The Issue Is: Marie Alvarado-Gil, Gavin Newsom, Brian Tyler Cohen

I'm Alex Michaels and this week on the issue is an exclusive one-on-one with the governor of California Gavin new as he slams California counties on the issue of homelessness then the first interview with California Senator Marie Alvarado Gil after she switches from the Democratic to the Republican party and a different view from Progressive YouTuber Brian Tyler Cohen on his new book arguing that Republicans are Shameless the issue is starts right now broadcasting across California your watching the issue is welcome to the issue is I'm Alex Michaelson We Begin this week with the issue of homelessness the US Supreme Court recently allowing local jurisdictions greater authority to remove homeless encampments now after that ruling California governor Gavin Nome signed an executive order vowing to clean up State lands and asking cities and counties to do the same this week we caught up with him while he was personally cleaning up State lands near the freeway in Mission Hills he did it in LA County where the Board of Supervisors recently passed a resolution saying the homeless should not be sent to LA county jails a resolution the governor was not too fond of what's the message out here today well I don't know the message is we continue uh to struggle to clean this state up period full stop to deal with health and safety to deal with the number one complaint that's Universal all down the state not just people live here uh but people visit here and at a certain point uh people you know the ready to turn the page on folks like me they had it and they're not interest understand how much money we're spending in fact I think it's becoming more obnoxious the more we say we spend and yet the results are not what they expect and so uh look I'm just instead of preaching from Sacramento my desk with a suit and tie this probably the fifth or sixth time we've done this together over the last few years this is not a stunt this is what I do consistently but right now with that executive order I hope people understand I'm I'm done and I'm not going to continue to make the Investments unprecedented historic investments from the state level unless I see the results at the local level you put out an executive order getting encampments off of State ground but strongly suggesting to cities and counties that they do their part are you satisfied with what cities and counties are doing because a place like LA City LA County kind of pushing back on what you're saying yeah I mean I cities i' I've I've been pretty impressed counties no uh Counties have been you know there's a diffuse nature of leadership in a county you have multiple members of boards of Supervisors mayor there's one person accountable I think mayor bass has done a wonderful job she's been a great partner you're seeing that down 10.4% over 10% decline in unsheltered homeless population last year so that's progress but I'm not seeing that at the county level and with all due respect there's no more excuses everything the cities and Counties have asked for the state of California's delivered and the Supreme Court just delivered so there's no more excuses so where's the urgency drop everything else get out there and address the number one two and three issue in the state with an intensity of purpose that's the kind of action I want to see and again for me if we don't see it it's not complicated we're not going to continue to make the investments in communities that aren't willing to do their part I will redirect those dollars to counties and cities that are doing their part and so that's clear what does that look like exactly LA County the biggest county in the state one out of four people live in LA county and a lot of the county leaders are pushing back on this so what does that mean for this place well I I mean LA County can right now move forward with our conservative ship law they refuse to do it LA County right now could significantly increase the number of people getting support under the care Court unprecedented support under the county billions and billions of dollars over the last few years um and yet we're seeing the same excuses I've seen for decades and again it's not an indictment these are my I say this sincerely like this is not a fake political thing actually my friends this is not an indictment of them it's it's an Institutional construct where people are acting as like they're victims and they've been using every excuse in the in the toolkit I'm just done drop everything else get out there and address the number one issue in this state in this in this County in this region and across this state again it's not just about LA County but to put out a resolution right after I did an executive order uh you better believe I paid attention to that and I'll be paying attention to that in January and I'll be paying attention to that every single week in between now and January because I want to see results people deserve results people deserve to get get off the streets and sidewalks there's nothing about this as Humane there's nothing about this is healthy people are dying on their watch they're dying on their watch there's nothing compassionate about this and what do you say to people that we spent $24 billion on homelessness and the problem's gotten worse I know you're frustrated by that but what do you say to Residents who have have had enough as well and don't trust the state exactly well the state is doing work it's never done in its history this is not the state's role and responsibility never has been its history it's the county function as a former County mayor I intimately understand that I never looked to Arnold Schwarzenegger to fix and we never looked at the state I recognize the state needs to do more and we've done just what the cities and Counties have asked for so all I say is we want to see results I share that frustration I want to see results I want to physically see the streets cleaned up I want to see encampments removed I want to see it done compassionately we're not criminalizing poverty just the opposite but what is criminal is the neglect you can't Square the rhetoric of compassion with the reality the feces and the urine and the needles and the fact that people don't have a place to go to the restroom let alone to get a warm meal and uh on in terms of uh the national politics news today that Donald Trump is uh is agreeing to a debate with her what would what would your strategy be or advice in terms of debating Trump and your thoughts on Tim wall well I I think K will clean his clock and I think it's pretty clear um that he's looking at the clock and he's panicking and that press conference was just about Panic uh he knows he's starting to lose momentum's completely shifted his rhetoric is becoming increasingly stale um he's he's on the ropes uh just a weeko said I will never debate on ABC now he says well I'll do ABC NBC and fox uh you know it's just the guy's all over the place he's got to he's got to regret his vice presidential choice um and kaha has got a great vice presidential choice and so uh I uh I worry about how unhinged he can get over the course of the last next few months and I'm just grateful he's not the president un States just a candidate just real quickly Panda it's Panda day you're just at San Diego at the National Zoo we were in China helping to negotiate this sort of thing what did what what did it mean to you to see the pandas well the it's as I said at the press conference today it wasn't about the pandas it was about what the pandas represent if we can save the pandas maybe we can save ourselves uh if we can reconcile our differences as it relates to helping each other on biodiversity loss on the climate maybe we can also address uh the friction and all the stress that we're feeling between our two Nations I said it again you heard me say it in China divorce is not an option and we just have to define the terms of our strategic red lines and our engagement moving forward but at the end of the day it's people to people and it's about respect and understanding it's about capacity uh to learn from one another it's about cultural exchanges and to me today represented that great to see you Governor we'll see you in Chicago at the DNC we'll see you in Chicago you don't want to shake my hand so I'll just take up next the California Senator who switched from Democrat to Republican her first interview with us now to an issue is exclusive this week California state Senator Marie Alvarado Gil switched parties she's going from the Democratic majority to the Republican minority with her move there are now 31 Democrats in California State Senate and nine Republicans that means Democrats do retain their super majority here's a look at her District it includes the Sierra and Central Valley for years years this district has mostly voted for Republicans but supported Alvarado Gil as a Democrat when she ran in 2022 Senator Marie Alvarado Gil is here with us on the issue is for her first interview since making the switch thanks so much for being here of course thanks for having me so why switch from Democrat to Republican well first and foremost it was the right thing to do I've been a Democrat my whole adult life my first vote as an 18-year-old new voter was as a Democrat and I'll just tell you Alec the Democratic party of today is not the Democratic party that I signed up with so what was the moment where you decided I can't do this anymore I need to be a republican that's right so the reality is this in California we have seen the pendulum swing so far in the areas of crime homelessness and for so long in public education the super majority has the power in both the executive branch and the legislature but what I'm missing is that will to change that will to ensure that Californians across our state are taken care of you know uh there clearly are many of your constituents who voted for you as a Democrat they're expecting you to serve out your term as a Democrat what do you say to them um I've been listening to them for the past two years serving uh my district that is predominantly a republican District now for me I came in as a beneficiary of the open primaries so this was a seat that has not been held by a democrat in over 30 years years and in the general it was a Democrat on Democrat race now I came in as a moderate I've always held moderate values and I've swung a little bit moderate right so now seeing how the inner workings of the majority party work in Sacramento I have to step back and say is this good not only for my constituents but is this good for Californians and my answer is no you had to talk to the Democrats about this so Mike Maguire is the leader for the Democrats he's the sen president proem uh but we have a statement from him in terms of his response he says quote this is disappointing to voters who elected Senator Alvarado Gill as a Democrat they trusted her to represent them and then she betrayed that trust Senate Democrats continue to work on their behalf and deliver results for Rural California can you take us inside the room what was it like when you told Senator Maguire I'm leaving the party right so you know this this for me is uh it was a personal decision and I took that personal decision uh to the proem and whether that means that I would get pulled off committees as you know I'm a chair of Human Services um more than likely come Monday I will not have that position um there may be some other repercussions we know that there is a a punitive element to leaving the super majority but I'll tell you I have a lot of respect for Senator uh Maguire for protm McGuire and understand that you know he may be disappointed but the sense of betrayal that's where I disagree um have any of your other Dem Democratic colleagues thought to do something similar yeah well um you know I'm not going to speak for them but I'll tell you there are Democrats that think the way that I do um either moderate or Center leaning Democrats and there may be some decisions that they need to make in terms of their own values and the direction that they see California going so you're not on the ballot this year you're next up in 2026 are you going to run for reelection as a republican I am going to stay a republican um until I am putting the ground [Laughter] I am committed to this um you know I I talked to my husband about this last week and he says you know I've never been married to a Republican and so I said and you're never going to be divorced from a republican either so you know we have some fun with it but you know the reality of this Alec is this is a commitment and I'm just excited to kick this off uh Harris vers Trump who are you supporting well you know that's the question of the day right so for me I'm going to be watching both of our candidates very closely slave between now and the election and for me I'm really looking at someone who can embrace the diversity of our country and lead us into the Next Generation oh we know so much about both of them who who is that at this point well you got to see what I have on the ballot I'll see you in November we can have know who's on the ballot it's going to be Harris versus Trump we'll see we'll see which which box I Mark but I'll be back to talk to you about that although we don't know who we don't know maybe what will be at the Bal because we thought it was going to be Biden versus Trump so tell you we don't CH to your point things Chang we thought you were Democrat last week so you never know I guess that's that's true all right we're going to end with something fun here on the show we play something called personal issues this is 30 seconds to get to know you your cultural favorites uh first thing that comes to mind uh here we go uh what is your favorite TV show TV show um Big Bang Theory favorite movie movie The Godfather favorite musical artist a musical artist you know I like musicals so when you said that Sound of Music came to mind for me but that's not an artist we go with Julie Andrew sports team oh you know gosh Bay Area fans are going to come at me but I'm a Raiders fan and I'm sorry they left California but everyone's leaving California yep yep well not everybody uh who is your and who is your role model uh my role model is my grandmother why is that my grandmother raised to me um I was uh very young when I was separated from my parents and she took me in and she um introduced me to community um to the church and she also taught me what it meant to be a very strong entrepreneurial woman what do you think she would think of you becoming a republican oh she would say she would say you know my my daughter MAA I'm very proud of you all right Senator we'll leave it there thank you so much great talking with us we'll have a different view from the Democratic perspective when we come back you're watching the issue is I think he's a c he's not fit to be president of the United States he's a jackass yeah I like the prent well that Lincoln project ad featured in the new book Shameless Republicans deliberate dysfunction and the battle to preserve democracy it's by Brian Tyler Cohen Brian is a progressive YouTuber whose videos have been seen literally by billions he is the host of the no lie with Brian Tyler Cohen podcast Brian Tyler Cohen welcome back to the issue is always great to be here thanks for having me and just for full disclosure to people I met you through this show and you have become one of my best friends and we are so proud of you for this book congratulations it's great and so excited for you thank you so much yeah this was the first show that I was on and uh and that's that's thanks to you so I'm really glad I'm grateful for for being here but also your friendship so so talk to people what is Shameless what's the basic point the basic point is that for so long Republicans have operated under this guise of pretending that they were some that pretending that they are something that they are very clearly not and so there are a lot of branding points that they use that they Pro Constitution Pro Family Values Pro states rights Pro fiscal responsibility pro- Law and Order and what I try to do with the book is prove that that is expressly not the case and in fact they're relying on this branding to give them cover to behave in a way that's completely antithetical to that branding itself and in large part the media has helped them perpetuate this farce and then finally what Democrats can do to rebalance the political landscape moving forward but in terms of communicating you say there are a lot of lessons that Democrats can learn learn from Donald Trump's Effectiveness yes what are some of those lessons this is not to give too much praise to uh Donald Trump here but look he's been very effective in terms of wielding wielding repetition for example wielding simple messages I mean how many times have we heard build the wall lock her up make America great again beat over our heads over and over and over till it's seared into our cerebral cortexes right and so I think what we're seeing now is finally Democrats recognizing the power of repetition and the power of simple messages that can actually resonate with people we're not going back is one of them that KLA Harris has used over and over again it's simple it's to the point it's evocative and uh and and it's sticking and and I'm glad the Democrats are finally learning that lesson well because you interview Al Franken in the book and he talks about sometimes the problem for the Democrats bumper stickers are they need to say continue on next bumper sticker basically that the message is so complicated and so long that nobody can remember it you are seeing this uh we're not going back from kamla Harris you also see this word weird that's being used a lot started by Tim Walls who was chosen this week as the running mate uh how is that connecting talk about what you're seeing online because you look at the metrics online closer than anybody every single day what's connecting in the Democratic base right now well there's two things one is the fact that what we are seeing is weird if somebody is so obsessed over what you do in your bedroom if somebody's so obsessed over what you do in your doctor's office if someone's so obsessed over what you read what you learn in school what bathroom you're walking into that is weird we would call it weird on normal liveses somebody somebody said that they were doing that uh on an individual basis so yeah it's weird and I'm glad that it's that it's finally sticking and to democrat's credit to the left's credit we finally do have an ecosystem that is a little bit more organized and we're able to combat what's happening on the right uh what's also resonating is this idea that there's just hope right now in Democratic politics and that's what we're seeing with Comm Harris and Tim Walls and uh for for once it's not just it's not it's it's hard to do to do the gloom and doom thing every single day and and to try to get people excited to come out and vote as opposed to just staying at home when the message over and over is that we have to protect our democracy from its imminent demise and so kamla Harris has been able to wield this message of Hope and what could be in the future and I think I think that a lot of it's bringing a lot of people into the political process yeah well your name uh is right here on Shameless but you also have different names of people that you've interviewed most of whom have written books before uh that have been on your show no lie so this book has broken down with a lot of these players in it so to promote who you talk to I thought it would be fun to play the name game which is where we put up the name of somebody and these are all people you talk to in the book and the first word that comes to mind when you think of them okay yep so the first one is Congressman Jamie Rasin oh he is uh he is a hero attorney Mark Eli he is he's an attack dog and uh yeah he's an attack dog uh former Senator Al Franken hilarious uh commentator medy Hassen oh a fighter thank God pod save America host Dan Fifer always right former White House Press Secretary Jens saki Jens saki the the best press SEC secretary we've ever had Professor Heather Cox Richardson oh brilliant brilliant and Truth teller Transportation secretary Pete Budaj Pete is a rhetorical assassin okay and finally your mom one word that comes to mind for your mom well actually and I talk about this in the book but a voter and uh and that that means a lot my mom hadn't voted in 60 years and I got a a surprise text one morning during the 2020 election that showed her Casting a ballot for Democrats wow so you couldn't convince her before that I convinced I convinced thousands of people way before I way long after I gave up on trying to convince so what do you think is the winning message for you your mom and other people to convince them to actually get out there and do it it is that it is that we have agency and there is a reason that certain Republicans are trying so hard to prevent people from voting or to make you believe that you don't have agency and that is because they know how much power each individual person has I mean these elections are won not by millions of people not by hundreds of thousands but tens of thousands or in some case just thousands of people and so please for everybody watching make sure that you have a plan to vote make sure that you're registered and make sure that you have somebody in your life who wouldn't have otherwise gone and voted and that they have a plan to vote as well all right Brian congratulations again we're so proud of you love you brother uh we go to break with George Michaels Freedom uh which is a big theme these days especially for the Democratic party there you go we'll be right back more of the issue is after this including Adam Shi next week speaker amerid Nancy Pelosi with us here in studio one-on-one for the half hour this week we caught up with a Pelosi favorite congressman Adam Schiff you can watch that full interview right now at youtube.com/ Alex Michelson one of the topics we discussed was schiff's recent appearance on a zoom called white dudes for Harris which raised over $4 million we end this week with the congressman talking about his favorite guest on that show we had the dude on that Zoom I'm the dude that is Jeff Bridges the big Labowski what was it like for you to be on on that call with him oh it was it was Terri it was such a great surprise and Alex you'll forgive me if I told you the story already but I was in the Oval Office about two months ago for a bill signing with President Biden and when the signing was done he quoted some movie which I didn't recognize the reference and he told me he likes to quote movies and often his staff doesn't recognize the reference and I said I do the same thing but I said Mr President I want to quote a movie in the Oval Office and make Labowski history I say looking at that beautiful oval rug in the Oval Office Mr President this rug really ties the whole room together did he get it has Joe bid seen the big leowski before he certainly laughed whether he understood the reference whether he's a big leasy fan or not I cannot speak to but he did crack up Congressman shiff great to see you thanks so much for coming on great to see you this rug I have it really tied to room together [Music]