun while you're committing a crime and Use it, you will have strict, mandatory penalties, jail terms and and it went up with each, with the severity of each type of use if you carried a gun while Committing a crime, if you used it while committing a crime, if you injured someone while committing a crime or if you killed someone Each of those steps higher mandatory punishment with prison time. Guess what. The Democrats blocked it. They don't care about gun violence, they care about gun they actually use it, don't they Right? They don't care about gun violence. They care about gun ownership. That's what they're really against. 07:39 - Speaker 2 That's a really good way of putting it, because when there is ever gun violence, notice how quick they are to scream and yell and shout about we need to ban guns, we need to get, instead of saying we need to put these criminals and keep them in jail A hundred percent, exactly Because they're almost always. 08:01 - Speaker 3 In fact, they're releasing dangerous violent criminals from jail, and this is one of the main things I want to get done as governor is to protect our communities and to keep our streets safe by taking dangerous violent criminals off the streets or out of our county jails into state prison, where they should be. 08:20 Instead, what you've seen for years now is Gavin Newsom and the Democrats closing state prisons, like in the last 10 years or so. Four have closed, there's another one planned. You've had tens of thousands of really dangerous the most dangerous violent criminals released early or sent from state prison to county jails which can't cope because they're not designed for that. You're getting no proper accountability or punishment. You're getting no rehabilitation. It's a total disaster. That's one of the specific things I can do as governor is to stop the prison closure program, increase prison capacity so we hold these criminals accountable for their behavior, rehabilitate them so they don't reoffend, but, most important of all, uphold the standards of civilized behavior and enforce the law so that there's real deterrence, instead of what we have now, which is basically an open season for criminals to do the wrong thing because they know they're going to get away with it. Yeah, what is? 09:17 - Speaker 2 what's behind. Sadly, I have to put it this way, they have made me say this Democrats. I wish I could say some Democrats. But why is it, Steve, that Democrats have this remarkable ability to be on the wrong side of logic, reason and the law? How do they so perfectly get it wrong? 09:42 - Speaker 3 every time. So this is, I think, the heart of it. I think you absolutely got to the heart of what's going wrong, which is especially here in California. They've become so totally ideological. They've completely lost touch with the real world, with people's reality of life and with common sense. It's all about their ideology and, in a way, I mean there's so many examples, but one of the ones that I think is most obvious is the insanity of their policies on energy and on gas. I mean, we're thinking about that right now. 10:12 We're sitting here taping this just before the July, the 4th holiday. Right across America people are celebrating because we have the lowest gas prices in America for four years thanks to President Trump opening up domestic American energy production. Everywhere except California, where our gas prices are not going down like the rest of the country, they're going up again. Another gas tax increase and another increase thanks to regulations from CARB, the California Air Resources Board, on the low carbon fuel standard. So we have the highest gas prices in the country as a direct result of their policies. One of the most disgraceful parts of that is their attack on our California domestic oil and gas production. 10:57 We have plentiful oil and gas reserves. But I was just in Bakersfield. I've been there a lot. I really, really love this industry and I I support it and I understand it. And here's what's happening right Not that long ago, we produced most of the oil and gas that we use in California, right here in California. 11:15 Yeah, please hear this California Most of it came from here and now it's gone down to practically a trickle. We use about 1.8 million barrels of oil a day, averaged over the year, in California. We used to produce most of that here. Now it's down to about 250,000 or less. It's falling all the time. We're not using much less oil. The amount we're using is about the same as it always was. What's the difference? 11:37 We're importing it. We're importing it halfway around the world on giant. There's no oil. It's a very important point. We're like an island in California. There are no pipelines bringing oil, so we can't get it from Texas or North Dakota or anywhere else. If we don't produce it here in California, we have to ship it in on giant super tankers. They run on something called bunker fuel. It's the most. It's the dirtiest fuel, the most polluting form of transportation on the planet. We are shipping it halfway around the world. Our number one provider of oil in California used to be California, used to be ours. Now what's our number one provider? Iraq, iraq, like? How's their environmental record? We produce oil cleaner than anywhere else on Earth. 12:21 - Speaker 1 That's right, that's a fact. 12:23 - Speaker 3 So how clean is it? 12:24 In Iraq, they're flaring the gas they're burning in the human rights all the things that Democrats lecture us on Right so we're shipping it in. 12:32 So here's the insanity In the name of climate, they are literally increasing carbon emissions because, instead of getting the oil from an oil field in Kern County and taking a nice, clean pipeline to the refineries on the coast, whether that's in LA or up in the Bay Area, we're now shipping it halfway around the world, increasing carbon emissions. So it doesn't make any sense. It's totally insane. They're not even achieving the things that they say they want to achieve with this policy, but they're doing it to make themselves feel good that they're saving the planet. And they're doing it on the backs of working class Californians who are paying the highest cost for gas. Working class Californians who use their trucks and their cars every day for work, drive miles hours every day, paying extortionate rates at the pump, eating into their family budgets, all to make these people in Marin County feel good about saving the planet when they're not even saving the planet. The whole thing is just insane. 13:29 - Speaker 2 Their policies are, like Steve said, more damaging for the planet. I want to encourage all of you this just popped in my head so I may be a little bit off but please, please, research this. It's fantastic. I do believe maybe some of our producers around here can help me out Will Witt, when he was at Prager University, got together with Michael Schellenberger and they produced a documentary called, I think, the Green Monster, the Religion of Green. 13:58 - Speaker 3 Oh yeah. 13:58 - Speaker 2 Everybody. Please go wherever you can Get the Religion of Green. I promise you you will be shocked. Why? Because Democrat policies are behind this recycling thing that we feel so good about and they actually tag and trace the migration of California waste product and where it goes right. And we feel so good because we put it in the recycle bin. And I'm not knocking recycling. But where does that stuff go? That's the question. Where does it go? And they trace it and they follow it and it goes all the way to, I think, somewhere like in Thailand or Calcutta in India, and there's kids burning, they're cooking fish that they got out of a river over California burning plastic. 14:43 California, burning plastic, ingesting cancer. Literally. Watch the documentary Michael Schellenberger and Will Witt. It's over the top. Having said that, it's remarkable that the Democrats have this incredible lustful relationship with communist places like China, like they're somehow the model that we're to follow, and yet very few people realize that China is probably the most polluting nation on the face of the earth and communists and socialists wanna applaud them. They have no idea what they're doing. The remarkable thing is the clip will be a Democrat saying I'm for the environment and everybody goes and then they walk away in their ignorance, not knowing how are you for the environment, and everybody goes and then they walk away in their ignorance, not knowing how are you for the environment. Everything they say, right, they do not do or whatever they say. They have a different dictionary for the words that they use. It's remarkable. Can I just give you another? 15:38 - Speaker 3 Yeah, go for it Absolute insanity and this one really makes me so angry. So I spend a lot of time in the Central Valley, not just, you know, the South End, kern County, oil and gas, but the ag industry throughout the center. It really is close to my heart because my family in Hungary we're from a small town in the south of Hungary, very flat area it's called the Great Hungarian Plain very agricultural. You know my family. We had a little salami factory. You know I used to get involved in that as a kid, like every step of the process very gruesome some of it, so I know how that works. We had a little farm on the edge of town. By the way, it had to be a little farm. It was communism so you couldn't have a big farm. So I feel so close to this industry. 16:18 What's happening right now? We have the most fertile agricultural land in the world, the most fertile agricultural land in the world the Central Valley of California and other parts of the state. Let's just look at the Central Valley. What are they doing to this amazing gift that we have of this natural resource? They are ripping out farms and replacing it with solar farms Instead of growing the beautiful, healthy food that we need that's going to help make America healthy again. The fruits and nuts and produce, all these things that we grow here in California, all ripped out now, bit by bit, and they're replacing it with solar panels made in China, using coal-fired power stations, again shipped across the ocean, spewing out carbon emissions. In the name of climate, it is obscene. 17:02 - Speaker 2 Wow, I'm going to ask a question but not give you the answer. He just mentioned solar panels, california sacrificing food productive soil on California land. So just take an acre. Instead it's growing food for people to eat. It's destroyed and solar panels are installed. Go search and see who owns the land now of these solar panel Chinese production things. You'll be shocked. In California that's a crime, in my opinion. I thank God for Governor. What is her name? Sarah Sanders. 17:42 - Speaker 3 Huckabee yes in Arkansas, yeah In. 17:44 - Speaker 2 Arkansas now since she's become governor. Foreign companies cannot buy land, foreign companies foreigners can, but foreign companies cannot buy land or nations, I should say foreign countries. 17:55 - Speaker 3 Foreign governments should have no business. 17:57 - Speaker 2 That's right. Foreign governments cannot buy land in Arkansas. Gee, what an idea. Well, that's it. So, Steve, look, I'm a pastor and you are an illustrious business owner, a media personality, a tremendous program on Fox News, which now, of course, you've had to retire that for what you're doing right now. Some of the social issues that people that watch this podcast they want to hear about. And let me say this before whatever Steve answers In California we've got to move the needle in the right direction. 18:34 Everybody, Our compass has been pointing south for so long that won't you be delighted just to begin to turn that needle Now? We'd love to snap our fingers and have it go to true north in an instant, right, but sociology doesn't work that way. Cultures do not work that way. In fact, how about this? It's not easy to turn a big ship. If you turn a big ship quick, everybody flies off the top of the boat and into the ocean. California's got to turn around, Okay, and so every, I would think. Whenever we vote for a politician, we want them to. We want them not to be the Messiah, but real close. They don't have to walk on water, but they need to stand on water. Now, I'm different than that I understand US government, US history. I understand my Bible. I understand faith. We are not always going to agree on everything, but isn't it amazing that we have the freedom in America to disagree agreeably. It's remarkable. Having said that, people are out there. I can hear it coming Ask Steve about abortion. 19:44 - Speaker 3 Yeah, no, it's a. So what do you? It's an incredibly important issue, and I know how strongly people feel about it and I think that the way, the way I think about it, as I do about everything actually in this is, you know, what can we get done? What's achievable and I think what's achievable when I'm the governor is to move us in California towards life. Move us towards life. Life is so precious and it's being undermined in so many different ways in California, and so here's, I think, what we can get done. Number one we want to be a place where people want to have children and bring beautiful babies into the world, so we have this flourishing, joyful community California babies and families California, exactly. 20:31 And what's happening now. It's so depressing. When you talk to young people and you ask them about their future and their plans for families, oh well, I can't do it in California. Oh, I know, we can't have children, can't afford to have children. It's so awful. It should be the exact opposite. So one part of the story is just to make sure that we deal with all the other things that are putting people off from having children and families here in California. But then, more precisely on the abortion issue I mean, look at the fact that you've got this hostility right now to anything. I'm talking about the government. That is about trying to get responsibility into relationships so that we avoid unwanted pregnancy in the first place. We've got to do much more on that and we can do much more on that and should do so that we don't get in that awful situation. But then, if we are in that situation here's the really important point that I think that I will make a big difference on when I'm the governor why is it that the only thing that is ever considered is abortion? You go straight to that awful, awful outcome. Surely we can do better than that, and here's how I will. 21:41 Positive alternatives, adoption. What are we doing? Not just making it, you know, not just sort of hiding it as an option in terms of what the government's approach is, but making it harder and more difficult, putting bureaucratic hoops in the way. But even more than that, why aren't we encouraging it? Why aren't we incentivizing it? I just think about my friends and I've got a few friends who have as part of their family in some cases their entire family adopted. In other cases it's a mix of their children through natural childbirth and natural family formation and adoption. Beautiful families, childbirth and natural family formation and adoption. Beautiful families. It's such joy and such a wonderful gift that they've got. Why aren't we encouraging that? 22:29 - Speaker 2 And I think we can put incentives there. How could you? I mean just guessing I'm not holding you to this because things can be dynamic, I know but you said a moment ago so adoption, amen, hallelujah to that. By the way, side note, I'm looking at your t-shirt and I thought he just said adoption. There should be a t-shirt that says pre-born children for Steve Hilton. 22:56 - Speaker 3 Well, I just think it's really just so sad, actually in a deep, deep way, that we've, instead of a culture of life and joy and celebration of the absolute beauty of children and the joy and blessing that they are, we've gone in the other direction, this dark direction. It's really, really sad and you know, but that's what you know, we can, I don't know, but that's what we can do, that's what we can turn around. That is the achievable difference we can make. I don't want to make promises. I can't keep, and so we know that these laws it's in the California constitution. Now, whether we like it or not, it was put there. I do think it's a good thing that these decisions were For too long. It judges making these decisions and, thanks to President Trump, it was put in the hands of the people. Now in California, the people spoke and it's in the state constitution. You can't change that as governor, but there's so many other things. 23:51 - Speaker 2 Everybody know that the governor cannot change the law. Okay, now you and I can. We can contact our local assemblymen or state congress or state senator. There's a way to do it. But you guys, you need to realize that the governor cannot go into office and bring all your dreams come true. 24:11 - Speaker 3 There is I mean, it's a fact. Can I just be really precise about this? Clear, because it is possible for the governor to overturn laws that are unconstitutional. And you argue that in a case in a court of law where there are grounds to believe that a law is unconstitutional, the governor has the power to file suit to overturn a law. I will do that wherever I find an important issue where there's a law that was passed in the legislature that is unconstitutional. 24:46 I'll give you a specific example on the appalling issue of biological men in girls sports this obscene law that was passed in 2013, ab 1266. That's the law that makes it possible for you know, biological men to compete in girls sports, and I went to the track and field finals in Clovis the other month and set out my position very clearly, which is that, in my view and in the view of the legal experts that I've consulted, with that law, which not only applies the cruelty of taking away from girls the dreams that they're pursuing and their ambitions in sports snatched away, but also, in a way, even darker and more disgraceful Biological men in girls' locker rooms. I mean, you have real stories of this. Who would have ever thought? 25:36 - Speaker 2 of such a thing. 25:37 - Speaker 3 I mean, there was a story the other month now it burned into my brain this teenage girl standing before a school board I think it was in the central coast, San Luis Obispo telling the story of how biological she was in the locker room with some friends. Biological man comes into the locker room as she described it graphically naked. She said totally intact. That was the word. She's standing there in the locker room. When she complained about it In a public school, In a public school On public property, Right, she was the one who was punished for complaining about it. She then took that to the school board and guess what? She was telling the story and the ridiculous extremist bureaucrat in the chair of the school board banging the gavel Stop, stop, stop. They didn't want to hear her. They shut her down and silenced her. 26:22 So this is all obscene, but it goes back to a bill that was passed. It's law AB 1266. Well, here's the good news. In the opinion of my legal advisors, that law is unconstitutional. It violates the California Constitution in two separate ways Section 28, which guarantees safe schools, and Section 31, which guarantees safe schools, and Section 31, which bans gender discrimination. What is this if it's not discrimination against girls? So because of that, I will demand that the legislature overturns that law. Assuming that they don't do that, I will file suit to overturn it in court, because it violates the. 26:59 Constitution Now on abortion, it's in the constitution, so it's not possible to file a lawsuit and to take that approach, and so that's why I say I want to make sure people are clear about what I can do, what I can't do on the question of life. I will move us towards life and I will do whatever I can to encourage positive alternatives, especially adoption. 27:23 - Speaker 2 Yeah, adoption Cause. I don't know the numbers, I'll be off, but it's like hundreds of thousands of of people are in line for adoption in California. And to give incentives and to make it easier and to make it better does does, does all good. It's all good if you think about that, but really quick, getting back to this locker room, this bathroom, this shower situation, with this guy that walks in fully intact. What if his fully intact parts would have gotten aroused at that moment? What happens? 27:56 - Speaker 3 I mean it's normal. 27:57 - Speaker 2 Excuse me, it's normal for a guy to become aroused. This is a dangerous situation. I'm going to put my pastor's hat on. Whatever community Steve's talking about and whatever school board and city council we're talking about here. Maybe some of you know I'm sure some of you know it this is where the citizenry, the parents, mobilize and rise up. You create a community watchman group and you vote these nuts out. The Bible says in Proverbs 29, verse two, that when the righteous are in power simply means this when people who do the right thing are in power, the people rejoice, but when the evil man is in power, the people groan. And there is one collective song coming out of the state of California and that is the song of grief and groaning. And we can change that by voting yes. So, so important. Please register to vote. If you're going to be turning 18, help me out. If you're going to be turning 18 prior to the 2026 election dates, whatever, those are the primaries in June. 29:12 - Speaker 3 The general election in November. 29:14 - Speaker 2 So if you're going to be 18 on that day, you can register to vote beforehand so that when you hit that date right, Be sure you do that young people. 29:21 - Speaker 3 This is the really important point. There are more of us that believe these basic principles, this common sense. There are more of us than there are of them and for too long I think people have felt well, you know, nothing's going to change in California. It's such a deep blue state. Democrat, one party rule, republicans can't win. No, that's not true. We will win if we stand together and fight and believe that change is possible. And it is possible because there's a majority for change in California. 29:54 You look at every single poll when they ask the question. There's one just this week is California going the right direction or wrong direction, wrong direction? 60% plus. There is more than enough support for change in California. That's awesome, but we have to just have the confidence to believe it and fight for it. And that's why, honestly, with this campaign, a lot of people have said to me wow, you're everywhere, you're on the road. Yes, because I want to be there, as if you like a physical symbol of the energy and an ambition that we've got to have for our state to, to, to, will this into being. I know we can do it. 30:32 - Speaker 2 Yeah, wow, um, you know it's interesting. Everybody's griping about California. Question, why are you griping about California? Uh, california set like a national record of how to uh, have people move away, move out. We've set a record on how to shut down businesses. I have a friend not going to. I won't mention the name of this company, but it is. It is was just voted again one of America's most desirable companies to work for. I know her personally. She actually attends our church. That said, newsom has almost made it impossible for her to expand her companies. So what did she have to do? She's now starting stores in other states, okay, that said, don't you think it's what Steve is saying is true? 31:25 California's really messed up. Have you ever stopped to ask the question how did we get here, you guys? I'm old enough to remember when Ronald Reagan was our governor, we didn't have homeless problems, we didn't have crime problems like that, and we had all the freedoms that made California awesome and something desirable for you to immigrate here to. It was the quintessential California dream. It was amazing. So what changed? I'll tell you what changed. 31:50 California has been under the heel of one party rule, a super majority, for so long. In fact, there was one Republican who was really that said everybody, do you really want change? In fact, there was one Republican who was really that said everybody, do you really want change? Didn't Obama say change? You know, change, change. And people are saying, yeah, change, all right. Well, now it's our turn because, you know, the sad reality is I travel all over this country and everybody's happy and rejoicing. I remember Steve back in 2016, when everybody was rejoicing that Trump got elected. Nobody in California had a chance to rejoice. Nothing changed here. Trump was president for four years. Greatest economy in American history all of these remarkable things going on For pastors hello, wake up. Trump lifted the Johnson Amendment you know what that is and nothing changed in California because we were under the tyranny. This is a really important point. 32:50 - Speaker 3 Just like you see, like we're talking about gas prices Everywhere else in the country tumbling down here in California, going up. It's a perfect example. We cannot expect others to do this for us. We can't expect and shouldn't expect to be saved by the federal. Look, I'm very thrilled that we have amazing people like Harmeet Dhillon like Phyllis. 33:11 Saley, like you know, fighting the good fight. Pam Bondi, you know, really going at this far left extremism, whether that's on sanctuary cities or the gender madness in the schools and in sports, and all these things're really good examples of where the federal government is really trying to push forward for common sense in California. And, by the way, won't it be amazing when we have a governor in California who wants to work with the Trump administration instead of against it, which is what we've got? 33:41 - Speaker 2 right now, but we can't do it on our own. 33:44 - Speaker 3 I mean, we can't do it except on our own. I should say, we've got to do this for ourselves. We've got to stand up and fight, and we can't just sit back and assume that this is what it's like forever. No, we have destiny in our hands. We've just got to go and fight for it. 33:59 - Speaker 2 Wow, wow. Because we didn't get to celebrate in 2016 when Trump got elected, and we haven't had a chance to celebrate in 2024 with Trump getting elected. Because, again, everything stays the same here. And to prove my point, didn't Trump come to Palisades at the fires? Didn't Karen Bass sit there? 34:21 - Speaker 3 Yeah. 34:22 - Speaker 2 And Trump said you need to make the permitting easier so these people can build their homes and get back into their homes. We will, sir. What will you do to do that? Will you expedite the permit process? Will you promise Californians, yes, we're going to do that now. We're going to lift the restrictions on permitting. Guess what? Trump gets on Air Force One and flies out. Karen Bass has done nothing. By the way, this is a topic for another day and I don't know if I'm crossing some line or not, but I've been watching a guy by the name of Rick Caruso make some posts and stuff about how bad the mayor is operating LA. As far as I know, rick Caruso builds really nice things. Rick Caruso, maybe you should run for mayor of Los Angeles. But can we end with a Could I? 35:10 - Speaker 3 just speak to this for a second. 35:12 Because actually I think this issue really captures everything that's going wrong. There's a particular thing that Karen Bass said that stuck in my mind and I thought you know what. That doesn't just explain the disaster in Los Angeles. It explains so much about the disaster throughout California from this one party rule, and I'm going to be addressing this shortly after the July, the 4th holiday, it's going to be the sixth month anniversary of the Los Angeles wildfires and I'll be in LA making these arguments, and it's a very important one. First of all, why has nothing been done? The first part of the answer to that question was captured in a statement that Karen Bass made a couple of months ago now and she said she has a post on X and this is word for word what she wrote I have just signed an executive order streamlining, permitting to rebuild LA. Okay. So you read that and you think, oh, something's happened. She's signed an executive order streamlining, permitting. Good, I thought, well, you know it's four months too late, but whatever, I'll take it. But the post was above a video clip of her at a press conference, so I thought you know what? I'll just watch what she actually said. Here's what she actually said. Remember, the post says I've just signed an executive order streamlining permitting. What she actually said was I have just signed an executive order tasking agency heads with developing paths forward to streamlining. That's what she actually said. 36:43 That's years and years and years of bureaucratic junk and it just captures what's wrong with these people. They think that a bureaucratic process is the same as action. They are totally clueless. This is what you get from one party rule. It throws up these machine politicians whose only skill is navigating the political machine and they don't know how to get anything done in the real world. That's not even how they think. They actually think that they're doing something with these kinds of processes. And this is who we've got now in California. You've got Karen Bass, gavin Newsom, kamala Harris. They're all the same, they're all the same Machine, politicians who have no clue how to actually get anything done. 37:22 But there's a deeper layer, actually, and this is what I'm going to be addressing about these fires, because, beyond that and you're seeing more and more of this now in what's going on, particularly in the Pacific Palisades is a suspicion that actually there's a reason that they're holding all this up, because they want people to give up and they want homeowners to say you know what? This is taking too long, it's too complicated. I'm going to get out of here, sell the land to developers who are going to build what they really want to see, which is apartment buildings replacing the single family homes that are the character of their neighborhood. And this is where it gets to the heart of what's gone wrong, and I want to really, really, just please pay attention to this. And I want to go really, really, just please pay attention to this, because you've got people in charge now who are ideologues, who have a particular vision of how they want people to live. It's a dark, negative vision, where they boss you around and they tell you what to do and you can't make choices for yourself or your family, and it's all driven by their climate, ideology and all this other nonsense and they think that everyone should be living in apartment buildings above transit because that's good for climate, and they want to force everyone into a particular way of life. And you can't have the car you want, you can't live in the house you want, you can't raise your children the way you want, you can't even cook your food the way you want because you can't have a gas stove. These ideologues bossing us around, micromanaging every aspect of our lives. 38:49 No, that is not California. It is the opposite of California. It is anti-California. We are the place that should be, the absolute home of freedom, where you choose the way you want to live, you choose the way you want to raise your children, and so, to me, what's going on there really captures in a deep way everything that's gone wrong in California, everything we need to put right and move us back to where we should be, which is the absolute symbol of freedom and opportunity, the best of America. That's what I mean. It's here in my T-shirt. This is how we're going to make California golden again. That's what that means. 39:24 - Speaker 2 You guys should take the time to unpack what he just got done saying. I'll put it in a nutshell for me and I'm processing it they all have the Democrat progressives. They all have the exact same talking points. Granted, everyone's got a different personality, but it's the same message being delivered. They're incredibly unified. Why? How could that be? Because it's socialism, but it's wrapped up in such a way and Jefferson warned us about this, by the way, thomas Jefferson so did Lincoln it's wrapped up in such a way that it's appealing to you. It's kind of like going fishing and you throw a lure. Nobody throws a hook in the lake. You have to put something fancy on it. And all this junk that they're talking about? You're talking about palisades. This is a fact what he just said, because we know what's going on in Maui, in Hawaii, with those fires. They've worn out the will of the people until they surrender, and people are selling their properties to the government for nickels, just because they're fed up and the government will run out the clock. Why? Because they're tyrannical, the progressive ideologues. They want to create you according to their will, in the image that they want. 40:43 We're talking about something that's far greater than politics. There is no separation shock newsflash. There's no separation between politics and religion. You know people say well, you can't, you should never talk about politics and religion. Who says that these are the two areas that, according to the Bible, are so linked together that they're inseparable, because the leaders that we pick will rule over us? So God says pick good leaders. Where in the world do you get a chance to pick good leaders? We do, by God's grace, in California and in America. 41:21 So I'm asking all of you to take one more big, deep breath of air. Fill your lungs up, get your hemoglobin pumped and register to vote. Get out there and vote and make a difference. Make a difference. Find out what's going on in your school board. Run for PTA. Know what's happening, because this is how a republic works. You want a democracy. You got to remember. Our founding fathers warned us about democracies. We have a constitutional republic and Ben Franklin said this way. When asked, what kind of government have you given us, mr Franklin, he answered and said a republic. If you can keep it, friends in California, can you consider that radical idea? Can you step up, get ready to vote and when you have a chance to vote for governor, there's going to be a lot of people on the ballot. Normally in California there'll be something like 120 people or something crazy in the primary right. 42:21 I want you to consider the things that you've heard here today and find out more of what Steve Hilton's policies are by going to Steve Hilton for governor dot com. 42:32 - Speaker 3 For Steve Hilton for governor dot com. Can I just say, Jack, what's on our flag? Our beautiful California flag, California Republic. Let's make it we need to make it the best in America, the symbol of everything that's great about this nation. That's why I'm running. But I can't do it for you. I can only do it with you. Let's do this together. 42:55 - Speaker 2 Awesome. Thank you, guys, God bless you. 43:01 - Speaker 1 This Jack Hibbs podcast, as well as all the broadcast outreach opportunities, are listener supported. Will you consider partnering with us through a special gift? Go to jackhibbs.com to learn more and stay connected.