Chad Bianco Is SABOTAGING the Governor’s Race!

We have to win this election. If we don't do something serious, it's not going to be two Republicans in the top two. It's going to be two Democrats. Because Chad Bianco and I are splitting the vote. We have to get behind one Republican candidate. Chad Bianco needs to drop out of the race just as he dropped out of that first TV debate. Hello, everyone. Welcome to The Steve Hilton Show. We have an amazing and packed episode for you today. Jen Horne is here with some unbelievable stories from Los Angeles, including the new entrant to the L.A. mayor's race. Yes, we have in California our very own Zoran Mamdani, only even more left wing and even worse. Wait till you hear what this candidate is proposing for L.A. I want to start today with something very big that happened in the governor's race last week, which was the first TV debate, which I greatly enjoyed. I have to tell you, it was me against six other Democrats on stage in San Francisco. It was broadcast on Fox 11 in L.A. and KTVU in the Bay Area. And it was pretty amazing to see how these Democrats on stage took absolutely no responsibility for the disaster that our state is in after 16 years of one party rule. They were all the same as each other and all the same as what we've got now. And so the contrast that I was able to show between a change of direction for California and more of the same was very powerful. And you could see that reflected in the audience reaction. And obviously I'm on stage and I can't see what's going on. They had a live poll going on with viewers. And it was very gratifying because as we broke half time, someone said to me that you're winning the audience poll by 75 percent. You're just extraordinary. But then by the end of the night, it settled down a bit. And here were the final numbers in terms of the audience, the viewers. Remember, this is broadcast TV. This is not a Republican debate or anything like that. This is just regular people watching on TV across California in two of the biggest population centers of California, L.A. and the Bay Area. And here were the numbers. The lowest scoring candidate was Betty Yee for the Democrats. She was considered to have made the best impression by three percent. Javier Becerra, four percent. Tom Steyer, the billionaire climate fanatic, seven percent. Matt Mahan, the mayor of San Jose, who's just entered the race, he got 17 percent and I got 66 percent. And I'm saying that not because I'm bragging about how well I did not at all. It just shows you how clearly this state is desperate for change. And that contrast, one Republican against six Democrats, just very powerful. and all I did was tell the truth about the consequences and the results of 16 years of one-party rule. The highest poverty, the highest unemployment, highest cost of living in America. On every single question, I made that point that these are the people who are responsible for the mess that we're in. These Democrat policies. I remember the very first question on cost of living. You had them all burbling on about this and that policy and I remember next to me, the mayor of San Jose, Matt Mahan, saying the number one driver of our cost of living. is housing or whatever. Of course, housing is really important. But as I pointed out when it came to my turn, the number one driver of our high cost of living in California is Democrat policies pushed by all these people. And there's no sign that they're in any way backing off of those policies or would take us in a new direction. So that was the first important point about the debate. And I think it really gave me a lot of hope and energy for this campaign as we get further into the campaign. And we have more of these TV debates and we have more opportunity to really focus on what this election is about, which is, do we want more of the same or do we want change? I think it's just going to be very clear that we know another four years of one party rule. Where's that going to end up? I mean, it's just unthinkable. And that's why I've always believed that when we get to that real question, that despite what everyone says, that this is such a deep blue state and whatever. No, people are sick and tired of what's been happening and they want a change and they want some balance in our politics, as I pointed out. You know, I had a very simple message right at the beginning and at the end of the debate. It is time for an outsider to shake up a system that is obviously not working. It's time for change. It's time for balance. We cannot have another four years of Democrat one party rule on top of the 16 years of it that we've already had with the disastrous results for everyone. So that was really encouraging for me. But there's another really important thing that happened at the debate. And I want to explain really my thinking behind that, because many of you have been asking me about that. We've been doing some town halls and, you know, continue our Cal affordable town hall series across the state, done many events in the last week since the debate. and the other aspect of it that was you know clear right at the beginning was that my Republican opponent Chad Bianco wasn't there he cited a scheduling conflict and I had something very strong to say about him right at the beginning and I just want to explain in greater length they give you 60 seconds on these debates and that's fine we've got to get through everyone you've got to be concise in your answers but actually I really want to explain something that was pretty strong. I had strong words for Chad Bianco right at the beginning of the debate. And I want to explain why and why I think it's so important. So the background to all of this is the point that I've just been making, that we cannot have another four years of one party rule. We have to win this election. We have to change direction in California. It is our responsibility to do that. And I don't want to be too pompous about it, but it's not just our responsibility for all of us who live here in California and for our children and our friends and neighbors and make life better for small business owners, all the things that I speak about in the campaign. Of course, that's right, that we have to do it for everyone who's here in California right now. But actually, it's bigger than that. Because if the biggest and most important state in America continues to slide into stagnation and decline, as we're seeing under this disastrous Democrat one-party rule, that is really bad for the whole country. This is a big deal. We have to save California. And we've got to be really focused on that. We've got to be serious about that. We've got to be professional and dispassionate about that and ask ourselves, what is the best way to make sure we have the best possible chance of defeating the Democrats in the general election in November? And the starting point for that is the fact that whatever we think about it, we have a top two system in California. Two candidates will go through to the general election, regardless of party. And you just look at the dynamic that's going on right now in this race. And there's a very, very serious looming problem that I think we have to head off. And that's the fact that you've now got what's happened with the entry of Matt Mahan to the race, the San Jose mayor, and all the support he's getting. He's raised a huge amount of money just in the one week that he's been in the race. Why? Because he's got the support of many of the Silicon Valley tech leaders. And, you know, he represents San Jose and he's right there in Silicon Valley, knows these people. And they think that he is in their words. I'm just going to use the words that they use to describe him. There's been this famous signal chat where hundreds of tech leaders got together and they believe that this argument, which I completely reject, that a Republican can't win in California. And so they say, well, we need that. This is the phrase, the least insane Democrat, the least insane Democrat. So that's why they've all glommed on to Matt Mahan with a lot of money. So now you've got a candidate there who's going to have a lot of money, which I don't think it's going to help him in the end to win. I don't think he's a strong candidate, but still it's going to propel him forward because money does help. And so I'm spending a lot of my time raising money. You've got the union machine and all of that that we're up against. But now you've got another candidate. You've got, if you like, a big tech Democrat, Matt Mahan, and you will have one of the other leading candidates on the Democrat side. And you're hearing all the stories about this right now. There's all the whole process going on in Sacramento where the unions, the big unions, in particular the teachers unions and the SEIU, are looking to see which of the candidates they get behind. And basically, it comes down to a choice between Eric Swalwell and Katie Porter. And it's not clear which one of those it will be. It feels right now as if it's moving in Eric Swalwell's direction, if you can believe that. But whatever it ends up being, Swalwell or Porter, then you're going to have a union candidate as well with a ton of money. Because it's not just the money they give directly to the candidates. It's what they call these independent expenditures, super PACs, if you like, where they put tens of millions of dollars behind getting their candidate across the finish line. And so what you're seeing now is two very, very well Democrats will be there a big tech Democrat and a union Democrat So what does that mean That means that the current situation which a lot of Republicans are looking at and saying well look at the polls Steve Hilton and Chad Bianca are basically in the top two in most of these polls. Sometimes Steve's leading, sometimes Chad's leading. Chad's leading is very close, pretty much a tie. And so it's great. We're going to have two Republicans in the top two. And that means we're guaranteed a change of direction politically. That's a fantasy. That is never going to happen. Do you really believe that the Democrat machine, the corrupt Democrat machine, will just sort of hand over California to Republicans without doing something? Of course, that's not going to happen. They're not going to do that. It's laughable. They are going to make sure that they get the outcome they want unless we do something very serious to change the course and the trajectory and the shape of this race. And what I'm looking at right now is if we don't do something serious, you're going to have it's not going to be two Republicans in the top two. It's going to be two Democrats in the top two, two Democrats, the big tech Democrat and the union Democrat. That is a total disaster for California. It means we're guaranteed another four years of one party rule. And it means that this year in the elections, the Republican Party, Republican voters will be completely demoralized if there's no Republican in the top two. It will be a disaster for all the races, not just the governor's race, the other statewide races. We've got great people running with me on the golden ticket. You've got Michael Gates running for attorney general. He'd be fantastic. Gloria Romero for lieutenant governor. Herb Morgan, a state control, is going to really attack all the fraud and corruption. So all the statewide candidates, they're going to be hurt if there's no Republican in the governor's race. And then below that, all the congressional races, the state legislative races. We've got to make some progress in the state legislature. I've been talking to my friend Carl DeMaio in Reform California about how we can, and David Tangipar in the Assembly, about how we can try and break the supermajority this year. Win more Republican seats in the Assembly, in the Senate. That would be transformational if we break the supermajority. Suddenly they can't just shove everything through, all these insane bills that they keep passing and so on. So we've got some really serious obligations, not just for the governor's race, but right down the ballot. Voter ID. What about that? If you don't, I mean, that's on the ballot. That's a fantastic asset for us on the ballot to help lift the Republican turnout. And actually, it's one of the real reasons I think this is our best shot in 20 years to win the governor's race because we've got voter ID on the ballot. But if you don't have a Republican candidate for governor in the top two, that's at risk as well. Never mind all the other races that are so important for county boards of supervisors or local races everywhere will be damaged if we don't have a Republican in the top two. And right now, that is where we're heading because Chad Bianco and I are splitting the vote. That's actually what's happening. And so I made the case very strongly at the debate, very directly, that we have to get behind one Republican candidate. And my argument is that Chad Bianco cannot be that candidate because he has too much baggage. As I said at the debate, he's got more baggage than LAX. And top of the list is that he took a knee for BLM in 2020 during the Black Lives Matter protests. And I know that he has a whole story about why that happened. And of course, he has the right to make that case. But we also have a right to point out what actually happened and to put the video in front of people to make their own judgment. Because it's not about whether I use this or anyone else uses this. The real point is that Democrats will use it to depress. Let's just say that we get behind Chad Bianco and he's the candidate in the top two. You don't think the Democrats will use that video to depress the Republican vote? You can watch it for yourself at blmbianco.org. And here's the most important thing. There's been polling done. We did it just to see polling about what Republican voters think once they've seen that video. And you can be sure they will see that video. The Democrat machine will put millions and millions of dollars behind that. Why? Because the data now shows that when Republican voters have seen that video, their support drops by 21 percent. 21 percent. That is huge. And it's catastrophic if we have a candidate with baggage like that. absolutely catastrophic, a 21% drop in support once they've seen the BLM video, which you can watch for yourself at blmbianco.org. So I'm sorry, this is not anything personal, truly. This is about being real and serious about saving California. We've got to get behind one candidate, otherwise we'll have two Democrats in the final, and that's a disaster, not just for the governor's race in the future of California, all these other races. And we have to choose the candidate that is the strongest. And there's two parts to that. The positive strengths that I'm putting forward, my business experience, government reform experience, policy expertise across a whole range of issues. I've been working on them for three or four years now, traveling the state, really understanding what needs to change. And also my media experience, my national platform, all of those things are positive strengths in this race. But you've got to look at the choice. And the choices between that and a candidate with so much baggage is, in particular, taking a need for BLM that reduces Republican support by 21%. Absolutely no way. We cannot have that. That's why I said that very clearly at the debate, that Chad Bianco needs to drop out of the race just as he dropped out of that first TV debate. Hello, Jen Horne. What have you got for us today? I think you've got a beautiful smorgasbord of insanity. I love to bring you to the crazy buffet every couple of weeks here. So thanks for having me, Steve. And should we start with the LA mayor's race? Because this thing is so wild. Just to recap for people who haven't been paying attention and God love you if that's possible. Karen Bass got into some trouble last week because the LA Times reported that there were two unnamed sources who some people believe might have been Gavin Newsom, who said that she altered or directed the softening of the after-action report on the Palisades fire. A lot of people wondered who that was, who gave that direction. Well, the LA Times reports that it was Karen Bass and that they have two sources who are willing to testify under oath that that is the case because she was trying to avoid lawsuits for the city of Los Angeles, which of course damages her politically. So Karen Bass takes a big hit. Then very sadly and tragically, Austin Buettner, who was the former superintendent of the LA Unified Schools, lost his daughter. So he has dropped out of the race. We have Spencer Pratt, former reality star, who was very much in the race, kind of as the outsider candidate, who I have to say is just very fun to watch. He's not shy about calling people out, that's for sure. And then you had Rick Caruso, who last week did this little tap dance where he was going to be out of the mayor's race that he wasn't going to run. Then after this report came out about Karen Bassett, oh, maybe I need to get back into the race. And now he's out again. I mean, this guy flip flops. I think he changes his mind about what to run for more than he changes his socks. So could I just do a little interjection there? Yeah. A little, you know, every now and again, I can throw this in. As everyone knows, I'm a proud American now. I have renounced my UK citizenship. I'm all in. And I'm here as a proud American, a proud Californian. But every now and again, I want to throw in a little Brit thing. So have you heard of this, of a British thing called the Hokey Cokey? No, I've only heard of the Hokey Pokey, which I think is American. So this is the Hokey. Maybe it's the same because the Hokey Cokey is, I think it's a World War II. So I don't know. Maybe I'm getting there. Someone will fact check. But in UK politics, when someone does this kind of thing, it immediately leads to Hokey cokey headlines because the hokey cokey the words of the hokey cokey are something you put your left foot in you put the right you do the hokey cokey and you turn around that's what it's all about and then it goes in out in out in out in out shake it all about it's like so that's what he's literally we have enough to talk about with rick caruso i mean he was looking at the governor's race, then the mayor's race and the back and forth. I just, I find him to be so dang disappointing from a philanthropic perspective. I appreciate what he does, but you're right. He's in, he's out, he's in, he's out. I mean, it's just, oh, we need, we need people who are passionate that want to do this for the right reason. And they don't need to wait and see what direction the wind is blowing. But so that's Caruso. Then we heard that the super, one of the supervisors, Lindsay Horvath, was going to jump into the race. And over the weekend we heard, well, no, she's not. Well, Lo and behold, Steve, today as we sit here, we have a new candidate in the race. It is L.A. City Councilwoman Nithya Rahman. And she's a former urban planner and an activist. She's been on the city council, I think, since 2020. And basically she is now L answer to Zoran Mamdani She is a Democrat socialist of America And so I kind of did a deep dive into what Nithya Raman wants to see for Los Angeles And I actually had to write this stuff down, Steve. This was, it's not going to surprise you because you know who Democrat socialists are, but she's into seizing property. She wants government eminent domain on big properties that she thinks would be great for housing. She wants government grocery stores like Zoran Mamdani, but she doesn't stop there. She wants government restaurants as well. She wants to replace cops with social workers. We've heard that one. And in fact, we know on the city council, she actually did not vote to restore the LAPD's contract with the city. So we know she's very serious about that. They want to shut down the jails, including the men's central jail in Los Angeles. They want to ban Airbnbs. Now here's my favorite. They want to, this eminent domain thing we talked about? They want golf courses. They want to take away golf courses. Nithya Raman wants to reclaim golf courses, like Maxine Waters wants to reclaim her time, and she wants to put public housing on the golf courses. Oh, it's amazing. It's perfect, isn't it? So is it because it's stolen land? Maybe she's going to reclaim Billie Eilish's house as well. You know what? We should give her that idea. I bet she's got a suggestion box. She'd like that. She wants non-citizens to vote in local elections. They want to add more social justice curriculum to schools. She wants to, and hello, Gavin Newsom, we can hear you, eliminate fossil fuels by 2035. She wants free transportation. That includes buses, trains, and bicycles for everybody. And here's a little hint. If you don't have police, I don't know how you're going to get people to get on those trains or buses no matter how much money they cost, free or otherwise. You couldn't pay me enough right now. And this is the woman, Steve, who voted against allowing the or banning homeless encampments within 500 feet of schools. Remember that? It just made sense. Democrats, Republicans all said, yeah, we shouldn't have homeless encampments outside of schools or daycares. She's one of the ones who said, oh, no, that's inhumane. We have to let them set up wherever they'd like. And now if you want to get a little sick to your stomach, the oddsmakers have said that she has a 34 percent chance to be the next mayor of Los Angeles. just upon her entering this race. So she's not to be taken lightly, but certainly it'll be interesting. It's good news for Spencer Pratt because she'll be able to take apart Kierkegaard. And so perhaps maybe strategically, it'll be good for someone like him. But we've now got our own Zoran Mamdani in Los Angeles. But wait a minute, wasn't there already someone who was like that? There's a socialist in the race already, but she hasn't really caught fire. People kind of know Nithya Raman. And what's interesting about her personal life is she's married to a pretty famous TV executive, who I think was one of the executive producers on Modern Family right before they got canceled. So I think they both know about running things into the ground. Her with Los Angeles, he with that poor show, which was very good for such a long time. It was so funny. So she does have Hollywood support. Now, Karen Bass has locked up a lot of the union support because remember, as crazy liberal and as really unqualified as Karen Bass is to run the city of Los Angeles. And I say that because we've seen what she's done for the last four years. She does have the support of the firefighters and the police, and that's because in some way she knows she needs them. So she's given raises. She's given some support, even though on the outside, if you listen to her speak, she's going to always be against Trump and federal agents and always speaking out against ICE. But she knows she needs law enforcement. She's smart enough for that. And so she, as far as the union support goes, is getting that from fire and from police. So Nithya Raman, I think that's where the battle is going to be, right? Who gets the machine's money? And that machine is dominated by the bulk of the unions in the state. Well, it's perfect, isn't it? So, you know, there's America's second city, run into the ground, total squalor, chaos, massive taxes, nothing works. Last week with Susan Shelley, We were told they're not even doing the sidewalks anymore because there's some ridiculous street diets ballot initiatives. So nothing works. It's all a disaster. So let's have the new answer from the Democratic Party. We need to go even further to the left. That's the answer. I mean, it's just amazing, isn't it? Well, it really is when you already see, because we can watch in real time. We have the benefit of watching what's happening in New York. And what was that fact? It's been very cold on the East Coast. We've been so lucky in California with the weather, but it's been very cold and more people froze to death under Zoran Mamdani than any other mayor, I believe, in history. So you have to see how things are really working. The problem with Nithya Raman, the problem with Zoran Mamdani is that they are going to go to people who are living in a place like California, where we have not been given great leadership over the last two decades. and they say, we're going to make it easier for you. We're going to give you free transportation. We're going to give you free groceries. We're going to give you free housing. And they sell you a dream and they know how vulnerable we are because it is so overpriced to live here, right? People are just looking for something different. They sell a dream and then they have no way of delivering on that. And then we can, so we can see in real time what's going to happen in New York. And I just hope that California is smart enough. I hope that there is enough diversity in this state where we're going to be able to say People came to California to escape socialism like this. And this is exactly what Nithya Raman is selling to us. It's incredible. And actually, she's looking at Mandani and saying, no, hold my bed. I want to do more. That's right. I'll see you for your government-run grocery stores and raise you government-run restaurants. So just let's move on. But I just want to, before we do that, what is the deal with the government-run restaurants? What is she talking about? Isn't that amazing? I mean, I don't even know. Is it like the cafeteria on a college campus? I mean, that's the only thing that I can imagine is that it's going to be meatloaf day and everybody's going to get the same thing and we're going to go through and get our slop on our plates. And that's that. I have no idea how that is even feasible. Well, having run restaurants myself, I can tell you it is a tough business. The idea that the government is going to run. Oh, my gosh. It's amazing. She actually has the endorsement of the Lunch Ladies Union. So that's exciting. Very good. Well, as they say, they know which side their bread is buttered. That's right. They absolutely do. They say more lunch ladies, please. All right. So now we've got a fraud story. Kelly Leffler is here. We have lots of fraud stories. I feel like that's all we talk about anymore is the F word. Fraud, fraud, fraud. That's it. So you probably heard that Kelly Leffler and Lee Zeldin were in Los Angeles because they were here to give out some resources to the residents in Palisades, particularly who are still suffering after the fire and after they've really been left behind. And while Kelly Loeffler was here and she is the small business administrator, she came out with some news that our attorney general, Rob Bonta, tried to get on first. So Thursday of last week, the attorney general came out and was talking about how this idea of fraud in California has been overplayed. And he said that even though there's fraud, that we've been doing everything we can to tackle the fraud. I mean, he was really laying it on thick. Well, that's because he knew the story on Friday was going to break that 8.6 billion. Can I stop you there just a second before we get into the real story? The hilarious and just ridiculous and offensive thing he also said, I noticed, was we're California. We don't do we're the victims of fraud. They're just delusional, these people. How they can say these things? Because they think that everybody has Trump derangement syndrome. And some people do. But I think you can say, hey, I'm not voting for Trump and still realize that he's not defrauding the state of California, that it's actually the local government that defrauds the residents. And so if there's any fraud, look in the mirror. And this is one of those things that we've talked about before, where it's so insulting that our elected leaders won't just come out and say, you know what, we've had fraud in this state. And here's what we're going to do to fix it. They'll never do it because sometimes they think or every time they seem to think that if they say that there's a problem, it's an admission that they've got their fingers on it. Maybe that's true. But you could come out with a plan to try to combat it and they don't do it. So Bonta comes out, lays it on thick. On Friday, Kelly Loeffler comes out and says that there has been eight point six billion dollars in covid era relief lending fraud. So this is the PPP loans, the emergency loans, the EDIL loans, I think they're called, and that they suspended 111,000 borrowers just in the last several weeks in the state and addresses it, I guess, more than think about all of these businesses that have been taking this money since COVID, not really providing their paperwork. She said the top way that they were able to figure this out is that they would look at an individual address and they would see that more than a dozen businesses were operating out of one single place. So they went through that was the scam. They went and found that all of these people were using the same address, but creating different businesses so that they could collect more loan money from the state. But think about that billion and 111 borrowers most of them that don really even have a business Maybe they just had a name and some supporting documentation And Kelly Loeffler was able to tackle this Now she also announced that they brought money into the state. One of the other big lies from Bonta and from Newsom is that Trump is not bringing in federal money to help with the fire recovery efforts. And so she announced that they brought $3.2 billion across 12,000 SBA loans to help rebuild businesses within the Eaton Canyon and the Palisades area. That is helpful to get businesses up in action and up and ready and doing business again. It is really appalling when you realize, and I just looked around, I just did a little quick search into the rabbit hole about which businesses had reopened in Palisades. And truly, Steve, I think some of them are planning to open later this month and next month, but that's a year. How do businesses stay open after just surviving COVID and then having to take a whole nother year, maybe a year and a half off. How do you recover? You need that SBA money if you even have a chance to try to get your business back. Well, good for her. I mean, this is, you know, here's the thing I'll just and then we'll just move on to a couple more stories. But I think just the big point I want to make about this is right now you have all the energy and hustle in terms of finding fraud and cutting it out is coming from the feds you've got kelly leffler you had dr oz here um you've got bill assaley from the justice department obviously bill's one of one of us as it were he's a great californian and good friend of ours but he's now part of the federal government and the justice department u.s attorney for the central district so it's all the feds finding hunting and finding the fraud but that's changing it's actually changing as we speak we don't even have to wait for me to be elected because a couple of weeks ago we launched caldoge the california department of government efficiency and one one part of the work that's already happening is looking at the ridiculous complexity and bureaucracy of state government how we can cut back and shut down agencies avoid duplication that's all happening but the other part of it is fraud and we are already and we are doing this work now for real with my team that that we announced jenny ray larue and the whole set of people including Amy Riker from San Diego there's a whole and one of the things that we're doing is going exactly as you just talked about with Kelly Leffler we're actually using AI in fact to go through budgets real budgets spotting irregularities things that are suspicious then following up and in fact we have our first announcement in the works this week I love it that we found just since Cal Doge was set up 10 days ago so this and we're just getting started and the first announcement we're just you know, finalizing the details, you will see it this week. And so the days of this just just coming from outside from the feds, those days are over. We now here are going to be finding the fraud right here in California through Cal Doge. I absolutely love that. And you know, that's one of the best, like one of my favorite things that you've done so far is the Cal Doge and Califraudia, as you said, because exactly what we need is leadership that's not afraid to say, let's take a look in, you know, under our own hood. Let's take a look in the mirror. That's the point. They should have been doing this. I mean, that's the thing. Like, where have they been for all these years? They don't care about the fraud, Newsom and Bontra and Bass and all these machine politicians, because they are part of it. They are part of this corrupt cycle of taking, in fact, just to give a little hint, the fraud that we've uncovered, that we're going to be announcing this week, is the classic one where they take money, tax money, that was designated for one purpose, and they've actually ended up funneling it into non-profits that use it for political purposes that help the Democrats. Just like you saw with fire aid, same kind of deal. If you want to know why they're not doing anything about it, I mean, think about it. Politicians lament the fact that we have no money, that we're now in a budget deficit rather than a surplus. They could find that money. They could serve the taxpayers better if they started digging out fraud and corruption and abuse, but they don't do that because they benefit from it, because the money they hand out to, again, air quotes, fix problems, ends up going into organizations that help fund their reelection. So they're never going to stop it because they're on the gravy train of the fraud. So this relates to exactly what we're talking about. And this story we could talk about for hours, but I will make it quick for you. $418 million is what Los Angeles spent, not California, on homelessness in 2025. And do you know that only 10% of that, Steve, actually went towards getting people into homes and getting people off the street. $418 million and 10% is actually what's used. So where does that come from? Is this a new report? That's coming from the city administrative officer who is a nonpartisan, he does oversight on the homeless industrial complex and on what the city is spending money on. That's an amazing thing. When did this get, was this just published? Like two days ago, three days ago, last week, end of last week, Thursday, I think it was. the safe at home program or excuse me, inside safe. That's what Karen Bass calls her hotel program. A single inside safe hotel room costs $82,421 per year to taxpayers. That's $226 a night. It's double what interim housing costs. Interim housing costs $31,500 a year. And to do this inside safe program where they take over hotels, $82,000 a person. And if you dig into this, you're going to find that they're wasting money, $3 million on hygiene stations, $4 million on sidewalk cleanups, $13 million on street medicine, whatever that means, and $19 million on moving people who are in cars into different parking spaces. I mean, this is ridiculous. So $418 million and only 10% actually going towards fixing the problem, inexcusable. And again, we can dig through that in another episode. It is, there is so much there that needs to be investigated. And that's just Los Angeles. All right. What's going on with this? There's something about a wildlife crossing. What's this about? Yeah. So this, and I want to preface this by telling you, I love animals. In many cases, I love animals more than I love some people, especially our politicians. But I don't know if you heard about the wildlife crossing bridge that they built over the 101 freeway. Well, it costs $18 million. And the story is it just set up for us. It's on the 101 freeway in like a Gura Hills area, Westlake. So out towards like at the bridge of Ventura and LA County. And it's beautiful. It's a very rural area. Both sides of the freeway, both sides of the highway are rural. And so one of the problems is that wildlife crosses and they get hit by cars on the freeway. And so the environmentalists came together and they said, here's what we're going to do. We're going to make a wildlife crossing. And so they made the biggest one in the world. This is a record setting wildlife crossing. It costs $18 million and they use 26 million pounds of concrete to pour this thing. They created a stone habitat. They put in some kind of environmental sounds or something like that. I mean, really they decked this thing out and I've driven by it. The reason that it caught my attention is that just a few days ago, I drove underneath it in a quest to find a DMV renewal appointment for my real ID. Long story. But I see this thing and I thought that's a lot of money. And how in the world, Steve, do the mountain lions know to use the crossing? Like, do they go, hey, Joe, we're going to use this one over here? I mean, I just thought, look, I don't want to see, nobody wants to see roadkill. Nobody wants to see these animals hit. But this is $18 million in taxpayer money that we did for an animal crossing. And is that something that a lot of animals are, is that in like their newsletter or in their local newspaper where they say, yeah, we got a zebra crossing down yonder. I mean, it just, I don't know. It makes me laugh that this is somehow the only place where animals are going to cross the road? Have they done anything to attract... I mean, do they have a plan for that? There's some kind of sound effect, I guess, that is supposed to entice the animals to use... But it's just... It's one of those California ideas where... Yes. Sort of well-intentioned, but really not all that well thought out. And that maybe... I don't know. Maybe drugs were used when they came up with this idea. I don't... I know. And also, you can be sure that there's all sorts of, you know, I bet you there's more money in there when we get to the bottom of it. And they've skimmed it off. You know, you can be sure. It's California, of course. Of course. Why not? Okay, brilliant. Thank you, Jen. That was great. Thank you, Steve. We'll see you next time. Okay, well, that is our show for this week. Lots of substantive information for you there, as always. Make sure you follow my campaign for governor, stevehiltonforgovernor.com. You can join and help us bring this revolution to California. There's a button there that says get involved. We are building a volunteer army. I had a great call with our volunteer leaders this weekend. There's real energy out there. We're doing town halls all over the state, Califordable town halls. Make sure you come along when you see one in your area. And, of course, join us next week for The Steve Hilton Show. Follow us on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts. We'll see you next week. Thank you.