December 9, 2025 • 36 mins
The John Kobylt Show Hour 2 (12/09) - NewsNation reporter Rich McHugh comes on the show to talk about a whistleblower who is speaking out about a Medicaid fraud scheme in Maine similar to the one in Minnesota. More on a whistleblower who is speaking out about a Medicaid fraud scheme in Maine similar to the one in Minnesota. NYC Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani has appointed a convicted felon to his transition team. More on Gov. Newsom's claim his hair burst on fire during the Palisades Fire.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Can't. I am six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
You're listening to the John Cobelt podcast on the iHeartRadio
app on every day from one until four o'clock. Podcast
released after for John Cobelt's show on demand as same
as the radio show, and you can follow us at
John Cobelt Radio on social media and look at the
videos from last night's CNN show with Alex Michaelson. The
(00:22):
story is because I was on a debate panel with
civil rights attorney A Reeve of Martin and it's good stuff.
We talk a lot about it in the last hour
and you should look at the clips yourself. It's on
all the social media platforms all right. Now we go
to Maine and Rich Mhugh We've had on a number
(00:43):
of times. It's an investigative reporter for News Nation cable
television news operation, and he has a story on a
whistleblower in Maine connected with a health services company called
Gateway Community Services. And just like in Maine where you
had a large number of Somali Americans involved in a
(01:06):
billion dollar scam, you have a similar situation with a
Somali American owned company, Gateway, and apparently there's a lot
of fraudulent medicaid hanky panky going on.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Let's get Rich mceugh on the show. Here, Rich, how
are you.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
I'm good, John, how are you?
Speaker 1 (01:28):
I'm good? Tell us what is going on in Maine?
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Now, Well, I should preface that by saying I was
in reporting on this stuff in Minnesota two and a
half weeks ago before the whole thing kind of broke,
and I was one of the reporters there who had
talked to federal sources that confirmed that money was ultimately
(01:51):
going back to Somalia and then into the hands of
Al Shabab that came to me from federal sources.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Which is a terrorist opinion organization, Yeah, Somalia. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
So in the process of that, I got tipped off that, hey,
you should look into Lewiston, Maine, and I was like,
what's going on in Lewiston, Maine? Well, a lot is
going on here. There is a it's called Gateway Community Services.
It is a Somali you know, American led health services
contractor that basically audits from the from the state have
(02:29):
found from the health and human services here that they
have over built you know, in one audit they were
they were found to have overbuilt by approximately nine hundred
thousand dollars. This means like, and I spoke to a
whistleblower who summarized it for me, that they would they
have these you know services, and they would have people
(02:51):
go out to see people, whether it's children with autism
or elderly people, and that they would clock in their
hours and what they were doing allegedly was overbilling. They
would they would sometimes they would never even show, but
they were build for it. And then they would build
the Medicaid, which is like here in Maine, it's called
main Care, but it's essentially Medicaid. So they're they're they're
(03:12):
billing you know, taxpayer or taxpayers are paying.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
For this essentially.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
And the Main Wire has done a lot of reporting
on this here. They are a smaller, you know, main
focused operation, reporting operation, but they've been reporting on this
for a while, and nobody has been paying attention. And
so I came in and I've kind of like tried
to uncover what I.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
What I can.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
I spoke to this whistleblower he had sought a federal
whistle blower protection from Department of Homeland Security. In April
of twenty twenty four, he was told you got to
go back to the state of Maine that you got
to you gotta report this within Maine. He did. He
went to a tip line, reported it and believes that
(03:56):
he triggered an audit. We don't know what happened with
that audit officially because we don't have the documents yet.
We put in a foil for them, but it takes
eons to get anything here. Well, he was fired, Yeah,
he was fired, and they just did away with his position.
And so now he's moved out of state. He's kind
(04:17):
of moving on with starting over. Basically, he lives in
Florida and he's just coming to grips with all this.
And in the process of it, Uh, we've come to
learn that the man who started this foundation gave Way
community services. He was a founder and executive director at
the same time he was the executive director. Last year
(04:39):
he was running for president of Jubiland, which is a
section of Somalia, and in a in a media Kenyan media,
he talked openly about how he was and I want
to quote this because I had it translated. He said,
(05:00):
when I was away and abroad, the financial contributions I
was sending back were being used to support the forces
for buying bullets, ammunition and food. He's talking about paramilitary
forces over there, which you know, if you run for
president over there, apparently you have to have a militia
because the entire country is you know, it's not really
(05:22):
a functioning country.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Like a state within the larger country. I'm sorry, go ahead.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
It's just the more we peel away at this, the
more bonkers it gets, honestly. So that's what I was
just going to say.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Abdullah Ali is the man who was running for president
of Jubi Land, and that's in a state in the
south of Somalia that borders on Kenya.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
This this We've We've asked him for comment. I've gone
to the gateway. They went in there last week and
they basically I introduced. I said Hi, I'm with News
Nation and they closed the window. They slammed the window
shit and said no comment, no comment. I said, before
I could even say my name or what I was
there to do, and I was asking for mister Ali. Obviously,
(06:12):
he posted on Twitter sort of a defense saying, look,
I am proud of my and I'm paraphrasing here, buddy said,
I've made this money and I'm proud to contribute to
my main community. I'm also proud to contribute back to
my people back home, you know, and essentially you.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Guys got this all wrong.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
But that's where it stands. I've reached out to Governor
Mills Jant Mills here repeatedly since last week.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Heard nothing.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
I've also reached out to the head of Health and
Human Services here. I've got nothing. I've reached out there.
There are three Democratic Somali American members of the House
of Representatives here in Maine. I've reached out to all
of them several times asking them to weigh in or
give us your viewpoint. Nobody, John, nobody, Nobody will respond
(07:07):
to me.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Well, they saw what happened in Minnesota, so that they're
all shutting down. There's two thousand, seven hundred and thirty
residents who are Somali as of two years ago.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Yeah, I think that number is actually much much higher.
But yeah, that's you know, that's officially by twenty twenty
three or twenty twenty two counts.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
So this this gateway Community Services, according to your story,
got almost twenty nine million dollars in payments from main
Care from twenty nineteen to twenty twenty four that's Maine's
version of Medicare.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
And that was after that was after an audit found
them in violation and overbilling by nine hundred thousand dollars.
People here tell me that this is this is just
they get no big contracts. They just they get handed
this stuff. And it's really hard to wrap your brain
around as a reporter here. I feel like I've walked
(08:08):
into a twilight zone of sorts where nobody is, nobody
who in the position of authority will respond, and they're
just letting this happen. And yeah, they are well aware
of it.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
You know, in Minnesota, it's obvious some of the motivation
for the government to look away was that there were
eighty million Somali Americans and their voters, and they wanted
to get that an incentive to keep the Somali community
happy and not stigmatize them in their mind in any way.
(08:44):
I'm sure they got plenty of political contributions. That's why
I brought up the number of Somali residents, because that's
a I know Maine is much smaller, but it's only
twenty seven hundred and thirty people.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
I don't think they would.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Have enough political power for the ruling, for the ruling
government to justify allowing this sort of fraud.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
Well, I don't totally understand it myself. I know that
there are three members of the main House of Representatives
who are Somali American, which I believe is among the
most in the country, you know, per state. Uh, and
for such a little state, that's that's sort of remarkable,
you know. Yeah, that's lot also told that that this
(09:27):
You know, if you're looking for the type of fraud
that has happened in Minnesota, look to Maine, to Ohio, uh,
look to Seattle. Like I think this story is in
its infancy.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
Frankly, Yeah, well, Rich, thank you for coming on.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
After the commercial break, I'm going to play the the
the audio of your news Nation TV story so they
could people can connect all the dots here. Thank you
for coming on, and any time you have any follow
up on any of this, all right, Rich mceugh investigative reporter,
a great one for news station, the cable TV station.
And when we come back, you'll hear his official report
(10:07):
on the whistleblower, whose name is Christopher Benardini. Now, what
do you think is going on here in California? When
you got the whopper one billion in Minnesota, which is
compared to California. Sparsely populated Maine is really tiny compared
to California. You've got all this Somali American fraud going on.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
What do you think is going on here in California?
More coming up.
Speaker 4 (10:37):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Moistline is on Friday eight seven seven Moist daty six
eight seven seven moist daty six or used the talkback
feature on the iHeartRadio app and you can follow us
at John Cobelt Radio on social media and do the
voiceline and you can let out all your frustration. Well,
we've got another story involving government fraud and Somali Americans,
(11:07):
and this is Maine, the state's medicaid program. It's known
as main Care, and two of the characters is Christopher Bernardini.
He is the whistleblower and he has since relocated to
Florida in the aftermath of everything that he's revealed. The
(11:30):
company's founder and CEO is Abdullah Abdullah high Ali, who
was running for office in Somalia at the same time.
He was serving as executive director of that company, and
they're getting accused of creating fraud in which they stole
(11:52):
tens of millions of dollars with phony medicaid payments, tony
Medicaid charge and invoices. We just had Rich mcew on.
Here is the formal report he did on News Nation.
Speaker 5 (12:07):
I thought that we were doing the right thing this
whole time. And more I started digging, the more I
started finding, and I just couldn't believe what I was seeing,
that this was happening and I was part of this.
Speaker 6 (12:16):
Chris Bernardini spent seven years working for Gateway Community Services
as Somali American led health services contractor in Maine. Bernardined
alleges Gateway oversaw a system in which false records were
filed about client visits, and he says they charged taxpayers
for providing services that were never performed.
Speaker 5 (12:36):
We started getting some clients saying that calling and saying,
you know, months later that their client owed them hours.
They hadn't come in for these shifts and stuff, but
I had a time card for it, and I know
billing for it.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
They were billing for it.
Speaker 6 (12:47):
In March of twenty twenty two, Gateway received a notice
of violation from the state's main Care Services Program Integrity
Unit based on an audit of records taken at random
from January twenty seventeenth through this of twenty eighteen, Gateway
over billed by an estimated nine hundred and four thousand dollars.
In your professional opinion, what you saw was fraud, absolute,
(13:10):
no doubt about it, no doubt about it. But Bernardini says,
when the pandemic hit, it got worse.
Speaker 5 (13:15):
I started seeing bonuses, two thousand dollars, bonuses going to
the staff that had only been with us for two weeks,
never worked a shift with a client, and yet the
PPP loan comes there. You're giving two thousand dollars away
like their lollipops at a doctor's office.
Speaker 6 (13:33):
In April of twenty twenty four, Bernardini wrote to the
Department of Homeland Security seeking whistleblower protection. They referred him
back to the state of Maine. Nearly a year later,
Gateway fired Bernardini. The company's founder and CEO is abdu
Lahi Ali, a Somali American who, while at the time
serving as executive director for Gateway. Last year ran for
(13:55):
president of Jubiland, a state in Somalia South that borders Kenya.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (14:00):
Last week he posted on X I make no apologies
for building a successful business in Maine, working hard to
earn a living, earning my PhD, giving back to my
main community, and running for office in Jubiland. I am
proud to contribute my hard earned dollars to support my
people back home. We reached out to Ali for comment
multiple times. We even came to Gateway to try and
(14:22):
speak with him.
Speaker 7 (14:22):
Hello, I'm with News Nation. My name is No comment
is mister Ali here? Can we speak with mister Ali.
Speaker 6 (14:31):
Republican State Senator Matt Harrington has called on Governor Janet
Mills to investigate.
Speaker 8 (14:36):
Just an absolutely insult to the main tax fair that
we know that there's this Medicaid for aud going on
by Gateway Community Services. We're saying nothing from the Mills
administration on this, and I think it's appalling.
Speaker 5 (14:47):
I still can't believe it. I still can't believe I
took so much of my time and put so much
of my life into this agency that just tossed me aside.
It's caused me to reflect a lot, and you know,
try to trust my gut more and speak up more
when I see something's.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Not right now.
Speaker 7 (15:07):
We've reached out repeatedly to mister Ali to Gateway behind me.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
We've reached out to Governor.
Speaker 7 (15:13):
Janet Mills, the head of Health and Human Services here.
We've even reached out to the three Democratic Somalian American
state reps.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
Here.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Nobody would speak with us. Of course, nobody would speak
with us that familiar.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Try getting Karen Bassard Gavin news And to ask about
where all the blown homeless money went, Where all the
blown COVID uninsurance money went.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Where all the blown high speed rail money went.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Same thing.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
You got a lot of no comment, not available, You.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Get a dial tone. In Rich mc hughes's print story
for News Nation, he said there's a second whistle blower,
and the second whistleblower said, I saw many things happening
that shouldn't have been, time cards being manipulated to show
(16:01):
services being provided that were not provided, times being manipulated.
He also had more quotes from Bernardini, the original whistleblower.
He said, I got worse during the COVID pandemic because
that's when the federal government was handing out a trillion dollars.
You ever hear of the PPP, the Paycheck Protection Program. Sure,
(16:22):
once the PPP loan stuff started going on, this one
really took me off, because all of a sudden, I
started seeing these new staff come aboard. They'd be on
board for two or three weeks, no hours worked. I'd
put in their training hours, and I started seeing bonuses,
two thousand dollars bonuses going to this staff that.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Had been with us for two weeks.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Excuse me, they never worked a shift with a client,
and yet the PPP loan comes. They're giving two thousand
dollars away like lollipops at the doctor's office. And I'm like,
where the hell's my two thousand dollars bonus? I've been
here six or seven years.
Speaker 6 (17:00):
Now.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Do you think this is all accidental?
Speaker 2 (17:03):
That they allowed this massive immigration coming in from Somalia.
They clustered in out of the way towns in places
like Minnesota and Maine. They created a political base, some
political power.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
And next thing you know, certain people.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Have access to the stream of welfare and health benefits
by the millions, eventually over a billion in Minnesota.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
And that in Minnesota, some of the money is.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Sent back home to al Shabab, a terrorist organization and
in Maine, some of the money ends up in Jubiland.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
I'm not making this up.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
Jubiland a state in Somalia, and the guy running this
sketchy company was running to be president of Jubiland. That's
like the governor taking our tax money, your tax money,
because these medicaid programs are federal tax dollars. So he
took our tax money, came up with a fraud system
(18:13):
in Maine, then ran off to Jubiland to become the
president there, took the money with him.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
You can't make this stuff up.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
I'm sure it's all a series of coincidences and accidents
and everybody looked the other way, and nobody has a
single comment about it today.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
It's fascinating when we come back.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Oh wait till you hear the stories that are going
to be coming out of New York City over the
next few years. We have two big ones, two whoppers.
Zorn Mamdanie the incoming mayor. He's starting to put together
his advisors and starting to announce his policies.
Speaker 4 (18:58):
You're listening to John Coop else on demand from KFI
A six forty.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
We are on the radio every day from one until
four o'clock. After four o'clock, it's the podcast John Cobelt's
Show on demand and you can listen to us there. Oh,
you want to watch our YouTube segments, you can subscribe
at YouTube dot com slash at John Cobelt's Show. YouTube
dot com slash at John cobelt Show. You should do that,
(19:26):
and also on the social media sites. We have video
clips of last night's appearance on CNN Alex Michaelson's The
Story Is, which is on nine to eleven every weeknight,
and I was on a panel with civil rights attorney
Reeva Martin, and we had some a couple of feisty discussions,
(19:47):
including one about Gavin Newsom being turned away by the
Trump administration. Nope, he couldn't get a meeting. Talk more
about that next hour, But first we like to tell
you what's coming. There's a lot of crap that's going
to hit California probably within the next two years. I
told you all these investigations into these corrupt welfare and
(20:12):
medicare programs in Minnesota and now Maine. Imagine what they'll
find in California when they start doing or finishing investigations.
Imagine the corruption and the stolen money here in Los
Angeles and in Sacramento with Bassian.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
Newsom also wats for.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
Increasing influence from the Democratic Socialists of America the DSA.
This is separate from the Democratic Party, even though they
use that word Democratic Socialists of America. It's entirely different.
And the DSA now has four seats on the LA
City Council. The city Controller is a DSA member. There
(20:53):
are many people in LA government belonging to the DSA,
and in New York City the DSA. As the new
mayor Mamdani who will be coming in to office in
a matter of weeks. DOMI, now you are not going
to believe this stuff. He is putting together his transition team,
the various committees that are going to be advising him
(21:17):
on how to govern the City of New York. And
he has picked a new advisor to help him understand
the criminal justice system. And he picked an armed robber,
a convicted armed robber. Seriously, Zoran Mandami has selected my
(21:43):
son Lennon.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
He's forty nine.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
He is a state felon, a convict who became an activist.
He committed two armed robberies of two taxi drivers back
in the nineteen nineties. He and others robbed on June eighth,
nineteen ninety seven, a taxi driver named Joseph Iziri, and
then some nine months later, March thirty first, nineteen ninety eight,
(22:13):
at gunpoint, they robbed Cabby Francisco Monsanto. He got a
sentence of seven to fourteen years, got paroled in July
of two thousand and six. He faced up to twenty
five years behind bars. It looked like maybe he got
six or seven. And now he's going to be on
(22:35):
Zorn Mamdani's Criminal Legal System Transitional Committee. Lennon went on
Instagram and said, this is a testament to our decades
of work advocating on behalf of black and brown communities
and our expertise and gun violence prevention. This is a
guy who's part of a group that pulled guns on
(22:57):
two cab drivers. Also legislative advocacy and criminal justice reform.
You know what Lennon was before he became a professional
armed robber. He was a rapper, of course.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
You know.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
I went on Wikipedia once in just stead of curiosity,
and I just typed in the question I look for
this answer, how many rap stars had been murdered and
at the time the number was about sixty two. And
then I also typed in how many country stars have
been murdered? No, that was zero. It was sixty two
(23:35):
to nothing. The conviction came just as his debut album
was going to be released by deaf Jam Recordings.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
What a tough break, huh.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Could have been a big rap star headed for possibly
a big music career. Def Jam is one of the
big record companies at the time, and instead he holds
up two taxi drivers with his buddies. But they let
him out and now he's on a criminal justice transition
committee for Zorn Mamdani. Also on the committee listen to
(24:09):
these picks the former Maryland Department of Juvenile Services chief
Vincent Shiraldi, who had to resign he was accused of
shoddy oversight and contract mismanagement at his agency. Mam Donnie
put him on this committee as well. Another person is
(24:34):
named Lumumba Bendaley. He's on the committee on community organizing.
He's a Black nationalist and leader of the Malcolm X
grassroots movement. He has rallied behind a number of cop killers.
He's on the committee. He rallies for cop killers. He
(25:00):
Mom Donnie has named four hundred people to these transition committees.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
Here's a few of the others.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
A Brooklyn College sociology professor named Alex Vittali, who years
ago wrote an anti cop book that said the New
York Police Department's broken windows policing was a side of
ingrained racism. And he's on the Committee on Community Safety.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
Let's see.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
Zachariah Shakir i'msari is co director of the Alliance Quality Education,
far left activist. He's going to be on the Committee
on Youth and Education. He also praised a cop killer
named Asata Shakur.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
S that's the second.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
Committee member who has praised a cop killer, Asada Shakur.
Ben Fernas, he's head of the Transportation Alternatives Committee. He
hates cars, he wants to shut down traffic, has all
kinds of bizarre proposals. So of course he's on the
(26:07):
Committee of Transportation, Climate, and Infrastructure. This is about destroying civilization.
They've gotten into the system. They are now running the system.
The people who want to destroy the American system are
now running the system in New York City.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
You just wait. Susan Herman, she.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
Used to run the old mayor and Bill de Blasio's
organization called Thrive New York City billion dollars they spent.
It was a complete theft of the billion dollars. All
that money was ripped off. It was supposed to help homeless,
mentally ill people. Nothing good came of it. Billion dollars
(26:51):
disappeared just in New York City. Normal people in New
York City are shocked. But what did you think was
going to happen. He's going to ruin the place. Worst
case scenario is occurring in New York City, and if
(27:12):
they keep electing democratic socialists in LA, it's going to
get far, far worse than you can imagine. These people
are not here to embrace America democracy, capitalism, freedom. They're
going to loot the place. They're going to let the
criminals run them up and run free, and they're going
to destroy our way of life. They've been bubbling under
(27:34):
the surface here for about twenty years, and now it's
in critical mass. They're awfully patient and the plan is
working right to form. So you've been warned. You keep
watching New York City when we come back. And here's
(27:55):
what's enabled a lot of these destructive forces to gain
power much of the country is no longer paying attention
to anything because they're busy scrolling and reading social media,
and a whole entire generation of children their brains have
been destroyed by it. Australia has realized this and has
(28:17):
now banning social media for kids under the age of sixteen.
And there's one Democratic candidate here in America who said
we ought to do the same thing, a Democratic candidate.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
We'll talk about it next.
Speaker 4 (28:30):
You're listening to John Cobels on demand from KFI Am
six forty.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
I'll get to the Australia banning social media for kids
under sixteen coming up at a little bit. But just
during the commercial break, I was scrolling around and found
that the story that we focused on yesterday is this
resurfaced internet clip from last summer of Gavin Newsom claiming
that during the Palisades blaze, his hair caught fire.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
If you haven't heard this, play a short clip.
Speaker 9 (29:03):
I was up there in the hills with these guys
and we all turned around when my hair literally burst on.
There's a video of it, and they threw me in
the car. The guy hits my hair and throws me
in the car. Got out of here and these guys
there's no hose in the world attached to a thing
that mattered.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
At that point, you got that his hair literally caught fire.
Now the word literally means literally actually happened in reality.
This is not a metaphor, this is not a fable.
His hair was on fire and somebody threw him in
a car and somehow stamped out pat it out the
(29:41):
blaze on his head. And it's very possible, you know,
with all thosezembers flying around, that, with all the chemicals
and foreign substances in his hair, that it could catch
fire and possibly even explode. So that was in the
middle of a four hour long podcast. Asked what was
the guy's name, I want to give him credit, Sean Ryan.
(30:03):
Sean Ryan, all right, from last summer. Well, somebody finally
made it to that point in the conversation, put it
out on the internet, and now the New York Post
just picked it up in the past hour. The headline
is Gavin Newsom roasted for claiming hair literally burst into
flames during California wildfire. In fact, here's the lead sentence
(30:25):
in the post, liar, liar, hair on fire. Question mark
Because apparently a lot of people on social media and
I don't know why they're acting this way.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
They don't believe him. They think he made up the story.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
And the governor's office provided the Post with a video,
but the footage the footage did not capture the moment
that the hair became inflamed.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
So they actually sent out some.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
Footage to prove that it happened, except it was on
the footage. Nick Schuler, a Cowfire deputy director, is seen
standing next to Newsome in the video, and Schuler said
told the Post they were on the scene for five minutes.
Embers started to rain down, strong winds began to push
(31:18):
the trash cans along the road, and embers were beginning
to cast down and catch palm trees on fire. And
as I was talking with him, one went into his hair.
That's what I smacked or brushed it out of his hair.
What he said about his hair being about to catch
fire was accurate, he said, well, he didn't say his
(31:38):
hair was about to catch fire.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
Play that again.
Speaker 9 (31:44):
I was up there in the hills with these guys
and we all turned around when my hair literally burst
on There's a video of it, and they threw me
in the car.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
My hair literally burst into my hair literally burst into
and then he suddenly switched as in the sentence.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
Played again. I was up there in the hills with these.
Speaker 9 (32:05):
Guys and we all turned around when my hair literally
burst on there's a video of it, and they threw
me in the car. The guy hits my hair and
throws me in the car, says, got out.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
Of here, so it didn't burst into flames. That's that's
what he said. Missed the last word there. He kind
of switched to switched course and burst I think is
a bit of an exaggeration at the very least. So
(32:38):
Schuler saw there was something. There was an ember sitting
in his hair, and he just smacked it and brushed
it out, So he made it sound like he was
in some kind of grave danger there. Other newspapers are
now picking this up as well, but there is no
video of this happening. We will keep on top of
(33:01):
this story. Now quickly about Australia. It looks like Australia
is banning people under the age of sixteen from having
accounts on the following platforms Facebook, Instagram, snapchat, threads, TikTok,
twitch x YouTube, kick reddit, other other social media platforms
(33:29):
that are used primarily for messaging or gaming will still
be allowed like discord, messenger, pinterest, WhatsApp, YouTube kids. Now,
how they're going to enforce this, I don't know, because
they can't use driver's licenses that would violate privacy laws.
There is one guy running for president. You may be
(33:51):
familiar with his name. He used to be He used
to be Obama's chief of staff. He's actually reasonable, he's
thinking they're running for president Ram Emmanuel, and he says
the US ought to follow Australia's lead and bad children
under the age of sixteen for most social media because
of the obvious risks to everybody's brain, because every of
(34:16):
the children's brains are turning into puddles of mush being
on social media, and it's destroying their emotional stability, their
emotional development. It's actually turning them into a different species almost,
And so Ram Emmanuel says, yes, we should ban it here,
just like they're doing it in Australia. I saw the
(34:38):
hypnotic effect of scrolling. I know this woman was scrolling
her Instagram or texting or what. Young woman, probably in
her twenties, and she's jogging this morning like a reddish
orange running suit, running full blast while staring at the
phone or maybe typing on the phone. I don't know
(34:58):
if people do that. I get I can't move and
read at the same time. But she is running pretty fast, reading, scrolling, typing,
and stops just short of walking in front of my
car as I'm making a left turn down the side
street headed to the bagel shop. Nearly nearly took her out.
I didn't see her coming, she was running so fast.
(35:21):
Didn't see her in the last second, and then she
suddenly hit the brake because she was glued to that
stupid screen. All right, when we come back, we got
something coming up here we have Oh yes, Michael Cureth
is coming on Pacific Palisades Resident. He's a survivor of
the fire lost his home. He's an expert witness in
(35:42):
the case, and he has a website called fireybuild dot
com with a list of facts about the event and
other detailed information covering the whole investigation. Michael Kureth from
the Palisades coming up next, and in for Debor Mark.
It is Regina Dean Castino live in the CAFI twenty
(36:02):
four our newsroom.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
Hey, you've been listening to the John Cobalt Show. Podcast.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
You can always hear the show live 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.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
You're listening to the John Cobelt podcast on the iHeartRadio
app on every day from one until four o'clock. Podcast
released after for John Cobelt's show on demand as same
as the radio show, and you can follow us at
John Cobelt Radio on social media and look at the
videos from last night's CNN show with Alex Michaelson. The
(00:22):
story is because I was on a debate panel with
civil rights attorney A Reeve of Martin and it's good stuff.
We talk a lot about it in the last hour
and you should look at the clips yourself. It's on
all the social media platforms all right. Now we go
to Maine and Rich Mhugh We've had on a number
(00:43):
of times. It's an investigative reporter for News Nation cable
television news operation, and he has a story on a
whistleblower in Maine connected with a health services company called
Gateway Community Services. And just like in Maine where you
had a large number of Somali Americans involved in a
(01:06):
billion dollar scam, you have a similar situation with a
Somali American owned company, Gateway, and apparently there's a lot
of fraudulent medicaid hanky panky going on.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Let's get Rich mceugh on the show. Here, Rich, how
are you.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
I'm good, John, how are you?
Speaker 1 (01:28):
I'm good? Tell us what is going on in Maine?
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Now, Well, I should preface that by saying I was
in reporting on this stuff in Minnesota two and a
half weeks ago before the whole thing kind of broke,
and I was one of the reporters there who had
talked to federal sources that confirmed that money was ultimately
(01:51):
going back to Somalia and then into the hands of
Al Shabab that came to me from federal sources.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Which is a terrorist opinion organization, Yeah, Somalia. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
So in the process of that, I got tipped off that, hey,
you should look into Lewiston, Maine, and I was like,
what's going on in Lewiston, Maine? Well, a lot is
going on here. There is a it's called Gateway Community Services.
It is a Somali you know, American led health services
contractor that basically audits from the from the state have
(02:29):
found from the health and human services here that they
have over built you know, in one audit they were
they were found to have overbuilt by approximately nine hundred
thousand dollars. This means like, and I spoke to a
whistleblower who summarized it for me, that they would they
have these you know services, and they would have people
(02:51):
go out to see people, whether it's children with autism
or elderly people, and that they would clock in their
hours and what they were doing allegedly was overbilling. They
would they would sometimes they would never even show, but
they were build for it. And then they would build
the Medicaid, which is like here in Maine, it's called
main Care, but it's essentially Medicaid. So they're they're they're
(03:12):
billing you know, taxpayer or taxpayers are paying.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
For this essentially.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
And the Main Wire has done a lot of reporting
on this here. They are a smaller, you know, main
focused operation, reporting operation, but they've been reporting on this
for a while, and nobody has been paying attention. And
so I came in and I've kind of like tried
to uncover what I.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
What I can.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
I spoke to this whistleblower he had sought a federal
whistle blower protection from Department of Homeland Security. In April
of twenty twenty four, he was told you got to
go back to the state of Maine that you got
to you gotta report this within Maine. He did. He
went to a tip line, reported it and believes that
(03:56):
he triggered an audit. We don't know what happened with
that audit officially because we don't have the documents yet.
We put in a foil for them, but it takes
eons to get anything here. Well, he was fired, Yeah,
he was fired, and they just did away with his position.
And so now he's moved out of state. He's kind
(04:17):
of moving on with starting over. Basically, he lives in
Florida and he's just coming to grips with all this.
And in the process of it, Uh, we've come to
learn that the man who started this foundation gave Way
community services. He was a founder and executive director at
the same time he was the executive director. Last year
(04:39):
he was running for president of Jubiland, which is a
section of Somalia, and in a in a media Kenyan media,
he talked openly about how he was and I want
to quote this because I had it translated. He said,
(05:00):
when I was away and abroad, the financial contributions I
was sending back were being used to support the forces
for buying bullets, ammunition and food. He's talking about paramilitary
forces over there, which you know, if you run for
president over there, apparently you have to have a militia
because the entire country is you know, it's not really
(05:22):
a functioning country.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Like a state within the larger country. I'm sorry, go ahead.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
It's just the more we peel away at this, the
more bonkers it gets, honestly. So that's what I was
just going to say.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Abdullah Ali is the man who was running for president
of Jubi Land, and that's in a state in the
south of Somalia that borders on Kenya.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
This this We've We've asked him for comment. I've gone
to the gateway. They went in there last week and
they basically I introduced. I said Hi, I'm with News
Nation and they closed the window. They slammed the window
shit and said no comment, no comment. I said, before
I could even say my name or what I was
there to do, and I was asking for mister Ali. Obviously,
(06:12):
he posted on Twitter sort of a defense saying, look,
I am proud of my and I'm paraphrasing here, buddy said,
I've made this money and I'm proud to contribute to
my main community. I'm also proud to contribute back to
my people back home, you know, and essentially you.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Guys got this all wrong.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
But that's where it stands. I've reached out to Governor
Mills Jant Mills here repeatedly since last week.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Heard nothing.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
I've also reached out to the head of Health and
Human Services here. I've got nothing. I've reached out there.
There are three Democratic Somali American members of the House
of Representatives here in Maine. I've reached out to all
of them several times asking them to weigh in or
give us your viewpoint. Nobody, John, nobody, Nobody will respond
(07:07):
to me.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Well, they saw what happened in Minnesota, so that they're
all shutting down. There's two thousand, seven hundred and thirty
residents who are Somali as of two years ago.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Yeah, I think that number is actually much much higher.
But yeah, that's you know, that's officially by twenty twenty
three or twenty twenty two counts.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
So this this gateway Community Services, according to your story,
got almost twenty nine million dollars in payments from main
Care from twenty nineteen to twenty twenty four that's Maine's
version of Medicare.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
And that was after that was after an audit found
them in violation and overbilling by nine hundred thousand dollars.
People here tell me that this is this is just
they get no big contracts. They just they get handed
this stuff. And it's really hard to wrap your brain
around as a reporter here. I feel like I've walked
(08:08):
into a twilight zone of sorts where nobody is, nobody
who in the position of authority will respond, and they're
just letting this happen. And yeah, they are well aware
of it.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
You know, in Minnesota, it's obvious some of the motivation
for the government to look away was that there were
eighty million Somali Americans and their voters, and they wanted
to get that an incentive to keep the Somali community
happy and not stigmatize them in their mind in any way.
(08:44):
I'm sure they got plenty of political contributions. That's why
I brought up the number of Somali residents, because that's
a I know Maine is much smaller, but it's only
twenty seven hundred and thirty people.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
I don't think they would.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Have enough political power for the ruling, for the ruling
government to justify allowing this sort of fraud.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
Well, I don't totally understand it myself. I know that
there are three members of the main House of Representatives
who are Somali American, which I believe is among the
most in the country, you know, per state. Uh, and
for such a little state, that's that's sort of remarkable,
you know. Yeah, that's lot also told that that this
(09:27):
You know, if you're looking for the type of fraud
that has happened in Minnesota, look to Maine, to Ohio, uh,
look to Seattle. Like I think this story is in
its infancy.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
Frankly, Yeah, well, Rich, thank you for coming on.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
After the commercial break, I'm going to play the the
the audio of your news Nation TV story so they
could people can connect all the dots here. Thank you
for coming on, and any time you have any follow
up on any of this, all right, Rich mceugh investigative reporter,
a great one for news station, the cable TV station.
And when we come back, you'll hear his official report
(10:07):
on the whistleblower, whose name is Christopher Benardini. Now, what
do you think is going on here in California? When
you got the whopper one billion in Minnesota, which is
compared to California. Sparsely populated Maine is really tiny compared
to California. You've got all this Somali American fraud going on.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
What do you think is going on here in California?
More coming up.
Speaker 4 (10:37):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Moistline is on Friday eight seven seven Moist daty six
eight seven seven moist daty six or used the talkback
feature on the iHeartRadio app and you can follow us
at John Cobelt Radio on social media and do the
voiceline and you can let out all your frustration. Well,
we've got another story involving government fraud and Somali Americans,
(11:07):
and this is Maine, the state's medicaid program. It's known
as main Care, and two of the characters is Christopher Bernardini.
He is the whistleblower and he has since relocated to
Florida in the aftermath of everything that he's revealed. The
(11:30):
company's founder and CEO is Abdullah Abdullah high Ali, who
was running for office in Somalia at the same time.
He was serving as executive director of that company, and
they're getting accused of creating fraud in which they stole
(11:52):
tens of millions of dollars with phony medicaid payments, tony
Medicaid charge and invoices. We just had Rich mcew on.
Here is the formal report he did on News Nation.
Speaker 5 (12:07):
I thought that we were doing the right thing this
whole time. And more I started digging, the more I
started finding, and I just couldn't believe what I was seeing,
that this was happening and I was part of this.
Speaker 6 (12:16):
Chris Bernardini spent seven years working for Gateway Community Services
as Somali American led health services contractor in Maine. Bernardined
alleges Gateway oversaw a system in which false records were
filed about client visits, and he says they charged taxpayers
for providing services that were never performed.
Speaker 5 (12:36):
We started getting some clients saying that calling and saying,
you know, months later that their client owed them hours.
They hadn't come in for these shifts and stuff, but
I had a time card for it, and I know
billing for it.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
They were billing for it.
Speaker 6 (12:47):
In March of twenty twenty two, Gateway received a notice
of violation from the state's main Care Services Program Integrity
Unit based on an audit of records taken at random
from January twenty seventeenth through this of twenty eighteen, Gateway
over billed by an estimated nine hundred and four thousand dollars.
In your professional opinion, what you saw was fraud, absolute,
(13:10):
no doubt about it, no doubt about it. But Bernardini says,
when the pandemic hit, it got worse.
Speaker 5 (13:15):
I started seeing bonuses, two thousand dollars, bonuses going to
the staff that had only been with us for two weeks,
never worked a shift with a client, and yet the
PPP loan comes there. You're giving two thousand dollars away
like their lollipops at a doctor's office.
Speaker 6 (13:33):
In April of twenty twenty four, Bernardini wrote to the
Department of Homeland Security seeking whistleblower protection. They referred him
back to the state of Maine. Nearly a year later,
Gateway fired Bernardini. The company's founder and CEO is abdu
Lahi Ali, a Somali American who, while at the time
serving as executive director for Gateway. Last year ran for
(13:55):
president of Jubiland, a state in Somalia South that borders Kenya.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (14:00):
Last week he posted on X I make no apologies
for building a successful business in Maine, working hard to
earn a living, earning my PhD, giving back to my
main community, and running for office in Jubiland. I am
proud to contribute my hard earned dollars to support my
people back home. We reached out to Ali for comment
multiple times. We even came to Gateway to try and
(14:22):
speak with him.
Speaker 7 (14:22):
Hello, I'm with News Nation. My name is No comment
is mister Ali here? Can we speak with mister Ali.
Speaker 6 (14:31):
Republican State Senator Matt Harrington has called on Governor Janet
Mills to investigate.
Speaker 8 (14:36):
Just an absolutely insult to the main tax fair that
we know that there's this Medicaid for aud going on
by Gateway Community Services. We're saying nothing from the Mills
administration on this, and I think it's appalling.
Speaker 5 (14:47):
I still can't believe it. I still can't believe I
took so much of my time and put so much
of my life into this agency that just tossed me aside.
It's caused me to reflect a lot, and you know,
try to trust my gut more and speak up more
when I see something's.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Not right now.
Speaker 7 (15:07):
We've reached out repeatedly to mister Ali to Gateway behind me.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
We've reached out to Governor.
Speaker 7 (15:13):
Janet Mills, the head of Health and Human Services here.
We've even reached out to the three Democratic Somalian American
state reps.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
Here.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Nobody would speak with us. Of course, nobody would speak
with us that familiar.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Try getting Karen Bassard Gavin news And to ask about
where all the blown homeless money went, Where all the
blown COVID uninsurance money went.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Where all the blown high speed rail money went.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Same thing.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
You got a lot of no comment, not available, You.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Get a dial tone. In Rich mc hughes's print story
for News Nation, he said there's a second whistle blower,
and the second whistleblower said, I saw many things happening
that shouldn't have been, time cards being manipulated to show
(16:01):
services being provided that were not provided, times being manipulated.
He also had more quotes from Bernardini, the original whistleblower.
He said, I got worse during the COVID pandemic because
that's when the federal government was handing out a trillion dollars.
You ever hear of the PPP, the Paycheck Protection Program. Sure,
(16:22):
once the PPP loan stuff started going on, this one
really took me off, because all of a sudden, I
started seeing these new staff come aboard. They'd be on
board for two or three weeks, no hours worked. I'd
put in their training hours, and I started seeing bonuses,
two thousand dollars bonuses going to this staff that.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Had been with us for two weeks.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Excuse me, they never worked a shift with a client,
and yet the PPP loan comes. They're giving two thousand
dollars away like lollipops at the doctor's office. And I'm like,
where the hell's my two thousand dollars bonus? I've been
here six or seven years.
Speaker 6 (17:00):
Now.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Do you think this is all accidental?
Speaker 2 (17:03):
That they allowed this massive immigration coming in from Somalia.
They clustered in out of the way towns in places
like Minnesota and Maine. They created a political base, some
political power.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
And next thing you know, certain people.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Have access to the stream of welfare and health benefits
by the millions, eventually over a billion in Minnesota.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
And that in Minnesota, some of the money is.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Sent back home to al Shabab, a terrorist organization and
in Maine, some of the money ends up in Jubiland.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
I'm not making this up.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
Jubiland a state in Somalia, and the guy running this
sketchy company was running to be president of Jubiland. That's
like the governor taking our tax money, your tax money,
because these medicaid programs are federal tax dollars. So he
took our tax money, came up with a fraud system
(18:13):
in Maine, then ran off to Jubiland to become the
president there, took the money with him.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
You can't make this stuff up.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
I'm sure it's all a series of coincidences and accidents
and everybody looked the other way, and nobody has a
single comment about it today.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
It's fascinating when we come back.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Oh wait till you hear the stories that are going
to be coming out of New York City over the
next few years. We have two big ones, two whoppers.
Zorn Mamdanie the incoming mayor. He's starting to put together
his advisors and starting to announce his policies.
Speaker 4 (18:58):
You're listening to John Coop else on demand from KFI
A six forty.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
We are on the radio every day from one until
four o'clock. After four o'clock, it's the podcast John Cobelt's
Show on demand and you can listen to us there. Oh,
you want to watch our YouTube segments, you can subscribe
at YouTube dot com slash at John Cobelt's Show. YouTube
dot com slash at John cobelt Show. You should do that,
(19:26):
and also on the social media sites. We have video
clips of last night's appearance on CNN Alex Michaelson's The
Story Is, which is on nine to eleven every weeknight,
and I was on a panel with civil rights attorney
Reeva Martin, and we had some a couple of feisty discussions,
(19:47):
including one about Gavin Newsom being turned away by the
Trump administration. Nope, he couldn't get a meeting. Talk more
about that next hour, But first we like to tell
you what's coming. There's a lot of crap that's going
to hit California probably within the next two years. I
told you all these investigations into these corrupt welfare and
(20:12):
medicare programs in Minnesota and now Maine. Imagine what they'll
find in California when they start doing or finishing investigations.
Imagine the corruption and the stolen money here in Los
Angeles and in Sacramento with Bassian.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
Newsom also wats for.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
Increasing influence from the Democratic Socialists of America the DSA.
This is separate from the Democratic Party, even though they
use that word Democratic Socialists of America. It's entirely different.
And the DSA now has four seats on the LA
City Council. The city Controller is a DSA member. There
(20:53):
are many people in LA government belonging to the DSA,
and in New York City the DSA. As the new
mayor Mamdani who will be coming in to office in
a matter of weeks. DOMI, now you are not going
to believe this stuff. He is putting together his transition team,
the various committees that are going to be advising him
(21:17):
on how to govern the City of New York. And
he has picked a new advisor to help him understand
the criminal justice system. And he picked an armed robber,
a convicted armed robber. Seriously, Zoran Mandami has selected my
(21:43):
son Lennon.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
He's forty nine.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
He is a state felon, a convict who became an activist.
He committed two armed robberies of two taxi drivers back
in the nineteen nineties. He and others robbed on June eighth,
nineteen ninety seven, a taxi driver named Joseph Iziri, and
then some nine months later, March thirty first, nineteen ninety eight,
(22:13):
at gunpoint, they robbed Cabby Francisco Monsanto. He got a
sentence of seven to fourteen years, got paroled in July
of two thousand and six. He faced up to twenty
five years behind bars. It looked like maybe he got
six or seven. And now he's going to be on
(22:35):
Zorn Mamdani's Criminal Legal System Transitional Committee. Lennon went on
Instagram and said, this is a testament to our decades
of work advocating on behalf of black and brown communities
and our expertise and gun violence prevention. This is a
guy who's part of a group that pulled guns on
(22:57):
two cab drivers. Also legislative advocacy and criminal justice reform.
You know what Lennon was before he became a professional
armed robber. He was a rapper, of course.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
You know.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
I went on Wikipedia once in just stead of curiosity,
and I just typed in the question I look for
this answer, how many rap stars had been murdered and
at the time the number was about sixty two. And
then I also typed in how many country stars have
been murdered? No, that was zero. It was sixty two
(23:35):
to nothing. The conviction came just as his debut album
was going to be released by deaf Jam Recordings.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
What a tough break, huh.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Could have been a big rap star headed for possibly
a big music career. Def Jam is one of the
big record companies at the time, and instead he holds
up two taxi drivers with his buddies. But they let
him out and now he's on a criminal justice transition
committee for Zorn Mamdani. Also on the committee listen to
(24:09):
these picks the former Maryland Department of Juvenile Services chief
Vincent Shiraldi, who had to resign he was accused of
shoddy oversight and contract mismanagement at his agency. Mam Donnie
put him on this committee as well. Another person is
(24:34):
named Lumumba Bendaley. He's on the committee on community organizing.
He's a Black nationalist and leader of the Malcolm X
grassroots movement. He has rallied behind a number of cop killers.
He's on the committee. He rallies for cop killers. He
(25:00):
Mom Donnie has named four hundred people to these transition committees.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
Here's a few of the others.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
A Brooklyn College sociology professor named Alex Vittali, who years
ago wrote an anti cop book that said the New
York Police Department's broken windows policing was a side of
ingrained racism. And he's on the Committee on Community Safety.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
Let's see.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
Zachariah Shakir i'msari is co director of the Alliance Quality Education,
far left activist. He's going to be on the Committee
on Youth and Education. He also praised a cop killer
named Asata Shakur.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
S that's the second.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
Committee member who has praised a cop killer, Asada Shakur.
Ben Fernas, he's head of the Transportation Alternatives Committee. He
hates cars, he wants to shut down traffic, has all
kinds of bizarre proposals. So of course he's on the
(26:07):
Committee of Transportation, Climate, and Infrastructure. This is about destroying civilization.
They've gotten into the system. They are now running the system.
The people who want to destroy the American system are
now running the system in New York City.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
You just wait. Susan Herman, she.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
Used to run the old mayor and Bill de Blasio's
organization called Thrive New York City billion dollars they spent.
It was a complete theft of the billion dollars. All
that money was ripped off. It was supposed to help homeless,
mentally ill people. Nothing good came of it. Billion dollars
(26:51):
disappeared just in New York City. Normal people in New
York City are shocked. But what did you think was
going to happen. He's going to ruin the place. Worst
case scenario is occurring in New York City, and if
(27:12):
they keep electing democratic socialists in LA, it's going to
get far, far worse than you can imagine. These people
are not here to embrace America democracy, capitalism, freedom. They're
going to loot the place. They're going to let the
criminals run them up and run free, and they're going
to destroy our way of life. They've been bubbling under
(27:34):
the surface here for about twenty years, and now it's
in critical mass. They're awfully patient and the plan is
working right to form. So you've been warned. You keep
watching New York City when we come back. And here's
(27:55):
what's enabled a lot of these destructive forces to gain
power much of the country is no longer paying attention
to anything because they're busy scrolling and reading social media,
and a whole entire generation of children their brains have
been destroyed by it. Australia has realized this and has
(28:17):
now banning social media for kids under the age of sixteen.
And there's one Democratic candidate here in America who said
we ought to do the same thing, a Democratic candidate.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
We'll talk about it next.
Speaker 4 (28:30):
You're listening to John Cobels on demand from KFI Am
six forty.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
I'll get to the Australia banning social media for kids
under sixteen coming up at a little bit. But just
during the commercial break, I was scrolling around and found
that the story that we focused on yesterday is this
resurfaced internet clip from last summer of Gavin Newsom claiming
that during the Palisades blaze, his hair caught fire.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
If you haven't heard this, play a short clip.
Speaker 9 (29:03):
I was up there in the hills with these guys
and we all turned around when my hair literally burst on.
There's a video of it, and they threw me in
the car. The guy hits my hair and throws me
in the car. Got out of here and these guys
there's no hose in the world attached to a thing
that mattered.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
At that point, you got that his hair literally caught fire.
Now the word literally means literally actually happened in reality.
This is not a metaphor, this is not a fable.
His hair was on fire and somebody threw him in
a car and somehow stamped out pat it out the
(29:41):
blaze on his head. And it's very possible, you know,
with all thosezembers flying around, that, with all the chemicals
and foreign substances in his hair, that it could catch
fire and possibly even explode. So that was in the
middle of a four hour long podcast. Asked what was
the guy's name, I want to give him credit, Sean Ryan.
(30:03):
Sean Ryan, all right, from last summer. Well, somebody finally
made it to that point in the conversation, put it
out on the internet, and now the New York Post
just picked it up in the past hour. The headline
is Gavin Newsom roasted for claiming hair literally burst into
flames during California wildfire. In fact, here's the lead sentence
(30:25):
in the post, liar, liar, hair on fire. Question mark
Because apparently a lot of people on social media and
I don't know why they're acting this way.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
They don't believe him. They think he made up the story.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
And the governor's office provided the Post with a video,
but the footage the footage did not capture the moment
that the hair became inflamed.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
So they actually sent out some.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
Footage to prove that it happened, except it was on
the footage. Nick Schuler, a Cowfire deputy director, is seen
standing next to Newsome in the video, and Schuler said
told the Post they were on the scene for five minutes.
Embers started to rain down, strong winds began to push
(31:18):
the trash cans along the road, and embers were beginning
to cast down and catch palm trees on fire. And
as I was talking with him, one went into his hair.
That's what I smacked or brushed it out of his hair.
What he said about his hair being about to catch
fire was accurate, he said, well, he didn't say his
(31:38):
hair was about to catch fire.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
Play that again.
Speaker 9 (31:44):
I was up there in the hills with these guys
and we all turned around when my hair literally burst
on There's a video of it, and they threw me
in the car.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
My hair literally burst into my hair literally burst into
and then he suddenly switched as in the sentence.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
Played again. I was up there in the hills with these.
Speaker 9 (32:05):
Guys and we all turned around when my hair literally
burst on there's a video of it, and they threw
me in the car. The guy hits my hair and
throws me in the car, says, got out.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
Of here, so it didn't burst into flames. That's that's
what he said. Missed the last word there. He kind
of switched to switched course and burst I think is
a bit of an exaggeration at the very least. So
(32:38):
Schuler saw there was something. There was an ember sitting
in his hair, and he just smacked it and brushed
it out, So he made it sound like he was
in some kind of grave danger there. Other newspapers are
now picking this up as well, but there is no
video of this happening. We will keep on top of
(33:01):
this story. Now quickly about Australia. It looks like Australia
is banning people under the age of sixteen from having
accounts on the following platforms Facebook, Instagram, snapchat, threads, TikTok,
twitch x YouTube, kick reddit, other other social media platforms
(33:29):
that are used primarily for messaging or gaming will still
be allowed like discord, messenger, pinterest, WhatsApp, YouTube kids. Now,
how they're going to enforce this, I don't know, because
they can't use driver's licenses that would violate privacy laws.
There is one guy running for president. You may be
(33:51):
familiar with his name. He used to be He used
to be Obama's chief of staff. He's actually reasonable, he's
thinking they're running for president Ram Emmanuel, and he says
the US ought to follow Australia's lead and bad children
under the age of sixteen for most social media because
of the obvious risks to everybody's brain, because every of
(34:16):
the children's brains are turning into puddles of mush being
on social media, and it's destroying their emotional stability, their
emotional development. It's actually turning them into a different species almost,
And so Ram Emmanuel says, yes, we should ban it here,
just like they're doing it in Australia. I saw the
(34:38):
hypnotic effect of scrolling. I know this woman was scrolling
her Instagram or texting or what. Young woman, probably in
her twenties, and she's jogging this morning like a reddish
orange running suit, running full blast while staring at the
phone or maybe typing on the phone. I don't know
(34:58):
if people do that. I get I can't move and
read at the same time. But she is running pretty fast, reading, scrolling, typing,
and stops just short of walking in front of my
car as I'm making a left turn down the side
street headed to the bagel shop. Nearly nearly took her out.
I didn't see her coming, she was running so fast.
(35:21):
Didn't see her in the last second, and then she
suddenly hit the brake because she was glued to that
stupid screen. All right, when we come back, we got
something coming up here we have Oh yes, Michael Cureth
is coming on Pacific Palisades Resident. He's a survivor of
the fire lost his home. He's an expert witness in
(35:42):
the case, and he has a website called fireybuild dot
com with a list of facts about the event and
other detailed information covering the whole investigation. Michael Kureth from
the Palisades coming up next, and in for Debor Mark.
It is Regina Dean Castino live in the CAFI twenty
(36:02):
four our newsroom.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
Hey, you've been listening to the John Cobalt Show. Podcast.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
You can always hear the show live 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
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John Kobylt
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