May 1, 2026 • 38 mins
Antonio Villaraigosa
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Can't. I am six forty. You're listening to the John
Cobel podcast on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
It's us sit down twenty years in the making, stick.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Of kicking my behind, Keep on doing.
Speaker 4 (00:14):
It, dating John Cobel.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
We shan't be negotia to be unintentionally fun.
Speaker 4 (00:18):
Antonio via Ragosa.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
I thought you'd be out of business once Ken left.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
One an accomplished broadcaster, the other LA's former mayor and
candidate for governor of California.
Speaker 4 (00:30):
Now they sit face to face.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
It wasn't always about politics or an issue in.
Speaker 4 (00:34):
Front of a room of KFI faithful.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
It was just the way he carried himself. Will there
be fireworks?
Speaker 4 (00:41):
Toilet brushers? Sweet?
Speaker 1 (00:43):
It's like he didn't clean anybody's toilet.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
I'll hatch berry followed by an intimate embrace. Only one
way to find out this is Cobel Fia Ragosa, the
sit down.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
All right, we're on, We're ready to go.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
Happen here.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
He lost his microphone already, The mayor's microphone came flying
off his jacket. Welcome to the John co Belt Show.
We are live here in the performance room upstairs on
the fifth floor, and we've got a big studio audience here,
at least for this room. It's pretty big lot. More
(01:24):
than twenty people here. Welcome, Thank you for coming. I
asked this before, but how many of you lived in
Los Angeles or nearby during the Via Regsa mayoral years.
Don't no, you have to applaud. We need sound here
that they can't see. Okay, how many of you voted
for Antonio revia re Gosa.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
So I did.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
I didn't. Sorry, let's get started because we only have
an hour. And the first thing I actually want to talk,
mostly about what's going on in the state you're running
for governor, and also about what's going on in LA
since you were mayor for eight years. But there's just
what little piece of business. I want to play a
clip you'll be able to hear it, And this is
(02:10):
you from September fourteenth, two thousand and six. You're only
nine months into your role as mayor, and you decided
that Ken and I were one of the biggest dangers
not just to LA but all of America. Play this clip.
We can't hear the clip.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
I don't know if I want to hear the clip.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Look, I'll stay here all midnight until we play the clip. No,
no clip.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Oh we got to hear the clip. Well, we'll get
to the clip.
Speaker 4 (02:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
So you came here a few weeks ago for the
show Michael Monks and Chris Merrill, and you wanted to
meet me, and we'd never met. No from over.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Twenty the program, but we haven't met.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
No, I met. You weren't ever on our show though
once you were on our show once. I don't remember it.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Yeah I was. I guess I wasn't.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
No, I guess you weren't. I've been saying that we
never met and we've never had a conversation. You remember
what it was about. See, it might have been an immigration,
It might have been immigration. Yeah, well, and that's what
the clip has you. You accused Ken and I of
dividing America because oftn't act shocked. What I want to
(03:35):
talk to you about. First, California stuff, since you're running
for governor. So you know the gas price is here
six bucks a gallon. I paid six bucks today. I
looked it up. I got the Triple A website here.
Thirty four states are in the threes. So while Trump's
war is added about a dollar ten, a dollar twenty
to the price, of gas. When it ends, and it's
(03:57):
going to end soon, we'll still be paying five bucks
a gallon, and the rest of the states they'll be
paying half that, about two fifty. I have heard very
little in this race on the Democrat side anybody's gonna
do anything about this because I looked up and the
global temperatures are still going up. Whatever climate change policies
(04:18):
we have, the taxes and the regulations bit a total
failure because we're too tiny in the world to have
an effect. It just looks like a massive ripoff of
the taxpair. You're going to do something different? Are you
going to continue to do some policies?
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Well, first of all, we agree.
Speaker 5 (04:34):
We agree that we have the highest gas prices in
the United States of America.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
They're on average two dollars higher than.
Speaker 5 (04:40):
The rest of the country, and they are you want
to hear this, because we overregulate refineries. We've lost a
dozen over the decade, the last couple of decades, three
and since two thousand. According to USC, if we lose
one more refinery, gas prices are going to eight to seven.
(05:01):
That was before this war, so it's probably going to
be closer to ten.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
So yeah, So I have a gas plant. Let me
tell you, what do you want to do about it?
Speaker 5 (05:13):
No more regulations from the California Air Resources Board that
affect refineries because they they they produce the cleanest fuel
in the United States of America, and we, you know,
supposedly we want to get rid of them because of
climate change, where we import about seventy six percent of
(05:34):
our oil crewed and guess what's going in dirty diesel ships.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
We're not doing anything for climate change in that regard.
Speaker 5 (05:42):
Norway has an all of the above approach to transitioning
to a greener economy, and they produce their own oil
and gas.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
So I'm with you.
Speaker 5 (05:52):
In addition to a moratorium, what I'm saying is, if
you want them to be cleaner, why don't we reward
them for that? And I said, I'll give them a
fifteen percent tax credit for a thing called carbon sequestration
to try to clean up those refineries a bit. And
what I've also said, if gas prices go over five
(06:14):
point fifty, because they were around.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
Five, to go over five fifty, you're going to get
a rebate.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Why are so many others in your party and your
opponents either not talking about this or they've been involved
in driving the price up for really the last twenty years.
It's almost become like some sort of weird cult. We're
not having any effect on the global climate and any
little pitsqreak thing we do here. Completely. We're overridden by
(06:40):
India and China and the tremendous amount of pollution they
put out, real pollution and the so called the greenhouse gases.
What is it going on? I don't understand it. It
seems stupid.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
People looking for the perfect.
Speaker 5 (06:56):
And doing things that they don't understand the consequences of
the things that they're doing. And so I'm with you.
I have a gas plan. It's on my website. You
could look at it. It talks about the moratorium on regulations.
It talks about the rebate that I mentioned. It talks
about providing the tax credit for those refiners who are
(07:19):
trying to clean up, you know, their emissions. And it
also says so that we have certainty, a ten year
guarantee that we're not going to touch these refineries.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
All right, mark this down, first issue. We're in agreement.
Don't worry, there'll be more. They look disappointed. Yeah, all right.
The homelessness, it's really out of control. There's double the
number of homeless than when you were mayor. What did
(07:55):
Eric Arcetti and Karen Basst do wrong. I know she
endorsed you in September, but let's look at what's going
on here. Why you talked we just played the endorsement
on the air, and you talked about knowing her fifty
two years and you've endorsed each other all along. I
think her policies and Garcetti's policies are a disaster. What
(08:15):
do you think of them?
Speaker 5 (08:16):
Well, first of all, let me just say you said it.
Since I've left, it's gone up exponentially, and now it
went up all over the state during particularly during COVID,
but it was moving up even before COVID. You know,
I think what was happening is we were we were
(08:37):
throwing money at the problem.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
And let me tell you, let me give you, let
me explain that.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Where's the money going. Money looks like it's going on
what it's got cruks.
Speaker 5 (08:44):
So at the state level, they spent twenty four billion
dollars and homelessness went up. At the state level, there
were billions spent that cities and counties throughout the state.
They weren't They did not it, The audit said, the
legislative analysts the LAO from now, and I'll say LAO.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
So the LAO said there were only two programs that worked.
One was renter assistance programs people that are, you.
Speaker 5 (09:09):
Know, kind of on their last egg and need a
little help not to go homeless. And the Homekey program,
which we're doing here in la to give people temporary housing.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
And that is rife with fraud. Tens of millions of
dollars are being stolen just by one organization or one guy.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
That's a hospice.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
I think, well, no, no, it's about like that situation
in Chevy at Hills.
Speaker 5 (09:35):
Well, i'll tell you this again where we agree we
got to get You just saw the show.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
But it's this. You're running for governor. This is Governor
Newsom's fault.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
Right.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
If you were governor, you'd let this happen.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
I wouldn't let this happen.
Speaker 5 (09:49):
And you know, look when I was mayor, I balanced budgets.
New York said ELI was going bankrupt. If you remember
it was during the recession. They said we were going
back bankrupt. I said not.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Under my watch.
Speaker 5 (10:02):
I made a lot of tough calls, and I left
the city on a sound financial footing. I think the
number one responsibility for a governor is to leave we
have a budget where you live within our means.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
When I was Speaker, Newsom admitted that he doesn't know
where the twenty four billion went or doesn't know if
any of it.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
Well, then we have to find out.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Well, they did the audit, and what I'm finding with
a lot of these audits is there's no paper trail
or nobody wants to talk about it. That's what what
I'm saying is, I don't I think you and some
of the other Democrats ought to be running against Newsom
by name boldly saying this is really screwed up. And
I watched these I.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
Tried that six years ago.
Speaker 5 (10:43):
Since I'm not running against Newsom and I'm running against
Styre and you know, Hilton and Bonco and Katie Porter,
I'd rather focus on them. I've said, were you know
Gavin Newsom and I disagree, And I'll tell you we're
the only state in the country that closed schools down
(11:03):
for eighteen months, the only state in the country, and
right in the middle of all that, I challenged that,
and I said private schools were open in the state
of California, the.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
Catholic schools were open.
Speaker 5 (11:15):
Most of the Republican states opened up between six and
nine months, and nobody got disproportionately sick from what they
were already going to get. And so at the end
of the day, you know, there are things we disagree on.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
How come you sound like me now?
Speaker 3 (11:31):
All of a sudden, I've been sounding like this.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
You know, somebody asked me, hey, go hey, well we'll
talk when we come back. I got to take a break.
We are live here at KFI. You can apply even ignorance.
Speaker 6 (11:44):
You're on the radio. Why I've been interviewed with Antonio
via Regosi running for governor.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
You're listening to John Cobels on demand from KFI AM
six forty. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome mar Antonio via Rogoso.
Speaker 7 (12:03):
Oh come on, we are, come on, let's go.
Speaker 8 (12:14):
H uh uh you know I want fantastic U but
uh I wanted you know, but I'll tell you.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
Can you fail that? You know?
Speaker 3 (12:30):
Uh uh you know, uh uh.
Speaker 5 (12:34):
I like that.
Speaker 8 (12:35):
Uh uh uh uh.
Speaker 9 (12:42):
Uh uh uh.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Let's see. Tell me are Christmas Carol? Did you ever
heard that before?
Speaker 5 (12:56):
No?
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Never, never, we played every Christmas Eve really well, last
show of the year, the last oh my last five
minutes of the last show. We sometimes you play for
two weeks.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
It's a big hit, well said the other day.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
Week.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
If you guys made a lot of money, you.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Come on and you take a lot in taxes from me? Somebody,
do we do? We have the first clip that we
wanted to play. Okay, play play that. This is the
one that we wanted to open with. And this is
you declaring Ken and I U terrible for America.
Speaker 10 (13:32):
Play this clip and let me just take a moment
with the cameras rolling John kan two people who get
on the radio every day for share a commitment the
dividing America, who demonies our immigrants, let us see that.
(13:59):
Shame on you, Shame on you for dividing America.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Shame on me for dividing America. What was that about?
Speaker 5 (14:12):
You know you were hitting me in the mouth and
I hit back. You know, can I say no, you
played the other one?
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Oh I'm good. No, We're gonna talk more about this.
Do you think you said we made a commitment to
dividing America? So you thought Ken and I get up
in the morning getting on the phone, It's like, all right,
how are we going to divide America tonight?
Speaker 5 (14:34):
Because honestly, I think there's too much screaming in the world.
And part of why I'm coming back is because I
think both sides scream a lot. And you know, you
were leading the parade, and so I shot took a
shot at you like you guys took a shot.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
Of me on a daily basis.
Speaker 5 (14:56):
And you know, a group in a tough neighborhood, when
somebody punches me in them out, that puts back. But
you know, look, I also know, and I was proud
that you at least the station asked me to give
a few words when.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
Ken was leaving.
Speaker 5 (15:11):
You know, I also knew it wasn't personal. You know,
I was the mayor, so you're.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
The big dogs. So people, you know, you're a big target.
And sometimes I was a big target because I was
a big target.
Speaker 5 (15:22):
Yeah, you know, out of my own volition. So you know,
we say, we all say a lot of things.
Speaker 11 (15:29):
All right, let's play the uh we clean your toilets. Clip,
we clean your toilets. There you go, we clean your toilet,
We clean your toilets. You know what got me about
that it's the we part. It's you were up there.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
It was on one of those immigrant marches, and you're going,
we clean your toilets. And my first reaction, he doesn't
clean anyone's toilets, including his own.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Now that's not true. My daughter's here. She used to
clean our toilets when she was a little bit.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
He did.
Speaker 5 (15:57):
Yeah, wait, I taught her that I still clean art.
I still cleaned the toilets from time to time.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
So we had people send toilet.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
Brushes, some of you might remember, eleven hundred.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Eleven hundred of them, and you had them all. I
remember seeing a video of them all boxed up in
a storage room there. What did you do with them?
Speaker 3 (16:16):
We sent them to homeless facilities and poor you know.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
So we did a good thing. You did a good mitzvah.
What you got a lot of criticism when you were mayor? Yeah,
and what I was going through the archives today. You
got it from I thought would be friendly sources. LA
magazine puts you on the cover with the word failure.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
You had.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
LA Weekly called you the eleven percent Mayor because they
said eighty nine percent of the time you weren't doing
any real city business.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
You were Downtown News.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Yeah, it was also an LA Weekly, at least that's
where I found it on their website, and they said,
you just spent your time going to receptions, ribbon cutting
your race, using a lot of money. You're going to parties.
I remember you were on stage Beyonce give it her
some fake award? Were they when you saw that? What
was your reaction?
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Noise?
Speaker 5 (17:14):
You know, Look, this is incontrovertible if you lived here.
When I became mayor, LA was the most dangerous big
city in America.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
I'm not making it up.
Speaker 7 (17:22):
Go look it.
Speaker 5 (17:24):
By the time I left, when New York, it was
the safest big city in America, forty eight percent drop
in violent crime.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
San Fernando Valley was seceding from LA Unified.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
You missed your shot.
Speaker 5 (17:35):
One out of three schools were failing, and by the
time I left, it was a sixty percent increase in
the graduation rate. We went from one out of three
failing schools to one out of ten. Number one American
city of reducing carbon emissions, number five in the world.
Built more infrastructure than anybody in the United States.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
Back then.
Speaker 5 (17:54):
Downtown went from twenty thousand to sixty thousand because it
was safe. And now there's one hundred people there all right,
saying so it was noise for me, I would start.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
With Karen Bass and include nine years of Garcetti and
the city council. I mean, all these people look like
a bunch of clowns to me and most of our listeners.
What are they doing wrong? If they completely it seems
like they've abdicated any responsibility for anything.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
Well, let me tell you what too many politicians are
doing wrong. They're looking for perfect instead of good. They
want to be they want to be popular. I wasn't interested.
Speaker 9 (18:32):
You know.
Speaker 5 (18:32):
Look, everybody wants people to like them, but I've sat
for a long time.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
If you want somebody to like and love.
Speaker 5 (18:39):
You, go get a dog, because at the end of
the day, you know, most people are.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
Going to be happy with you sometimes and upset with
you other times.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
If the fire encapsulator all this. First of all, your
friend Karen Bass is in Africa.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
She is a friend.
Speaker 4 (18:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Second, the reservoir, her appointee Janie Comunia, is left. The
damn thing empty. One hundred and seventeen million gowns aren't there.
I looked up today that one of these National fire
Associations says we are to have seven thousand firefighters, we
have thirty two hundred. Meantime, the homeless people where much
of our budget goes. They do you know? They start
(19:13):
fourteen thousand fires a year and we spend more money
on homelessness one point three billion than we do on
the fire department eight hundred million. That is catastrophic management,
is it not.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
I agree with you. We need more firefighters and we
need more cops. We started out.
Speaker 5 (19:30):
With nine thousand when I got there. By the time
I left it was ten thousand. It's now at eighty
three hundred. At a time when I was furloughing, which
is like a temporary layoffs forty three days, forty days
a year for three years, when Schwarzenegger was doing three
and Brown was doing one.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
Because I wanted to avoid going bankrupt.
Speaker 5 (19:54):
I wouldn't touch the cops and I wouldn't touch fire
in terms of layoffs and the like. I agree with you,
we need a lot more firefighters. I agree with you,
we need more cops.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Right, But we've only got so much money and they're
putting it over billion dollars in homelessness, which is I'm
sure way more than it was twenty years ago when
you were the mayor way more yeah right, wait, yeah,
astronomically more so. This has got to stop, because I mean,
I'd lived near the Palisades, and I have a lot
of friends, and so this is a personal issue for me,
(20:25):
just how badly mismanaged the city was and the public
didn't know it. We didn't know the reservoir was empty.
We didn't know that we only have half a fire department.
We didn't know that the fire department management was completely chaotic.
Nobody knew what was going on, and it seemed at
the end of it, nobody cared.
Speaker 5 (20:41):
You know, it's interesting because in all the articles they'll
say in twenty twelve the city allocated firefighters in the Palisades.
They don't give me credit. But I was meri at
the time. But I tell everybody, yeah, I did that.
But I did it because the fire chief recommended it.
The fire chief did not recommend putting. You know, I'm
(21:03):
not an expert. Neither was Carcetti, neither was reared in.
Neither was did you go looking for this information? None
of us know what firefighters know. So I was lucky
I had a chief that recommended it.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
She didn't.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
All right, we got to take a break for news
and then we'll go more, especially about the governor's rate.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
You're listening to John Cobelts on demand from KFI. AM sixty,
ladies and gentlemen, please welcome mar Antonio via Ragosa.
Speaker 7 (21:36):
Oh come on.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
You know all the all the Philagarosa and you know
all the come on, let's go.
Speaker 12 (21:49):
You know all those delegates in favor, say hi, all
those delegates a pen you feel this? Say noah? The
chair two thirds of voted in the affirmative, and the
voted arm has been amended.
Speaker 7 (22:05):
The showing on the screen.
Speaker 4 (22:08):
Stuck, John, we're.
Speaker 5 (22:10):
The women guys, two people started every single fantastic, John Ken,
you have me to sing to you.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
How many years have you been on your show? Kicking
my behind?
Speaker 5 (22:25):
Believe me?
Speaker 3 (22:25):
He stuck upon doing a baby Bring good tyr.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
Now an update from the Tony Hall dish.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
I'm on my way out, everybody.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Here's John and can.
Speaker 13 (22:36):
I know you did, but folks, that clip at the convention,
I banged the gabble for God in Jerusalem, and I'm
very proud of that because as you heard, there weren't.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
The votes for it.
Speaker 5 (22:54):
But you know, I wasn't going to allow god taking
out of the Democratic Party platform or something about Jerusalem
as the capital of Israel, because I'm very pro Israel.
So I took a lot of bullets for that one.
But I you know, oh, we couldn't stop playing. I
think I did a good deed. I did a good deal.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
I couldn't remember what it was about, but I thought
it was hysterically funny. Okay, let's uh, let's go on
to what's going on California here now? Uh, you are
at best, Paul. I've seen three percent five, I'm seven seven.
It's up to seven just this morning, though that.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
One was three.
Speaker 5 (23:33):
But most of them I've been at six or seven,
six or seven, okay, and the the top Democrat is
at twelve.
Speaker 4 (23:40):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
So you think you gotta, you gotta, you got a
chance here we're in there, hunt, So uh are are
you going to start like fighting with the other Democrats?
It seems like you seriously. I mean, let me.
Speaker 3 (23:52):
Tell you this.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
We touched on this before, but almost every one of
them sounds like they're gonna do exactly what Newsom did.
And I don't have to go through you know, the
list of fifty things that are going haywire in this state.
I think you've got to call some of them out
and say no, no, we can't have another four years
of this. This is crazy.
Speaker 5 (24:11):
If you look at my social media, I have done
that at the debates. This is what their forums. You
can't speak critically of the other person, and if you do,
they'll call you out. You get a minute to answer
a question, you.
Speaker 9 (24:24):
Can what kind of a Wiener rules that? Like, we've
gone to this is what's wrong We've got no it's
Democrat and Republican. We've gone to like I've gone to
thirty or thirty five of them.
Speaker 5 (24:35):
All of them say you cannot criticize your opponent, So
you can't vet your opponent.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
Look what happened with the last one who just got
quit this race?
Speaker 1 (24:44):
You're with me? Criticize somebody?
Speaker 5 (24:46):
Have that it.
Speaker 6 (24:48):
I tried to get you to criticize Newsom. You wouldn't
do it. Criticize Karen Bass, you.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Wouldn't do it. They're the two biggest villains. Tom Steyer,
all right, what Bill?
Speaker 5 (24:58):
Well?
Speaker 3 (24:58):
Wait, wait, I criticize some more.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
All right, what's a billionaire?
Speaker 3 (25:02):
He's he's a billionaire.
Speaker 5 (25:04):
Who's for a billionaire at tax, which will just send
all of them out of the state of California.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
Uh, you're against the billionaire tax, yes? And uh.
Speaker 5 (25:15):
Tom Steyer, Katie Porter, Javier ba Sara all for single payer.
That's government you know, sponsored healthcare five hundred billion dollar
price tag and we have a three hundred billion dollar budget.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
I'm against that as well.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
And we're going to trust the California government to pay
our health care exactly. They're not going to take Medicare,
they're not going to take private health insurance, they're not
going to take union negotiated health insurance.
Speaker 5 (25:44):
Here's some more. Well, here's some more. I've said that
we the next governor has to live within their means.
I'm the only one of the of the Democratic candidates
who the following We have a revenue problem because we
have a spending problem.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Great Jerry Brown left us.
Speaker 5 (26:10):
With a three hundred million dollar surplus. We've had great
economy over the last few years, and we've had deficits
and next year we're looking at an eighteen to thirty
five billion dollar deficits. So what I've said is we're
not going to raise taxes in a state that has
the highest income tax in the nation. What we need
(26:31):
to do is live within our means. So I actually
have criticized them, and I'm the only one that's taken
a position on refineries and the cost of gas. There's
a difference between us. I'm the only one that has
said we're number one in teacher pay good, we're twenty
first improve per pupil spending. We're in the mid thirties
(26:55):
in reading and math in the fourth grade, and we're
dead last in graduations along with Louisian On. So I
have challenged folks. Maybe that's why I'm at seven.
Speaker 3 (27:06):
Well does your do the.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
Voters Democratic voters in California want to hear somebody speak
the truth? They reflexively dismissed when they probably can say
this stuff. When you say it, do they listen? It
is true. And I live with a lot of Democrats.
I'm on the West side. I am not in conservative land.
They're all pissed off at the same things that everybody
else is. And I'm thinking, why do you vote this way?
Speaker 3 (27:29):
It's beyond me.
Speaker 5 (27:31):
But I'll tell you this, I'm not sure in answer
to your question, I'm not sure people are looking for.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
Common sense and competence. But that's what I'm running on said,
is I've made a commitment. I've said.
Speaker 5 (27:44):
I believe that the challenge is before. We don't have
four or eight years to do to deal with them.
Business is leaving in numbers. You know, Chevron just left,
Test has left SpaceX's.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
We used to have forty oil refineries in the state.
We're down to six. Our major oil pipeline shut down
because there was a lack of oil in it. We
got billions and billions of barrels underneath Bakersfield, for example.
This is crazy.
Speaker 3 (28:18):
It's crazy.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
We're shipping it in from the Middle.
Speaker 5 (28:21):
East, from Iraq, from Saudi Arabia, from Ecuador.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
From well, when you talk, when you talk to Democrats,
why are they doing this? Like if you wanted to
destroy the state, if you had a master plan and
the power to destroy the state, what would they do?
What would you do differently than this?
Speaker 5 (28:40):
It's not just Democrats the Republicans, no, you se sure
for sure, but nobody wants to work with each other anymore.
I balanced two budgets, as I said, with a surplus.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
When we were a purple state with Beete Wilson. You know,
I had a great relationship. Pete. We disagreed, we fought,
but we also work together.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
That's when you were Assembly speakers, right.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
I also when I was mayor.
Speaker 5 (29:07):
I also worked very closely with Arnold Warzenegger, who I
have a really good relationship with.
Speaker 3 (29:13):
We're friends. And I can tell you this. People don't
want to work with each other anymore.
Speaker 5 (29:19):
You know, we're so tribal that even you don't want
to invite your brother and sister.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
And I grant you that, but nuseman. The Democrats don't
need to work with anyone because they have super majorities.
Speaker 5 (29:29):
I believe that we always need to work with everyone. Look,
Republicans are about well, twenty five percent Republican, but then
there's ten percent independent that vote Republicans, so about thirty
five percent.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
At the end of the day. That's a lot of people.
Speaker 5 (29:43):
And I want to hear from them. I want to
work with them. We're not going to agree on everything.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
I always ask the question, how many of you are married?
Speaker 5 (29:52):
Okay, keep your hand, how many of you happily married?
How many have you agree with your spouse on your everything?
Speaker 1 (30:01):
Right?
Speaker 3 (30:02):
Just like I thought, well.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
What I do? Why would you?
Speaker 9 (30:04):
Well?
Speaker 3 (30:04):
I know you do I can tell he's.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
Not my wife. No, no, sorry, we're not all the same.
Speaker 5 (30:19):
But you know, look, at the end of the day,
I believe that we do.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
You know, when I was mayor.
Speaker 5 (30:27):
During the middle of the recession, I did a three
year tax holiday to bring businesses into LA.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
I cut the gross receipts tax.
Speaker 5 (30:35):
You know, I had I had Republicans on staff, especially
on the business end I work.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
But I just thought of this, Yes, I actually think
about this. Today. We have this jungle primary. All the
voters vote in the same primary. You're right, thirty five
to forty percent are going to vote Republican. Why just
go after Democratic votes because you're not in a Democratic primary.
Everybody votes in this prime.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
I'm part of why I'm here.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Have you been campaigning trying to get.
Speaker 5 (31:04):
Everybody, you know, everybody that'll listen. You know, at the
end of the day, I agree with you. There are
a lot of people that are in you know, they're
not way over here or way over there.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
They're here.
Speaker 5 (31:18):
And I tell people center right, conservative, center left people
that you know, you know, I could work with these people.
Speaker 3 (31:25):
We got to take a break.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
Yeah, we got one more segment coming up, and we're
live here in the performance room, fitth floor.
Speaker 6 (31:34):
Here's KFI. Got on a lot of people in the audience.
This is Antonio Viragosa running for governor, former mayor of
l A.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
We got one more segment coming up next.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
You're listening to John Cobelts on demand from KFI AM
six FORTYFI A and six.
Speaker 6 (31:48):
Forty more stimulating talk radio John Covelt. So, last segment
with Antonio, they were ghost running for governor former mayor
of l A. Well, since you brought her up and
misidentified her as my wife, I do want to introduce
her to you.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
Her name's also Debra. Well see if he remembers, uh,
this is a Deborah Mark, my newscaster.
Speaker 3 (32:10):
Here is what? Oh is news?
Speaker 4 (32:13):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (32:13):
Oh my, she's on with me every day.
Speaker 3 (32:15):
Well, that's right here, I was hearing you today. You
guys are going back and forth, sir.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
All right, you already met her though, Oh yes, are
we going too fast?
Speaker 3 (32:29):
You're going real fast?
Speaker 1 (32:30):
Okay, all right, I'm married to a Debora and I
work with a Deborah.
Speaker 3 (32:36):
Yeah, oh very good.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
Let me ask her. But not the same devor, not
the same Debor. No, I just got to keep that separate,
all right, Let I just want to go through a
few things quick, because then we have a five minutes
left high speed rail. What the hell.
Speaker 4 (32:52):
Broken?
Speaker 3 (32:53):
It's broken.
Speaker 5 (32:53):
But I have said this, so was the subway, and
now it's getting built. I'm going to bring the best
in the brightest from around the world. I believe the
right of way was a mistake.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
You're still going to try to build the thing.
Speaker 3 (33:05):
I'm going to see.
Speaker 5 (33:06):
I'm going to check with the experts to see whether
or not we can continue to do it.
Speaker 3 (33:13):
My sense is it's been broken from the beginning.
Speaker 5 (33:17):
The right away was broken, the sequel the California Environmental Quality.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
Why didn't they run it down the five Freeway or
even down the coast. I look at the path and
it's like, who would do this? It goes left to
get and you know, I can't wait till they try
to get it through the mountains.
Speaker 3 (33:34):
So remember I was the transportation mayor.
Speaker 5 (33:37):
I'm going to bring in the best and the brightest
around the world, just like I did with the subway.
The subways getting built if the best in the bridest,
say not going to happen.
Speaker 3 (33:48):
We've sunk you.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
Know, seventeen billion.
Speaker 5 (33:51):
About to say billions. We sunk seventeen billion in this.
We can't just throw it away.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
Maybe we should, though, because their price tag is about
a hundred I said thirty billions.
Speaker 5 (34:04):
I'm gonna I'm gonna get advice from the best and
the bridest from around the world. They said we couldn't
build a subway under methane pockets. I knew that was ridiculous.
I brought the best and the bridest from around the world.
They said, we could do it. We're building it now.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
It's seventeen billion dollars. And to me, the whole thing
looks like fraud. You got thirty two billion unemployment fraud
from COVID. You got twenty four billion homeless money that
he can't find. Karen Bass two billion dollars disappeared on her.
She can't explain where that went. Now we got this
hospice fraud, which.
Speaker 3 (34:39):
Two hundred and sixty seven million.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
Yeah, and that's just for starters. And there's hundreds of
hospices just in Van Nyes, in Los Angeles, Van Eys Boulevard,
Victory Boulevard. What's going on? Who's getting the kickbacks?
Speaker 5 (34:56):
I don't know who's getting the kickbacks, but I can
tell you this, someone's not watching the store. And by
twice though, at the end of the day, No, at
the end of the day, we're not focused on how
we spend the money. I believe there is more waste.
(35:16):
You're right, You're right about the unemployment fund.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
The thing is, you know, I easily could say, yeah,
they're not they're not binding the store, they're not watching
the money. My question is why after all this time
and all these billions, and it's still happening and still happening,
and I.
Speaker 9 (35:30):
Start to have dark thoughts, like a lack of Maybe
they're focus on the job.
Speaker 3 (35:35):
One of the reasons.
Speaker 5 (35:36):
Why I said I'm running for one term is that
most people look make decisions based on wanting to run
keep their job or run for the next one. What
I've said is I want to focus on fixing the
problems that we face. You know, look, people could disagree
(35:59):
with me, they could say this or that, but the
one thing we most people agree with. I left this
town better than I found it, safer, cleaner, more graduation
cranes everywhere. I'm going to change what's broken in you know, Sacramento,
(36:23):
and I'm going to do it with both sides of
the aisle.
Speaker 3 (36:27):
So what do you need to do now you got
a little win.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
Yeah, I've got six weeks left to get the public's attention.
Everything's up in the air.
Speaker 5 (36:36):
You know, thirty five percent of the electorates undecided, and
they're mostly Democrats, by the way, mostly people down the
you know, common sense lane. So I'm praying that those
people are going to look at this election and get
behind my candidacy. The one thing almost everybody in Sacramento,
(36:57):
says George Scalton just said it. Of all the candidates,
I am by far the most experienced. The job closest
to being governor is being mayor of Vala, and I
was Speaker of the Assembly, so I know I respect
the legislature, but I always worked with the other side,
and I intend to do that as governor.
Speaker 1 (37:16):
Well, thank you for coming, Thank you for having all right,
took twenty years, good twenty years.
Speaker 6 (37:21):
All right, he's good talking with you, and.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
We're going to play selected highlights on Monday during the show.
Speaker 3 (37:31):
By the way, when I was on your show, was
on the I was on the phone.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
I wasn't and you were on the phone. Yeah, I
just don't have any memory of it. But it's probably
twenty years ago, all right, it was well, thank you
to have it, to have you and have you here
in person, has been great fun today. Thank you all
for coming, driving in and braving the Los Angeles traffic.
Thank you at home for listening, and we'll be back
(37:54):
on Monday. Hey, you've been listening to the John Cobalt
Show podcast. You can always hear the show on KFI
Am six forty from one to four pm every Monday
through Friday, and of course, anytime on demand on the
iHeartRadio app
Can't. I am six forty. You're listening to the John
Cobel podcast on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
It's us sit down twenty years in the making, stick.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Of kicking my behind, Keep on doing.
Speaker 4 (00:14):
It, dating John Cobel.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
We shan't be negotia to be unintentionally fun.
Speaker 4 (00:18):
Antonio via Ragosa.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
I thought you'd be out of business once Ken left.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
One an accomplished broadcaster, the other LA's former mayor and
candidate for governor of California.
Speaker 4 (00:30):
Now they sit face to face.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
It wasn't always about politics or an issue in.
Speaker 4 (00:34):
Front of a room of KFI faithful.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
It was just the way he carried himself. Will there
be fireworks?
Speaker 4 (00:41):
Toilet brushers? Sweet?
Speaker 1 (00:43):
It's like he didn't clean anybody's toilet.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
I'll hatch berry followed by an intimate embrace. Only one
way to find out this is Cobel Fia Ragosa, the
sit down.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
All right, we're on, We're ready to go.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
Happen here.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
He lost his microphone already, The mayor's microphone came flying
off his jacket. Welcome to the John co Belt Show.
We are live here in the performance room upstairs on
the fifth floor, and we've got a big studio audience here,
at least for this room. It's pretty big lot. More
(01:24):
than twenty people here. Welcome, Thank you for coming. I
asked this before, but how many of you lived in
Los Angeles or nearby during the Via Regsa mayoral years.
Don't no, you have to applaud. We need sound here
that they can't see. Okay, how many of you voted
for Antonio revia re Gosa.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
So I did.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
I didn't. Sorry, let's get started because we only have
an hour. And the first thing I actually want to talk,
mostly about what's going on in the state you're running
for governor, and also about what's going on in LA
since you were mayor for eight years. But there's just
what little piece of business. I want to play a
clip you'll be able to hear it, And this is
(02:10):
you from September fourteenth, two thousand and six. You're only
nine months into your role as mayor, and you decided
that Ken and I were one of the biggest dangers
not just to LA but all of America. Play this clip.
We can't hear the clip.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
I don't know if I want to hear the clip.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Look, I'll stay here all midnight until we play the clip. No,
no clip.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Oh we got to hear the clip. Well, we'll get
to the clip.
Speaker 4 (02:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
So you came here a few weeks ago for the
show Michael Monks and Chris Merrill, and you wanted to
meet me, and we'd never met. No from over.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Twenty the program, but we haven't met.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
No, I met. You weren't ever on our show though
once you were on our show once. I don't remember it.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Yeah I was. I guess I wasn't.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
No, I guess you weren't. I've been saying that we
never met and we've never had a conversation. You remember
what it was about. See, it might have been an immigration,
It might have been immigration. Yeah, well, and that's what
the clip has you. You accused Ken and I of
dividing America because oftn't act shocked. What I want to
(03:35):
talk to you about. First, California stuff, since you're running
for governor. So you know the gas price is here
six bucks a gallon. I paid six bucks today. I
looked it up. I got the Triple A website here.
Thirty four states are in the threes. So while Trump's
war is added about a dollar ten, a dollar twenty
to the price, of gas. When it ends, and it's
(03:57):
going to end soon, we'll still be paying five bucks
a gallon, and the rest of the states they'll be
paying half that, about two fifty. I have heard very
little in this race on the Democrat side anybody's gonna
do anything about this because I looked up and the
global temperatures are still going up. Whatever climate change policies
(04:18):
we have, the taxes and the regulations bit a total
failure because we're too tiny in the world to have
an effect. It just looks like a massive ripoff of
the taxpair. You're going to do something different? Are you
going to continue to do some policies?
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Well, first of all, we agree.
Speaker 5 (04:34):
We agree that we have the highest gas prices in
the United States of America.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
They're on average two dollars higher than.
Speaker 5 (04:40):
The rest of the country, and they are you want
to hear this, because we overregulate refineries. We've lost a
dozen over the decade, the last couple of decades, three
and since two thousand. According to USC, if we lose
one more refinery, gas prices are going to eight to seven.
(05:01):
That was before this war, so it's probably going to
be closer to ten.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
So yeah, So I have a gas plant. Let me
tell you, what do you want to do about it?
Speaker 5 (05:13):
No more regulations from the California Air Resources Board that
affect refineries because they they they produce the cleanest fuel
in the United States of America, and we, you know,
supposedly we want to get rid of them because of
climate change, where we import about seventy six percent of
(05:34):
our oil crewed and guess what's going in dirty diesel ships.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
We're not doing anything for climate change in that regard.
Speaker 5 (05:42):
Norway has an all of the above approach to transitioning
to a greener economy, and they produce their own oil
and gas.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
So I'm with you.
Speaker 5 (05:52):
In addition to a moratorium, what I'm saying is, if
you want them to be cleaner, why don't we reward
them for that? And I said, I'll give them a
fifteen percent tax credit for a thing called carbon sequestration
to try to clean up those refineries a bit. And
what I've also said, if gas prices go over five
(06:14):
point fifty, because they were around.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
Five, to go over five fifty, you're going to get
a rebate.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Why are so many others in your party and your
opponents either not talking about this or they've been involved
in driving the price up for really the last twenty years.
It's almost become like some sort of weird cult. We're
not having any effect on the global climate and any
little pitsqreak thing we do here. Completely. We're overridden by
(06:40):
India and China and the tremendous amount of pollution they
put out, real pollution and the so called the greenhouse gases.
What is it going on? I don't understand it. It
seems stupid.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
People looking for the perfect.
Speaker 5 (06:56):
And doing things that they don't understand the consequences of
the things that they're doing. And so I'm with you.
I have a gas plan. It's on my website. You
could look at it. It talks about the moratorium on regulations.
It talks about the rebate that I mentioned. It talks
about providing the tax credit for those refiners who are
(07:19):
trying to clean up, you know, their emissions. And it
also says so that we have certainty, a ten year
guarantee that we're not going to touch these refineries.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
All right, mark this down, first issue. We're in agreement.
Don't worry, there'll be more. They look disappointed. Yeah, all right.
The homelessness, it's really out of control. There's double the
number of homeless than when you were mayor. What did
(07:55):
Eric Arcetti and Karen Basst do wrong. I know she
endorsed you in September, but let's look at what's going
on here. Why you talked we just played the endorsement
on the air, and you talked about knowing her fifty
two years and you've endorsed each other all along. I
think her policies and Garcetti's policies are a disaster. What
(08:15):
do you think of them?
Speaker 5 (08:16):
Well, first of all, let me just say you said it.
Since I've left, it's gone up exponentially, and now it
went up all over the state during particularly during COVID,
but it was moving up even before COVID. You know,
I think what was happening is we were we were
(08:37):
throwing money at the problem.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
And let me tell you, let me give you, let
me explain that.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Where's the money going. Money looks like it's going on
what it's got cruks.
Speaker 5 (08:44):
So at the state level, they spent twenty four billion
dollars and homelessness went up. At the state level, there
were billions spent that cities and counties throughout the state.
They weren't They did not it, The audit said, the
legislative analysts the LAO from now, and I'll say LAO.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
So the LAO said there were only two programs that worked.
One was renter assistance programs people that are, you.
Speaker 5 (09:09):
Know, kind of on their last egg and need a
little help not to go homeless. And the Homekey program,
which we're doing here in la to give people temporary housing.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
And that is rife with fraud. Tens of millions of
dollars are being stolen just by one organization or one guy.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
That's a hospice.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
I think, well, no, no, it's about like that situation
in Chevy at Hills.
Speaker 5 (09:35):
Well, i'll tell you this again where we agree we
got to get You just saw the show.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
But it's this. You're running for governor. This is Governor
Newsom's fault.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
Right.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
If you were governor, you'd let this happen.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
I wouldn't let this happen.
Speaker 5 (09:49):
And you know, look when I was mayor, I balanced budgets.
New York said ELI was going bankrupt. If you remember
it was during the recession. They said we were going
back bankrupt. I said not.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Under my watch.
Speaker 5 (10:02):
I made a lot of tough calls, and I left
the city on a sound financial footing. I think the
number one responsibility for a governor is to leave we
have a budget where you live within our means.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
When I was Speaker, Newsom admitted that he doesn't know
where the twenty four billion went or doesn't know if
any of it.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
Well, then we have to find out.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Well, they did the audit, and what I'm finding with
a lot of these audits is there's no paper trail
or nobody wants to talk about it. That's what what
I'm saying is, I don't I think you and some
of the other Democrats ought to be running against Newsom
by name boldly saying this is really screwed up. And
I watched these I.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
Tried that six years ago.
Speaker 5 (10:43):
Since I'm not running against Newsom and I'm running against
Styre and you know, Hilton and Bonco and Katie Porter,
I'd rather focus on them. I've said, were you know
Gavin Newsom and I disagree, And I'll tell you we're
the only state in the country that closed schools down
(11:03):
for eighteen months, the only state in the country, and
right in the middle of all that, I challenged that,
and I said private schools were open in the state
of California, the.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
Catholic schools were open.
Speaker 5 (11:15):
Most of the Republican states opened up between six and
nine months, and nobody got disproportionately sick from what they
were already going to get. And so at the end
of the day, you know, there are things we disagree on.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
How come you sound like me now?
Speaker 3 (11:31):
All of a sudden, I've been sounding like this.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
You know, somebody asked me, hey, go hey, well we'll
talk when we come back. I got to take a break.
We are live here at KFI. You can apply even ignorance.
Speaker 6 (11:44):
You're on the radio. Why I've been interviewed with Antonio
via Regosi running for governor.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
You're listening to John Cobels on demand from KFI AM
six forty. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome mar Antonio via Rogoso.
Speaker 7 (12:03):
Oh come on, we are, come on, let's go.
Speaker 8 (12:14):
H uh uh you know I want fantastic U but
uh I wanted you know, but I'll tell you.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
Can you fail that? You know?
Speaker 3 (12:30):
Uh uh you know, uh uh.
Speaker 5 (12:34):
I like that.
Speaker 8 (12:35):
Uh uh uh uh.
Speaker 9 (12:42):
Uh uh uh.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Let's see. Tell me are Christmas Carol? Did you ever
heard that before?
Speaker 5 (12:56):
No?
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Never, never, we played every Christmas Eve really well, last
show of the year, the last oh my last five
minutes of the last show. We sometimes you play for
two weeks.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
It's a big hit, well said the other day.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
Week.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
If you guys made a lot of money, you.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Come on and you take a lot in taxes from me? Somebody,
do we do? We have the first clip that we
wanted to play. Okay, play play that. This is the
one that we wanted to open with. And this is
you declaring Ken and I U terrible for America.
Speaker 10 (13:32):
Play this clip and let me just take a moment
with the cameras rolling John kan two people who get
on the radio every day for share a commitment the
dividing America, who demonies our immigrants, let us see that.
(13:59):
Shame on you, Shame on you for dividing America.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Shame on me for dividing America. What was that about?
Speaker 5 (14:12):
You know you were hitting me in the mouth and
I hit back. You know, can I say no, you
played the other one?
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Oh I'm good. No, We're gonna talk more about this.
Do you think you said we made a commitment to
dividing America? So you thought Ken and I get up
in the morning getting on the phone, It's like, all right,
how are we going to divide America tonight?
Speaker 5 (14:34):
Because honestly, I think there's too much screaming in the world.
And part of why I'm coming back is because I
think both sides scream a lot. And you know, you
were leading the parade, and so I shot took a
shot at you like you guys took a shot.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
Of me on a daily basis.
Speaker 5 (14:56):
And you know, a group in a tough neighborhood, when
somebody punches me in them out, that puts back. But
you know, look, I also know, and I was proud
that you at least the station asked me to give
a few words when.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
Ken was leaving.
Speaker 5 (15:11):
You know, I also knew it wasn't personal. You know,
I was the mayor, so you're.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
The big dogs. So people, you know, you're a big target.
And sometimes I was a big target because I was
a big target.
Speaker 5 (15:22):
Yeah, you know, out of my own volition. So you know,
we say, we all say a lot of things.
Speaker 11 (15:29):
All right, let's play the uh we clean your toilets. Clip,
we clean your toilets. There you go, we clean your toilet,
We clean your toilets. You know what got me about
that it's the we part. It's you were up there.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
It was on one of those immigrant marches, and you're going,
we clean your toilets. And my first reaction, he doesn't
clean anyone's toilets, including his own.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Now that's not true. My daughter's here. She used to
clean our toilets when she was a little bit.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
He did.
Speaker 5 (15:57):
Yeah, wait, I taught her that I still clean art.
I still cleaned the toilets from time to time.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
So we had people send toilet.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
Brushes, some of you might remember, eleven hundred.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Eleven hundred of them, and you had them all. I
remember seeing a video of them all boxed up in
a storage room there. What did you do with them?
Speaker 3 (16:16):
We sent them to homeless facilities and poor you know.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
So we did a good thing. You did a good mitzvah.
What you got a lot of criticism when you were mayor? Yeah,
and what I was going through the archives today. You
got it from I thought would be friendly sources. LA
magazine puts you on the cover with the word failure.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
You had.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
LA Weekly called you the eleven percent Mayor because they
said eighty nine percent of the time you weren't doing
any real city business.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
You were Downtown News.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Yeah, it was also an LA Weekly, at least that's
where I found it on their website, and they said,
you just spent your time going to receptions, ribbon cutting
your race, using a lot of money. You're going to parties.
I remember you were on stage Beyonce give it her
some fake award? Were they when you saw that? What
was your reaction?
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Noise?
Speaker 5 (17:14):
You know, Look, this is incontrovertible if you lived here.
When I became mayor, LA was the most dangerous big
city in America.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
I'm not making it up.
Speaker 7 (17:22):
Go look it.
Speaker 5 (17:24):
By the time I left, when New York, it was
the safest big city in America, forty eight percent drop
in violent crime.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
San Fernando Valley was seceding from LA Unified.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
You missed your shot.
Speaker 5 (17:35):
One out of three schools were failing, and by the
time I left, it was a sixty percent increase in
the graduation rate. We went from one out of three
failing schools to one out of ten. Number one American
city of reducing carbon emissions, number five in the world.
Built more infrastructure than anybody in the United States.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
Back then.
Speaker 5 (17:54):
Downtown went from twenty thousand to sixty thousand because it
was safe. And now there's one hundred people there all right,
saying so it was noise for me, I would start.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
With Karen Bass and include nine years of Garcetti and
the city council. I mean, all these people look like
a bunch of clowns to me and most of our listeners.
What are they doing wrong? If they completely it seems
like they've abdicated any responsibility for anything.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
Well, let me tell you what too many politicians are
doing wrong. They're looking for perfect instead of good. They
want to be they want to be popular. I wasn't interested.
Speaker 9 (18:32):
You know.
Speaker 5 (18:32):
Look, everybody wants people to like them, but I've sat
for a long time.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
If you want somebody to like and love.
Speaker 5 (18:39):
You, go get a dog, because at the end of
the day, you know, most people are.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
Going to be happy with you sometimes and upset with
you other times.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
If the fire encapsulator all this. First of all, your
friend Karen Bass is in Africa.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
She is a friend.
Speaker 4 (18:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Second, the reservoir, her appointee Janie Comunia, is left. The
damn thing empty. One hundred and seventeen million gowns aren't there.
I looked up today that one of these National fire
Associations says we are to have seven thousand firefighters, we
have thirty two hundred. Meantime, the homeless people where much
of our budget goes. They do you know? They start
(19:13):
fourteen thousand fires a year and we spend more money
on homelessness one point three billion than we do on
the fire department eight hundred million. That is catastrophic management,
is it not.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
I agree with you. We need more firefighters and we
need more cops. We started out.
Speaker 5 (19:30):
With nine thousand when I got there. By the time
I left it was ten thousand. It's now at eighty
three hundred. At a time when I was furloughing, which
is like a temporary layoffs forty three days, forty days
a year for three years, when Schwarzenegger was doing three
and Brown was doing one.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
Because I wanted to avoid going bankrupt.
Speaker 5 (19:54):
I wouldn't touch the cops and I wouldn't touch fire
in terms of layoffs and the like. I agree with you,
we need a lot more firefighters. I agree with you,
we need more cops.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Right, But we've only got so much money and they're
putting it over billion dollars in homelessness, which is I'm
sure way more than it was twenty years ago when
you were the mayor way more yeah right, wait, yeah,
astronomically more so. This has got to stop, because I mean,
I'd lived near the Palisades, and I have a lot
of friends, and so this is a personal issue for me,
(20:25):
just how badly mismanaged the city was and the public
didn't know it. We didn't know the reservoir was empty.
We didn't know that we only have half a fire department.
We didn't know that the fire department management was completely chaotic.
Nobody knew what was going on, and it seemed at
the end of it, nobody cared.
Speaker 5 (20:41):
You know, it's interesting because in all the articles they'll
say in twenty twelve the city allocated firefighters in the Palisades.
They don't give me credit. But I was meri at
the time. But I tell everybody, yeah, I did that.
But I did it because the fire chief recommended it.
The fire chief did not recommend putting. You know, I'm
(21:03):
not an expert. Neither was Carcetti, neither was reared in.
Neither was did you go looking for this information? None
of us know what firefighters know. So I was lucky
I had a chief that recommended it.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
She didn't.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
All right, we got to take a break for news
and then we'll go more, especially about the governor's rate.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
You're listening to John Cobelts on demand from KFI. AM sixty,
ladies and gentlemen, please welcome mar Antonio via Ragosa.
Speaker 7 (21:36):
Oh come on.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
You know all the all the Philagarosa and you know
all the come on, let's go.
Speaker 12 (21:49):
You know all those delegates in favor, say hi, all
those delegates a pen you feel this? Say noah? The
chair two thirds of voted in the affirmative, and the
voted arm has been amended.
Speaker 7 (22:05):
The showing on the screen.
Speaker 4 (22:08):
Stuck, John, we're.
Speaker 5 (22:10):
The women guys, two people started every single fantastic, John Ken,
you have me to sing to you.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
How many years have you been on your show? Kicking
my behind?
Speaker 5 (22:25):
Believe me?
Speaker 3 (22:25):
He stuck upon doing a baby Bring good tyr.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
Now an update from the Tony Hall dish.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
I'm on my way out, everybody.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Here's John and can.
Speaker 13 (22:36):
I know you did, but folks, that clip at the convention,
I banged the gabble for God in Jerusalem, and I'm
very proud of that because as you heard, there weren't.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
The votes for it.
Speaker 5 (22:54):
But you know, I wasn't going to allow god taking
out of the Democratic Party platform or something about Jerusalem
as the capital of Israel, because I'm very pro Israel.
So I took a lot of bullets for that one.
But I you know, oh, we couldn't stop playing. I
think I did a good deed. I did a good deal.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
I couldn't remember what it was about, but I thought
it was hysterically funny. Okay, let's uh, let's go on
to what's going on California here now? Uh, you are
at best, Paul. I've seen three percent five, I'm seven seven.
It's up to seven just this morning, though that.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
One was three.
Speaker 5 (23:33):
But most of them I've been at six or seven,
six or seven, okay, and the the top Democrat is
at twelve.
Speaker 4 (23:40):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
So you think you gotta, you gotta, you got a
chance here we're in there, hunt, So uh are are
you going to start like fighting with the other Democrats?
It seems like you seriously. I mean, let me.
Speaker 3 (23:52):
Tell you this.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
We touched on this before, but almost every one of
them sounds like they're gonna do exactly what Newsom did.
And I don't have to go through you know, the
list of fifty things that are going haywire in this state.
I think you've got to call some of them out
and say no, no, we can't have another four years
of this. This is crazy.
Speaker 5 (24:11):
If you look at my social media, I have done
that at the debates. This is what their forums. You
can't speak critically of the other person, and if you do,
they'll call you out. You get a minute to answer
a question, you.
Speaker 9 (24:24):
Can what kind of a Wiener rules that? Like, we've
gone to this is what's wrong We've got no it's
Democrat and Republican. We've gone to like I've gone to
thirty or thirty five of them.
Speaker 5 (24:35):
All of them say you cannot criticize your opponent, So
you can't vet your opponent.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
Look what happened with the last one who just got
quit this race?
Speaker 1 (24:44):
You're with me? Criticize somebody?
Speaker 5 (24:46):
Have that it.
Speaker 6 (24:48):
I tried to get you to criticize Newsom. You wouldn't
do it. Criticize Karen Bass, you.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Wouldn't do it. They're the two biggest villains. Tom Steyer,
all right, what Bill?
Speaker 5 (24:58):
Well?
Speaker 3 (24:58):
Wait, wait, I criticize some more.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
All right, what's a billionaire?
Speaker 3 (25:02):
He's he's a billionaire.
Speaker 5 (25:04):
Who's for a billionaire at tax, which will just send
all of them out of the state of California.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
Uh, you're against the billionaire tax, yes? And uh.
Speaker 5 (25:15):
Tom Steyer, Katie Porter, Javier ba Sara all for single payer.
That's government you know, sponsored healthcare five hundred billion dollar
price tag and we have a three hundred billion dollar budget.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
I'm against that as well.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
And we're going to trust the California government to pay
our health care exactly. They're not going to take Medicare,
they're not going to take private health insurance, they're not
going to take union negotiated health insurance.
Speaker 5 (25:44):
Here's some more. Well, here's some more. I've said that
we the next governor has to live within their means.
I'm the only one of the of the Democratic candidates
who the following We have a revenue problem because we
have a spending problem.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Great Jerry Brown left us.
Speaker 5 (26:10):
With a three hundred million dollar surplus. We've had great
economy over the last few years, and we've had deficits
and next year we're looking at an eighteen to thirty
five billion dollar deficits. So what I've said is we're
not going to raise taxes in a state that has
the highest income tax in the nation. What we need
(26:31):
to do is live within our means. So I actually
have criticized them, and I'm the only one that's taken
a position on refineries and the cost of gas. There's
a difference between us. I'm the only one that has
said we're number one in teacher pay good, we're twenty
first improve per pupil spending. We're in the mid thirties
(26:55):
in reading and math in the fourth grade, and we're
dead last in graduations along with Louisian On. So I
have challenged folks. Maybe that's why I'm at seven.
Speaker 3 (27:06):
Well does your do the.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
Voters Democratic voters in California want to hear somebody speak
the truth? They reflexively dismissed when they probably can say
this stuff. When you say it, do they listen? It
is true. And I live with a lot of Democrats.
I'm on the West side. I am not in conservative land.
They're all pissed off at the same things that everybody
else is. And I'm thinking, why do you vote this way?
Speaker 3 (27:29):
It's beyond me.
Speaker 5 (27:31):
But I'll tell you this, I'm not sure in answer
to your question, I'm not sure people are looking for.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
Common sense and competence. But that's what I'm running on said,
is I've made a commitment. I've said.
Speaker 5 (27:44):
I believe that the challenge is before. We don't have
four or eight years to do to deal with them.
Business is leaving in numbers. You know, Chevron just left,
Test has left SpaceX's.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
We used to have forty oil refineries in the state.
We're down to six. Our major oil pipeline shut down
because there was a lack of oil in it. We
got billions and billions of barrels underneath Bakersfield, for example.
This is crazy.
Speaker 3 (28:18):
It's crazy.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
We're shipping it in from the Middle.
Speaker 5 (28:21):
East, from Iraq, from Saudi Arabia, from Ecuador.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
From well, when you talk, when you talk to Democrats,
why are they doing this? Like if you wanted to
destroy the state, if you had a master plan and
the power to destroy the state, what would they do?
What would you do differently than this?
Speaker 5 (28:40):
It's not just Democrats the Republicans, no, you se sure
for sure, but nobody wants to work with each other anymore.
I balanced two budgets, as I said, with a surplus.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
When we were a purple state with Beete Wilson. You know,
I had a great relationship. Pete. We disagreed, we fought,
but we also work together.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
That's when you were Assembly speakers, right.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
I also when I was mayor.
Speaker 5 (29:07):
I also worked very closely with Arnold Warzenegger, who I
have a really good relationship with.
Speaker 3 (29:13):
We're friends. And I can tell you this. People don't
want to work with each other anymore.
Speaker 5 (29:19):
You know, we're so tribal that even you don't want
to invite your brother and sister.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
And I grant you that, but nuseman. The Democrats don't
need to work with anyone because they have super majorities.
Speaker 5 (29:29):
I believe that we always need to work with everyone. Look,
Republicans are about well, twenty five percent Republican, but then
there's ten percent independent that vote Republicans, so about thirty
five percent.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
At the end of the day. That's a lot of people.
Speaker 5 (29:43):
And I want to hear from them. I want to
work with them. We're not going to agree on everything.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
I always ask the question, how many of you are married?
Speaker 5 (29:52):
Okay, keep your hand, how many of you happily married?
How many have you agree with your spouse on your everything?
Speaker 1 (30:01):
Right?
Speaker 3 (30:02):
Just like I thought, well.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
What I do? Why would you?
Speaker 9 (30:04):
Well?
Speaker 3 (30:04):
I know you do I can tell he's.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
Not my wife. No, no, sorry, we're not all the same.
Speaker 5 (30:19):
But you know, look, at the end of the day,
I believe that we do.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
You know, when I was mayor.
Speaker 5 (30:27):
During the middle of the recession, I did a three
year tax holiday to bring businesses into LA.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
I cut the gross receipts tax.
Speaker 5 (30:35):
You know, I had I had Republicans on staff, especially
on the business end I work.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
But I just thought of this, Yes, I actually think
about this. Today. We have this jungle primary. All the
voters vote in the same primary. You're right, thirty five
to forty percent are going to vote Republican. Why just
go after Democratic votes because you're not in a Democratic primary.
Everybody votes in this prime.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
I'm part of why I'm here.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Have you been campaigning trying to get.
Speaker 5 (31:04):
Everybody, you know, everybody that'll listen. You know, at the
end of the day, I agree with you. There are
a lot of people that are in you know, they're
not way over here or way over there.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
They're here.
Speaker 5 (31:18):
And I tell people center right, conservative, center left people
that you know, you know, I could work with these people.
Speaker 3 (31:25):
We got to take a break.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
Yeah, we got one more segment coming up, and we're
live here in the performance room, fitth floor.
Speaker 6 (31:34):
Here's KFI. Got on a lot of people in the audience.
This is Antonio Viragosa running for governor, former mayor of
l A.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
We got one more segment coming up next.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
You're listening to John Cobelts on demand from KFI AM
six FORTYFI A and six.
Speaker 6 (31:48):
Forty more stimulating talk radio John Covelt. So, last segment
with Antonio, they were ghost running for governor former mayor
of l A. Well, since you brought her up and
misidentified her as my wife, I do want to introduce
her to you.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
Her name's also Debra. Well see if he remembers, uh,
this is a Deborah Mark, my newscaster.
Speaker 3 (32:10):
Here is what? Oh is news?
Speaker 4 (32:13):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (32:13):
Oh my, she's on with me every day.
Speaker 3 (32:15):
Well, that's right here, I was hearing you today. You
guys are going back and forth, sir.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
All right, you already met her though, Oh yes, are
we going too fast?
Speaker 3 (32:29):
You're going real fast?
Speaker 1 (32:30):
Okay, all right, I'm married to a Debora and I
work with a Deborah.
Speaker 3 (32:36):
Yeah, oh very good.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
Let me ask her. But not the same devor, not
the same Debor. No, I just got to keep that separate,
all right, Let I just want to go through a
few things quick, because then we have a five minutes
left high speed rail. What the hell.
Speaker 4 (32:52):
Broken?
Speaker 3 (32:53):
It's broken.
Speaker 5 (32:53):
But I have said this, so was the subway, and
now it's getting built. I'm going to bring the best
in the brightest from around the world. I believe the
right of way was a mistake.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
You're still going to try to build the thing.
Speaker 3 (33:05):
I'm going to see.
Speaker 5 (33:06):
I'm going to check with the experts to see whether
or not we can continue to do it.
Speaker 3 (33:13):
My sense is it's been broken from the beginning.
Speaker 5 (33:17):
The right away was broken, the sequel the California Environmental Quality.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
Why didn't they run it down the five Freeway or
even down the coast. I look at the path and
it's like, who would do this? It goes left to
get and you know, I can't wait till they try
to get it through the mountains.
Speaker 3 (33:34):
So remember I was the transportation mayor.
Speaker 5 (33:37):
I'm going to bring in the best and the brightest
around the world, just like I did with the subway.
The subways getting built if the best in the bridest,
say not going to happen.
Speaker 3 (33:48):
We've sunk you.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
Know, seventeen billion.
Speaker 5 (33:51):
About to say billions. We sunk seventeen billion in this.
We can't just throw it away.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
Maybe we should, though, because their price tag is about
a hundred I said thirty billions.
Speaker 5 (34:04):
I'm gonna I'm gonna get advice from the best and
the bridest from around the world. They said we couldn't
build a subway under methane pockets. I knew that was ridiculous.
I brought the best and the bridest from around the world.
They said, we could do it. We're building it now.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
It's seventeen billion dollars. And to me, the whole thing
looks like fraud. You got thirty two billion unemployment fraud
from COVID. You got twenty four billion homeless money that
he can't find. Karen Bass two billion dollars disappeared on her.
She can't explain where that went. Now we got this
hospice fraud, which.
Speaker 3 (34:39):
Two hundred and sixty seven million.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
Yeah, and that's just for starters. And there's hundreds of
hospices just in Van Nyes, in Los Angeles, Van Eys Boulevard,
Victory Boulevard. What's going on? Who's getting the kickbacks?
Speaker 5 (34:56):
I don't know who's getting the kickbacks, but I can
tell you this, someone's not watching the store. And by
twice though, at the end of the day, No, at
the end of the day, we're not focused on how
we spend the money. I believe there is more waste.
(35:16):
You're right, You're right about the unemployment fund.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
The thing is, you know, I easily could say, yeah,
they're not they're not binding the store, they're not watching
the money. My question is why after all this time
and all these billions, and it's still happening and still happening,
and I.
Speaker 9 (35:30):
Start to have dark thoughts, like a lack of Maybe
they're focus on the job.
Speaker 3 (35:35):
One of the reasons.
Speaker 5 (35:36):
Why I said I'm running for one term is that
most people look make decisions based on wanting to run
keep their job or run for the next one. What
I've said is I want to focus on fixing the
problems that we face. You know, look, people could disagree
(35:59):
with me, they could say this or that, but the
one thing we most people agree with. I left this
town better than I found it, safer, cleaner, more graduation
cranes everywhere. I'm going to change what's broken in you know, Sacramento,
(36:23):
and I'm going to do it with both sides of
the aisle.
Speaker 3 (36:27):
So what do you need to do now you got
a little win.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
Yeah, I've got six weeks left to get the public's attention.
Everything's up in the air.
Speaker 5 (36:36):
You know, thirty five percent of the electorates undecided, and
they're mostly Democrats, by the way, mostly people down the
you know, common sense lane. So I'm praying that those
people are going to look at this election and get
behind my candidacy. The one thing almost everybody in Sacramento,
(36:57):
says George Scalton just said it. Of all the candidates,
I am by far the most experienced. The job closest
to being governor is being mayor of Vala, and I
was Speaker of the Assembly, so I know I respect
the legislature, but I always worked with the other side,
and I intend to do that as governor.
Speaker 1 (37:16):
Well, thank you for coming, Thank you for having all right,
took twenty years, good twenty years.
Speaker 6 (37:21):
All right, he's good talking with you, and.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
We're going to play selected highlights on Monday during the show.
Speaker 3 (37:31):
By the way, when I was on your show, was
on the I was on the phone.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
I wasn't and you were on the phone. Yeah, I
just don't have any memory of it. But it's probably
twenty years ago, all right, it was well, thank you
to have it, to have you and have you here
in person, has been great fun today. Thank you all
for coming, driving in and braving the Los Angeles traffic.
Thank you at home for listening, and we'll be back
(37:54):
on Monday. Hey, you've been listening to the John Cobalt
Show podcast. You can always hear the show on KFI
Am six forty from one to four pm every Monday
through Friday, and of course, anytime on demand on the
iHeartRadio app
The John Kobylt Show News
Host
John Kobylt
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