White House Insider: You Won't Believe What's Coming to California This Year

(0:00 - 6:10) Real Life presents the Jack Hibbs Podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim truth, equip the saints, and impact our culture. I gotta have to be honest with you. I was a little bummed with Trump when he snatched you away from Huntington Beach. Why in the world would you leave such a powerful position in the Department of Justice to come back to California? So my story's an interesting one. I left a lucrative career to fight for the people. Imagine if we could return California back to the people. Take it out of the hands of the political elite in Sacramento and give it back to the people of California. You can get the outlines of this podcast by going to Jackhibbs.com slash podcast. Today, if this podcast lifts you up and encourages you to live a more fulfilled life in Christ, then make sure you leave us 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. Hey everybody, welcome to the Jack Hibbs Podcast, the Jack Hibbs Show. We're excited for you guys to be with us and we're gonna have a great time today. We have with us, and it's an honor to have with us, Michael Gates. And Michael Gates is running for attorney general of the state of California, right where we're sitting. And he has served in the Trump administration as deputy assistant attorney general here in the United States, but he has given that up, so to speak, he'll explain in a moment, to come back home to fight for California. And I gotta tell you folks, I think you know this, I am tired of people writing California off. It's the greatest state in this union. It's the most beautiful. And by far, I think it's the most resourceful. And it's not gold and it's not just oil. It's brains and hearts and minds and the spirit that we'll see in this man today. Michael, it's awesome to have you with us. And I, listen, we're brothers in Christ and we praise the Lord. I don't want you to feel uncomfortable in any way. I want you to just let it out, man. What in the world, tell us a little bit about yourself, but you gotta answer this. Why in the world would you leave such a powerful position in the department of justice to come back to California? But before you answer that, who's Michael Gates? Well, thank you so much for having me. It's an honor to be with you and we've done this before. So I know you have a fantastic church. You've got a great reputation and you've got a great, great congregation and audience. And so I love sharing all of this with all of you. So thank you for having me. So my story is, it's an interesting one. So I was born in the Midwest, but when I was a kid, my folks moved to Huntington Beach, California. And so I've been a California guy my whole life and I love it. Not only the weather, but there's just something about California. It's just so different than any other place in the country. Certainly different than the Midwest that I was from. My mom was always enamored with, you know, Hollywood and just the pizazz. And back then when we came here, it was a relatively conservative state politically. But I think what's most important isn't just that it was a red state versus now a blue state, but it was a safe state. We didn't have rampant crime. We did not have skyrocketing costs of living here. We did not have exorbitant gas taxes. We did not have the fraud and the waste and abuse that we're hearing about now. California, and I said this this morning at my press conference when I launched my run for Attorney General. Simply put, California has lost its way. And it's lost its way because the elite Sacramento class of leaders is just completely divorced and out of touch with everyday Californians. And that's why I'm running. I am very passionate about politics. I'm very, very, very passionate about the law. I tell people all the time I love the law. I'm a lover of the law. I'm very much into justice. You know, there's mercy too, but justice. And what I have seen in California now for years is just rampant injustice. It's injustice to everyday Californians who are working so hard, Pastor Jack, just to make ends meet. And then the audacity. They work so hard, long days, blood, sweat and tears just to put food on the table. They get home and turn on the radio or the TV and they hear about how the political class in Sacramento has squandered their money. Like, it's shocking to me. It's such an insult. These are Californians who are literally on the brink, right? Financially. They're on the brink and they turn on the radio and TV and Newsom is saying, oh yeah, we lost $24 billion of your tax money. You know, it's supposed to go to solving the homeless problem, but oh, it's lost. It's gone. It's disappeared. And oh well. And then he moves on. He didn't ask the attorney general to investigate where it went. He did not ask for an investigation. Let's find this money. He probably dare not. Let's find this money that belongs to the taxpayers that we are shepherds of and we've lost it. Right? So the reason I'm running, I've been a fighter all my life. You know, at my press conference this morning, I was telling the folks who were there in the media, look, I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth. My folks, I came from a big Catholic family, had a lot of siblings, very, very blue collar. And frankly, we spent many days at the food pantry at the local church for food, clothing and diapers. My folks grounded out. They worked hard paycheck to paycheck, had a big family. And they taught me, look, pray, depend on God, but you have to go out and fight. (6:10 - 6:13) Yeah, that's right. Whatever you are going to have in life. That's right. (6:13 - 6:47) You have to fight for it. And so at a very young age, I mean, I think, you know, might be some of the Irish stock I have in me, but at a very young age, I learned you have to go out and fight and really make a difference, right? And so that's really where my career path took a turn. In 2014, I actually left private practice, which was very lucrative. I was a partner at a law firm. In 2014, I ran for city attorney in Huntington Beach and I got elected, got reelected in 2018 and got reelected in 2022. So I was the elected city attorney for 10 years in Huntington Beach. (6:47 - 6:54) And I loved the fight there because I got to represent one of the greatest cities in the state of California. Totally. It is amazing. (6:54 - 6:56) Yeah. And taking on Sacramento. Sacramento. (6:56 - 10:21) So I have a record of fighting Sacramento, which is really makes me the perfect candidate to run for attorney general because now I can, I've learned so much. I know where the fights are. I sort of know where the bodies are buried. I know what the issues are. I can go to Sacramento and make even, I think, a greater difference than what I've been able to do as the city attorney of Huntington Beach. But to directly answer your question, I love to fight for the people. I really do. It's a passion of mine. I left a lucrative career, right? As a partner at a firm to fight for the people. And I believe in this state. I know that this country is a gift from God. I believe that this state is a gift from God and I'm not giving up on it. Like you, in your opening remarks, you're not giving up, Pastor Jack, I'm not giving up. No way. And I'm going to keep fighting. And so many people have said, look, look, you're at the height of your career when you were the deputy assistant attorney general for the U.S. Department of Justice just last year. That's the height. You know, why don't you do something different? Or why don't you retire? Right? Like, that was amazing. I'm like, no, I've got more fight in me. I want to take this to Sacramento and I want to fight for the folks. Imagine, to your point too, if we could return California back to the people. Take it out of the hands of the political elite in Sacramento and give it back to the people of California. And my slogan is I want to make California safe for families. And I want safe communities because when we can reduce crime and get the homeless off our streets and make our environment safe, our families will prosper and our businesses will want to stay and prosper. They have been leaving in droves because crime is up, taxes are up. It's just a hostile work environment to do business in. It's a hostile work environment to prosper in. And I want to reverse that. I want to work very hard and aggressively to reverse that. We can make California a welcoming state again, a prosperous state, a family friendly state. And so I'm all in. I'm all in. Yeah. It's amazing because it's such a great place. Going back in time now, I'm going to sound like a dinosaur to maybe you or certainly some of the young people who watch our podcast. But I remember growing up in Southern California and in writing, for example, in the summer, riding my bike to the beach, being gone for 12, 13, 14 hours. You know, I had to check in with a nickel, you know, to call home. But life was safe. You could do that. And I did that all my young life. And then I go to the Reagan years. People forget Ronald Reagan was our governor and this state was the place to be. And then I don't know what happened. Maybe you do, but something, I don't know if we got distracted or whatever, but and I'll just be blunt. You're not saying this. I'm saying this, that it used to be a two party battle. And with that, there was some sort of balance. There was an ebb and flow. But now for too long, it has been a one party state. People will say, Oh, the Republicans don't know what they're doing. Well, maybe some Republicans don't, but we know this for a fact proven in California is that the Democrats absolutely either a do not know what they're doing in California or scarier than that is that they do know what they're doing in California. (10:22 - 11:48) Because I have gone to the Capitol and I've testified over various issues. And Michael, I got to tell you, I was shocked at the level of the level. That's the wrong. I couldn't believe the people that I was having to answer to their skill sets were so low, their inability to communicate and articulate. And they have positions of power where they're writing bills and they're passing bills with the super majority where California now has become a laughing stock of dumb laws. And as you and I sit here, I was hearing news today that there's maybe you know about this, that there's some sort of possible threat by Newsom to punish billionaires in California. Do you know what that's about? I do. And to answer your earlier point, it's a little bit of they're incompetent. And then it's a little bit of they do know what they're doing and they don't care, even if it harms us. I think it's a combination of the two. There is an initiative to exact a tax, a wealth tax on billionaires. And if that were ever come to pass and be signed into law or become law, that would just be devastating. It's not because simply that, you know, maybe the math doesn't work for the billionaires. That's not the point. On the one hand, no wealth tax would ever plug the holes that Newsom and exactly have created in our budget and in our economic system here in California. (11:48 - 14:00) That's that's that's the one issue. But the bigger issue in my mind is it's just more hostility towards Californians because now they're going to drive out the billionaires before that ever goes into law. Right. So we've already heard. I don't know if you've seen this, but I was reading an article yesterday before. So last year, two trillion dollars left California. And now this year, I think already a trillion has left California. That's staggering. That's frankly devastating. That's right. And so the the Sacramento's got to change. We have got to do better. We have got to get back to serving the people of California. So, yeah, I mean, I just think it's a lot of incompetence and it's a lot of they just don't care. And it's like I said, they're out of touch. They're completely divorced. And, you know, that's the thing that, you know, I bring, I think, to this to this campaign or this candidacy is, you know, I have so much experience. You know, you talk about their incompetence. Please tell us. Yes. I mean, and I don't mean to pat myself on the back, but but if you normally attorney general candidates are just career prosecutors, you know, normally attorney general candidates are, hey, look, I've done twenty five or thirty years at this DA's office or I was the DA. And so I've prosecuted tons of crime. Look, I've done that, too. I've prosecuted a lot of crime on behalf of Huntington Beach. When I was at the DOJ's office last year, I was in charge of a whole team of attorneys who are prosecuting criminal crimes, criminal hate crimes and things like that. I've done that, too. In fact, in Huntington Beach, I started a criminal prosecutor program myself at the city level in 2017 in direct response to Prop 47 and 57, because with the passage of 47 and 57 in 2014, crimes went up, quality of life crimes went up. So I literally started a criminal prosecutor division in the city attorney's office in 2017 because of that crime dropped by double digits in Huntington Beach. And it's been dropping ever since. I have that. I've done that. What else? I've also prosecuted elections laws at the federal level. I sued California when I was with the DOJ. (14:00 - 23:13) I sued Orange County, California when I was with the DOJ. We sued not only to enforce, to ensure that there's a voter registration system in the state that's clean and effective, but also legally compliant, law compliant, but also that there are clean voter rolls. We sued over dirty voter rolls. And as we know, that clean voter rolls equal clean elections, right? I've, and I was in court arguing those cases myself. I've done that. No candidate for attorney general could ever say that. I've been fighting the state of California for the past 10 years over legislative overreach, right? No candidate for attorney general can say that and has ever been able to say that. I have ushered in voter ID into Huntington Beach, which was the first and only in the state. I was the architect of that law and I defended it. And it drove Newsom crazy, right? So whether it's voter ID or fighting the state over high density housing mandates, which I did for 10 years, or elections laws, I have done all of these things. And frankly, the attorney general is responsible for all those things. So frankly, I am the perfect fit in terms of experience and skillset to be plugged in as attorney general, clean up our elections, stop legislative overreach, fix sort of the housing mandate conflict, right? And to fight crime and homelessness. I worked with our local police department in Huntington Beach for the past five, six years when the homelessness spiked. Because of our work with our police department, the homeless population in Huntington Beach reduced by over 60%. There is a way to get our homeless off the streets. And Sacramento just simply refuses to do it. And here's the thing. This is the difference between, I think, sort of the, I'll just call it far left leaning governing philosophy and everybody else in California. This is the difference. They believe, the far left liberal elites in Sacramento, they believe that you and I as Californians have to live with a certain number of things, a certain number of burdens, right? We have to live with a certain amount of homeless on the street. We have to. That's what they believe. They believe we have to live with a certain amount of crimes. They believe that, we have to. They believe that we need, we should be able to suck up or live with a certain gas tax, high gas tax. They believe that. They believe that we should live with a cost of living that's out of control. They believe that. That's the difference. They believe that. All of that is wrong. We, me and and candidates like Steve Hilton and others want to get into office in California so we can say, no, Californians shouldn't have to live with those high crime rates. They shouldn't have to live with those homeless populations. They shouldn't have to live with high gas taxes. We just believe the opposite. Californians shouldn't because when they don't, Pastor Jack, they're free. They get their individual liberties. They're free to spend money. They're free to travel. They're free to walk down the street in their neighborhoods and not feel like they're going to get mugged. They're free. They have more freedom when they don't have those burdens imposed upon them. You know what you just said, sorry, flashback squirrel moment for me. So what you just articulated, I saw in my mind getting on the soaring over California ride at California Adventure at Disneyland. And it shows you old California. It shows you Jack Northrup, Northrup Aerospace. It shows you Howard Hughes. It shows you all of these great things that took place. Curtis, the aviation industry. Think of the computer industry. Think about the freeway network originated here. Everything was so epic and cutting edge California that we became the envy of the world because people were free to create. Think about if Apple or Microsoft, or I don't know who again, Northrup or whoever for them to try to do a business all over again in their garage, the local governments would shut them down, right? There's none of that going to happen again. That kind of stuff. The state was free to create, to make money, to build business, to hire people, to be that place where 49 other States said, honey, pack up the car, get the kids. We're going to California. And of course now, once again, here we go. I just saw it again, California, the mass exodus of talent and of resources out of this state. And you know, people are leaving here crying about it. I hear about it as a pastor all the time. They don't want to leave California. And so do you believe, I think I know the answer to this. I just want to hear your passion. Do you believe that this is the time finally, for even Democrats that vote with some form of reason could actually write this ship? I do. And I believe, and look, as somebody for the past 10 years as the city attorney of Huntington Beach, who's been in politics and has, I guess, developed a skill for having a good appreciation for what the public sentiment is, what people's concerns are, what their priorities are, which, you know, it takes a while to, to understand the community that's around. It does take a while. It's, you know, I know that California right now is fed up. Yes. I know that Republicans, independents and Democrats alike, Californians are smarter than the political elites in Sacramento give them credit for. Absolutely. They're waking up. And you know, the thing is, is the Sacramento elites stepped in it, right? Like they didn't do themselves any favors, like to watch LA burn, like it did last year. Shocking. And then for instance, for the attorney general to look at that and say, Hey, you know, there are some serious transgressions there. There might be some serious crimes there. Let's investigate this. He took a pass on all that. He didn't even bother to look to see, you know, was the first response adequate? Did something go wrong? Did something happen that led up to, you know, what happened and what allowed those fires to burn, what allowed LA to burn? No interest, no concern. And so, you know, we just have to get back to, like I said, common sense governance. I don't think running a state like this is that difficult. Look, we've got leaders in office right now that are simply making selfish decisions, out of touch decisions. If we get back to basics and simply govern for the people, just focus on reducing crime, just focus on reducing homelessness, just clean up the fraud. Like, look, if there are stories about fraud, if there are concerns and evidence about fraud, investigate it, fix it. Don't turn a blind eye to it. That's right. I was asked some time ago by a person that was running for office, they asked me what my thoughts were. They asked me. I wasn't running. I'm not running. They asked me what I thought about the homeless problem. And I said, well, you got to remember something. I was born and raised here. I remember when there wasn't a homeless problem. And well, what? You know, it kind of like caught them off guard. And I said, well, you know what? It doesn't have to be because if you go back 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 40 years ago, there was not. In fact, there were vagrancy laws where somebody passing through who was a bum. And I mean a real bum. They wouldn't work if they were handed a job. They didn't want to work. They were a bum. You had to hit the road. You were driven out of town. So there's a way to deal with it. It's just the will. Where is the will for those to support the laws that are on the books? I love what you just said a moment ago. Somebody might think California, you know, it's like a country. Well, yes, it is. But it's most unique in that if you just let the people do their job and live their lives, people want excellence in this state. And our history has shown that. And we have a history, I think, if you look at the history, like to your point about how we used to be safer and pretty much zero crime, zero homeless. Like, look, if Sacramento would get out of the way and let local prosecutors do their job, let local police departments do their job. It's music. You know, one of the things that's particularly frustrating for me, because in addition to all of the other experiences I've had, I've also literally personally defended police officers in court when they were sued for doing their job. In fact, there was one case I had a couple years ago where a plaintiff came in and sued two of our police officers for an officer-involved shooting for $20 million. And that's a case that most states would, or I'm sorry, most cities would just settle, right? They would just settle it like $20 million. Oh, let's give them $10 million to go away. And you know what? I said, no. And my city council backed me on this. I believe in our police officers. I believed in their use of force. I believed in what they did was just. I took it to trial. It was a five-week trial and we got a complete defense verdict. (23:13 - 23:25) Excellent. A complete defense verdict. So if you let the police and the local prosecutors manage their own towns, manage their own cities, fight crime, then crime is going to be reduced. (23:25 - 23:58) I believe strongly that there's an agenda coming out of Sacramento. And I said this a moment ago, that they literally believe that we as Californians should and have to live with a certain amount of crime. They want that for us. And that's clear as day by the results. They want us to live with a certain amount of homeless because homeless could be solved overnight. Let me share something with you. You know, we had a border problem under Biden, right? Tens of thousands of people would cross every single day under Biden, right? I saw it. I went down there. I watched it. (23:59 - 24:10) All we heard was, oh, we need immigration reform. We need immigration reform. We need immigration. And I would tell him, turn to my wife and say, there's already a bunch of laws on the books. We don't need more laws. We just need to enforce these laws. (24:10 - 24:56) Shut the door. Then Trump wins. He gets in and he's like, you know what? We're simply going to enforce the laws that are on the books. And guess what? No more border crossings. And crime and homelessness in California is the same way. There are already crimes on the books. Let's enforce them. And on homeless, there's already anti-camping, anti-loitering, and there's anti-public intoxication. We have those laws. Let the local police enforce them. We need prosecutors to back them. And we need an attorney general who's going to expect our prosecutors to back our local enforcement. And I'm that guy. I am going to ensure that our district attorneys are supporting our police. And when I brought in our, ushered in our criminal prosecutor program in Huntington Beach, crime dropped because our police knew that I had their back. (24:57 - 25:11) Well, I was watching you and the city during that time. And I watched, because I may be ugly, but I'm not stupid. I watched under your care, the property values in Huntington Beach rise. (25:12 - 28:29) Huntington Beach became a beach city that was wise to invest in because it had good governance and it made a world of difference. In fact, you guys dramatically influenced Newport Beach. I don't know how much they learned from you, but they certainly saw what excellent governance looks like. Before we lose any of our viewers, if they might have to head off to work or go wherever, how can people support you? Well, thank you for that. If they go to gates4ag.com, the number 4-A-G.com, there's a website. It's got my bio and introduction. It's got some of the issues that I'm working on. There's an explanation for some things. And there's a, there's a link, a donations link. And as you know, I told you this before we started the program, you know, this is going to be a grassroots effort. I've launched this. I had my press conference this morning. I've already had overwhelming response. Some donations are already coming in. I'm very happy about that. If your audience, if your congregation, anybody who's watching says, I believe in this guy. We need a new attorney general. We need to support this guy and we need to take on Bonta. They can go to that website and I'm asking them to please consider clicking the donations link because even if they can only donate $25. Oh my goodness. That's massive. That's massive. And I know you have a, you have a great audience, broad support. And imagine if everybody just said, Hey, look, I'm going to, I'm going to follow pastor Jack's lead. I'm going to click on his website. I'm going to click on the donation. Absolutely. And I'm just going to donate 25 or a hundred dollars that will add up. And that is going to be tremendous. Everybody think about that for a second, 25 bucks, 25 bucks. If a million people sent 25 bucks, this election is, is done. And you might say, well, Jack, you know, that's, you know, what about the Lord? Yes, the Lord. But listen, here's the thing. We're going to talk about the Lord in a moment, but the scripture says in Proverbs 29 verse two, it says that when a righteous man is in power, the people rejoice. But when the wicked rule, the people groan, California has been groaning and it's time for us to rejoice. But like John Jay, the first Supreme court justice of the United States, John Jay, one of our founding fathers, he said, it's preferable that we elect Christians into public office. Can you believe the first Supreme court justice, the United States said that it's because we are founded upon Judeo-Christian worldview values. And we are a Republic. We are a constitutional Republic, which by the way, if you notice Democrats can't say those two words, they actually can't, they cannot say constitutional Republic. They can only use the democracy, which we are not. We are a constitutional Republic folks. If brothers and sisters, if good men and women like Michael Gates running for attorney general here in the state of California, get into office, then this is exactly the direction that we need to go because it's God honoring for one thing. But listen, honestly, even if Michael Gates was an atheist and he's not with his expertise and his love for the state, you should vote for people like that. But we have an added bonus. This is God providing the answer to so many people who say, well, I can't vote for anybody because none of them are believers. (28:30 - 28:40) We have a believer sitting here right with us right now. And so tell us a little bit about your family, your faith. Yeah. (28:40 - 29:10) Yeah. No, I'm happy to. And as you are proud to be God-fearing and to be Christian and not afraid to invoke Jesus' name, likewise, I am too. And a lot of politicians get up and say a lot of things. A lot of politicians will get up and say, oh, I love Jesus too. I will tell you, I think it's in large part because my parents, their commitment to each other, their love, their commitment to God, their commitment to faith, and the large family had a lot of siblings. (29:11 - 29:22) It was just such a rich environment to grow up in, in loving the Lord, right? Loving God. We went to church every Sunday. We would say prayers as a family almost every day. (29:23 - 32:48) My mother beat into us to say our nighttime prayers and our morning prayers, right? So it was just a way of life when we were kids. And I carried that forward to be candid. I don't want to call my wife out, but she was agnostic growing up even into high school and she converted and she has embraced Jesus. And so we are, we have married almost 30 years. We have five children. Thank you. And four grandchildren. Yes. Thank you. I know. I know. It's a miracle. I know. My wife is here today. But, but it's, it's a testament to God's guidance in my life and God's providence, the gifts and the blessings that he's bestowed upon me. And, and, you know, this kind of goes back and answers one of your earlier questions. Why are you doing this? I've been blessed so much, particularly with the skillset and the education and experience that God has given me that I feel like I owe it, frankly, to California to pursue this. But, you know, I pray every day. I love praying because I truly love Jesus Christ. I'm in love with him. And I, it, for me, it's just part of my life. And if, if, if I give up and lose everything in my life, I won't lose that. I'm going to, I will absolutely continue to be faithful, continue to serve him. I prayed this morning before my press conference. My wife and I prayed on the way here as we sat in traffic for an hour and a half. And so we're, we really are truly constantly in prayer, constantly asking for guidance. And frankly, that's why I'm here. And that's how I got here because I asked God for guidance and he guided me here. This was not random. If you kind of sort of knew more detail and more of the circumstances, you'd be like, it's a wonder that I'm even here running for California attorney general. So it's just remarkable in a lot of ways, but not surprising because I pray, I ask for that guidance, the grace, the knowledge, the wisdom, and he gives it to me. And he says, here you go. It's funny because I always tell my wife that God's got a sense of humor. We pray and pray and pray. We pray and pray and pray so hard. And we never know exactly what tomorrow brings. And then when it happens, we're like, oh my gosh, that's amazing. But, but, but then we say, but we asked for this, right? Like we paid for this. So we shouldn't be surprised. I do the same thing. I'm embarrassed to admit it, but it's the same thing. And I, my, my staff will laugh at me on Sunday morning because before service, I'll actually be wondering, is anyone going to come today? Is anyone going to show up? And then, you know, thousands of people come, but every day, it's just another step forward in God's grace, his mercy and his grace. But what, what are some of the things that I should be asking you that it's burning in Michael's heart to share? Maybe I haven't touched on it. But yeah, is there something that I'm missing that these people on this show need to know? Well, I think, and part of it is just my authentic commitment to doing what's right for the state of California. I think that's an important point because it's, it's hard to, I think it's hard for voters and viewers to sort of pierce through and find out who is this guy. (32:48 - 33:10) He's, you know, he's a politician. Look, first of all, I'm, I'm a son of God, right? Like first and foremost, I'm a family man. I'm a patriot. I love this country. And then I'm a politician, right? Like, so that, that, so I see myself as a lawyer, a top lawyer. I love the law. (33:11 - 34:54) You know, there's, there's so much about who I am that really isn't politician, but I'm, I'm glad to be here. I'm looking forward to this race. I'm glad I have the political experience that I've had in the past. So this is real for me. This is real for me on the one hand. On the other hand, you know, if, if the, if the audience can take away, you know, what does this guy bring to the table? I think a lot. And a lot means I can do a lot of good in the, as the attorney general. Again, I fought elections laws. I fought to enforce elections laws at the federal level and at the local level in California. I have been there. I have done that. I have actually been in court. I've defended our police in many, many lawsuits in court. I was experienced, accomplished trial attorney in court, defending our police. And before that our Orange County sheriffs. So I have been in court for years, defending our police. I not only fought crime as a prosecutor, I started a criminal prosecutor program in Huntington Beach. I want to do all of this for California. In fact, you know, a few of the to do's that I've put together for when I get into office, one of which is to enforce prop 36 on day one, right? We've got Newsom and Bonta saying, oh, we can't, we don't have funding. You know what, malarkey, that is the law of the land. The voters pass prop 36. And we need, we have a duty to enforce it. But also I want to reach out to cities and say, hey, look, if your police are being sued for their use of force, attorney general's office will be there to offer resources and guidance on defending your police. I want to help cities, more cities start their own criminal prosecutor programs in the city, at the city level. (34:54 - 35:10) Just to put it into context for you, in Orange County, there are 34 cities. Huntington Beach, when I started that prosecutor program in 2017, we were the second city, only the second city to have a city level prosecutor program. I want city level prosecutors in every city. (35:11 - 35:33) There are 482 cities in the state of California. I want 482 city level prosecutors fighting crime alongside their district attorneys. So there are things I want to do. I want to help cities become charter cities. If there are general law cities and they want to become a charter city, I want to help them become a charter city. So there are a lot of things that we can do, Pastor Jack, to return the power back to the people. (35:33 - 35:42) To the people, local community. Exactly, local control. Where you feel a part and parcel with your community, you have a stake in it, it matters. (35:42 - 35:59) What goes on within your city limits matters to you. That's old school. Right. And these are, no other attorney general candidate would be talking like this. And certainly Bonta would never be talking like this. And Attorney General Bonta, frankly, I'm not sure he ever spent a day in court, where I've spent my entire career in court. (35:59 - 36:06) I know how to win these cases. I know how to prosecute. And I know how to do this for the American people. (36:07 - 37:01) I'm going to be nice right now. Yes. Okay. So you mentioned something earlier about how, for example, Newsom's response or Bonta's response to Prop 36 is we don't have the funds to do that. But they certainly find the funds to do all of their really stupid stuff. What did I just see today or yesterday that the California solar industry just collapsed on itself? In fact, that crazy thing going up I-15. They're taking that all down. Billions of dollars spent, lost, gone. We've got Gavin Newsom's railway thing that, I don't know what, insane. They always find my money, your money, to do their thing. But I'll be the one who says this. I don't want you to get yourself in trouble. (37:01 - 38:41) It seems to me as a spectator that if I'm going to be gracious and nice, the Democrat party in California is extremely uneducated and just has a horrific low bar for excellence. That's if I'm being nice. If I'm not being nice, they have a vision to come together to craft the most egregious bills and laws to destroy American freedoms here in California and to rob us of our protections and to rob us of our money. So much so that if I was a bad, if I had bad thoughts, I would think that they are intentionally trying to destroy California and thus the nation. Because if I was a bad person, I would be thinking they are deliberately, they're not dumb, they're like an army trying to destroy this place intentionally. Well, in the way I describe it, I have in the past and I will as the campaign moves forward, it's really a wanton disregard for the will of the people. Not implementing, doing what it takes to effectuate Prop 36 is an absolute wanton disregard by Sacramento elite for the will of the people. That was voted on and that was passed and that should be fully implemented. The new budget that Newsom introduced a week ago has not a single dollar committed for this next year to Prop 36. (38:42 - 39:47) How is it that an initiative can be placed on the ballot, it can pass with the majority, and then Sacramento just says, well, we're just going to pretend it doesn't exist or we're going ignore it. It's an absolute wanton disregard. And so that's part of what I was saying earlier, that the Sacramento elite, they're just completely out of touch. They're completely divorced from Californians, divorced from reality. And it's in large part because they think they're better than us. They think they're smarter than us. And when we pass dumb laws like Prop 36, they're just going to pretend that never happened. And they literally, they ignore the will of the people. All the time, all the time, all the time. And they dupe us because they do things like, if you go back and look at the language of Prop 4757, Kamala Harris literally blessed language that expressly stated that these props were about making communities safer. When those were 47 specifically designed to take felonies and make them misdemeanors. And then you can't even enforce those misdemeanors according to the prosecutors. (39:48 - 40:06) And so it literally was the opposite. So they are total, total disrespect for Californians. You mentioned earlier, and I can feel it from people. I hear it from people. Why should I even register to vote? Why should I vote? It's the voter fraud. It's so messed up. (40:06 - 40:59) California will never turn around. But again, my argument is, if you have that attitude, it's definitely guaranteed not to turn around. You got to get involved in the fight. You got to do the right thing, no matter what. Bottom line is that, is it possible? I know you did it in Huntington. I mean, I think I know the answer. I'm just being sarcastic, right? Sure. Is it possible that when you become attorney general, that you can recover somehow the voting integrity of the entire state? So there are state laws that compromise, frankly, voter integrity, including SB, I think it's SB 1147, if my memory serves correctly, where the state passed a law in 2024 to ban cities, to ban cities from having local voter ID laws. And that was directly in response to Huntington Beach's voter ID law, right? So it was new legislation designed to ban. (40:59 - 43:51) Punish. And that was Newsom angry. Right. But what the state, the legislature has done is they've effectively, and this is, you know, this is the type of thing I'll get into when I'm attorney general, but they've effectively violated the California constitution, excuse me, because the California constitution under article 11, section five provides for charter cities to be able to manage their own local police departments without interference from the state and to manage the manner of elections locally without interference from the state and a whole host of other local control matters, right? Local governance matters. So they're legislatively ignoring the California constitution. And we are going to get back when I'm attorney general, get back to a constitution driven form of government, both state and federal, because another thing that resonates, and I think, frankly, has offended a lot of Californians is this whole issue of title nine, right? Yes. And whether it's, you know, men and girls, sports or whatever, whether it's sports education, whatever. And so we're going to get back to the honoring title nine in all of our sports and education throughout the state of California. There are laws out there, whether federal laws, the US constitution, California constitution that are higher authorities, that again, our legislature demonstrating wanton disregard. They're just ignoring it. And unfortunately, a lot of our courts are sort of rubber stamping, whatever comes out of the legislature, excuse me. And when I'm attorney general, we are going to be putting out opinions, explanations for how the attorney general interprets the constitution. And we are going to be making probably new arguments in court, if not just maybe older, older arguments that have been abandoned that, hey, there's a California constitution here that allows cities to do this or that or the other thing or whatever. There are federal laws like title nine that we have to honor, right? And so we are going to be a constitution driven attorney general's office. And that is going to be the starting point. And the constitution is not going to be something to be disregarded or forgotten or challenged by the state legislature. We are going to get back to constitution driven form of justice in California. I promise you, I guarantee it. That's awesome. The scriptures tell us that we need to return back to the former foundations. I mean, these things over man's life on this earth have been proven, tried and tested. And so, yeah, I believe, our theme has been for these last, I don't know, 10 years, maybe longer, Comeback California, which we utilize every two years. Whenever there's an election, we inform the electorate what is on the ballot. How do you register to vote? A lot of people don't realize that even a church can host voter registration. (43:52 - 44:18) We can have town halls, all those kinds of things. But Michael, I want to encourage you, Gina Gleason and myself and a few others, we've been standing in this water for a very long time. And we were mocked. We were ridiculed. We were told that we were bad Christians for being political, which that was never the case. We were Christians and I was a pastor educating people about their constitutional rights that I believe are given to us by God. (44:19 - 44:39) All of that said, now we're at a point where, for example, we're going to be coming up pretty soon in the wonderful city of Huntington Beach. We are going to be hosting our second event of pastors statewide that will come to the Huntington Hyatt. They're going to come. (44:39 - 45:59) We're paying for that. We're going to give them a night and meals, and we're going to have speakers educating them on their biblical and civic duty to get involved because that is how this nation works. And that's how this state works. I'd love to stop by. I think we're going to make sure that you do stop by. So having said that, I believe that when things look bad, when you're standing for what's right and things look bad, when it looks like you're about ready to lose, I mean, this is not the history of our nation. How is it that Washington lost almost every battle and wound up winning the war? When things look bad, the believers not to pack up and go home, we're to keep standing. And so I'm just thrilled that you're running. When you text me, I forget when it was, you said, I'm running for attorney general. It's just like, yes, I have to be honest with you. I was a little bummed with Trump when he snatched you away from Huntington Beach. I happen to have been in the Roosevelt room, and Trump was about this far away. I was sitting at this seat where you're at. You would have been Trump. And there was about 12 of us in the room. (45:59 - 46:33) 12 of us in the room, and we're all talking. And I said, President Trump, please don't forget. He was talking about all these great things, strides that he's been making in these other states. He never once brought up California. I said, President Trump, please remember California. And he said, California is gone. Well, I didn't tell him this part. California may be gone, but I do know that his biggest fundraising events have been in Southern California. So I wanted to say, well, it may be gone, but you like its money. (46:33 - 48:04) But the point is, California, no, sir. I can't give up like that. Well, maybe your voice in his mind is haunting him because now he's turned his sights on California with regard to all of the concerns about fraud and things like that. So there may be something there, and maybe we can give you credit for that. Who knows? But look, and this again goes back to when you said, why are you running? Pastor Jack, I'm just so hopeful. I'm always full of hope. And my wife says, oftentimes, I'm stupidly optimistic. Why are you so optimistic? And for me- My wife calls me Eeyore. Yeah. But it's never going to happen. I'm on a way. But for me, hope is a virtue. And for me, to be hopeful is pretty natural. And I am very hopeful for California. And that's sort of what fuels my fight, my motivation. And I frankly think that we're getting to the point, and again, this circles back to another question you had earlier, where the general population, Democrat, Independent, Republican alike, the tide is turning a little bit. And I think they're going to become, or they're becoming more hopeful that there are better days. Just look at Steve Hilton. How is it? Well, a couple of things. One, why aren't there any leading Democrat candidates for governor who have been sucking the oxygen out of the room in terms of media coverage for the past year and a half? They don't exist. They don't exist. (48:04 - 48:54) Senator Padilla took a pass. Bonta just took a pass. Everybody's taking a pass. Nobody wants to touch this governor's race on the Democrat side. So that tells you something, that things are broken in California and it needs fixing. But I think the fact that Steve Hilton is the leader among, he's way ahead of all the Democrats on fundraising too. I don't know if you saw that. I did see that. 5.7 million in the bank, and he's got over 30,000 different contributors, which is what I'm hoping for. I'm hoping that you can help us get over 30,000- Gatesforag.org or .com. Gatesforag.com. I gave one of your guys my QR code. So hopefully that'll pop up on the screen. They'll do it. (48:54 - 49:56) Yeah. But I think that that should tell you a lot. That speaks volumes that Hilton is way ahead of all the Democrat candidates with 5.7 million in the bank. He's got over 30,000 different contributors. There's this groundswell. And I've been telling people really for a year that there's a lot of sort of political topsy-turvy or unrest in California. And I do think a lot of it came from the Palisades fires and how people are just unforgiving when it comes to the way Karen Bass and other leaders have handled that. And rightfully so, rightfully so. But I do think we're at this point. And so I'm very, very hopeful this year that if we can really get Californians to take action, to not simply sit on their couch and say, I'm a Democrat, or I'm an independent, or I'm a Republican, and I don't like what's going on in California. I don't want them to just throw up their hands and say, but either my vote doesn't matter, or it doesn't matter, or it wouldn't matter if I did anything. I don't want them to think that this time. (49:57 - 50:19) That's right. I really want them to have hope. And if they could have the hope that I have for this state, if they could say, you know what? I am going to take action. I'm going to go to Steve Hilton's website, or I'm going to go to Michael Gates's website. I'm going to get involved in this attorney general race, whether it's to sign up and endorse him. I've actually, on my website- Volunteer, get involved. (50:19 - 50:28) Right. And so uniquely on my website, I'm asking for any member of the community to endorse me. A lot of times you see a politician say, oh, I want to have a senator endorse me or whatever. (50:28 - 50:33) Excellent. I'm getting those endorsements as well. The Orange County Sheriff, Don Barnes, just endorsed me yesterday. (50:33 - 51:37) Great. So we're getting those endorsements, but I want the community to endorse me. I want my people, my neighbors, my friends and neighbors to sign up and endorse me because their endorsement matters as much to me as the Lofty endorsements, right? I want to do this as a team. And so if we can get people, a groundswell of people to say, I'm going to take action. I'm going to click on that website. I'm going to put my name in and I'm going to endorse Michael Gates for attorney general, even though I'm an accountant and I'm not a politician, or even though I'm a construction worker and I'm not a politician, even though I want all the, even those out there, all the forgotten people who feel like California has left them, the leadership has left them. I want them to join the team. And if they can, like you said earlier, make a donation of $25, $50, a hundred dollars. Imagine if we got a million people to do that. It would be amazing. Why not? So now is the time, Pastor Jack, people need to be invigorated. They need to have a little bit of passion and say, I'm going to do something to make a difference. (51:37 - 56:41) Well, to follow up with what you just said in the challenge that he just gave us, I'll say it this way. Those who you would think would never ditch the Democrat party, we know for a fact, I'm talking about people in the Santa Monica, Malibu, Hollywood, Bel Air, Brentwood areas, the Burbanks, the Encinos, those cities where some of the richest people in America live, they are fed up. When their home, and this is not a few, you know this, when their homes of these elites have been invaded by El Salvadorian gang members, they're so fed up and angry that we've heard them say, I'm done now. It's over. I am, I'm not going to leave my mansion in Bel Air, but what I am going to do is vote differently now. And so by you running, I just, I'm looking at you and my lungs are filling up with some air because you're an answer to prayer. And we're just thrilled and excited to be with you on this launch today. I do believe today was your day of the official launch. I'm excited about this, but I want you to know that whatever we can do to help you out along the way, we're going to be with you all the way through. Well, let me, if you don't mind, let me cast, what you said in these terms. Look, wanting zero crime in your neighborhoods is nonpartisan. Wanting homeless off the street and into places where they can get the services they need is nonpartisan. Wanting lower gas taxes is nonpartisan. Wanting local control is nonpartisan. Even on those housing fights, you've got Los Angeles fighting the state of California because of these massive high density projects going into areas of Los Angeles that people don't want it there either. A lot of the issues we're going to be talking about on the campaign trail, Pastor Jack, it's nonpartisan. Why? Because it's common sense. We've got Democrats who agree with us. We've got independents who agree with us and Republicans. And I'm going to tell you another thing. You know, we're going to be speaking directly to the Latino community because they are the forgotten people. And frankly, they are the abused people. I think Democrats take them for granted. And Republicans really, frankly, have never spoken to them. And so we are going to have a massive outreach and we're going to speak to them in Spanish too. Part of my speech this morning at the press conference was delivered in Spanish. I want our abuelitas to be able to go to their local mercado sin miedo, right? Without fear. We want our grandmothers to be able to walk to their local stores without fear. And that's not happening in a lot of neighborhoods right now. And so we literally want to return California to the people. We want to the streets to let them have their street in safety. We want them to be safe. And all of this is nonpartisan. That's what's so frustrating. The Democrat elites in Sacramento make it partisan, but they falsely cast it as partisan. The reality is none of this is partisan. We all want control of our communities. And if you're a Democrat dominated community, fine. Fine. That's fine. You have control and take it away from Sacramento, right? Don't let Sacramento take it. But if you're Republican, whatever. It's nonpartisan, right? Wanting control of your local community, wanting safety, wanting safe streets. All of that is nonpartisan. So that's really an important point. So when folks look at me and say, well, he's a Republican. No, no, no, no. I'm talking about the issues that matter to all of us, including issues that are near and dear to hearts, near and dear to the heart of Democrats and independents alike. Because we want lower taxes. We want lower crime. We want safe elections. We want our communities to be safe. And so I think that's a really, really important point. Well, you guys were super, super excited here in California. And I know that many of you are watching perhaps outside of California. That doesn't keep you from helping. In fact, how many, according to the data, millions of people have left California. So maybe you ought to think about throwing something back this way to help Michael Gates become the attorney general of California in this 2026 election cycle. Things could turn around. This is going to be probably the most important election in the state of California in decades, if not longer. But please do everything you can, by all means, pray everybody, but pray and then act. And you can act by going to gates4ag.com, gates4, the number four, ag.com, and give them something, will you? And that's how this works. And grassroots is even the best. (56:41 - 56:54) A broad base of support is a powerful statement. And so we're encouraged by your action, your wife, you guys taking on this incredible task. And so you have our prayers and I'm delighted to be with you. (56:54 - 57:36) Thank you. And if I could, I just want to thank God for this opportunity. I want to thank God for really giving you to me in my life because we didn't know each other. We've known each other for a few years, but before that, we didn't know each other at all. And when I came to you and I said, hey, Pastor Jack, I could use your help. I want to be able to reach more people. And this goes back years. This was when I was city attorney. I remember you said yes. And I want to thank you for that because not a lot of people in a position like yours who would have access to amazing congregations and an amazing audience would say yes. And you did. So thank God that you did. (57:36 - 58:03) Thank God that you have. And thank God that you allowed me to come here today. So thank you very much. And I'm saying yes again. Thanks brother. I appreciate it very much. Awesome. Thank you. 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.