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Jan. 16, 2025 - Rudy Giuliani
02:10:29
America's Mayor Live (583): President Trump Isn’t Waiting For January 20th To Get Things Done
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Good evening.
This is Rudy Giuliani, and this is the Rudy Giuliani Show.
And thank you for joining us.
Tonight is filled, I guess, with a lot of discussion about the ceasefire in Israel.
I think it's concluded.
There is an outstanding issue.
Well, there are outstanding issues that the Israeli government describes as they're going to work out.
However, of course, we've had that before, and they don't work out.
There's also a big gap between the various statements with regard to the number of hostages that are going to be released, and they're not going to be released until Sunday.
Now, none of this is...
None of this is in an official statement.
This is what's being said by the government giving information to the press and to the extent that Hamas talks to them or says anything reliable.
But originally, as of overnight, it was going to be a release of hostages in three stages.
The first group on...
On the side of the Palestinians and Hamas.
They're going to release 33 now.
And then I assume in the phase 2 and 3, since they have 100, they would release approximately another 33, 34, and then another 33, 34 over, again, an indeterminate period.
That period of time that the ceasefire To me, that seemed like not exactly what President Trump had in mind, which was to have the hostages released before he was sworn in.
It would mean that only a third of them would be released before he was sworn in.
However, that 33 number has now been changed.
Not officially, not unofficially, just changed in the leaks.
And it's been quoted as low as three.
On the other side, the Israelis are supposed to at least release women and children prisoners, if there are such things.
But they are supposed to release 50, of which 10 or more are terrorist killers.
Now, this is true whenever you have these exchanges with the Palestinians.
It's been traditional that the Israelis will save one Israeli life and they'll give up 500 Palestinian terrorists.
In fact, from one of those giveaways just a little ways back, a number of the people who participated in slaughtering the Israelis were released.
Including the leaders at various times.
So, look, it's Israeli government policy, and they sure as heck are facing things that I never had to face.
I just never saw the wisdom of giving up a thousand hostages for one, particularly when those thousands are going to come back and kill you.
And I know it's very, very hard to say no in a situation like this.
But at least my singular opinion is sometimes it's better to say no long term in saving lives than to set up a pattern of negotiating where you're constantly releasing their army.
Let's hope that doesn't happen here.
And let's hope that number three is a fiction and that it is in fact going to be some substantial number.
And then we'll have to see the President-elect's reaction to it obviously is going to be less And what he demanded.
He demanded that the hostages be released by the time he was sworn in or they'd have hell to pay.
So, of course, he hasn't been sworn in yet and nobody's been released, so let's see if that doesn't happen.
That should happen.
We've been messing around with these hostages long enough where you've got to call an end to it.
We don't know actually how many of them are alive.
When I heard the number 33 originally late last night or early this morning, I thought, well, maybe that's the number that are only alive.
We believe there are seven Americans.
We believe some of them are alive and we know two of them are dead.
So that means, I think, five alive and two bodies that have to be returned.
They better be in that first group.
They've been held long enough without our government doing a damn thing for them.
And with the change in administrations, they better find out they can't mess around like this.
So I don't know how to interpret this all for you.
Let's see before we come to some kind of definitive conclusion about it.
It seems like it's a work in progress.
As opposed to as definitively negotiated as it should be.
Now, it does suffer from too many cooks boiling the broth.
So you had Biden and his two nitwits, Harris and Blinken, with him today, looking like pure nitwits.
He didn't make much sense in what he said, taking credit for releasing the hostages that haven't been released.
Ridiculous for him to take credit for releasing them since they're being released in the last five or six days of his presidency.
I mean, obviously, he could not get them released.
Something happened that changed, and what happened is he got kicked out and a real president got elected, and they'd rather not deal with a real president.
So for him to get up there and...
In fact, in the last days, he is doing such damage.
You know, he took Cuba off the terrorist list.
I mean, he acts like he's a communist.
Now, I know Joe Biden, even before he was demented, he's actually too stupid to be a communist.
He would not pass a comprehension test on Das Kapital.
I'm sure he's never read it.
I know he's never read it.
I don't know if he's read anything.
And there's no doubt he wouldn't understand it if he did.
He is a very, very intellectually inferior human being.
Has been since he was in grade school.
And now that he's demented, it's completely useless.
So what's he doing taking Cuba off the terrorist list?
Hopefully.
As soon as Marco Rubio, who is a Cuban-American, gets in office, he'll put him right back on the terrorist list.
Senator Cruz flipped.
I mean, you ever see Senator Cruz when he gets angry?
I love it.
Senator Cruz really flipped his leg.
He didn't get a heart attack.
Remember, he's also...
Completely Cuban-American or half Cuban-American?
His father is Cuban-American.
I know that for sure.
Or his father's Cuban.
He's Cuban-American.
Mom, maybe something else.
But in any event, he's a patriot, you know, and he's an anti-communist.
I don't get it.
Don't understand it.
Today, I was reading the Wall Street Journal and reading Jason Reilly, probably one of my favorite columnists in the Wall Street Journal.
And a long-term great columnist.
And here he's telling a story about somebody that lost their home in the Palisades' horrible fires.
And who is it?
None other than my very good friend, Bill Simon.
And Bill was a candidate for governor of California, a Republican candidate for governor of California.
Believe it or not, got to within four points of being governor against, you remember, Gray Davis, who got thrown out of office.
And Bill, there you are.
There's Bill Simon.
First, let me ask you about you, Cindy, and the whole family.
Are you all okay?
Yes, Rudy, we're all okay, thank God.
And, you know, it's been unbelievable the last week.
You know, the destruction.
You're right in the middle of it, right?
Yeah.
You know, we got evacuated eight days ago.
And, you know, my wife said, I just don't have time to be evacuated.
And I said, well, you know.
What a smile on your face.
You're one brave guy, I'll tell you.
You know, Bill, you said to me something when you ran.
That I've always remembered, and I thought it was the best single description of California's problem.
It's a state with an infrastructure for about, I think you said that, about 21,000 people, and you had 36 million people.
21 million people infrastructure, 36 million people there.
That applies to the water, the roads, the traffic, the schools.
And of course, I think since you ran, The disparity has probably got worse.
Yeah, I mean, we estimated that the deferred maintenance in 2002 was somewhere between $180 billion and, you know, probably $350 billion.
And so, as you're right, Rudy, it's only gone up since there.
And they haven't really done anything.
They can't, number one, you know, they can't agree on anything.
And number two...
They've got other things they want to push.
And, you know, priorities now are much different.
I mean, under Pat Brown in the 60s, you know, somewhere around 15 percent of the budget was spent on roads, water, power.
Now it's one percent.
So you had a Democrat in the 60s that recognized the importance of the University of California school system.
I recognize the importance of freeways.
And so it's not necessarily a Democratic-Republican thing.
It's really, you know, it's just they put off fixing things in favor of something else.
Something that has to be...
Infrastructure is something that has to be done on an incremental basis.
You can never do it.
You just can't catch up in one or two years.
And when I became mayor, I had the benefit of Ed Koch's having started a 10-year program of, I think, investing $5 billion a year in the capital budget on infrastructure.
And he did about six years of it.
And then even David Dinkins did four years of it.
And then I did eight years of it, and Bloomberg continued it, and the New York City infrastructure for an old city is pretty damn good.
Now, I can't speak for de Blasio and the Democrats afterwards, but Koch understood you can't do it all at once, and I just have to count on those other mayors after me being as responsible as I am.
Yeah, you were.
And that's what you would have done if you were governor.
Well, definitely.
It's a tough word.
What about now?
This does seem like a remarkable breakdown.
When I heard that there was no water in the fire hydrants, I literally flipped my lid.
I mean, I can only imagine what you would have done, Rudy, if you had been mayor or governor.
I mean, I saw a clip last night of Gavin Newsom.
Because he was asked, I was at Reservoir Dry.
He said, every single reservoir in the state of California is full.
And the reporter said, well, what about the one next to Pacific Palisades where the fire was?
And he goes, that's why I'm having an investigation to see what happens.
I mean, this guy, this guy can't take the order.
He'd be a bad waiter.
This is really sad.
I know.
It's crazy.
And you know, when you see, you know, the photographs of the destruction, that's the price that we pay for having people like Mayor Bass, who wasn't even in the country during the fires, and Gavin Newsom, who, you know, he's just not paying attention.
And they are sort of answering to other extremely unrealistic Priorities.
Diverting the water to save fish and diverting the water to save plants.
And meanwhile, people are dying.
Well, you know, they can say that.
But the truth is that 80% of precipitation, when it rains, 80% of that goes into the Pacific Ocean, whether it's north or south.
So if they only trap...
You know, a small percentage, let's say 10 or 15%, that'd be millions of gallons.
So, you know, when they say that, you know, I got a fish at risk, delta smelt or, you know, snail darter, you know, it's fine.
Go ahead, save those fish and we won't use the water.
But there's millions of gallons that are trappable.
You know, above-ground storage, which should make the environmentalists happy.
It's more than, you know, just the snail derger or the Delta smelt.
But what happens now?
Will he be recalled like Gray Davis was, or is that, in this day and age, unrealistic?
You know, I haven't...
I don't think Newsom will be.
Apparently, they have 45,000 signatures for a recall.
Now, that's the second attempt.
A couple of years ago, and I think we talked about this then, a couple of years ago, they tried to recall him.
And I thought it was a great case, but, you know, he wasn't recalled.
You know, there's a lot of the spread between Democrats and Republicans here has just gotten bigger.
And so I think we got a better chance getting rid of the mayor.
Because she is so bad.
You need 15?
Is it 15%?
I'm trying to rely on that.
I forget.
No, I'm just like you.
It's a big number, though.
I remember it's a big number.
When they reached it for Gray Davis, people were actually surprised that they had gotten to that number.
Well, you know, I think a lot of it, as you well know, Rudy, is timing.
And, you know, when...
Gray Davis beat me.
I had made, you know, probably the biggest issue was the campaign, the budget deficit, which I said was $30 billion.
And Gray Davis said it was $3 billion.
And then, you know, he, the week after I lost in November in 2002, he said, you know, the budget deficit is really going to be like $25 billion, without mentioning my name.
And, you know, people got angry.
They were like, God, you're pulling the wool over our eyes.
Why didn't you?
Right, right.
You know, so I think we get the anger of the people.
You know, the fact that maybe the economy wasn't all that great in 2002. It was right at the end of the dot-com bubble.
And, you know, if I would give Gray Davis the benefit of the doubt, I would say, you know, it was a combination of things.
But he didn't help himself by, you know, denying.
The size of the budget.
And, you know, so I don't know.
I mean, look, I would definitely support the recall movement of Newsom and Karen Bass.
But, and it may be that, you know, we're beginning, maybe the needle's moving a little bit.
You know, we have a pretty decent district attorney here who beat the incumbent.
You had a Soros DA. Yeah, totally.
And that very progressive DA, he's the one that thought it was fine to allow people to steal up to $194.
I mean, what the hell kind of ass-backward policy is that?
And, you know, in San Francisco, they recalled Gascon's boss, Jason Boudin.
Now, you know the Boudins.
You remember Leonard Boudin.
He was an anarchist.
He was a lawyer with Ira Kerr's band.
That was one of the cases I did.
I remember him well.
And then his son was the DA, one of several who ruined San Francisco.
Yeah, totally.
And Kathy Boudin, I think Chase's mother, was in Weather Underground.
So it's incredible what goes on out here.
It's beautiful.
My wife and I enjoy the ocean, but policy-wise, it's really sad.
I think you told me when we talked earlier that your home was saved, although many of the homes around you were destroyed or partially destroyed.
Yeah, we, you know, probably somebody will come up with an explanation of why this house and why not that house, but just looking at it.
It's not unusual.
Yeah, I mean.
I mean, I've seen fires and tornadoes where half the block is down and across the street all the houses are fine.
Yeah, I mean, I don't, and that's the way it is with me.
So I've been out here 34 years with my family, same street, and I drive down to get my coffee in the morning and.
The first half of the street, half mile or so, the houses are intact.
The second half, they're all gone.
And the Catholic Church and the library.
I mean, it's amazing.
You know, it's really sad.
It's going to take a long time to rebuild.
Yeah, I don't know.
I'm not that expert in that area, but there was a fire in Laguna.
In 93 that took two years, but that was only 200 homes.
We've lost 5,000.
There was a fire in Boulder, Colorado.
You may remember that after they lost 1,000 homes, and that took three years.
That's not bad.
Yeah, it's not bad.
If you extrapolate that math, maybe it's five to seven years, but I'm not a spring chicken.
I'm 73. I'm not going anywhere.
You're not.
No.
You're going back as soon as you can, basically?
I'm here now.
Are you home now?
No.
No, no, you're not.
You had to move out for a while, right?
I can't get back in right now, but I have a workspace because I retired.
You know where I am, Rudy?
I'm in an old nun's convent at St. Monica's Church.
I mean, I'm in the nun's library.
I mean, what the hell?
Right now.
I mean, you're a practical.
You look so holy.
Yeah, exactly.
You see the halo over my head.
Don't hit me.
Don't hit me.
We're getting a lot of questions in the chat, Mayor.
First off, people have a lot of questions I myself want to know.
Bill's background with you.
Of course, he was an assistant U.S. attorney.
He was.
Under you in the Southern District, correct?
Yeah.
He was a great assistant.
And we'll give you some time.
I want a good story from those days, Bill, but take a couple minutes to think about that.
What else we want to know, people are asking, I mean, look, you ran as a Republican outside of Schwarzenegger, you know, the most successful campaign as a Republican in recent memory in the state of California.
Your meteoric rise was, you know, you got, it was covered all over and people are asking again now.
Is there a chance you would maybe consider throwing your hat back in the ring, considering how close you came just 20 years ago?
And we haven't had anyone since then outside of Schwarzenegger.
And let's be honest, was he really a conservative?
I can answer that.
He doesn't have to.
But what about that, Bill?
I mean, my gosh, you'd make a hell of a contribution.
I think it was a great...
The history of California would be different.
But in any event, is there a chance?
No, I don't think so.
I think, you know, look, I'm 73, about to be 74, and I've been teaching at UCLA for 15 years.
I teach four courses, and, you know, depending on the year, five courses, and I love it.
I think I'm very encouraged by, you know, that generation of young people, and I feel like that's, you know, you've helped me.
He's shaking his head no.
Ted is shaking his head no.
I'm off screen.
I mean, look, I just think we need somebody out there in California right now who has demonstrated the ability, first of all, to perform well statewide, right, as a Republican in order to get the donors on board.
And has the substance to do it.
I mean, not a fleeting, you know...
I don't think you would be in Ghana at the present of Ghana's inauguration.
I've never gone to Ghana.
You know, I thought she should at least check and make sure the fire hydrants were full before she left.
She left a note behind for the emergency, which is actually when I first heard she was in Ghana, being a mayor who rarely left, I was kind of shocked.
But I thought, well, she probably made a mistake.
But she left with full knowledge that there was going to be a catastrophe.
She left messages for what they should do, except none of it applied to anything that made sense.
Like, she could have said, make sure the water supply is okay, or let's go hire back those firefighters we fired, or it was positively destructive.
You know, I think it's a case where This is such a democratic state.
Somebody said to me today, well, why are you blaming it on the Democrats?
I said, because not one Republican holds a statewide office.
I mean, how can the Republicans be responsible?
They did not make the decisions.
And so here, for me, you know, Karen Bass must have thought she could get away with it.
In other words, you know, who's going to take her on?
Not our own party.
And so they get away with murder.
That's why two-party rule is probably a good idea.
The checks and the balances.
And nobody can behave in an irrational fashion.
That's the benefit of a two-party system.
It is a check and balance on a lot of things.
And when you have singular control forever and ever, like in the northeastern cities, they're all a disaster.
They're all crooked.
Crime-ridden, largely because there's no check and balance.
I know you're 73, but you sure as hell don't look it.
You don't sound it.
As long as I hang around with these nuns, I should be okay.
You're younger than the president in office, and you're younger than the president who will be in office.
There you go.
Well, maybe you don't want to make news tonight, and you don't want to announce here right now, but we'll talk it up in the...
Yeah, your state needs your milk.
No solid response on that.
We'll leave it open.
Is that fair?
You should see what a beautiful family he has.
I did some reading on you.
They referred you as Mayor Giuliani's professor.
I read that in some places.
He guided me through my presidential campaign.
He got me all my experts.
He was sort of like in charge of the professors.
He did some of it himself.
And then in certain areas like tax or the economy or certain areas of foreign policy, he was in charge of that.
And I have to tell you.
Despite the fact that I lost, it was probably better than my college education.
You know, it was great to do it with you, Rudy.
And my campaign manager would get angry because there's always a tension between the political people and the policy people.
Classic.
And I, of course, love it.
I love policy.
Twice as long or three times as long.
And, you know, some of the things they taught me about global warming, and I still remember, it stays with you.
I mean, we make mistakes for long periods of time in America when we make them.
Yeah.
You know, the thing we're running on, you could take your O2 campaign.
Yeah.
And most of it is still relevant today because they didn't fix it.
They made it worse.
Well, you know, it's just they're spending it on other things.
It's like, as long as I can drive down that road, it doesn't matter if there's potholes.
It doesn't matter if, you know, the curb's busted.
And, you know, we got these other hungry mouths to feed for the social programs.
And, you know, I mean, I think that it's just a danger of one party rule.
I mean, I remember without naming names, I... I was on the board of my college for a while, Williams College, and I learned that the last four cycles that 95% of the faculty had voted Democrat.
And I called my sister-in-law, not to call her out, and I said, you know, I guess we could both agree that that's lopsided.
I would agree.
That that's not right if it was Republicans instead of Democrats.
And she said, well, you know, there's a reason for that.
And I said, well, what's that?
And she said, because we are right.
So when you think you are right, you know, that's dangerous.
Yeah, it is dangerous.
And that's the way it is, you know?
The world's too complicated for that, Bill.
You know that.
Yeah, you've got to, you know, make agreements, cut deals, just like you did, you know, when you were mayor.
Well, in some way, I hope you contribute to the rebuilding of your state.
They need you.
And there are very few people who understand it as well as you do.
Well, I definitely would play a part in the rebuilding, whatever that is.
You know, in other words, we love our town.
You know, where I am now, all kidding aside, St. Monica's Parish.
I've been coming here 34 years.
The pastor is a dear friend.
He's baptized our kids.
He married our kids.
And now he's baptizing their kids, our grandkids.
I mean, it's a wonderful place to raise a family.
And now that I see all the destruction in the Palisades, I say, you know, there is an opportunity here to rebuild better, you know, because some of the streets are narrow.
You know, the infrastructure is not perfect.
Well, is that a great way to look at it?
Yeah.
I mean, yeah.
Okay, Rudy.
Well, we're going to keep in touch and let me know how it goes.
I mean, you've got a great attitude, but you've got a long road ahead.
Being out of your house for a period of time, it can be tough.
So give my love to Cindy and to the children.
God bless your children.
Your family.
And then the next time you come on, I want some stories from back in the 80s.
Yeah, absolutely.
Moody was the best boss I ever had.
You know, we've got to get together when you get to my new home now in Palm Beach.
I've got five sisters in Vero, so if I don't go to that, I'll be good.
You're going to want to get away.
They're all in Vero Beach.
Five sisters, you're going to want to get away.
I know.
God bless you.
God bless you, Rudy.
See you, pal.
All right.
Okey-dokey.
Stay in touch.
We're going to take a short break and we'll be right back.
Here we are, pretty much at the beginning of the process here at this pristine, I call it a laboratory.
It's not like a factory, it's like a hospital.
This is the beginning of the process for roasting.
Deep grain, very good quality.
Most people don't use this quality.
We deal with small farmers because we like to know who we're dealing with.
They give us the highest quality, all organic, non-GMO. You should know all Arabica beans.
No robusto.
All Arabica.
they're gonna go into the roaster and it'll get roasted for about 20 minutes or so oh my goodness look at these My goodness.
You're going to want to specially order these.
*music* This is what goes into Rudy's Coffee.
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Please.
Please.
These many years later, the thing that he told me, California has an infrastructure for 21 million people.
which is a big infrastructure, but it has 36 million people.
Now you think about that and just change the numbers a little, which are probably more drastic now.
And that explains the problem with water.
It explains the problem with overcrowded schools.
It explains the horrendous traffic.
It explains the difficulty with jobs and the economy.
It explains a lot of the tremendous pressures that go on in the state with infrastructure that's old and decaying.
And you don't think of California that way because those of us in the East, Think of the East as being old.
But a lot of the East, well, I can't say that.
New York, which, you know, is a democratic or was a democratic and is a democratic dictatorship.
The one thing because of Ed Koch, followed by a succession of responsible mayors, did is keep up the infrastructure.
And I can't say that for the state.
Can't say that the state has kept up its infrastructure, but they just done a better job.
New York there has done a better job than California.
And the pressures are probably less.
But that requires a truly substantive governor.
Somebody who is governor that actually reads the budget, reads the reports, thinks about the rational solutions to things.
Is able to take political pressure for the things that you're asked to do that is stupid, as opposed to cave into every single one of them, which it seems to me defines Governor Fancy Pants and Mayor Ghana.
The two of them seem like they are entirely frivolous.
Wouldn't be able to discuss policy in a second.
When he had that debate with...
I mean, debates are so much on style and looks, and I just thought DeSantis killed him.
Now, he beat him.
That's actually what the polls said.
But he beat him a lot more because people don't give credit for substance.
DeSantis' answers were substantive because DeSantis thinks like a substantive governor.
He thinks like a Hollywood playboy, a Hollywood silly dilettante.
Oh, people get angry about the fish.
Let me divert the water.
Oh, let me, yeah, I'll lower, yeah, I'll agree to lower the penalties for pedophilia.
What?
Actually, I don't know where the hell you take heat for vetoing that.
I hate to think.
Of why you wouldn't veto it.
So, I don't know how they changed this.
They're certainly not going to do it with these hair brains that they have in office.
The two of them have proven themselves to be total nitwits.
Dangerous, actually.
To the point of being extraordinarily dangerous to the well-being of their citizens.
So let's hope that that changes quickly.
An awful lot of Democrats are turning on it.
Now they're beginning to have a counter-reaction.
The Democrats are.
And beginning, somehow, blaming it on someone.
Someone's blamed it on Trump.
I've forgotten what they said Trump did.
It's totally impossible to blame it on Trump.
Trump, until next week, hasn't had anything to do with the water in California for four years.
If Trump had done anything wrong, there was plenty of time to fix it.
It's so ridiculous, Trump.
So if we take a look at the map, that map's a little dated, but it gives you...
Bill is talking about, you see where it says Palisades Fire there on the map?
And that's up to over 22,000 acres burned.
Now, he lives pretty much where that arrow is, but maybe closer to Malibu.
I mean, I've been to his home many times, particularly when he was running.
I spent a lot of time there and in his office.
And it's a beautiful home.
In a beautiful area.
Not a mansion.
Beautiful home.
Beautiful, big home.
Hard to think of it in my mind now as half the neighborhood burned down and the beautiful Catholic church that was there, Don.
It's like an idyllic place.
But that was the place that hit the hardest, right?
The Palisades Fire now by itself.
Turns out to be, what, the second or third largest fire in the history of California.
When you put all these together, I think the only two now that are still active at all are the Palisades Fire and the Eaton Fire, which is up there in Pasadena.
The others, the Sunset Fire and the Hearst Fire, and as it moved along, there were several more, are under control for now.
But we keep hearing these ominous forecasts that the Santorana winds are coming back and that the dry situation hasn't had any rain.
The dry situation hasn't changed.
I would hope that they've gotten the help of other states to kind of fix up the water situation and the lack.
I mean, we also didn't talk about the fact that She cut the fire budget by 18 million.
And the governor cut the fire budget by an even greater percentage for the state.
So the two of them are completely reckless.
Totally, absolutely, 100% reckless.
And something's got to be done about it.
Is there any further update, Ted, on the Israel situation?
Because they were negotiating But through the night now, it's probably the middle of the morning there now, you know, seven hours ahead of us.
I don't know, but with something like this, they'd work right through the night.
That's right, Mayor.
Any conclusion to it?
No conclusion.
We know that there is a deal in place, but there's been a lot of...
Conflicting information today on the specifics.
Israel and Hamas have agreed to a deal that will pause fighting in Gaza and lead to a phased release of hostages and Palestinian prisoners, according to Qatar.
Implementation of the temporary ceasefire will start Sunday.
Hamas is expected to release 33 hostages during the first phase of an emerging deal.
But is that now...
I mean, that's pretty much been on the table all day, and there were issues that had to be worked out.
Have they been worked out yet?
The Israeli cabinet, as of now, still needs to approve the agreement.
Okay.
We'll have to see.
Well, let me catch up on a couple of things quickly before we have to sign off and invite you over to X for the America's Mayor Live and the other places we're on.
First of all, the flag is going to be fully up on the 20th for the period of time at the Capitol when the new president is being sworn in.
And then they'll be restored to half-mass the next day to fulfill the 30 days in honor of President Carter, which seems like the right thing to do.
Michelle Obama, you remember, was strangely missing from the funeral for Jimmy Carter?
Strange because you had Republicans there like President Trump and the new First Lady and Vice President Pence and a lot of Republicans in the audience.
She wasn't there.
He was all by himself.
Obama was all by himself, which led to the little bit of lightheartedness between him and Trump, which seemed to get Kamala Harris very, very annoyed.
Probably because you can't have any lightheartedness with her because you don't know what the hell she's saying.
So if you're laughing, you're not laughing with her, you're laughing at her, which you don't want to do.
Certainly not in the church or the National Cathedral.
But Michelle's going to be a no-show at the inauguration, too.
What's going on?
Maybe because her husband isn't president and she doesn't like the country anymore?
Remember, she made that famous announcement that I didn't really...
The only time she's proud of being an American is when that communist was elected.
Not going to show up for the inauguration.
Didn't show up for the funeral of a Democrat president.
What's going on?
There are so many things that still get done that are so damn unfair.
It drives you crazy.
But releasing that Smith report, I don't know where these people get their conception, like Garfield, Fuddyhead, Garland, of what a prosecutor is supposed to do.
I prosecuted a bill with one of my assistants.
There were many of them.
I prosecuted many, many cases.
I indicted a lot of people.
We convicted the overwhelming majority of people that we indicted.
But there are times in which I didn't bring an indictment, either because I thought the person was innocent or more likely that it wasn't a good enough case.
Maybe I wasn't sure.
I didn't go put a report out about the person that they couldn't answer in court.
I would have thought I would have been disbarred for that.
Instead, I was disbarred for representing my client honorably and decently because it was Donald Trump.
That's the country we live in right now under Biden that has to change.
But what Smith did is so horribly unethical, and they just accept it.
And all you have to do is read the Supreme Court decision in the McDonald case, and this guy has a history of being a scum.
It's an embarrassment to prosecutors.
This is a new thing we're going to do now?
So the prosecutor investigates you, and he decides to indict you.
Fine.
You go to trial.
You get a chance to defend yourself against these charges if they're untrue or exaggerated or whatever.
But he decides not to prosecute you, and he puts out a report.
Of all the things that he could have prosecuted for, but he couldn't.
How do you answer all that?
It's a one-sided just smashing somebody over the head.
And because it's Donald Trump or me or a Republican, it's perfectly okay.
If that doesn't stop, we don't get America back.
Because this will become the norm.
And despite the fact that right now we got control of it, Republicans will start doing it.
It's just the way it is.
It'll become the norm.
Some Republican with, you know, no restraint will do the same thing.
Well, let's hope that doesn't happen.
Let's hope that Trump gets control of it right away.
Pam Bondi did a very nice job today, and so did Rubio.
And so did Pete Hanks yesterday.
I think he got himself through.
And we'll be back tomorrow at 7. And you just come 8 o'clock now.
You go over to X. God bless America.
Are you ready for some action?
I'm ready for action.
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Here we are, pretty much at the beginning of the process here at this pristine, I call it a laboratory, It's not like a factory.
It's like a hospital.
This is the beginning of the process for roasting.
Deep grain, very good quality.
Most people don't use this quality.
We deal with small farmers because we like to know who we're dealing with.
They give us the highest quality, all organic, non-GMO. You should know, all Arabica beans.
No robusto.
All Arabica.
They're going to go into the roaster.
and it'll get roasted for about 20 minutes or so oh my goodness look at these My goodness!
You're gonna want to specially order these!
This is what goes into Rudy's coffee.
On top of this, otherwise.
Rudy Giuliani back again with America's Mayor Live.
We had a little mix-up tonight, so I don't know if you were able to get the first segment of what usually is the Rudy Giuliani show on Lindell TV. There were some difficulties at the beginning, so we began.
With all of the other networks.
So now we're back in the safety of, which we can go do directly, of America's Mayor Live, the fastest hour on the internet, or hour and a half at times.
So I was just checking myself to see if there's any further word on the ceasefire, if it...
If it has happened, and...
Well, they've...
So the Israeli cabinet...
They say they've agreed.
And they say that two Americans are going to be released, which angers me.
They should all be released.
What the hell are they doing holding Americans for?
Who the hell do they think they are to hold Americans?
Those bums are going to release two Americans?
Maybe they'll release the two dead ones, the two they killed.
I think Donald Trump should construe this as not listening to what he said.
He wanted the hostages released before he came into office, or they're going to have hell to pay.
They're not releasing the hostages.
They're releasing one-third of them.
They're releasing two of seven Americans.
They'll shit break loose.
They'll get them released.
I mean, somebody's got to deal with them like they're holding hostages as opposed to...
There used to be a rule in this country that you don't negotiate with kidnappers and hostages.
Hostage takers.
Because if you do, although the emotion to do it is unbelievably strong...
All you do is create a lot more hostage-taking.
This is an art form for the Palestinians, because the Israelis give them so much.
Now, the argument is, right, that human life means more in Israel than it does in Palestine.
That's true, without any doubt.
I mean, Israel's part of Western civilization, and the Palestinians are using...
A completely schizophrenic Koran, which condemns murder and also celebrates murder of Jews and Christians.
So it's a totally different philosophy and a totally different way of life, totally different culture, and a total lack of morality and morality.
Although you never know that from the way in which the press...
It creates moral equivalence between the state of Israel and the Palestinians.
Actually, it's a moral deficit for the Palestinians who were trained to kill us from the time they're two.
But in any event, you say you're going to save lives by dealing with them, but do you, over the long haul, sacrifice a lot more lives?
Because you end up with a lot more hostage-taking, a lot more kidnapping, and then you end up with releasing large numbers of them for small numbers of you, and the large numbers of them enter into the fight again and kill you to the point where a number of them were involved in the October attack on Israel.
A lot of the people that were once held by Israel were involved in the planning and the execution of the men, women, and children.
So they get recycled.
And it looks like the 33 will be released, but I bet there are going to be a lot more Palestinians released in 33. And at least in my humble view, it should be equal.
They shouldn't be encouraged to continue to take hostages so they can make disproportionate deals and get their people out who are killing Jews.
And in our case, Biden should have been on their backside immediately when they took Americans.
Where's the President of the United States protecting Americans?
You don't get to hold Americans.
Who the hell do you think you are?
We should have had our special forces there a long time ago, getting our people out.
And if we could get some of the Israelis out too, they are our allies.
Get them out too.
That's the only way we're going to stop being pushed around.
Please read the chapter in my book entitled Stand Up to Bullies.
It might give you a short, brief description of what any learned person would take from studying the history of war in the 20th century.
And that is...
Appeasement, which seems like it creates, in the short term, peace and saves lives, leads to massive war and massive death when you're dealing with a tyrant.
And we're dealing with insane tyrants with Hamas.
Of course, we are dealing with Iran in the background.
And we pretend we're dealing with Hamas.
I hope that ends, too.
Iran should be brought to the table.
And the hell that should be paid should be paid by Iran as well.
Because they've killed and gotten away with killing an awful lot of our people.
And Trump did a great thing in getting rid of Soleimani.
Now it's time to get rid of the Ayatollah.
So let's see what happens with this.
But right now, this does not seem like a good deal.
This seems like the same.
Bull that we've had before and a ceasefire so that Hamas can rebuild itself, particularly by leaving the Philadelphia corridor where they can use those tunnels to rearm themselves, which is why they want Israel out of there.
So how did the hearings go today, Ted?
I've heard a little of both.
I really didn't pay much attention to Rubio's because I consider that a 90 votes.
I mean, first of all, he will get the senator courtesy, which he deserves, and he'll get the courtesy that he does there.
He was a very good senator and a very open to bipartisan dealings.
Open to doing things on the merits.
He has, from my point of view, a very, very strong foreign policy position.
But how about Pam Bondi?
I also heard her, and I thought they were unnecessarily nasty to her.
I don't know why there's a reason to be nasty to Pam Bondi.
Right.
That's right.
They're not reasonably nasty to any of them.
That's right, Mayor.
They created some outside issues with Pete.
They haven't created any outside issues with Pam or Marco.
Well, let's start with Marco.
A little light-hearted moment with Marco Rubio here.
We'll start with Marco and then we'll go to Pam.
Back door.
Thank you.
I get bilingual protests, which I think is an entry call.
As you know, that's a first year for us, at least in recent times.
All right.
I thought that was funny.
She was protesting him.
I thought she was protesting Cuba, but that's all right.
You know, Biden dropped the terrorist designation for Cuba.
Why not?
They're only communists.
He's trying to prove to us that he's a communist, I think.
That's right.
Well, speaking of communists...
Nobody's taking more money from communists than he is.
Well, speaking of communists, here is Pam Bonney.
We're switching now to the other nominee.
Taking it to California's new senator, Shifty Schiff.
I need to go over them on a case-by-case basis.
Do not issue blanket pardons.
Will that be your advice to the president?
Senator, I have not looked at any of those files.
If confirmed, I will look at the files for the parties as well as the ongoing investigation.
And will you be able to review hundreds of cases on day one?
I will look at every file I am asked to look at.
Of course you won't.
So will you advise the president?
Can I answer the question?
I would have plenty of staff.
You said, of course you won't?
You'll be able to review hundreds of cases on the first day?
I'm not going to mislead this body, nor you.
All right, let me ask another question.
You don't want to answer that.
Let me ask another question.
You were censured by Congress, Senator, for comments just like this that are so reckless.
It will also...
Will it be your advice to the President?
No, Mr. President.
I need to...
So that's Pam Bondi sticking it to Shifty Schiff.
It's living to the biggest liar in the House or Senate.
The man who still hasn't revealed the direct witnesses against Trump for Russian collusion.
Right?
Where are they, you piece of crap?
Shifty shift.
And what have you done for California all the time you've been there?
Did you ever pass anything to get them more water?
How'd that guy get elected?
You ever check the fire hydrants, Jerko?
How did you get elected?
How the hell did you get elected?
You are the biggest damn liar.
You engaged in trying to frame a lawfully elected president and take him out of office.
On a paid-for frame-up.
I mean, that's what gangsters do.
And you're a skinny-necked little jerk-off.
How did the great Steve Garvey lose to that guy?
Too bad it wasn't a home-run hitting contest.
Take him behind the podium.
Well, remember, that's what Biden said he was going to do to Trump back in 2020. We never found Corn Pop.
But I think Corn Pop beat the shit out of him.
You're right.
What happened to Corn Pop?
He doesn't want Corn Pop to show up because Corn Pop beat the crap out of him.
That's why he had to have the little children touch his hair on his legs.
The pervert.
That's a sick man.
So it turns out that Melania Trump is getting a great deal from Amazon.
Wow, do things change.
To do a documentary about her best-selling book, Melania.
So maybe things will be a lot more pleasant for the First Lady this time around than they were last time around where she was treated horribly.
She was treated horribly.
I mean, if they want to treat her differently than they did last time, I am very, very much And I think this may be the case.
She's got a lot to offer.
Woman speaks a number of languages.
She is an important advisor to her husband.
I know that personally.
And she's got great instincts and great ideas.
It'd be a real asset if she can have more of a prominent role and it's recognized.
I do think that yesterday I didn't have a chance to cover it the way I wanted to.
I do think the Wall Street Journal article yesterday by Walter Russell Mead, with whom I take issue sometimes, was absolutely on target.
If you could boil down the history of the next four years and the Trump presidency, it's Trump and Xi Jinping.
It's how they develop not only a relationship, but how does America contain The rise of China.
I don't think it's as absolutely impossible as people think or as inevitable that China is going to overtake us as people thought a few years ago.
I think any number of issues have emerged as Trump put pressure on them starting eight years ago that I've always seen in China.
I've always told people, and if anything, I think you should overestimate your enemy.
Which we always did with Russia, by the way.
When Russia finally caved in, we were shocked to see they had a lot less in terms of arms than we thought they did.
And we sure as heck could raise questions about how well prepared their military is watching with the difficulties they had in Afghanistan and now in Ukraine.
But in any event, you don't want to get complacent about your enemies.
But here's the reality.
When people would say, and economists and left-wing sycophants would say that China is going to pass America inevitably, Xi Jinping uses 2048 as the year that they want to accomplish that, which I believe is the 100th anniversary of the CCP, the Chinese Communist Party.
And until a year or two ago, it was rather...
Usual, liberal, repetitious bullshit that will try to pass a lot faster than that, maybe by 2030 or 2025. Now you read things and say, well, it's not going to be by 2048. It may not be until the end of the century, if at all.
So here's what was there all the time, and they still aren't evaluating it correctly.
America is a unitary country.
What I mean is America has people in poverty, but in poverty in which they're sustained and nothing like the poverty in China or in Asia.
Nothing like the poverty in Africa.
Even nothing like the poverty in South America, which is considerably less than the others that I mentioned except for Haiti.
China is a first world country and an industrial power, mercantile power maybe is a better way to say it, but it's also partially a fourth world country.
We're not a third or fourth world country partially.
We don't have 5, 6, 7 billion of our citizens in poverty that's indescribable.
The poverty in China is worse than anything in the Western Hemisphere, except maybe for Haiti.
And that doesn't affect a million people or 10 million.
That affects at minimum six, oh my goodness, maybe six, seven billion of their 1.3 trillion, which I think has shrunk to 1.2 trillion.
They're losing population.
And the population they're losing is not necessarily among the poorest of the poor.
They're losing population at all levels, particularly because of their insane policy of just a few years ago of killing female babies.
And of course, they're losing population because they're eliminating entire groups of people, like the Uyghurs, to a very large extent, the Christians.
Both Catholics and Protestants.
And they are not reproducing because they have taught their people to have very few children.
So real, real long-term issues with China.
I always would say when I would lecture on this before Trump and before China was being taken on.
When I was imploring people to really take a look at China, calculate when and if and how they get over the hump.
How do they absorb that 5 to 7 billion that are in dire poverty?
And what does that do for their economy?
Because their economy is phony.
It doesn't take account of them.
It's also phony in the fact that they give out phony numbers.
So you never know how they're really doing.
When they say GDP, it's really...
Guess how they're doing.
That's really what it is.
Let's see.
So those are all things that are coming to roots now.
And with all of that, you could hide when nobody was pressuring them.
And all of that you could hide because here's one thing they did brilliantly.
Infiltrate us.
No country has ever infiltrated another country to the extent that China has infiltrated the United States.
It says not very much about us that so many of our citizens will sell us out, but they will for money.
Much of it comes about because of the war of the Chinese market.
It's so much bigger.
However, as people are learning, the American market is much more profitable.
If you had a choice between selling in America or China, you'd be a fool to sell in China, where the vagaries of their economy are as opposed to what is the strongest consumer economy in the history of the world.
So you look at Canada, with the pressure put on Canada, Canada sells us 60% of our oil.
If we were to say, we're not going to buy your oil anymore.
We're going to take it from the ground.
And we're going to have you go get it overseas.
They would pay twice as much and they'd get much less quality.
And they would lose an American supplier.
And if they lose the American market and they try to sell somewhere else, boom.
So we're going to take a short break.
And we will be right back.
Well, and Mayor, maybe we come back and play a little bit of Joe Biden's farewell address.
Okay.
How do you feel about that, if we play a couple minutes of that?
Yeah, if we want to have some lunch.
Yeah.
So we'll play some of...
This is President Joe Biden.
We're a few minutes behind here, but I'm going to play it from the beginning.
We'll get a couple minutes of this in, and we'll be right back.
I'm speaking to you tonight from the Oval Office.
Before I begin, let me speak to important news from earlier today.
After eight months of nonstop negotiation, my administration, by my administration, a ceasefire and a hostage deal has been reached by Israel and Hamas, the elements of which I laid out in great detail in May of this year.
This plan was developed and negotiated by my team and will be largely implemented by the incoming administration.
That's why I told my team to keep the incoming administration fully informed, because that's how it should be, working together as Americans.
This will be my final address to you from the American people from the Oval Office, from this desk as president.
And I've been thinking a lot about who we are, and maybe more importantly, who we should be.
Long ago, in New York Harbor, an iron worker installed beam after beam, day after day.
He was joined by steelworkers, stonemasons, engineers.
They built not just a single structure, but a beacon of freedom.
The very idea of America was so big, we felt the entire world needed to see the Statue of Liberty, a gift from France after our Civil War.
Like the very idea of America, it was built not by one person, but by many people, from every background and from around the world.
Like America, the Statue of Liberty is not standing still.
Her foot literally steps forward atop a broken chain of human bondage.
She's on the march, and she literally moves.
She's built a sway back and forth to withstand the fury of stormy weather, to stand the test of time because storms are always coming.
She sways a few inches, but she never falls into the current below.
An engineering marvel.
The Statue of Liberty is also an enduring symbol of the soul of our nation.
A soul shaped by forces that bring us together and by forces that pull us apart.
And yet through good times and tough times, we've bestowed it all.
A nation of pioneers and explorers, of dreamers and doers, of ancestors native to this land, of ancestors who came by force, A nation of immigrants came to build a better life.
A nation holding the torch of the most powerful idea ever in the history of the world.
That all of us, all of us are created equal.
That all of us deserve to be treated with dignity, justice, and fairness.
That democracy must defend and be defined and be imposed, moved.
In every way possible.
Our rights, our freedoms, our dreams.
But we know the idea of America, our institution, our people, our values that uphold it are constantly being tested.
Ongoing debates about power and the exercise of power.
But whether we lead by the example of our power or the power of our example.
Whether we show the courage to stand up to the abuse of power or we yield to it.
After 50 years at the center of all of this, I know that believing in the idea of America means respecting the institutions that govern a free society.
The presidency, the Congress, the courts, a free and independent press.
Institutions that are rooted, not to reflect the timeless words, but they echo.
The words of the Declaration of Independence, we hold these truths to be self-evident.
Rooted in the timeless words of the Constitution, we the people.
Our system of separation of powers, checks and balances, it may not be perfect, but it's maintained our democracy for nearly 250 years.
Longer than any other nation in history that's ever tried such a bold experiment.
In the past four years, Our democracy is held strong.
And every day, I've kept my commitment to be president for all Americans through one of the toughest periods in our nation's history.
I've had a great partner in Vice President Kamala Harris.
It's been the honor of my life to see the resilience of essential workers getting us through a once-in-a-century pandemic.
The heroism of service members and first responders keeping us safe.
The determination of advocates standing up for our rights and our freedoms instead of losing their jobs to an economic crisis that we inherited.
Millions of Americans now have the dignity of work.
Millions of entrepreneurs and companies creating new businesses and industries, hiring American workers, using American products.
Together, we've launched a new era of American possibilities.
One of the greatest modernizations of infrastructure in our entire history, from new roads, bridges, clean water, affordable high-speed Internet for every American.
We invented the semiconductor, smaller than the tip of my little finger, and now it's bringing those chip factories and those jobs back to America where they belong, creating thousands of jobs.
Finally, giving Medicare the power to negotiate lower prescription drug prices.
From millions of seniors and finally doing something to protect our children and our families by passing the most significant gun safety law in 30 years and bringing violent crime to a 50-year low, meeting our sacred obligation to over 1 million veterans so far who are exposed to toxic materials and to their families, providing medical care and education benefits and more for their families.
You know, it will take time to feel the full impact of all we've done together.
But the seeds are planted, and they'll grow and they'll bloom for decades to come.
At home, we've created nearly 17 million new jobs, more than any other single administration, single term.
More people have healthcare than ever before.
And overseas, we've strengthened NATO. Ukraine is still free.
And we've pulled ahead of our competition with China and so much more.
I'm so proud of how much we've accomplished together for the American people.
And I wish the incoming administration success because I want America to succeed.
That's why I've held my duty to ensure a peaceful and orderly transition of power, to ensure we lead by the power of our example.
I have no doubt that America is in a position to continue to succeed.
That's why in my farewell address tonight, I want to warn the country of some things that give me great concern.
This is a dangerous concern, and that's a dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a very few ultra-wealthy people.
The dangerous consequences if their abuse of power is left unchecked.
An oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power, and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead.
We see the consequences all across America, and we've seen it before, more than a century ago.
But the American people stood up to the robber barons back then and busted the trusts.
They didn't punish the wealthy.
They just made the wealthy pay by the rules everybody else had to.
Workers want rights to earn their fair share.
You know, they were dealt into the deal and helped put us on a path to building the largest middle class and most prosperous century any nation in the world has ever seen.
We've got to do that again.
In the last four years, that is exactly what we've done.
People should be able to make as much as they can, but pay, play by the same rules, pay their fair share in taxes.
So much is at stake.
Right now, the existential threat of climate change has never been clear.
Just look across the country, from California to North Carolina.
That's why I signed the most significant climate and clean energy law ever.
Ever in the history of the world, and the rest of the world is trying to model it now.
It's working, creating jobs and industries of the future.
Now, we've proven we don't have to choose between protecting the environment and growing the economy.
We're doing both.
The powerful forces want to wield their unchecked influence to eliminate the steps we've taken to tackle the crime and crisis, to serve their own interests for power and profit.
We must not be bullied into sacrificing the future, the future of our children and our grandchildren.
We must keep pushing forward and push faster.
There's no time to waste.
It's also clear that American leadership in technology is an unparalleled, an unparalleled source of innovation that can transform lives.
We see the same dangers of the concentration of technology, power, and wealth.
You know, as farewell address, President Eisenhower spoke of the dangers of the military-industrial complex.
He warned us then about, and I quote, the potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power, end of quote.
Six days, six decades later, I'm equally concerned about the potential rise of a tech-industrial complex that could pose real dangers for our country as well.
Americans are being buried under an avalanche of misinformation and disinformation, enabling the abuse of power.
The free press is crumbling.
Editors are disappearing.
Social media is giving up on fact-checking.
The truth is smothered by lies told for power and for profit.
We must hold the social platforms accountable to protect our children, our families.
And our very democracy from the abuse of power.
Meanwhile, artificial intelligence is the most consequential technology of our time, perhaps of all time.
Nothing offers more profound possibilities and risks for our economy and our security, our society, for humanity.
Artificial intelligence even has the potential to help us answer my call to end cancer as we know it.
But unless safeguards are in place, AI could spawn new threats to our rights, our way of life, to our privacy, how we work and how we protect our nation.
We must make sure AI is safe and trustworthy and good for all humankind.
In the age of AI, it's more important than ever that the people must govern.
And as the land of liberty, America, not China, must lead the world in the development of AI. You know, in the years ahead, it'll help to be, it's going to be up to the president, the presidency, the Congress, the courts, the free press, and the American people to confront these powerful forces.
We must reform the tax code.
Not by giving the biggest tax cuts to billionaires, but by making them begin to pay their fair share.
We need to get dark money.
That's that hidden funding behind too many campaign contributions.
We need to get it out of our politics.
We need to enact an 18-year time limit, term limit, time and term, for the strongest ethics and the strongest ethics reforms for our Supreme Court.
We need to ban members of Congress from trading stock while they're in the Congress.
We need to amend the Constitution to make clear that no president, no president is immune from crimes that he or she commits while in office.
The president's power is not limited.
It's not absolute.
And it shouldn't be.
And in a democracy, there's another danger to the concentration of power and wealth.
It erodes a sense of unity and common purpose.
It causes distrust and division.
Participating in our democracy becomes exhausting and even disillusioning.
And people don't feel like they have a fair shot.
We have to stay engaged in the process.
I know it's frustrating.
A fair shot is what makes America, America.
Everyone's entitled to a fair shot.
Not a guarantee, but just a fair shot.
An even playing field.
Going as far as your hard work and talent can take you.
We can never lose that essential truth, remain who we are.
I've always believed, and I've told other world leaders, America can be defined by one word, possibilities.
Only in America do we believe anything is possible.
Like a kid with a stutter from modest beginnings in Scranton, Pennsylvania, in Claymont, Delaware, sitting behind this desk in the Oval Office as President of the United States.
That's the magic of America.
It's all around us.
Upstairs in the residence of the White House, I've walked by a painting of the Statue of Liberty I don't know how many times.
In the painting, there's several workers climbing on the outstretched arm of the statue that holds the torch.
It reminds me every day I pass it of the story and soul of our nation and the power of the American people.
There's a story of a veteran.
This is a veteran, a son of an immigrant, whose job was to climb that torch and polish the amber panes so rays of light could reach out as far as possible.
He was known as the keeper of the flame.
He once said of the Statue of Liberty, quote, speaks a silent universal language, one of hope that anyone who seeks and speaks freedom can understand.
Yes, we sway back and forth to withstand the fury of the storm, to stand the test of time.
A constant struggle.
A constant struggle.
A short distance between peril and possibility.
But what I believe is the America of our dreams is always closer than we think.
It's up to us to make our dreams come true.
Let me close by stating my gratitude to so many people.
To the members of my administration, as well as public service and first responders across the country and around the world, thank you for stepping up to serve.
To our service members and your families, it's been the highest honor of my life to lead you as Commander-in-Chief.
And, of course, to Kamala and her incredible partner, historic Vice President, she and Doug have become like family.
And to me, Family is everything.
My deepest appreciation to our amazing first lady who's with me in the ovals today, for our entire family.
You're the love of my life and the lives of my love.
My eternal thanks to you, the American people.
After 50 years of public service, I give you my word.
I still believe in the idea for which this nation stands.
Well, thanks for joining us.
Thank you for we're back here.
We're going to close that.
Okay.
So we'll close it up.
Yeah, close that tab.
Just close the tab altogether, Stephen.
Thank you.
All right.
And come back to us.
There we go.
Well, thank you.
Apologies here.
We're doing things a little bit different for a few minutes here.
Wow, so that was Joe Biden's final speech from the White House Oval Office.
Is my mic on?
Is it the right one?
And that's the right one?
Okay, sorry guys.
So, curious on your thoughts there.
That was Joe Biden, his final address to the nation.
Just five days, five and a half days left in that office before the return of President Donald Trump.
So very interesting.
He had a lot to say, or did he really have much to say at all?
What we want to do now is kind of shift focus back to Los Angeles.
Those of us that were with us on the first hour caught the mayor's really great interview with Bill Simon.
Bill Simon was the, well, first off, a longtime friend of the mayor's.
He served under Mayor Giuliani as an assistant U.S. attorney when Mayor Giuliani was the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.
He also, I believe, he definitely served a senior role on Mayor Giuliani's 2008 presidential campaign.
I believe he was in charge of policy.
And of course, moved to California and ran for governor in 2002 and came very close to beating then-governor Gray Davis, who was eventually recalled.
And that led to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
After the Gray Davis recall.
So, fascinating individual.
Somebody that we'll want to talk more with.
And who can kind of tell us here what's happening in California.
How was Schwarzenegger as a governor in California?
My understanding is that people were excited at first, but that he ended up being quite liberal.
Which doesn't surprise me, right?
But liberal for California, was it as good as it gets from a Republican standpoint?
So Stephen's making a great point, right?
I mean, how conservative can you...
Well, I will say this.
California does have maybe the most conservatives of any state in the country, just by sheer size, right?
And a strong Trump conservative...
A lot of people in Trump world are getting a lot of traction tweeting about these fires and the lack of leadership in LA. Rick Grinnell lives right in Manhattan Beach and he's been covering the fires along with a lot of his other colleagues.
Yes, that's right.
New colleagues out there.
That's right.
So let's just give a quick update on what we're hearing on the fire situation.
I'm joined tonight by the voice of Stephen Schumacher.
Stephen...
He has been with us for a long time now, and a lot of you know him from his social media content.
He comes from the great state of Michigan, and he's just been so helpful to the mayor and the whole team.
So thank you, Stephen.
And again, a fellow Michigander, right?
You can't go wrong there.
So here's what we're hearing.
The dry wind sweeping into Southern California from desert areas and that have been fueling the wildfires have eased Wednesday, and they're expected to change direction as soon as Thursday.
So that's good news for Southern California.
So even with that prospect that these winds, which are known as the Santa Ana winds, it's something that happens out there annually.
So folks there are very familiar with this time of year.
The LA area remained very much at risk Wednesday with fire and wind warnings still in effect.
And again, we'll see if we can check in with some more of our friends.
You've been hearing from a number of them, including Leo.
Zaki and Katie, who have done just a great, great job.
So, Wednesday afternoon, the National Weather Service is still putting out warnings for many areas, but that these warnings will expire this evening.
The Palisades Fire, it's continuing to grow, but its growth has slowed.
It's now about 19% contained.
It's being reported as 19% contained, but still threatens neighborhoods on the west side.
Of Los Angeles.
That fire has burned now over 23,000 acres.
The Eaton Fire has burned about 14,000 acres near Pasadena.
That's currently half contained.
The Hearst Fire, 800 acres burned.
That is now 97% contained.
And the Auto Fire, that's 60 acres, and about 47% contained.
So you're hearing that They're starting to get more containment here.
The winds are going to shift, so hopefully that's good news and at least offers somewhat of a reprieve for residents.
Hopefully, because what if the shifting winds just blows it all in a different direction and it's a whole new fight?
I'm not sure how does that work.
Look, Stephen, that's a real possibility, especially when you have what appear to be arsonists, people that just want to see the world burn, setting these fires on purpose.
We're hearing, in some cases, these are...
Illegal immigrants.
So these are the great people Joe Biden and company invited in and have refused to remove even the ones that have committed serious crimes.
And now we're hearing that a number of them are starting some of these fires.
But we want to wait for confirmation on how some of these things have started.
You know, I heard that Diddy, it's actually about Diddy and how the fires were...
It's a big conspiracy theory.
I actually watched a video of the top five conspiracies about the L.A. fires, and one was that it's meant to spare Diddy's home, but it got where all the other evidence is kind of throughout L.A., right?
It was meant to destroy evidence in the case.
Obviously, they're just trying to connect a true crime phenomenon and a natural disaster.
That's an interesting, yeah.
But, yeah, hey, intrigue, right?
That is interesting.
And look, when it comes to conspiracies, right, today's...
A conspiracy is tomorrow's news.
So, interesting.
So, we'll keep track of that.
Of course, a lot of folks are looking at Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Governor Gavin Newsom's so-called leadership on this matter.
Of course, Karen Bass was in, let's see, the country of Ghana celebrating its incoming presidential.
Probably having a grand old time as her city burned.
I wonder what her wardrobe budget was for that trip.
Right.
It's absolutely unacceptable.
With 12 days left in this administration, Mayor Bass is overseas on behalf of it, of the Biden administration, in Ghana, of all places, celebrating the incoming presidential party's inauguration.
And, of course, there's a lot of questions there.
First of all, it'd make a lot more sense if she was down in Mar-a-Lago meeting with the incoming administration to help her city, to find common ground between the federal government.
And the city of LA. That would make more sense than doing this with an administration that has had, at the time, 12 days left.
So it's very obvious she was doing this as a last-minute opportunity for a taxpayer-funded trip overseas.
As the mayor rightfully calls these people, they're a bunch of dilettantes, right?
These are people that enjoy the wine and cocktail circuit and they want to...
Go to fancy parties and meet with people and talk about things and shake hands and have their picture taken.
That's who these people are.
And it's not just Democrats, by the way.
It's also a lot of Republicans.
That goes back to a whole conversation we could have on President Trump and his pathway to victory back in 2015-2016.
He called these people out in the same way.
These are a bunch of dilettantes, a bunch of people that are more interested in...
The wine and cocktail circuit and having their picture taken and they aren't actually solving any issues.
So that's Karen Bass.
She's in Ghana.
She comes back.
By the way, she made a big deal about the fact that she was coming back and I had to take a military flight.
She comes back.
She's then interviewed on the jetway.
And some people are calling it.
She was ambushed.
It was an ambush interview.
I don't know what that was.
It was a reporter asking questions with a camera is what it was.
Enough with the air.
She was ambushed.
And for her to remain silent, she had nothing to say.
So as the mayor, again, has properly pointed out, she appeared to be in shock.
Now, she was, I'm guessing, maybe potentially overwhelmed with the crisis itself, but I think she was also shocked to have a reporter questioning her in that manner.
We're talking about a place where, I don't know if the term liberal media could apply more anywhere else than Southern California.
And again, as somebody who has dealt...
Who has worked in that market and spent some time there, I can tell you, it's as liberal as they come.
And that's not to say all.
So some of you watching, I may...
Look, there's some great reporters from Southern California.
California is a great state.
It attracts...
Frankly, it attracts, in some respects, good people because of the environment.
Not the political environment, but the literal.
And Stephen has also spent a lot of time out there.
Just how beautiful it is, right?
With the beaches and...
In the hills, and you can be in the mountains within a few hours.
You can be in the desert.
You can be in traffic, in traffic, in traffic the whole time.
But there are little respites of a beach and some hills.
It's quite lovely.
And actually, I spent a lot of time out near the Getty Villa.
That thing's gone.
Completely gone.
A lot of these places are just gone.
And that's the sad part of this.
So Mayor Bass comes back, and she's...
Ask these questions.
She's in shock that these, going back to what we were saying, right, that this reporter would be asking her such direct questions.
How dare he, right?
Well, it has to hit her that it happened on her watch.
Her city is on fire and burning.
There were preventable things that she could have done, and that's got to sink in.
Think about it.
If you're a human being, unless you're an absolute sociopath, that's going to hit really hard.
And if you have cameras in front of you, you might just...
Not be able to do anything.
I don't know.
That's what I kind of think might have happened.
That's a good point.
I just think there's also an element of this where these Democrats aren't as used to dealing with the hostile press as Republican officials or staff.
And so, without getting too much into it, I work with the press quite often, and it's funny now to see...
I mean, Joe Biden's team pulled this off this past summer after he announced he was...
There's a big push right after the debate for Biden to drop out.
And as comms people started complaining about the New York Times and these outlets, well, they're not giving us enough time to respond.
They sent us a request and then 10 minutes later, it's like, guys, they give you 10 minutes?
My goodness, that's nine more minutes than I get.
And again, I have to preface that with saying there are a number of good people that I do interact with.
At the Times.
Well, it's harder for them to have some serious lies they got to spin out of that press office with the Biden press office.
So give them a little bit of a break, right?
Exactly.
They got to pretend the guy's not senile, you know?
Oh my goodness.
And at that point, right, they're covering up the fact that the president of the United States was 100% senile.
And then they couldn't do it anymore.
But getting back to Karen Bass.
So she's getting asked these questions and can't answer it, right?
She stays there.
She remains silent the entire time.
She has nothing to say for herself.
And it's just amazing.
And I really juxtapose that, and I want to bring it back to the mayor here, to the leadership that Mayor Rudy Giuliani showed on the morning of September 11th, 2001. That's what I was thinking when I saw Mayor Karen Bass on that jetway, not saying a word, quiet, doesn't say a word, and then runs off from this reporter and without...
Feeling the need to even say something?
Sure, you're just getting back.
Maybe you don't want to say a lot.
You want to go meet with your people.
But to say nothing at all?
What kind of leadership is that?
Not even to say.
It's beyond reprehensible.
And the incompetence is just overwhelming.
And again, I can't help but sit there and compare her to what we saw on the morning of September 11th with Mayor Giuliani, who if you remember, and I was in fifth grade, but these are some of the most lasting images in my brain, right?
Going back to being in elementary school at the time, fifth grade.
And you're very young and impressionable at that time.
So you remember these things.
And it's also the people who come up to you when you're with the mayor and talk about their stories from 9-11.
And I've gotten so much of it.
I know you've gotten a lot of that.
And the passion and the appreciation that people have for his service is just, you kind of, that is not what they have out in L.A. right now.
The far left is bringing us.
Absolutely.
So Mayor Giuliani in the morning of September 11th, right, what did he do?
He was having breakfast and a work meeting, I believe around 5th Avenue and 56th Street around there.
And he's told that, you know, the Twin Towers have been hit.
The first tower, right?
And in the second tower, he made his way down towards the flames.
He didn't...
First of all, he was in the city doing, you know, working on city matters.
And so he went towards the problem.
He went towards...
And if you remember some of the early videos, and we'll try to pull those for you, where he's walking down the street.
He's already got his people around him.
Emergency services, police, city leadership.
Making their way towards the flames and talking to people.
I mean, you have reporters there yelling out questions.
And of course, at this point, the mayor doesn't have all the answers on what's going on.
But he's enough of a leader to understand that it's important for him to say something and to provide some sort of...
to show the city that there was leadership and that we were going to handle this crisis together.
And so he's...
He's talking as he's walking, and he went right downtown, right next to the towers, and he'll tell you, he almost died.
And of course, he lost so many people he knew that day and friends, including Michael Father Judge, I believe was the first official death on that day in Lower Manhattan, outside of the folks on the passenger jets.
And again, You just can't help but to juxtapose.
And then the leadership he showed that afternoon, into the evening, the next day, and the weeks and months that followed.
We don't see that out of Mayor Karen Bass.
And look, if anyone's entitled to speak on this, it's Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
But Karen Bass chose to run for mayor.
She chose to lead this city.
So look...
Of course it takes an extraordinary person in an extraordinary time.
She certainly isn't it.
And it is appropriate to call her out for it.
Because for far too long, these, for the most part, Democrat Party politicians in the state of California have been able to win these elections with no real fight.
The media is with them.
The way the party system is set up in California, you're at a disadvantage as a Republican.
And they've never felt the need to explain themselves or do the work that's necessary to instill confidence in the people you represent.
And it goes all the way to the top out there, right, with Governor Gavin Newsom and just the lies that he's been caught in, right?
He's talking about these reservoirs being full.
An NBC reporter points out, well, what about this reservoir that wasn't full?
And Gavin Newsom's only response is, well, that's why we're conducting an investigation to see what happened there.
And you've noticed Gavin Newsom now is going on all these media outlets and he's attacking Trump and attacking Elon Musk and saying this and saying that.
He's very nervous.
He's extremely concerned that these fires are killing people and destroying property.
That's not his real...
Okay, I can't speak to say that he's not concerned about that.
It's a secondary concern.
I can go ahead and say that.
He wanted to be president.
He wanted to be president.
People know what Democrat Party in Cyrus will tell you.
He's been raising money, making phone calls, talking to people.
And this really puts a wrench into it, doesn't it?
Ted, think about how he spent the past nine months fundraising, campaigning, and think, does he have any inkling in his soul that he should have spent that time preparing perhaps for a disaster like this, or at least having a little bit better grip on the state that he...
You know, supposedly is in charge of.
That's a good point, Stephen.
And, you know, and it begs the question again, heaven forbid, another disaster occurs.
I mean, obviously, the fire situation is not over.
I mean, California is, you know, earthquakes are a problem out there.
Obviously, we had a volcano to erupt in Yellowstone.
And, you know, it's not anything to really jest about because it's a possibility.
And that's even worse.
That's not in California.
But I mean, these disasters happen.
So that's why we choose leaders so carefully, right?
Because they need to respond in times of crisis.
Yes.
Well, that's why we should be choosing leaders.
Amen.
And so you look at California.
I mean, this is the state that just elected Adam Schiff to the Senate.
This guy's a known liar.
Somebody who ginned up the Russian collusion hoax.
These folks are literally willing to...
Completely upend and destroy our system of justice and the integrity of major American institutions all in this effort, in this case, to get Trump.
Look how easy it was for Pam Bondi to dress down Adam Schiff, right?
And everyone was like, okay, totally valid point, Ms. Bondi, right?
That's why he was censored.
He does lie a lot to everyone.
That's right.
I wonder if this will really wake people up.
I mean, in California, we have a lot of good friends there, and we've been talking to a lot of folks there recently.
A lot of you are tuning in from California, and we want to hear your thoughts.
Throw up a chat comment.
I'll make sure to read these afterwards, maybe even during the show here.
Yeah, comment on X, too.
Yeah, reply on X, because I'm going to go through all those, too.
We'll go through them.
If you're in California...
How are things going?
Have you lost even further trust in the government?
Did you have any to begin with?
How are you doing finding a place to live if you've been displaced?
Because I've heard it's been just an absolute nightmare with some of these landlords are making it difficult on people, gouging, and I guess California has laws against that, and so that's going to shake out.
That'll be interesting.
And it begs the question...
What did these insurance companies know?
I mean, some of them, you know, they pulled out not too long ago, right?
They had this down to a science, right?
These actuaries.
One of the thoughts, though, is, so California, and I'm not exactly sure the legislative mechanism that did this, is they capped the amount that insurers could charge.
And naturally, if you cap the amount, you know, it's some, like, grand progressive thing to do, right?
Cap the amount.
But then the insurers just go, okay, well, screw you.
I'm not doing that.
And so no insurance, right?
And that happened.
Yep.
And that's a very socialist.
That's like a good case study of what not to do.
Capping of what you can charge.
Yep.
Well, that's interesting.
And I'd want to go through the policy on that.
I get cap the amount on its face, right?
If you're not thinking through the problem, why it makes sense, affordability, so people can afford insurance.
But if you really think about it, that doesn't make any sense.
In a free market, that's interesting, but that's probably why State Farm and some of these major insurance companies were just like, you know what, why would we take this loss?
And maybe they weighed into account poor fire management and bad leadership.
I don't want to say that wasn't part of this.
Well, I mean, we can speculate all day.
There's a lot of different shady things that go on in a state as blue as California and a place like Sacramento.
Yeah, that's right.
So we are following that, and we'll make sure to keep everybody posted on that.
Of course, today we also had these confirmation hearings for the president's choice for Attorney General Pam Bondi and, of course, his selection for Secretary of State.
Marco Rubio.
And look, the media's playing it up.
Big day, you know, these confirmation hearings.
But really, look, Pambani did a fantastic job today.
Really, the takeaway for me is just these Democrat senators and how ridiculous they sound and how silly they sound.
And yesterday, the attacks on Pete Hegseth.
Or today, it's...
And the playbook has kind of been exposed, right?
We've seen it.
It's called the Kavanaugh treatment.
And people are getting wise to the fact that, okay, they're going to be bringing up X detail.
It almost doesn't even matter who it is or what happened.
We're going to get some sort of sexual allegation.
We're going to get some sort of other thing.
And so the playbook's kind of been exposed.
And it's actually hard to tune into that many hearings at one time.
So what is going to be digestible from these hearings?
And they're trying to get the sound bites.
But they're not getting them.
They're not getting them from us.
They're certainly not getting what they were looking for.
And so we'll have to see.
I'm waiting for RFK Jr. That's going to be a big one.
Oh, fireworks.
I'm going to go.
Yeah.
Maybe we'll send Steve in.
Just don't join Code Pink and yell before the hearing.
I guess that's what they want to do.
But you're not even listening to them.
Why not listen?
And then maybe, you know, make your opinion.
You're not even giving them a chance at the...
Anyway, just, you know, these code pink people, that sort of thing.
You hear about them every four years.
Those are the people with the hats, are they?
I think they ended up being the ones with the hats.
Those hats were absurd.
Remember that after Trump's first inauguration?
I wish I invested in pink hats.
Holy moly, before that one.
They destroyed the city.
Yeah, you're right.
They completely destroyed the city.
In 2017, they were talking like January 6th was so bad.
They were breaking windows.
Cars were getting blown up.
Cars were on fire.
Oh, man.
And they basically just desecrated the place.
Absurd.
Absurd.
Look, we're just five days away now from the president taking over.
The handoff is at noon on January 20th.
So it's now 9 o'clock on January 15th.
So we are under, right under five days away.
Oh my gosh.
And of course, we just heard from President Biden, his final address from the Oval Office.
We haven't been hearing much from Kamala Harris, although we're being told she's drunk.
Not necessarily handing.
Things aren't going super smoothly between her and J.D. Vance and J.D.'s team.
It might not be an animus thing.
It might just be a competence thing.
And an alcoholism issue, honestly.
You know, I wonder, right?
We're doing the best we can!
She is a DEI candidate, after all.
Absolutely.
You know, we're allowed to say that now.
And Steve and I, of course, we've always said it, but it's interesting, right?
The culture is shifting.
The vice president of Coca-Cola was at Mar-a-Lago, took a picture with President Trump and offered him a Coke.
Inaugural special.
We gotta get our hands on this.
Oh, we better be.
An inaugural special Coke glass.
And do they have Diet Coke?
Well, it was a Diet Coke glass, right?
For the president, because he's known to love Diet Coke.
And so that was interesting.
That's not something that would have happened eight years ago.
I don't think Coca-Cola would have done that.
Sent a senior executive to Mar-a-Lago.
Well, everyone's kissing the ring, right?
Everyone's kissing the ring.
In 2016, Facebook basically attacked the president.
Working against him.
And now Mark Zuckerberg's meeting with him.
That's right.
I think a million's too low, to be honest with you.
Most of these guys are coming in and donating $1 million to the inauguration fund.
Come on.
Step up a little bit.
Or do something good for the people.
You're destroying our people.
I can't say that because we use them.
They're valuable tools.
Look, I think supporting President Trump and what he's doing is one of the best ways to support.
The American people.
And no, I wasn't paid to say that.
But I honestly believe that, right?
Ensuring President Trump's victory and ensuring that he is successful in the four years that he has in this term, I believe is so important, right?
It's the most important thing we can do.
At the bare minimum, just don't work against the guy.
How about that?
Tech companies.
How's that for us?
Yeah.
How about just the bare minimum?
Yeah, exactly.
Treat them like everybody else, right?
Quite something what we saw out of the tech companies, but even they've come around because they've been forced to, because the American people sent a clear message.
And that's another reason why we're seeing a lot of the change we're seeing.
I mean, I certainly hope they treat First Lady Melania Trump a lot better this time around.
The way she was treated by the press and some of these people in the Hollywood crowd and the so-called influencers.
I think with everyone coming around...
The First Lady is really going to have an opportunity to shine.
She is an amazing, stunning woman with her new book that just came out, which we love.
Is the new feature documentary dropping soon?
I believe so.
Which I'm excited for a screening of that.
Yeah, that'll be exciting.
And again, these are things that we wouldn't have seen eight years ago.
The decor and the dresses.
She's going to have a beautiful wing for her dresses.
Wherever the Trump Museum ends up being or the library.
The wing for the dress is going to be spot on.
I mean, he's going to want a presence in New York, but he loves Palm Beach.
He's got to have something down here.
Maybe Mar-a-Lago.
Maybe Mar-a-Lago can have a wing where we can put the library.
As it is, it's very beautiful and amazing.
And then maybe get another one.
Get another big estate.
I think President Trump's...
I like that.
Wow, you've just given me so many ideas.
So much to work on in the future.
I definitely want to be a part of...
Well, first, we've got to work on the Mayor Rudy Giuliani Library.
Sure, I know presidents get libraries, but I would love to see the Mayor Rudy Giuliani Institute of Higher Learning.
Maybe it can be an institute.
I would love to take a class from him, I'll tell you that.
I feel like we do every day.
I know, I know, we're lucky, right?
I feel like all of you do every night.
Actually, you know what, now that you say that, actually, that's very true.
This is a good, this would be it, this is actually a good four-credit course, if you watch the whole thing.
He spends two and a half to three hours live every night, Monday through Friday.
And the foreign policy...
Oh, there's nobody that knows foreign policy.
Exactly.
The legal nuances that you can get into.
Sometimes I worry that it's a little too dense.
I'm really enjoying it, right, with the legal background.
But yeah, you can get a lot of value out of that.
I don't think some folks, because he was mayor of New York City, he took down the mafia, he worked so closely with President Trump as his personal attorney.
You know, not everyone realizes just how much he understands about foreign policy.
I compare him to...
I wonder how he feels about this.
To Richard Nixon when it comes to foreign policies.
I think he's a little more cultured than Richard Nixon, to be honest with you.
Well, it's not about being cultured.
When it comes to foreign policy...
An understanding of it.
I think he said a deeper understanding.
My understanding of Nixon, I think that Mayor Giuliani...
Obviously, I agree that Mayor Giuliani is number one.
But if I were to compare him to someone, it's Richard Nixon.
And I guess my point there is...
Rick Nixon, new foreign policy.
Benjamin Franklin.
Benjamin Franklin might be a good...
We can compare him to Benjamin Franklin in that Mayor Giuliani is at that level without being a president, right?
As far as being a name.
I don't actually...
I mean, I haven't read enough about Ben Franklin's foreign policy.
Diplomatic skills were unmatched.
Unmatched.
In France.
Yeah.
Well, it won us the revolution, you know, potentially, arguably.
Okay, Ted is not a fan of Benjamin Franklin, apparently not a science guy there.
He's more of a...
Take all the credit while you're in France.
I mean, I want to hear...
Look, Mayor Giuliani will put this to bed.
I'm going to ask for the mayor to remind me, guys, tomorrow or tonight, and you can comment in the chat.
Ben Franklin's contributions, which were major.
I'm not saying they were in getting France involved in that, but I just...
There were a lot of...
A lot of people back then that were a part of that.
You got the $100 bill, Ted.
This is not an attack on Ben Franklin.
I don't know how this turned into this.
Ted Goodman attacked Benjamin Franklin.
Love Ben Franklin, although when I think of Ben Franklin, I think of Philadelphia, and I think of the Philadelphia Eagles, and I'm not a Philadelphia Eagles fan.
But getting back to what we were saying, Mayor Giuliani in foreign policy, right?
Very few people understand it like he does.
And so every night, right, we're getting a schooling on what's happening in Israel.
And the map game is so on point.
Yeah, I don't know anyone that...
Love the maps.
We got maps up right now that we won't show, but very few people understand foreign policy like the mayor, and so it'll be fascinating to...
To hear his take on some of these things as they develop.
With regard to Israel as well, he's been to Israel so much.
And the stories that you get, even just from your run-of-the-mill trip that he took.
Because everyone wants to meet him when he's over there.
And so it's, oh yeah, I met this person when we were in the Salome Tunnel.
And it's like, oh my gosh.
That's right.
And the mayor went over there after there was a number of bus bombings in the late 90s, mid-90s in Jerusalem.
And Mayor Giuliani went over there and he rode the buses.
At a time when, I don't know that anyone could guarantee his safety, but he rode those buses and just want countless examples of where Mayor Giuliani has displayed courage in a way that, you know, in order to help others, right?
In order to serve others.
He wasn't just displaying courage for the sake of doing it.
He was doing it with a purpose.
And obviously in that case it was to comfort the Israelis, one of America's strongest allies, at a time when they were afraid to simply take the bus.
Obviously September 11th we've talked about enough here.
And sometimes showing leadership is exactly what a leader needs to do in those situations, which is the opposite.
Of what Gavin Newsom and Karen Bass are doing out in L.A. I don't want to keep bringing it back to that, but it's just such a stark contrast in leadership quality.
And you know, Gavin Newsom, for him, this is a giant photo op, and he's trying to angle it.
He still thinks he can be president after this.
Let us know, yeah, chime in.
Do you think that this situation in California, the unfortunate fires, have exposed Newsom and all but ended his bid for president, or is he going to be able to?
Spin this somehow and survive politically.
Look, we don't want to minimize what's happening.
A lot of people are fighting to survive, literally.
But Gavin Newsom, it's important that we focus on leadership and these elected officials because they can make a difference.
It does matter who's leading during times like this.
How long do you think he spends in hair and makeup before he goes on one of those photo ops in front of the fires?
You're right, Steven.
I mean, my goodness, right?
That hair is always slicked back.
I bet he spends like a few hours per day on his look, right?
TV, camera, pictures.
You're right.
That was what we were saying.
Who do you think spends more time in hair and makeup, him or Whitmer?
Before, you know, a crisis.
And it's him.
It's him, actually, right?
That's a good one.
Gretchen Whitmer, the governor of Michigan, who a lot of people float.
I would say top 10. I wouldn't even say.
There was a while where she was like one of two or three names.
I would say now top 10. She's on the top 10 list.
I want to say it now.
I want to be on the record here on January 15th, 2025, that Gretchen Whitmer is...
In my mind, a very overrated candidate.
Hasn't actually been tested.
And so I'm not so sure she would do well in a Democrat primary, let alone a presidential election.
Well, hey, we got a lot on Whitmer.
Our files are big on her, right?
They are, of course.
Steve and I are both from Michigan.
We can tell you all about it.
Gretchen Whitmer, I will just say this, has some similar baggage that was levied at.
Kamala Harris.
So we'll just leave it at that.
Saying she's drunk is what he's trying to say.
That's not what I'm saying.
It's actually something different.
But take that for what you will.
Gretchen Whitmer spent time in Lansing as a state senator.
I actually worked in the state senate when she was in.
Oh my gosh, they were atrocious.
I cannot imagine having to do that.
But luckily we had the majority when she was in the state senate.
So that she was basically playing defense and yelling the whole time.
Like literally yelling.
Yeah.
Like obnoxiously.
She equals, too, a little bit like Kamala.
So it'll be interesting to see.
We're just going to stand here for another minute or so and then close out for the night.
Thank you for joining us.
Another exciting, busy night.
I mean, we checked in with Bill Simon out in California.
Of course, we heard from Joe Biden, his final address from the Oval Office.
And then you've been stuck with me and Stephen here for the past...
45 minutes or so.
As we count down to what, baby?
Inauguration Day.
Everyone knows it's coming.
Everyone's hyped up.
Just have a couple more shows.
Just think of that.
We just have two more shows with this current guy as president.
Oh, I'm going to do a couple specials.
I think we should do a couple specials leading up to inauguration.
What do you think?
So two regular shows up until we have our new president.
And it's amazing, right?
A lot of you have been with us from the start.
Tonight is episode 583, I believe.
Is that right?
What does it say?
583!
I mean, my goodness, it's 583 straight weekdays that we've been on with you.
So you double that for weeks, right?
So that's 116?
116 weeks?
Yeah, we'll go with that.
Good enough for government work.
This will be the 117th straight week.
That's over two years, right?
52 weeks in a year, 104. We're going on two and a half years.
We started this in October of 2022. And I know we have folks that watch, whether it's opposing legal counsel or some of our friends in the media.
Hello to you.
Look, we're going to keep going here.
We're going to have a lot more exciting updates and announcements this year.
We want to thank our friends that have moderated in the chats these past few years.
We'll do a shout-out to all of you tomorrow.
And so you'll want to stick with us.
The mayor, of course, will be back tomorrow, 7 p.m., for the Rudy Giuliani Show.
And then 8 p.m., you'll want to check back right here, for America's Mayor Live, will be...
With you tomorrow's Thursday and we got Friday.
And then we'll be in D.C. for inauguration.
So we'll have to figure out what to do Monday night.
Such an exciting night.
We all know the mayor would want to be here more than anywhere else.
Let us know in the chat if you're going to the inauguration and what your plans are, if there's any parties that we're missing too.
Because, you know, the schedule's packed, but definitely want to hear from you and your plans, if you've got a ticket, if you're still waiting on tickets.
If you're waiting on tickets, definitely put it in the chat, and we might be able to see what we can do.
That's Steven showing how much of a Washington insider he is, thinking we're all going to be going to D.C. to party for inauguration.
A lot of people, this is going to be a mess.
It's going to be big.
Ted, buses are...
I still get the emails from Michigan.
Oh, are you jumping on the party bus to D.C.? That's good.
Well, we hope Michigan has a good showing.
I mean, it was a very critical state to getting the president in to the White House.
So we wanted to stay live for another few minutes to see if we could get the mayor back.
He's still tied up here.
So we'll probably sign off here in just a moment.
We want to give you one last update on what's happening.
Again, President Biden with his final farewell address tonight from the Oval Office.
That's the last time we're expected to hear from him in that capacity.
The wildfires out in California continue to be of great concern to residents.
However, crews are still dealing with the fires that exist, so they're not totally out of the woods quite yet.
So, again, thank you for joining us.
Thank you for being with us, many of you, for all 583 episodes.
We look forward to being back with you tomorrow night.
That'll be 7 p.m.
Eastern for our next exciting episode of America's Mayor Live.
Thanks a lot, everybody, for watching tonight and for sticking with us.
You know the mayor loves to be here more than anywhere else.
At 8 p.m.
Eastern on America's Mayor Live.
And we'll continue to come to you each and every night with exciting news information.
And we really want this to be a conversation.
So we do want to spend more time now this year having you guys on.
Maybe we'll bring you on video chat.
We want to do more of that.
We really want to make you guys part of this more.
As we get ready to celebrate a new administration and a new year for the show.
So again, thank you for joining us.
Thank you for sticking with us tonight.
And we'll see you tomorrow night, 8 p.m.
for America's Mayoral Life.
It's our purpose to bring to bear the principle of common sense and rational discussion to the issues of our day.
America was created at a time of great turmoil, tremendous disagreements, anger, hatred.
It was a book written in 1776 that guided much of the discipline of thinking that brought to us the discovery of our freedoms, of our God-given freedoms.
It was Thomas Paine's Common Sense, written in 1776, one of the first American bestsellers in which Thomas Paine explained by rational principles the reason why these small colonies felt the necessity to separate From the Kingdom of Great Britain and the King of England.
He explained their inherent desire for liberty, for freedom, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, the ability to select the people who govern them.
And he explained it in ways that were understandable to all the people, not just the elite.
Because the desire for freedom is universal.
The desire for freedom...
It hears in the human mind and it is part of the human soul.
This is exactly the time we should consult our history.
Look at what we've done in the past and see if we can't use it to help us now.
We understand that our founders created the greatest country in the history of the world.
The greatest democracy, the freest country.
A country that has taken more people out of poverty than any country ever.
All of us are so fortunate to be Americans.
But a great deal of the reason for America's constant ability to self-improve is because we're able to reason.
We're able to talk.
We're able to analyze.
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