Oct. 24, 2020 - Rubin Report - Dave Rubin
13:34
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| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
| I started the race to run for Congress, and part of that reason was because Maxine Waters, trying to get help with my VA benefits. | ||
| I was sleeping outside the lighthouse at Renters Palace Virtus, and I was going to her office every other day trying to get help. | ||
| I filled out job applications, internships, I even bought her flowers, and I was met with silence. | ||
| And that really made me upset, because the majority of the people who live on the streets are homeless veterans, and 60% of them are black. | ||
| And so you have this lady who says, well, I'm pro-black this, pro-black that. | ||
| I fight for black people, all of this stuff. | ||
| And here I am, a young black man, and you're not fighting for me. | ||
| We have 44,000 homeless people on the street. | ||
| 60% of them are black veterans. | ||
| You're not fighting for those people. | ||
| So which black people are you fighting for? | ||
|
unidentified
|
(upbeat music) | |
| I'm Dave Rubin and this is the Rubin Report. | ||
| We're doing a mini interview today with Joe Collins. | ||
| Joe is a U.S. | ||
| Navy veteran and a Republican running for Congress in Los Angeles's 43rd District, looking to unseat Maxine Waters, who's been in Congress for a cool 44 years. | ||
| I caught wind of Joe after his viral campaign ad that I'm sure many of you have seen. | ||
| So we're gonna show you just a bite of that and then get right to the interview with Joe. | ||
| Here we go. | ||
| I'm Joe Collins. | ||
| I'm running for Congress against Maxine Waters. | ||
| Do you know where I am right now? | ||
| Maxine Waters' $6 million mansion. | ||
| Do you know where I'm not right now? | ||
| Maxine Waters' district. | ||
| Yup, that's right. | ||
| Maxine does not live in her district. | ||
| But I do. | ||
| I was born right here in South LA, in a place Maxine refuses to live. | ||
| Maxine Waters does not drink our water. | ||
| She does not breathe our air. | ||
| And while she sits here in her mansion, our district is in ruins. | ||
| Let me show you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
[hip hop music] | |
| This is South LA. | ||
| I was born here. | ||
| I grew up on 104th and Normandy. | ||
| Maxine Waters has been in the office for 44 years. | ||
| Has anything got better around here? | ||
| I can tell you firsthand that it hasn't. | ||
|
unidentified
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I survived a drive-by shooting in this house when I was a child. | |
| Gangs, drugs, violence. | ||
| That was my upbringing. | ||
| And where was Maxine Waters? | ||
| Nowhere to be found. | ||
| Joe, how's it going today? | ||
| Good, how are you? | ||
| I'm doing well, I'm doing well. | ||
| So look, you put that ad up, and much like the Kim Klacik ad, it caught fire. | ||
| Are new people heading your way? | ||
| Do you feel like you have some momentum right now? | ||
| Oh yeah. | ||
| Success leaves clues, and we saw what Kim did, and we absolutely, you know, did one of our own. | ||
| And people have been coming our way for a very long time. | ||
| We've been getting a lot of support, but I think one of the biggest things is we had to actually shine a light on how Maxine lives compared to how we live in the district, and we absolutely nailed it with that. | ||
| Yeah, all right. | ||
| So before we get to a little of your history, which is pretty amazing, and you've done some great stuff, let's talk about Maxine Waters, because in the ad, you talk about the fact that she lives in a $6 million mansion that is not in that district. | ||
| If I'm not mistaken, she's in Hancock Park, which is a pretty swanky, swanky area of LA. | ||
| Obviously not South Central. | ||
| But that she's also been in business, and by business, I mean government, for 44 years. | ||
| How did she get a $6 million mansion, which I don't begrudge someone earning money, honestly, but in 44 years of public service, you usually don't think of someone getting a $6 million mansion. | ||
| Yeah, you know, she has a ton of mansions, and from doing research, I've seen a lot of backhanded things that she's been doing, you know, pocket patent and all that other type of stuff. | ||
| And we have to say, you know, it has to be corruption. | ||
| She's been labeled the most corrupt politician five times by the Citizens for Ethics Committee. | ||
| She has her own page in the Judicial Watch called Career Corruption, and it features Maxine Waters and everything she's been doing. | ||
| She's gotten a lot of backhanded deals. | ||
| She's even ripped off politicians here in California. | ||
| She put, they pay her $45,000 for an endorsement and another, you know, 10, 15, $20,000 | ||
| to get on a slate murder scheme that she has going. | ||
| So, I mean, when it comes to the corruption of Maxine Waters, it knows no limit. | ||
| Yeah, so, all right. | ||
| I don't wanna get too lost on Maxine 'cause I think your feelings about her are clear. | ||
| And I have a feeling most of my audience probably agrees with you, but let's talk about you | ||
| because I don't think most people think that, Wait, a black Republican from South Central, | ||
| could that possibly exist? | ||
| Now, we know a lot of stereotypes are being broken these days, but can you tell me a little bit about your history? | ||
| So yeah, I'm from South Central Los Angeles. | ||
| I was born and raised there, and we ended up having to move to Texas after my house was shot up in a drive-by. | ||
| So I was already in high school, so I ended up finishing high school in Texas. | ||
| I graduated in 2003, joined the Navy in 2004. | ||
| That's where I became a Republican. | ||
| And the reason why is because in the history of black people, we see that the first black man to get involved in politics were Republicans. | ||
| And that's what the Republican Party stood for, freedom, anti-slavery, fight for your rights, and that's what resonated with me. | ||
| So what possessed you to possibly go into politics? | ||
| You come back after the Navy, and what possessed you to say, all right, I'm gonna throw my hat in the ring? | ||
| I actually got out the military to get involved in politics. | ||
| I got an administrative separation under honorable conditions so I could pursue a career in politics. | ||
| And it was because through the 2016 election, the voice of the younger people were not being heard. | ||
| And everybody called us lazy millennials. | ||
| They called us lazy. | ||
| They said we were worthless. | ||
| We couldn't do anything. | ||
| And mind you, In the Navy, in the entire military in itself, it's about 4 million millennials that wake up every day at 4 o'clock in the morning. | ||
| We do more between 4 and 8 than most people do all day. | ||
| And so whenever we would bring our issues to the table, they'll say, wait, or it's not your turn yet, or we're going to take care of it for you. | ||
| But our voice was never heard. | ||
| And so I wanted our voice to be heard. | ||
| So I got out the military, hopped into politics. | ||
| I actually started off as a presidential candidate. | ||
| And after I learned a lot, because you can't get involved in politics in the military, so I learned a lot | ||
| as a presidential candidate, then I started the race to run for Congress. | ||
| And part of that reason was because Maxine Waters, trying to get help with my VA benefits. | ||
| I was sleeping outside the lighthouse of Rensselaer Palace, Veritas, and I was going to her | ||
| office every other day trying to get help. | ||
| I filled out job applications, internships. | ||
| I even bought her flowers. | ||
| And I was met with silence. | ||
| And that really made me upset because the majority of the people who live on the streets are homeless veterans, and 60% of them are black. | ||
| And so you have this lady who says, well, I'm pro-black this, pro-black that. | ||
| I fight for black people, all of this stuff. | ||
| And here I am, a young black man, and you're not fighting for me. | ||
| We have 44,000 homeless people on the street. | ||
| 60% of them are black veterans. | ||
| You're not fighting for those people. | ||
| So which, which black people are you fighting for? | ||
| You know? | ||
| And so she has to, she gotta, she gotta go. | ||
| Yeah, so why is it, you know, I'm in L.A. | ||
| as well, and why is it, do you think, that people in L.A., and really California as a whole, but I think L.A. | ||
| and San Francisco specifically, seem unable to connect the dots between always voting in Democrats and things always getting worse? | ||
| They seem to not be able to realize, oh, we keep doing the same thing, and things keep going the wrong direction, maybe we gotta vote in some other people. | ||
| Have you figured out why that is? | ||
| I think it's because when it comes to politics, and this is something that I've noticed, a lot of candidates don't run to win. | ||
| They want to be famous. | ||
| They want to be social media influencers. | ||
| So they don't put in the necessary work that it takes to win a campaign, to raise money, to get their message out. | ||
| And so that's what we've been seeing for a very long time. | ||
| People want change, but if they don't know you exist, they can't vote for you. | ||
| Yeah, so what are the things that you wanna do? | ||
| I mean, we all know the homeless situation in LA is just, it almost seems like every week it gets worse. | ||
| So what are some of like the hard, give me like three, four of just the linchpin things that you want to accomplish and how you're gonna do it. | ||
| Okay, well, I have my five-point plan. | ||
| And the reason why I came up with- I'll go with all five, let's do all five. | ||
| All right, so I want to rebuild the infrastructure to support the expansion of small businesses as well as housing. | ||
| I want to overhaul the education and start rebuilding our high schools in the 43rd district. | ||
| I want to bring quality jobs back, improve the relationship between the law enforcement and the community, and I also want to bring financial literacy back. | ||
| And these are just basics, basic things that you need in order to have a productive, positive society. | ||
| So we have to get back to the basics. | ||
| And, you know, you ask, how am I doing? | ||
| It's easy. | ||
| You just go to work and you do your job. | ||
| And I know that on a private capacity, what we've been able to do with the campaign, what I've been able to do in the community as far as bringing jobs and taking care of our community, COVID-19 is absolutely possible. | ||
| And it's easy. | ||
| You just have to want to do it. | ||
| Yeah, let's talk about the policing situation because obviously everyone's talking about that all the time. | ||
| What do you make about the relations between the police and, I hate phrases like the black community, but with at least the constituents in your district right now? | ||
| You know, it's kind of tough because everybody overemphasizes the issues of police brutality in inner cities, and they ignore everything else that we have going on in our communities. | ||
| And a lot of times, you know, when you hear a black person was shot by a cop, it has to be racism, even though the cop was either black or the cop was Latino who shot the guy. | ||
| It has to be racist for some point. | ||
| And then they always point out, well, cops did this and cops did that all the time. | ||
| And having someone like Maxine Waters coming to the community doesn't make it easy. | ||
| Having organizations like Black Lives Matter coming into the community doesn't make it any easy. | ||
| Because, you know, if we have such an issue with police, then what we need to be working on is police reform. | ||
| We need to get social training within our police departments. | ||
| We need to get better oversight committees within our police department. | ||
| We need to increase the budget so we can have better training for our police department. | ||
| and these aren't things that people are bringing to the table, but these are things | ||
| that I've been able to work with the mayor on, and we've been doing a really good job. | ||
| So we've been standing in a gap between the police department and the community, | ||
| making sure things stay calm. | ||
| And a lot of people from the Black Lives Matter organization | ||
| don't like it because they raise money off hatred and fear. | ||
| But at the end of the day, when it comes to taking responsibility for the community, | ||
| this is something that me and my team has been doing. | ||
| Yeah, so I'm not a huge fan of Eric Garcetti. | ||
| our mayor here in LA. | ||
| Do you wanna try to sell me on him a little bit, or is this just one thing you've been able to work with him on? | ||
| No, I'm not gonna sell anybody on Mayor Garcetti, because he's never sold anybody on me. | ||
| But I think when you're in a leadership position, it is your obligation to work with the people who are leaders in order to effect better change, and I don't have a problem working with anybody if it's gonna create some type of positive Do I like him personally? | ||
| Maybe. | ||
| He's a US Navy sailor. | ||
| Do I like his policies? | ||
| Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't, but at the end of the day, if we could take some type of medium ground to build some type of relationship to improve our communities, I'm with it. | ||
| Yeah, so backing up for just a sec, when you hear people talk about defunding the police and everything else, I've heard a lot of people basically say this is just like a media construct, like nobody really wants it done. | ||
| Is that what you're hearing from you folks? | ||
| Um, nobody's going to defund the police department. | ||
| I mean, when you look at the amount of gang violence and gun violence, domestic violence and drugs and alcohol related incidents and, and, um, you know, all these cases in our communities, you absolutely don't want to defund the police. | ||
| The crazy part about it is the same people who talk about defunding police are the same people who call the police when something happens to them, you know? | ||
| So it's never going to happen. | ||
| It's like a red herring. | ||
| It's the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my entire life. | ||
| Yeah, what do you make about just the general state of politics right now? | ||
| Not just your district, not just Maxine Waters, but like what's happening nationally, Trump, Biden, the over and intense focus on politics all day long. | ||
| What do you think? | ||
| I think it's a mess. | ||
| I think this is the complete reason why we need term limits. | ||
| We have politicians who refuse to work together. | ||
| Everybody want to be right, but they're trying to implement the same things that they had in the 70s and 80s. | ||
| It didn't work then. | ||
| It's not going to work now. | ||
| And we have a president who's struggling, trying to get things done for our country. | ||
| And, you know, people just don't want to work together. | ||
| So we got to get these people out of office on every single level. | ||
| At some point, these politicians should have been aged out and created an avenue for new Younger politicians with fresh ideas. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| All right. | ||
| Well, listen, I wish we had more time, but we did this one on the fly just because I saw the ad and I wanted to help get the word out. | ||
| I hope to see you in real life in LA. | ||
| Your neighborhood or mine is fine with me. | ||
| For people that want to follow you and help you before election time, where can they go? | ||
| My website is jocollinsforcongress.com. | ||
| You can find me on Facebook and Instagram at Collins for Congress 43. | ||
| And you can find me at Twitter at jocollins43rd. | ||
| And Joe, you gotta hook me up with the guy who did that video, because I need some slick branding like that, man. | ||
| All right, I got you, I got you. | ||
| All right, thanks a lot, Joe. | ||
| All right, talk to you later. | ||
| If you're looking for more honest and thoughtful conversations about politics instead of nonstop yelling, check out our politics playlist. | ||
| And if you wanna watch full interviews on a variety of topics, watch our full episode playlist all right over here. |
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