All Episodes
Jan. 9, 2025 - Rubin Report - Dave Rubin
51:08
Anderson Cooper Stunned by Gavin Newsom Blaming Locals for Fire Problems
Participants
Main voices
d
dave rubin
21:59
d
david drew pinsky
17:58
Appearances
d
donald j trump
01:58
| Copy link to current segment

Speaker Time Text
unidentified
All right, guys, we are live.
dave rubin
It's January 9th, 2025. I'm Dave Rubin.
This is The Rubin Report.
We're live streaming.
As always, Rumble YouTube Locals.
Join us for the postgame show, rubinreport.locals.com.
I apologize that we're two or three minutes late today.
Dr. Drew Pinsky, one of my good friends and native Californian who lives in Pasadena, which is one of the areas affected right now by these fires, he'll be joining us in about four minutes.
And obviously, with everything going on there, there's some internet issues, and we'll see if we can get the full video.
It was a little choppy as we were doing our tests.
That's why we're a minute or two late here.
We're going to be focusing on the fire, the sort of immediacy of what's going on and the safety of all of the people.
It sounds like, well, we'll ask Dr. Drew this in just a sec.
It sounds like where he is in Pasadena should be okay.
But these winds are moving fast.
The fires are moving fast.
Pacific Palisades is largely destroyed.
So we're going to spend, you know, the 40 or 45 minutes of the show today just dissecting this, but also connecting it to everything else we talk about on this show, which is...
How mismanagement and poor governance can actually lead to all of these things.
As a few people pointed out to me on Twitter this morning, my last book was called Don't Burn This Country, and I suppose I did mean it literally.
It was a metaphor when I wrote it, but all of this bad management does actually lead to...
Quite literally burning things down, and good governance can quite literally prevent that.
So we'll talk about what went wrong and everything else.
I do want to get to Dr. Drew quick, but let me just get you caught up on what's going on here.
A bit from the LA Times, we're going to show you some of the video and images.
Right now, more than 2,000 homes, businesses, and other buildings have been damaged or destroyed, and at least five people are dead in wildfires, scorching communities across LA County, making this one of the most destructive firestorms to hit the region in memory.
The five bodies were found in three structures in Altadena, where the Eaton Fire exploded Tuesday night, giving residents little time to flee.
It's estimated that more than a thousand structures have been destroyed in the Palisades Fire and another a thousand either damaged or destroyed in the Eaton Fire, according to the L.A. County Fire Department.
Weary Los Angeles firefighters were dispatched to fight two new blazes that erupted Wednesday night, a fast-growing brush fire that prompted chaotic evacuations near the Hollywood Hills, and a structure fire in Studio City.
Firefighters Thursday were continuing to fight the Palisades Fire, which has burned more than 17,000 acres.
And the Eaton Fire that burned through Pasadena and Altadena areas charring more than 10,000 acres.
I should quickly mention that we were going to have Larry Elder, who, of course, not only native Californian, born and bred in California, but also ran for governor against Gavin Newsom, good friend of mine, obviously good friend of Dr. Drew.
He lives in the Hollywood Hills.
Tom Bilyeu, my friend who's been on the show many times, he's in the Hollywood Hills from Impact Theory.
Many, many people.
But let me just...
Show you this one video before we get to Drew.
Actor James Woods, who you guys all know, who's been an unbelievable fighter against wokeness and pro-America and all of the right things.
When I lived in West Hollywood, I used to see him all the time on Melrose.
The guy is, he's Hollywood.
He is Hollywood, which is largely burning down right now.
Here he is on CNN talking about how he just lost his home.
unidentified
I'm 77 years old, man.
I can't walk up these hills.
It's like Mount Everest here.
It's like, you know, pretty steep, so.
You know, it's just...
I posted this on X, but Sarah was on with her eight-year-old niece last night.
She came out...
I'm sorry.
Just, you know, one day you're swimming in the pool, and the next day it's all gone, but she came out with her little Yeti piggy bank for us to rebuild our house.
Oh my gosh, James Woods, we all hope that you will be able to rebuild your house, maybe starting with that little Yeti piggy bank, and we're just glad that you're okay, and your wife is okay, and have your lives.
Yeah, no, I mean, this is real and it's raw.
You know what?
Strength is not measured by whether, you know, you hold in crying or not.
Strength is what you are doing now and helping your neighbors and shining a light on the great, amazing work of all those firefighters and emergency crews out there.
dave rubin
So that's where we're at.
And it doesn't matter if you live in a $20 million mansion in the Hollywood Hills or you're down below in a house that's $200 grand.
I mean, this is affecting absolutely everybody.
I suppose Acts of God are the great equalizer.
We'll talk about that and much more with my friend Drew Pinsky from Pasadena in just a sec.
But let me talk to you about Rumble Premium real quick.
When Rumble first started in 2013, they built the platform for the small creator.
They didn't censor or have biases.
They were fair and treated all creators equally.
No one thought platforms would censor political conversation or censor opinions around COVID, but they did.
Facebook admitted they fell to pressure from the Biden and Harris administration.
Of course, Rumble did not.
They held the line.
They're attacked daily for giving us a voice to talk to you.
They're attacked in corporate media.
They're attacked by governments like France.
They're attacked by brand advertisers.
Who refuse to work with them?
Corporate America is fighting to remove free speech while Rumble is fighting to keep it.
Rumble won't survive with brand advertisers alone.
They don't get much of it.
So watching our show is the number one way we can ask for support from you.
But if you really believe in this fight and you have the means, one major way you can help Rumble survive is by joining Rumble Premium.
Join the community that believes in the First Amendment and believes in our human right to free speech.
Rumble is offering $10 off with promo code Rubin when you purchase an annual subscription.
Go to rumble.com slash premium slash Rubin and use code Rubin.
Like I said, if you have the means and believe in the cause, now is the time to join Rumble Premium.
If you don't have the means, we're just happy if you watch us right here on Rumble.
All right, so let's get right to it.
Dr. Drew Pinsky, live from his home in Pasadena, California.
Dr. Drew, are you there?
david drew pinsky
I'm here.
Can you hear me?
dave rubin
Yeah, we got you.
Okay, so we're going to use an image of you for now.
Obviously, the internet's a little shoddy over there at the moment.
david drew pinsky
Actually, David, we packed everything up, all of our studio here.
It's the most valuable thing in our home to get ready to evacuate, and then we can't get it hooked back up again.
So forget for having a bunch of amateurs running a studio.
dave rubin
I'll take it.
And I have no doubt that you're getting phone calls in the midst of this and everything else.
So most importantly, I mean, you're in Pasadena.
People are seeing the videos out of Pasadena.
Phoenix here grew up in Pasadena.
He knows people, friends that he grew up with, that their houses are destroyed.
Are you okay?
I mean, you said you're packing up.
Are you trying to get out?
david drew pinsky
No, we're good.
We live in a fire zone.
You become a mini fire and earthquake expert if you live in these zones in Southern California.
And so this is not something unanticipated.
It's just the magnitude of this thing and the location of it.
It's actually, in terms of the square miles covered, these fires aren't that big.
It's just that they hit right into these residential areas.
And I was speaking to a fire chief yesterday, and he was saying, look, when the winds are blowing 85 to 100 miles an hour, the water pressure be damned.
We can't do anything.
We've got to wait until the wind stops.
The winds just carry the fire.
You can't do anything about it, and the heat of it just makes it inapproachable.
B, you can't even get the helicopters, the planes, into the air in winds like that.
I was talking to a helicopter expert yesterday who was saying that if you try to lift off a helicopter, the blades will hit each other and destroy the craft.
So the aircrafts were down, which was one of our major defenses for fire.
Today they're flying in the hills.
There is no wind here since last night in Pasadena.
Last night, you know, all day we were breathing dense smoke.
It was pretty spooky to be breathing the smoke.
But last night we saw stars, didn't smell smoke anymore, so we're much better over here.
dave rubin
Right.
So, I mean, you're basically confident that you can stay there as long as the winds.
It's about the winds.
david drew pinsky
Yeah, right.
I mean, it would have to blow through a thousand hounds and cross the royal parking lot, the Rose Bowl parking lot, just to get into our region.
So we're good.
But there's a piece of the story you just rolled in that you haven't touched on yet.
It pertains to James Woods, which is insurance.
Insurance had just pulled out of the Palisades and the fare plan, which is the backup insurance for those of us in fire zones.
Is on record to go bankrupt.
So there will be no insurance resources for anybody.
Then, as Adam, you mentioned, ranted about yesterday, when you go and try to rebuild, and if you're on the coast, the Coastal Commission won't let you do anything because they have a new policy called reclamation, which is nature takes your home, bad on you.
Sorry, that's where you built it.
Nature wants it back.
dave rubin
Yeah.
Well, unfortunately, we are not at the rebuild part of this.
You're referencing Adam Carolla.
He's got a couple of videos that are going super viral right now, including from a few years ago when he did some congressional testimony talking about how many years before that he wanted to be a firefighter in Los Angeles.
And he was told, well, he's a white guy.
Get to the back of the line.
Wait seven years to do it.
And when he finally went back, he happened to talk to a black woman who was also applying, and she had applied four days.
david drew pinsky
He's told me that story for 20 years.
And look, you don't have to take aim at DEI to talk about the incompetence of our government.
They have been focused on everything.
I've been complaining about this, Dave, for 10 years.
Everything except governing.
Accept what governments are supposed to do.
Make the roads work.
Keep the streets safe.
Remember the road diets here?
I have a feeling that a big pileup in the Palisades was a result of a road diet which put these huge bike lanes on either side of the road so emergency vehicles can't get in and out of the major thoroughfares in this country, in this county.
And they don't care.
Just do it.
And their goal, of course, is the CO2 emissions.
And I just looked this up this morning.
And California wildfires have, since 2020, have doubled the reductions achieved since 2003. In other words, in the last, not including this fire, in the last four years, up until this fire, everything they've done to reduce CO2 had been undone times two.
Between 2020 and 2024. So if they're actually interested in reducing CO2 emissions, their number one job should be managing fires in Southern California.
And listen, did you grow up near the foothills at all?
Were you in Southern California when you grew up?
dave rubin
No, no.
I got here as an adult in 2013. When I left, when I had already planned on leaving and I was living in Encino, we had already sold the house, but I was up on my roof one night with ash coming down, putting water on the roof just in case.
david drew pinsky
Here's what we used to see when you looked up in the foothills was crisscrossed fire breaks and fuel breaks.
They were all over the hills.
And I spoke to a fire chief yesterday who used to work on those teams in the 70s and 80s, and they stopped doing the fire breaks and brush management really because initially because of migratory patterns of a mouse and then because they started convincing themselves that there were other and they stopped doing the fire breaks and brush management really because initially because of migratory patterns So therefore, they could no longer do the routine management literally that we did 50 years ago, 50 years ago.
So if you wanna take aim at climate change, let's say it is climate change.
Let's say it is.
What are you going to do about it?
What's your plan?
Let's say it is.
Everything you're doing is being undone by fires.
What's your plan?
And anything but govern is what they're doing.
dave rubin
So we're going to throw to a bunch of clips as it relates to sort of the general incompetence, some of the things that they haven't done or have done that you referenced right there, and we'll get to the DEI portion of it.
And I should note that years ago when we met in L.A., you know, I'm talking five years ago now or so, you were considering running for governor against Newsom.
Larry ended up doing it, but you were considering it because you were so frustrated with the mismanagement of the city and COVID and everything else.
I first want to throw to this video of Rick Caruso.
And for those of you that don't know Rick Caruso, So Rick Russo is basically a legendary commercial real estate developer who built all of the huge malls of the Pacific Palisades, which miraculously that mall happens to be still standing.
He built the Grove, which is a very famous mall there, the mall in Glendale, thank you.
And here he is.
Oh, and he ran for mayor, so he could be the mayor right now, except he lost.
He lost to Karen Bass.
Here he is calling into Fox, talking about, well, you'll see some of the inefficiencies, let's say.
unidentified
My heart goes out, obviously, to the people at their homes, and I'm watching the small businesses around us go up in flames.
This is people's livelihoods, so it's devastating.
But what is most concerning to me is our first responders and our firefighters who are trying to battle this.
There's no water in the Palisades.
There's no water coming out of the fire hydrants.
This is an absolute mismanagement.
dave rubin
So no water coming out of the fire hydrants.
And Drew, before I let you chime in, let me just throw to a reporter asking Gavin Newsom about exactly that yesterday.
What is the situation with the water?
unidentified
Obviously, Palisades ran out last night in the hydrants.
I was trying to fire fire on this block.
They left because there was no water in the hydrant here.
Local folks are trying to figure that out.
I mean, just when you have a system that's not dissimilar to what we've seen in other extraordinarily large-scale fires, whether it be pipe, electricity, or whether it just be the...
Complete overwhelm of the system.
I mean, those hydrants are typical for two or three fires, maybe one fire.
You have something at this scale, but again, that's going to be determined by the local.
dave rubin
Drew, everyone knows my feelings about that guy, but that line right there, local folks are going to figure that out.
I mean, the buck stops with somebody, man, and I think it's supposed to be you.
I can't say, well, I probably could say it, but there's no point in saying what I think.
david drew pinsky
We're on the internet.
You can say what you want.
Oh, you have my picture up.
dave rubin
Yeah, we got the video back.
david drew pinsky
So two things occur to me.
One is, look, when the doors blew off the plane, the Boeing planes, the CEO got changed.
You fired the CEO. I don't care who's managing a large operation.
The buck stops at the top.
He's changed.
That's it.
The other thought I have, do you remember, I think you were still here, we had those trains that were ransacked in downtown Los Angeles.
Yes, yes, of course.
Remember that?
And he stood in the middle of this just absolute, just, it was unbelievable chaos of people's...
And he goes, what's going on here?
Who's in charge?
What's up?
Who's going on?
You, sir, are.
And if you don't, the lack of ability to manage.
And look, Karen Bass, we just, you saw her priorities.
She was in Ghana yesterday.
She wasn't looking at our...
Just look at our road management.
Just look at our water management.
Mayor, something.
Please, govern.
Govern for the well-being of the people.
That's all we want.
We want a government that does governing, not is focused on a million other things other than what government is supposed to do.
dave rubin
We'll have more on Karen Bass in just a second, because, you know, we were going to play a clip, actually.
I was going to kind of juxtapose Newsom kicking the can down the road right there with Giuliani on 9-11, basically saying, I will fix everything.
Literally follow me as buildings are crashing down behind him.
And just sort of that comparison where he's just so not what the state needs right now.
But here's we'll get to Karen in a moment.
Here's Newsom.
And who's he pissed at?
Well, you can already guess.
unidentified
I hate to even ask this question, but the president-elect chose to.
Attack you, blame you for this.
One can't even respond to it.
People are literally fleeing.
People have lost their lives.
Kids lost their schools.
Families completely torn asunder.
Churches burned down.
This guy wanted to politicize it.
I have a lot of thoughts and I know what I want to say.
I won't.
I stood next to the president of the United States of America today, and I was proud to be with Joe Biden.
And he had the backs of every single person in this community.
He didn't play politics, didn't try to divide any of us.
dave rubin
Drew, I'm fairly certain that's playing politics right there.
david drew pinsky
Oh, of course it is.
That's all he knows.
His whole being is a big political entity.
Maybe he's this political blob.
But here's the other thing.
Joe Biden got my back?
Have I heard from Joe Biden?
Is FEMA in here?
Are they going to give people in Palisades $600?
Is that what we're doing?
We're going to do that?
Look, Joe Biden, even if he did, do we all think he really knows what's going on here?
Think about how his cognition is.
Nobody really imagines that he is, forget that he has his finger on the pulse of what's going on here.
He barely has a pulse.
And so I know no one has brought his name up.
We never thought about him in all of this.
And as always, remind ourselves that local government has the most significant impact on our lives.
It's not the federal government.
It's the state, county, and city.
dave rubin
It's just an unbelievable shell game when you're the governor of the state that this is happening in, when your mayor is quite literally in Ghana, and it's your president in charge.
Whether you like Trump or not, whether he wanted him to be president or not, the guy is not in charge right now.
And as a matter of fact, here's video from 2018, Donald Trump warning Gavin Newsom what could happen in California.
donald j trump
There's been a lot of study going on over the last little while.
And I will say, I think you're going to have, hopefully this is going to be the last of these, because this was a really, really bad one.
And I know Gavin's committed.
We're all committed.
I'm committed to make sure that we get all of this cleaned out and protected.
We've got to take care of the floors.
You know, the floors of the forest.
Very important.
You look at other countries where they do it differently, and it's a whole different story.
I was with the president of Finland, and he said, we have...
Much different.
We're a forest nation.
He called it a forest nation.
And they spent a lot of time on raking and cleaning and doing things, and they don't have any problem.
And when it is, it's a very small problem.
So I know everybody's looking at that to that end, and it's going to work out.
dave rubin
So there's Donald Trump, when he was president, standing next to Gavin Newsom, talking about what needed to be done to avoid the situation we're in.
And basically, Newsom has completely ignored it since then.
david drew pinsky
No, listen, I'll stand with him on this.
The ecological laws in this country, the environmental restrictions on doing anything, are so absurd.
We have to undo these laws so people can't.
Look, the reason we can't help the homeless is because of the laws, not because of Gavin Newsom.
The legislature in this state, you want to really see where the problem is.
That's where it is.
But I'd like the leader of the state to help us undo that and change that and point out where their shortcomings are, not stand back and go, who's in charge here?
dave rubin
Right.
And now check this out.
People will remember this.
This is from barely two months ago when Trump went on Joe Rogan.
And they talked about some of the mismanagement of California and why this could be a big problem in the future.
donald j trump
They said, we have no water.
I said, do you have a drought?
No, we don't have a drought.
I said, why don't you have no water?
Because the water isn't allowed to flow down.
It's got a natural flow from Canada all the way up north.
More water than they could ever use.
In order to protect a tiny little fish, the water up north gets routed into the Pacific Ocean.
Millions and millions of gallons of water gets poured.
I could have water for all of that land, water for your forests.
You know, your forests are dry as a bone, okay?
unidentified
Yeah, dangerous.
donald j trump
That water could be routed.
You know, you could have everything.
Not only dangerous, billions of dollars a year they spend on forest fires.
And, you know, there's a case with the environment.
They're not allowed to rake their forest because you're not allowed to touch it.
And all they have to do is clean their forest, meaning rake it up, get rid of the leaves, get rid of, you know, leaves that are sitting there for five years.
And certainly get rid of the dead fall and get rid of the trees that are falling.
unidentified
Yeah.
donald j trump
You know, all right.
dave rubin
So there's Trump two months ago talking about what needed to be done.
david drew pinsky
And now I want to get in the average person thinks to themselves, well, maybe they can't afford it.
We are 80...
$80 billion over budget on a rail from Bakersfield to Merced.
I challenge any of you to find those two cities on the map and explain to me, A, first of all, if you can find them.
B, why we need a fast rail between those two.
$80 billion over budget, and not one rail has been laid down.
That money could have dealt with this problem.
No problem.
dave rubin
Well, that gets to your exact point.
So whether we want to lay all the blame, and obviously there's acts of God.
So I'm not sitting here saying Gavin Newsom did all of this, obviously.
But whether you want to blame the governmental failures on Gavin Newsom, or you're right, it's a one-party state.
So if you want to blame it on the legislature, that's fine.
But to that exact point that Donald Trump was making about what you're allowed to do, you made the point previously about what you're allowed to do and not allowed to do because of these ridiculous regulations.
Here is Newsom talking about the largest dam removal in U.S. history.
Wait till you hear why they did it.
unidentified
The largest dam removal project in U.S. history and one of the most significant, if not the most significant, water restoration project, bringing back salmon and steelhead into this basin.
This project could not have happened without extraordinary partnerships with tribal nations and, of course, our partners in the North and Oregon.
We just finished the celebration with the Secretary of the Interior and our Tribal Council and tribal leaders.
And I couldn't be more proud as a Californian.
And I couldn't be more proud as a father.
Because my kids and their great-great-grandkids will have the opportunity to see something that, well, has been here since time immemorial.
And it's about damn time we got this done.
dave rubin
It's about damn time.
I'll give him that line.
Okay, fine.
But this is the point.
Do you think California would like to have some dams right now that would keep the water a little bit higher?
We're all for salmon swimming upstream, and it's cool watching them jump out of the water and have the bears grab them.
But even that right there, it's to your point exactly, and we're talking with the tribal nations and blah, blah, blah.
Well, maybe we needed that water.
david drew pinsky
Anything but the good of the people of this state.
Look, Bernie Sanders tweeted this morning something about climate change.
This is all climate change.
It's not a hoax.
Okay, let's assume it is climate change.
Just make that assumption.
Grant them that.
Then what are you going to do about it?
And your biggest concern should then be the CO2 from forest fires.
That should be your number one concern, if indeed climate change.
But they only like doing what sounds and feels good, not what is logically good, what is common sense, and what is for the good of the people and is the basic functions of something we call government.
dave rubin
I think you're making a great point that I'm gonna reiterate on the show over and over again.
Even if, regardless of what anyone thinks about climate change, whether you believe in it or not or anything else, let's grant them that.
If you go out there and grant them, okay, fine, it's real.
Well, what did you guys do to prevent the thing that's happening right now?
You're the governor, you're the president, you've got the legislature, et cetera.
Check this out to the point of this sort of one-party state situation.
Here is a video of Newsom in April of 21. Talking about how they're more prepared for these types of events because Biden is president and not Donald Trump.
unidentified
That's what's different now is we are committed as a team, as a partnership with the legislature and other state agencies, including now the federal government, no longer a sparring partner, but a working partner, federal government, where we're not addressing headwinds,
but tailwinds in terms of the support, a memorandum of understanding doubling our respective commitments to vegetation management and forest management and prescribed burns to support the Biden administration with resources, not just rhetoric, to help this collective cause.
It's a different paradigm.
It's a different framework.
dave rubin
We're starting to beat it.
david drew pinsky
I bet all that money was spent on studying the ecological effects of forestry management.
I mean, I bet they did none of it.
That's my bet.
dave rubin
Right.
Well, that's it, right?
Right.
I mean, it's just words with this guy.
There's just nothing left.
And speaking of just words, you may go ahead.
david drew pinsky
He said something.
He said, I don't want to be a sparring partner with the federal government.
So why are you focusing your state on preparing to resist the upcoming presidency?
That's what you said your job is now, to Trump-proof the state.
Well done, sir.
Well done.
dave rubin
That's quite literally what he was saying last week before all of this, that they were getting all of the legal mechanisms in place to fight the Trump administration every which way.
You did mention Joe Biden.
He's largely irrelevant.
He's got less than two weeks of this sham, travesty left.
But listen to this just tone-deaf line.
The audio is a little bit muffled, so you guys may have to turn up your audio on this.
unidentified
Take a look.
dave rubin
Drew, I know we're almost done with this thing, but just that right there, that this man who obviously either has, as we've talked about before, some version of Parkinson's or dementia or whatever it is, who's clearly not in charge, hasn't been in charge, kicked out by his own party, they drag him out there, and the tone deafness to be talking about his, it's nice to become a great-grandfather, but it's all just.
It's fiction.
It's fiction, except reality is fiction.
david drew pinsky
Yeah, you wouldn't write.
If somebody did a movie on this, you go, over the top, too much, too much, tone it down.
No one will believe this.
You look at the Palisades in Santa Monica, they voted all these folks in.
You are the ones that enthusiastically have supported the Coastal Commission.
Let's see how enthusiastic you are about all this as we survey the scene and anticipate trying to rebuild or looking at the financial consequences of all this.
This is your state.
This is what we've done.
We can also change it.
And we must.
We must change it.
We need real leadership in here.
Somebody's got to come out of this as a phoenix out of this fire and lead us out.
Look, I'll say it again.
Doors blew off the plane.
CEO has changed at Boeing.
unidentified
Boom.
david drew pinsky
That fast.
And guess what?
Look at the stock.
Look at the aircraft.
Everything is going the right direction now.
You put the right people in place.
And we don't need to argue about anything other than competency and doing the job well.
That's it.
I don't care who does it.
I just want them focused on government and governing.
And I want the best possible person for that job.
Period.
dave rubin
Drew, what do you think of my theory?
I posted it this morning, or not my theory, my idea that perhaps Gavin Newsom, who owns Plump Jack Winery up there in Northern Cali, which has at least 50 acres of beautiful land up there, maybe he could donate those acres to some of the people who've lost their houses?
What do you think?
What do you think?
david drew pinsky
Yeah, look at that.
And I knew RFK Jr. wants to set up some encampments for homeless and rehabilitation.
We should put those up there, too.
It'd be perfect.
This would be great.
Thank you, Mr. Newsom.
dave rubin
To contrast sort of the Gavin Newsom version of all of this with some competent governance, Drew and I, every time he comes on the show, we joke about how he should be moving to...
Florida, of course.
And I'm still trying to be his real estate agent.
david drew pinsky
I was there a few days ago.
dave rubin
But one of the lines that I love...
david drew pinsky
We're more comfortable down there, I gotta tell you.
dave rubin
Yeah, especially now.
I mean, look, one of the lines that I love most from our governor is that decline is a choice.
And it really is.
And Ron DeSantis tweeted this.
Our prayers are with everyone affected by the horrific fires in Southern California.
When disaster strikes, we must come together to help our fellow Americans in any way we can.
The state of Florida has offered to help assist the people of California in responding to these fires and in rebuilding communities that have been devastated.
And that's what the American spirit is all about.
Look, we can we can dump on Newsom all day long.
But there is unbelievable devastation happening here in California.
And and maybe maybe DeSantis and some of the other states can help out.
Guys, let's talk about 1775 coffee real quick and then we'll get to the mayor of Los Angeles.
And if you thought some of the Newsom stuff was bad, we got some stuff on the other side.
It's time to make mornings great again.
If your coffee isn't fueling your fight for health and freedom, it's time for an upgrade.
1775's Vitality Coffee isn't just coffee, it's brain fuel for patriots.
Packed with lion's mane, reishi, cordyceps, chaga, and turkey tail mushrooms, this coffee doesn't just wake you up, it keeps you sharp and ready for anything.
Lion's Mane and Reishi boost focus, cordyceps deliver clean, crash-free energy, and our hand-picked Bolivian beans pack a bold flavor corporate coffee can't compete with.
No fillers, no woke nonsense, just coffee that works as hard as you do.
Proudly backed by Rumble, this coffee isn't for conformists, it's coffee for the bold, the free, and the rebellious.
Head over to 1775coffee.com and use code RUBEN for 15% off.
Make mornings great again with coffee that stands for bold flavor, uncompromising quality, and the Freedom Rumble champions every day.
unidentified
I think...
dave rubin
Karen Bass is from 2021. You'll see why we're doing it.
This is Karen Bass in February of 21. Ted Cruz fleeing Texas in the middle of a deadly crisis is part of a larger pattern of the GOP abandoning folks in crisis.
We need to build a movement to kick them all out.
Well, Karen Bass...
Yeah, you were in Ghana.
We don't know exactly why you were in Ghana.
We do know you've made at least 15 trips to Cuba.
Drew, maybe you want to comment on that in just a moment.
But she's back and fairly incompetent at the moment.
And if you'd like to see example 101 of incompetence, look at this.
unidentified
Right now, if you need help, emergency information, resources and shelter is available.
All of this can be found at URL. Together is how we will get through this.
Through the heroicism of our firefighters, the vigil...
dave rubin
Drew, have you been to URL? Is it offering you any help?
david drew pinsky
I've been to many URLs, frankly, but she didn't tell us which one to go to.
I'm sure she's a lovely woman.
I really, I'm no doubt in my mind she's a wonderful lady.
She's not the right person for the job right now.
She just isn't.
I'm sorry.
unidentified
It's...
david drew pinsky
It's baked into this situation.
She, you know, there's now, I haven't confirmed this, but she's been an activist most of her life.
She's been focused on ideology most of her life.
We need people that are, we need like an engineer in there who knows how to solve problems.
We've messed around too long in the world of ideas and sort of feel good.
You can tell she's used to delivering messages that feel good.
We feel good.
We're here for you.
None of that matters right now.
Nobody's going to feel better because Karen Bass says, we're here for you.
They've lost everything.
They've lost everything and need to reestablish their life.
It's horrible.
It's going to feel horrible no matter what I say, no matter what she says.
Let's get down to solving the problems of real people are having on the ground.
dave rubin
Right.
And these are the same people, of course, who cut funding to the police and who allowed for the homeless encampments everywhere and who also decided to force you to be injected with things and lock you in your house.
And everyone knows all that.
We talked about it yesterday.
She cut $17.4 million from the fire department.
And now watch this.
If you think it was bad, her reading off that statement and not even knowing what she was reading to say URL like that.
It sounds like Biden.
david drew pinsky
It reminds me of Biden.
dave rubin
Yeah.
No, it does.
It does.
It's, let's say, a slightly more functioning version.
But watch this as she stands in silence while being asked a question by a reporter.
unidentified
Do you owe citizens an apology for being absent while their homes were burning?
Do you regret cutting the fire department budget by millions of dollars, Madam Mayor?
Have you nothing to say today?
Have you absolutely nothing to say to the citizens today?
Elon Musk says that you're utterly incompetent.
Are you considering your position?
Madam Mayor, have you absolutely nothing to say to the citizens today who are dealing with this disaster?
No apology for them.
No apology.
Do you think you should have been visiting Ghana while this was unfolding back home?
dave rubin
It continues.
I'm cutting back to the video earlier because I want to get your take on that.
But I got to push back on you, Drew.
I have no reason to believe she is a good person and a lovely person or anything else.
That video right there, she should step down today, period.
She's utterly incompetent.
She can't do anything off script.
She's clearly unequipped to do this job.
Like, I do not think these people deserve the benefit of the doubt while literally thousands of people are going to be homeless, are homeless right now.
david drew pinsky
Yeah, I think it's a defensible position, that's for sure.
And the really interesting thing to me is these guys are so used to being the good guys.
We're about joy.
We're about happiness.
Like Kamala Harris, remember all that with her?
They're so used to just the feel-good and the ideological sort of kumbaya that we're all feeling good about this.
We have great feelings.
And when they are actually confronted with the reality of their job, they literally don't know what to say.
There was something very easy to say there.
A leader would say, you know what?
I took my eye off the ball.
It will never happen again.
You have my word on this.
I will solve these problems.
It's time to get down to work here.
Any other questions?
That's it.
That's all you got to say.
And I remember when Giuliani was marching down the street outside the World Trade Center going, I will never forget this because my attitude changed in a second.
He goes, All right, let's go.
We're going to rebuild these things.
They just fall in them.
He goes, don't worry about it.
Let's go.
Let's get on this.
We're going to start right now, rebuilding.
It was the same day they fell down.
And personally, it felt great to see somebody say, we're going to get through this.
No problem.
And I'm going to be the guy to get you through it.
And if I had anything to do with this having happened, I guarantee you, I guarantee you, it will never happen again.
And I will see to it that we change how things are done in this city.
dave rubin
God, how much changes in less than 25 years?
As everyone that's watching this knows, I was in New York City during 9-11, and to be in that city during 9-11 with that man, and you're right, watching him on TV as...
For weeks and weeks after, but literally the day of 9-11, with the buildings crashing behind him, with firefighters around him, it was the comfort that he gave us.
This man is in charge.
And she stands there in stunned silence.
You have to step down, lady.
You do not deserve that.
Level of incompetence right there, and bewilderment, and deer in the headlights.
If that's not enough to force someone to step down, then there's no level of incompetence, and perhaps that's where California's at.
It should also be noted that Biden almost made Karen Bass his VP way back when.
But now I do want to, I want to connect this to something else that we're always talking about, of course, which is the DEI stuff, because it is not disconnected.
And listen to this from the Libs of TikTok Twitter account.
The L.A. Fire Department passed a racial equity plan to end systemic institutional and structural racism in L.A.
Part of it is a chart to map out the race of every employee to make sure that they're racially diverse enough.
Now, we're going to show you an incredible thread in just a moment, but I want to drive home one point.
Drew, I'd love your take on this.
My friend Peter Boghossian, who's been on the show many times, he told me something literally nine or ten years ago that has always stuck with me, before we even called it wokeness.
Once you put in this racialization into a system, You automatically are degrading the system, sometimes very slowly, but sometimes very quickly.
Because once, whatever your institution is supposed to do, whether you're supposed to make shoes or you're the governor, supposed to govern a state, once you decide, oh, we're going to focus on something else other than the core competency of the institution or organization, congratulations, you are no longer as good at what you do.
unidentified
Yeah.
dave rubin
So maybe you want to comment on that first, and then we'll show you what's going on with the fire department.
david drew pinsky
I think the way to understand what you're saying is, let's say, first of all, I hope they've done away with systemic racism.
I hope it worked.
I hope it did.
But let's say we shifted the focus to 30 to 40-year-old males of Irish and Italian descent, and we only selected for 30 to 40-year-old males of Irish and Italian descent very quickly.
We would run out of quality candidates and we would start accepting people in order to meet that mandate that we would otherwise not have accepted because our mandate is white men 30 to 40 years of age.
It just is not a, from an engineering standpoint, it's not something that can be sustained.
I hope it had the intended effect.
But look, I was thinking about Karen Bass again, Dave.
Remember, this all started with men being toxic.
Look, leadership matters.
Leadership is a thing that humans need.
People can be led.
And when they are led, guess what?
Look at all of history.
When there are solid leaders making good decisions, there are good outcomes.
That's it.
That's how things get done in human organizations.
And if you don't have quality leadership...
Things drift and things fall apart.
And then within that leadership, if you have mandates that become unsustainable in terms of creating merit, then you must rebuild the system and you must have leadership within it.
dave rubin
Well, instead, apparently they had mandates that led to a lot of lesbians who don't go on a lot of mandates running the L.A. Fire Department.
This thread is absolutely extraordinary.
This is from Daniel Greenfield.
Listen to this.
The L.A. Fire Department is very diverse.
It's run by lesbians named Kristen.
Not that there's anything wrong with it.
Meet the team.
Number one, Kristen Crowley, first LGBTQ fire chief.
She makes $440,000 a year.
Harvard Business School.
Mission, the quotes, creation of systemic equity and inclusion across the LA Fire Department.
I don't know what that has to do with putting out fires.
Number two, Christina Kepner, the first lesbian assistant chief of the LA Fire Department.
Harvard Kennedy School for Managing Diverse Organizations.
Greatest achievement?
Accused of a domestic violence incident involving her girlfriend.
Number three, how they're all named Kristen?
I have no idea.
Christine Larson, L.A. Fire Department's first lesbian equity bureau chief.
That sounds like a job.
400 grand for that.
Co-founder of Equity on Fire.
Got the job by constantly accusing the L.A. Fire Department of being racist and sexist.
And finally, well, it's a lesbian, but she's not named Kristen, at least.
Jamie Brown, first L.A. Fire Department lesbian training commander.
Greatest accomplishment not being named Kristen, Christine.
Putting aside the Chris and Christine thing, I would also broadly like to say that if you're in a jam sometimes, if your car breaks down, you kind of do want a lesbian.
They always have a carabiner.
They're usually able to do a lot of things.
But, Drew, this is absurd.
This is utterly absurd.
What does any of this have to do with putting out fires?
david drew pinsky
So I would argue that back to what we said about climate change and CO2 emissions and forest fires, let's lean into it, Dave.
Let's lean into it.
Go, OK, good.
Well done.
Well done.
Mission accomplished.
Although the Christine Christine thing makes me believe I'm in the...
dave rubin
Oh, you're in Heathers.
We're in Heathers.
david drew pinsky
Something.
But okay.
All right.
Well done.
Now let's hold their hand to the fire.
Hold these people's hand to the fire.
Do your damn job.
If you can't do your job, change it.
That's actually the only thing that worries me about any of this stuff, is that you're not allowed to fire or change people in positions.
Because they'll accuse you of being anti-LGBTQ or something.
My thing is lean in.
Good.
Well done.
You did it.
I'm so pleased we've done something in terms – I really am.
I actually am.
I like that we've done something in terms of improving LGBTQ. I mean, I don't care.
Now let's hold your hand in the fire.
People are dying.
Their lives are being destroyed.
Let's do your job.
And if you can't do it, somebody else do it.
dave rubin
To the point of how it degrades everything.
And you're right, by the way.
If there was an all-lesbian fire department, but they were competent...
Then so be it.
I don't like the idea of discriminating against straight women because of it, but I think everyone gets the point.
But check this out, because the point that we're trying to illustrate here is that when this happens over time, you will see a degradation of everything.
So here is former mayor, previous mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti.
And what was he most concerned about as it pertained to the fire department?
unidentified
These young women are trying on L.A. firefighter gear for fun.
But recruiting, training and inducting them into the ranks of the LA Fire Department and LAPD is serious business, as city leaders work to attract more women into these jobs.
This mega-recruitment event is one of Garcetti's many efforts to bring more women into traditionally male-dominated police and firefighter jobs.
The LAPD is seeing 10 percent of its academy classes filled with women, and female recruitment in the fire department has shot up by 40 percent.
dave rubin
Drew, I think everyone gets the point here.
No one is saying that by default these women were unqualified, but once they allowed that into the system, the system was going to not be quite as good as it was before.
david drew pinsky
And if the system were thriving and performing at the highest possible level, we wouldn't be having this conversation.
There's a problem.
There's a problem at every level of government in California.
You know what?
By the way, Pasadena, I live in Pasadena.
They do a pretty damn good job here.
I don't have a lot of complaints about it.
You don't hear me talking about it.
We are separate here in Pasadena.
We're not L.A. City.
We're in L.A. County, and we've got some problems because of that.
But the city of Pasadena is actually well-run.
We have our own water of power.
We have our own public health.
And guess what?
I'm not sitting here complaining about it.
Our fire department is second to none.
No complaints.
But Palisade's got some notes.
Right?
And as you get out of Pasadena and back into L.A. County only and into the other cities, things don't go so well.
dave rubin
Well, Drew, as you calmed down there and said some nice things about Pasadena, now I got one that's going to get your blood pressure going crazy because check out this video about how many firefighters were fired because they didn't take the COVID vaccine.
I love my job.
david drew pinsky
I feel like I poured my heart into it.
donald j trump
I promoted to the rank of engineer.
david drew pinsky
I got to drive the fire engine.
unidentified
Got to do a lot of amazing things, help a lot of people in the city.
It's a difficult day for Matt Mamone.
After nearly 15 years of serving with the LA Fire Department, he was terminated for refusing to take the COVID vaccine without applying for a religious or medical exemption.
113 LA City firefighters have been suspended without pay for defying the city's vaccine mandate.
In November, firefighters who had not submitted their vaccination status or requested an exemption We're informed they would face suspension and termination.
The policy requires city employees to be vaccinated by December 18th.
The fire department says firefighters who continue to resist the mandate will be entered into the process of termination.
david drew pinsky
Two things, Dave.
Two things.
A, I don't know if you saw the grand jury report out of the great state of Florida.
You ought to get Joe Latipo to come in or even DeSantis to talk about it.
It even shocked me.
And they are going to be taking some action as a result of what was uncovered about the vaccines and the shortcomings and the consequences in a grand jury legal setting.
People will no longer be able to say it's not been proven.
The court of law hasn't seen this.
They've now seen it.
There's a big problem.
Number one.
Number two, I forgot what I was going to say about number two, and it was going to be a better point than number one.
I got so excited about the vaccine.
dave rubin
Well, here, I'll make half a point for you and then we'll see if you can clean it up.
I mean, the point broadly would be, well, actually, why don't I show you a tweet right now from Los Angeles Scanner.
There are not enough firefighters according to the LA Fire Department chief.
So do you think if you thin out the pool by saying we prefer black lesbians as firefighters and then you also say, oh, and you guys who are competent firefighters who've been with us for 15, 20 years and good at your job and physically fit and everything else, you gotta go because you don't want the experimental...
Quote-unquote vaccine.
Do you think that leads us to this point here?
Did I give you something there?
unidentified
Yes.
david drew pinsky
We need to throw open the doors.
I remember my point now, which was whomever, look, everybody, everybody in this state of feel-good land, of Newsom land, believes that if they were in Germany in 1935, they'd be pushing against the Nazis.
They'd go to try to kill Hitler.
I suggest if you were involved in firing that fire department, that fireman.
You would have been a prison guard in 1930 Germany.
And you need everybody that reported their neighbors or who took an issue with somebody who was just asking questions or for standing up for their civil liberties.
You must examine yourself and realize you would be a prison guard.
Not somebody fighting against the Nazis.
You are in the delusion.
You are part of the problem.
You're in the mass formation.
And you must fight against that and think independently and defend the founding principles of this country, which are designed as a buttress against exactly this kind of thing.
And thank God it got us through this.
dave rubin
You know, I have to say, Drew, and you know this because we had many illegal dinners during COVID. I thought it was a very valuable and worthwhile fight to fight against California when I was there.
And since I've been here in Florida, maybe it's part age or where I'm at in my life, I like fighting for something rather than fighting against it.
But you're absolutely right.
And I think this is probably a perfect ending of today's show.
We've shown you a lot about government incompetence and people who do not deserve the titles and roles they are in.
Here is Rudy Julie.
I want to shift gears for a moment.
unidentified
Tell me, what is your philosophy of leadership?
So many people are admiring your leadership just now.
I think that you have to...
I think a couple of things.
You have to lead by example.
You have to be honest.
You have got to be willing to work as hard as the people that you're asking to work with you and not be removed from them.
I'm here on behalf of a very grateful and very admiring city.
To tell each and every one of you how proud we are of you.
And saying how proud we are of the innocent men and women who are going about their lives seeking their part of the American dream when their lives were cut short by the act of cowardly terrorists.
And how proud we are of all of you who have come here to rescue them and return as many of them as we can to their loved ones.
dave rubin
Honestly, Drew, I got chills down my spine listening to that.
I mean, again, I was there.
david drew pinsky
No more sober comments.
There were times where he was very rah-rah.
He was like, let's get this.
We got it.
We got it.
Let's go.
I'm so proud of you guys.
That was the stuff I responded to, I remember, back in the day.
dave rubin
Yeah, and it's just such a stark difference to what you guys are dealing with.
Well, Drew, I'm praying for you guys.
david drew pinsky
It's pathetic, frankly.
It's pathetic.
And we can do better.
This is a great state.
One of the reasons I've stayed here, Dave, is I've been, as you know, tempted to come join you in Florida.
But it's worth fighting for again.
It's just a great state and we're destroying it.
And how much further are we going to let this go?
dave rubin
Well, no pun intended.
I mean, as you sort of referenced this before, but maybe a phoenix does need to rise out of the ashes.
In this case, literally, to fix this.
Like, everyone always says, well, what's rock bottom with all of this?
Maybe this time, maybe burning down one of the most legendary cities in the United States will be enough.
Drew, love you.
Love, Susan.
Stay safe.
And obviously, you've got a room here anytime, my friend.
david drew pinsky
We'll visit, no doubt.
dave rubin
That was an ominous ending to the show.
That doesn't seem right.
All right.
Thanks, Drew.
Guys, our full episode with Tony Robbins is up right now.
If you need just some sort of like, just like a burst of, you know, life is good and you can make it great, do check that out.
And tomorrow we've got a panel show recapping just this whole crazy week with John Cardillo, former NYPD officer, John Cardillo and New York Post journalist, Carol Markowitz, postgame show in 30 seconds, rubenreport.locals.com.
Export Selection