January 9, 2025 • 36 mins
LA leadership fire fails. Bass is back and says there’s nothing they could have done, after slashing the budget. David Muir primps. Adam Carolla’s DEI experience.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome everybody.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Thursday edition of The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
kicks off.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Now.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Biggest story of the day still the wildfires tearing through
the Los Angeles area. Some are somewhat contained, some are
not very well contained at all. More damage going on,
Scenes of apocalyptic devastation in a whole range of areas
(00:30):
kind of north of West Hollywood area, and this is
north of Beverly Hills. It's stunning, it's heartbreaking to see
what's going on. And already you can tell that there's
an outrage that is only growing with time as they
(00:52):
begin to see the full extent. I think not just
of the damage, but of the ineptitude in the response.
Play La Mayor Karen Bass has returned from her trip
to Ghana, and she is getting a lot of attention
right now. First of all, I don't know if you
(01:14):
saw this, but there's at least well she's trying right
now to tell everybody that she's on it and she's
doing a great job, and that's not working out for
her very well. This is cut one here she is
explaining that this was a perfect storm.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Play it.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Angelino's cooperated, the community stood together. They evacuated and Angelinos
should continue to proceed with caution. Air operations are continuing
rapidly in the Palisades, in Silmar and across our region.
We continue to see our heroes from our LA firefighters
and from personnel families' neighbors from across the county and
(01:57):
the state. We thank you. However, we can continue to
confront a big, one level firestorm. Historic winds and extensive
drought have created a perfect storm that has driven people
from their homes and have taken people's homes, and that
has taken people's lives.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Now, one thing we can know for sure, Clay, there
will be no accountability whatsoever offered by the people that
are in charge of this response, including Mayor Karen Bass.
There's also been a lot of focus on the very
Dei Heavy Fire Department recruiting efforts of recent years. They
(02:37):
don't have enough firefighters, they don't have enough in the
budget for the firefighting they need to do. Karen Bass cut.
You don't ever think about Democrats in a place like
California doing a lot of budget cutting, but they somehow
managed to cut one thing that you really don't want
cut over twenty million dollars from the fire budget. Now
(02:58):
they're effectively clay, just turning around saying, well, it's a
really rough set of circumstances. The water has run out
because people need so much water. Not much we can
do about that. And our firefighters are brave, and you
know that's the way this is supposed to go. People
are outraged all over LA and all over the country
(03:20):
about this. You had Donald Trump, for one, soon to
be President Trump once again, this is what he wrote
on truth Social One of the best and most beautiful
parts of the United States of America is burning down
to the ground. It's ashes and Gavin Nouscomb should resign.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
This is all his fault.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
And then there's more here Sarah Foster, who is the
daughter like a Hollywood producer, mogul or something. I don't
really know this lady, but we pay the highest taxes
in California, she wrote. Our fire hydrants were empty, our
vegetation was overgrown, brush not cleared. Reservoirs were emptied by
(04:02):
our governor because tribal leaders wanted to save fish. Our
fire department budget was cut by our mayor. But thank god,
drug addicts are getting their drug kits. Mayor of LA
and Gavin Newsom resign. Your policies have ruined our state.
Speaker 4 (04:19):
People are upset, Clay, no doubt, and they should be
because they made the poor choice. At Mayor Rick Caruso,
whose shopping center is still standing in Pacific Palisades like
the only thing that's still standing, because he's competent enough
to figure out how to protect his assets from the
fire even while they can't get water in the fire hydrants.
(04:41):
And I want to play just a couple of cuts.
And I think this is important because this is where
DEI and a consequence free election cycle leads you. It
leads to people who cannot do the job, and it
reveals itself that they cannot do the job in times
of crisis when in there's actual decisions to be made
(05:03):
and they're complex in nature and they're multifaceted. I want
you to listen to a couple of these things that
have gone viral. First of all, this was before that statement.
I'm gonna come back to the statement that we played
a second ago. But Karen bass is asked by a
Sky News reporter after she finally lands back from Ghana
(05:23):
a series of questions. This has gone megaviral. Listen to
Cut three.
Speaker 5 (05:29):
Do you owe citizens and apology for being absent while
their homes were burning? Do you regret cutting the fire
department budget by millions of dollars?
Speaker 6 (05:37):
Madamlayer?
Speaker 5 (05:39):
Have you nothing to say today? Have you absolutely nothing
to say to the citizens today? Elon Musk says that
you're utterly incompetent. Are you considering your position, Madam Mayor?
Have you absolutely nothing to say to the citizens today?
You're dealing with this disaster? Apology for them? Do you
(06:02):
think you should have been visiting Ghana while this was unfolding?
Back home, Madam Mayor? Just a few words for the
citizens today as you returned to deal with a catastrophe
that you.
Speaker 4 (06:13):
Can hear the door opening book. She's refusing to answer
any questions as this reporter is following along asking her questions. Now,
this is to me indicative of her inability to handle
the job. Listen to Cut two. She's reading off of
a prepared statement. Buck, you haven't seen this yet. I
want you to be able to hear it. I bet
(06:34):
most of our audience has neither seen nor heard this.
Listen to Karen Bass try to address what citizens of
Los Angeles should be doing. Both with a website and
just I mean she could barely read. Listen to this
right now.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
If you need help, emergency information, resources and shelter is available.
All of this can be found at URL Los Angeles Together.
Is how we will get through this through the heroicism
of our firefighters.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
Okay, she doesn't seem to know, buck, what a freaking
web address is. I don't even remember the last time
I heard someone say you can go to URL. I mean,
come on, is httpwww?
Speaker 7 (07:21):
Like?
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Come on?
Speaker 4 (07:22):
And then has she never seen the word heroism in print?
I mean, that's not a super complicated word to read,
and yet it's like play that one more time, just
for the utter incompetence. Here, listen closely. This is she's
trying to tell people who are in need where they
need to go. This is important info. This is what
it sounded like.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Right now, If you need help, emergency information, resources and
shelter is available. All of this can be found at
URL Los Angeles together. Is how we will get through
this through the heroicism of our firefighters.
Speaker 4 (07:59):
Bluck, I mean, come on. This is in addition to
being in Ghana, which look, I'll give her a pass
on Ghana. She should never have been there. It didn't
make any sense. Presumably she didn't know a fire was
going to start, but it is indicative of just like
this sort of celebrity nature of her tenure, that she's
going to things that don't matter because she doesn't have
(08:20):
the ability to do things that do matter. And then
she finally has a crucible situation where information and communication
is that it's utmost important, and she says you need
to go to URL to get help. I mean, come on,
you know she was a big fan of Castro, Fidel
Castro just a few years back.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
And I think she even travels. She's traveled to Cuba,
she has deep ties to No.
Speaker 4 (08:41):
It's amazing how often this happens, isn't it? Where these
people have been to like Russia, it's for their honeymoons.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
And like I was just gonna say, man, whenever you're
looking at the worst mayors, the worst senators, the people
that choose to spend their time in.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Truly communist countries, right.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
The people that people like like build A Blasio who
went to Nicaragua to be with the Sandinistas, and.
Speaker 4 (09:06):
Tim Wall's been to China like nineteen times or whatever.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
The hell was communist China, Bernie Sanders honeymoon in the
Soviet Union. Who honeymoon's in the Soviet Union? You can't
even get tissue.
Speaker 4 (09:19):
But even married in Russia want a honeymoon in the
Soviet Union.
Speaker 8 (09:23):
But you'll notice this though, that these these lunatic leftists,
they all have this in their past, or not all
of them, but whenever they have this in their past,
it's such a it's such a giveaway of what they
really think and how they how they really are, I mean,
what their their baseline ideology is.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
She's not somebody who is competent. But you have to
remember California is the state that gave us Kamala Harris
as the presidential nominee for the Democrats, but also as
a state attorney general and as a center. It's a
one party state. And so if Democrats decide that they're
(10:02):
only going to elect for a certain position a black female, uh,
there's they can do it. And they do, and and
I think that their qualifications for the job are often
a secondary at best consideration. They view the Dei victory
as the most important victory that they can get with
some of these roles, and people are paying the priceless
(10:24):
nub We haven't gotten into the head of the fire department, right,
it isn't that the head of the.
Speaker 4 (10:31):
Yeah, she's a lesbian, which it appears to be her
only qualification according to all the media coverage I've seen.
But remember Buck. As bad as that Karen Bass, she
was a finalist for VP.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
Remember because Biden so boxed himself in by effectively letting
it be known one that he was going to take
a woman and then secondly that he was going to
take a black woman. There were like three black women
that he was considering, Kamala, Karen Bass, and and our
favorite Georgia Governor Stacy Abrams. Of course, governor is in
(11:03):
quotation marks the fake governor of Georgia. Those are like
the only three people she considered and she and maybe
there was one or he considered one more, the woman
who got smoked in the Senate race down in Florida.
I don't even remember her name. She was a congress person,
I think. But Karen Bass was a finalist to be
Vice President of the United States. As bad as Kamala is,
(11:25):
Karen Bass may be worse. And look, when you combine
Karen Bass and Gavin Newsom, you have maybe the worst
mayor governor combo that any major city and state has
ever had. I mean in terms of competence and what
they meant to the state and the city in general.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Are you telling me that you don't buy Gavin Newsom's
this is about more than politics the politics.
Speaker 4 (11:53):
I think Gavin Newsom would not be a bad guy
to have a glass of a rose with and look
out over the vin, maybe even watch a football game with.
I think every decision he has made as governor just
about has been wrong and made California worse than it
would have been if he had gone full Costanza buck
(12:13):
and just done the opposite of everything that he actually did.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
It's all part of a pattern too.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Remember when there were those photos of all the Amazon
packages that were being stolen off of trains, and Gavin
Newsom showed up and he's like, what the heck is
going on in this state? Huh, who's in charge here?
All these It was like a giant field of theft
by the trains. And he's showing up now at this
devastation from these fires, and he doesn't have a whole
(12:39):
lot to add too much of anything other than just
we shouldn't make this about politics.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
Should make this about politics.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Anytime some you know, lacko is shoots somebody somewhere in
the country, Gavin Newsom wants to confiscate everybody's ar fifteens.
I mean, what do you mean, don't politicize this. This
isn't about a political diversion. This is about accountability.
Speaker 4 (12:59):
Also competence. Well, you might not want to politicize the fires.
That stinks. Fires happen, but how you respond to the
fires is about competence, and it's the very essence of
your job as a politician. In the same way that
we said, look, hey, hurricanes are going to happen. I
don't think you should politicize the fact that a hurricane's coming.
(13:19):
But if everybody does a crappy job responding to the hurricane,
yes that should be a political issue because the very
standard of political office is are you competent to run it?
And frankly, right now, at the mayoral level and the
governor level, the state of California unfortunately has made disastrous
decisions and I think they're reaping the results of what
(13:43):
they did.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
And a lot of.
Speaker 4 (13:44):
Times politicians don't matter. We found out in COVID they
can matter a lot. They've not matter a lot in
times of crisis like this. Imagine living in a country
under constant assault from all sides, having to endure thousands
of missile attacks, evacuating to bomb shelters on a regular basis,
overall threat of always omnipresent, no matter where you are.
That's what it's like living in Israel. I was there
(14:05):
last month. You can only imagine you're driving alongside the
road and they say, yeah, that's where if we get
bomb alerts on our phones, everybody pulls off and you
just get in the late go wait in the bomb
shelter until the bombs have passed. That happens all over
the country everywhere, because Israel is constantly being attacked by
its enemies. And I walked all through the Old City
(14:27):
of Jerusalem, Armenian Square, Christian Square, a Muslim Square, and
also a Jewish Square, all of those religious faiths all
in close proximity in the Old City. And look, I
went through all the kibbutz's, I went through the Nova film,
the Nova Music Festival, all of the places where there
were so many awful terror attacks. I saw the difference
(14:48):
that the IFCJ makes and continues to influence going forward.
I want you to join me and give support for Israel,
the Fellowship of Christians and Jews at support IFCJ dot org.
That's one word, support IFCJ dot org. Your support of
the IFCJ has saved lives and answered prayers. Join me
(15:11):
at support IFCJ dot org. You ain't imagining it. The
world has gone insane. Reclaim your sanity with Clay and Fun.
Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you
get your podcasts. Welcome back in Clay, Travis buck Sexton Show.
Appreciate all of you hanging out with us. I want
(15:33):
to play this for you. Buck. We're talking about Karen
Bass and Gavin Newsom as the worst possible mayor and
governor combo out there. And this is just outstanding ridiculousness
from Gavin Newsom, even on CNN as he's being interviewed
by Anderson Cooper. Anderson Cooper says, hey, why are the
(15:55):
fire hydrants out of water? And Gavin Newsom says, well,
that's a local thing. They're going to have to figure
that out. Really, this is the answer. Listen, what is
the situation with the water.
Speaker 6 (16:05):
Obviously in the Palisage ran now last night and the
hydrants I turned the firefighter in this block they laught
because there was no water in the hydrant.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Here.
Speaker 7 (16:13):
Local folks are trying to figure that out. I mean,
just when you have a system that it's not dissimilar
to what we've seen in other extraordinarily large scale fires,
whether it be pipe electricity, whether it just be the
complete overwhelm of the system. I mean, those hydrants are
typical for two or three fires, maybe one fire. You
have something at this scale, but again, that's going to
be determined by the local.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Local people have to figure it out. Buck.
Speaker 4 (16:35):
That's not the job of the big bad governor. That's
a local issue.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Also, I think saying well, yeah, I mean these fire
hydrants are just meant for a simple local fire. This
is an area that has a wildfire risk and gets hit.
And so it's not an acceptable response to say, well,
this is the best that we've got, because they should
have been preparing with something better than this, right, And
I think that's where a lot of the frustratation from
(17:00):
people comes out on this. They just say to themselves, well,
hold on a second. Frustrations By the way, it's too
gentle of a word. People are absolutely furious in their outraged,
but it's this is the best that they can do.
As I said, the budget at California is like three
hundred and thirty billion dollars something. It's a massive budget
for the state of California. And you don't have enough
(17:21):
firefighters in your biggest city.
Speaker 4 (17:23):
How you cut them? You cut them by seventeen million dollars.
And the head of the local firefighters writes a letter
I believe it was a month ago, saying, in the
event we have wildfires, LA is not going to be
able to respond to here.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
And I know they don't like when we criticize the
focus on DEI hiring for firefighters, but I would just note,
you know, they tell us that somehow DEI hiring is
going to make firefighters better. Yeah, why yeah, right, Like
in what way is like, let's take it from that perspective,
how is that supposed to improve things?
Speaker 4 (17:56):
We'll play an audio for Adam Carolla talking about how
difficult it is to be a white guy and get
hired as a firefighter that he testified to a while back.
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Speaker 1 (18:58):
All right, welcome back in Clay and Buck.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
One thing that I don't think you generally hear from
democrats one is budget cut period and you're not usually
gonna hear democrats in the state of California suggests that
a budget doesn't really matter for the situation because they
usually want more money.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Right, they want more money.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
But Karen Bass, the mayor, returned from her mission critical.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Visit to Ghana. She has returned from it.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
Hopefully everything's okay in Ghana, and she has returned to
tell everybody that the was it twenty three million?
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Clay, I've seen different numbers on it, but twenty.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
Plus seventeen million, I mean, like is the number that
I've seen the most. But yes, some people have reported
twenty twenty three. There's been a bunch floating around, right.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
We'll say roughly twenty million. Roughly twenty million dollars.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
Now, I understand the fire budgets a lot bigger than that,
But the point is priorities, right and strategic thinking. Karen Bass,
the mayor, wants you to know that the budget has
no impact on what we're seeing right now.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
Play twenty seven.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Can you address the criticism now over the budget issue
and the slashing seventeen million dollars?
Speaker 3 (20:08):
You know, I think if you go back and look
at the reductions that were made, there were no reductions
that were made that would have impacted the situation that
we were dealing with over the last couple of days.
And then there was a little bit there was a
little bit of confusion because money was allocated to be
(20:28):
distributed later on, which was actually going to support salaries
in other parts of the fire department that were distributed
a little later. So I think it's most important to
understand that we were in tough budgetary times. Everybody knew that,
but that the impact of our budget really did not
impact what we've been going through over the last few days. Again,
(20:50):
back to the unprecedented windstorm, when at such ferocity that
we haven't seen in years.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Clay She's basically saying, the wind is so crazy. Nobody
could have prepared for this. We were as well prepared
as anybody could be. I mean, reading between the lines.
I think that's our position. Meanwhile, the estimates are already
that this fire could cause over fifty billion dollars. These
fires could cause fifty billion dollars in damages, which would
(21:22):
be the most costly and financial terms fires in the
history of the state of California.
Speaker 4 (21:28):
Nobody wants to hear there's nothing we could do and
if it were a tsunami that suddenly swept into LA
and created billions of dollars in damages, I think a
lot of you and maybe me as well, would sit
back and say, boy, you know, there hasn't been a
tsunami hit LA and recorded history. Maybe it's foreseeable that
(21:49):
it could happen in a five hundred year process, but
it's hard to plan for this. Wildfires happen all the time.
It's imminently foreseeable exactly what has happened could have happened.
And I think many people are looking around and they're saying, Okay,
the budget factors in the fire hydrants not working doesn't
seem ideal. The fact that there have been obstacles to
(22:12):
creating the opportunity for there to be more water for
the LA area based on climate change activist behavior, The
fact that they have not cleaned up underbrushed also because
of climate change activists who have argued that somehow that
was going to be destructive to the habitat of animals.
And I'll just point this out. Yesterday we talked to
Adam Corolla. There are not enough fire department officials. There
(22:37):
are headlines everywhere that they decided they had too many
white firefighters, and that seems less than ideal to Buck's point,
and I would echo it. When you're wearing full firefighting gear,
I don't know that anything matters other than whether you're
a good firefighter, because we can't even tell what the
race of a firefighter is.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
Excuse me, Clay, hold on a second.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Have we all seen David Weir If you've missed this
and we see this, David Well speak because Clay's saying,
once you put the firefighter gear on, what's all that matters?
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Clay? Is it cinched at the waist?
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Is it showing that v taper David Muir, ABC News
is key guy for ABC News, Right, he's the guy.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
He did the debate. Remember he was horrible with Trump. Uh,
there's there's there's video.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
First of all, he's reporting and he's wearing a fireman's jacket,
which seems unnecessary, but he turns around and he's got
clothes pins on the back of the fire jacket so
that it can show his nice hourglass figure on camera.
And he is getting a run.
Speaker 4 (23:41):
As well as should As well as should the whole
idea of these Prima Donna newscasters showing up and standing
so they can get the backdrop of a burning building. Uh,
in order to try to get the shot, but then
to put on the fire jacket. Decide the fire jacket
looks too trumpy, so we're gonna have to put on
some clothes pins so that you look more ripped in
(24:04):
your fire jacket outfit. I mean, come on, what a
prima donna lunatic. But this is listen to this buck.
This is Adamkrola, who we had on yesterday. We talked
about the fact that he grew up in la At
nineteen years old, living at his mom's house, he decided
he needed a job, so he went into the local
fire department and put in an application and they said, uh, oh,
(24:26):
you're a white guy. You have to come back in
seven years. While he was standing in line, there was
a minority in line with him. Listen to this testimony
that he gave to the California State Legislature.
Speaker 6 (24:37):
I graduated North Hollom at him with a one point
seven GPA. I could not find a job. I walked
to a fire station in North Hollywood. I was nineteen.
I was living in the garage of my family home.
My mom is on welfare and food stamps. And I said,
can I get a job as a fireman? And they
said no, because you're not black, Hispanic or a woman.
We'll see in about seven years. And I went to
(25:00):
a construction site and Doug ditches and picked up garbage for.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
The next seven years.
Speaker 6 (25:04):
I got a letter in the mail sent to my
father's house saying, your time has come to do the
written exam for the LA Fire Department. I took it
and I was standing in line, and I had a
young woman of color standing behind me in line, and
I said, just out of curiosity, when did you sign
up to become a fire man? Because I did it
or a person seven years ago, And she said, Wednesday,
(25:28):
that is an example of my white privilege.
Speaker 4 (25:31):
I mean, how ridiculous, amazing, how ridiculous is that story?
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Our generation roughly speaking, you know, Clay me, people around
this age have have really seen the run up and
the peak of of DEI stuff. You know, it has
occurred with our adult lives, you know, in tandem with
(25:56):
us going into the marketplace, you know, the job market.
And and I think that there is so much finally
just frustration that has been able to be properly. You know,
vented over this issue with as part of Trump's victory,
and also in situations like this, we're all sick and
(26:17):
tired of being told that when you have a focus
on something that isn't the important thing that an institution
is supposed to do, it does not detract.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
From its focus. Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (26:28):
Like, you can't tell me DEI is a mission critical
thing for the fire department in LA. But we never
took our eye off of fire fighting. Well you did,
you had to?
Speaker 3 (26:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (26:36):
And also let me just say this. I mean Adam
Carolla was a like all district, all state caliber football
player in LA when he was growing up.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
I know this.
Speaker 4 (26:48):
He's like six ' two, six ' three, you know,
when he's nineteen years old, he's working construction. He's a big,
strong dude. Don't you want big strong dudes to be fireman?
Some of this DEI stuff? And the same way, like,
there are certain body types that are better to kick
ass than others.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
Right.
Speaker 4 (27:06):
If I had to choose, like, Hey, who do you
want showing up at your house to try to rescue
people from a burning fire? My answer would be big dudes, right,
regardless of their race, because they can get into houses,
they can pick up people. They are able physically to
do things that smaller dudes typically and certainly smaller women cannot.
(27:29):
In other words, the physical nature of certain jobs does
suggest that they shouldn't be DEI laden. And what you
see is the moment there's an actual crisis. And most
of the time when a fireman gets a call, it
is a crisis. Right You're showing up at legitimately a
burning building, kicking indoors, trying to save lives. The more
(27:53):
serious the job is, the more ridiculous it is to
focus on DEI plane, flying, surgery, firemen things. When people's
lives are on the line, I want the baddest ask
person who's best able to do the job. I don't
give a damn what they look like.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
You know, it's not just La obviously that has been
dealing with this on the DEI fire department, excuse me, guys,
fire department side of things. I think I get a
gold star just for fighting through.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
The cold this week. I'm gonna tell you that right now.
It has been brutal.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
Clay's been propping me up a bit, But let me
tell you my whole head feels like it's gonna fall
off sometimes.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
Anyway, back to DEI. You know New York City.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
Clay has had a huge, a huge problem with this
stretching back for many years because they said that the
written exam that they use for the FDNY was racist. Yeah,
does anyone to guess why the written exam for the
FDNY was racist?
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Not enough in the fdnys.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
Fire Department in New York Just again, everyone knows NYPD
FDNY is the fire department. Not enough black and Hispanic
applicants passed. That's it. It was an eighty five. This
was in use until two thousand and seven. Eighty five.
Multiple choice questions about firefighting, Okay, it would ask you
(29:13):
questions like, you know, when to say may day, when
to say urgent over the walkie talkie, what kind of
tool to bring a car by tip, missing carby blade?
A car by tip blade? Aluminum oxide like firefighting stuff?
Speaker 1 (29:31):
And they said it was racist.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
And not only did they say it was racist, they
had to appoint a chief Diversity Officer for the FDNY.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
They paid back pay.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Millions of dollars to people who were never even firefighters
because they failed the exam.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
And now they've gotten.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
You know, they've replaced the exam with something that's probably like,
you know, sign your name here.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
I mean, it's crazy, it's crazy.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
This the the doctrine of of DEI and and you know,
really what we've seen play out in so many places
has been so destructive. And that's where I think people
are finally they've just everyone just had enough. It's like,
I promise you, it's not no one cares to your point, Clay,
(30:19):
what the color is of the firefighter who is coming
through the door when their house is on fire to
save them and their cat or their kids or whatever.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
They're just they want the best.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
They want the fastest response, they want the most competent
fire suppression tactics.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
They want you know, this is.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
All like and this is really central to the ethos
of America now in the Trump era. We want this back.
We just want the best people to do the things
that they have to be doing. I don't care if
you know my airline pilot is a one legged Eskimo, Like,
I don't care.
Speaker 4 (30:52):
I just don't want the plane to crash. This is
from Pride website. The headline they're coverage of the LA
fire headline amid Palisades Fire, Los Angeles. His first LGBTQ
plus fire chief is proving lesbians get it done. Is
(31:13):
anybody out there in LA right now? I mean, this
is their headline pride. I'm reading amid Palisades Fire, Los Angeles.
His first LGBTQ plus fire chief is proving lesbians get
it done. There's zero percent containment of the fires right now.
Is anyone in LA walking around, even lesbians, or even
(31:34):
lesbians in LA walking around right now given high fives
like yeah, we put those fires out. Nobody puts fires
out like lesbians. Not one person in LA, even the lesbians,
is bragging about the lesbian fire chiefs.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
The performance so far. This is what DEI gets.
Speaker 4 (31:53):
Us in competence and also media praise of the incompetence,
which is how DEI happens in the first place. And
thank the Lord that Kamala Harris lost, because otherwise we
would have had the next four years of any time
you criticize Kamala Harris, Oh you're a sexist, Oh you're
a racist. Maybe Kamala Harris just can't do the job,
(32:15):
would never actually have have risen to the level of
these people's thoughts.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
You want to put out the ask play for calls.
I bet we have people who are either current or
former firefighters who have seen this stuff in action or
were denied becoming a Becoming a firefighter. Becoming a firefighter
in New York is actually really, you know, really hard
by the numbers, and if you have any experience of
how these processes have been skewed so that it's not
(32:40):
about who's the best at putting out the fire, it's
like the real, the really straightforward job. How do we
get the best people for putting out fires? Carrying people
out of burning buildings? You know, there's like a you
got to be able to lift heavy things, got to
move fest, and there's a lot of stuff. Take some
of your calls on that. If we got you, we
got we go on. Firefighters, give us a ring look.
(33:02):
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Speaker 4 (34:02):
Sometimes all you can do is laugh, and they do
a lot of it with the Sunday Hang.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
Join Clay and Buck as they.
Speaker 4 (34:10):
Laugh it up in the Clay and Buck podcast feed
on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Welcome back in play Travis Buck Sexton Show. We're gonna
take some of your calls. One thing we should say
about the hiring process in LA they don't have enough
firefighters right now. That has been what they are saying
(34:33):
they're hiring has not been able to keep up with
the necessity. They've also been cutting the budget. But if
you're having trouble hiring people, maybe open up the job
to people of all different backgrounds. I mean, LA is
a pretty diverse place. If there aren't enough Asian people
showing up to be firefighters, I don't know that the
(34:54):
overall LA firefighting community is suffering right Or if there's
not Ano Hispanic, or if there's not enough black, maybe
just get the best possible candidates.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
You know, there are just jobs that we understand are
dominated and just by the numbers by men.
Speaker 1 (35:12):
Logging for example. You know, you'll never hear feminists.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
Be like, we need more logging, you know, because it's
a dangerous, rough job and men are the ones that
choose to do it. You don't tend to see a
lot of women on those crab boats off of Alaska, which,
by the way, that to me, that's like my worst
nightmare boats cold.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
I love crab though, so I appreciate those guys. But
and in.
Speaker 4 (35:33):
Fact, that's where much buck of the difference in labor
and dollars exists. You know, they're like, oh, we only
get eighty three women, We only get eighty three cents
for every dollar. Well, one reason is because you're not
a lot of Alaskan crab boat fishermen who might die
at any moment, or loggers or firemen. The more dangerous
the job is, typically the more you're gonna get paid
(35:54):
to do it, and the more likely men are to
do it.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
Also, I mean, you think of the standards for firefighters
knowledge of fighting fires that.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
Wasn't okay in New York City. With that, with the.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
Test for the FDNY physical requirements, this is what always happens.
They're going to say, oh, no, the women will meet
the physical requirements, and then they change them for the
women when they don't meet the physical requirements. This is
as as certain as night follows day. And you know,
I think everyone's just sick of all of it, Clay.
Everyone's sick of of focusing on things that don't matter,
(36:25):
of incompetence in government, of ideology, first of putting this
in somehow at the foot of climate change. I mean,
talk talk about you know, a non sequitor, like.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
What are even suppoils? Even if that were true.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
So does that mean we just don't actually care that
the fire hydrants have run dry because oh gosh, we
put too much.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
We've angered mother Earth. There's too much Co two in
the air.
Speaker 4 (36:48):
It's ridiculous, totally And by the way, the number one
job of any politician is to do whatever he can
to protect his or her constituents. Do you feel like
that's happening in California?
Speaker 1 (36:57):
I don't
Welcome everybody.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Thursday edition of The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
kicks off.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Now.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Biggest story of the day still the wildfires tearing through
the Los Angeles area. Some are somewhat contained, some are
not very well contained at all. More damage going on,
Scenes of apocalyptic devastation in a whole range of areas
(00:30):
kind of north of West Hollywood area, and this is
north of Beverly Hills. It's stunning, it's heartbreaking to see
what's going on. And already you can tell that there's
an outrage that is only growing with time as they
(00:52):
begin to see the full extent. I think not just
of the damage, but of the ineptitude in the response.
Play La Mayor Karen Bass has returned from her trip
to Ghana, and she is getting a lot of attention
right now. First of all, I don't know if you
(01:14):
saw this, but there's at least well she's trying right
now to tell everybody that she's on it and she's
doing a great job, and that's not working out for
her very well. This is cut one here she is
explaining that this was a perfect storm.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Play it.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Angelino's cooperated, the community stood together. They evacuated and Angelinos
should continue to proceed with caution. Air operations are continuing
rapidly in the Palisades, in Silmar and across our region.
We continue to see our heroes from our LA firefighters
and from personnel families' neighbors from across the county and
(01:57):
the state. We thank you. However, we can continue to
confront a big, one level firestorm. Historic winds and extensive
drought have created a perfect storm that has driven people
from their homes and have taken people's homes, and that
has taken people's lives.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Now, one thing we can know for sure, Clay, there
will be no accountability whatsoever offered by the people that
are in charge of this response, including Mayor Karen Bass.
There's also been a lot of focus on the very
Dei Heavy Fire Department recruiting efforts of recent years. They
(02:37):
don't have enough firefighters, they don't have enough in the
budget for the firefighting they need to do. Karen Bass cut.
You don't ever think about Democrats in a place like
California doing a lot of budget cutting, but they somehow
managed to cut one thing that you really don't want
cut over twenty million dollars from the fire budget. Now
(02:58):
they're effectively clay, just turning around saying, well, it's a
really rough set of circumstances. The water has run out
because people need so much water. Not much we can
do about that. And our firefighters are brave, and you
know that's the way this is supposed to go. People
are outraged all over LA and all over the country
(03:20):
about this. You had Donald Trump, for one, soon to
be President Trump once again, this is what he wrote
on truth Social One of the best and most beautiful
parts of the United States of America is burning down
to the ground. It's ashes and Gavin Nouscomb should resign.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
This is all his fault.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
And then there's more here Sarah Foster, who is the
daughter like a Hollywood producer, mogul or something. I don't
really know this lady, but we pay the highest taxes
in California, she wrote. Our fire hydrants were empty, our
vegetation was overgrown, brush not cleared. Reservoirs were emptied by
(04:02):
our governor because tribal leaders wanted to save fish. Our
fire department budget was cut by our mayor. But thank god,
drug addicts are getting their drug kits. Mayor of LA
and Gavin Newsom resign. Your policies have ruined our state.
Speaker 4 (04:19):
People are upset, Clay, no doubt, and they should be
because they made the poor choice. At Mayor Rick Caruso,
whose shopping center is still standing in Pacific Palisades like
the only thing that's still standing, because he's competent enough
to figure out how to protect his assets from the
fire even while they can't get water in the fire hydrants.
(04:41):
And I want to play just a couple of cuts.
And I think this is important because this is where
DEI and a consequence free election cycle leads you. It
leads to people who cannot do the job, and it
reveals itself that they cannot do the job in times
of crisis when in there's actual decisions to be made
(05:03):
and they're complex in nature and they're multifaceted. I want
you to listen to a couple of these things that
have gone viral. First of all, this was before that statement.
I'm gonna come back to the statement that we played
a second ago. But Karen bass is asked by a
Sky News reporter after she finally lands back from Ghana
(05:23):
a series of questions. This has gone megaviral. Listen to
Cut three.
Speaker 5 (05:29):
Do you owe citizens and apology for being absent while
their homes were burning? Do you regret cutting the fire
department budget by millions of dollars?
Speaker 6 (05:37):
Madamlayer?
Speaker 5 (05:39):
Have you nothing to say today? Have you absolutely nothing
to say to the citizens today? Elon Musk says that
you're utterly incompetent. Are you considering your position, Madam Mayor?
Have you absolutely nothing to say to the citizens today?
You're dealing with this disaster? Apology for them? Do you
(06:02):
think you should have been visiting Ghana while this was unfolding?
Back home, Madam Mayor? Just a few words for the
citizens today as you returned to deal with a catastrophe
that you.
Speaker 4 (06:13):
Can hear the door opening book. She's refusing to answer
any questions as this reporter is following along asking her questions. Now,
this is to me indicative of her inability to handle
the job. Listen to Cut two. She's reading off of
a prepared statement. Buck, you haven't seen this yet. I
want you to be able to hear it. I bet
(06:34):
most of our audience has neither seen nor heard this.
Listen to Karen Bass try to address what citizens of
Los Angeles should be doing. Both with a website and
just I mean she could barely read. Listen to this
right now.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
If you need help, emergency information, resources and shelter is available.
All of this can be found at URL Los Angeles Together.
Is how we will get through this through the heroicism
of our firefighters.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
Okay, she doesn't seem to know, buck, what a freaking
web address is. I don't even remember the last time
I heard someone say you can go to URL. I mean,
come on, is httpwww?
Speaker 7 (07:21):
Like?
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Come on?
Speaker 4 (07:22):
And then has she never seen the word heroism in print?
I mean, that's not a super complicated word to read,
and yet it's like play that one more time, just
for the utter incompetence. Here, listen closely. This is she's
trying to tell people who are in need where they
need to go. This is important info. This is what
it sounded like.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Right now, If you need help, emergency information, resources and
shelter is available. All of this can be found at
URL Los Angeles together. Is how we will get through
this through the heroicism of our firefighters.
Speaker 4 (07:59):
Bluck, I mean, come on. This is in addition to
being in Ghana, which look, I'll give her a pass
on Ghana. She should never have been there. It didn't
make any sense. Presumably she didn't know a fire was
going to start, but it is indicative of just like
this sort of celebrity nature of her tenure, that she's
going to things that don't matter because she doesn't have
(08:20):
the ability to do things that do matter. And then
she finally has a crucible situation where information and communication
is that it's utmost important, and she says you need
to go to URL to get help. I mean, come on,
you know she was a big fan of Castro, Fidel
Castro just a few years back.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
And I think she even travels. She's traveled to Cuba,
she has deep ties to No.
Speaker 4 (08:41):
It's amazing how often this happens, isn't it? Where these
people have been to like Russia, it's for their honeymoons.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
And like I was just gonna say, man, whenever you're
looking at the worst mayors, the worst senators, the people
that choose to spend their time in.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Truly communist countries, right.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
The people that people like like build A Blasio who
went to Nicaragua to be with the Sandinistas, and.
Speaker 4 (09:06):
Tim Wall's been to China like nineteen times or whatever.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
The hell was communist China, Bernie Sanders honeymoon in the
Soviet Union. Who honeymoon's in the Soviet Union? You can't
even get tissue.
Speaker 4 (09:19):
But even married in Russia want a honeymoon in the
Soviet Union.
Speaker 8 (09:23):
But you'll notice this though, that these these lunatic leftists,
they all have this in their past, or not all
of them, but whenever they have this in their past,
it's such a it's such a giveaway of what they
really think and how they how they really are, I mean,
what their their baseline ideology is.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
She's not somebody who is competent. But you have to
remember California is the state that gave us Kamala Harris
as the presidential nominee for the Democrats, but also as
a state attorney general and as a center. It's a
one party state. And so if Democrats decide that they're
(10:02):
only going to elect for a certain position a black female, uh,
there's they can do it. And they do, and and
I think that their qualifications for the job are often
a secondary at best consideration. They view the Dei victory
as the most important victory that they can get with
some of these roles, and people are paying the priceless
(10:24):
nub We haven't gotten into the head of the fire department, right,
it isn't that the head of the.
Speaker 4 (10:31):
Yeah, she's a lesbian, which it appears to be her
only qualification according to all the media coverage I've seen.
But remember Buck. As bad as that Karen Bass, she
was a finalist for VP.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
Remember because Biden so boxed himself in by effectively letting
it be known one that he was going to take
a woman and then secondly that he was going to
take a black woman. There were like three black women
that he was considering, Kamala, Karen Bass, and and our
favorite Georgia Governor Stacy Abrams. Of course, governor is in
(11:03):
quotation marks the fake governor of Georgia. Those are like
the only three people she considered and she and maybe
there was one or he considered one more, the woman
who got smoked in the Senate race down in Florida.
I don't even remember her name. She was a congress person,
I think. But Karen Bass was a finalist to be
Vice President of the United States. As bad as Kamala is,
(11:25):
Karen Bass may be worse. And look, when you combine
Karen Bass and Gavin Newsom, you have maybe the worst
mayor governor combo that any major city and state has
ever had. I mean in terms of competence and what
they meant to the state and the city in general.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Are you telling me that you don't buy Gavin Newsom's
this is about more than politics the politics.
Speaker 4 (11:53):
I think Gavin Newsom would not be a bad guy
to have a glass of a rose with and look
out over the vin, maybe even watch a football game with.
I think every decision he has made as governor just
about has been wrong and made California worse than it
would have been if he had gone full Costanza buck
(12:13):
and just done the opposite of everything that he actually did.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
It's all part of a pattern too.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Remember when there were those photos of all the Amazon
packages that were being stolen off of trains, and Gavin
Newsom showed up and he's like, what the heck is
going on in this state? Huh, who's in charge here?
All these It was like a giant field of theft
by the trains. And he's showing up now at this
devastation from these fires, and he doesn't have a whole
(12:39):
lot to add too much of anything other than just
we shouldn't make this about politics.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
Should make this about politics.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Anytime some you know, lacko is shoots somebody somewhere in
the country, Gavin Newsom wants to confiscate everybody's ar fifteens.
I mean, what do you mean, don't politicize this. This
isn't about a political diversion. This is about accountability.
Speaker 4 (12:59):
Also competence. Well, you might not want to politicize the fires.
That stinks. Fires happen, but how you respond to the
fires is about competence, and it's the very essence of
your job as a politician. In the same way that
we said, look, hey, hurricanes are going to happen. I
don't think you should politicize the fact that a hurricane's coming.
(13:19):
But if everybody does a crappy job responding to the hurricane,
yes that should be a political issue because the very
standard of political office is are you competent to run it?
And frankly, right now, at the mayoral level and the
governor level, the state of California unfortunately has made disastrous
decisions and I think they're reaping the results of what
(13:43):
they did.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
And a lot of.
Speaker 4 (13:44):
Times politicians don't matter. We found out in COVID they
can matter a lot. They've not matter a lot in
times of crisis like this. Imagine living in a country
under constant assault from all sides, having to endure thousands
of missile attacks, evacuating to bomb shelters on a regular basis,
overall threat of always omnipresent, no matter where you are.
That's what it's like living in Israel. I was there
(14:05):
last month. You can only imagine you're driving alongside the
road and they say, yeah, that's where if we get
bomb alerts on our phones, everybody pulls off and you
just get in the late go wait in the bomb
shelter until the bombs have passed. That happens all over
the country everywhere, because Israel is constantly being attacked by
its enemies. And I walked all through the Old City
(14:27):
of Jerusalem, Armenian Square, Christian Square, a Muslim Square, and
also a Jewish Square, all of those religious faiths all
in close proximity in the Old City. And look, I
went through all the kibbutz's, I went through the Nova film,
the Nova Music Festival, all of the places where there
were so many awful terror attacks. I saw the difference
(14:48):
that the IFCJ makes and continues to influence going forward.
I want you to join me and give support for Israel,
the Fellowship of Christians and Jews at support IFCJ dot org.
That's one word, support IFCJ dot org. Your support of
the IFCJ has saved lives and answered prayers. Join me
(15:11):
at support IFCJ dot org. You ain't imagining it. The
world has gone insane. Reclaim your sanity with Clay and Fun.
Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you
get your podcasts. Welcome back in Clay, Travis buck Sexton Show.
Appreciate all of you hanging out with us. I want
(15:33):
to play this for you. Buck. We're talking about Karen
Bass and Gavin Newsom as the worst possible mayor and
governor combo out there. And this is just outstanding ridiculousness
from Gavin Newsom, even on CNN as he's being interviewed
by Anderson Cooper. Anderson Cooper says, hey, why are the
(15:55):
fire hydrants out of water? And Gavin Newsom says, well,
that's a local thing. They're going to have to figure
that out. Really, this is the answer. Listen, what is
the situation with the water.
Speaker 6 (16:05):
Obviously in the Palisage ran now last night and the
hydrants I turned the firefighter in this block they laught
because there was no water in the hydrant.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Here.
Speaker 7 (16:13):
Local folks are trying to figure that out. I mean,
just when you have a system that it's not dissimilar
to what we've seen in other extraordinarily large scale fires,
whether it be pipe electricity, whether it just be the
complete overwhelm of the system. I mean, those hydrants are
typical for two or three fires, maybe one fire. You
have something at this scale, but again, that's going to
be determined by the local.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Local people have to figure it out. Buck.
Speaker 4 (16:35):
That's not the job of the big bad governor. That's
a local issue.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Also, I think saying well, yeah, I mean these fire
hydrants are just meant for a simple local fire. This
is an area that has a wildfire risk and gets hit.
And so it's not an acceptable response to say, well,
this is the best that we've got, because they should
have been preparing with something better than this, right, And
I think that's where a lot of the frustratation from
(17:00):
people comes out on this. They just say to themselves, well,
hold on a second. Frustrations By the way, it's too
gentle of a word. People are absolutely furious in their outraged,
but it's this is the best that they can do.
As I said, the budget at California is like three
hundred and thirty billion dollars something. It's a massive budget
for the state of California. And you don't have enough
(17:21):
firefighters in your biggest city.
Speaker 4 (17:23):
How you cut them? You cut them by seventeen million dollars.
And the head of the local firefighters writes a letter
I believe it was a month ago, saying, in the
event we have wildfires, LA is not going to be
able to respond to here.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
And I know they don't like when we criticize the
focus on DEI hiring for firefighters, but I would just note,
you know, they tell us that somehow DEI hiring is
going to make firefighters better. Yeah, why yeah, right, Like
in what way is like, let's take it from that perspective,
how is that supposed to improve things?
Speaker 4 (17:56):
We'll play an audio for Adam Carolla talking about how
difficult it is to be a white guy and get
hired as a firefighter that he testified to a while back.
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Speaker 1 (18:58):
All right, welcome back in Clay and Buck.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
One thing that I don't think you generally hear from
democrats one is budget cut period and you're not usually
gonna hear democrats in the state of California suggests that
a budget doesn't really matter for the situation because they
usually want more money.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Right, they want more money.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
But Karen Bass, the mayor, returned from her mission critical.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Visit to Ghana. She has returned from it.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
Hopefully everything's okay in Ghana, and she has returned to
tell everybody that the was it twenty three million?
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Clay, I've seen different numbers on it, but twenty.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
Plus seventeen million, I mean, like is the number that
I've seen the most. But yes, some people have reported
twenty twenty three. There's been a bunch floating around, right.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
We'll say roughly twenty million. Roughly twenty million dollars.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
Now, I understand the fire budgets a lot bigger than that,
But the point is priorities, right and strategic thinking. Karen Bass,
the mayor, wants you to know that the budget has
no impact on what we're seeing right now.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
Play twenty seven.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Can you address the criticism now over the budget issue
and the slashing seventeen million dollars?
Speaker 3 (20:08):
You know, I think if you go back and look
at the reductions that were made, there were no reductions
that were made that would have impacted the situation that
we were dealing with over the last couple of days.
And then there was a little bit there was a
little bit of confusion because money was allocated to be
(20:28):
distributed later on, which was actually going to support salaries
in other parts of the fire department that were distributed
a little later. So I think it's most important to
understand that we were in tough budgetary times. Everybody knew that,
but that the impact of our budget really did not
impact what we've been going through over the last few days. Again,
(20:50):
back to the unprecedented windstorm, when at such ferocity that
we haven't seen in years.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Clay She's basically saying, the wind is so crazy. Nobody
could have prepared for this. We were as well prepared
as anybody could be. I mean, reading between the lines.
I think that's our position. Meanwhile, the estimates are already
that this fire could cause over fifty billion dollars. These
fires could cause fifty billion dollars in damages, which would
(21:22):
be the most costly and financial terms fires in the
history of the state of California.
Speaker 4 (21:28):
Nobody wants to hear there's nothing we could do and
if it were a tsunami that suddenly swept into LA
and created billions of dollars in damages, I think a
lot of you and maybe me as well, would sit
back and say, boy, you know, there hasn't been a
tsunami hit LA and recorded history. Maybe it's foreseeable that
(21:49):
it could happen in a five hundred year process, but
it's hard to plan for this. Wildfires happen all the time.
It's imminently foreseeable exactly what has happened could have happened.
And I think many people are looking around and they're saying, Okay,
the budget factors in the fire hydrants not working doesn't
seem ideal. The fact that there have been obstacles to
(22:12):
creating the opportunity for there to be more water for
the LA area based on climate change activist behavior, The
fact that they have not cleaned up underbrushed also because
of climate change activists who have argued that somehow that
was going to be destructive to the habitat of animals.
And I'll just point this out. Yesterday we talked to
Adam Corolla. There are not enough fire department officials. There
(22:37):
are headlines everywhere that they decided they had too many
white firefighters, and that seems less than ideal to Buck's point,
and I would echo it. When you're wearing full firefighting gear,
I don't know that anything matters other than whether you're
a good firefighter, because we can't even tell what the
race of a firefighter is.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
Excuse me, Clay, hold on a second.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Have we all seen David Weir If you've missed this
and we see this, David Well speak because Clay's saying,
once you put the firefighter gear on, what's all that matters?
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Clay? Is it cinched at the waist?
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Is it showing that v taper David Muir, ABC News
is key guy for ABC News, Right, he's the guy.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
He did the debate. Remember he was horrible with Trump. Uh,
there's there's there's video.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
First of all, he's reporting and he's wearing a fireman's jacket,
which seems unnecessary, but he turns around and he's got
clothes pins on the back of the fire jacket so
that it can show his nice hourglass figure on camera.
And he is getting a run.
Speaker 4 (23:41):
As well as should As well as should the whole
idea of these Prima Donna newscasters showing up and standing
so they can get the backdrop of a burning building. Uh,
in order to try to get the shot, but then
to put on the fire jacket. Decide the fire jacket
looks too trumpy, so we're gonna have to put on
some clothes pins so that you look more ripped in
(24:04):
your fire jacket outfit. I mean, come on, what a
prima donna lunatic. But this is listen to this buck.
This is Adamkrola, who we had on yesterday. We talked
about the fact that he grew up in la At
nineteen years old, living at his mom's house, he decided
he needed a job, so he went into the local
fire department and put in an application and they said, uh, oh,
(24:26):
you're a white guy. You have to come back in
seven years. While he was standing in line, there was
a minority in line with him. Listen to this testimony
that he gave to the California State Legislature.
Speaker 6 (24:37):
I graduated North Hollom at him with a one point
seven GPA. I could not find a job. I walked
to a fire station in North Hollywood. I was nineteen.
I was living in the garage of my family home.
My mom is on welfare and food stamps. And I said,
can I get a job as a fireman? And they
said no, because you're not black, Hispanic or a woman.
We'll see in about seven years. And I went to
(25:00):
a construction site and Doug ditches and picked up garbage for.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
The next seven years.
Speaker 6 (25:04):
I got a letter in the mail sent to my
father's house saying, your time has come to do the
written exam for the LA Fire Department. I took it
and I was standing in line, and I had a
young woman of color standing behind me in line, and
I said, just out of curiosity, when did you sign
up to become a fire man? Because I did it
or a person seven years ago, And she said, Wednesday,
(25:28):
that is an example of my white privilege.
Speaker 4 (25:31):
I mean, how ridiculous, amazing, how ridiculous is that story?
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Our generation roughly speaking, you know, Clay me, people around
this age have have really seen the run up and
the peak of of DEI stuff. You know, it has
occurred with our adult lives, you know, in tandem with
(25:56):
us going into the marketplace, you know, the job market.
And and I think that there is so much finally
just frustration that has been able to be properly. You know,
vented over this issue with as part of Trump's victory,
and also in situations like this, we're all sick and
(26:17):
tired of being told that when you have a focus
on something that isn't the important thing that an institution
is supposed to do, it does not detract.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
From its focus. Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (26:28):
Like, you can't tell me DEI is a mission critical
thing for the fire department in LA. But we never
took our eye off of fire fighting. Well you did,
you had to?
Speaker 3 (26:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (26:36):
And also let me just say this. I mean Adam
Carolla was a like all district, all state caliber football
player in LA when he was growing up.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
I know this.
Speaker 4 (26:48):
He's like six ' two, six ' three, you know,
when he's nineteen years old, he's working construction. He's a big,
strong dude. Don't you want big strong dudes to be fireman?
Some of this DEI stuff? And the same way, like,
there are certain body types that are better to kick
ass than others.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
Right.
Speaker 4 (27:06):
If I had to choose, like, Hey, who do you
want showing up at your house to try to rescue
people from a burning fire? My answer would be big dudes, right,
regardless of their race, because they can get into houses,
they can pick up people. They are able physically to
do things that smaller dudes typically and certainly smaller women cannot.
(27:29):
In other words, the physical nature of certain jobs does
suggest that they shouldn't be DEI laden. And what you
see is the moment there's an actual crisis. And most
of the time when a fireman gets a call, it
is a crisis. Right You're showing up at legitimately a
burning building, kicking indoors, trying to save lives. The more
(27:53):
serious the job is, the more ridiculous it is to
focus on DEI plane, flying, surgery, firemen things. When people's
lives are on the line, I want the baddest ask
person who's best able to do the job. I don't
give a damn what they look like.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
You know, it's not just La obviously that has been
dealing with this on the DEI fire department, excuse me, guys,
fire department side of things. I think I get a
gold star just for fighting through.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
The cold this week. I'm gonna tell you that right now.
It has been brutal.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
Clay's been propping me up a bit, But let me
tell you my whole head feels like it's gonna fall
off sometimes.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
Anyway, back to DEI. You know New York City.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
Clay has had a huge, a huge problem with this
stretching back for many years because they said that the
written exam that they use for the FDNY was racist. Yeah,
does anyone to guess why the written exam for the
FDNY was racist?
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Not enough in the fdnys.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
Fire Department in New York Just again, everyone knows NYPD
FDNY is the fire department. Not enough black and Hispanic
applicants passed. That's it. It was an eighty five. This
was in use until two thousand and seven. Eighty five.
Multiple choice questions about firefighting, Okay, it would ask you
(29:13):
questions like, you know, when to say may day, when
to say urgent over the walkie talkie, what kind of
tool to bring a car by tip, missing carby blade?
A car by tip blade? Aluminum oxide like firefighting stuff?
Speaker 1 (29:31):
And they said it was racist.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
And not only did they say it was racist, they
had to appoint a chief Diversity Officer for the FDNY.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
They paid back pay.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Millions of dollars to people who were never even firefighters
because they failed the exam.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
And now they've gotten.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
You know, they've replaced the exam with something that's probably like,
you know, sign your name here.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
I mean, it's crazy, it's crazy.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
This the the doctrine of of DEI and and you know,
really what we've seen play out in so many places
has been so destructive. And that's where I think people
are finally they've just everyone just had enough. It's like,
I promise you, it's not no one cares to your point, Clay,
(30:19):
what the color is of the firefighter who is coming
through the door when their house is on fire to
save them and their cat or their kids or whatever.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
They're just they want the best.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
They want the fastest response, they want the most competent
fire suppression tactics.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
They want you know, this is.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
All like and this is really central to the ethos
of America now in the Trump era. We want this back.
We just want the best people to do the things
that they have to be doing. I don't care if
you know my airline pilot is a one legged Eskimo, Like,
I don't care.
Speaker 4 (30:52):
I just don't want the plane to crash. This is
from Pride website. The headline they're coverage of the LA
fire headline amid Palisades Fire, Los Angeles. His first LGBTQ
plus fire chief is proving lesbians get it done. Is
(31:13):
anybody out there in LA right now? I mean, this
is their headline pride. I'm reading amid Palisades Fire, Los Angeles.
His first LGBTQ plus fire chief is proving lesbians get
it done. There's zero percent containment of the fires right now.
Is anyone in LA walking around, even lesbians, or even
(31:34):
lesbians in LA walking around right now given high fives
like yeah, we put those fires out. Nobody puts fires
out like lesbians. Not one person in LA, even the lesbians,
is bragging about the lesbian fire chiefs.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
The performance so far. This is what DEI gets.
Speaker 4 (31:53):
Us in competence and also media praise of the incompetence,
which is how DEI happens in the first place. And
thank the Lord that Kamala Harris lost, because otherwise we
would have had the next four years of any time
you criticize Kamala Harris, Oh you're a sexist, Oh you're
a racist. Maybe Kamala Harris just can't do the job,
(32:15):
would never actually have have risen to the level of
these people's thoughts.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
You want to put out the ask play for calls.
I bet we have people who are either current or
former firefighters who have seen this stuff in action or
were denied becoming a Becoming a firefighter. Becoming a firefighter
in New York is actually really, you know, really hard
by the numbers, and if you have any experience of
how these processes have been skewed so that it's not
(32:40):
about who's the best at putting out the fire, it's
like the real, the really straightforward job. How do we
get the best people for putting out fires? Carrying people
out of burning buildings? You know, there's like a you
got to be able to lift heavy things, got to
move fest, and there's a lot of stuff. Take some
of your calls on that. If we got you, we
got we go on. Firefighters, give us a ring look.
(33:02):
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Speaker 4 (34:02):
Sometimes all you can do is laugh, and they do
a lot of it with the Sunday Hang.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
Join Clay and Buck as they.
Speaker 4 (34:10):
Laugh it up in the Clay and Buck podcast feed
on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Welcome back in play Travis Buck Sexton Show. We're gonna
take some of your calls. One thing we should say
about the hiring process in LA they don't have enough
firefighters right now. That has been what they are saying
(34:33):
they're hiring has not been able to keep up with
the necessity. They've also been cutting the budget. But if
you're having trouble hiring people, maybe open up the job
to people of all different backgrounds. I mean, LA is
a pretty diverse place. If there aren't enough Asian people
showing up to be firefighters, I don't know that the
(34:54):
overall LA firefighting community is suffering right Or if there's
not Ano Hispanic, or if there's not enough black, maybe
just get the best possible candidates.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
You know, there are just jobs that we understand are
dominated and just by the numbers by men.
Speaker 1 (35:12):
Logging for example. You know, you'll never hear feminists.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
Be like, we need more logging, you know, because it's
a dangerous, rough job and men are the ones that
choose to do it. You don't tend to see a
lot of women on those crab boats off of Alaska, which,
by the way, that to me, that's like my worst
nightmare boats cold.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
I love crab though, so I appreciate those guys. But
and in.
Speaker 4 (35:33):
Fact, that's where much buck of the difference in labor
and dollars exists. You know, they're like, oh, we only
get eighty three women, We only get eighty three cents
for every dollar. Well, one reason is because you're not
a lot of Alaskan crab boat fishermen who might die
at any moment, or loggers or firemen. The more dangerous
the job is, typically the more you're gonna get paid
(35:54):
to do it, and the more likely men are to
do it.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
Also, I mean, you think of the standards for firefighters
knowledge of fighting fires that.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
Wasn't okay in New York City. With that, with the.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
Test for the FDNY physical requirements, this is what always happens.
They're going to say, oh, no, the women will meet
the physical requirements, and then they change them for the
women when they don't meet the physical requirements. This is
as as certain as night follows day. And you know,
I think everyone's just sick of all of it, Clay.
Everyone's sick of of focusing on things that don't matter,
(36:25):
of incompetence in government, of ideology, first of putting this
in somehow at the foot of climate change. I mean,
talk talk about you know, a non sequitor, like.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
What are even suppoils? Even if that were true.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
So does that mean we just don't actually care that
the fire hydrants have run dry because oh gosh, we
put too much.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
We've angered mother Earth. There's too much Co two in
the air.
Speaker 4 (36:48):
It's ridiculous, totally And by the way, the number one
job of any politician is to do whatever he can
to protect his or her constituents. Do you feel like
that's happening in California?
Speaker 1 (36:57):
I don't
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