The A&G Replay Monday Hour Four

Summary

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Armstrong & Getty On Demand — "The A&G Replay Monday Hour Four" (September 1, 2025)

Episode Overview

In this lively hour, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty—joined by legal and political experts—tackle a range of hot topics, from the practical realities of seeking a second medical opinion, to the impact of artificial intelligence in professional settings, to debates about terminology for homelessness, and the politics of redistricting in California. The episode is marked by humorous banter, skepticism toward institutions, and thoughtful insights into America's evolving challenges.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Navigating Second Medical Opinions

[01:33 – 05:30]

• Joe Getty raises practical questions about how to get a second opinion after a friend’s tough health diagnosis.
• Craig Gotwell explains the process depends on your insurance plan (PPO, HMO, or open access).
  • Most Americans have a PPO, where getting a second opinion often means picking a different primary care doctor, often from another medical group. Staying in the same group may only yield confirmation bias.
  • For those able to afford it, Gotwell recommends ‘direct primary care’—doctors outside the insurance system who give independent analyses for a fee ($100-125/month), seen as the best way to get a “truly independent analysis.”
• The hosts discuss how the phrase "get a second opinion" is often thrown around casually, but in practice, it’s intimidating and emotionally fraught.
• Notable quote:

  “It’s going to come down to how much you trust your doctor... If you stay within the same medical group, they're going to have a pretty strong bias to confirm what’s already been done.”
  —Craig Gotwell ([03:14])

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2. The Realities of Medical Uncertainty

[04:40 – 05:30]

• Joe Getty shares personal insight from his cancer experience: “There’s a lot of guessing. There’s way more guessing in medicine than I ever believed.”
• Gotwell agrees, noting stark differences in expert medical opinions, especially for complex illnesses (cancer, autoimmune diseases).

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3. The Impact of Artificial Intelligence at Work

[05:30 – 11:45]

• Jack and Joe discuss the anxiety and optimism surrounding AI’s future impact on jobs—referencing a previous guest’s argument that AI will create new types of employment ("the cotton gin didn’t eliminate all farm workers").
• Craig Gotwell sides with the optimistic view, sharing firsthand how AI boosts professional efficiency:
  • Using ChatGPT to summarize and grid-compare 6 dense legal contracts, saving hours of work—while warning that expertise is still needed to catch errors and “hallucinations.”
  • Notable quote:

    “If you weren’t a healthcare attorney and you didn’t know where it was wrong...it’ll make things up. But when you’re already an expert...it saved me four hours.”
    —Craig Gotwell ([07:49])

  • Recommends always verifying AI outputs and checking sources:

    “When it tells you something...not quite right, you have to tell it, ‘give me a source for that,’ and you have to hit that source...”
    —Craig Gotwell ([08:32])

• On AI tools:
  • ChatGPT: Best for legal analysis/writing (paid version recommended for professionals).
  • Gemini (Google’s AI): Useful for working with large data sets like Excel spreadsheets.
  • Midjourney: Preferred image-generation tool for creative work, noted as the “industry leader” by Bay Area artists.

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4. Hot Dog Eating Contests & Family Memories

[12:27 – 13:54]

• The crew shares a comedic segment about Joey Chestnut’s hot dog eating feats and missing out on “lifetime memories” by skipping the event, playfully highlighting the absurdity and traditions surrounding such spectacles.

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5. Debating Language: Homelessness, "Vagrants," and Policy

[13:54 – 16:12]

• The group dissects why the term “homeless” can be misleading, as it frames the problem as lack of housing rather than addiction or vagrancy.
  • Katie prefers “vagrant,” arguing it reflects the underlying social issues more accurately.
  • Joe Getty expresses shock at how much safer and cleaner New York City feels compared to his California college town.
  • They attribute differences in street populations to divergent policies between locales, and challenge the effectiveness of “compassionate” approaches.

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6. Protecting Monuments: Barriers & Protest

[16:12 – 18:36]

• Joe Getty recounts frustration that historical artifacts and monuments (e.g., George Washington’s oath platform) in Manhattan are barricaded to prevent defacement, rather than authorities deterring the perpetrators.
  • Notable quote:

    “We handle it on the end...by putting a barrier around the statue...as opposed to...arrest these people and make it so miserable...that you don’t do it.”
    —Joe Getty ([16:12])

  • Katie laments the “idiotic plan” of covering statues instead of addressing vandalism directly.

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7. Redistricting Wars: California Politics & National Ambitions

[19:57 – 32:20]

• Segment on nationwide and California-specific redistricting battles, with Gary Dietrich (CBS political analyst) and guest commentary.
  • Proposed changes could reduce Republican representation to just 7% in California’s 52-seat congressional delegation—despite 38% of voters being Republican.
  • Public polling suggests voters (including 60% of Democrats) prefer keeping redistricting in the hands of an independent commission rather than the legislature.
    • Quote:

      “Two thirds of voters said, no, we don’t want to go back to the legislature’s control.”
      —Gary Dietrich ([22:43])

• Gavin Newsom’s national ambitions: His efforts to become the face of Democratic resistance, leading the pack for the 2028 nomination according to recent odds. Noted shift in support among California Democrats from Kamala Harris to Newsom.
  • Highlights the rapid pace and unpredictability of politics, referencing past "front runner" flameouts (e.g., Hillary Clinton 2008, Rudy Giuliani).
  • Elon Musk’s potential financial backing for JD Vance also briefly discussed.

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8. Federal Overreach: Kids, Banks, and the Patriot Act

[33:49 – 39:06]

• Joe Getty shares a frustrating story about trying to open a bank account for his 13-year-old son.
  • Banks now require two forms of ID (birth certificate, Social Security card) due to federal regulations—his word as a parent isn’t considered sufficient.
  • This is blamed on Patriot Act anti-terror financing rules post-9/11.
  • Quote:

    “I hate the federal government. The Patriot Act’s ridiculous. The fact that I can’t open a bank account for a 13-year-old...makes [him] my child money-laundering little mule.”
    —Joe Getty ([35:54])

  • The segment pokes fun at how suspicion of government often provokes shock (“Oh, you’re one of those people...”) in coastal cities but not in the Midwest.
• Broader commentary follows:
  • Katie:

    “Anytime the government says there’s an emergency, there are two emergencies.” ([37:16])

  • Fun debate about Reagan-era anti-government sentiments and today's regulatory burden.
  • Joe jokes about being added to a “terrorist watch list” simply for expressing anti-government opinions.

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Notable Quotes (with Speaker and Timestamp)

• “It’s going to come down to how much you trust your doctor...If you stay within the same medical group, they're going to have a pretty strong bias to confirm what’s already been done.”
  —Craig Gotwell ([03:14])

• “There’s a lot more guessing [in medicine] than I ever believed was the case.”
  —Joe Getty ([04:40])

• “When it tells you something...not quite right, you have to tell it, ‘give me a source for that,’ and you have to hit that source...”
  —Craig Gotwell ([08:32])

• “I hate the federal government. The Patriot Act’s ridiculous. The fact that I can’t open a bank account for a 13-year-old...makes [him] my child money-laundering little mule.”
  —Joe Getty ([35:54])

• “Anytime the government says there’s an emergency, there are two emergencies.”
  —Katie ([37:16])

• “Two thirds of voters said, no, we don’t want to go back to the legislature’s control.”
  —Gary Dietrich ([22:43])

• “We handle it on the end...by putting a barrier around the statue...as opposed to...arrest these people and make it so miserable...that you don’t do it.”
  —Joe Getty ([16:12])

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Additional Memorable Moments

• Unexpected praise for tech tools—Midjourney for AI-generated art, described as the only one used by "real artists" in the Bay Area ([10:59]).
• Playful self-awareness about the changing American landscape: safer-feeling NYC versus West Coast towns, and the shared frustration over regulatory barriers and policy failures.
• The hosts' signature blend of cynicism, humor, and thoughtful disagreement infuses every segment.

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This summary covers the episode's substantive content and lively tone, highlighting the insight, skepticism, and comedic charm Armstrong & Getty bring to complex social issues. Timestamps throughout direct you to key story arcs and memorable lines.

Transcript

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[Jack Armstrong]

Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio at the George Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty.

[Joe Getty]

Armstrong and Getty. And now here's Armstrong and Yeti.

[Gary Dietrich]

Who.

[Joe Getty]

We used to call Craig the Obamacare lawyer back when we were trying to work our way through what the hell Obamacare was or is, which continues to be the law of the land. Right, Craig? Welcome. Craig Gotwell's Obamacare.

[Craig Gotwell]

Yeah, still, just, still the law of.

[Joe Getty]

The land just became status quo as, as we all predicted it would be. And, and all of our deductibles went way, way, way, way up. And we all just accepted that that's the way they're going to be for the rest of our lives. So that's the way that turned out. Hey, I do have a quick health related thing for you before we get into some other stuff that you and I were texting about last night. I got a, a friend who's got a pretty bad health diagnosis and I suggested, man, you ought to get a second opinion. But people throw around the whole get a second opinion like it's easy to do. I've never actually done it. How do you even go about doing that? Does your insurance let you do that? What do you do? Do you go to a completely different doctor group or what is, what is that? What is the second opinion?

[Craig Gotwell]

Yeah, some of that's going to depend on what kind of plan you're on, whether it's a PPO or an HMO or, or like what we call an open access plan.

[Joe Getty]

But what do most people do? Let's start there. What do most people have who have.

[Craig Gotwell]

People in America under some form of a ppo?

[Joe Getty]

Okay. Yeah, that's what I thought. Most of us have a ppo. So if we have a ppo, how do we get a second opinion?

[Craig Gotwell]

Yeah, the easiest way to get a second opinion in that case would be to pick a different primary care doctor in a different medical group and just go through the process again. Because if you stay within the same.

[Joe Getty]

Process again, go through the whole process again while you're probably not feeling very good, maybe feeling terrible.

[Craig Gotwell]

Yeah. Point. So it's going to come down to how much you trust your doctor in the medical group. Because if you stay within the same medical group, they're going to have a pretty strong bias to confirm what's already been done.

[Joe Getty]

Well, that. Exactly.

[Craig Gotwell]

Want a second?

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, there's two things wrong with it. Several things wrong with it. And it's a. Tell me it's not a common phrase. Well, you should get a second opinion. People throw that around all the time. Like it's an easy thing to do, but. So I'd have to go through the whole process. Am I, am I kind of like half firing my primary doctor? I've had maybe for years. I'm probably friends with at this point. How offended is he or she going to be?

[Craig Gotwell]

Well, most plans will have a mechanism in there for a second opinion so that it's not. So that you're not. Now if it's an hmo, which a lot of people are on in larger cities that kind of are firing that doctor because you'd pick a different primary care doctor, come back to them in a future month. But most PPOs will have a mechanism. You can do it. The other way to do it if you have a little bit of means at all is to go out into the market and find a direct primary care doctor, somebody who's left the system and sees you for like 100 or $125 a month fee. That way you can keep doing what you're doing with your system doctor on your. Your plan at work, for example. But then you can spend a couple hundred dollars and go off to the side and see one of these direct primary care doctors who's left the system and will then give you a truly independent analysis that if you have some means at all, that's what I would recommend.

[Joe Getty]

Okay. That's a little frustrating. I mean, they don't they don't offer that up to you, certainly after they give you a diagnosis. And the one thing I learned, and I tell people all this time, the main thing I learned from when I had cancer is there's a lot of guessing. There's way more guessing than I ever believed was the case. And you can talk to a couple of different people and they have completely different opinions.

[Craig Gotwell]

So. Well, not just cancer. I mean, all these complicated, I mean if we just start looking at autoimmune diseases and then the way these, the new, the new drugs are affecting that, it's, it's, you know, because of what I do, I have a lot of good friendships with doctors and it's shocking how you can talk to two very well respected doctors that have been doing this for decades and they'll have incredibly different opinions on how you should treat X, Y or Z. Especially when we get to like autoimmune or even cancer.

[Joe Getty]

Yep. I have that exact situation with my son where they, I have two PhD level been around forever. People with almost 180 degree apart opinions. And what am I supposed to do with that information? Anyway, that's enough of that health stuff for now. So this is interesting. So we talked to, I know you're friends with Tim Sandifer, we had Tim the lawyer on last hour and we were talking about AI and all the different sort of stuff. And I, I'm fascinated by AI and I read lots of books and listen a lot of podcasts because I think it's, I think it's going to be a really big deal. I don't know if it's going to be as big as fire. Like the guy from Google says to mankind, the invention of fire. But I mean, if, if it's half that, it would be shockingly huge. A lot of people are worried about AI taking so many jobs. We're going to have to come up with some sort of guaranteed income thing to pay people to stay home and play the flute because there just aren't going to be enough jobs. AI is going to take it over. Tim says this is going to be like every other technology that's come along. It's going to develop all kinds of new jobs that you've never even thought of yet. It'll take care of itself. The cotton gin didn't eliminate all farm workers. It started all kinds of other different things and you end up with more job. Where are you on that question? Because Tim, Tim, Tim thinks now that he's not worried about it. I am. I think it's going to Destroy the entire world. Go ahead.

[Craig Gotwell]

I fall much closer to Tim.

[Gary Dietrich]

Oh, good.

[Joe Getty]

I hope you're both right.

[Craig Gotwell]

I'm using it. I'm using it every day at work. In fact, everybody in my office is. We're using it regularly. And what it's done is it's allowed me to just become so much more efficient with not wasting a lot of time on some of the more menial tasks that I don't want to have to burn time on. I can use AI to standardize and templatize a lot of the things that I'm doing quickly. Um, I'll give you an example, Jack, because, you know, I'm a lawyer and I'm. I'm reviewing healthcare contracts. Just recently, I took six different pharmacy benefit manager PBM contracts. So it's the part of your health plan that deals with all the drugs. Six different contracts. All of them were between 50 and 100 pages. I uploaded all of them into ChatGPT, I said, and then I gave it like a whole page of instruction on what I wanted. I wanted to compare and contrast this. I wanted to know the weaknesses and strengths. I wanted to know where I could find A, B and C and D in each contract.

[Gary Dietrich]

And.

[Craig Gotwell]

And I wanted it to put it all in a grid for me. So it didn't. It did. Within like 10 minutes, I had this unbelievable chart that it spit back to me where then I could go back and just hit the highlights of the contracts in my review. Now, where that would be devastating is if you had zero idea what you were doing. If you weren't a health care attorney, for example, and you didn't know where it was wrong because it's wrong. As you guys have reported, it's wrong a good clip of the time. It'll make things up or it'll have something totally off, but when you're already an expert in an area to take care. I mean, it saved me four hours doing what it did, and then I could just spend one hour fine tuning it and making it exactly what I needed to see for my clients.

[Joe Getty]

But you do have the problems of hallucinations or whatever. It just makes stuff up now then.

[Craig Gotwell]

Absolutely, yeah. You have to watch it. What I tell my coworkers is when it tells you something that you think is just maybe not quite right, you have to tell it, give me a source for that. And then you have to hit that source and you have to go look at it, because it will get things completely wrong. You know, I. I've read the stats that say 50 of the time, I think that's too high, but I. I see it getting things wrong 20 of the time anyway.

[Joe Getty]

Really? Okay, that's interesting. Oh yeah.

[Craig Gotwell]

Where it sends you to a link that doesn't exist or it. Or just says something that's not right.

[Joe Getty]

Okay. So I ask it a lot of questions that I have no expertise in, and so it could. Maybe it's lied to me way more often than I realize. And then I probably repeat it on the radio. But I'm. I'm. I've mentioned this a thousand times. I'm reading the book Ulysses by James Joyce. I'm trying to fight my way through that book. And I've been using Chat GBT when I get stuck on something, but I had one the other day where it was just. I knew it was completely wrong, like just as wrong as wrong could be. And I wonder how often that happens. I asked it a question yesterday about taking zinc when you got a cold. And the information it spit out for me for different ages and different studies and stuff like that, as far as I know, was absolutely fascinating and so fast. So. Which you mentioned Chat GPT several times. There's a whole bunch of AI apps or programs or whatever you even call them, chatbots out there. How many of them are you using?

[Craig Gotwell]

Yes, so I'm using. I'm using an upgraded version of Chat GPT that I've paid for and I've trained with a lot of what I do for healthcare law.

[Joe Getty]

Do you think the paid for one is. Do you think the paid one. Paid for one is worth it for the average person or only if you have an expertise in something?

[Craig Gotwell]

I think if you're using it for work, the paid for one is worth it. I mean, if you're just using it for, for fun and for social, you know, I don't think you need to pay for it, but I lean on it pretty heavily at times and, and ChatGPT seems to be the best one for like legal analysis and writing and writing templates. When I have to. When I start working with Excel spreadsheets, for example, when I want to compare large Excel spreadsheets and I want to, I want to have AI shortcut some of that for me, I find that Gemini Google's seems to be the best one for me in that lane. And then the other thing that we use a lot at work because we do a lot of presentations for clients and a lot of visual stuff, we'll use Mid Journey to create art and imagery, which is, I think, the industry leader easily for you Know, creating those pictures and those. And those slides that are just.

[Joe Getty]

If you want to do images and stuff. You like Mid Journey, which I'd never even heard of.

[Gary Dietrich]

Mid Journey.

[Craig Gotwell]

Midjourney. Yeah, Midjourney is amazing. And I actually learned that an artist friend of mine in the Bay Area who said that's the only one artists are using is Mid Journey.

[Joe Getty]

Did you hear that, Katie? Because I know you do a lot of that. That's a good one. Mid Journey.

[Gary Dietrich]

All right.

[Joe Getty]

Is that just something like I can put on my phone, get an app?

[Craig Gotwell]

Yeah, it's just a web link or. Yeah, there's probably an app, but I just. I just hit it on a. On a. On a webpage browser, and I actually do pay for the upgraded version of that one as well, because we hit it a lot for creating. You know, you see a presentation at your job, right? And you get so sick of seeing the same clip art over and over. Well, we'll just use Mid Journey to create unique art that way I know that when I'm giving a presentation to a client, they've never seen this imagery before. It's not, you know, some stock imagery, but we hit it. But use a free version of it as well.

[Joe Getty]

Mid Journey. I'm looking for it. Okay. I haven't messed around with Google. Gemini. I need to do that just because I know they're pouring so many billions of dollars into that sort of thing, because there's a big belief among Eli and Eli Elon and Google and, you know, a couple of different people that whoever emerges as the leader, there's trillions of dollars involved in that, and. And it's worth trying to be the best. So I needed to figure out what Gemini is up to.

[Jack Armstrong]

Armstrong and Gettys. The Armstrong and getty show.

[Joe Getty]

70.5 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes. The Nathan's famous 4th of July champion of the world, Joey Chestnut. How do you feel? I was excited. I love being here.

[Gary Dietrich]

Man, I wish I ate a couple more.

[Joe Getty]

I'm sorry, guys. I'll be back next year.

[Katie]

That's greatness. That is the voice of greatness.

[Joe Getty]

Joey Chesky, sweaty 70 and a half dog. I considered going. So we were in Manhattan, me and the boys, for vacation, and we watched every 4th of July since they were little. We watched the hot dog eating contest on espn, too, and it's kind of a family tradition to watch that. And. Yeah, and I was right there and could have gone, but I thought I just the crowds and fighting in there and the hot sun, so I didn't go. But maybe I missed out on a lifetime memory right there by not watching a guy shove as many hot dogs in his mouth as he possibly could in a short amount of time.

[Katie]

I think, you know, that is one that. Well, he absolutely did. You did. You, you, you passed on a dream memory for your kids. On the other hand, that's the sort of idea that seems like a great one. Then you think about how long is it going to take us to get to Coney island, right? And then, you know.

[Joe Getty]

A day to two thirds of a day of vacation do I want to spend on this?

[Katie]

That's kind of why people jam hot dogs into their moths for five minutes.

[Joe Getty]

Anywho, we just did a story about a woman that was attacked by a homeless person in California. My only reaction to that story is vagrant. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You, you, you don't like the term homeless person, and I don't blame you. We need a quick short term for these people. Crazy person. I'm fine with crazy person. Or I don't know, that's not accurate either because it's not all mental illness. It's way more drug crazies than anything else.

[Katie]

That's why I like the term vagrant, because it kind of lumps everybody. It covers everybody. I like transient drug addict, but it's a little cumbersome. And maybe some of these people aren't drug addicts, although the vast majority are. But my, my, the reason I'm on a jihad about this is if you make the fundamental focus of describing that person, their lack of a permanent address, then people think, well, that's really unfortunate. They don't have a home and we need to solve that problem. No, the problem is they're a drug addict or a vagrant, which kind of hints at it.

[Joe Getty]

The reason I wanted to bring it up in conjunction with being in New York City is I see every single day in the college town I live in more drug crazy, vagrant street people that frighten me every day than I saw in Manhattan walking around for three days. That should be. Yeah, that's, that's, that's nuts. On its own, there aren't none in New York. But I mean, if you're from California, from a big city in California or even a small city, as I just said, it is refreshingly bum free to be in New York and it shouldn't be that way. Maybe if you're from, I don't know, Omaha and you go to New York, you think, oh my God, there's scary street people around but for us, it was like, wow, it's so nice to be able to walk the streets without every 10ft. You're wondering if this person's going to stab me in the eye with a broken bottle.

[Katie]

Yeah. It has been useful as a bi coastal American to observe the differences in outcomes directly tied to policies. I mean, it's not mysterious, it's not difficult to understand. If you make it as easy and comfortable as possible to be a jobless drug addict, you will have more jobless drugs, drug addicts. Do you think that's doing those people a favor on any level? I would argue strenuously it's not. It's the opposite.

[Joe Getty]

The one thing I did see in New York that bothered me a lot on the 4th of July, we were standing in the spot where George Washington took his first oath of office as the capital of our fine country was in New York City right there. It's a big old cool federal building, basically across from the New York Stock Exchange and Wall Street. It's still there. And they've got a big cement platform that they've taken out of the ground and it is now standing up with an inscription on it. And that's where George Washington stood to take the first oath, which obviously is a very, very big deal for the world, not just for the United States. But so while we were bumping around the. The southern tip of Manhattan on the Fourth of July and went over to see the Statue of Liberty and variety of different things, so many of the artifacts of our history of freedom of independence were surrounded by barriers because they're so concerned about protests. And I thought, so this is the way we handle it. We handle it on the end of the deal of the protests by putting a barrier around the statue. So I can't look at it to protect it from the protesters, as opposed to what we're always advocating for. Arrest these people and make it so miserable to get arrested for defacing, you know, a statue like this that you don't do it where we're catching it on the wrong end, you need to catch it on the front end. So people aren't motivated to do it right now. People know they can get away with spray painting this statue of whichever founding father. So they have to cover it with all kinds of barricades and tape and stuff like that. You can't even see it as a tourist.

[Katie]

And if you just talked out some of these things that we do that are so nuts these days, if you were to describe. All right, we have a variety of ways we're proposing to deal with the fact that angry protesters who've been miseducated and indoctrinated in our government schools want to tear down the artifacts of our founding. Here is one plan and I would spell it out and that includes covering up the monuments and statues so no one can see them. That would be roundly rejected.

[Joe Getty]

People would say I don't care what.

[Katie]

Else is in your stupid plan, you're missing the whole freaking of having this statue.

[Joe Getty]

What's your next plan?

[Katie]

And yet that idiotic plan is the one we've gone with.

[Joe Getty]

Come on America.

[Katie]

We can do better than this.

[Jack Armstrong]

The Armstrong and Getty show get more Jack, more Joe podcasts and our hot.

[Commercial Announcer]

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[Jack Armstrong]

Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty the Armstrong and Getty I think you made this.

[Unidentified Political Commentator]

Nationwide war over redistricting. We've seen the two biggest states go first. The biggest red state, Texas. You mentioned those five additional seats.

[Joe Getty]

Look at all that red.

[Unidentified Political Commentator]

Yeah, and there's not a lot of blue. They're squeezing that big time. Now what we're seeing the opposite in in California where the the Democrats under Gavin Newsom are putting a map on the ballot for voters this fall that could get them those five seats back. So that would make sense.

[Joe Getty]

Extraordinary. Only four, four Republican seats, 48 for the Democrats. So we're standing up. This is not about parties. It's not about, you know, redistricting lines. It's about holding the line, it's about.

[Katie]

Protecting all of us, regardless of political party.

[Joe Getty]

It's about power at the end of the day. Is it? Okay, so the math on that. There are 52 congressional seats in California. If Gavin gets his way, four of those will be Republican. So even though about 38% of Californians voted Republican last time around, they would only have 7% of the seats. So nearly 40% of the people who vote in California vote Republican, but only 7% of the representation in the House. Well, that sounds fair. Whatever. We welcome back to the Armstrong and Getty show, our old friend, Gary Dietrich. How are you, Gary?

[Gary Dietrich]

Hey, Jack. Good to be with you. And one thing we know for sure, the scientific study has come out. Joe. Jack, there's been now more citations of redistricting in the last 30 days than in all of human history.

[Joe Getty]

No kidding? No kidding. Not a hot topic usually. Says here you are a CBS News political analyst now. Congratulations.

[Gary Dietrich]

Well, thank you, my friend. Yeah, you know, I've been based in the state capital of California for some time, but, you know, as things continue to grow and all the rest of the good stuff, you know, and I think they guess I make sense of them. I'm now doing national TV and radio for CBS as well.

[Joe Getty]

That's awesome. Of course, the reason we have you on today is to talk about the backlash against the Cracker Barrel remodel. Everybody very angry.

[Gary Dietrich]

You know, I gotta tell you something that's so funny you mentioned this, Jack. I was thinking over the weekend, I have never in my lifetime seen a car brand flip politically in six months, a bear brick, a beer brand flip politically in 30 days, and a beloved pancake house and, I don't know, fried chicken, whatever. You don't do the same thing in about two hours. It's unbelievable.

[Joe Getty]

It really is. That's a very good point. We'll have to discuss that later. You got to really watch your. Your PR currently as a big company. But anyway, we're going to talk to you about redistricting, among other things. First of all, what's the likelihood that this passes? Have you seen any polling on this in California?

[Gary Dietrich]

Yeah, in California. Here's the problem for Democrats that when the polling was done a couple weeks ago, just on the concept, would you like the Independent Citizens Commission or do you want it to go the power to go back to the legislature? Jack, this is quite remarkable to me, actually. Two thirds of voters said, no, we don't want to go back to the legislature's control. We want it to stay in the hands and that, by the way, wasn't just led by Republicans. And the large percentage, almost 25%, 20, 25% independents in California, but a vast majority, almost 60% of Democrats said so. That's a big headwind. Now, when you start talking about this measure in specifics, people are just beginning to get polled on it. But right now, the most recent numbers I saw, Jack, had about 48% in support of it. There's a general rule of thumb in California about propositions. If you don't start your campaign with over 50% of this support, you got a big, big road to hoe.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, interesting. Well, that. That is. That's good to know. Going forward with this. Not to redo. We just had Congressman Tom McClintock on, and he kind of went through the history of gerrymandering, although he uses the correct pronunciation of gerrymandering.

[Gary Dietrich]

But, yeah, I want you to know I had nothing to do with that, though it's a different spelling, Gary than me. That's G E, R, R, Y. So I did not have anything to do with the start of gerrymandering. I want you guys to know.

[Joe Getty]

Gotcha. But. So we won't go through the history of that again. But, like, people have been gerrymandering since the country started. There's lots of blue states that are all gerrymandered to heck, as we all know. And now it's just. Isn't Gavin's main goal if this gets shot down? Doesn't he want just to be the face of the resistance? Isn't that his main goal?

[Gary Dietrich]

Well, you know, I never tried to get inside a politician's head, but if you look at the sort of factual evidence of that in the last 12 to 18 months, Jack, you know very well, I mean, he's been in red states all over the country, raised $10 million in a PAC to do that, took up billboards and in Florida and Texas, famously debated the governor of Florida on the Sean Hannity show, of all things. I mean, he is, you know, had it on podcast. You know, the story with Bannon on it and Charlie Kirk. I mean, he's been. He's been auditioning for the White House here officially, unofficially, for the last year.

[Joe Getty]

Plus, how do you like his chances?

[Gary Dietrich]

Oh, in 28.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Gary Dietrich]

Well, here's the deal. We have some recent numbers on that. This is really interesting. In California, his own home state, he has now surged ahead of Kamala Harris as California Democrats, 28 choice.

[Joe Getty]

God, I would hope Kamala Harris. I can't believe anybody's even Talking about her still. Good Lord.

[Gary Dietrich]

Well, I'm just telling you the numbers. Okay. California Democrats, California Democrats had her in the lead as their choice. And then just in the last 30 days, Gavin surged ahead. Now, nationally, there hasn't been a lot of good national polling on this in the last couple weeks. But what's interesting, Jack, is the movement on the so called odds. Okay, now why are odds, why would people care about that over polling? Because odds taken, and these are being watched, by the way, very carefully and reliably by many political sources in the US these days. Why? Because polling is one measurement. Right. It's snapshot in time. It takes time to get a poll out in the field and then you get it back. Odds take into account other things like what have recent news cycles shared, et cetera, et cetera. What does fundraising look like? And Gavin Newsom has moved into the lead nationally in the odds for the 28 race for the Democratic nomination.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, that's interesting. And that was his goal. He wants to be as close to, as a presumptive as he can possibly get heading into the whole thing, obviously. And again, the Democratic Party doesn't have a face. They don't have a person that is like the go to resistance to Trump and every, everything. Trump and everything that's evil and Republican. And he wants to be that. And he, and he's making some pretty good progress on that. But so are you still now you're working for CBS. How long we've been doing this together, Gary? 20 years? 25 years?

[Gary Dietrich]

Okay, let me, let me remind you, I'll ask you the question because somebody asked me this over the weekend about you guys. When did you start your local show in Sacramento that's now ballooned into a galactic, you know, superstar radio program? Well, when did you guys start?

[Joe Getty]

Michael's usually on top of this. So our anniversary is like in a week, couple days, actually. And that will be 28 years, 27 years. Something like 27. 27 years.

[Gary Dietrich]

Oh my gosh, now you're making me feel really old.

[Joe Getty]

You know why that is? Because you are really old. And so am I. Oh, geez.

[Gary Dietrich]

Come on, man. I, I started with you guys the first year you were on air locally in the state capital of California.

[Joe Getty]

We've been talking to each other for almost three decade. What are we doing?

[Gary Dietrich]

Okay, that's the end of that.

[Joe Getty]

Let's, let's do something else with our lives. Okay? So anyway, but since you're on right now for the last time, so you're, you've always been Staunchly nonpartisan. That's always been your thing, and I love that. That's one of the reasons we always liked having you on. You're really into just trying to relay the facts. I assume you're still doing that for cbs.

[Gary Dietrich]

Absolutely. That, that is a great question. Because people say. Because remind, remember, this really blows people's minds. Prior to my contract with CBS, we started in, what, 2018 or something? So that was what, seven years ago? I was with our local Fox affiliate, Fox 40 in Sacramento. So, you know, I. People say, did you flip loyalties? No, I've always been the same Gary Dietrich. You know how it is, Jack, just like you said, I call them like I see him. I feel like that's very, very important role. That's why they have me on. Nobody scripts me. Nobody tells me what bent to take. I guarantee you that.

[Joe Getty]

Well, so this is of an opinion question, so I don't know how you want to handle that, but I, Joe and I take in a lot of national media and podcasts and all that sort of stuff. Of course we do for, for our line of work. I feel like people, pundits in the rest of the country have a way higher opinion of Gavin Newsom's talents than people who have known him longer in California and. Well, first of all, would you agree with that or not?

[Gary Dietrich]

Well, I do think that that is. How should we call it? A. A bias. That happens with Jack. Literally. Almost every governor.

[Joe Getty]

Right.

[Gary Dietrich]

Almost every governor. This happens. You could. And Republicans and Democrats, you can go down the list. You go way back to Mike Dukakis in Massachusetts. I mean, the Massachusetts miracle. And when I went to, you know, I won't mention the name of the school because you guys like to make fun of my grad school.

[Joe Getty]

Gary went to Harvard. He went to Harvard at the John F. Kennedy School of Government. We all know. Glad we mentioned telling you this for 30 years. Go ahead, Gary.

[Gary Dietrich]

Okay. I'm hoping people forget. The reason I mentioned that is because when I was in Mass, when I was in Massachusetts, people would say, what is this fascination with our governor outside of our state? There's this wrong, this wrong, this wrong. That happens all the time.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, I remember, you know, Rick Perry coming out of Texas or whoever it is, they, the local people often say, I don't know if he's as good as you think he is, but then sometimes you get a Clinton or a Bush who perform, you know, at that high level. But. So where do you think Gavin Newsom is currently as a political athlete?

[Gary Dietrich]

Well, I certainly think that you're onto the trend line right now, which is the Democratic base has been desperately seeking a true, in other words, fighter, quote, unquote. They want somebody to take on, as they call him, quote, unquote, the bully in the White House. And Gavin has filled that role. Now, interestingly, there's been a huge transformation, as you know, Jack, in the last eight months because when the President showed up on the tarmac of LA International Airport right after the fires down south, you know, Gavin wanted to make nice and he needs $40 billion, they say, to rebuild L A, et cetera, et cetera. But things turned sour quickly, as you know, they've gone from bad to worse. And I think Gavin has essentially given up on trying to woo Trump in the White House. And now it's full on. I'm going to be the face of the opposition.

[Joe Getty]

I don't blame him. But, man, these early projections, Trump has only been president for what, nine months? And the talk about 28 that is out there. Hillary Clinton seemed like a lock for the nomination. 2008. I remember when Rudy Giuliani seemed like, who could possibly beat him? You know, we've seen this so many times. There's lots of names that I've never even heard of. You've never, you've probably heard of them, but that I've never even heard of. That could emerge in the next couple of years, correct?

[Gary Dietrich]

Oh, yeah. I mean, look, a month is a long time in politics. I mean, nobody's even talking about a resisting special election on November 4th in California 30 days ago. Now it's a reality.

[Joe Getty]

Good point.

[Gary Dietrich]

So the point is, Jack, we have a long, long ways to go. But if you look at the national odds maker polling right now just for who's going to win 28, and this is so far out, it's ridiculous. But JD Vance is the leader, followed about 10 points behind, more than that, 12 points by now, Gavin Newsom. And then the list goes down from there. So still Vance, and of course, he's no lock for his own nomination. So we're a long ways away from 28.

[Joe Getty]

Although Elon saying he might throw 100 to 200 million dollars behind Vance is certainly a big deal.

[Gary Dietrich]

Well, you know what, he's got those kind of checks. He could decide he wants tomorrow to put in 50 cents and the next week it might be 500 million. But, you know, that proved, as you know, to be significant last time around. I mean, the battle for 28, that's going to make it really interesting, Jack, is that it's wide open. There won't be an incumbent on either side. And yes, you have a sitting vice president, but that's a real mixed bag of results for sitting vice presidents over the years.

[Joe Getty]

Gary Dietrich, CBS News political analyst. Let's do it for 30 more years, Gary.

[Gary Dietrich]

Well, how about if we start with 30 days and go from there?

[Joe Getty]

All right, talk to you soon.

[Gary Dietrich]

Okay, buddy.

[Katie]

It's the Armstrong and Getty Show.

[Joe Getty]

Armstrong and Getty. The Armstrong and Yeti show. The conscience of the nation.

[Gary Dietrich]

Armstrong and Gettysburg.

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[Jack Armstrong]

The ARMSTRONG and Getty show so my.

[Joe Getty]

13 year old, and it matters what his age is, apparently wanted to open a checking account at the bank or an account at the bank because he's got enough money built up from allowances and birthdays and Christmases and he doesn't spend his money like his brother does. He saves it because he wants to be able to put it toward a car someday and that sort of thing. So he's got a decent sized chunk of money added up over the years and he'd been keeping it in his shoebox. And so he's going to open an account. And I remember when I opened an account when I was probably about his age, I started mowing lawns when I was 12, 13 and accumulating money and opening a bank account. On the way to the bank, I did say to him, I said, you know, I haven't, I haven't been around the idea of opening an account for a bank in 40 years, something like that. So I don't know if the rules have changed but so in case something happens. But anyway, so we get it there sure enough. And so we're trying to open this account and everything like that. And first of all, many banks, everything is. I don't know if it's because the government comes down on them so hard or something like that. They treat everybody like you're a wannabe terrorist. Like everything you do, it's like juice, lighten up. But anyway, he needs to have two forms of ID is where we ran into the roadblock. I said what is a form of ID for a 13 year old? They said well, your Social Security card, his birth certificate. Okay, great. So I said the fact that I'm his dad isn't good enough. I can't vouch for the fact that he's my son and I have an account here and have had for 25 years and open an account for him. I can't do that. No, we need to. And I said is that a bank policy or the state law or what is that? Because I was thinking if it's a bank policy I'll go to a different bank. But it's a federal law. It's part of the Patriot Act. I said oh cool, of course. And he said well it's a federal. I said you don't need to explain the federal government to me. And I hate the federal government. I said. And then the guy looked at me like I was oh, he got wide eyed like, oh, you're one of those people. You're Timothy McVeigh. You're, you're, you're one of those people.

[Katie]

Yeah, clearly I've heard about them.

[Joe Getty]

I said I hate the federal government. The Patriot Act's ridiculous. This is ridiculous. The fact that I can't open a bank account for a 13 year old. And as his parent I got, I gotta prove who he is because you can't take my word for the fact that he's my child. Makes me child money laundering little mule.

[Katie]

For your militia, whatever you want to call him.

[Joe Getty]

The Patriot act was so I was trying to explain it to Nery was so much crap that they jammed through. It's all because of 9 11. So you're going to stop the next 911 by making sure 13 year olds don't open illegal bank accounts. I guess. Yeah, whatever. Even though their parent who you know is sitting right there. I hate stuff like that. And the, and the. But they were, they are. Their eyes got so wide when I Said, I hate the federal government. And I was thinking, if I was doing this same thing in my, in my. Where I went to college in Hays, Kansas, and I said, I hate the federal government. The teller would have said, yeah, me too. Don't you high five. I thought, what a difference.

[Katie]

Amen to that, brother.

[Joe Getty]

But that just being. Oh, my God, you shouldn't say. She said, oh, she even gasped. She gasped. The woman gasped. And her boss just looked at me wide eyed like, oh, we about to have a fight.

[Katie]

Oh, man.

[Joe Getty]

You have to have two pieces of id. Even though he's my kid, I just found that amazing. All right, here's.

[Katie]

Here's the guy who retweets my quotes. Get ready to jot this one down and get it right, would you? Anytime the government says there's an emergency, there are two emergencies.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, but actually. Exactly. And I actually told my son because he was wondering. He was like, is that something you can't see out loud? I said, I told him the most revered Republican president of the last maybe century, Ronald Reagan, ran on the scariest words in the English language are, I'm here from the. I'm from the government, and I'm here to help you. I mean, he ran on I hate the government.

[Katie]

Or I just saw a clip this morning. The government isn't the solution, Government is the problem.

[Joe Getty]

And the woman who is typing furiously after I said that because she was so horrified that anybody would say that, I said, you know, all the money in my account, I made that by going on the radio every day and saying, I hate the government.

[Katie]

By the way, if the Justice Department is listening or the FDIC or I don't. The CIA, the nsa, if they. I'm happy to testify against this monster.

[Joe Getty]

I'm sure I'm on some sort of terrorist watch list now. Yes, Michael, so wonder they didn't hit the silent alarm on you and then, you know, cops show up or something. I would have been, I would have loved to talk to people and explain why it's okay for me to say I hate the government.

[Katie]

No, no, no. We've got to surveil him for a while and go through his mail and monitor his phone calls. We've got the NSA working on it already.

[Joe Getty]

What I hate is the manager guy acting like it makes sense that we have a law that I can't vouch for my kid being my kid. That seems perfectly reasonable to me.

[Katie]

Two forms of ID for a child, right?

[Joe Getty]

When their parent is there.

[Katie]

How about he says his name, then I say his name Is that two forms of id? And if not, what the hell has the world become?

[Jack Armstrong]

I know the Armstrong and Getty Show. Get more Jack, more Joe podcasts and our hot [e-mail].

[Commercial Announcer]

This Labor Day say goodbye to spills, stains and overpriced furniture with washablesofas.com featuring Anabe, the only machine washable sofa inside and out where designer quality meets budget friendly pricing. Sofas start at just $6.99, making it the perfect time to upgrade your space. Annabe's pet friendly stain resistant and interchangeable slipcovers are made with high performance fabric built for real life. You'll love the cloud like comfort of hypoallergenic high resilience foam that never needs fluffing and a durable steel frame that stands the test of time with modular pieces you can rearrange anytime. It's a sofa that adapts to your life. Now through Labor Day, get up to 60% off site [e-mail] Every order comes with a 30 day satisfaction guarantee. If you're not in love, send it back for a full refund. No return shipping, no restocking fees, every penny back. Shop [e-mail] Offers are subject to change and certain restrictions may apply. This is an I heart podcast.