Adam Carolla On Fires, Failures & Urgent Need for Change | 1.18.25

Summary

Morning Wire: Adam Carolla On Fires, Failures & Urgent Need for Change | January 18, 2025

Hosted by John Bickley and Georgia Howe

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Introduction

In the January 18, 2025 episode of Morning Wire, Daily Wire’s investigative reporter Spencer Lindquist engages comedian and actor Adam Carolla in a compelling discussion about the devastating Los Angeles fires, personal experiences during the evacuations, and broader societal issues related to equity and regulatory policies. Hosted by Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief John Bickley alongside co-host Georgia Howe, the episode delves deep into the intersection of personal hardship and institutional challenges.

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Personal Experience with the Los Angeles Fires

Spencer Lindquist opens the conversation by inviting Adam to share his firsthand experience with the recent Los Angeles fires, particularly the Palisades fire. Adam recounts the harrowing day when the fires broke out, detailing his swift evacuation and the subsequent uncertainty regarding his condo's safety.

“Tuesday morning I was leaving the gym that's on Sunset and PCH... I just saw smoke at the top of Sunset. And that's exactly when the fire started.” [01:01]

Adam describes navigating the chaotic environment as fire trucks converged from multiple directions and sirens filled the air. Despite the widespread destruction, Adam's condo miraculously survived, though the surrounding area was decimated.

“My condo didn't burn down. The area is gone.” [03:15]

He reflects on the constant fear and the logistical nightmare of rerouting through congested areas to reach safety, ultimately finding temporary refuge in a hotel as the situation remained precarious.

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Discussion on Equity in Fire Departments

The conversation shifts to the contentious topic of equity within fire departments. Spencer references recent comments by the current fire department chief regarding gender balance and equity, probing Adam’s views on these policies and their implementation.

Adam expresses strong criticism of equity-driven hiring practices, sharing his personal frustration with affirmative action in firefighting. He recounts his own attempt to join the fire department at 19, only to be dismissed for not fitting the desired demographic profile.

“I tried to be a firefighter when I was 19 and was told I wasn't black enough or Hispanic enough or female enough to be led onto the crew.” [04:43]

Adam challenges the necessity of demographic representation in critical public services, arguing that qualifications and competence should take precedence over diversity quotas. He draws parallels with other professions, emphasizing that effectiveness in roles like healthcare or security is not contingent on the worker’s appearance matching the community’s demographics.

“We just sort of want the best qualified person to do the job. I think it's racist and a lot of projection when they would say... Who cares?” [06:05]

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Broader Implications of DEI and Regulatory Policies

Spencer broadens the discussion to the pervasive influence of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives across various sectors, including government, media, and corporate America. He inquires whether Adam believes there will be a rollback of these policies in favor of reducing red tape and easing regulatory burdens.

Adam is optimistic about a potential renaissance against overregulation, attributing this shift to influential figures like former President Trump, Elon Musk, and Vivek Ramaswamy. He suggests that the public is becoming increasingly aware of the hidden costs of excessive regulation, which often go unnoticed until they tangibly impact everyday life.

“They were all nuts with COVID and that sort of turned around. They were all nuts with BLM and that sort of turned around... So I think it'll be more Trump and more Musk that are sort of banging that drum.” [07:58]

Adam elaborates on his background in construction, highlighting firsthand experiences with bureaucratic overreach and the inefficiencies it creates. He argues that as more people recognize the detrimental effects of excessive regulation, there will be a significant push towards deregulation and simplifying processes.

“Like half the cost of every private jet is just lawyers, lawsuits and regulations.” [08:45]

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Adam’s Personal Story and Critique of DEI

To illustrate the real-world implications of DEI policies, Adam shares a poignant personal story from the early 1980s. He narrates his attempt to join the firefighting profession, only to be sidelined by policies favoring demographic diversity over merit.

“I just realized, oh, that's what we're dealing with now. You by no means wanted this person coming into your... and she didn't look like she could lift her arms if she put a bracelet on.” [12:30]

This experience left a lasting impression on Adam, reinforcing his belief that DEI initiatives often undermine the core objectives of public services by prioritizing representation over capability. He underscores the importance of maintaining high standards and qualifications to ensure effectiveness and reliability in critical roles.

“I was just like, oh, damn. And that's when I learned, like, oh, that's what we're dealing with now. You by no means wanted this person coming into your... but that's who's coming to save you.” [14:00]

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Conclusion

The episode concludes with Spencer acknowledging Adam’s insights and personal anecdotes, highlighting the need for a balanced approach to equity and regulation. Adam reiterates his stance on prioritizing qualifications over diversity quotas and calls for a reevaluation of current policies to better serve both public institutions and the communities they aim to protect.

John Bickley wraps up the discussion, emphasizing the ongoing relevance of these issues in the wake of the Los Angeles fires and beyond. Listeners are left with a nuanced perspective on the challenges facing public services today and the urgent need for systemic change.

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This summary encapsulates the key points, discussions, and insights shared during the episode, providing a comprehensive overview for those who have not listened to the full conversation.

Transcript

[John Bickley]

The Los Angeles fires have wreaked havoc on parts of Southern California, with more than 10,000 homes destroyed in the Palisades fire, Eaton fire and others. In this episode, Daily Wire investigative reporter Spencer Lindquist sits down with comedian and actor Adam Carolla to discuss his experiences evacuating from the Palisades fire and its devastating aftermath. I'm Daily Wire Editor in Chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's January 18th, and this is a Saturday edition of Morning Wire. The following is an interview between Daily Wire reporter Spencer Lindquist and comedian Adam Carolla.

[Spencer Lindquist]

Hey, Adam. So thanks for sitting down with us to talk about these fires. You know, there's a wide range of different topics on the policy level that we'd definitely like to discuss. But I think first off, I just wanted to hear a bit about your experience with the fires. I know that you evacuated and you've got a condo that you've been concerned about. If you could just walk us through what it's been like personally so far.

[Adam Carolla]

Tuesday morning I was leaving the gym that's on Sunset and pch, which is Pacific coast highway, and I walked, I left the gym about 10:45, 10:50 in the morning, and I walked down on this open terrace. I looked to my left and I just saw smoke at the top of Sunset. And that's exactly when the fire started. So I got my car and I came here, which is in the San Fernando Valley, which is, you know, 25 miles to come here to work. And as I was going down pch, I was seeing fire trucks coming in other directions and hearing sirens and, you know, all that goes along with it. And then I got here and by the end of my workday, probably about 3 or 4 o'clock, I'd heard that the fire had spread. And, you know, but it still wasn't imminent danger cause there was a fire three weeks earlier in Malibu as well, and we had to evacuate, but it just not what this one was. Then at a certain point, I drove for about an hour and a half back to Malibu, not being able to use my normal route, but having to go around through Pepperdine, Las Vergines, Malibu Canyon area and come back sort of backside to my condo, which is up the hill and sort of right in the middle of Pacific coast highway in Malibu. And then I got there and I sat down and about 20 minutes later, my girlfriend said she got the alert on her phone and we have to clear out. So then we get back in the car and drove back here, but the power was out Here. So then we had to check into a hotel. And, you know, that was about a week ago, And I've just been sort of monitoring it ever since, but found out that my actual unit or my building was only a duplex. So it wasn't a big complex. Did not burn down. Everything in front of it burnt down. And, you know, when you toured Pacific coast highway, when you passed Duke's, that's sort of the area that. That I'm in. And you'll probably recall that everything past Duke sort of burned down.

[Spencer Lindquist]

Yeah. And you said that your area didn't burn down. How long?

[Adam Carolla]

My condo didn't burn down. The area is gone. And so I started seeing little dribs and drabs. I think when I woke up in a hotel room on Wednesday morning, I was seeing footage because all you would get is what they would give you. The restaurant beneath me was completely engulfed in flames, and much of the stuff on the other side of the street was completely gone. So I was doing the math, which is the fire starts on the mountain, it comes down the mountain, it burns everything in its path, and then eventually it crosses pch. If it does burns everything there and then it hits the water, and there's nowhere else to go. But I'm in between the mountain and the water, and everything in front of me is gone. So I'm just assuming that my structure's gone as well, since I'm in the path of the fire, But. And then it took several days past that to realize that somehow my structure was not hit.

[Spencer Lindquist]

Right after the fire broke out, there was all this coverage of the past comments from the current fire department chief about equity, about the gender balance of the fire department. I'm sure that's what was on your mind when you were thinking about the condo. What is the sex of the firefighter in that area? Could you speak a little bit about those concerns, those equity concerns, the prevalence that they have in the fire department and the public response, the backlash to those comments?

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, they speak freely about it. I have experience with it because I tried to be a firefighter when I was 19 and was told I wasn't black enough or Hispanic enough or female enough to be led onto the crew. So I did have a little, kind of special place in my heart for equity because I was poor and needed a job and was willing to work. It's strange that it's discussed as much as it is. And I guess what I'm saying is the people who just want the property saved or just want their kids saved or their pets saved, or their husband or their wife saved. Don't care about equity. And I also don't think people in 2025America care at all. We just sort of want the best qualified person to do the job. I think it's racist and a lot of projection when they would say, you know, I used to have said it a million times when they go, the fire department needs to resemble the community that it serves. I'd always go, I don't know why. Who cares? You know, you go to the hospital in Los Angeles, there's a lot of Filipino nurses. It's almost all Filipino nurses. I don't know why they're attracted to this business. Evidently, nursing's a good job. Evidently becomes sort of a Filipino family business almost. And, you know, I worked with a Filipino guy, and I said, this Filipino? And he goes, yeah, my mom's a nurse. And I go, oh, really? He goes, she wanted me to be a nurse. And I'm like, yes, okay. It's a thing. I don't care. You know, my dad would go to the hospital, he'd get a Filipino nurse, and she would take good care of him. Don't care. He didn't care. Don't have to look like you. You go to lax security's 70% African American. I don't know why it is. It's racist to think you would have an issue. And they always do it with white people. Like, oh, I'm gonna have an issue with this nurse that looks like this, or this TSA guy looks like that. No, we don't. That's all we see all day, every day. By the way, Los Angeles, you call someone to come unclog your toilet, you're not gonna get somebody looks like you who shows up that you welcome into your home. You call a TV repair guy or an electrician or plumber or whoever. You're not gonna get anyone who looks like you. That's la. That's how it works. Nobody cares. Everybody whose home was destroyed is gonna be rebuilt by somebody who doesn't look like them. And that'll be that.

[Spencer Lindquist]

Yeah. And that constituency, I mean, especially post 2020 DEI, woke, generally speaking, as a broad term, that was all the rage. There was an institutional takeover. It spanned government, it spanned media, it spanned corporate America. Do you think that that group of people, the Palisade, Santa Monica, if we look at that almost as an interest group in and of itself. Right. Do you think that'll be powerful enough to. For government leaders to say, you know what? We're actually gonna pull back on the red tape, we're gonna pull back on the regulations, we're gonna pull back on these overly burdensome permitting processes. Do you think that's gonna be sufficient or do you think they are still going to have these policies that are gonna push people out?

[Adam Carolla]

I think that in conjunction with Trump and Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy and that whole cadre of people is going to turn it same way. You know, they were all nuts with COVID and that sort of turned around. They were all nuts with BLM and that sort of turned around. They were nuts with the pronouns and all that crap that sort of tacked to the right or towards sanity or whatever direction sanity is. So, yeah, I do think it'll. We'll have a kind of a renaissance with that. They do kind of say, you know, whatever direction California goes, so goes the nation. And some of that is true with fashion and design and arts and things like that. But I think it'll be more Trump and more Musk that are sort of banging that drum. Because most people think that regulation and red tape is sort of invisible. Like, it's really invisible to most people. They don't really see it. Like, I talk to a guy years ago and he was an Uber driver and we used to sell private jets and he said half the cost of every private jet is just lawyers, lawsuits and regulations. Like the most people just go, that jet's $10 million. But what if that person knew that was really just a $5 million jet with 5 million worth of red tape and lawyers tacked onto it? You know what I mean? They would change their mind, you know, and so it's invisible and most people don't get it and they don't understand it. My background is in construction and building and I worked in LA my whole life. So I had a front row seat to like really bad regulatory systems and lots of overreach and too much intervention by the government early. And I've complained about it my entire radio career, but no one else cared because they just didn't come from that world, so they didn't really experience it. But I think now they're getting a little bit of a front row seat to it. And so I hope sort of globally it is impactful.

[Spencer Lindquist]

And then just last question, the couple minutes more that we have, could you just tell us a story of you said your background is in construction. You tried to have your background be in firefighting, right? You tried to go into firefighting as a career. Could you tell US a story of your attempt to get into firefighting and what exactly occurred there.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, so I was a sort of jock football player, kind of just dude, you know, hung out in the weight room, played football, and was like a physical guy. When I was in high school and getting out of high school and the economy was real bad. It was the early 80s, and there was no jobs to be found, and I didn't know anybody who had any kind of business or anything. I was really kind of adrift financially. I graduated high school, barely. I wasn't going to college. I didn't have any gainful employment, and I just didn't really have anywhere to go or anything to do. I honestly should have just joined the army, but. And I was just living in my dad's garage in North Hollywood, and my stepmom wanted me out of the house, and I was just going to job. I was going to supermarkets and putting in applications, Going on a construction site, asking they needed labor jobs. You know, no one was hiring, but I had always heard about, like, firemen, and I was strong, and I was in good shape, and I had. I didn't care about. I'd go into a burning building. I didn't really think that. I didn't have a lot of regard for myself. So I walked. I didn't even have a car or anything, but I walked to the North Hollywood fire station, and it was the one across the street from the park in my neighborhood. And I just kind of wandered in, like. I just like, hey, who's in charge here? And they. I go, hey, could I fill out an application to be a fireman? And the guy went like, yeah, go ahead, fill it out. But don't expect the phone to ring for a while. And I was like, why wouldn't you call? He was like, we're hiring women, Hiring black. We're hiring Hispanic. This is a long time ago, too.

[Spencer Lindquist]

It's in the early 80s.

[Adam Carolla]

This is the early 80s. And I go, okay, but I could just fill this out and give it to you, right? He's like, yeah, but we're not calling. Don't expect anything. I was like, all right, well, I walked here, so I don't care. I don't have a job. My time's not worth anything. So I was just like, fill it out, hand it in, and then leave. I ended up getting a job as a laborer on a construction site, Literally just digging ditches. And I did that. And then I kind of worked my way up to carpenter. And then I worked my way up to doing earthquake rehab work for the city, which actually paid a little bit. Cause it was a city job. It paid us like 18 or 19 bucks an hour. And now we're getting into the mid, early 80s. Sorry, later 80s. It's been years. I've forgotten all about it. I drive a truck. I have my tools. I'm a carpenter at this point. And then at some point, I go out to lunch with my dad. And he's got an envelope with him, and he kind of sets it across the table. And I go, well, what's this? And he goes, I don't know. I got a letter to the house from you, made out to you. This is Tuesday. I haven't lived in that house in six years. Seven years. It's been years since I moved out. I moved to an apartment. I work now. I got my own life. I said, what is this? Open up, it's the fire department. You have a test day this Saturday, Hollywood High. Come and take your test. To be a fireman now, you have to keep in mind 18 or 19 to 25, 26. That is a lifetime, you know. So I go, all right. So, you know, my feeling was I was a carpenter at that point. I drove a truck, had my tools, had a profession, had a skill. But I was like, hey, man, I've been waiting six years for this day. Sort of. I'm taking the test, you know, who knows? I'm just. It's a Saturday at Hollywood High. Beautiful day, sun shining outside of Hollywood High, Just waiting in line. It's a line of 150 people trying to go into some bungalow and take their written test. I'm just standing there and look at my paper, you know, from six years ago. And there's a woman behind me, woman of color and diminutive, like, very, like, palab, dual size. And I'm like, I can't get over it. I'm like, when did you. So I turn to her and I think, when did you sign up? I signed up six years ago. When did you sign up? And she goes, Wednesday. And I was like, oh, damn. And that's when I learned, like, oh, that's what we're dealing with now. You by no means wanted this person coming into your. She didn't look like she could lift her arms if she put a bracelet on. But that's who's coming to save you, because no waiting. And that's when I sort of realized, oh, the system. Not good.

[Spencer Lindquist]

He wasn't lying.

[Adam Carolla]

No.

[Spencer Lindquist]

Well, great. Thank you very much. Appreciate you taking the time and telling us your story and your thoughts.

[Adam Carolla]

So I'd say thanks for having me, but good to have. Good to have. Thanks to my studio.

[Spencer Lindquist]

Yeah. Appreciate it.

[Adam Carolla]

Thank you. Sure. My pleasure.

[John Bickley]

That was Daily Wire's Spencer Lindquist interviewing comedian Adam Carolla. And this has been a weekend edition of Morning Wire.