January 8, 2025 • 31 mins
More on the fires across the Southland. Replay of the interview with Rick Caruso regarding the fire in Pacific Palisades. David Blevins from Sky News comes on the show to talk about asking Mayor Karen Bass if she owes residents an apology for being in Ghana when the fires initially broke out and Bass completely ignored Blevins.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Can't.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
I am six forty.
Speaker 3 (00:02):
You're listening to the John Cobelt Podcast on the iHeartRadio app.
We're on every day from one until four, and then
after four o'clock John Cobelt Show on demand on the
iHeart app. Well, listen to this. We've been telling you
about Karen Vass, the inept incompetent mayor Los Angeles who
sent out a tweet warning us all about the firestorm,
(00:24):
the windstorm that was threatening us. But she went to Ghana, Africa.
Why some politician was getting inaugurated and she'd rather be there.
She knew this was coming, and then she stayed there
after warning everybody it's like, oh you know, extreme fire danger,
red flat warnings, high wind mornings. Oh it's life threatening,
(00:47):
it's dangerous. Stayed in Ghana, finally flew back and landed
early this afternoon. She I guess this is her coming
off the coming out of the airport.
Speaker 4 (00:59):
Yeah, she's like the air tunnel, like right as you
get off the air Yeah. Remember she cut the budget
of the fire department. The fire department, county and city said, hey,
we were overwhelmed. We don't have the resources, they don't
have the manpower, and in the Palisades, the city, fire department, County,
whoever showed up there.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Everybody showed up out of water. They were out of
water after seventeen hours, no more water for the Palisades fire.
So there's at least a thousand buildings that have burned.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
How you be out of water?
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Well, Sky News reporter David Blevins, And by the way,
the British guys frequently are the ones to do the
dirty work because most American reporters don't have the balls
to confront politicians, especially left wing progressive politicians.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
They just can't do that.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Well, David Blevins was courageous and ask Mayor Karen Bass
if she owes La residents an apology for being out
of a country when the fire happened.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Played a clip.
Speaker 5 (02:11):
Do you owe citizens and apology for being absent while
their homes were burning? Do you regret cutting the fire
department budget by millions of dollars?
Speaker 6 (02:19):
Not in there?
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Have you nothing to say today?
Speaker 5 (02:26):
Have you absolutely nothing to say to the citizens today?
Elon Mosque says that you're utterly incompetent. Are you considering
your position, Madam mayor? Have you absolutely nothing to say
to the citizens today you're dealing with this disaster. No
(02:49):
apology for them. Do you think you should have been
visiting Ghana while this was unfolding?
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Back home?
Speaker 7 (03:08):
They're walking down a tunnel here.
Speaker 5 (03:17):
Yeah, now she's walking out of the door, Adam Mayor,
let me ask you just again, have you anything to
say to the citizens today as you returned, Madam Mayor,
(03:37):
just a few words for the citizens today as you
return to do you a catastrophe.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
That is pathetic and infuriating? That was a minute thirty
eight of Karen Bass refusing to speak when the British
reporter asked, do you owe an apology to the La
residents for not being around when the fire erupted?
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Said?
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Nothing to say to everybody, nothing, let alone an apology.
Nothing And again it took a British reporter to do that.
There was a post on x by a financial company
Geiger Capital, courting Rick Caruso. Rick Carroso in this post
(04:36):
is described as a billionaire real estate developer called into
La local news and Rick said, this is like a
third world country. There is no water coming out of
the fire. Hydrants. La Mayor Karen Bass is on a
foreign trip to Ghana. Elon Musk retweeted that post, and
(04:57):
then Musk wrote, Obama made sure that Rick Caruso, who
is extremely competent, lost to utterly incompetent Mayor Karen her
real name, Mayor Careen. And Musk is absolutely right, and
so is Geiger Capital and Rick Caruso. There is no
(05:22):
excuse for this. There is no excuse for cutting the
budget of the fire Department, increasing homeless spending to one
point three billion dollars, increasing homelessness when the homeless start
nearly fourteen thousand fires a year.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Who started this one in the Palisades? We don't know?
Speaker 3 (05:45):
And then Trump posted on a truth social that Governor
Gavin Neuscomb refused to sign the Water Restoration Declaration that
would have allowed millions of gallons of water from excess
rain and snow melt from the north to float daily
into many parts of California, including the areas that are
currently burning in a virtually apocalyptic way. He wanted to
(06:08):
protect an essentially worthless fish called the smelt by giving
it less water. It didn't work, but didn't care about
the people of California. Now the ultimate price is being paid.
I will demand that this incompetent governor allow beautiful, clean
fresh water to float into California. He's to blame for this.
On top of it, no water for the fire hydrants
(06:30):
nor the firefighting planes. A true disaster. Truck talked about
this when he was on our show back in October.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Listen, California's crazy. You could be so rich, you have
such great resources. And if you even think about putting
a rig that nobody would even see.
Speaker 8 (06:44):
They they look like beautiful trees.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Now if you look, if you even think about it,
they put you in jail. I mean, it is crazy.
And they have no money. You know, you have another thing.
You have a lot of water, but basically you're always
in a drought. You know, in in your richer areas
like Beverly Hills and all. They want to give you
a very little amount of water. You buy a house,
(07:07):
spend a lot of money, and they say you're allowed
to use twenty nine gallons of water. Do you know
that you have water coming in by millions and millions
of gallons up from the north and they send the
water out into the Pacific Ocean. They don't let it
come down.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Yeah, to save a fish that they can't they to
save a fish they can't even find anymore.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
A fish called the smelt.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Yes, the delta smelt doesn't do.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Well, the delta smelt. And to save this little tiny
fish that, by the way, is dying for a different reason.
It's got no water. You know, before they had water.
Now it's got no water. So it's dying anyway. But
to save the delta smelt, which is not an important fish,
and by the way, is in other areas too, But
for that millions of gallons of water, millions and millions,
(07:53):
I've seen it. It's like a giant forcet. It takes
all of that water coming down from way up north,
from the snow melts and all it's pouring down. And
that's why you have all those empty fields along the
highway where you have the farming area. You know, you
have the best land in the country just about. But
they took the water away. And what would that do
(08:16):
to your forest fires? You could let the water. I mean,
you have so much water.
Speaker 6 (08:20):
And they let it go out.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
And you know, I had it all done.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
It was all done.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
The hardest part was a federal It was all done.
Gavin Nooscombe refused to sign. It was Department of Commerce,
that got it done, and he refused to sign.
Speaker 8 (08:36):
And think of this.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
You have so much water and they send it out
into the Pacific Ocean, which for the Pacific Ocean is
like a drop. You understand that.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
Oh yeah, it's billions of gallons, but it's nothing compared
to what's out in the ocean. All right, It's Trump
on October eighth, and he reiterated some of that on
his social media site today. Newsom has horrible water policy.
They have horrible fire policy in this state. They did
not do controlled burns for many years. They still didn't
(09:09):
do controlled burns for a lot of the brush in
Pacific Palisades. Coming up after three thirty, we're gonna have
a Rick Caruso on. We talked with him earlier. We're
going to replay it. He covered much of this from
his perspective. He used to be a commissioner for DWP,
and you know, he suffered and his family suffered as
(09:31):
a shopping center in the Palisades was damaged. His daughter
lost her house, his son's house was damaged. I don't
know how badly. Rick was on with us earlier. In
the show, we're going to replay it. You listen to
his knowledge of what goes on. Have you ever heard
Karen Bass talk like this? You listened to Rick and
See if you ever remember Karen.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Bass saying anything.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
In fact, we're gonna play Karen Bass again later this
hour too, literally saying nothing.
Speaker 9 (09:56):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
By the way, I want to thank one of our listeners, Carl.
He got us the video and the audio of Karen
Dass not saying a word coming off the plane at
the airport after flying from Ghana, which is where she
spent the much of the week while Los Angeles was burning,
(10:27):
while Pacific Palisades was getting destroyed. She was in Ghana
because some politician in Africa was getting inaugurated, and that's
what she thought was a priority. And she's she wouldn't respond,
she wouldn't apologize. We're going to play that again before
the end of the hour. Did you get any Deborah,
(10:48):
How did she pass out? She's on her phone? I think, Oh,
she on her phone, she's talking on the she's reading
attacks here talking.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
He Wow, that's funny. What did you say? What you
did you know?
Speaker 10 (11:04):
Michael Monks?
Speaker 5 (11:04):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Did you thought she fell asleep? Had your head thought.
Speaker 10 (11:07):
Wow, No, no, I was.
Speaker 6 (11:08):
I was.
Speaker 10 (11:09):
I was sharing something with Michael Monk's.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Well, I know you didn't sleep last night. Oh my god,
she passed out.
Speaker 10 (11:14):
I am about to but that isn't the excuse. So
what did you? What were you ram?
Speaker 3 (11:18):
I was, I was just going to tease you about
not sleeping. Now I did. Two days I did not,
And because the wind was blowing.
Speaker 11 (11:26):
John, when I tell you that, I thought it was
kind of a little I was a little skeptical when
the National Weather Service and the officials were saying life
threatening extreme winds, right, yeah, ninety eight miles per hour
in Woodland Hills last week.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Really ninety eight miles what that sounds like?
Speaker 11 (11:47):
It was terrifying. When I tell you, I have I
have never been so scared in my life.
Speaker 10 (11:52):
I literally was up the entire night. My poor dog
was shitting.
Speaker 11 (11:57):
One of my dogs was shaking like a leaf almost
the whole night because the wind was so loud. We
have really crappy windows in our house and doors, so.
Speaker 10 (12:06):
The hair is blowing through and the doors are making.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
All kinds of you know what you got to be
doing a window in doors?
Speaker 3 (12:11):
Yeah, I know, window company out there that Deborah will
do an endorsement for you if you get her set
a windows.
Speaker 11 (12:17):
Thank you, John, because our windows suck in our house.
I mean when I say suck, I mean truly.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
That shouldn't happen. But your husband slept through it.
Speaker 10 (12:27):
Yes, And I heard the same thing about you.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
Yes, Deborah and my wife were texting each other. Yes,
because both husbands were happily asleep. Yes, and both wives
were waking up the husbands and making a lot of noise.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
I slept like seven hours without any problem.
Speaker 10 (12:44):
That's an hour. How could you have done that?
Speaker 2 (12:46):
That's what night time is for rest?
Speaker 4 (12:48):
How did you?
Speaker 10 (12:49):
How did you sleep knowing that the fire was so
close to you?
Speaker 2 (12:52):
Well, it was five miles away.
Speaker 10 (12:53):
Okay, But again with these embers, you never know what's
going to happen. And your wife is so nervous.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
I'm supposed to sit on the roof.
Speaker 5 (13:00):
And what am I to say that?
Speaker 2 (13:03):
What am I gonna do.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
If you look outside when you see a fire and
say get out of there.
Speaker 11 (13:09):
All I know is every time I woke my husband
up because I said I smell smoke because our windows
are so crappy, so the smoke's coming into our house.
Speaker 10 (13:17):
So I thought our house was on fire.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
He said, why are you waking me up? I'm sleepy. Yeah,
I get pelted with pillows. Television was on all night.
Speaker 10 (13:25):
Well, okay, John, So I couldn't. I couldn't watch television.
Speaker 11 (13:30):
I couldn't even listen to the Kfi app or the
iHeart app because I I didn't.
Speaker 10 (13:36):
I had one charger, so I wanted to keep it.
Speaker 11 (13:39):
One phone charger, an extra portable one, so I didn't
want to waste it. So people kept calling me and
sending me text messages, and so I could see the
power on my on myself, I was dwindled away.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
Yes, so I was all alone, thrown back in the
nineteen hundreds.
Speaker 6 (13:55):
This horrid. Wow.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Look at that. Wow. Everybody want to get transistor rate,
And that's what I am. Radio's for. Because you're not,
nothing else is gonna work.
Speaker 11 (14:03):
I couldn't wait to get into my car so I
can charge my phone and listen.
Speaker 9 (14:06):
To K five.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
You can't believe you don't sleep.
Speaker 10 (14:09):
Don't. And I'm not exaggerating when I say literally, I
did not sleep, not even five minutes.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
I was fine. Well, I have I have a philosophy.
If there's nothing I can do about it. I can't
stop a fire with my bare hands.
Speaker 10 (14:21):
You could evacuate one moment.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
It's time, I knew, But my wife was up, so
I knew if the fire came with within, you know,
two miles of the house.
Speaker 11 (14:29):
In your wife's defense and in my defense, here's the deal.
Sometimes it happened so quick that you don't really have time,
and then there would be no more.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
John Cobbe, I'm a big you know what you got.
You gotta sleep, store up your energy. If it's going
to be fight or flight, you got to be well rested.
It's a good thing. He had his go bags ready.
Speaker 10 (14:47):
To go, though, Well that was not him. I guarantee.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
I pay you did.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
I packed my own bag sure, because I only I
know the proper fire outfits that I would be comfortable
with outfits.
Speaker 10 (15:00):
What's a fire outfit?
Speaker 3 (15:02):
When we come back, Rick Caruso is coming on, Rick,
as you know, famous developer here in La ran for
mayor Karen Bass beat him.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Boy, was that of a mistake? Yikes?
Speaker 3 (15:15):
It's wrong with people anyway. We're going to talk about why,
how how could this happen that our fire department runs
out of water? By the way, you know that's that's
the main headline in the New York Times. This is
a national story, not just the fire, but are here
scarce resources hinder efforts to contain La fires? Scarce resources?
(15:40):
Get me billions of dollars we have in La City,
in La County, you know how.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Much of taxes we pay.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
And they didn't have a glass of water left to
put out the fire in the Palisades.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Talk to Rick about this next.
Speaker 9 (15:55):
You're listening to John Cobels on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
We're on every day from one until four and then
after four o'clock. Whatever you missed, listen to the podcast
John Cobelt's show on demand on the iHeart app. Continuing
our coverage of these massive fires, Oliver Southern California. Pacific
Palisades really has been devastated, and we're going to talk
now with Rick Caruso. You're well aware of him. The
(16:22):
developer ran for mayor last time around owns Palisades village,
and his village and his family suffered quite a bit
of loss in these fires, and he has spoken out.
He was all over television last night about the fire.
Hydrants running drive, the water supply running out for the
fire department here in La Let's get Rick on.
Speaker 6 (16:44):
Rick Welcome, Hey John, how are you?
Speaker 2 (16:49):
I'm fine? But how are you?
Speaker 3 (16:50):
I understand a couple of family members may have lost
their homes.
Speaker 6 (16:55):
Yeah, my daughter lost her home and we lost another home.
But you know, we're all together, and we evacuated our
home also, so but we're all together and we're going
to get through it and trying to work very hard
to support the neighborhood and the community up there. The
devastation as you talked about, John, it's just it's mind blowing.
(17:18):
You can't even get your head around it. Entire neighborhoods
have been wiped out, and so my heart really goes
out to people who have lost so much, because, as
you know, you lose a home, it's not the structure,
it's the memories and all the things that make life deer.
And so many small businesses up there just gone. And
(17:39):
the fire is still, you know, raging on. And but
we're going to do everything we can do to support,
you know, our brave Angelinos and rebuild and certainly support
our first responders that are fighting a good fight. But
I think a lot of tough questions need to be asked.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
By three in the morning on Wednesday, all the fire
hydrants in the Palisades area and dry. They ran out
of water. Nobody understands this. This is I mean we
all saw on TV last night, is that homes are
burning and the firefighters had had no water to put
out the blazes. I mean, what you used to be
a commissioner with the DWP, you got an idea specifically
(18:19):
what went on here.
Speaker 6 (18:22):
Well, actually the fight the Heighten stopped working long before
three o'clock. I think it was about eleven o'clock and
even earlier the firefighters had been complaining to our people
about water pressure and then no water. And it's an
incredible thing to think about, John, this is the second
largest city in the United States and we don't have
(18:44):
hydrants at work. We had a warning of this. I
think we've got a big failure of leadership on this.
How you cannot be prepared for this now. Certainly it's devastating,
the winds are terrible. You could have probably never prevented
all of the damage, but you could have mitigated it.
And I think it goes back to there's been no
(19:05):
brush management program the hills that are controlled by the
city and the state and the county. You know, those
haven't been managed. There's been no control burns for decades.
So you had this enormous amount of fuel and this
fire just took off.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Is there a reason for that?
Speaker 6 (19:25):
We've got a lot of toughs.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Why wouldn't they do the controlled burns?
Speaker 6 (19:30):
You know, I raised it five years ago. If you remember,
we had the fire in Brentwood along the four or
five and thank god it stopped and didn't travel more
to the west. And I was told the city does
not have the resources to do it. But all of
us are old enough we can remember there used to
be control burns and that hasn't happened. So, you know,
(19:53):
we've got a lot of challenges in the city, and
I think at the top of it, we've got to
ask the questions. You know, who's running in the city.
Are they capable of making good decisions? And it's not
just about now, it's about for the last few years.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
But what do you think happened with the water supply?
Speaker 3 (20:15):
I mean, I know it's an extraordinary event, but we
have those extraordinary events every so often.
Speaker 6 (20:21):
Yeah, well, this isn't the first time the Palisades has
burnt down either. So it's not like we didn't have
fair historical warning that this may happen again. It happened
in the sixties. But what I was told is that
the reservoirs that the hydrants there are fed by the
(20:41):
reservoirs and it's a gravity flow, and they didn't manage
the water in the reservoirs properly, so it depleted and
weren't refilling them up quickly enough. So from what I
can see, I could be wrong, but for what I
can see is there is just complete lack of proper
management of this, and I think it's negligence. I think
(21:03):
the city is, unfortunately, is going to be in a
very libeles situation for the billions of dollars of losses
in the Palisades. But what we've got to really start
focusing on in the next days and weeks, We've got
to hunker down. We've got to support people that don't
have the financial means, lost their homes, lost their businesses.
(21:28):
We've got to get people back on their feet, and
then we've got to start rebuilding in this city. I
pray to God cuts all the red tape, gets behind
people and helps people rebuild, and let's get out of
the business of making life difficult in this city and
let's support support these families, because not everybody's wealthy in
(21:48):
the Palisades, and most of the businesses of the Palisades
are small, independent businesses that just don't have resources.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
Yeah, if it's the same people that didn't have a
brush clearing program for all these years or decades and
didn't have the water system working properly, you're going to
I don't know what to expect to try to help
rebuild the people's lives. It's the same people running LA.
Speaker 6 (22:17):
Well. I mean, unfortunately, that's a problem. And I hope
this city starts really thinking about who they're electing an office.
And it's not about me. When I ran, i ran,
I did my best and I launched and that's the
way the system works. And I fully accept that. But
going forward, leadership matters, and we've got to be electing
(22:41):
people that actually are qualified and capable to make good
decisions and put the priority of saving lives, making our
lives safe. The fact that our mayor and city council
cut the budget of the fire department two months ago
is absolutely unacceptable. And here's what we've got to show
(23:05):
for why.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
Well, I mean, I saw that story. Why would they
cut the fire department of all places?
Speaker 6 (23:12):
Do they completely mismanage the finances of the city. The
city has a deficit of half a billion dollars. They
gave a whole bunch of people raises. We've got fire
stations and I talked about this when I was running
from there. We have fire stations throughout the city that
are closed because they don't even have the resources to open.
(23:34):
The mismanagement is at the highest level. And it really
did and it still does today. It looks like a
third world city out there. It's still burning.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
I know, it's overwhelming. What's burning? And you talk about
a third world Look, I mean, there's so much garbage
lying around the city. I'm sure you've seen. It's appalling.
Every time you stop at a traffic light or you
stop near a freeway on ramp and you just see
mounds of garbage. It looks like nobody's picked it up
in weeks or months. And I always look out and say, well,
(24:10):
what are the city workers doing all day? What is
city management doing all day? Because the place looks failthy
much of the time.
Speaker 6 (24:18):
And we got to demand more time. We got to
demand more. The residents got to demand more. They deserve it.
They'd be a lot of taxes. We won't be a
lot of taxes. Yeah, very expensive to live in the city.
It should be clean, should be safe, it should be
a happy, wonderful place. They have a business and we're
just not there. Well, we got to change it, and
(24:39):
we're going to change it by rebuilding the Palisades and
some of these other communities in a way that will
be everlasting.
Speaker 3 (24:47):
Well, I know you're going to be a big part
of it. Are our sympathies for the losses you and
your family have suffered, And you're right, we just got
to move forward and start rebuilding.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
But we need we need a complete change over.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
Yes we do.
Speaker 6 (25:03):
But we're going to lean in heavily. The Crusoe family
is going to lean in heavily. And I know you
and your family are great Angelano's and we'll do the same.
And we're a strong city. So we're going to bring
it back. And uh, that policy's community is such a dear,
wonderful Oh that's beautiful town.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
Oh that's a beautiful town. I mean I live right
next door and we're there all the time, and places
that we've gone to for years have been destroyed. I
was just there yesterday yesterday morning.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
Yeah, we were, we did.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
We did a hike and petare A canyon and all
the blocks that we drove up and down yesterday morning.
All the homes are destroyed. Twenty four hours later. It's
it's it's overwhelming.
Speaker 6 (25:47):
Yeah, yeah, it is overwhelming. It's going to take a
massive us to rebuild.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
All right, Rick, we'll talk again soon, all right. I
talked to you later. Yeah, Rick Caruso you thanks, all right, bye.
We will continue John Cobelt Show, KFI Am six forty.
Speaker 9 (26:05):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI Am six.
Speaker 3 (26:11):
We're gonna conclude. We have to share for new people
just joining the show. Earlier, we played a Sky News reporter.
This is a British news reporter, David Blevins, greeting the
Mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, coming off the plane.
She had gone to Ghana in West Africa and stayed
(26:31):
in Ghana even after her office her social media tweeted out,
oh dangerous firestorm coming, dangerous windstorm, life threatening.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
Right.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
She went to Ghana and stayed.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
In Ghana to celebrate a politician getting inaugurated, and Karen
Basque comes off the plane walking back into the airport,
and David Blevins asked her, really basically one question.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Listen to the silent.
Speaker 5 (27:00):
Do you owe citizens and apology for being absent while
their homes were burning? Do you regret cutting the fire
department budget by millions of dollars?
Speaker 6 (27:08):
Madam? There?
Speaker 5 (27:11):
Have you nothing to say today? Have you absolutely nothing
to say to the citizens today? Elon Mosk says that
you're utterly incompetent. Are you considering your position, madam, Mayor?
Have you absolutely nothing to say to the citizens today?
You're dealing with this disaster? No apology for them? Do
(27:42):
you think you should have been visiting Ghana while this
was unfolding? Back home?
Speaker 2 (28:14):
She's still there.
Speaker 5 (28:15):
Let me ask you just again, have you anything to
say to the citizens today as you returned? One second,
mout a, Mayor, Just a few words for the citizens
today as you returned to deal with a catastrophe.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
No apology, no explanation, no response, nothing but empty silence.
Oh all right, quickly, let's get David Bleven's on uh,
the reporter for Sky News, who was questioning Karen Bass there, David,
I only got a minute. Yeah what what? What a
(29:00):
pretty icy interview you had with her? H Did she
acknowledge you in any way?
Speaker 8 (29:05):
Not in this lightness. But we were rather for Juesus
because we thought at her, or rather my eagle light
cameraman spotted her on our flight from Washington, DC to
Los Angeles this afternoon, so we decided we would at
least attempt to get a few words from her. But
the lady was not for talking, as you could see.
Didn't stop us trying.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
Though, No, I'm glad you did.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
Nobody in Los Angeles media would do that, or maybe
a couple of people would, but most of them wouldn't.
They're usually very, very polite and frightened off confronting politicians.
It seems you British guys have a lot more.
Speaker 6 (29:41):
Well.
Speaker 8 (29:42):
I like to think I'm quite polite as well. But
certainly our job is generous to ask the questions. Whether
or not we got the answers, well, that's another question,
and today, certainly the mayor was not a day in
the business of giving us answers.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Right.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
Interesting that you got no explanation, no apology, no comment,
know nothing and the devastation is so severe.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
Yeah, well, excellent work. That was a very memorable minute
and a half. Thank you, Thank you so much. Okay.
David Blevins from Sky News Conway ding dong with you.
Speaker 12 (30:15):
We've got a press conference awaiting us at four o'clock
in about two and a half minutes or so, we'll
take that. Michael Monks is coming on with us. And
it's just uh, fire coverage all day long. Yeah, it
doesn't stop, it doesn't stop. And it's eerie out there
on the streets. There's a lot of traffic lights that
are still out, and there's a lot of people flying
through the intersection without looking. And I saw a radical
(30:37):
accident on Hollywood Way and Verdugo or Magnolia.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
And it's and people on it.
Speaker 12 (30:43):
It feels like the beginning of COVID out there, you know,
where everybody just wants to get home.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
And and I and and even the freeways were really
empty too.
Speaker 12 (30:52):
Oh yeah, at nine o'clock at night, nobody's out. Remember
the first couple nights of COVID, nobody was out. There's
nobody out at night. Everybody's home, yeah, yeah, worried about
the home burning down.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
Yeah, I know, and everybody's on edge. That's fine. Well,
kN enjoyed the overnights I did. Yes, I know.
Speaker 12 (31:07):
We're doing it again tonight, but going back from midnight
to three, which where I started it at midnight to
two no st eleven pm to two am, and that
was a lot of fun because you can get away
with a lot of crap at.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
That out right. Yeah, nobody's listening. Nobody's listening.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
I don't think that the rules are restrict the federal
FCC rules.
Speaker 12 (31:25):
We said the F word on the air and then
we got a call for management the next day.
Speaker 3 (31:28):
Say yeah, that one's over the line, that one's over line.
All right, conwait X all the fires cars. You're with
the news live in the KFI twenty four hour newsroom.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Hey, you've been listening to the John Covelt Show podcast.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
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.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
I am six forty.
Speaker 3 (00:02):
You're listening to the John Cobelt Podcast on the iHeartRadio app.
We're on every day from one until four, and then
after four o'clock John Cobelt Show on demand on the
iHeart app. Well, listen to this. We've been telling you
about Karen Vass, the inept incompetent mayor Los Angeles who
sent out a tweet warning us all about the firestorm,
(00:24):
the windstorm that was threatening us. But she went to Ghana, Africa.
Why some politician was getting inaugurated and she'd rather be there.
She knew this was coming, and then she stayed there
after warning everybody it's like, oh you know, extreme fire danger,
red flat warnings, high wind mornings. Oh it's life threatening,
(00:47):
it's dangerous. Stayed in Ghana, finally flew back and landed
early this afternoon. She I guess this is her coming
off the coming out of the airport.
Speaker 4 (00:59):
Yeah, she's like the air tunnel, like right as you
get off the air Yeah. Remember she cut the budget
of the fire department. The fire department, county and city said, hey,
we were overwhelmed. We don't have the resources, they don't
have the manpower, and in the Palisades, the city, fire department, County,
whoever showed up there.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Everybody showed up out of water. They were out of
water after seventeen hours, no more water for the Palisades fire.
So there's at least a thousand buildings that have burned.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
How you be out of water?
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Well, Sky News reporter David Blevins, And by the way,
the British guys frequently are the ones to do the
dirty work because most American reporters don't have the balls
to confront politicians, especially left wing progressive politicians.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
They just can't do that.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Well, David Blevins was courageous and ask Mayor Karen Bass
if she owes La residents an apology for being out
of a country when the fire happened.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Played a clip.
Speaker 5 (02:11):
Do you owe citizens and apology for being absent while
their homes were burning? Do you regret cutting the fire
department budget by millions of dollars?
Speaker 6 (02:19):
Not in there?
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Have you nothing to say today?
Speaker 5 (02:26):
Have you absolutely nothing to say to the citizens today?
Elon Mosque says that you're utterly incompetent. Are you considering
your position, Madam mayor? Have you absolutely nothing to say
to the citizens today you're dealing with this disaster. No
(02:49):
apology for them. Do you think you should have been
visiting Ghana while this was unfolding?
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Back home?
Speaker 7 (03:08):
They're walking down a tunnel here.
Speaker 5 (03:17):
Yeah, now she's walking out of the door, Adam Mayor,
let me ask you just again, have you anything to
say to the citizens today as you returned, Madam Mayor,
(03:37):
just a few words for the citizens today as you
return to do you a catastrophe.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
That is pathetic and infuriating? That was a minute thirty
eight of Karen Bass refusing to speak when the British
reporter asked, do you owe an apology to the La
residents for not being around when the fire erupted?
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Said?
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Nothing to say to everybody, nothing, let alone an apology.
Nothing And again it took a British reporter to do that.
There was a post on x by a financial company
Geiger Capital, courting Rick Caruso. Rick Carroso in this post
(04:36):
is described as a billionaire real estate developer called into
La local news and Rick said, this is like a
third world country. There is no water coming out of
the fire. Hydrants. La Mayor Karen Bass is on a
foreign trip to Ghana. Elon Musk retweeted that post, and
(04:57):
then Musk wrote, Obama made sure that Rick Caruso, who
is extremely competent, lost to utterly incompetent Mayor Karen her
real name, Mayor Careen. And Musk is absolutely right, and
so is Geiger Capital and Rick Caruso. There is no
(05:22):
excuse for this. There is no excuse for cutting the
budget of the fire Department, increasing homeless spending to one
point three billion dollars, increasing homelessness when the homeless start
nearly fourteen thousand fires a year.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Who started this one in the Palisades? We don't know?
Speaker 3 (05:45):
And then Trump posted on a truth social that Governor
Gavin Neuscomb refused to sign the Water Restoration Declaration that
would have allowed millions of gallons of water from excess
rain and snow melt from the north to float daily
into many parts of California, including the areas that are
currently burning in a virtually apocalyptic way. He wanted to
(06:08):
protect an essentially worthless fish called the smelt by giving
it less water. It didn't work, but didn't care about
the people of California. Now the ultimate price is being paid.
I will demand that this incompetent governor allow beautiful, clean
fresh water to float into California. He's to blame for this.
On top of it, no water for the fire hydrants
(06:30):
nor the firefighting planes. A true disaster. Truck talked about
this when he was on our show back in October.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Listen, California's crazy. You could be so rich, you have
such great resources. And if you even think about putting
a rig that nobody would even see.
Speaker 8 (06:44):
They they look like beautiful trees.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Now if you look, if you even think about it,
they put you in jail. I mean, it is crazy.
And they have no money. You know, you have another thing.
You have a lot of water, but basically you're always
in a drought. You know, in in your richer areas
like Beverly Hills and all. They want to give you
a very little amount of water. You buy a house,
(07:07):
spend a lot of money, and they say you're allowed
to use twenty nine gallons of water. Do you know
that you have water coming in by millions and millions
of gallons up from the north and they send the
water out into the Pacific Ocean. They don't let it
come down.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Yeah, to save a fish that they can't they to
save a fish they can't even find anymore.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
A fish called the smelt.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Yes, the delta smelt doesn't do.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Well, the delta smelt. And to save this little tiny
fish that, by the way, is dying for a different reason.
It's got no water. You know, before they had water.
Now it's got no water. So it's dying anyway. But
to save the delta smelt, which is not an important fish,
and by the way, is in other areas too, But
for that millions of gallons of water, millions and millions,
(07:53):
I've seen it. It's like a giant forcet. It takes
all of that water coming down from way up north,
from the snow melts and all it's pouring down. And
that's why you have all those empty fields along the
highway where you have the farming area. You know, you
have the best land in the country just about. But
they took the water away. And what would that do
(08:16):
to your forest fires? You could let the water. I mean,
you have so much water.
Speaker 6 (08:20):
And they let it go out.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
And you know, I had it all done.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
It was all done.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
The hardest part was a federal It was all done.
Gavin Nooscombe refused to sign. It was Department of Commerce,
that got it done, and he refused to sign.
Speaker 8 (08:36):
And think of this.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
You have so much water and they send it out
into the Pacific Ocean, which for the Pacific Ocean is
like a drop. You understand that.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
Oh yeah, it's billions of gallons, but it's nothing compared
to what's out in the ocean. All right, It's Trump
on October eighth, and he reiterated some of that on
his social media site today. Newsom has horrible water policy.
They have horrible fire policy in this state. They did
not do controlled burns for many years. They still didn't
(09:09):
do controlled burns for a lot of the brush in
Pacific Palisades. Coming up after three thirty, we're gonna have
a Rick Caruso on. We talked with him earlier. We're
going to replay it. He covered much of this from
his perspective. He used to be a commissioner for DWP,
and you know, he suffered and his family suffered as
(09:31):
a shopping center in the Palisades was damaged. His daughter
lost her house, his son's house was damaged. I don't
know how badly. Rick was on with us earlier. In
the show, we're going to replay it. You listen to
his knowledge of what goes on. Have you ever heard
Karen Bass talk like this? You listened to Rick and
See if you ever remember Karen.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Bass saying anything.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
In fact, we're gonna play Karen Bass again later this
hour too, literally saying nothing.
Speaker 9 (09:56):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
By the way, I want to thank one of our listeners, Carl.
He got us the video and the audio of Karen
Dass not saying a word coming off the plane at
the airport after flying from Ghana, which is where she
spent the much of the week while Los Angeles was burning,
(10:27):
while Pacific Palisades was getting destroyed. She was in Ghana
because some politician in Africa was getting inaugurated, and that's
what she thought was a priority. And she's she wouldn't respond,
she wouldn't apologize. We're going to play that again before
the end of the hour. Did you get any Deborah,
(10:48):
How did she pass out? She's on her phone? I think, Oh,
she on her phone, she's talking on the she's reading
attacks here talking.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
He Wow, that's funny. What did you say? What you
did you know?
Speaker 10 (11:04):
Michael Monks?
Speaker 5 (11:04):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Did you thought she fell asleep? Had your head thought.
Speaker 10 (11:07):
Wow, No, no, I was.
Speaker 6 (11:08):
I was.
Speaker 10 (11:09):
I was sharing something with Michael Monk's.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Well, I know you didn't sleep last night. Oh my god,
she passed out.
Speaker 10 (11:14):
I am about to but that isn't the excuse. So
what did you? What were you ram?
Speaker 3 (11:18):
I was, I was just going to tease you about
not sleeping. Now I did. Two days I did not,
And because the wind was blowing.
Speaker 11 (11:26):
John, when I tell you that, I thought it was
kind of a little I was a little skeptical when
the National Weather Service and the officials were saying life
threatening extreme winds, right, yeah, ninety eight miles per hour
in Woodland Hills last week.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Really ninety eight miles what that sounds like?
Speaker 11 (11:47):
It was terrifying. When I tell you, I have I
have never been so scared in my life.
Speaker 10 (11:52):
I literally was up the entire night. My poor dog
was shitting.
Speaker 11 (11:57):
One of my dogs was shaking like a leaf almost
the whole night because the wind was so loud. We
have really crappy windows in our house and doors, so.
Speaker 10 (12:06):
The hair is blowing through and the doors are making.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
All kinds of you know what you got to be
doing a window in doors?
Speaker 3 (12:11):
Yeah, I know, window company out there that Deborah will
do an endorsement for you if you get her set
a windows.
Speaker 11 (12:17):
Thank you, John, because our windows suck in our house.
I mean when I say suck, I mean truly.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
That shouldn't happen. But your husband slept through it.
Speaker 10 (12:27):
Yes, And I heard the same thing about you.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
Yes, Deborah and my wife were texting each other. Yes,
because both husbands were happily asleep. Yes, and both wives
were waking up the husbands and making a lot of noise.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
I slept like seven hours without any problem.
Speaker 10 (12:44):
That's an hour. How could you have done that?
Speaker 2 (12:46):
That's what night time is for rest?
Speaker 4 (12:48):
How did you?
Speaker 10 (12:49):
How did you sleep knowing that the fire was so
close to you?
Speaker 2 (12:52):
Well, it was five miles away.
Speaker 10 (12:53):
Okay, But again with these embers, you never know what's
going to happen. And your wife is so nervous.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
I'm supposed to sit on the roof.
Speaker 5 (13:00):
And what am I to say that?
Speaker 2 (13:03):
What am I gonna do.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
If you look outside when you see a fire and
say get out of there.
Speaker 11 (13:09):
All I know is every time I woke my husband
up because I said I smell smoke because our windows
are so crappy, so the smoke's coming into our house.
Speaker 10 (13:17):
So I thought our house was on fire.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
He said, why are you waking me up? I'm sleepy. Yeah,
I get pelted with pillows. Television was on all night.
Speaker 10 (13:25):
Well, okay, John, So I couldn't. I couldn't watch television.
Speaker 11 (13:30):
I couldn't even listen to the Kfi app or the
iHeart app because I I didn't.
Speaker 10 (13:36):
I had one charger, so I wanted to keep it.
Speaker 11 (13:39):
One phone charger, an extra portable one, so I didn't
want to waste it. So people kept calling me and
sending me text messages, and so I could see the
power on my on myself, I was dwindled away.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
Yes, so I was all alone, thrown back in the
nineteen hundreds.
Speaker 6 (13:55):
This horrid. Wow.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Look at that. Wow. Everybody want to get transistor rate,
And that's what I am. Radio's for. Because you're not,
nothing else is gonna work.
Speaker 11 (14:03):
I couldn't wait to get into my car so I
can charge my phone and listen.
Speaker 9 (14:06):
To K five.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
You can't believe you don't sleep.
Speaker 10 (14:09):
Don't. And I'm not exaggerating when I say literally, I
did not sleep, not even five minutes.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
I was fine. Well, I have I have a philosophy.
If there's nothing I can do about it. I can't
stop a fire with my bare hands.
Speaker 10 (14:21):
You could evacuate one moment.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
It's time, I knew, But my wife was up, so
I knew if the fire came with within, you know,
two miles of the house.
Speaker 11 (14:29):
In your wife's defense and in my defense, here's the deal.
Sometimes it happened so quick that you don't really have time,
and then there would be no more.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
John Cobbe, I'm a big you know what you got.
You gotta sleep, store up your energy. If it's going
to be fight or flight, you got to be well rested.
It's a good thing. He had his go bags ready.
Speaker 10 (14:47):
To go, though, Well that was not him. I guarantee.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
I pay you did.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
I packed my own bag sure, because I only I
know the proper fire outfits that I would be comfortable
with outfits.
Speaker 10 (15:00):
What's a fire outfit?
Speaker 3 (15:02):
When we come back, Rick Caruso is coming on, Rick,
as you know, famous developer here in La ran for
mayor Karen Bass beat him.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Boy, was that of a mistake? Yikes?
Speaker 3 (15:15):
It's wrong with people anyway. We're going to talk about why,
how how could this happen that our fire department runs
out of water? By the way, you know that's that's
the main headline in the New York Times. This is
a national story, not just the fire, but are here
scarce resources hinder efforts to contain La fires? Scarce resources?
(15:40):
Get me billions of dollars we have in La City,
in La County, you know how.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Much of taxes we pay.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
And they didn't have a glass of water left to
put out the fire in the Palisades.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Talk to Rick about this next.
Speaker 9 (15:55):
You're listening to John Cobels on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
We're on every day from one until four and then
after four o'clock. Whatever you missed, listen to the podcast
John Cobelt's show on demand on the iHeart app. Continuing
our coverage of these massive fires, Oliver Southern California. Pacific
Palisades really has been devastated, and we're going to talk
now with Rick Caruso. You're well aware of him. The
(16:22):
developer ran for mayor last time around owns Palisades village,
and his village and his family suffered quite a bit
of loss in these fires, and he has spoken out.
He was all over television last night about the fire.
Hydrants running drive, the water supply running out for the
fire department here in La Let's get Rick on.
Speaker 6 (16:44):
Rick Welcome, Hey John, how are you?
Speaker 2 (16:49):
I'm fine? But how are you?
Speaker 3 (16:50):
I understand a couple of family members may have lost
their homes.
Speaker 6 (16:55):
Yeah, my daughter lost her home and we lost another home.
But you know, we're all together, and we evacuated our
home also, so but we're all together and we're going
to get through it and trying to work very hard
to support the neighborhood and the community up there. The
devastation as you talked about, John, it's just it's mind blowing.
(17:18):
You can't even get your head around it. Entire neighborhoods
have been wiped out, and so my heart really goes
out to people who have lost so much, because, as
you know, you lose a home, it's not the structure,
it's the memories and all the things that make life deer.
And so many small businesses up there just gone. And
(17:39):
the fire is still, you know, raging on. And but
we're going to do everything we can do to support,
you know, our brave Angelinos and rebuild and certainly support
our first responders that are fighting a good fight. But
I think a lot of tough questions need to be asked.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
By three in the morning on Wednesday, all the fire
hydrants in the Palisades area and dry. They ran out
of water. Nobody understands this. This is I mean we
all saw on TV last night, is that homes are
burning and the firefighters had had no water to put
out the blazes. I mean, what you used to be
a commissioner with the DWP, you got an idea specifically
(18:19):
what went on here.
Speaker 6 (18:22):
Well, actually the fight the Heighten stopped working long before
three o'clock. I think it was about eleven o'clock and
even earlier the firefighters had been complaining to our people
about water pressure and then no water. And it's an
incredible thing to think about, John, this is the second
largest city in the United States and we don't have
(18:44):
hydrants at work. We had a warning of this. I
think we've got a big failure of leadership on this.
How you cannot be prepared for this now. Certainly it's devastating,
the winds are terrible. You could have probably never prevented
all of the damage, but you could have mitigated it.
And I think it goes back to there's been no
(19:05):
brush management program the hills that are controlled by the
city and the state and the county. You know, those
haven't been managed. There's been no control burns for decades.
So you had this enormous amount of fuel and this
fire just took off.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Is there a reason for that?
Speaker 6 (19:25):
We've got a lot of toughs.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Why wouldn't they do the controlled burns?
Speaker 6 (19:30):
You know, I raised it five years ago. If you remember,
we had the fire in Brentwood along the four or
five and thank god it stopped and didn't travel more
to the west. And I was told the city does
not have the resources to do it. But all of
us are old enough we can remember there used to
be control burns and that hasn't happened. So, you know,
(19:53):
we've got a lot of challenges in the city, and
I think at the top of it, we've got to
ask the questions. You know, who's running in the city.
Are they capable of making good decisions? And it's not
just about now, it's about for the last few years.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
But what do you think happened with the water supply?
Speaker 3 (20:15):
I mean, I know it's an extraordinary event, but we
have those extraordinary events every so often.
Speaker 6 (20:21):
Yeah, well, this isn't the first time the Palisades has
burnt down either. So it's not like we didn't have
fair historical warning that this may happen again. It happened
in the sixties. But what I was told is that
the reservoirs that the hydrants there are fed by the
(20:41):
reservoirs and it's a gravity flow, and they didn't manage
the water in the reservoirs properly, so it depleted and
weren't refilling them up quickly enough. So from what I
can see, I could be wrong, but for what I
can see is there is just complete lack of proper
management of this, and I think it's negligence. I think
(21:03):
the city is, unfortunately, is going to be in a
very libeles situation for the billions of dollars of losses
in the Palisades. But what we've got to really start
focusing on in the next days and weeks, We've got
to hunker down. We've got to support people that don't
have the financial means, lost their homes, lost their businesses.
(21:28):
We've got to get people back on their feet, and
then we've got to start rebuilding in this city. I
pray to God cuts all the red tape, gets behind
people and helps people rebuild, and let's get out of
the business of making life difficult in this city and
let's support support these families, because not everybody's wealthy in
(21:48):
the Palisades, and most of the businesses of the Palisades
are small, independent businesses that just don't have resources.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
Yeah, if it's the same people that didn't have a
brush clearing program for all these years or decades and
didn't have the water system working properly, you're going to
I don't know what to expect to try to help
rebuild the people's lives. It's the same people running LA.
Speaker 6 (22:17):
Well. I mean, unfortunately, that's a problem. And I hope
this city starts really thinking about who they're electing an office.
And it's not about me. When I ran, i ran,
I did my best and I launched and that's the
way the system works. And I fully accept that. But
going forward, leadership matters, and we've got to be electing
(22:41):
people that actually are qualified and capable to make good
decisions and put the priority of saving lives, making our
lives safe. The fact that our mayor and city council
cut the budget of the fire department two months ago
is absolutely unacceptable. And here's what we've got to show
(23:05):
for why.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
Well, I mean, I saw that story. Why would they
cut the fire department of all places?
Speaker 6 (23:12):
Do they completely mismanage the finances of the city. The
city has a deficit of half a billion dollars. They
gave a whole bunch of people raises. We've got fire
stations and I talked about this when I was running
from there. We have fire stations throughout the city that
are closed because they don't even have the resources to open.
(23:34):
The mismanagement is at the highest level. And it really
did and it still does today. It looks like a
third world city out there. It's still burning.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
I know, it's overwhelming. What's burning? And you talk about
a third world Look, I mean, there's so much garbage
lying around the city. I'm sure you've seen. It's appalling.
Every time you stop at a traffic light or you
stop near a freeway on ramp and you just see
mounds of garbage. It looks like nobody's picked it up
in weeks or months. And I always look out and say, well,
(24:10):
what are the city workers doing all day? What is
city management doing all day? Because the place looks failthy
much of the time.
Speaker 6 (24:18):
And we got to demand more time. We got to
demand more. The residents got to demand more. They deserve it.
They'd be a lot of taxes. We won't be a
lot of taxes. Yeah, very expensive to live in the city.
It should be clean, should be safe, it should be
a happy, wonderful place. They have a business and we're
just not there. Well, we got to change it, and
(24:39):
we're going to change it by rebuilding the Palisades and
some of these other communities in a way that will
be everlasting.
Speaker 3 (24:47):
Well, I know you're going to be a big part
of it. Are our sympathies for the losses you and
your family have suffered, And you're right, we just got
to move forward and start rebuilding.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
But we need we need a complete change over.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
Yes we do.
Speaker 6 (25:03):
But we're going to lean in heavily. The Crusoe family
is going to lean in heavily. And I know you
and your family are great Angelano's and we'll do the same.
And we're a strong city. So we're going to bring
it back. And uh, that policy's community is such a dear,
wonderful Oh that's beautiful town.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
Oh that's a beautiful town. I mean I live right
next door and we're there all the time, and places
that we've gone to for years have been destroyed. I
was just there yesterday yesterday morning.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
Yeah, we were, we did.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
We did a hike and petare A canyon and all
the blocks that we drove up and down yesterday morning.
All the homes are destroyed. Twenty four hours later. It's
it's it's overwhelming.
Speaker 6 (25:47):
Yeah, yeah, it is overwhelming. It's going to take a
massive us to rebuild.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
All right, Rick, we'll talk again soon, all right. I
talked to you later. Yeah, Rick Caruso you thanks, all right, bye.
We will continue John Cobelt Show, KFI Am six forty.
Speaker 9 (26:05):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI Am six.
Speaker 3 (26:11):
We're gonna conclude. We have to share for new people
just joining the show. Earlier, we played a Sky News reporter.
This is a British news reporter, David Blevins, greeting the
Mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, coming off the plane.
She had gone to Ghana in West Africa and stayed
(26:31):
in Ghana even after her office her social media tweeted out,
oh dangerous firestorm coming, dangerous windstorm, life threatening.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
Right.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
She went to Ghana and stayed.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
In Ghana to celebrate a politician getting inaugurated, and Karen
Basque comes off the plane walking back into the airport,
and David Blevins asked her, really basically one question.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Listen to the silent.
Speaker 5 (27:00):
Do you owe citizens and apology for being absent while
their homes were burning? Do you regret cutting the fire
department budget by millions of dollars?
Speaker 6 (27:08):
Madam? There?
Speaker 5 (27:11):
Have you nothing to say today? Have you absolutely nothing
to say to the citizens today? Elon Mosk says that
you're utterly incompetent. Are you considering your position, madam, Mayor?
Have you absolutely nothing to say to the citizens today?
You're dealing with this disaster? No apology for them? Do
(27:42):
you think you should have been visiting Ghana while this
was unfolding? Back home?
Speaker 2 (28:14):
She's still there.
Speaker 5 (28:15):
Let me ask you just again, have you anything to
say to the citizens today as you returned? One second,
mout a, Mayor, Just a few words for the citizens
today as you returned to deal with a catastrophe.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
No apology, no explanation, no response, nothing but empty silence.
Oh all right, quickly, let's get David Bleven's on uh,
the reporter for Sky News, who was questioning Karen Bass there, David,
I only got a minute. Yeah what what? What a
(29:00):
pretty icy interview you had with her? H Did she
acknowledge you in any way?
Speaker 8 (29:05):
Not in this lightness. But we were rather for Juesus
because we thought at her, or rather my eagle light
cameraman spotted her on our flight from Washington, DC to
Los Angeles this afternoon, so we decided we would at
least attempt to get a few words from her. But
the lady was not for talking, as you could see.
Didn't stop us trying.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
Though, No, I'm glad you did.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
Nobody in Los Angeles media would do that, or maybe
a couple of people would, but most of them wouldn't.
They're usually very, very polite and frightened off confronting politicians.
It seems you British guys have a lot more.
Speaker 6 (29:41):
Well.
Speaker 8 (29:42):
I like to think I'm quite polite as well. But
certainly our job is generous to ask the questions. Whether
or not we got the answers, well, that's another question,
and today, certainly the mayor was not a day in
the business of giving us answers.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Right.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
Interesting that you got no explanation, no apology, no comment,
know nothing and the devastation is so severe.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
Yeah, well, excellent work. That was a very memorable minute
and a half. Thank you, Thank you so much. Okay.
David Blevins from Sky News Conway ding dong with you.
Speaker 12 (30:15):
We've got a press conference awaiting us at four o'clock
in about two and a half minutes or so, we'll
take that. Michael Monks is coming on with us. And
it's just uh, fire coverage all day long. Yeah, it
doesn't stop, it doesn't stop. And it's eerie out there
on the streets. There's a lot of traffic lights that
are still out, and there's a lot of people flying
through the intersection without looking. And I saw a radical
(30:37):
accident on Hollywood Way and Verdugo or Magnolia.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
And it's and people on it.
Speaker 12 (30:43):
It feels like the beginning of COVID out there, you know,
where everybody just wants to get home.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
And and I and and even the freeways were really
empty too.
Speaker 12 (30:52):
Oh yeah, at nine o'clock at night, nobody's out. Remember
the first couple nights of COVID, nobody was out. There's
nobody out at night. Everybody's home, yeah, yeah, worried about
the home burning down.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
Yeah, I know, and everybody's on edge. That's fine. Well,
kN enjoyed the overnights I did. Yes, I know.
Speaker 12 (31:07):
We're doing it again tonight, but going back from midnight
to three, which where I started it at midnight to
two no st eleven pm to two am, and that
was a lot of fun because you can get away
with a lot of crap at.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
That out right. Yeah, nobody's listening. Nobody's listening.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
I don't think that the rules are restrict the federal
FCC rules.
Speaker 12 (31:25):
We said the F word on the air and then
we got a call for management the next day.
Speaker 3 (31:28):
Say yeah, that one's over the line, that one's over line.
All right, conwait X all the fires cars. You're with
the news live in the KFI twenty four hour newsroom.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Hey, you've been listening to the John Covelt Show podcast.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
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
Host
John Kobylt
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