More Like GONE DeSantis (w/Gavin Newsom!)

Let's listen.

I said, that name is officially retired.

So we have been awash in DeSantis pre and postmortems over the last week. Dan and I did a little grave dancing on Thursday's pod because we figured this was coming. But I'll let you join in the fun, love it. What were your favorite tidbits from the weekend's deep dives about the final days of the DeSantis campaign?

In the NBC story.

They're all fumfuring. They don't seem to have a message. And then Bill Mitchell, our old friend, pipes up.

Then he went from Trump to DeSantis.

He opened his speech with a lengthy criticism of the accreditation process for universities and nobody really seemed to understand it. And afterwards, a middle aged lady from Johnson, Iowa, comes up to him and goes, I don't know what you were talking about. I think you said the word predators. She's like, I hope you said predators. And he's like a creditor.

He's talking about the college accreditation process. Just to online.

Something you couldn't know about.

And my favorite part of this is that, in a comment to NBC News, Wagner noted that the office puzzle was there when we arrived and became a sense of pride for the entire team. And everyone chipped in a few minutes of peace to get it done. Could you imagine?

Three names.

I thought you, of all people, would defend the puzzle. Obviously. So now I had to take the other side.

I was like, honestly, yeah, that you nailed it. You really didn't need the rest of the story.

What are we doing here?

Yep. Yep. Why? What, what's going on there?

I don't know. Those are my guests. Do you have any other guesses? Am I missing anything?

. Yeah.

Marjorie Taylor Greene called him a MAGA traitor. So I do think there's a little bit of Ron, like you made this point too, that Ron DeSantis is thinking like, I'm term limited as governor. I'm going to be a pariah in the party. Like I, and if I wait and I just say I'm out and I'm not ready to endorse right now, like Trump's going, they're going to go after him. Right.

Like you just spent a year of your life dedicated to this project of becoming president. So did your wife. So did tons and tons of your college's worst young people. And like, even in that moment, like the reasons he lost are all evident in that video. Like, even in that moment he doesn't have like the grace or judgment or like bigness of spirit to not like, no, but he doesn't.

I'm just saying this is the reason he's not, it's obvious now, but you look at it and he's like, he doesn't understand that this is not a moment to take a cheap little fucking shot at your opponent. Like, make it a little bit bigger, make it a little bit grander. But he, just like, doesn't have that instinct. He started with this awful little Twitter space with Elon. He ends with a slam on Nikki Haley and an apocryphal, fucking Winston Churchill quote, just a Winston Churchill quote made up from the fucking Easter.

The most online candidate we've ever had. The Goodreads candidate, not Goodreads, fucking brainy quotes, whatever. Who cares? Just fucking bullshit.

It just was just, again, all ideology and politics aside, it's just fucking boring, trite bullshit from him at the, from the beginning to the end. Anyway, I think one lesson we can all learn from the DeSantis campaign is that you can't win the presidency if you're missing a personality. Any other lessons you think we can learn from the DeSantis disaster?

Here are my life lessons from Ron DeSantis. One, if you don't know who you are, be careful, because other people will decide for you. Two, the internet is a wonderful place to visit, but a terrible place to live. And three, you can persuade people on a variety of fronts, but you can't convince someone to like you. And the harder you try, the more you will fail.

Those are my life lessons from Ron DeSantis.

A corollary of that is there was a concern after Citizens United that, like super PACs, would start running campaigns, and you just have a few billionaires that fund the campaign and that those campaigns.

. A super PAC running a campaign is not a very efficient or smart or strategic campaign, because if the super PAC cannot coordinate with the candidate and the candidate's closest advisors throughout the campaign, you need to coordinate together. You need to have a similar message. You can't outsource your campaign if you're running for office to a super PAC, if you cannot coordinate with them, which you can't by law.

The only way they could coordinate was publicly. You end up with these public fucking spats, with these memos going back and forth, because the only way they can do it is by doing it in the press. But I do think that it was especially impossible, given that DeSantis had no real clear message. If you had someone like Obama 2008,, anyone, any smart operative, could write an ad from the super PAC without coordinating, because the message is crystal clear. I think that would be true of Bernie Sanders, too.

He was a uniquely ill-suited candidate to try this, because the campaign was so unclear. And, by the way, not just message, their strategy was so unclear that of course, they weren't going to be able to figure this out.

I also think that running to Donald Trump's right was so dumb. The guy was president for four years, and nearly 100% of Republicans who voted for him liked most of his policies, liked him. Even if they had problems with him, no Republican voter thought that Donald Trump was too liberal. That was not their problem with Donald Trump. after seeing him as president for four years.

I don't understand why.

. It was so stupid to do that.

for these right-wing voters. How are you going to... Even coming out for a six-week abortion ban, all that did was serve to alienate the people that were interested in something else or of electability argument.

I never heard about DEI, critical race theory, trans issues. You do hear Trumpy-sounding views on immigration, on crime, on the economy, some on COVID even.

It's definitely a subset of Republicans who are very loud about it and who are activists, but I don't think it's not what animates most of that party.

All right, let's talk about New Hampshire. We've got a primary Tuesday night where Nikki Haley is now the last woman standing against this guy.

We offered her 10,000 people, soldiers, National Guard, whatever they want. They turned it down. They don't want to talk about that.

He says that I'm the one that kept security from the Capitol on January 6th. I was nowhere near the Capitol on January 6th. But, Margaret, you don't be surprised. If you have someone that's 80 in office, their mental stability is going to continue to decline. That's just human nature.

We know that.

What do you think of this one?

You know, like. it's just like the cart slid over one groove and then he's fucked. Can't get out of it.

So we can light, just like one last candle, to the patron saint of content, Saint Isidore, I believe, is the saint of the internet.

But so that's not great. I mean, I like. she's running up a down escalator. You know, like there's like. she has an electability argument, but she's making it to an electorate that A, doesn't believe he lost, and B, believes he's on track to win.

And there's no other. no other argument is really broken through. And she doesn't have a clean one to make.

I think that even if she visited every voter in New Hampshire, she talked to every voter in New Hampshire and campaigned, like, you know, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I don't know that it will put her over the top. If you look in, I'll just take the Monmouth poll, for example, that Washington Post Monmouth poll, rated A, high quality poll. So it's got 52, 34, right? Trump up 52, 34..

It's sort of like the average. They broke out undeclared and Republicans. Haley is winning these undeclared voters, 48, 38.. She's winning college graduates by a narrow margin, 43, 39.. But Trump is winning registered Republicans, 64, 22..

Non-college educated voters, 60 to 27.

. Very conservative voters, 78 to 10.. She just hasn't made any inroads with the actual Republican base. And even though 40% of the electorate in New Hampshire is undeclared, 30% Republican, like that's still, Steve Kornacki was tweeting this today. He said, just playing with scenarios.

He goes, just a sense of what Haley's up against in New Hampshire. Say 47% of the electorate ends up being undeclared. The previous record in New Hampshire is, for a Republican primary of undeclared voters, is 45% of the electorate. So she blows it out of the water, beats a record. She wins it by 43 points.

The previous record is McCain winning undeclared, by 42 points. That's John McCain. In that Monmouth poll, she was up 10.. If she then hits 30% with Republicans, and that poll, she's in the mid-20s, low-20s, then she could win by 0.1%. with all of that.

It's just the math, it's just too hard.

Absolutely. That's what great political figures can do. Nikki Haley is not that figure.

I don't know what the logic is for going on if you can't win outright. I was looking at the states to come. I think this is certainly the most favorable state. I guess you could say D.C. Who knows what these electorates would look like.

C. should clean up there.

I was within single digits. If somehow she loses by single digits, I don't know. I give that a 20% chance. I don't think it's going to happen. I think that's maybe the only.

She's got to lose. She's just sitting there. She's going to get embarrassed in South Carolina. It's her home state.

for some reason. She goes to New Hampshire. That's where she's going to make her last stand. Donald Trump is campaigning across the state with Tim Scott and a bunch of other South Carolina Republicans who've endorsed. She's down in the post midweeks, being attacked mercilessly in her home base.

She's like a pointless slog.

Do you think there's any chance she doesn't endorse Donald Trump? She's going to endorse him.

This is who we've chosen. I always said I would get behind the Republican. I'll tell you what makes me nervous. What's dangerous for our country is a term of president, Kamala Harris, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Disastrous debt.

We got to come together. It's just done.

First of all, she's not getting VP. Trump said she's not presidential timber. Now, when I say that, that probably means that she's not going to be chosen as vice president.

She's not getting the VP. Probably. She's not getting MAGA. love. They all hate her.

now. She does like being on corporate boards. She likes the corporate Republican. She wants to be... You.

look at Kevin McCarthy. Kevin McCarthy, he's not getting invited to Davos and all these places now. He's not in with that crowd because he went full MAGA. I think that Kevin McCarthy is a man without a home. now.

Nikki Haley could be.

. She could get invited to the Harvard IOP. She could go to Davos. She could do all these things. She doesn't have to.

She could just step back and say, I don't like Joe Biden either, but I said what I said about Donald Trump and I'm just going to not say anything. I don't know what's the downside of that.

even if convicted, she's going to support him. Even if fucking convicted. These people do not have... People are terrible. They're terrible.

They don't even have.

. They're so buffeted by events. There's such a lack of a moral center that they can't even understand what's in their own interests. They do not have perspective.

by saying congratulations, vice presidential hopeful Tim Scott endorsed Trump over the weekend and then said this when asked about Trump going full birther on fellow South Carolinian Nikki Haley.

And I hope the Supreme Court has the courage to do that. Do you agree? Should a president have total immunity, even for things that cross the line?

There's nothing else we can do.

but when liators show up, there's nothing we can do.

and Nancy Mace said thank you by endorsing Donald Trump just to embarrass Nikki Haley before New Hampshire. Un-fucking-believable.

That's where they're at.

Oh no, we're not going to have Wall Street. Wall Street's with Trump, because he also said today he's excited to give them another big tax cut.

I'm just saying Wall Street is collapsing itself in support of him.

Oh, what I was going to say is, when Biden did his January 6th anniversary speech, one of the points he made, which I think was very good, was these Republicans know better, but they've stopped telling the truth because of politics and because of money. And I do think that's like a core of what they're saying, that Republicans know better. And, by the way, we don't just need to use the clips of Republicans to come around and endorse Trump. We need the fucking Republicans that were in his cabinet.

who worked for Donald Trump, who supported Donald Trump, even people like Cassidy Hutchinson, who supported him right till the very end. saying like, this guy is dangerous, don't do it. I think that will have an effect. All right, before we head to break, two quick housekeeping items. On April 25th, Love It or Leave It will be coming to Washington DC for another barn burner of a show at the Lincoln Theater.

Hell yeah. Yeah, friends of the pod, get early access to tickets. You can subscribe now at crooked.supercast.com to get the exclusive pre-sale code. today. And in yesterday's episode of our digital series Political Experts React, Dan Pfeiffer and former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki go through a roundup of the best and worst ads from the 2024 Republican primary.

This episode of Political Experts React just dropped. Check it out only on the Pod Save America YouTube channel. When we come back, you'll hear Tommy's interview with Gavin Newsom, which was recorded on Thursday and, even though that was right before DeSantis dropped out, Newsom basically nails why he lost and gives us some behind-the-scenes color on the great Newsom-DeSantis Fox News debate of 2023. They also talked about Democratic messaging, culture, wars, and housing.

than the state of California, just shy of 40 million people. And of course, it's the temple of the U.S. economy. And so it is interesting, just the sort of the constant deluge of negativity that comes from the anger industry and the anger machine, that full-time bashing sort of the new Trump derangement syndrome, is the sort of California derangement syndrome that they're bashing truly the innovation capital of the world, the entrepreneurial capital of the world.

It's the spring.

Any takeaways from the election results so far, or thoughts on how it might inform a general election strategy?

is, everybody has an opinion whether or not it was weakness masquerading as strength, because he didn't get 49% of the party as a de facto incumbent. But at the same time, going into that election, we were thinking he may not cross the 50% threshold. So it depends what argument you want to make. Look, I think this guy's strong and getting stronger. I think in a Republican primary, he's a T-Rex.

You're either going to mate with him.

or DeSantis closes in on Trump because he picked up one percentage point in New Hampshire. He's only down 44% in the New Hampshire primary. It gives you a sense of the status of the race. And I just can't honestly, no BS, I don't know one state. if DeSantis stuck it out that he can win, not one.

And maybe Haley has a chance. in New Hampshire, though. I thought you get one chance. first impression, coming out of a state. She seemed to trip up a little bit.

She's losing the news cycle a little bit, a little of the momentum. And I mean this sincerely. I mean, she had some, you know, with her father, and I really respect and appreciate the humanity of that. You know, you have to deal with her family. But even that being questioned and challenged, that is she sincere about this?

What's the closing argument? What's the narrative? Is she now looking to run for VP or something? But that just reinforces my notion. This is Trump.

And just stop consuming ourselves who's up, who's down in the Republican primary and focus on the stakes of the general.

I mean, it's interesting.

Donald's at least making the argument Democrats need to make that he's sort of running away a little bit from the abortion issue and trying to appear to be more centrist, when in fact he created the conditions that led to the decision itself. So this is, we can't allow that. Democrats can't allow that. I was hearing Elizabeth Warren. I texted her right after on MSNBC a couple of nights ago.

And she nailed, I mean, she's making that point. We need to quadruple down on that point because it's still a dominant issue. You add those two together, I like our chances. And I'm not just saying that because I'm a paid spokesman for the Democratic Party. I'm not, but I really feel very, very confident about November if we compare and contrast and keep that frame and keep that messaging intensity.

Any takeaways from that experience about the process, from DeSantis himself?

There's no joy. And it comes across.

And then the commercial breaks. And that was what really surprised me. Like, you know, when you walk up and say hello or goodbye, you know, his was like, well, how much time do we have? How much time? It's just, there's this,

you got to at least express some joy. At least Trump looks to be enjoying himself.

And it's just, there's no likability. Like none. And again, I went on Fox. I don't dislike anybody. All of us need to be loved.

All of us want to be loved. We want to be protected, connected, respected. None of us want to be talked down to. The reason I go on Fox is, you know, with Hannity, because I see that humanity. I married into a Republican family.

I love my father-in-law. You know, I just, I don't like, I don't like that side of the political frame. And so I was trying to find some of that. And I'll be just damn honest with you. Didn't find any of it.

And it doesn't surprise me that it's accruing negatively, obviously, to his chances. And the outcome of this election for him.

You know, but, and so I get, everybody puts a mask on when they come into the environment where they feel like they're about to be, you know, judged and criticized. Particularly when I go on networks like Fox.

and that Lion's Den. But, you know, once you put on those airs, you get them back. And that's, I think, what's missing sometimes about some of these folks is, you know, and at the same time, you know, Vivek at least attempts to at least associate him sometimes with some, at least, rhetoric around fighting some kind of granddad. This guy, DeSantis, doesn't.

I mean, he was out there first on the anti-fracking ban in Florida. I applauded him for that. Sierra Club did as well. He also came out very aggressively, to his credit, against offshore oil drilling. And I applauded him for that.

That sounds pretty good. Yeah, he campaigned on that and he signed an executive order right when he got in office. You know, so, I mean, the guys, you can't make this up. I mean, these guys just running away from their record, the sort of fraudulent nature of their current arguments based on their own records. So he may want to look in the mirror if he's going to attack Nikki Haley for being, quote, unquote, a progressive.

What did you learn from that experience? Why do you watch a lot of Fox? Why do you want to go on?

And we're winning in places large and small. Jacksonville, Florida, Republican. It was stronghold and Democratic mayor, just another example. But that said, I didn't think we're necessarily winning on the messaging. And I was sick and tired of being on the receiving end of the Republican Party talking points.

And after Dobbs, I particularly felt concerned about our party being on our heels, not on our toes, and express that very publicly in a way that wasn't necessarily universally well-received by the party. Or I mentioned in Planned Parenthood after Dobbs, where the hell's my party? And it wasn't an indictment of any individual. It wasn't an indictment of the DNC. Quite the contrary.

Jamie's a friend. I respect and really appreciate the work he's doing. It was indictment of all of us at all levels, governors, mayors, local leaders, that we need to be more aggressive and stop being on the receiving end of CRT or DEI or ESG or the anti-gay, anti-trans agenda and this banning and cultural purge that was going on and continues to go on, and the book bans and everything else. How are these guys framing the debate on these issues? And so that's why I went on True Social as a first Democrat to do that.

As when I did a Fourth of July ad saying, seriously, freedom? You're trying to make an argument about patriotism and freedom, Ron DeSantis, as you literally signed a bill denying women that were raped or instances of incest that could not access their reproductive rights. That was the first bill he signed, remember, before the six-week ban. And so I did that little Fourth of July ad in Florida, make the case, spare me the notion of freedom and try to recast that a little bit, and did the same thing with billboards in a bunch of states on reproductive freedom. Texas, right?

And then I did ads in Texas against Abbott. And it was iteration.

These guys, it's illusion that dominates. I watched this anger industry, this propaganda network and the bullshit and misinformation 24-7.. And it's not just Fox. You get it on One American News.

You get all the residual and the derivative media in that space. And they literally, I don't, I don't get angry with people that are misinformed because I know why. I watch it. I totally, sincerely understand why they say what they say and believe it and can't believe the facts because they think we're making it up as an alternative to the BS that these performative folks, particularly Fox primetime, throw out in the evening. And so I just felt it was important.

to get my lines done at the Reagan library during the Republican debate. That was some fun. on behalf of the Biden campaign. I was honored to do that. And I had fun doing it and felt like-.

to start with some basics. What do you think, in your opinion, are the biggest drivers of homelessness, nationally and in California?

to participate in impacting the dream. Remember, there's two dreams, the American dream and the California dream. And it's predicated on social mobility. And it's fundamentally at the core of this. Now, more broadly, so are reforms that were made not just in the 80s, when Ronald Reagan was president of the United States, but going back in the 50s and 60s and 70s, particularly as it relates to the issues of mental health.

And that's coming home to roost. And I'll just give you some proof points on that.

But we have 37,000 mental health units and beds in this state. Last year, 5,500.. We're down about 85%. Now, you look at that historically, a lot of people attach it to then-Governor Reagan, who significantly cut the state hospitals, the mental institutions. But it was also a bipartisan effort.

It wasn't just Reagan leading that charge just from a budgetary perspective. People didn't want people.

to have to make the 1975 decision, O'Connor versus Donaldson, that literally said you cannot exclusively incarcerate someone for just having a mental illness. It has to be for a broader issue. So there was a push, bipartisan push. But in the 80s, when President Reagan became president, he started to block, grant a lot of the funding and the promise, the vision of the community alternatives never was realized. So, look, in California, it's a 50-year sin, a process that unfolded.

in a number of aisles that we experience when we see people literally with their pants down in the middle of the street screaming. And you're like, what the hell are we doing? Why can't we help this person? And so the acuity of it, what's happening in the street population has really shifted in the last decade or so. The encampments, the tents.

People are self-medicating with drug or alcohol addictions, with bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, paranoia, and the like. And we're at a point where we can't play in the margins.

Advancing the vision that was laid out a half century ago but never realized for community alternatives. 11,150 new treatment beds and units. New zoning and siting reforms so we can deal with the regulatory thickets so we actually could deliver on the promise. Accountability, which is key here. I'm a progressive, but more is not better.

Better is better. We need to hold ourselves to higher level accountability. And reforming the old Mental Health Services Act, which is a point of pride in California, but no longer is relevant to the world we're living in. It was designed in 2004 and never included the Mental Health Services Act. Housing and substance abuse.

So we want to incorporate the reform to require a billion dollars a year of ongoing money focused on housing and focusing on those that are struggling with bipolar disorder, again, as well as those who are self-medicating. So this is an exciting reform. It's scaled. no other state in history has ever advanced.

It requires bipartisan support and the legislature to get it on the ballot. And it's a chance really to make a real dent and address the issue that defines more other issues in the state. And that's our failure to address what's happening on our streets.

but are you concerned at all that this very conservative court could come down with a more draconian ruling, like saying homelessness is criminalized?

I did it once.

I'll never forget. I was in San Diego with their mayor and we went to an encampment right off the freeway and there was this young guy and he said, I'm a meth addict. Came here a few months ago. I was trying to get clean and sober and right when I got off the bus, I immediately went back out on the streets and he said, thanks for coming out. I'm not happy, but he goes, thanks.

I said, well, why are you thanking me? Inside the encampment was his girlfriend and a brand new baby.

I mean, we could just turn our blind eye and talk about the way the world should be and just say, excuse and accept that and watch him perish and pass away and be another stat, but at least we give this kid a chance now. We gave him a chance. He said, I'm probably going to be back out. He was so kind and so decent and it was so tragic. I mean, this guy, just the deep addiction.

I mean, that's meth, not fentanyl. I mean, the fentanyl crisis is all another thing. And so, look, when I got here, there wasn't one...

I didn't focus on the issue of homelessness. It was completely consigned to cities and counties. I was a former mayor. I get it. When Schwarzenegger was governor, they didn't focus on homelessness.

They talked about it. By the way, we had a larger homeless population. in 2005, when I was mayor of San Francisco. That was decades ago. It was 188,000 in the pick count.

It's about that now. So this has been going on for decades. My point, though, is the state needed to get involved. $15.3 billion later. That's our three-year commitment.

and the problem we're having is that accountability is being hindered by the inability to address what's happening in the encampments, because we're being sued and the courts have provided some very confusing guidance on what you can and can't do as it relates to cleaning up the encampments. And here I am, a progressive Democrat that I'll put up against, in terms of my progressive record, against pretty much any governor in this country now asking this Republican Supreme Court for help, just to clarify that we can actually clean up the encampments and do it with our values. Do it in a way where we actually, we're not whack-a-mole. We're not trying to get people and just throw them around the corner. I have encampment resolution grants, $750 million I put up, that require us to have a solution to the individuals before we allow them to clean up the encampments.

Right now, we may have all of that and the courts may say,

whatever the services, I mean, it's a panoply of services, but we want flexibility in what the services. As some people say, no, it just needs to be a permanent supportive housing unit. Okay, in a perfect world, sure, but let's have an honest conversation about that. Some say, no, no, I mean, if I have a shelter bed and it has appropriate conditions and supportive services, that should do. And some judges are saying,

okay, I can't help this person. I've got empty shelter beds. They're out on the streets and sidewalks. People are angry. They're frustrated.

These encampments, we've had a lot of issues with some of these things. People dying in these encampments because of fires and other issues right near the freeways and cars.

Just trying to find some balance. That's it, and some common sense. I think we've lost a little common sense. Again, I want to hold hands.

Let's talk about the way the world should be. I'm into that, but you know what? I've got to deal with cars that are dealt, the pragmatism of this job, and we need to deal with what's happening on the streets in this state. We just do, and, as Democrats, we have to perform. We can't just talk about issues.

We've got to actually deliver results. Prop 1 is about real results and delivering the support and services and the housing, 11,150 units and 27,000 outpatient units so that grants passed allows us clarity. We have unprecedented opportunities for support we've never had in the past, so it's both and, both and.

and it's done with a frame of due process that allows more tools. I'm reforming the Medi-Cal system. It's called Cal-AIM, which is nothing's happening in the Medicaid system like we're doing in California. in terms of reforming that system. I have $4.7 billion.

legislature supported. Thank you. $4.7 billion new additional dollars.

to focus on brain health early before we punish it later. so it's not just homelessness. It's also taking care of our kids, our youth. All those are component parts, but what it's been missing, the magic wand, the thing that is the answer to your question, honestly, is Prop 1.. I'm not just here promoting it.

I think it demands attention, at least that it is the missing piece. It's the 50-year missing piece. It's what we promise.

It's what we do in just a matter of weeks. That's why I'm excited. Then it's about accountability. Look, I'm not the mayor of every city and county in California. Localism is determinative and local government has to deliver.

. You were an athlete growing up. Were you a football player?

Football isn't the only contact sport, right? There's hockey, there's lacrosse.

and so, yeah, I'm just wondering, you have kids who play sports, you play sports yourself, you're dealing with the legislature. What is the right balance between keeping kids safe and not denying them opportunities that come from sports?

I went to a four-year college and I got a call from two coaches. They said, hey, are you interested in coming to a four-year college and playing baseball? And we'll give you a literally partial scholarship. It wasn't even the money. It was literally the ticket to a four-year university.

Changed my life, my trajectory. Struggled with dyslexia. Couldn't read, write. You don't see me reading speeches today as governor.

There's a lot of unity around it. I think about the mental health issue. I think that's a unity agenda. But there's also something beautiful about an entire community coming together and not someone looking, hey, are you a Trump guy or a Biden guy? It's like, man, hey, we're just Eagles fans or in this case, we're Niner fans or Charger, LA.

I don't want to get chimed out. I have to go through every team. Everyone's going to be upset. You didn't mention the Rams. Jesus.

The Rams are in a lot of diverse communities, particularly football. I've seen that firsthand. As a former mayor, I was deeply involved in some of the Pop Warner and the Brown Bombers in San Francisco and others. But at the same time, I put Ronnie Lott on this youth sports committee. Ronnie's a friend.

He's working with my wife, who is a college athlete. Legendary football player. We're tasking Ronnie and others that we have to keep this safe. I worry about these kids.

I worry about how to tackle correctly, etc. Here's the answer to your question. Sorry about all that preamble. But in 2019, I signed a bill that answered that question in detail, which was a youth sport, tackle football framework, and new regulation went into effect just two years ago. It requires certain training and protocols and EMS workers to be on site in certain events, etc.

What we're going to do is strengthen that. We're going to look to see if it was effective. I appreciate the author of this bringing this issue back up. But an outright ban? Come on.

I didn't think it was the right thing to do, but we have to protect our kids because it's legitimate. But to deny them that and to say you have to do flag football, which is amazing and it's growing and it's great, and I love to see that. My son plays flag football. It's really great to have that as an alternative, but we shouldn't mandate what that alternative looks like.

We should do it in a different fashion. And meanwhile, what are we dealing with on the other side, this cultural purge and this banning binge? I mean, we're dealing with a party, guys like you brought up DeSantis and Trump and everyone else, banning books, 3,362 last calendar year, banning speech in boardrooms, private speech as it relates to issues related to race and gender and sexuality, not just in the classroom. They're banning travel. If you're trying to access.

Bud Light, not just Disney, Target, I mean, they're banning abortion. They're banning fundamental freedoms and choice. They're rolling back hard-earned rights, voting rights, not just LGBTQ rights. They're coming after contraception. Don't think twice about that.

We already know it in the courts. MIFO, MISO and other things. I mean, this is, I'd like to, we need a little compare and contrast. I know they got a little upset that we were mandating mask wearing.

and I find it, the hypocrisy on the right just to be glaring and extraordinary. And I also think that's a point of contrast. It's important.

They were out there celebrating Fauci. They were out there promoting vaccines. By the way, they promote vaccines now. Everyone knows this, I assume. The mandates on vaccines in states like Florida, red states, are legendary.

You can't get a childcare unless you have 15 vaccination shots. You can't even get into schools without six vaccines mandated.

and all of a sudden, it's a revisionist, anti-public health and anti-science frame, purely because of the ideology and the politicalization of this issue.

The equivalent of 10 9-11s if you compare and contrast, California's per capita death rate is just 32% higher without the density of places. Compare the density in a place like LA to a place like Miami. It's significantly higher here.

Then he caved. He was right. He started on the right foot and then he caved to the far right extreme. It's really sad.

They also did worse on education. They had more learning loss in a place like Florida than compared to California. Absolute fact. In three of the four categories, they had worse learning loss and their economy didn't particularly form any better. They contracted at about the same rate and we grew about the same rate the year after COVID.

For what? For political expediency. Again, they've been aided and abetted by a laziness on here.

getting body bags from other states because we were running out of body bags at the morgues. We had mobile morgues I had to put up. This was serious. People have forgotten all about this. I know we don't want to come back to it because we're stacked with stress.

It's like the last thing we want to talk about. It's like, oh God, I can't deal with this. I get it, but I don't think we've learned objectively our lessons. The lessons we're learning are through the prisms of ideology. You get these right-wing think tanks.

that are a little bit loosey-goosey at the facts as well. I think we need to really come to grips with an objective, hard-earned look. I've tried to be self-critical, what we could have done better, et cetera, because I don't think we're, absolutely. I don't think, I know we're not more prepared now for the next pandemic. I think we're less so because all of a sudden, science is now partisan, just like democracy has somehow become partisan.

When the hell did that happen?

I mean, even these guys recognize the impacts of that. That said, because they vandalized confidence, you're starting to see diseases we haven't seen in years and years start to increase, at least numeric terms, percentage-wise, it's significant, not yet numerically in terms of total numbers, but the concerns are raised and they're there.

Look, I got in the middle of the whole anti-vax thing.

and I understand it. There were some changes to our rules and I get it. I get there's some good, well-meaning... To your point, I don't disrespect people that disagree and I certainly understand people's rights and concerns, but there was a lot of intentional disinformation, not just misinformation, that was out there and promoted and weaponized, and it cost people's lives. And so I'm a public health guy.

I claim to be the only governor in U.

S. history to provide universal health care regardless of pre-existing condition, ability to pay, or immigration status, which has been weaponized in terms of grievance on the other side. California is doing that. It's a point of pride. Infant mortality, maternal mortality compared to blue states compared to red states, not even comparable.

life expectancy. Blue states, red states, death of despair. Blue states, red states. I like our record.

I like Team Blue.

because of our ethics and health and evidence. I don't want us to lose that.

So anyway, she wants to now put him in that California Hall of Fame. I'm like, really? Just like that? Just because you met him? Is that how it works?

I'm going to get in trouble, by the way. We're going to have to edit this out. That's not how it works. It's a process. But maybe he deserves.

I don't know. I love Wycliffe. I mean, as a singer. Look, I'm old school, man. I'm a Bay Area kid.

I'm like a Green Day, Metallica kid.

Like, come on. And then, you didn't expect Metallica, did you? No, you're like, he doesn't seem like a Metallica guy. He seems like maybe he just learned about Taylor Swift, or something, who we do love. We love Taylor Swift.

We do, of course. You know, I don't mess with Taylor Swift.

These guys are the real deal. They deal with real issues. They've stayed together- They talk it out. Across their differences. They talk it out.

They hug it out. These guys are next level successful. Yeah. These are the guys that still fill in stadiums around the globe and could do that every single damn day. There's only a handful of them.

But they're also remarkable guys, just as human beings, individually, committed. I mean, I bring up Lars. He's just a perfect example. I'll talk about a guy who's deeply in our lane of values, cares about people, growth, and inclusion across the spectrum on every issue, inclusion, and recognizes that we need to right wrongs and take some accountability in his own life in terms of his own time, not just his own contribution financially to these causes. Anyway, I love those guys and Green Day.

Come on, man. Look what they did at New Year's.

They got guts, man. I love that. People have guts that express themselves.

No.

You don't even have any policies.

But it doesn't even matter anymore. It doesn't even matter. He's toast. He's yesterday's news.

Come on. Be respectful.

You'll be hearing that pod will come out on Wednesday. So we'll talk to you then. If you want to get ad-free episodes, exclusive content, and more, consider joining our Friends of the Pod subscription community at crooked.com slash friends. And if you're already doom scrolling, don't forget to follow us at Pod Save America on Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube for access to full episodes, bonus content, and more. Plus, if you're as opinionated as we are, consider dropping us a review.

Pod Save America is a Crooked Media production. Our show is produced by Olivia Martinez and David Toledo. Our associate producers are Saul Rubin and Farah Safari. Kira Wakeem is our senior producer. Reed Sherlin is our executive producer.

The show is mixed and edited by Andrew Chadwick. Jordan Cantor is our sound engineer, with audio support from Kyle Seglin and Charlotte Landis. Writing support by Hallie Kiefer. Madeline Herringer is our head of news and programming. Matt DeGroat is our head of production.

Andy Taft is our executive assistant. Thanks to our digital team, Elijah Cohn, Haley Jones, Mia Kelman, David Toles, Kiril Pelaviv, and Molly Lobel.

The history of HIV and AIDS is the history of people who were told to stay out of sight and who refused to do so. Gay men, but also injection drug users, women, and, yes, children who contracted the virus. Join host Kai Wright for Blindspot, The Plague in the Shadows, a new series that seeks to answer the question of how much pain could have been avoided had we paid attention. sooner. You'll meet people who demanded that they and their illness be seen.

Mothers and children, doctors and nurses, nuns and sex workers. All leading to a woman who literally helped change the definition of AIDS. From the History Channel and WNYC Studios, Blindspot, The Plague in the Shadows. Listen wherever you get podcasts.