It's a Numbers Game: 6. LA Politics Explode: Spencer Pratt’s Rise, Immigration Data & 2026 Fallout

Summary

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Podcast Summary: The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show

Episode: It's a Numbers Game: 6. LA Politics Explode: Spencer Pratt’s Rise, Immigration Data & 2026 Fallout

Host: Ryan Graduski
Date: May 8, 2026
Platform: iHeartPodcasts

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Episode Overview

This episode of "The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show" (guest-hosted by political analyst Ryan Graduski) focuses on a chaotic week in American politics, zooming in on the Los Angeles mayoral race—as reality TV star Spencer Pratt emerges as a surprising political force—and unpacking startling new data about immigration, birth rates, and demographic trends in the U.S. Graduski covers the explosive LA mayoral debate, analyzes the candidates' performance, and discusses the broader political and demographic implications, followed by an engaging 'Ask Me Anything' segment with insightful listener questions.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. LA Mayoral Race: Debate Shakeup and Spencer Pratt’s Performance

[02:45–13:00]

• The Wildcard Entry:

  • Ryan admits he initially ignored the LA mayoral race (“I haven't been thinking about it because it's LA, it's so Democratic”), but changed his mind after seeing Spencer Pratt's debate performance.
  • The structure of the LA election is such that everyone runs as “independent,” but party affiliations are clear.

• Major Candidates:

  • Spencer Pratt (reality star; openly leans right/Republican)
  • Karen Bass (incumbent mayor, Democrat)
  • Nithya Raman (City Councilwoman, Indian immigrant, progressive/Socialist)

• Pratt’s Debate Strengths

  • Impressed both public and pundits with strong, relatable arguments:

    • Connecting crime and LA’s housing shortage, arguing you “can't build something somewhere and expect people to live in them if the streets are unsafe.”
    • Critiquing current leaders for failed initiatives and unworkable socialist proposals.

  • Notable Quote:

    “The best part is some of these developers that are taking all of our tax money are charging $750 a square foot for stuff that should be costing $250… Councilwoman Rahman… [wants to] sue all the people that actually rent to the tenants and then they're not going to even want to rent to anybody...”
    — Spencer Pratt [06:23]

• Highlights from Debate Clips:

  • On homelessness and crime:

    “Downtown is so unsafe now that they have to serve the food, all the employees have to eat inside… That's why all these beautiful restaurants are closing.”
    — Spencer Pratt [08:25]

  • On Councilwoman Raman’s progressive platform:

    • Graduski notes that Raman faltered—giving “word salad answers” and failing to take sharp positions, especially on questions like banning homeless encampments near schools.

  • Sharp Exchange:

    “It's a simple yes or no question.”
    — Spencer Pratt challenging Councilwoman Raman [11:22]

• Memorable ‘Jaw-Dropping’ Moment:

  • Pratt bluntly described the realities of street life and addiction:

    “I will go below the Harbor Freeway tomorrow with her and we can find some of these people she's going to offer treatment for. She's going to get stabbed in the neck. These people do not want a bed. They want fentanyl or super meth.”
    — Spencer Pratt [09:47]

• Democratic Response:

  • After being cornered, Raman labeled Pratt’s outlook as “MAGA Republican,” to which Pratt displayed “unbothered authenticity.”

• Poll Numbers:

  • According to a March poll: Pratt is tied with Raman for second place, with Bass leading; LA’s “jungle primary” system means top two could face off in a runoff.

• Analyst Takeaway:

  • Graduski is surprised by Pratt’s effectiveness, charisma, and ability to turn “free social media” moments into campaign gold.
  • “He comes off authentic. And that is what every politician or every consultant wants in their… position.” — Ryan Graduski [12:31]

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2. Breaking Down Immigration and Birthrate Data

[13:00–17:50]

• New CDC Birth Data and ‘Shadow’ Deportations’

  • Graduski analyzes monthly CDC birth data to suggest that mass deportations (or departures) are impacting U.S. demographics.
  • “Births from American-born women are down by 0.5%. That is almost extremely heavily concentrated among blacks.”

• Key Trends:

  • Births by non-Hispanic white women: 50.7% of all U.S. births, trending up.
  • Births by Latino women: Down by 0.4% year-over-year; by Black women: Down to 12.1% (from above 13.5%); by Asians: Down slightly.
  • Large drops among foreign-born mothers from Nicaragua, Honduras, Chile, Haiti, Jamaica, Guatemala, Mexico, El Salvador; the only immigrant group rising is Indian.
  • Quote:

    “Every single country with a large population of children—countries where foreigners have a thousand children in the US per month or greater—they’re all down substantially.”
    — Ryan Graduski [15:04]

• Fertility Rate Calculations:

  • Whites: Up to 1.55–1.56 (suggesting older millennial women increasing family size).
  • Latinos: Down from 1.86 to 1.8; Blacks: Down from 1.44 to 1.36; Asians: Down from 1.14 to 1.11.
  • Graduski predicts Black and Latino birth rates will continue to “bottom out,” with possible parallels to Japan’s population decline.

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3. Ask Me Anything (AMA): Audience Q&A

[20:28–36:05]

Highlights:

• On Housing Expectations in the US vs. Europe ([20:28]):

  • Italian listener Tommaso questions the American obsession with bigger homes for growing families; Graduski notes it’s a “culture and zeitgeist” that’s hard to change, and links bigger living spaces to higher family size.

• Black Irish Ancestry and Family Stories ([22:07]):

  • Graduski unpacks the “Black Irish” myth, relating his own family’s roots and a quick aside on 23andMe.

• Romanian Politics and the EU ([23:13]):

  • Listener asks about Romania’s no-confidence motion and EU intervention.
  • Graduski: The EU is “the least democratic organization in the Western world. They will nullify elections. They will blackmail politicians…”

• AI Donors and Campaign Finance ([24:32]):

  • Questions about Citizens United, Buckley vs. Valeo, and AI influence in campaigns.
  • Graduski is torn: “I’ve made my livelihood over it, so I’m very torn… Nothing’s always used for good.”

• Energy Policy/Refineries ([30:09]):

  • Explaining why gas isn’t cheap despite more oil—few new refineries, investor uncertainty, regulatory volatility, and billionaire reluctance due to the political climate.

• Demographic Policy Suggestion: Trump as Godfather ([31:45]):

  • Listener proposes Trump offer to be “godfather” to babies born to certain families; Graduski explains how something similar was done by the Georgian Orthodox Church but dismisses its likelihood in US politics.

• Arizona Governor Race ([32:55]):

  • Listener Dennis asks about Andy Biggs’s chances against incumbent Katie Hobbs.
  • Graduski: Biggs “is not looking strong... defeating a governor is extremely difficult. The economy is everything and making a plan for working class people is everything right now.”

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On LA’s Housing and Crime:

  "You can't build something somewhere and expect people to live in them if the streets are unsafe, if there's drug addicts running around everywhere, if there's drive by shootings."
  — Ryan Graduski [05:38]

• On Homelessness Policy:

  "These people do not want a bed. They want fentanyl or super meth. These ideas cost us over $400 million to house 3,000 people for 400 million is absolute failure for both of them. They're a team."
  — Spencer Pratt [09:47]

• On Demographics:

  "Black women are once again seeing a massive, massive fall in fertility levels. They are down to just 12.1% of all births. They used to be over 13 and a half percent. It's a double-digit fall year after year... It's a cultural phenomenon. No one's even talking about it."
  — Ryan Graduski [14:11]

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Important Timestamps

• [02:45]: Introduction to LA mayoral race; setup of debate background
• [06:23]: Spencer Pratt’s main argument clips — crime and housing
• [08:25]: Pratt challenges on street safety and animal abuse
• [09:47]: Stark comments on homelessness and addiction solutions
• [10:49]: Raman’s muddled response to safe school zones
• [11:22]: “It’s a simple yes or no question” (Pratt presses Raman)
• [13:00]: Graduski analyzes why Pratt’s authenticity resonates
• [14:11]: Release of new CDC birth data and demographics analysis
• [20:28]: Start of 'Ask Me Anything' (AMA) session
• [30:09]: AMA continues—refinery investments and oil market discussion
• [32:55]: Arizona governor's race analysis

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Tone and Style

• Conversational, Candid, Energetic: Graduski maintains a direct, punchy tone—mixing consultant-level analysis with humor and culture-war commentary. The language is conversational, with clear conservative leanings and willingness to get “in the weeds” with policy and statistics.

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Summary Takeaway

This lively episode highlights how non-traditional political outsiders like Spencer Pratt can shake up entrenched urban politics by articulating issues in relatable, unvarnished terms—especially on crime and housing. The episode also spotlights major, under-reported demographic changes emerging from new federal data—foreshadowing significant impacts for politics and public policy. Lastly, the freewheeling AMA rewards listeners with sharp, sometimes personal takes on U.S. culture, European affairs, energy policy, and elections.

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For listeners who missed the episode:
It’s a fast-moving rundown of political upsets, demographic bombshells, and plenty of unfiltered takes on American and global trends—with moments that are both eye-opening and provocative.

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Transcript

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[Ryan Graduski]

Welcome back to A Numbers Game with Ryan Graduski. Thank you guys for being here. You know, I usually have a process to this podcast. I usually have one story that's linear and connected to the other. And this episode is more like things that aren't connected at all. There was a lot of news I wanted to bring to you guys, but they didn't have any threads to kind of connect them, so it's a little bit messier. The first story and the most important one is what's going on in the Los Angeles mayor's race. Now, for those I've been sleeping on this race. I haven't been thinking about it because it's la, it's so Democratic. I honestly didn't really know who was running and if there was a real competition. And I just had heard that Spencer Pratt, a former reality star from when I was a teenager, was running, but I kind of thought it was nothing. And then I watched the debate. They had the first debate. I don't even know if he's any consultants or anything. I try to reach out to people, say, hey, who is running the show over there? Because I would love to have him on because I thought he was phenomenal. So he does this debate and, and I want to make this preference in Los Angeles, the, the law is. The way it is is people who run for mayor, everyone runs as independent. No one runs Republican or Democrat. But you kind of know which ones are Republican or Democrat pretty easily. Right? And it's very clear that Spencer is definitely on. Spencer Brown is definitely leaning on the Republican side. On the opposition on the Democratic side is Mayor Karen Bass. She is the incumbent mayor. She's been there for four years. And then there's City Councilwoman Nia. Nia Raymond. Nia, Ms. Raymond, I'm gonna call that because it's easier. She is an immigrant from India and she is showing how grateful she is to this country by demanding socialism immediately upon know, being here and, and saying, you know what we can do, we can just bring socialism to Los Angeles because it's worked out so great. The rest of the world, anyway, these three debated and on Wednesday night, and it was a rare moment where you see, where you see natural talent in somebody so quickly, the councilwoman Raymond, she is she fell apart. I mean, fell apart. I've never really seen. She is actually going into this election, the favorite of all the betting sites. So I was really expecting her to be, you know, energetic. And I thought she'd be like Mandani and I thought she'd have a lot of, like, quibs. She had nothing. She was horrible. And I'm not just saying it because I'm conservative. I'm saying it because it was overwhelmingly the consensus. Pratt absolutely made the most of every single moment. I'm sure if you've been on social media, you've seen clips of Pratt talking because he was just dynamic. He was so good. Here are some highlights I want to go through. So, so something Pratt did very well. I want to teach you guys this from the consultant's perspective of what I'm looking at when I'm watching debates like this. Right. Because very quickly, Pratt could have been a joke. He could have been someone not worth taking seriously. He's a reality star. He's never run for office before. He's just doing this for attention and he loves attention. So something Pratt did I was very impressed by was connecting issues and weaving them together. He connected the issue of crime and the housing shortage in Los Angeles. You can't build something somewhere and expect people to live in them. If the streets are unsafe, if there's drug addicts running around everywhere, if there's drive by shootings, the amount of property, cheap property throughout this country that is available but is not accessible because the crime is so high is staggering. It would actually we would end our housing shortage immediately if we could access those homes by actually cracking down on crime in a substantial way in some places. So anyway, he does this and he does it very well. He also goes in on tenants rights and how socialists have view on civil rights, tenants rights and being able to see the landlord for every little thing. Absolutely fasting. Let's go to clip one. Let's talk about it.

[Spencer Pratt]

Well, the good news is when I enforce the law and clear the street of the drug addicts that have taken over 40 blocks of downtown LA, abandoned buildings that have drug addicts just lighting them on fire every other day, I will have potentially 20,000 units available to build. And thankfully, I spent a lot of time in a. In a town that has a lot of builders. And I see all the new 3D printing and the potential of how fast we can do it. And with this Ed one that Mayor Bass is talking about, I met with a developer this week, Carlos, and he said, yes, she did an initiative where she fast tracked it six months. It's been two and a half years and he hasn't been able to get his permits. The best part is some of these developers that are taking all of our tax money are charging $750 a square foot for stuff that should be costing $250. And Councilwoman Rahman, this plan that she's going to build all these years, guess what? She's going to sue all the people that actually rents to the tenants and then they're not going to even want to rent to anybody because she want to squat in there for a year and not pay. So I don't know how her plan's gonna work.

[Ryan Graduski]

So, yeah, Pratt was really able to lean in on the issue of safety in a really dynamic way. A way that I think everyone. I haven't been to LA in a number of years, so I haven't really seen LA. I haven't said San Francisco in 15 years. But LA. I haven't been to a probably 10 years. So I haven't maybe. I mean, I've heard it gotten worse. So from everyone I know, LA has gotten completely worse. And I know somebody who is Mr. Like, I love LA. And he said he feels like LA is on a unstoppable decline as a city, which I thought was really, really interesting. But he did a very good job at weaving those issues in together. So it's something that people understand. They live through the homelessness and they live through the crime. And he's, you know, putting them all in one, one setting. He also, this was so brilliant on his part. He also went into animal protection because I did not know this, but a lot of homeless people and a lot of drug addicted people are really, you know, they're abusing animals and they're abusing animal animals in Los Angeles, especially dogs.

[Spencer Pratt]

Downtown is so unsafe now that they have to serve the food, all the employees have to eat inside. They, they can't risk going out. That's why all these beautiful restaurants are closing, because it's so unsafe. So before we require city workers to go back into any buildings, we need to enforce the laws on the street. Councilman Rahman is talking about safety, yet we, when animal rescue activist Rebecca Corey came in and said the dogs are being tortured and abused on the streets of Dunham, she walked out of the hearing. She doesn't care about safety. She doesn't care about anything she's talking about. At least Mayor Bass pretends to care.

[Ryan Graduski]

And this is the best. This is one of those jaw dropping moments where, you know, he really killed it. The councilwoman Raymond, she is one of those progressives who's like, we're gonna all get all these homeless off the street by offering a warm bed and a meal, and they're all going to be, you know, workers, and they're going to get jobs, whatever. And he was like, no, a lot of these people, this is a drug addiction. This is a symptom of drug addiction. That's what this is. That's what this homeless crisis is. And he told her all these great ideas you have. I would love to take you to, to L. A and I would love to show you what it's like. And you'll probably, if you went to the homeless encampments, you'd probably get murdered. Go to the next clip treatment first.

[Spencer Pratt]

I will go below the Harbor Freeway tomorrow with her and we can find some of these people she's going to offer treatment for. She's going to get stabbed in the neck. These people do not want a bed. They want fentanyl or super meth. These ideas cost us over $400 million to house 70. What is it, 3,000 people for 400 million is absolute failure for both of them. They're a team.

[Ryan Graduski]

Now, I can't emphasize enough. This woman Raymond is nuts. She is totally crazy. Because they were asked, like, very basic questions and you should know your position, but you should be able to answer in a very quick way. It's a yes or no. She was doing those word salad answers when she knows her opinion is extremely unpopular, so she doesn't want to give a hot mic moment and give them like a, a damning, a damning position. So she's playing this game where she's like, oh, I don't know, whatever. So there is a law in LA where you can't have a homeless encampment near a school or a daycare on ask. Do you support this law? Listen to what this nut bag lady said.

[Spencer Pratt]

Next question. Do you support the ordinance that restricts encampments in front of schools or daycare centers? Mayor Bass, I'm going to start with you.

[Ryan Graduski]

Yes or no, Ms. Rahman?

[Spencer Pratt]

Yes or no?

[Bethenny Frankel]

I, I, you know, I, I support

[Ryan Graduski]

keeping our streets safe.

[Bethenny Frankel]

I did vote against the structure of this particular ordinance, and it is because

[Ryan Graduski]

at its best, it's a yes or no. It, it does not. The way this ordinance was structured,

[Bethenny Frankel]

our children safe. It doesn't keep our children safe. No, I, it doesn't keep our children safe enough.

[Spencer Pratt]

It's a simple yes or no question.

[Ryan Graduski]

Mr. Pratt.

[Spencer Pratt]

What I was saying is she's fighting because she doesn't think there's a difference between 1 foot or 500ft for kids safety with drug addicts with machetes in front of that.

[Ryan Graduski]

Yes or no?

[Spencer Pratt]

Of course. We do not want encampments in front of schools, parks, daycare. I don't want vehicles where you talk to.

[Ryan Graduski]

After Pratt got done really beating up, I mean he really, he hit, he hit the mayor a bit, but he really went after her. Her plot points were the most viral. She responded by the only way Democrats can respond when someone's losing an argument with them. She called him Maga. If you're listening to this, watch it on YouTube. But if you're watching this on YouTube, just check out his face. It's so funny.

[Spencer Pratt]

You have 30 seconds to respond and then Conan has a question that, that coincides with all of this. Please.

[Bethenny Frankel]

Great. I mean, I don't, I'm not sure how to respond to that vision of Los Angeles. This is a MAGA Republicans idea of what Los Angeles looks like. This is, this is really not, this is really not the city that, that I love so much.

[Ryan Graduski]

Now. I don't know if Spencer Pratt is being coach. I kind of assume that he has something because he's got, he's raised some money, but he comes off authentic. And that is what every politician or every consultant wants in their polit position. That's what everyone is looking to do. He's able. It's a sign of either a good campaign manager or just unbelievable natural talent. But Spencer Pratt is effectively taking real life circumstances, applying them to what conservatives have been complaining about and make them, making them relatable even to people who are Democrats and moderates and independents. And it's incredibly difficult. And he's doing it almost flawlessly and easily. Can he win? According to the new newest which is from March, so it's been a while. According to the newest UCLA and UC Berkeley poll, he is effectively tied with Councilwoman Raymond. I didn't see any polls for the second round because in California they have this, you know, broken election where they run, everyone runs together and then the top two go on if they only get 50%. So he'd likely get to the second round if he can make it out. That was a dynamic performance. I think the free social media is worth millions of dollars of free social media. Don know if he can win. But it was interesting. It's very interesting how, how good he came across. And I didn't have high expectations. I never watched his show growing up. But I know about him. I know about everything with that. And I was just very, very, very impressed as a consultant looking at a first time candidate. Okay, my next data story is about the new birth data being released from the cdc. Absolutely fascinating. Once again proving. I bring this to you guys every month because it is proving mass deportations are happening because we're seeing it in the BIR papers if you, if there are less illegal aliens or, or people without papers who are, you know, or people who are less citizens rather. And I would say they're, they're, those are elite lands, but people who don't have like residency, they're just here to work. The numbers of having, or who are having children is declined precipitously. It is declining each and every single month. And I want to break it down for you guys because it really just shows that they're not there to have children. They must be gone because there's no way they would have this level of decline month after month. So the CDC data found that non Hispanic white women made up 50.7% of all births in the month of March. That is up 0.6% from the month prior and 0.7% from the same time last year. They also that children from Latino women made up 26.2%. That is down 0.2% in a single month and point down 0.4% from the year prior. Black women, once again, I am the only one talking about this. I don't know why every, everyone isn't just flabbergasted that this is a cultural phenomenon. Black women are once again seeing a massive, massive fall in fertility levels. They are down to just 12.1% of all births. They used to be over 13 and a half percent. It's a double digit fall. It's, I mean it's a double digit fall. It's me. Double, double digit fall. Year after year. It's been close to 10% year, year after year. And it's just, it, it's, no one's even talking about it. I mean no one even in black media has been talking. Not that I'm like the biggest consumer of black media, but I haven't seen it anywhere, not even on social media. Okay. Asians went up 62.7% of all children born. That's down from by 0.04%. Not much, but a little bit. Every single country with a large population of children, countries where foreigners have a thousand children in the US per month or greater, they're all down substantially. So the Nicaraguan, Nicaraguan women, women from Nicaragua having children in America down 15.5% year year to year. Honduras 13. Chile 12.6. Haiti 12.5. Jamaica 12.1. Guatemala 12.3. Mexico 11.75. This is down 11.75. El Salvador down 8. The only country with large population of children that a thousand children a month about is India. That's the only country where the numbers have increased because remember, most Indians are not illegally here, they are legally here. Overall, births to foreign born mothers are down 6.69% year to year births from American born women are down by 0.5%. That is almost extremely heavily concentrated among blacks. Black Americans, that is extremely heavily concentrated. The overall fertility rate for whites, this is according to someone I trust on social media and Twitter. So the overall fertility rate for whites is 1.55 or almost 1.56. That's a, that's an increase that would mean that millennials are starting to really ramp up children as we're getting into our 40s. Latinos are down from 1.86 to 1.8. Blacks are down from 1.44 to 1.36. This is, I mean it's going to be bottom of the barrel. It's going to be like Chile is going to reach like Japan levels within the next like five years. And Asians overall are down from 1.14 to 1.11. Asians don't have big families. Okay, that is the numbers. Those are the data that I think was so interesting. I think the debate was great. Let's go in to a longer Ask me anything that's coming up next.

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support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On Public, you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year. You can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA and SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors llc, SEC Registered Advisor Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures available at public.com disclosures this

[Bethenny Frankel]

is Bethenny Frankel from Just Be with Bethany Frankel. Most dog food is marketing, not nutrition. That is why Biggie and Smalls eat just food for dogs. Real 100% human grade food with ingredients I actually recognize. And yes, I do see the difference. Better digestion, healthier skin, more energy, dogs that feel better. My babies. If you've been on the fence about switching, stop overthinking it. What's more important than your furry babies and their health? Go to justfoodfordogs.com right now and get 50% off your first box. No code needed. Just try it.

[Ryan Graduski]

All right, now it's time for the Ask Me Anything segment. If you want to be part of the Ask Me Anything segment, email me ryanumbers game podcast.com that's [e-mail] okay, first of all, I need to apologize. Last last podcast I told you guys about this recipe and I said it called for two tables, two cups of butter. It called for four tablespoons. I'm gonna have the recipe ingredients in front of me next time and not do it all from memory. I apologize. When a maiden was like wow, this is way too buttery it was supposed to be four tablespoons, not two cups. I am so sorry about that. Okay, let's do anything. First one comes from Tommaso. Tommaso says as an Italian living in the US but growing up in Italy, I am amazed by the American quote unquote problem of not having enough house for when a child is born. My buddy of mine in Nashville, same age, thinking he need to buy a bigger house this year because he is getting married. I grew up in a one bedroom apartment with my older sister and my parents as owning a home in Italy wasn't a thing until the 1970s. Wasn't a thing in the 1970s, it is now. I don't get this obsession, this Pavlovian dog type behavior. Sure. I love neighborhoods where people own homes. Yeah, I mean, look, it's tough when you have a smaller space. You probably know that from growing up there. My dad grew up with 10 brothers and sisters in a house that had one bathroom and like I think four bedrooms. A lot of people, 14 people in a house like that was not easy. But I think we have this expectation in America that you should be living in, you know, somewhat more suburban area, somewhat more unless you want to live in a city. But you should have this expanded space to do your own thing. Ironically, people who have bigger property that is not inside a apartment building or is if it's not apartment building, it's a small apartment. Like it's a two family home. Maybe have on, on average more children. People who live in just a regular apartment. So it does mean something. I don't really know what it means, but yeah, there is an expectation and I just, I don't know how you change the zeitgeist. Next up comes from Holly. Holly writes Ryan, not to be nagging, but you said you can't forget why you can't remember. I said why I can't walk in the kitchen. Hope to hear about your grandmother and the Black Irish soon. Unless I missed on vacation. Okay, I was saying camera but walking into the kitchen because I was making a joke. Sorry if that didn't come off like that. It was just an analogy. It wasn't, it wasn't real. I'm so sorry. As far as the Black Irish goes, I don't know this for sure. I do believe my family is Black Irish. Black Irish for those who don't know is what happened was like in the 1600s or 1500s, Brits, the, the British were at war with the Spanish and the Spanish Armada was their navy. They went to war and the Brits sunk a bunch of Spanish ships and the survivors swam to Ireland and, you know, bred with the locals and men, you know, all the rest of it. And they call that black Irish. They're not actually black, they're just part Spanish. I did my 23andMe a long time ago, which now is bankrupt and I don't recommend doing it. But I am part, I have some part Spanish there and my grandmother has dark features, so I assume that we were part black Irish. But that's what that is. I don't know. We don't know though for a fact. But that is what I think it is. Okay, Roy writes, Romania has recently been in the spotlight in the European media regarding the upcoming notion of no confidence in the Parliament. Submitted by the Social Democrats together with the far right National Union of Romanians. Any thoughts of this? I know you have covered my country a few times on your sub stack. Greetings from Romania. Okay, so Romania is a perfect. I've always said this. I said this in my book. I've said this in other, in other platforms. The European Union is the least democratic organization in the Western world. They will nullify elections. They will blackmail politicians if they don't have their preferred candidate. It is a very destructive force as far as democracy goes, which is hilarious because they're always like, trump's going to kill democracy. The European Union kills democracy all the time. Romania, like I think it was last year or the year before now, they had held an election and the Supreme Court nullified the election because I think because the pro Russia candidate won, they really didn't give a real reason as to why the election shouldn't be counted, but it would not favor them with the European Union to have a pro Russia candidate win. And I think that's, I really think that's why. And so I'm not shocked. I mean, this is going to be a very unique thing because aside from France, sometimes, not very often, this is going to be like one of the very first times that the far left and the far right work together. Most of the time they can't stand each other. They won't even shake each other's hands when they have to do public events. So for the fact that they're going to work together is really kind of, that's what's really astounding about the entire thing, is that there's this unity among populists on both sides of the aisle. Okay, next question. Last one for this segment. Go. Is from Yosef. Yosef says, I was interested in what you said about the AI donors, all preventing Republicans from even having a conversation about AI regulation. Isn't that what the whole argument against Citizens United and Buckley vs. Valeo was about? I'm curious what you think about those cases and the campaign finance, given what you said. Side note, would you ever consider asking Alex Boris to get on the show to talk about AI? I feel like when people run for office, you have a small window to get them to come and talk outside. The comfort goes up. I would love to talk to Alex Boris. Alex Boris is running in the Manhattan district, but I don't think it would be good for him to come on my podcast because it's considered a right wing podcast ahead of an election. I would love to talk to him, though, but I don't. I don't think he would accept for that reason alone. After he's elected. He's. Ro. Khanna came on. I would love to talk to Alex Boris. I think that. And. And we have mutual friends, me and Alex, so I think he's smart. I really do. I. I think he has to win because this has to show that the AI money doesn't mean anything. It ha. He has to win. He just does. As far as Citizens United go, I'm very torn because, you know, I'm in my career because it says in the United. I've worked on PACs my entire, like, adult life. I've made, you know, a good bit of money doing pack work. And I think that it does allow somebody who is a millionaire or like, you know, worth a hundred million dollars to really make impacts that are positive. You know, I don't. I know a very wealthy gentleman who got involved in Jim Banks's campaign early and made sure that he had the money necessary to scare off opponents. And it worked. It worked big time. But like with everything, nothing's always used for good. So. I don't know. I don't know. I mean, we're stuck with it no matter what I think, but I've made my livelihood over it, so I'm very torn. It's a very hard question for me, but it was a very smart question. Yosef. Okay, back with more Ask me anything. Coming up next, if you're feeling off

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[Bethenny Frankel]

is Bethany Frankel from Just Be With Bethany Frankel. Let me be blunt. Most dog food is junk. It just is. And I'm not feeding junk to Biggie and Smalls. That is why they eat just food for dogs. It's real 100% human grade food with ingredients I actually recognize. Not mystery pellets pretending to be healthy. And once I switched the difference was obvious. Better digestion, better skin, more energy. Dogs who actually feel good instead of just surviving dinner. Here's the thing. You care about quality. You make an intentional choice to be healthy. So why are you gambling with your dog's health? So let's think about our furry babies. Go to justfoodfordogs.com right now and get 50% off your first box or no code. Just try it because once you see the difference, you're not going back.

[Ryan Graduski]

Okay, now here for more ask me anything. If you want any part once again, email me ryanumbersgame podcast.com ryanumbers plural numbers game podcast.com Next question comes from Ryan. You said Trump constantly bloviates about how we needed more oil. In theory, gas should be dirt cheap. But I listened to Glenn Beck and he said we just don't have enough refineries to work that, that this oil and nobody will invest because they have no idea who will be in office in 10 years. Why don't we talk about the next to 1000 billionaires in the country and ask them to donate to us and maybe give their companies a tax break. There are tons of tax breaks for oil, but Democrats are in a fallout war with oil. So if you only have eight years if you want to invest $2 billion. But a lot of these billionaires don't like the oil industry anyway. So it's not like they'll all be, you know, you're not going to convince Oprah Winfrey or Taylor Swift to invest in your oil company idea. That's, that's probably not going to happen. That's. But that's the truth of it. If we're going to have a new Democrat in eight years and everything's being more regulated around the oil industry, it becomes very, very difficult. I believe what Glenn is saying. It makes complete sense. And we as a country lost our brains around energy and the need for energy back in the 70s and we're really been struggling ever since. You cannot have a wealthy country without no energy. Like it's just, it's not possible. Okay, next question comes from John. John writes Ryan. I'm not Catholic and neither is Trump. But hear me out on this. Chum should announce that for the next five years he'll personally offer the to be godfather for any babies who is fully legal US citizens, married parents. The mother is under 26 and the baby is the third child of the couple or greater. That's very difficult. Solves a bunch of demographic problems and the libs heads would explode. Can you imagine that is that is, that is what happened in the country of Georgia. Kind of the patriarch of Georgia. That's like the Georgian Orthodox church's Pope. He did become godfather to like I think like 40, 000 kids. Like everyone. If you had a third, if you were married and had a third child to be baptized in the Orthodox church, then you could do that. There was no age restrictions though. I mean it takes some people longer than 26 to have three kids. So I mean, I don't think Trump cares. I don't think Trump has any interest in doing any like that. And like imagine him doing it like Nancy Pelosi's grandkids or great grandkids. That would be h. Okay, last question comes from Dennis. Dennis writes, huge fan of the show. I used to live in massive New York where I was born and raised. I live in this beautiful state of Arizona. Arizona is a beautiful state. It is just gorgeous. Scottsdale is next level. How do you feel Andy Biggs's chances against Katie Hobbs? How does Biggs need to do to not only close the polling gap against Hobbs, but develop a possible lead? In my 10 years of living here, I've loved it. But the possibility of reelecting Hobbs is the possibility of her getting a trifecta and her and how chaotic her tenure has been for Arizona has left me black pilled for the first time living here. Keep up the great work. I'll be honest with you, Biggs is not looking strong right now. If you look at voter registration trends in Maricopa county, they're overwhelmingly favoring Democrats over Republicans. Not that it's all loss for Republicans. They do have more registered voters than they did four years ago. But that's a difficult thing. And Biggs is known as more of

[Bethenny Frankel]

a,

[Ryan Graduski]

I guess, radical. I don't believe that. I'm just saying what the press and what the people have labeled him as is kind of very difficult to kind of get rid of. And people like their governors, governors are very rarely ever defeated. The only governor who I think is probably going to lose off the cuff this year is the governor of Rhode island who's got like a 16 approval rating. I don't know what this governor did if they like shot a dog, but they, they want this, they want this governor out. So yeah, I mean defeating a governor is extremely difficult. It's harder than defeating a senator in many cases. And I don't know, I think that Biggs is going to have to really emphasize how he can provide something for Arizona, especially working with the White House, something that they can provide under Katie Hopps. I think that's the only way. And I think that the economy is everything and making a plan for working class people is everything right now. And gas prices obviously. So it's difficult. A lot of those things are out of his hands, but that is what it is. Okay, thank you guys for listening to this episode. If you like this podcast, please like and subscribe on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast wherever you get your podcast and on YouTube. I will talk to you later. Bye.

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[Bethenny Frankel]

That's innerbalance.com this is Bethany Frankel from Just Be with Bethenny Frankel. Let me be blunt. Most dog food is junk. It just is. And I'm not feeding junk to Biggie and Smalls. That is why they eat just food for dogs. It's real 100 human grade food with ingredients I actually recognize, not mystery pellets pretending to be health. And once I switched, the difference was obvious. Better digestion, better skin, more energy. Dogs who actually feel good instead of just surviving dinner. Here's the thing. You care about quality. You make an intentional choice to be healthy. So why are you gambling with your dog's health? So let's think about our furry babies. Go to justfoodfordogs.com right now and get 50% off your first box. No code. Just try it. Because once you see the difference, you're not going back.

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