Alex Stone calls in 1-24-2025

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Joining us now is Alex Stone ABC News and uh, Alex,
how are you man? I? You know, as far as
bands go, you live in the middle of getting to
see just about anybody any time, I would imagine because
they're all you.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Know, I'm a country guy, so I'm like, you just
bring me my country accent. I'm good. I should be
in Nashville for that reason.

Speaker 3 (00:21):
Ah, what kind of country are you? Are you twenty
twenty four? Country are you?

Speaker 4 (00:25):
Nineteen ninety four country?

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Nineties countries?

Speaker 4 (00:28):
Okay?

Speaker 2 (00:28):
My wife and I are going to see Brooks and
Done in Bakersfield in about a month and a half.

Speaker 4 (00:32):
I'm a brand new man.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
Do they they do? Save a horse, ride a cowboy?

Speaker 4 (00:38):
Brooks and dun No who that save it?

Speaker 1 (00:42):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (00:42):
That's them.

Speaker 3 (00:43):
That's new Man is my favorite, just because it's such
a positive, uplifting song.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
I was big and rich and richer, right.

Speaker 3 (00:50):
Yeah, in boots bootscoot, booge, boot Scoot and Boogie that
was Yeah.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
You know, going to them is kind of like going
to Garth Brooks. It's just a single long. It's kind
of a karaoke man.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
That's fun.

Speaker 3 (01:01):
I love that nineties country I really it's a great
middle ground between the stuff that's not country today and
the stuff that was too country for me from before.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
You call me. When I'm driving to my car, I'm
going to yell at you for interrupting my my nineties country.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
So that's good man, that's cool. That sounds like fun.
You got. Yeah, you're surrounded by if you can't find
a show within a few days of whatever day you
decide to try to look for one, and you ain't
looking because you're you're in the middle of you know, entertainment,
entertainment Mecca. There there was something real quick. We'll get
to here before we get to the report the ten

(01:35):
best states to drive in and the ten worst states
to drive in. And guess who ended up on the
best states to drive in? Guess what? Guess what state
ended up on that.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
Not to go with either Ohio or California.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
It would be how high?

Speaker 2 (01:48):
Oh yeah, I don't think it's California, but I don't know.
You can get along the ocean and you know, wind
along there when you're not in La and beautiful.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
But wow, yeah, ten best states to drive in. I
don't know who did this. I believe they're probably well,
they're ill informed.

Speaker 3 (02:04):
Somebody with an appreciation of potholes did this list.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
Number one was Kansas on there, and then you get
to Indiana, which is at three, and then you know Alabama, Oklahoma,
North Carolina is ahead of us. We ended up at
number eight number on that ten top ten.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
So what they say best, what do you mean, like
the road conditions and that kind of stuff.

Speaker 1 (02:24):
So they say it is what's the best day for drug?
Kansa top thanks in part to having the third best
road quality in the US.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
I'm gonna say, I don't think if it's Kansas, we're
talking about like scenery.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
Right exactly. It's fairly cheap to own a car there,
and yeah, and then they you know, they talk about
safety and those kinds of things.

Speaker 4 (02:46):
Is Georgia in the top ten? No, not on the
best driving through Georgia.

Speaker 3 (02:50):
Yeah, not a pothole, seventy five miles an hour, everything
was clear.

Speaker 1 (02:54):
I loved that state, Yep at number nine. Texas then
Tennessee ten worst states to drive in in California lands
at six there.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
Yeah, that's right.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
But I think what they're talking about is is traffic
and stuff.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
Because traffic holes, yeah, yeah, I mean conditions. What came
up number one.

Speaker 1 (03:14):
Number one worst state to drive in is Hawaii and
then Washington.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
I don't know how he has well, at least Honolulu,
not all the islands. But Honolulu has horrendous traffic. You know,
you would think the Hawaiian islands like, No, Honolulu is
a major city, the high rises and everything else, and
like the same with Seattle. Every time I've been in Seattle,
I'm like, man, the traffic here is horrible.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
Yeah, that's saying something when you're talking about a guy
who lives in La. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
No, I would say it's worse than living in LA.
When you try to get into downtown Seattle or downtown Honolulu,
it's crazy.

Speaker 1 (03:45):
Then Washington state is on there.

Speaker 2 (03:47):
Then there you go Seattle.

Speaker 1 (03:49):
How did Montana end up? As far as the.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
Worst states are their roads falling apart?

Speaker 1 (03:54):
There?

Speaker 4 (03:54):
You got one traffic light in the state, really, and then.

Speaker 2 (03:58):
Colin Moose standing there in the way.

Speaker 1 (04:02):
Colorado is at five, and then California is at six.
And you got Massachusetts, which I understand that, Uh, Delaware, Nevada. Yeah,
Las Vegas is no fun to really drive, and especially
if you're on the strip. But other than that, I
didn't think it's that bad. I drive there all the time.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
Yeah, if youel like the freeways, yeah, like wide open, Yes,
that's not bad.

Speaker 1 (04:21):
And what gorgeous scenery And you're used to that kind
of scenery if you get just a little bit outside
of La right, I mean you're seeing mountains and stuff.

Speaker 2 (04:28):
Yeah, I heard you met the desert. I was like,
I don't know how gorgeous it is, but yes, the mountains.

Speaker 1 (04:33):
Oh my gosh. And they're so big they look like
they're just right over there, yet they're twenty five miles away.
Yeah or whatever. That's what I love about driving around
and in Las Vegas. You're in a bowl there clearly,
you know, you're in the valley, you're in the you
know kind of a thing. But anyway, I just thought
I would throw those in there, because well, that's where
you're at on the worst. Yeah. Yeah, that we got

(04:53):
one thing going for us, I guess, although I don't
I don't really agree with the best state to drive
because the it sucks, but doesn't everybody wherever you live.
You go, man driving driving the.

Speaker 2 (05:04):
Other drivers can't drive, and.

Speaker 1 (05:06):
Yeah, yeah exactly, and then you throw.

Speaker 2 (05:08):
It always better than the other guys.

Speaker 1 (05:10):
You're right, he's throwing a little bit of snow and
forget it.

Speaker 3 (05:13):
You know.

Speaker 1 (05:13):
It's like, oh boy, so I know you got Trump
headed your way, mister Stone. He's coming to look at everything.
But uh, I don't know about this timing because it's
you guys are far from out of the woods yet, right,
I mean.

Speaker 2 (05:27):
Yeah, well, it's in the next twenty four hours going
to really change. Yeah, he's going to touch down any moment,
probably in the next fifteen minutes twenty minutes, depending on
whenever Force one gets here. Everybody's ready for him, and
he's only going to be on the ground for about
two hours in the fire zone, three hours in total.
Then he's going over to Vegas. So it's going to
be quick to Pacific Palisades and look at the burn zone,

(05:51):
talk to the fire victims, first responders. Political leaders. One
of the political leaders we now know will be Governor
Gavin Newsom and you. Obviously the two are local foes,
and Newsom's going to greet him at lax But there
were questions because Newsom was not invited to any of this,
and the White House has invited tons of Democrats and Republicans,
but tons of Democrats to meet with the President while

(06:12):
he's on the ground, and Newsom's name is not on
any attendee list, and Newsom was asked about that and
he goes, I.

Speaker 1 (06:19):
Haven't, I haven't.

Speaker 5 (06:19):
We haven't had any contact with the White House.

Speaker 2 (06:22):
So it still appears he's not invited. But he made
it sound no matter what, he was going to show
up to greet the president, you know, like a governor
typically would at the bottom of the stairs. And now
he has put out a statement saying in coordination with
the White House, it seems they're allowing him to greet
the president and then they don't want anything to do
with him when he goes into the fire zone. But

(06:42):
the two almost had a weird bromance a couple of
years ago. You may remember when there were previous wildfires
in COVID and Newsom saying he wants to get back
to that. But Trump even praised Newsom for a while
last time he was in office, and they were kind
of this weird buddy buddy, and then they would go
away and talk dirt about each other and then come
back together and kind of be friendly again. And nuse
some'm saying we had a.

Speaker 5 (07:02):
Great relationship during COVID, well established, well defined. I don't
think there was a democratic governor in the country that
worked more collaborative with the President of United States. That's
my mindset when it comes to mergencies and disasters.

Speaker 2 (07:14):
So we'll see where this goes today. How well they
get along. Will Trump all of a sudden be like, hey,
hop in marine one, come with me to the fire zone,
or will.

Speaker 1 (07:21):
He You never know, we're all alone.

Speaker 2 (07:22):
On the tarmac because they were weirdly close during his
last administration.

Speaker 1 (07:27):
And do you think, yeah, you think they'll go to
the French laundry when they're there for dinner.

Speaker 2 (07:31):
Maybe hook a long flight up north. But you know,
you never know.

Speaker 1 (07:36):
Sorry, I know you're like, ooh, you scoundrel.

Speaker 2 (07:39):
Oh no, that's it. The French laundry will follow Newsome
everywhere he goes. Yes, COVID. But to your other point,
there is a change coming rain and snow. We're going
from the red flag fire conditions expired this morning. By
tonight we go into winter weather advisories and rain in
the LA area, like up to a foot of snow
in the mountains around LA. It's gonna be a very
different ballgame. Good it will put out the fires, but

(08:02):
the ground is so fragile that when the fires burned
this hot, it's like walking on glass. The ground afterwards
it cracks under your feet. That doesn't absorb water, and
that turns into mudslides when it gets wet because it
can't absorb the water. So there's a lot of concern sandbagging,
putting barriers. But we're going to go from fire to
rain and snow in the next twelve hours.

Speaker 1 (08:22):
Man, that's crazy. Are you covering the president when he
comes in or is that something?

Speaker 2 (08:26):
I won't be out there. His pool will be with him,
the group traveling with them. That'll be the group going with.

Speaker 1 (08:31):
Them, and then they'll somebody ABC that's traveling.

Speaker 2 (08:35):
You've got a member in the pool, and then they're
traveling from DC with them, and then they'll report out
what goes on.

Speaker 1 (08:40):
Okay, I got you. So yeah, we'll be seeing that.
I'm sure we've got you know, stuff on here. We'll
be seeing it live, is he I'm sure they.

Speaker 2 (08:47):
Should be landing the next couple of minutes.

Speaker 1 (08:48):
Yeah, very good, Alex Stone, ABC news man, Stay safe
out there. It sounds like it's pretty crazy, pretty ball
little right now.

Speaker 2 (08:56):
So yeah, yeah, it should be interesting this weekend, but
we'll welcome. It is no rained here in nine months.
It's not a drop of rain in nine months. We're
gonna get rain this weekend.

Speaker 4 (09:04):
Rain and snow ought to be welcome at this point.

Speaker 1 (09:06):
Then yeah, oh man, that's not what we wanted, is it.
I knew I was gonna do that.

Speaker 2 (09:11):
Oh that was great. I like that stinger, did you?
Wah wah wah wow.

Speaker 4 (09:16):
Yeah, you needed that in there to make it really cool.

Speaker 3 (09:19):
And I'm not going to make fun of Gavin Newsom
and meeting with the President and all that kind of stuff,
because at least your governor does. Ours doesn't always come
through on that level when it comes to Donald Trump.